[skamp]

Ugh, double post.

 

[fp581]

well all of my music is in wave anyway and i only shuffle so no need for a screen for me  
 
i just need the perfect sound and shuffle  

 

[ClieOS]

Quote:

It simply removes the lowest 8 bits from the 24 bit signal, without any additional processing.

Wait, I know I don't have any former EE training but that doesn't really sound right at all...oh well.
 
Quote:

well all of my music is in wave anyway and i only shuffle so no need for a screen for me  
 
i just need the perfect sound and shuffle  

A music CD holds up to 700MB of 16/44,1 PCM wave. A X3 has roughly 7GB of internal space and support up to 64GB in TF card. That means either 10 CD worth of lossless music minimum or almost 100 CD worth of lossless music at maximum. You might think you can shuffle 10 CD but I think most people will probably prefer a, easier way to find the album they want to listen to. Even with HD wave, we are still talking about more files than what you can hope to flip through by pressing the 'next' button.

 

[skamp]

Wait, I know I don't have any former EE training but that doesn't really sound right at all...oh well.

Well, normally, you're supposed to apply dithering, but it's not obvious that cropping 24 bit to 16 bit alone is audible.

 

[thegunner100]

Great review Clieos. So to make this clear, the Category menu is sorted by IDv3 tags? On the playing screen, does it only show the file name or can it show artist & title IDv3 tags instead?

 

[ClieOS]

Quote:

Great review Clieos. So to make this clear, the Category menu is sorted by IDv3 tags? On the playing screen, does it only show the file name or can it show artist & title IDv3 tags instead?

 
There are three categories (sub-menu) under 'Category': Album, Genre, and Artist.
 
Under 'Album', music will be sorted as:
Unknow Album>
Axxxx>
Bxxxx>
Cxxxx>
....
(in alphabetical order)
 
Under 'Genre', music will be sorted as:
Unknow Genre>
Blues>
Classical>
Country>
...
(in alphabetical order)
 
Under 'Artist', music will be sorted as:
Unknow Artist>
Avril Lavigne>
Billy Joel>
Celine Dion>
....
(in alphabetical order)
 
Further under these categories, it only shows file names in alphabetical order. No further categories under it. For example: Aritist > Avril Lavigne > (all files). Same goes for Album and Genre.
 
I hope that makes sense.

 

[thegunner100]

Yes, I think that makes sense. I was confused when you were talking about being able to browse through the library easier if your artist and album folders are named correctly. I guess it'll be easier for me to understand this way: does the "Category" in the x3 function like the "Database" menu in rockbox?

 

[ClieOS]

Quote:

..does the "Category" in the x3 function like the "Database" menu in rockbox?

 
Don't remember which is what in RockBox any more. If has been years since my last use of RB.

 

[GloryUprising]

Have you gotten a chance to listen to a (RW)AK100?  I was thinking of picking up the X3 anyhow and now I'm definitely gonna do it!  Time to contact my local distributor! =D

 

[Sefelt103]

Great review. It will be interesting to see how much these cost in Europe/UK. Are ther any compromises involved in the external expansion cards implimentation with regards the UI or slightly reduced sound quality? Are the expansion cards microSDHC or microSDXC ?

 

[ClieOS]

RWA is on the other side of the world so I doubt I'll even see one. I used to be a iriver supporter a few years back but I had been disappointed enough not to look back.

 

[ClieOS]

Quote:

Are ther any compromises involved in the external expansion cards implimentation with regards the UI or slightly reduced sound quality? Are the expansion cards microSDHC or microSDXC ?

 
None that I notice. SQ is the same regardless whether the file is located.
 
X3 supports microSD 64GB, which has to be SDXC because SDHC card only goes up to 32GB. However, you need to format the 64GB card into FAT32 in order for X3 to read.

 

[musicday]

Hi wonderful review,thank you.We have a winner here and all ipod owners should upgrade to X3.
Is it possible to have in the future DSD and SACD playback ?

 

[ClieOS]

Quote:

Is it possible to have in the future DSD and SACD playback ?

Impossible since WM8740 doesn't do DSD. Only the newer WM8741 has support for DSD decoding.
 
Also, unless the upcoming X5 changes its DAC from PCM1794 to PCM1792 or DSD1794, it won't support DSD as well.

 

[musicday]

Quote:

Quote:

Is it possible to have in the future DSD and SACD playback ?

Impossible since WM8740 doesn't do DSD. Only the newer WM8741 has support for DSD decoding.
 
Also, unless the upcoming X5 changes its DAC from PCM1794 to PCM1792 or DSD1794, it won't support DSD as well.

Thanks for that.
I suppose we should all be grateful to Fiio for keeping the price down, and as long it sounds better then Clip+ and all that hi rez files support we have a winner.