PTravel

The Fiio X5 is a mid-level audiophile portable digital audio player. I just bought a Fiio E12 portable headphone amp and it's a fantastic product (I wrote about it in another thread). The X5 is Fiio's new player with extraordinary specs -- there's a link to the Fiio website at the bottom of this post. The X5 has been reviewed fairly extensively and it's an extraordinary little box -- performance that matches players that cost 3x as much.

The X5 will be released in the US next month on Amazon with a selling price of $350.

I've been watching the internet for sales of the X5 because I want to get one when it's available in the US to replace my iPod Classic. Today, I came across it selling on the Chinese (English language) website aliexpress.com. It had previously been offered for $492.88 USD. Today, however, it's offered at 97% off -- $14.79, plus $27.95 shipping to the US for a total of $42.74.

I don't know if this is a scam or not, but I decided the possibility of getting a $350 high-quality player for forty bucks was worth the gamble. Worse comes to worse, I'll just dispute the charge with my credit card company.

If you want to gamble as well, here's the link:

www.aliexpress.com link to Fiio X5

Here's the link to the specs for the X5:

http://www.fiio.com.cn/products/inde...00000055517771

Skyman65

If it sounds to good to be true...

(especially in China )

Interpol

+1. No way this offer is legit.

PTravel

Probably, but what's the scam?

CPRich

You send them $42.74 and get nothing?

But as long as you use a credit card, preferably a temporary use one, and a single use email, and an ID/password you use nowhere else, it may be worth a shot.

PTravel

If I get nothing, I dispute the charge on my credit card.

Interpol

Heck, if you feel safe enough give it a shot and please follow up here. If you do end up getting a shipment for $42 and it's not a knockoff or an empty shell, I'll buy one too. No sense in more than one person volunteering to be a guinea pig and exposing multiple credit card numbers to potential fraudsters.

PTravel

I'll certainly report back, but it appears to be a time-limited deal.

One point: The X5 is a new device by Fiio. The first manufacturing run was sold in China, only. The idea was to work out any bugs "locally." The next run is intended for world-wide distribution, with sales in the US starting in March through Amazon. The one offered for sale is undoubtedly the Chinese model. It is possible that Fiios, which is a company that pays a lot of attention to quality, decided to halt distribution of the Chinese model in China in favor of the "version 2" production run and the seller is a "rogue" who decided to dump the remaining version 1 players rather than destroy or return them.

However, we'll see.

Interpol

That is certainly plausible, although the unit is supposed to be firmware upgradable, so unless there's some hardware differences I'm not sure why there should be a V2 versus a V1 model so early in the game. I have a FIIO E17 Alpen DAC/headphone amp and for the price it's remarkably well built and has tremendously good sound quality.

Definitely keep us posted.

CPRich

OK. But to answer your question, that's still the scam. And they have your name, address, contact info, and a credit card number.

As I noted, use a CC, 1-time use preferred, one-time email, etc., and see what happens.

PTravel

Except that they don't -- payment is to and through aliexpress.com.

pseudoswede

Any updates?

CPRich

Something tells me the orders have been cancelled due to non-delivery, and funds already returned.