[Sony Esprit]

Hi all,
I feel the x3 is a superb first effort and Fiio will learn a vast amount from it. The x5 will be even better. My only real complaint is the hit and miss issue of hapless play,and with having many live albums this an issue. And as to the sound quality, it is exceptional for the price. I have grown up with the Sony Walkman and still own the WM60,DD33 and the DC2,all of which sound fantastic when playing recording from my nak.My most current setup before the x3 was an iPod 120gig classic paired with the Fiio k7 Andes and the x3 way better.The iPod/Andes pair is warmer with less resolution whereas the x3 has better detail across the range and is just a tad warm,but very close to neutral.

 

[shrimants]

Well, let me clarify, as you seem to be speed reading my statements and melding them into one long i-device rage.

I actually love the apple ecosystem. If it was even remotely sustainable (from my wallets perspective) i'd be all over it. They do PLENTY of things correctly. I dont like the lack of flac support on itouch/iphone but that has been fixed with apps. I dont like the high cost. Thats REALLY about the only thing i dont like. Design-wise its a glorious device. engineering-wise it is a pretty nice device. business-wise it is a fantastic device because people keep buying the tiny little revisions for massive prices. Consumer-wise i'm not a fan, simply because i cannot afford it. Hence my lighthearted jabs.

Android (at least on my nexus one and stock SGS3 and galaxy note and nexus S) doesnt have native flac support. Cyanogenmod hacks that into the system. And that ability to code for it brings its own little bugs (which ios doesnt have because its such a closed off system, comparitively).

As for my foam at the mouth comment, refer to me pointing out the obvious flaws with ui navigation, followed by people immediately tearing in to me because i pointed out a shortcoming that has been an issue since the first few pages of this thread.

And i have not mentioned it as much of a problem to those who have asked since Fiio's latest update (on facebook). I have informed people that 1) its not going to get fixed, and 2) here's how you deal with it so taht you can hardly notice.

Pardon me for not being "a ray of sunshine", but i call it like i see it. There are problems with the Fiio UI in which some things are fixed or planned to be fixed, other things "cant be fixed" because its "too hard". I would love an engineer-oriented response as to WHY its too hard, but james has better things to do with his time than translate it, especially because it wont help the dev process at all (im sure the engineers have tried whatever they could, and they certainly know more than me and can thus provide much better solutions than i could for any shortcomings, and already HAVE provided those solutions and found them infeasible).

There are times i've questioned why people bought the X3 if they will simply bypass everything in its internals except the (buggy) navigation and use a different dac/amp. this is for curiosity/use case scenarios for my own benefit. not to call them out for wasting money.

There was one thing with burn in that i commented on. As an engineer, im sharing my opionion on burning in a completely solid state device with no moving parts. If you dont like it, go elsewhere. and as i saw the discussion going nowhere (as no one will post pre/post "burn in" measurements) I stopped commenting about that.

I was skeptical when the coax cable quality was brought in. A cable is a cable, right? No. Literally within 24h people posted that they were also having problems with specific cables and still otheres posted tests and specs for what constitutes a working cable. I'm glad i stayed shut up for that, and it was a valuable learning experience.

Dont mistake my business-like tone for anger. I'm not angry or irritated or anything. From my late entry into the thread, people assumed i hate everything about this product, and that is wrong. I'm happy browse mode works well enough that i havent even clicked the category button since FW1.31. I'm still waiting on a 64gig SD card but im fairly close to pulling the trigger because it seems that a 32K allocation size is the magical dust that makes everything peachy and swell.

And once the USB DAC functionality is implemented, regardless of all the other bugs (that affect me, like gapless) i'll go right back to recommending this dap to any who are looking.

hell, i'm even happy to get coax and proper line-level output. i've used the line-out so much and so happily in my time of owning this that by itself taht feature pretty much makes up for the other shortcomings.

Also, small internal storage size was an issue for me, but thats been solved by using a player that converts on the fly while transfering. now the only problem thats actually irritating to me is in Musicbee itself doing something weird to the FLAC tags in one specific album, so it ends up transfering with completely blank tags for everything.

Again, browse mode comes to the rescue, as all of my music is meticulously organized.

I apologize for sounding like an irritated little brat, that is not my intention.

 

[eke2k6]

Well, let me clarify, as you seem to be speed reading my statements and melding them into one long i-device rage.

I actually love the apple ecosystem. If it was even remotely sustainable (from my wallets perspective) i'd be all over it. They do PLENTY of things correctly. I dont like the lack of flac support on itouch/iphone but that has been fixed with apps. I dont like the high cost. Thats REALLY about the only thing i dont like. Design-wise its a glorious device. engineering-wise it is a pretty nice device. business-wise it is a fantastic device because people keep buying the tiny little revisions for massive prices. Consumer-wise i'm not a fan, simply because i cannot afford it. Hence my lighthearted jabs.

 

 
All is well, but I have to address a few things. 
 
1. The iPhones and their Android and Windows Phone flagship counterparts are all the same price. Your S3 and the iP5 were once the same price.
 
2. Apple continually pushes the technological barriers with their CPUs and GPUs. Not to mention the retina display when it first came out. Look at the 5S, and its 64-bit processor. Not to mention the secondary processor it has to handle minor tasks. Look at iOS 7's improvements. The iP5's cpu actually benched better than the S3 in most real world situations.
 
This is the X3 thread, but I'm tired of being accused of a lack of technological knowledge because I love the Apple ecosystem.
 
Lastly, I think the X3 is doing great, for someone's first DAP effort. Go have a look at the DX50 thread.

 

[shrimants]

Yup, as I said the thought and dedication that goes into the apple ecosystem is phenomenal. They are usually the best and their products last the longest (assuming you respect them and dont treat them like a 13 year old girl, as with all technology).

The expensive aspect of their ecosystem is not so much with their phones and portable devices, its with their laptops and desktops. I'd LOVE to give osx a shot. Actually, if my laptop was not so mission critical for school, i'd be trying to shove hackintosh on there, just for the experience of it. but alas, i cannot buy their performance oriented laptops with my budget, nor can i buy any windows based laptop for that matter.

I have used osx a little bit and its obviously a system shock trying to adapt to it, but from what i've gathered, using it for more than 24 hours is the only prerequisite to becoming fully acquainted with it as a daily driver, and using it for maybe a week is enough to acqaint the more technologically advanced users with the shell and whatnot. Especially those with linux experience.

ahhhh linux ~~~<3.

And yes, for a first attempt at a DAC, fiio is doing incredible. Sure, some hiccups, but so far there has been a fix or workaround for just about everything. And im glad for that. Having both browse mode + category mode was one of the greatest foresights they could have had, IMO, and they are doing a wonderful job of listening to customers and getting things implemented. Within a freakin month. I've literally never seen a company think and deliver on their toes the way fiio has. I'm just waiting (and not impatiently) for gapless and i think a couple other things that they mentioned will be in the next couple updates.

USB Async DAC/amp support would be one heck of a christmas present, eh? Especially with a player that will more than adequately drive 90% of headphones on the market.

 

[sbradley02]

  This is the X3 thread, but I'm tired of being accused of a lack of technological knowledge because I love the Apple ecosystem.
 
Lastly, I think the X3 is doing great, for someone's first DAP effort. Go have a look at the DX50 thread.

I would love to comment on the Apple ecosystem but don't want to take the thread further afield..
 
Would hate to have to wade through the DX50 thread... Would like to see someone do a comparison. Not in regards to features which I can get from the vendor sites, but in regards to performance, stability, support, etc. Not sure if anyone else is interested however...

 

[nihontoman]

   
All is well, but I have to address a few things.
 
1. The iPhones and their Android and Windows Phone flagship counterparts are all the same price. Your S3 and the iP5 were once the same price.
 
2. Apple continually pushes the technological barriers with their CPUs and GPUs. Not to mention the retina display when it first came out. Look at the 5S, and its 64-bit processor. Not to mention the secondary processor it has to handle minor tasks. Look at iOS 7's improvements. The iP5's cpu actually benched better than the S3 in most real world situations.
 
This is the X3 thread, but I'm tired of being accused of a lack of technological knowledge because I love the Apple ecosystem.
 
Lastly, I think the X3 is doing great, for someone's first DAP effort. Go have a look at the DX50 thread.

 
but it is a second attempt. though it makes things worse, doesn't it?

 

[howdy]

I would love to comment on the Apple ecosystem but don't want to take the thread further afield..

Would hate to have to wade through the DX50 thread... Would like to see someone do a comparison. Not in regards to features which I can get from the vendor sites, but in regards to performance, stability, support, etc. Not sure if anyone else is interested however...

I have been keeping up with both threads and there are a lot of x3 owners finally receiving there DX50, as I will soon to. So there should be some reviews I would have to bet in the next week or so.

 

[jj69]

I have been keeping up with both threads and there are a lot of x3 owners finally receiving there DX50, as I will soon to. So there should be some reviews I would have to bet in the next week or so.

 
FYI:
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/681478/comparison-fiio-x3-vs-ibasso-dx50

 

[spriest]

I have been keeping up with both threads and there are a lot of x3 owners finally receiving there DX50, as I will soon to. So there should be some reviews I would have to bet in the next week or so.

I used to have a chance to own both but I finally chose x3 because dx50 is android-based.

 

[Vidmaven]

I have been keeping up with both threads and there are a lot of x3 owners finally receiving there DX50, as I will soon to. So there should be some reviews I would have to bet in the next week or so.

 
I would have had a chance last night but between cooking dinner, helping with homework, downloading new iTunes, iOS 7 and firmware for the X3 and DX50 I spent most of my night in front of my laptop listening to music powered by my Asgard. No promises but maybe tonight or tomorrow night if the stars are aligned for me.

 

[sbradley02]

I used to have a chance to own both but I finally chose x3 because dx50 is android-based.

 
Just out of curiosity, why was this an issue?
 
Thanks

 

[zach915m]

Another great IEM for the x3 is the TDK IE800, I almost forgot I had it because I hadn't used it in a long time, great synergy and probably the best budget option with this DAP.
 
Also of note the "classic" Re262 from hifiman sounds incredible when paired with my RSA amp...!  Very nice bottom end which is missing with some other players comes out and the highs which at times could seems rolled off are extended nicely.  I thought I would miss having EQ with the X3 but I haven't really felt like I've needed it yet.  Maybe my old sony NWZ with the LOD just didn't cut it!

 

[howdy]

I would have had a chance last night but between cooking dinner, helping with homework, downloading new iTunes, iOS 7 and firmware for the X3 and DX50 I spent most of my night in front of my laptop listening to music powered by my Asgard. No promises but maybe tonight or tomorrow night if the stars are aligned for me.

I think I'm going to wait or at least try and wait 2 or 3 more weeks and get mine, I want to wait for a few more updates to be pre-installed. I have my X3 to keep me going till then.

 

[howdy]

To wait for the dx50

 

[Mark K]

Thank you guys hear in Head-fi community helped me a lot in choosing Fiio...and all Fiio amps...and X3 were my purchases without 2nd thought. I believe better players are on their way but there is almost nothing to

on the sound quality of X3.