[Andrew_WOT]

Awesome, very detailed, honest, and well balanced review. Thanks a lot.
Unfortunately it made me cancel my X3 preorder, but now I am even more excited about upcoming X5, hope it'll address all X3 shortcomings.
Cheers.

 

[bowei006]

Awesome, very detailed, honest, and well balanced review. Thanks a lot.
Unfortunately it made me cancel my X3 preorder, but now I am even more excited about upcoming X5, hope it'll address all X3 shortcomings.
Cheers.

The UI, lack of processing speed(may be due to code and efficency) and some stabillity problems are really the biggest and only problems I have with the X3. HOWEVER the X5's UI has been confirmed by FiiO to be one that is produced by a well experienced company. Good coding and UI really more or less makes any device a good one. This is why iPod is so popular.

The majority of the sonic downfalls of the X3 in my opinion are only going to be there if you are atuned and use expensive equipment. Unless you have a comparison around, you won't notice (as a novice) that the mids have some slight thin-ness problems or that the vocals are elevated and may make things stand out a bit too much. Those aren't really a problem for those buying a $200 DAP(the general price of most nifty consumer DAP's right now).

However like you say, I am also very interested in what the X5 has in store for us. Outsourced UI development, dual SD card slots, nice screen, and next gen FiiO design sounds very cool to use.


--------------------------

Thank you everyone for your kind words about my review though. It really makes me feel appreciated. But of course, as the bottom of my review says. Constructive criticism is also highly encouraged by me.

 

[runswithaliens]

How many folders deep does the X3 supports Shuffle play across?
 
For example, with the Sansa Clip zip sometimes I want to listen to random across all the music on the system, where as sometimes just across say all the Jazz albums which would be in a sub-folder of the main music folder.  So this could result in folders 5 levels deep:
 
music -> Jazz -> Artist -> Album -> cd1 (if a double album)
 
With the Sansa you can navigate to any folder and choose "Play ALL" from within that folder, and so if you have Shuffle play enabled, it then plays randomly across all the music in all subfolders of that folder if you see what I'm sayin'.
 
 
Thanks in advance!

 

[bowei006]

How many folders deep does the X3 supports Shuffle play across?

For example, with the Sansa Clip zip sometimes I want to listen to random across all the music on the system, where as sometimes just across say all the Jazz albums which would be in a sub-folder of the main music folder.  So this could result in folders 5 levels deep:

music -> Jazz -> Artist -> Album -> cd1 (if a double album)

With the Sansa you can navigate to any folder and choose "Play ALL" from within that folder, and so if you have Shuffle play enabled, it then plays randomly across all the music in all subfolders of that folder if you see what I'm sayin'.


Thanks in advance!

As far as I can tell, Shuffle means full shuffle of all songs in that folder or category

 

[ticoss]

hello
 
I've a little question :
Gapless is available if you browse into /category/artist or only with category/album ?

 

[LetheFB]

Is there anyone who listened both X3 and Colorfly C3 ? 

 

[bowei006]

hello

I've a little question :
Gapless is available if you browse into /category/artist or only with category/album ?

Welcome to head-fi! Sorry about your wallet

As of right now, I have not been able to get it working at all. It seems to be the X3's speed and efficency is not enough for it to be fast enough to 'link' songs together without pausing or a break

 

[jj69]

Quote:

Welcome to head-fi! Sorry about your wallet

As of right now, I have not been able to get it working at all. It seems to be the X3's speed and efficency is not enough for it to be fast enough to 'link' songs together without pausing or a break

 
Have you tried it with the latest firmware?  James mentioned in the X3 thread that version 1.23 is now available on the website. 

 

[Greed]

Quote:

Welcome to head-fi! Sorry about your wallet

As of right now, I have not been able to get it working at all. It seems to be the X3's speed and efficency is not enough for it to be fast enough to 'link' songs together without pausing or a break

 
This is quite disappointing...
 
I'm getting closer to cancelling my preorder on this one. The initial glamour of this device seems to have overshadowed some of its flaws, but honestly after reading your review this player seems like it needs some major work to be called giant-slayer as some have already claimed it to be. 

 

[ticoss]

Quote:

Welcome to head-fi! Sorry about your wallet

As of right now, I have not been able to get it working at all. It seems to be the X3's speed and efficency is not enough for it to be fast enough to 'link' songs together without pausing or a break

Thanks for the detail (and my wallet.. )

this information is quite interesting, like your different videos.

 

[bowei006]

Have you tried it with the latest firmware?  James mentioned in the X3 thread that version 1.23 is now available on the website. 

Good point!

I'll try it and get back to you then.

This is quite disappointing...

I'm getting closer to cancelling my preorder on this one. The initial glamour of this device seems to have overshadowed some of its flaws, but honestly after reading your review this player seems like it needs some major work to be called giant-slayer as some have already claimed it to be. 

I can see that. Personally, none of the flaws affect my daily usage much, but of course, I as a reviewer had to include both flaws and pro's.

The User Interface and features are a bit plagued. I personally don't use the mass majority of stuff you guys want/care about but I can see how it may be a downer

The X5 is using an outsourced UI team/company though. FiiO has talked about continuously improving their UI and offering stability enhancements of course.

Thanks for the detail (and my wallet.. )


this information is quite interesting, like your different videos.

Thanks

---------------------------------------
1.23 FW, gapless playback still not work for me.

I'm using two files. They are clips of the same song and are continuous and are in FLAC. Library has been updated and I am accessing them through categories-->Album. Gapless is also enabled

There is still the loading of the second song before the X3 continues on.

I do not believe this is a big issue for most people, but I do know that some of you guys want it. Sorry. Hopefuly an update comes out

 

[serious7]

Quote:

 
This is quite disappointing...
 
I'm getting closer to cancelling my preorder on this one. The initial glamour of this device seems to have overshadowed some of its flaws, but honestly after reading your review this player seems like it needs some major work to be called giant-slayer as some have already claimed it to be. 

What other issues does it have except for gapless playback?

 

[Greed]

Quote:

What other issues does it have except for gapless playback?

 
Well, for me, the tacky use of folder navigation is a big one. I don't like the way the X3 manages music. It is quite contradictory to how I have my music setup on my computer. The other issue I have is the various problems with different audio formats. Most of my music is FLAC, but I have some WAV, ALAC, AIFF, etc. that I don't want to convert just because the X3 has problems for example with AIFF. Overall I think most of my issues are with the UI. Which typically can be changed and updated via firmware so that is good news. But it seems like a lot of the issues people are having are already said not to be resolved. If you follow the X3 thread, some of the people that already have it - have issues - ask James if they will corrected - and he says no, this is not possible. What? How can simple issues such as navigation not be fixed/changed via FW updates? I don't know, it seems like a lot of trouble for something I would only be using on-the-go (i.e gym, school, etc.)
 
Obviously this is IMO, YMMV. 

 

[bowei006]

Well, for me, the tacky use of folder navigation is a big one. I don't like the way the X3 manages music. It is quite contradictory to how I have my music setup on my computer. The other issue I have is the various problems with different audio formats. Most of my music is FLAC, but I have some WAV, ALAC, AIFF, etc. that I don't want to convert just because the X3 has problems for example with AIFF. Overall I think most of my issues are with the UI. Which typically can be changed and updated via firmware so that is good news. But it seems like a lot of the issues people are having are already said not to be resolved. If you follow the X3 thread, some of the people that already have it - have issues - ask James if they will corrected - and he says no, this is not possible. What? How can simple issues such as navigation not be fixed/changed via FW updates? I don't know, it seems like a lot of trouble for something I would only be using on-the-go (i.e gym, school, etc.)

Obviously this is IMO, YMMV. 

The X3 manages music just like a computer does with its 'Browse Files' option. It lets you see folders as they are seen on your computer. However this isn't 'real' music managing.

AIFF/ALAC/AAC problems are being fixed I believe. FiiO has been pushing out fixes for the Apple formats right now.

How can they not be fixed? Well the majority of issues users are having are not issues that most will care for. The X3 is a 'consumer' device that is being sold world wide. We are just the more elitist users of it. Second, some functions and key mappings are static sadly. There are some simple fixes, but it seems that it isn't possible at the moment.

The current UI and basis of their firmware last I recall was bought off lisence or something from another company so it may be hard to change the code already.

What are your current problems with its UI usability? After the Apple format issue is fixed, as long as your tags are correct. Using the auto Category managing function to find your albums, shuffle them should be fairly easy. Or if you like your folders how they are arranged on your computer, or would like custom playlists. You can use the 'Browse Files' option to make custom stuff.

 

[serious7]

Quote:

 
Well, for me, the tacky use of folder navigation is a big one. I don't like the way the X3 manages music. It is quite contradictory to how I have my music setup on my computer. The other issue I have is the various problems with different audio formats. Most of my music is FLAC, but I have some WAV, ALAC, AIFF, etc. that I don't want to convert just because the X3 has problems for example with AIFF. Overall I think most of my issues are with the UI. Which typically can be changed and updated via firmware so that is good news. But it seems like a lot of the issues people are having are already said not to be resolved. If you follow the X3 thread, some of the people that already have it - have issues - ask James if they will corrected - and he says no, this is not possible. What? How can simple issues such as navigation not be fixed/changed via FW updates? I don't know, it seems like a lot of trouble for something I would only be using on-the-go (i.e gym, school, etc.)
 
Obviously this is IMO, YMMV. 

the only thing he said that won't be fixed is gapless playback for browser folders. In addition, look at what OP said. Those file support has been fixed. 
 
Can you expand on what UI issues you are talking about?