Hi.
It will take me waaaaay too long to read this whole thread so could people please answer my simple questions:
I'm considering this player to replace my cheapy Sansa Clip, which seems to be reaching the end of its days. I was hoping for better sound quality without much more money and this seemed a good player, my entire music collection is in FLAC format and I travel so the idea of two card slots is appealing so I don't have to compromise the collection so much. However, an obvious downpoint is the issue with playback speed. I read that the plater can be rockboxed but does this lower the quality of the sound? Would I be better to buy something like the FiiO X1 or is the sound still superior even after rockbox? I'm not sure how all of this works so I don;t know if the rockbox processing would result in the same kind of quality as my rockboxed Sansa Clip (which I would say is somewhat lacking). So, any reliable info on this would be great.
The other question, I can't find the answer on the rockbox site. Can I install rockbox onto this player using a mac?
thanks in advance!
Regarding the SQ with stock FW and Rockbox, a few people on the thread say the stock FW sounds better. At the same time, there are some of us who think Rockbox sounds great so I don't think there is a general consensus on the issue. I have not done much AB testing but I personally do not notice a difference on my Rockboxed X3 or Clip+ but perhaps I do not have a critical ear, YMMV. One thing to note is that Rockbox does not allow for hi-res playback.
Rockbox can be installed regardless of which computer OS you use because everything is done on the microSD card. I do not even have to connect the X3 to the computer, I just use a SD card reader.
But if you need to connect the X3 to your Mac, then yes it can be done, I think there is an issue with hidden files which is explained in the 1st post of this thread:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/803844/rockbox-xduoo-x3