I just got one of these last night. Unfortunately where I live there's no possibility of hearing one of these before buying one (or really any other DAPs apart from mainstream, iPod, etc.). So after a bunch of research and reading reviews online this seemed like it'd be a great player.
 
I've previously had a few Cowons - iAudioE2, S9 and J3. My J3 is supposedly gapless playback, but it seems like it can't handle gapless with FLAC files, so I've been looking for an upgrade.
 
The Fiio X3 definitely has a smaller soundstage than my J3 - the music sounds more cramped. This was my first thoughts, so I did a side by side comparison (with the same Sennheiser Momentum 2 headphones) and sure enough it's a muddier, less distinct sound on the X3. Bass range definitely extends lower on the J3, giving it more punch and I think helps contribute to a wider more spacious sound than the X3.
 
Don't get me wrong, the X3 2nd gen is a nice player and has a very simple no-frills, high functionality UI. Sound isn't bad, just okay to my ears. But I think I'll be sticking with my J3 for daily listening - not to mention the battery life on the J3 is crazy, I can't even remember when I last charged it. My X3 might end up living in my car or as a handy music library to connect to my stereo - I find most DAPs, etc. are too quiet when connecting up to the car stereo through the headphone jack, but here the line out on the X3 might come in handy and give a bit more volume, so I can use the X3 without having to switch CDs all the time.
 
Overall I'm a little disappointed as I was hoping for more, but I guess I've been spoiled by great sound and maybe I've inadvertently become a snob. Wait, I'm posting a review about my new DAP - probably a snob
 
PS. Purchase price indicated is NZD with courier delivery
 
Re: Uberclocked. For some reason I can't post a comment below, so will just add here: I volume matched the units using a decibel meter on my phone placed between the headphones. Not exact, I know, but is about the most I can do without more equipment. I don't mean for my review to come off too negative - in all honesty they both have a decent sound. I'll probably warm to it a bit more with extra listening, and playing around with the EQ a little.

Fiio 3X Second Generation Review
 
Lots of other reviewers have talked about the technical aspects of the Fiio X3 Second Generation so I am going to limit my review to what I heard and felt. This is a subjective review.
 
In Toastmasters, where I’ve been a member for over 20 years, we have a saying about doing evaluations. It goes like this: Evaluate the speech you heard and not the one you would have liked to have heard.
 
So I’m applying the same principle to my review of the Fiio X3 Second Generation (3X) which I want to thank Joe Bloggs, a Fiio online customer representative, for inviting me to the 3X tour of Canada.
 
I am a retired professional photographer, community newspaper and national magazine editor (mainly trades to do with the cabling and electrical business in Canada) and I’m an active Amateur Radio operator so I’ve had headphones on my ears most of my life.
 
Recently I got into audio in a big way after going to my local headphone shop here in Toronto to buy a $75 Fiio E-10 K DAC and came back with a Fostex HP-A8C DAC and a set of Audeze LCD-X headphones. Talk about up selling. I went back a week later and got the Fiio DAC anyway.
 
I’ve Got A Lot of Fiios
 
I started a few years ago with a Fiio E11 which I plugged into my IPad so I could get better audio when watching NetFlicks. Cheap and cheerful the E11 really added a whole new dimension to my video viewing enjoyment.
 
Then I got a Fiio E09K amplifier and accompanying Fiio E17 Aspen DAC/Headphone amplifier for my upstairs music room so I had some idea of what to expect from Fiio when it came to the X3.
 
The Review
 
So thanks to the last guy on the tour who charged the battery I was immediately ready to start my review. 
 
Within two minutes the X3 had passed the “no manual” test and I was hearing music after inserting my micro SD card from my Astell and Kern AK-100 II. (More about this later.)
 
What I Saw
 
First the X3 is much smaller than I expected at 9.5 cm long, 5.5 cm across and 1.5 cm wide. (My AK-100 II is 11 X 5.5 X 1.5) and the X3 weighs 135 gms (compared to 170 gms for the A&K). 
 
The Fiio case is made of lightweight aluminum with rounded corners and all the controls pretty much flush with the case. The X3 uses a main rubberized wheel with four push buttons on the front surface to do the navigation. Now some people like wheels and some don’t and it comes down to personal taste. I found the wheel just fine and I liked the navigation method and the menu system which comes up on the LCD screen. It’s a good system in my opinion. 
 
One of the things I really like about the X3 menu system is it goes asleep really quickly and if you need to reawaken it for any reason it’s back with a single tap of the top button of three on the side of the unit. The other two buttons are volume up and down.
 
However, when in sleep mode, the volume up and down buttons turn into next song or last song buttons with the middle button moving you forward into your playlist and the bottom button moving you back. Very cool and well-thought out feature.
 
The X3 does have a tiny LED indicator light on the front panel that runs blue if all is well and turns red under charge and green when the battery is full charged up. Very cool again.
 
A full charge is supposed to take three hours and give around 11 hours of playing time. I didn’t check this out but it would seem about right.
 
My first pleasant surprise after pushing the on button was the super fast loading time for the software. The X3 is ready to go in just over five seconds. (The A&K takes 30 long, long seconds!) Love it. This is the way all software should load - fast.
 
Now I haven’t yet progressed to the point I’ve got a ton of music files in a variety of lossless and lossy file formats (let alone understand it all) but the X3 literature says it supports DSD, DSD64, DSD128 (.iso & .dst and .dff); APE; FLAC; WAV; WMA Lossless; Apple Lossless; MP2; MP3; AAC; ALAC; WMA and OGG. I’ll take Fiio at its word on this. Other reviewers cover this technical stuff way better than I can.
 
What I Heard
 
So I’ve got my mico-SD card out of my A&K and into the X3 and I turned the unit on and there were all 1500 tunes. Very cool. Never had the X3 not read the card first time and I can't say that about the A&K!
 
Now I had the chance to run the same songs on the X3 from the internal memory card and from the AK-100 II from its streaming function from my ITunes library at the same 44.1kHz/16bit. I could also switch headphones back and forth to compare what was happening.
 
So we’re at the place where I’ve fallen into the trap of evaluating the speech I would have liked to have heard as opposed to the speech I did hear. And for Fiio, it’s not necessary bad news.
 
Here’s an analogy: I own a 2003 Toyota Celica with 137,000 kms on it. I love this car. It’s a fun car to drive. For me (at 66) it never gets old and I hope to keep it on the road for another couple of years at least.
 
And then there’s the guy in my small town who drives a Ferrari. It’s a red Ferrari. I can recognize it by the sound it makes from several blocks away. I would love to own a Ferrari but not only can I not afford a Ferrari, I couldn’t afford the insurance for a Ferrari. And thus I don’t own a Ferrari whether it’s red or any other colour.
 
Same principle applies here so after a day of switching headphones and DAPs back and forth I decided today to run the X3 all on its own and let it speak for itself.
 
Remember I’m retired so in the last two days I’ve got around 10+ solid hours of listen in so far and six of them were with the X3 into mainly Shure 535s. The X3 plays differently with different headphones. My elderly Sennheiser 439s (modded) and much maligned 590s sound muddy and boring as do a set of $60 Skull Candy in-ears.
 
The Momentums (on-ears and on sale here in Canada for $139) sound great as do my super cheap $36 T-Peos D-202Ns and Grado 60s.
 
After six hours of continuous music ranging from Bob Marley to Lucinda Williams to The Doors to Ani DiFranco to Beth Orton to Lyle Lovett to the Buena Vista Social Club with a smattering of opera singer Cecilia Bartoli I can say the X3 is a wonderful sounding DAP especially when you consider the estimate selling price of $199.
 
Now are they a contender compared to the Astell and Kern AK-100 II. Ah...no. The AK-100 II with the Shure 535s (often with a Cypher Labs Picollo amp in the mix) provide the best portable music experience I’ve ever had ...period. It’s wonderful and when I compare the X3 to the experience, the X3 comes in second.  The A&K has a lot of other features as well including onboard memory and the ability to accept wireless streaming files from the MacBook Pro plus Tidal (someday soon I hope) but those are only features and for $900 you should get something added.
 
This is sort of like my Celica vs the Ferrari story.
 
So today I thought I’d give the X3 a chance to stand on its own and I plugged in the Shure 535s and put my music playlist on random and let it run and run. My ears never tired of the experience which is not something I can say about six hours with the Audezes and the Fostex DAC which can be intense.
 
I did run into one issue which since I can’t determine the cause and it went away doesn’t concern me. When I first tried the X3 with the Shure 535s I could hear a slightly click - click sound for the first few seconds after plugging in the very sensitive in-ear 535s and turning on the X3. This click sound happened a couple of times and then disappear for good. The Shure 535s have never clicked before or after and I’m don’t know what happened here but it did go away and wasn’t present with any of the other many headphones I tried on the X3.
 
So I went back to swapping out headphones and the experience was the same for the Momentums, the Grados and even the super-cheap T-Peos. Now I’m not a fan of equalization but the  X3 has a lovely 10-band equalizer with 10 presets which might be very popular with some folks who own one set of headphones. Nice touch. 
 
The headphones I used for this review are the typical types of headphones that people are going to use with the X3 and Fiio is going to sell a couple of big boatloads of X3s to people who want a better listening experience with a much larger variety of file formats and memory than smartphones can manage.
 
Now for those who are adventuresome, the X3 can also be used as a DAC. 
 
I compared it to my Fiio E-10 K which is my go-to DAC in my office attached to my MacBook Pro where I stream TIDAL and either listen it to through my office headphones or stream it to my living room (Apple Airplay into Fostex HPA8C and Audezes) or to my tiny music room (Airplay into Fiio E09K and Fiio E-17 Aspen and various headphones) and the X3 was terrific.
 
What I Felt
 
So would I buy one for myself? Yup especially if I didn’t have the A&K unit. Would I recommend it to a friend? Absolutely and I recommend it here to you. 
 
In the world of high-end audio $200 is a rounding error when it comes to what we can spend to setup our systems. So this could be the best $200 you spend to listen to your music. Add on snappy headphones like the Grado 60s or the T-Peos or Momentums and you’re going to be very very happy.
 
Just don’t go out and test drive a Ferrari. You’ve been warned!
 
Day Three
 
I got up this morning to the revelation that not once during a whole day of listening to the X3 did I even consider adding an external amplifier. I almost always use my A&K with a Cypher Labs Picollo external amp. This combo is spooky good into the Shures.
 
For the most part the A&K sounds great without it but add the Picollo and my foot is tapping away keeping the beat and it doesn’t much matter which set of headphones I’m using I get the same effect. However it is more noticeable when I’m using the Sennheisers than any of the other headphones as they need more drive and sound flat without the Picollo.
 
Adding the Picollo is easy by plugging in a jumper from the amp to the X3’s Line/Coax Out plug and the 535s are rocking. I pause the music and there’s absolute silence out of Picollo even with the volume at maximum.
 
So that works and the X3 automatically goes into a Line Out mode (if that's what is selected in menu) with the Picollo plugged in so let’s try again without the Picollo. I’m listening to Aimee Mann’s Lost In Space and my foot is tapping again. This is very good audio. Amazing with or without the amp.
 
Okay enough with this third party amplifier. Let’s see what the X3 makes of a Fiio E11 with the 535s.
 
First there’s an expectable, minimal amplifier hiss that the 535s can hear near the noise floor from the E-11 but the music keeps on keeping on. I am really enjoying the X3 so let’s swap out the 535s for the Sennheiser Momentums and it’s time for a little more Bob Marley. The Momentums are dead quiet. They don’t hear any hiss so let’s hit play and…
 
Oh yah mon this is heaven: Is This Love That I’m Feeling? Yes Bob it is - it is.
 
Let’s take the E11 out and I can tell the bass notes are diminished a little. If I wasn’t swapping back and forth I wouldn’t notice the difference but the E11 especially with the three-position EQ button makes the X3 just rock when it comes to Bob Marley. I tried different settings with the X3 built-in equalizer but there was nothing in the presets that sounded better than no equalization. I could have done a custom setting but the X3 didn’t need it so why bother?
 
A quick swapping of the E-11 back to the Picollo and surprise, surprise I preferred the pairing of the Fiio X3 and the Fiio E-11. I’m not sure why but the E-11 EQ just seems a little more gritty (another technical term) compared to the very smooth sounds of the Picollo and I like gritty.
 
Goodness I hope there’s some audio engineer out there wisely nodding his head in agreement and I’m not just sitting here going slowly senile listening to Bob tell me it’s all going to be alright.
 
This is an outstanding experience with or without an external amp. The X3 is also very very tolerant of getting plugs pulled and pushed without any hysterics that require rebooting. This would appear to be one stable operating system. 
 
Somebody should get a raise for this!
 
I was thinking of wrapping up this audition and going back to my regular setup but this is so much fun I’m running the X3 into the Momentums for at least another day. And really if you just add a little volume to drive the Momentums there’s no need for an external amp. Sure an external amp will change the sound but not so much as you’d notice after 30 seconds of listening. Some difficult to drive headphones might appreciate the amplification but there’s nothing I own (aside from the Sennheisers) that needs it when it comes to the X3.
 
But all is not good. Huston we’ve had a problem here. I took the X3 outside in the bright sunlight and the screen becomes unreadable. It’s so unreadable in sunlight that even holding a cap over the X3 to shade it doesn’t help. It’s the type of LCD display that’s the issue as my IPhone, IPad and Kindle are readable in bright sunlight. 
 
Don’t think you’d want to try searching for a tune while you’re at the beach with this display. The Astell and Kern AK-100 II is somewhat better but still pretty hard to read in full sunlight but is readable with some shade from a baseball cap. The X3 is not.
 
Day 4
 
So my previous experience swapping out the X3 with the AK-100 II reaffirmed my original decision to go buy an insanely expensive DAP (as opposed to the AK-240 which is a very insanely expensive DAP) as the AK does so much more and does sound better (remember the foot tapping test).
 
Having said that I do realize there is a $700 difference in price so I thought of of another way of straightening out the playing field. I took the entire day listening to the X3 for an hour or so and then switching over to the AK-100 II for another hour or so. 
 
I swapped out headphones starting with the Sennheiser Momentums on-ears and then to the Shure 535s and then to the T-Peo D-202Ns.
 
Strangely enough, just for casual listening and walking around the house and the neighbourhood I preferred the X3!
 
Here’s why: First the published dimensions don’t give you an adequate sense of just how much smaller the X3 is to the AK-100. I can carry the X3 in a shirt or pants pocket without any issue. There are no sharp edges to catch on clothing and unlike the AK-100 no wheels or other controls protruding from the case.
 
The X3 is also a lot lighter. You can forget you’re carrying it around.
 
Sound-wise each unit sounded superb…about 10 minutes into each listening session. In other words, if you don’t have a Ferrari in the driveway, the Celica seems pretty good. 
 
It’s the same with the audio from the X3 compared to the AK-100. Give your ears a few minutes to adjust and compensate for the slightly different sound reproduction, then the music itself sounds very good on either machine.
 
For this test I put my 1500 song playlist on random run and there wasn’t anything from folk to rock and roll with an occasional opera soprano thrown in that didn’t sound very good on either unit.
 
So if you’re in the market for a really decent sounding DAP and you’re not willing to spend your entire old-age pension cheque then the X3 will thrill you and at my age I don’t get thrilled nearly enough anymore. 
 
Thanks X3 and Fiio.
 
 
 
 

I upgraded to a second generation Fiio X3 after owning the first generation for over a year. Here is my feedback after six weeks of use:

Sound quality is slightly better, more refined/sophisticated sounding than the first generation. Subtle details are placed better in the soundstage, but as others have pointed out, the sound is not as "sweet" as the first generation. It's a fair bit quieter, with a bit more nuance, and a better sense of space. I suspect that this is because of the built-in amp, and not the DAC.

Unfortunately, this is where the improvements begin and end. In every other possible way, this 2nd generation is a big disappointment compared to the first generation. Here are the most frustrating aspects of this player (rendered even more frustrating by the fact that the first generation did not have these issues)

- Scroll wheel. I have never been a fan of the ipod scroll wheel, so I would cite this as a negative even if this wheel was well implemented, but it is not well implemented at all. The responsiveness of the wheel is so frustrating that, in my opinion, it is almost unusable. The wheel has physical increments built in to its scrolling mechanism, so you can actually feel little clicks as you turn the wheel. This is supposed to give you tactile feedback to the scrolling you are doing. It would be a great idea if the increments/clicks actually corresponded with items on the list, but they don't. You would think that each increment/click moves the cursor down one item on the list, but it doesn't. Sometimes, when you turn the wheel and feel the increment/click, the device does not scroll at all, and the same item remains selected. Other times, scrolling one increment/click will skip an item and scroll down two items. So, sometimes one click doesn't move the cursor at all, other times it  moves it too far and skips the item you are trying to select, and only rarely does the wheel actually function as I imagine it is supposed to, with one click moving the cursor one item. There were many complaints about the first generation's button layout. I've never shared these complaints. While I thought that the first generation's buttons looked a little weird when I first received the item, it took me two days to get used to them. You have the option not to use the scroll wheel, but to use the button on the front, but even if you are using the buttons and not the scroll wheel, the button layout and button operations are actually a lot more confusing and less intuitive than the first generation. The first generation had nothing wrong with the button layout. It just looked funny so people thought it was weird. Anyone who actually used the first generation Fiio X3 for more than a few days would tell you than the button layout is actually very intuitive and functions very well. The second generation is designed entirely with the scroll wheel in mind. If you don't want to use the scroll wheel, the option to use the buttons appears to have been added as an afterthought because it's just not convenient to use.

- Playlist management. This is one of the most frustrating features of this player. As far as I know, there is no way to remove a song from favorites if the song has been deleted. It can only be deleted from favorites if you play the song, click the menu button, and toggle whether or not it's a "heart." If you have songs added to favorites, but the songs are no longer on the SD card, then good luck deleting them. The menu gives you the option to delete the song, but nothing happens when you try. Also, the self-created playlists cannot be deleted. It gives you the option to delete them, but when you try, nothing happens. This is a firmware issue, and I hope it will be fixed, but it is extremely frustrating because it's such a basic problem that there is really no excuse for this type of thing. 

- Screen responsiveness. Switching screens takes longer on the second generation than it did on the first generation. Backing out of the "now playing" menu to see the folder you are listening to takes twice as long as it did on the first generation. Every subsequent push of the "back" button also takes longer to reach the previous menu than it did on the first generation. This isn't a big deal, as it literally takes half a second, but it's frustrating to think that my first generation was better at loading menu screens.

- The amplifier is weaker. Powering my Etymotic ER4B, I have to turn the volume up all the way to 120, and it's still not loud enough for my taste. The amp in the first generation Fiio X3 was able to power my ER4B fine, but this is significantly quieter. It's fine if your headphones don't require much juice and all you listen to is brickwalled, overly loud CD rips, but I listen to vinyl rips and HDtracks, which are mastered significantly quieter, so I require an amplifier that can take a quiet track and bring it up to a loud enough level that it will sound good even with power hungry headphones. So, while the DAC in the 2nd generation is a more sophisticated sounding, the amplifier is significantly weaker. I am not into the idea of "stacking" this with a separate amplifier because I hate bulky items, so this is a significant shortfall. But it won't affect most listeners, who listen to CD rips and don't have power hungry headphones.

- Item is thicker. To me, it makes no difference that it's slightly shorter. It's thicker, which causes it to take up more room in your pocket.

- No internal storage. You lose 8GB of internal storage when upgrading to the 2nd generation.

Having said all that, I still think this is a good DAC and a great value. If I never owned the first generation Fiio X3, I wouldn't be making most of these complaints. I wouldn't have anything to compare it to, so I'd simply get used to the badly implemented scroll wheel and the annoying user interface and firmware issues. But when you consider the fact that the first generation of this player did not have these shortfalls, it becomes frustrating.

I recommend saving a $100 and getting the first generation.

A Brief Review of the FiiO X3 2^nd Generation DAP with Comparisons to the Xuelin iHiFi 800.
Firstly, I would like to thank Mr. James Chung for allowing this preview of FiiO’s new X3 2^nd Generation DAP.  I would also like to thank “Joe Bloggs” for coordinating the world preview tour, and his help in the Head Fi.org forums.  As directed by the folks at FiiO, this review has been done on one of the pre-production units of the X3 2^nd Gen DAP; and it was loaned out to us for free, except for the cost of postage to the next reviewer.  The information in this review is based on my experience with the loaner X3 2^nd Gen model and my Xuelin iHiFi 800 that I purchased with my own funds. 
Some Brief Remarks about the FiiO X3 2^nd Generation Player.
This is my first experience with any of the FiiO DAPs.  Prior to this opportunity, I had not listened to any of the FiiO DAPs, so I really do not know how the new X3 2^nd Gen compares to the first generation X3, the X1 or the X5.  Therefore, I did not have any previous real-life biases or assumptions of this player.  There are (as of this writing) 2 very complete (ie, encyclopedic) reviews of the X3 2^nd Gen by Brooko and Twister 6, and these reviews discuss the X3 2^nd Gen in much detail and offer comparisons to the X1, 1^st Gen X3 and X5.  I will not try to duplicate their work in my review.  These reviews can be found here:  http://www.head-fi.org/products/fiio-x3-2nd-gen-ultraportable-hi-res-dap.
After being able to assess the X3 2^nd Gen DAP in my review period, I can easily say that it is an outstanding music player.  It is quite attractive and is solidly built.  The functionality, file format support and firmware are all very impressive.  I have been impressed by the options that this player offers in functionality.  Not only does it serve as a high-quality music player, but it also can serve as a stand-alone DAC.  In addition to a headphone-out port, it also has a port for line out/coaxial out functions.  While the X3 2^nd Gen does not have any built-in memory, it does have a single microsd slot that is currently able to support up to 128 gb cards.  It also supports OTG (on-the-go) usb devices. 
The file format support is very impressive; it supports both lossless (including high resolution FLAC files, WAV, WMA, ALAC, APE, and DSD) and lossy file (eg, MP3, AAC) formats.  In addition, the files can be listed as individual songs, by albums, by artists, by genre and by personal favorites.  The player also supports playlists.
The UI and firmware for the X3 2^nd Gen are also quite impressive; I did not encounter any significant firmware bugs during my time with the player.  I must admit that when I first received the player, there seemed to be some difficulty with the volume control buttons, because when I would press them to increase/decrease volume, the buttons did not respond properly.  However, after the first day, the volume buttons worked properly, and I had no further problems with them.  Although I am not a big fan of scroll wheel navigation, the X3 2^nd Gen appears to have a fairly decent one; as others have pointed out, however, one click of the wheel does not always result in 1 advancement on the screen.  A couple of the functions that I really like on the X3 2^nd Gen are gapless playback, resume play, and automatic pause when the earphone plug is removed from its port.  The gapless playback worked very well with my files.  I was happy to see a 10-band graphic equalizer, high/low gain “switch”, and R/L balance control.  The user is also offered several options to unlock the key pad.  Please refer to the extensive reviews by Brooko and Twister 6 for more detailed information re: features of the X3 2^nd Gen.
There are only a few areas where I could think of any constructive criticisms.  The first has to do with the Theme selections on the player.  Some of the theme colors (in my opinion) on the pre-production model are just not attractive at all, and others could benefit from more contrast between lettering and background to make it easier to see which line you are currently on.  The other issue I have involves the placement of the On/Off and Volume buttons on the upper left side panel of the player.  As a right-handed person, I hold the player in my left hand and use my right hand to operate the scroll wheel and front-panel buttons.  As I hold the player in my left hand, my left thumb is on or around the On/Off and Volume buttons. Many times when I was placing/replacing my earphone plug into the HO port, I found that I had inadvertently pressed one of these buttons in the process.  This is minor issue, but certainly something I would have to get used to.
Xuelin iHiFi 800 DAP
Please refer to this thread for more detailed information on the iHiFi 800: http://www.head-fi.org/t/755399/xuelin-ihifi-800-a-brief-introduction.
The iHiFi 800 was released by Xuelin in February 2015.  The player is a bit of a diversion for Xuelin in terms of hardware and form factor.   All of Xuelin’s other current players use Wolfson DACs (960s, 812v2, and 770 have Wolfson 8740 and the 770C has Wolfson 8718).  The 800 uses the Sabre ESS9018K2M DAC.  All the current Xuelin DAPs use Rockchip processors.  The 800 has three LME 47926 opamps and uses the OPA1662 as its LPF.   Compared to the other Xuelin players, the iHiFi 800 is a neutral sounding DAP.  In regards to form factor, the 800 is quite a bit smaller than the 960 and 812v2.  The 800 measures 100 x 49 x 16 mm and weighs about 120 gms, while the 960 measures 110 x 70 x 26 mm and weighs about 300 gms.   On the other hand, the 770s resemble an iPod Touch and weigh 103 gms.  All in all, the iHiFi 800 is a solidly built, high-quality DAP.  It is an attractive player with sturdy aluminum alloy casing that comes in either black or silver color versions.   It has 8 gb of built-in memory storage and a single microsd card slot that supports up to 128 gb cards.  It does not support OTG devices.  The iHiFi 800 currently sells for ~$250 US (price includes standard shipping).

 FiiO X3 2nd Gen (L), Xuelin iHiFi 800 (C), and Xuelin iHiFi 770 (R)
 
FiiO X3 2^nd Gen vs.  Xuelin iHiFi 800
For the remainder of my review, I will tend to focus on functionality, file format support, firmware, and sound quality between these 2 players.   I have included several pictures that show the X3 2^nd Gen and the iHiFi 800 side-by-side.  In all pictures, the FiiO X3 is on the left and the Xuelin iHiFi 800 in on the right.
Front view
 
Bottom panel view
Top panel view
Left side panel view
Right side panel view
Back view
 
Well, when it comes to functionality, the X3 2^nd Gen appears to offer more than the iHiFi 800.  The X3 can function as a usb DAC and has both line out/coax out in addition to headphone out.  The 800 does not function as a stand-alone DAC, and while it has a line out, it does not have coax out.  The X3 supports in-line headphone remote, whereas the 800 does not. The X3 supports OTG usb devices whereas the 800 does not.  Both players have a single microsd card slot and both currently support up to 128 gb cards.  The 800 does have 8 gb of on-board memory storage, whereas the X3 has no on-board memory.  Both have high/low gain options. The battery life on the players appears to be similar, somewhere between 10 and 12 hrs.
The X3 has much better file format support than the 800.  The X3 2^nd Gen easily handles 24/192 FLAC, AAC, ALAC, along with WAV, MP3 and lower resolution FLAC files and also has native DSD decoding.  The 800 currently does not support high resolution FLAC files, AAC or ALAC files and does not have native DSD decoding.  The X3 offers gapless playback, whereas the 800 does not.  Neither player offers cue support.
The X3 2^nd Gen easily bests the iHiFi 800 in firmware development.  The firmware on the 800 is currently somewhat simplistic in comparison to the X3.  FiiO appears to have literally adopted many of the more popular features from Rockbox and adapted them to the X3 2^nd Gen.  Needless to say, I am quite impressed.  However, when it comes to navigation through the UI to access all these nice features, I’m not sure FiiO comes out on top.  Of course, this will be very dependent on an individual user’s preferences.  Navigation for the X3 2^nd Gen primarily uses a combination of a scroll wheel and 4 physical buttons on the front of the player.  Volume control and on/off buttons are on the upper left side of the X3.  Navigation for the 800 is thru a set of 7 physical buttons on the front of the player; on/off and volume control buttons are included in the front buttons.  For “in-pocket” use the 800 has separate “pause/off”, “forward” and “reverse” buttons along the upper right side panel.   I much prefer the button control/navigation of the 800 myself, but I am sure others may prefer the scroll wheel layout of the X3.  I do have to say that the scroll wheel on the X3 works pretty well, but there is some extra play in the wheel that can be a bit frustrating at times.   I also find the volume control buttons on the front of the 800 to be more convenient/easier to use than the volume control buttons on the upper left side of the X3.
Well, despite all its apparent short-comings in comparison to the X3 2^nd Gen, as it stands now, I do believe the iHiFi 800 has better overall sound quality than the X3 2^nd Gen.  I reached this conclusion after 4 days of intense comparison between the 2 players.   For the most part, I found more differences in the players when I used IEMs with dynamic drivers, and the sound quality was more similar when I used IEMs with balanced armatures.  I do not currently own any hybrid IEMs, so I cannot comment on these.  For the most part, I preferred IEMs with dynamic drivers with these 2 players, because the sound stage with both players appeared to be a bit narrower with BA IEMs.  FiiO has since reported that some modifications will be made in sound prior to general release of the X3 2^nd Gen, so I have no idea how my current comparisons will hold up over time.   Let me just say that the X3 2^nd Gen is a nice sounding DAP, and in no way do I want anyone reading this review to infer that the sound quality is not good.  The differences between the 2 players are all relative and my conclusions are based on my own preferences.  Before I get into the discussion of sound quality, one of the strongest attributes of the 800 is its absolute black background.  I hear no hiss between songs, and there are no pops/clicks when the player is turned on/off or between songs.  The black background (in my opinion) gives the music better definition, body and dimension.  The X3 has a dark background as well; although I did not hear any hiss with any of my earphones, the player does have subtle clicks/pops when it is powered on/off and between songs (except when gapless playback is used).
When it comes to sound quality, both players have similar sound stages in terms of width.  The most significant difference between these 2 players is in bass presentation and vocals.  The 800 has a more neutral presentation and the X3 has a warmer presentation.  While the bass on the 800 is less in amount when compared to the X3, it is better in quality.  The bass on the 800 is punchier and more clear/detailed; in comparison, the bass on the X3 is a bit heavier (think thud instead of punch) and slightly fuzzy.  With the earphones I prefer to use with the 800 (YinJW ie800), the bass on the X3 creeps into/distracts from the midrange.   The vocals on the 800 are very, very nice, and this is a major strength of all the Xuelin players I have.  The vocals on the 800 have better clarity and dimension than the vocals on the X3, and as a result, I find the vocals to be more “musical” and life-like on the 800.  The bass quantity of the X3 can be reduced by using “cooler” earphones (like the Ostry KC06), but this does not really improve the vocals in my opinion. 
The 800 has better separation of low, mid and high frequencies than the X3, and this results in better clarity of detail and improved instrument separation/placement. 
(As a complete aside, for those readers who have the Xuelin 770/770C and Ostry KC06 IEMs, the sound quality of the X3 2^ndGen using the KC06 IEMs is very similar to the sound quality using the A HO port of the 770/770C (more neutral HO) with the KC06 IEMs; except the X3 2^nd Gen has a wider sound stage and the 770s have slightly better vocals.)
Both players had plenty of power to drive all my IEMs; so I would personally not routinely use a separate headphone amp with either one.  I did try out both players using their lines-out with my Neco Soundlab v2 amp (with dual AD8610 opamps).  I could not really appreciate any real improvements in sound quality with the 800, but the sound quality of the X3 appeared to improve.  With the amp, the bass on the X3 was reduced/more refined and there was better separation between lows, mids and highs.  The vocals on the X3 seemed to benefit with the amp as well.
Final Thoughts
Overall, the FiiO X3 2^nd Gen is a very nice DAP.  The obvious strengths of this player are its functionality, file format support and firmware.  The sound quality is quite good, and with properly paired earphones, the user should be quite satisfied.  At its price point (approx $200 US), there appear to be few, if any, other players at present that can match its overall value.   I predict the FiiO X3 2^nd Gen will be very well received when it is released for general sale.  It is clear to me that FiiO has set a new standard for DAPs at this price point, and other manufacturers will need to step it up quite a bit to remain competitive.  I certainly wish FiiO good luck and want to thank them again for this opportunity to review their new, high-quality DAP. 


 

FiiO X3 2nd Generation
 
First of all I want to state that this review is obviously a very subjective opinion. Everyone hears things differently, so you might experience the device in an other way than described.
This review is text only, I assume you already know how the X3 looks...

I received it about two weeks ago, and I take it everywhere I go. I listen to it at home, outside and use it as a DAC at work. The headphones I use are Sennheiser's HD598 with the RC-HD1 replacement-cable from FiiO.
 
Build and User Interface (UI)
 
The X3 is fully made of metal, which gives it a great feel in the hand. The scroll wheel improved over the X1 yet still needs a bit of improvement in actually scrolling click for click. But besides that, it is perfectly built.
The second Generation also got the same UI as the X1, but has a few more features in it's firmware. The most notable is the deep-sleep mode. This puts the X3 in hibernation and let's you power back up instantly. You can set the idle time-out for that under 'System Settings'. Personally I'd like to be able to set it below one minute (currently the fastest timeout setting), same goes for screen timeout (currently 30 sec).
The software definitely improved over the first Gen, it is more user friendly and more comfortable to use. Although there are still some features I'd like to see in future upgrades, like a better and faster way to create playlists with the device itself. Another thing that caught my attention is the shortcut button. The coders really outdid themselves with it's abilities. In every mode (category, files, etc) it got different jobs. Let's say you are deep in category mode, looking at some songs of your favorite artist and want to go back to some other artist. Just hit the shortcut button and it opens up a small head up display (HUD) where you can chose between all the different categories. Simply a wonderful feature, it makes navigating much easier and faster. It does the same thing in other menus (homescreen → Play Settings; Browse Files → HUD)
 
Sound
 
This part of the review is the most interesting for everyone, but as stated at the top, a subjective opinion.
The new X3 has got a great new DAC (CS4398), which is also used in other DAPs which go for a lot more money than the FiiO. Of course it has 192/24 decoding and also comes with native DSD support.
To me the sound of it is outstanding. It is clear, open and listening to it makes a lot of fun. The sound it produces appears to me as more natural and detailed as the first X3. I listen to a lot of electronic music, such as Aphex Twin, and it was very easy for me to differentiate all the instruments and sounds, also the cymbals, vocals and strings came out incredibly realistic and true sounding. The bass is very smooth and subtle, but exactly how I like it.
I'd say the sound quality is a step up from the first gen X3.
 
Final thoughts
 
Once again FiiO has made an outstanding product, and for 249€ you can't go wrong with it. You get a beautiful and incredible DAP alongside a powerful DAC.
I'd rate it 4/5 since I think the software still lacks a few features, but if those get fixed it would get the full points.
Overall the new X3 absolutely is worth it's money. It is great sounding and feels wonderful.
 
Using as a DAC
 
Whenever I'm using my Laptop I hook up the X3 to use it as an external DAC, and as a long time Linux user, I came to see that it doesn't use it's full potential out of the box. If you use pulseaudio you might want to tweak a little bit to get 192/24 decoding. It's only a matter of five minutes time and the audio quality improves a lot! If you're using ALSA instead, which is recommended because it sends the audio directly to the device, you're fine.
But for now, I am going to show you how to enable 192/24 decoding and later how to get DSD playback.
 
By default pulseaudio is configured for 44.1KHz and 16bit audio output. To set it to high quality encoding do as follows:
 
open a terminal
To view the current settings of pulseaudio:
 
pacmd list-sinks | grep sample
 
this will propably look like this:
 
sample spec: s16le 2ch 41000Hz
sample spec: s16le 2ch 41000Hz
 
these show the internal audiodevices (HDA and HDMI)
 
To enable high quality open and edit the daemon.conf file
 
sudo leafpad /etc/pulse/daemon.conf
 
now look for these lines:
 
; resample-method = speex-floar-1
; default-sample-format = s16le
; default-sample-rate = 41000
 
uncomment them by removing the ; and change the lines to:
 
resample-method = src-sinc-medium-quality
default-sample-format = s24le
default-sample-rate = 192000
 
Save the file. Stop and restart pulseaudio.
 
pulseaudio -k
pulseaudio --start
The new settings will increase the CPU usage a little, but it will be worth it.
The last thing to do is to give the X3 a higher priority in the hardwarelist (under systemsettings).
 
DSD playback with MPD
 
MPD (MusicPlayerDaemon) is a powerful crossplatform audio backend. You can use it under Linux, Mac and Windows. I even think you can use it on mobile platforms, but I'm not sure about that.
There are a lot of different clients (frontends) for MPD depending on the system it's running. I use Cantata because it is the best for me. It is lightweight and clear.
You can find a list of clients here:
 
http://mpd.wikia.com/wiki/Clients
 
MPD is also able to play DSD files, but it isn't enabled by default. Once again, you have to make a small yet effective modification.
I'll show you the steps to get DSD playback through MPD in Linux (I am using openSUSE)
 
At first we need to install mpd alongside with its dependencies.
 
Open up a terminal and install the packages.
 
sudo zypper in cantata mpd
 
As said, I use cantata. Replace that with the client of your choice.
 
Next step is to set up mpd for the X3.
First we need to list up all available audiohardware.
 
aplay -l
 
this list now shows us that the X3's name is simply “DAC”, we will need that for later when configuring mpd.
 
Now open the mpd.conf file stored in /etc/
sudo su
leafpad /etc/mpd.conf
 
Find the audio output section and add/edit the following to the alsa configuration:
 
name “X3”
device “hwAC”
dsd_usb “yes”
 
We use the hardwarename here, because since it's a USB DAC you'd have to use the same USB port everytime you connect it to your PC/Laptop, and the hardware address might change then.
Save the file, and start mpd. It will run in the background. Start and set up your client.
 
If your client couldn't connect to 'Personal' the next time you started it, mpd isn't running. Simply put mpd in autostart to prevent that from happening.

I received this unit of the Fiio X3II as part of North American leg of the preview world tour that Fiio generously organized. The firmware I used the majority of the time with the X3II is FW0.22beta. Fiio has since released a new firmware that they plan to use for the X3II on release, but I did not get a chance to update it and spend any time with it, so my review will be based around the beta firmware.
 
            This is the second preview tour that I have been included in from Fiio, the first being the X1 preview tour. As part of the tour, the opinions I state are solely my own as I am not affiliated with Fiio in any way. I would, however, like to give a big thank you and shout out to Fiio for another great tour and another great product, and for including me in their X3II tour!
 
 
            The X3II is solidly built product with dimensions nearly identical to its younger brother, the X1. However, rather than being constructed by mostly hard plastic like the X1, the X3II is made up of mostly of what I’d guess is brushed aluminum with a nice gun metal grey sort of color to it. Thus, overall if feels sturdier and nicer than the X1.
 
            The scroll wheel also saw some improvements compared to the X1. I remember complaining that the X1 scroll wheel lacked any grip, and someone with dry hands like me found it a little difficult at times to turn the scroll wheel. The X3II adds a bit of grip to the scroll wheel, now making it much easier to scroll through your music and settings with. A very welcoming change to see Fiio implement!
 
            I complained about the silicon case of the X1, and I have to complain again about the silicon of the X3II. It’s just such a dust magnet and I find it impractical. Not only does it clean out the lint in your pocket for you, but the grip it has also makes it difficult to put the X3II in your pocket or to take it out (at least for me and my other younger brethren who wear skinnier jeans). I honestly think I would prefer a soft plastic or pleather case instead as I just see no use in this case. If this was my own personal X3II, I would opt to just not use it. Of course, I do understand that it may be a step taken to keep costs down, so I don’t mind it too much overall. I just don’t see a real use for the case.
 
 
 
            The User interface is also similar to what I can remember of the X1. It’s very intuitive, user-friendly, and the position and function of each button are also very well implemented. The boot-up time is very quick and the overall presentation of the UI is nice with a little bit of customization. I think new users will pretty much be able to pick up and get comfortable with the UI of the X3II very easily. Updating is as easy as clicking and dragging the new firmware into the Micro SD card, and then clicking two buttons to initiate the firmware update. Scanning music from the Micro SD card is also a piece of cake, and the scan time is also not unreasonably long.
 
            The battery life on the X3II, like the X1, is also really good. I got a good 12 hour or so out of it before it ran out, which is better than the majority of DAPs currently on the market.
Overall, the X3II is a very easy to use and practical product. The UI is fairly glitch-free (I didn’t encounter any glitches myself) and I’m certain that those to purchase the X3II will be pleased with its lack of any significant firmware issues on release!
 
            Listening to the X3II was done with my Earwerkz Supra 2, using file ranging from 320 kbps to higher resolution files up to 24/192. While the X3II can decode DSD files, which is awesome for those who have DSD, I did not use any DSD files with the player. Music genres spanned basically the entire spectrum, ranging from electronic music to classical and jazz. I also focused on listening to the X3II as a standalone DAP and did not use it as a USB DAC/Amp during my time with it.
 
            Before getting into the sound of the X3II, I would like to address some issues I encountered while listening to the X3II with my very sensitive Supras (Quick Disclaimer: The Supra 2 is the most sensitive pair of in ears I have ever seen and owned).
 
            The first issue I found with the X3II is that there is an obvious audible beep that I can hear when I switch between songs. It’s not a significant issue, but I did find it getting annoying every now and then. Second off, I found that sometimes when I play high-res files, every now and then there seems to be a sort of distorted background noise that appears. It’s very inconsistent but it is something I would notice. In all honesty, I’m not even sure if it’s because of playing high-res files, it just seems to be a trend that I find. I do think that this is something that Fiio will be able to fix with some firmware updates. Finally, the X3II also has a bit of hiss with my Supra 2, so if you’re using some VERY sensitive IEMs, I would suggest making sure the noise floor isn’t unacceptable for you. I personally found the background noise to be prominent, but at an acceptable level. With the Supra 2 being the most sensitive IEM I know of, I assume that at least 95% of IEMs will work with no problems at all with the X3II, and only the most sensitive of people will find it to be a problem. Just something I want to note regardless.
 
            Another thing to note regarding the hiss is that I believe it’s an improvement from the X1. I remember detecting some hiss with X1 while using the Noble 6, which is not nearly as sensitive as my Supra 2, so while I’m not able to do side by side comparison, I can say with a good amount of confidence that its nonetheless an improvement from the X1.
 
 
Sound Description (For Real This Time)
            Right off the bat, I can say that the X3II is a great sounding DAP at its 200 USD MSRP. The overall sound is fairly neutral with just a little bit of warmth to its sound and a little bit of brightness to the upper midrange to my ears. The bass has good punch and focus to it with a much improved extension in comparison to the X1, the mids are musical and engaging with a little extra bite to the attack on instruments like snare drums or cymbals, while the treble is a little more on the relaxed side with a softer decay that can lacks a little bit of definition to the sound.
 
            Nothing on the X3II necessarily stands out as punching far beyond the price point, but as a whole, everything does sound pretty good. You get a respectably sized sound stage, good timbre and dynamics, as well as a satisfying amount of detail coming out of a 200 dollar all-in-one device.
 
The Great Battle: Fiio Vs. iBasso
            In my mind, the biggest competitor Fiio currently has would perhaps be none other than iBasso Audio. Having owned the DX50, currently using the DX90, and having auditioned both the X1 and X3II, I can safely say that both companies make some great product that doesn’t leave your wallet crying. Here are just some of my thoughts I’ve collected.
 
            There have been a couple reviewers who have gotten their hands on the new X3II before me. I absolutely agree with the general consensus that seems to be out there that the X3II is certainly a step up from the X1 and is a great sounding player. However, there have been a few comparisons between the X3II and the X5 that troubles me a bit. Here’s why.
 
            I have never heard the X5 before, so naturally I have no clue what it sounds like and cannot comment on its sound. From the looks of it, it seems that some people find the X3II and X5 very similar, maybe a little TOO similar. I can very much understand remarks stating that the two have a very similar signature, as I too have come to recognize the general Fiio house sound, but when people start making remarks regarding the X5 as more of a “side-grade” rather than an upgrade or that the X3II comes incredibly close in terms of sonic performance to the X5, I get a little worried. To me, the X3II does not perform at the level of a 350 dollar DAP – and it shouldn’t be expected to either!
 
            iBasso’s DX90 is a fantastic DAP and is still one of my all-time favorites. It can be found for around 370 dollars or so these days, making its price very close to that of the X5. Comparing the X3II to the DX90 is really no comparison at all. The DX90 has a much fuller sound with more dynamics, more natural timbre, and kicks the level of detail up quite a few notches in comparison to the X3II. So as you may expect, when the X3II is suggested to be very comparable to the X5, I’m left wondering what the sound of the X5 is like. I cannot deny the incredible success and immense popularity that the X5 has had, but something just doesn’t seem to add up for me. I’d love to have a listen to the X5 myself if Fiio is able to send me a unit, so I can do a comparison myself.
 
            On that note, the reality is that the X3II’s big iBasso competitor is not meant to be the DX90, but its younger brother: the DX50. In this sort of comparison, I must say that I see a lot of good things in the X3II. Note that it’s been a while since I’ve had my DX50, but I still remember its sound quite well. I find that the sound of the X3II has more musicality and engagement to it than that of the DX50, which I found can be a bit flat and sterile at times. In addition, the levels of detail from the two are very comparable. I don’t dare to comment anymore on that since I don’t have the DX50 to do a direct A/B comparison. However, if I had to choose one over the other, I would probably give the edge to the X3II because it has the musical qualities that DX50 lacks without making any real sacrifices for it.
 
            Comparing the UI of the DX50 to the X3II, I think I would still give the edge to the DX50, with its touch screen and the three big buttons. I'm just a big fan of those three big buttons as they make life so much easier. I also feel that the DX50 UI is just a bit more organized, but that very well could just be me being use to it after using an iBasso product as my DAP for a little over a year now.
 
            Getting another opportunity to listen to another Fiio DAP has been a great experience, and Fiio has cranked out yet another great sounding product. While I don’t think that the X3II will make quite the splash the X1 made in terms of price/performance, afterall, the X1 goes for an awesome 100 dollars, I do think that Fiio was extremely successful with putting out another competitive product for a VERY competitive market. For those looking for a mid-fi sound at a reasonable price, I think the X3II has to be on the list. Not only does the X3II sound great, it has a great UI and a good amount of versatility to it.
 
            Fiio is good at what they do, and they’ve only gotten better at it in the past few years with their highly competitive DAPs. Congratulations to Fiio on another great product!

First of all I'd like to mention that my previous DAP was Sony X1050 and this review mostly will be loosely based on comparison with it.
 

 
 
 
UI and features:
I don't want to talk much about features and user interface. UI is pretty simple and responsive, slow at times. Coming from x1050 finding tracks takes much more time and while still good overall UI and navigation is nowhere as good as sony's, no surprises here.
Another clear downside from walkman is battery life which is still more than 20h after 6 years of using on sony, twice as much as X3 II. 
Bugs:
Couple of times when the player was in a sleep mode it was producing very loud hiss in left headphone which caused battery drain. After connecting to pc the problem disappeared.
Even though in the menu u can change it, in the list it always shows file names rather than title of track. I hope I'm doing something wrong and there is a way to change it.
 
Sound Quality
I compared sounds with no EQ or any sound effect applied on any of the devices. Volumes matched by my ears. Gain setting was low and it was tested with easy to drive headphones (<48 ohm). Since the differences in sound signatures is very big there was no point of performing blind test.  This section of review is very much depended on my personal taste.
 
Overall sound signature / Details:
Sound signature is quite neutral, it is neither very warm or too digital. Compared to Sony x1050 it is colder with more open sound. Vocals are farther than I'd like, in my opinion it doesn't allow you to feel enough emotion from the singer and uniqueness of voice of artist is kind of lost compared to sony X. Instruments sound very clean and detailed, well separated from each other. Though there are things for what I prefer x1050. On Sony you can almost feel the smell of wood when listening to acoustic guitar or violin, When listening to Violin Concertos of Mozart on X3 II you feel like you are sitting near the stage and on x1050 you feel that you are the one who plays violin, if it makes any sense. In one word sound signature of sony is more Organic or more Analog maybe (costing little bit of soundstage though).  
In noisy environment I had to push volume up on Fiio compared to sony because walkman's forward sound signature doesn't take your attention to background noise as much as fiio's open sound.
Soundstage
One of the most important part of the sound for me is soundstage and X3 II performs very well in this regard. It is very wide and uniformly distributed in the space. It is much wider than sony though it never comes as close to ears as walkman does, but overall soundstage is a noticeable improvement over Sony.  Imaging is also better than x1050 and if it had little bit more forward vocals I would rate the soundstage as excellent for my taste.
Bass
Bass quality is quite good, it is very clean and fairly textured, though it doesn't extend as much as x1050's bass. On sony bass is little bit more forward with more punch and better extension with a noticeable margin. On the other hand Fiio has more clarity better texture and faster midbass. 
Mids
Mids are very clear and colorful, has little bit more clarity than x1050 and again it is little bit laid back similar to vocals (which is kind of part of mids anyway). What I liked was how it performed in upper mid section, which didn't have any harshness was bright enough and caused very little sibilance even with sibilant IEMS.
Highs
High extension is remarkable, it isn't brightest DAP u can find but it has very well controlled smooth treble with sufficient sparkle. Compared to sony highs are less present and also less grainy but extends bit more, on x1050 highs are little bit boosted which causes more sibilance with some headphones compared to fiio. So overall highs are very enjoyable and detailed with almost no grain.
Noise floor
I know some people say there is noticeable hiss but since I've been listening to very "hissy" sony for 6 years there is nothing to complain about. Fiio has much, much less noise which is barely noticeable for me even with fairly sensitive IEMS. I have to admit that I was always surprised that people were complaining about noise floor because I didn't care about it even on my walkman but now that I got used to clean background of X3 II the hiss on Sony kind of bothers me when listening at complete silence and darkness (yes, darkness is very important for feeling sound quality for me).
 
EQ/sound effects
The problem with EQ is that once you apply it the volume drops significally so it is hard to say how much it affects quality (in case of sony EQ decreases soundstage and extension of treble). One thing I can say for sure is that sony's clear bass has more pleasant impact than fiio's 6 DB equalizer. Anyway I don't think difital EQ is good enough nowadays for audiophiles, what matters for most of us is an untouched clean sound.
 
Amp section / Conclusion
As I mentioned all my headphones are easy to drive and I couldn't see advantage of fiio X3 II over x1050 in that regard, volume level on low gain is exactly the same as Sony's (bear in mind that Fiio output impedance is much lower i.e. it needs more power to match volume of sony), so other than much less crosstalk and background hiss there are no other advantages of amp power for me (probably there will be if I buy high impedance headphones). Before buying I also was considering Sony A15 but decided to keep my x1050 and buy fiio for little bit diversity.
 
Considering the fact that it is almost in same class that X1050 was 6 years ago I expected little bit more from X3 II. The sound quality overall is better than of Sony but there still some aspects in which I prefer sony's sound  and overall difference isn't big enough considering that you lose some features and versatility of UI.  All in all The DAP is excellent for it's price tag 200$ in US but it isn't as spectacular for the price I had to pay in Europe (235 Euros).
 
Overall, excellent built quality, great accessory pack, big soundstage and clean sound guarantee the success of the player.
 
I tested sound mainly 44/16 WAV (since sony doesn't support flac) and 320kbps mp3 (still perfectly enough for testing sound signature), for diversity the player was tested with songs of Radiohead, Iron maiden, Tool, Mozart, Eminem, Katie Melua (for female focal tests) and so on...  
Thanks for reading...

 

Firstly, a HUGE thanks to Fiio for selecting me to participate in the X3 2nd gen's world tour reviews. It's the first time I've had the opportunity to be involved in something like this, and it definitely makes me an even more loyal Fiio customer than ever before.
Honestly, if I was the head of Fiio, I don't know if I'd trust people enough for this world tour kinda thing, and it makes me a little nervous to know that I've been trusted to take care of this device. I almost feel like I'd have to feed it and change its nappy.

Right, let's get to the review.

I'll break it up in the following categories:

Intro
Packaging
Design
Interface
Drop and Submersion Tests
Sound
What I Like
What I Don't Like
Final Thoughts
 

Intro

The X3 2nd gen is an updated and redesigned version of the original X3. The X3 is the DAP that started it all for Fiio; a relatively affordable DAP possessing high quality music playback. Unfortunately I do not have an original X3 to compare it against, but I do have the X1 and X5.

Please keep in mind that the X3 2nd gen model that I received is not completely representative of the final production model, so some things might very well change
 

Packaging
 




 
The packaging is exactly what I have come to expect from Fiio, very nice, or rather premium.
Although, I do hope that they change the black box somewhat, as it is incredibly tedious to take off the lid (due to it being very tight fitting and the bottom sitting flush with the sides of the lid. Getting the X3 2nd gen out from inside the box was also rather difficult, as there was no space to grab onto it.  
As you can see, the box still says "X3K", as that was the name given initially, but the final product on units will have a different name on their boxes
Also in the box you will find 2 additional screen protectors, a COAX cable, a USB cable, and 3 "body stickers" to give it a different look, of which you can choose between a wood finish, carbon fibre, and USA flag.
 
 
 
Design
 







 
Firstly, look at that colour...just look at it! I absolutely LOVE the colour. It's a real shame that, in order to protect it, you'd have to cover it up with the silicon protector.
The brushed metal also feels really good, very premium and modern.
In terms of dimensions it is almost identical to the X1, the X3 2nd gen is around 2 - 3mm thicker than the X1 though. It's also heaver than the X1 (by 29g), tipping the scale at 135g.
As you can see from the images, it's considerably smaller than the X5.
It also has a smooth, Apple-ish back. I'm not entirely sure if it has a very thin pane of glass, or if it is just the metal that has been crafted that way, but it does look and feel substantially more premium than the X1
The scroll wheel feels vastly more robust than both the X1 and X5. It has some solid clicking going on and does require a bit more effort to turn.
The whole thing just feels better built than any of their previous DAPs. The X1 I have has a slightly off centre scroll wheel, and the same can be said for my X5.
One thing I absolutely must praise Fiio on is putting some logos next to the buttons to indicate their purpose. Now, I know the X1 has it too, but due to the colour of the X1 these little logos almost seem invisible. But that's not a problem for the X3 2nd gen, as it has a nice contrast with the darker "titanium" colour. 
Along the top of the DAP you will find a headphone jack, along with a Line / COAX Out combo jack.
 
 
 
Interface
 


 
There's not much I can say about the interface really. The UI of the X3 2nd gen is pretty much identical to that of the X1. It's simple and intuitive...it simply works. I do like the more "Fiio" colour schemes as compared to the X1, and it does feel vastly more mature than the theme found on the X5.
 
 

Drop and Submersion Tests
 
For these tests I wanted to see just how much abuse the unit can take. Let's face it, accidents happen out in the real world, and hopefully this review will allow you to get a deeper understand of just how much care you need to take of your (potentially) new Fiio device. 
I will break these tests down into a few categories:
Drop - 1m
Drop - 1.5m (average height when holding the device)
Drop - 3m
Submersion - Shower
Submersion - 1m for 30 mins

So, did you see me mentioning this section in the first part of the review, and couldn't possibly believe that I'd do these tests? Lol. I wouldn't do a drop or submersion test on any of my own devices, let alone a review unit...heck I didn't even take the protective sheet for the screen protector off!
Hopefully you'll take enough care of your device to not have to find out how it would fare in such circumstances. 
 
 
 
Sound
 
The X3 2nd gen has a lovely, smooth sound to it; but warmer, less analytical than the X5. Finer details (such as cymbals) are more pronounced on the X5.
When listening to someone like Amy Winehouse, you get a real sense of her raspy voice on the X5, whereas on the X3 2nd gen you don't get that same presentation, but you gain a very buttery smooth sound.
I guess my best description would be that the X5's sounds like its audio signature was sculpted in a laboratory, flat and refined; whereas the X3 2nd gen's sound was created in a very expensive home studio.
Ok, perhaps that's not the most accurate or clear description, but hopefully you catch my drift.
Rest assured, however, the X3 2nd gen is better than the X1. The X1 does sound flatter than the X3 2nd gen, but at the same time rather congested, as the X3 2nd gen has better instrument separation, and the sound seems cleaner than that of the X1. The X3 2nd gen also gives you a much better sense of space.
Honestly, for a MSRP of $200 for the X3 2nd gen, I'd be very surprised if you could find a better sounding DAP at the same price point.
I suspect that, due to the brighter (read flatter) sound nature of the X5 as compared to the X3 2nd gen, the latter would be less fatiguing. The X3 2nd gen just has a really comfortable sound to it and would perhaps be more suited to someone who likes to listen for hours on end.
 
When hooking the X3 2nd gen up to an external amp, such as the E12, things do improve. You hear more details, and it's not quite as warm as through the headphone jack. But again, when compared to the X5+E12, it's not quite as good, but definitely not far off! 
 
 
What I Like
 
The colour, as I've said before, is phenomenal, and the brushed metal look is definitely a winner in my book.
The bang-for-buck value of this player is also a huge plus. The sound is not THAT far off from the X5 (albeit noticeably warmer and less detailed), but at a much cheaper price this DAP won't disappoint.
Again, keep in mind that this is a review unit, and the final sound might very well be improved to the point where the sound difference between the X5 and X3 2nd gen might not be so clear anymore. 
I truly appreciate the time and effort that Fiio has put into redesigning the X3 2nd gen. It feels more premium, better thought-out than the X5. When compared to the original X3, the X3 2nd gen blows it out of the water in every way (especially the ridiculously awkward button layout of the original X3). 
 
 
What I Don't Like
 
To be honest, I'm in two minds about the design. Whilst I do like the design, the X3 2nd gen just looks like a darker coloured X1. There is nothing, just by looking at it, that would make you think that it's a better player than the X1. I have the same problem with Porsches..they all just look too similar.
But, from a business perspective, I get it. Keeping a similar overall design between a range of products helps to reduce manufacturing costs, and also serves to create brand recognition.
Of course, a better looking player certainly does not mean better sound quality, but looks can have a significant impact on our perception of a product.
And then there's the glass-like back. It feels premium, but it also feels like something that would pick up scratches rather easily.
It also feels too Apple-ish because of that back. Granted, I am rather biased against Apple products, so take this part of my opinion with a grain of salt.
I also don't particularly like the scroll wheel. It definitely feels a heck of a lot more robust than the one used on either of Fiio's other players...but a clicking wheel just doesn't quite make sense to me. I'd much prefer a slightly stiff but smooth scrolling wheel. Again, that's just my personal preference.
 
 
 
Final Thoughts
 
I honestly, truly, genuinely like the X3 2nd gen. Fiio have come a long way since the DAP that started it all for them, the original X3, and the X3 2nd gen gives me high hopes for Fiio's future in the DAP market (and portable audio in general), especially their upcoming X7. 
I've always felt that Fiio made products that had the perfect balance between sound quality and affordability...but I was wrong....very, very wrong. The X3 2nd gen pushes the envelope yet again, with the same sound quality that I've come to expect from Fiio, but now in a much more premium and compact package.

Over the last few days I've grown to really like this little gadget, and the sound signature has really grown on me.
I do still prefer the X5, but as I've said before, that decision might very well not be as easy to make if Fiio improve the sound in the final production units. 
I still cannot get over just how good the device looks, and I'm almost tempted to keep it. But, alas, it must continue its journey to the next reviewers, who I am certain will appreciate the look (and sound) as much as I do. 
As I prepare it for shipment and cleaning it up with alcohol swabs (due to the fact that I am a much-feared spy who's fingerprints and DNA must not be leaked...P.S pm me for details on Area-51) and tucking it away in its neat little box, I'm left feeling a bit confused.
I know I don't need the X3 2nd gen, the X5 sounds better...but there's just something about it...something special. 
The X5 sells for around $350, and if that's your budget, I'd say you should get the X3 2nd gen and the E12 amp. Overall that's just a better value package
 
 
 
**EDIT** I have been told (and confirmed by Fiio) that the back of the device does not have a glass pane, but instead it is just a clear protective film. The reason I thought it was glass is because all the usual product text on the back of the device was actually printed onto that film.
So, ignore my "Apple-ish" complaint

First of all, I'd like to thank FiiO for sending me this sample to review as part of the Australian / NZ tour.
 
 
FiiO is an ever expanding Chinese company no stranger to the portable audio world - with the likes of their early amps such as FiiO E5, E11 and other early products. Over passing months they've completely expanded busting out into the portable audio player market and doing so at great speed. Their ever increasing performance ratio doesn't seem to stop and that's exactly what you'll find today in FiiO X3II. The new player from FiiO brings a pocket size unit packed at the absolute seams with features, some of which usually only found in more expensive players from other companies.
 
 
From USB OTG storage, DSD Playback, 24BIT support, true line out, USB DAC Mode, huge audio format support, X3II answers almost everyone's expectations.
 

 
 
 
 
Let's take a look at the players specs and features.
 
 
 
 
 
Like I said, packed to the brim with usable features - for the going price of around $240 AUD that's one big shoe filled for anyone seeking value for money. While I'll only ever use 16/44 FLAC files with X3II I know its a good thing for consumers and sale side of things, especially with the increasing popularity of hi-res 24bit files. The more features you add, the further you reach out to the consumer, it seems FiiO are well aware of that. But its more than this. FiiO take pride in supplying content for money, they enjoy satisfaction making (you) the buyer comfortable with your purchase.
 
 
 
It doesn't stop there though, let's take a look at the accessories included!
 
 
x3 Decal Stickers
USB Charge / Data Cable.
Digital Out Cable
Silicon Case / Cover
x2 Spare Screen Protectors (one also installed on arrival)
Documentation 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
A quick look around the player.
 
 
 

 
On the left-hand side you have your power button, volume up, volume down.
 
 
 

 
On the lower right your micro sd card slot.
 
 
 
 

 
 
At the bottom your micro USB charge / data port - just above that (quite small) the round power indication light.
 
The light while lluuminate blue when power is on and red whilst charging.
 
 

 
Moving up to the very top your headphone out and beside that your line out / coax out. 
 
(there is a setting to flick between line out /coax out in the X3II settings)
 
 
 
Build Quality.
 
As shown in the pictures above X3II is no slouch when it comes to build, the metal casing feels quite solid, in person giving the resemblance of something more expensive.The sides are smooth, seamless and even the backplate has a clear finish which gives the appearance of glass. I give strong points to the build quality on a unit at this price. It really feels nice in the hand, you feel like holding something worth what you paid. Not always found in the Chinese market.
 
 
 

 
User settings.
 
One thing I've been overly impressed with on both FiiO X1 and X3II is the amount of settings offered even making iBasso players look average. Inside X3II's user-interface is an overabundance of settings, some even making an iPod look plain. From themes to adjustable max volume restriction X3II seems to have every base covered.
 
 
 
System Settings
 
Update Media Library (switch between manual / auto)
Key-Lock Settings (several options)
Screen timeout
Brightness
Idle Power Off (on / off)
Idle Power Off time
Sleep (on / off)
Sleep Timer (duration)
Multifunctional outputs (switches between line out and coax)
USB mode (switch between DAC or Storage)
Themes (several to choose from)
Support in-line volume control (on / off)
File name display (Title, Filename)
About X3 (shows firmware version, storage space)
 
 
Play Settings
 
Resume mode (on / off)
Gapless playback (on / off)
Max Volume (set limit)
Default Volume (set to remember your last position on start-up)
Fixed Volume Setting
Gain (low / high)
Equalizer (several presets and custom EQ)
Balance (left / right)
Play Through Folders
 
 
Phew, as I said, I don't know how FiiO thought of them all let alone implement them to work seamlessly. There's enough features there to play your own arcade game if put to good use. While I won't ever use them all its about flexibility of having them. Each person is different as is their wants and needs.
 
 
User interface.
 
Because I browse by folder only X3II makes life very easy. I simply click on "browse folders" enter into my micro sd card and away I go. All my music is there showing the folder title. There are options for those who use Artist, Album, Genre, Favourites, Playlists, but none of this ever gets used by myself. I look at X3II like any other player, I select an album from the folder directory and usually let it play through.
 
Which brings us to the scroll wheel. Many people seem mildly underwhelmed with FiiO scroll wheel implementation. They say it doesn't function accurately or misses their selection. While I can agree to some extent its not perfect, I have used far worse in my time, and for most parts X3II gets me where I need to without much hassle. And if scrolling ever becomes tedious or you feel hindered the bottom left / right (change track buttons) also work for scrolling whenever in a menu screen. One thing I would like to see in the future is FiiO adapt into the touch screen interfaces, as I must admit its one area I feel iBasso offers ease of use in comparison.
 
 
Sound Quality
 
 
Gear used: Fidue A83, Grado SR325e, Aurisonics ASG-2, Etymotic ER4S.
 
Files: 16/44 FLAC
 
 
 
 
The sound, a place where we start to wander off the strong road we'd been heading down. To get things out of the way I do feel X3II is a very competent player, its strong technically, areas like instrument separation and overall coherency are quite sophisticated for the money. Its especially skilled at keeping everything in sync without losing much cohesiveness. Each instrument separates well defined as does each bass note, the treble maybe a little rolled off or absence (a safe road?). I have a lot to say about how technically sophisticated this player is for $240 AUD, every time I listen for these aspects I've felt completely impressed, even next to iBasso DX50 which does not hold the same posture, especially in separation.
 
Another area is the refinement and overall resolution offered by X3II is quite strong, you always notice great presence and stance of the music along with a strong sense of musicality, the type that gets your foot tapping without noticing and great for casual listening. But where we start to leave one another is, I find X3II to lack a little overall vibrance around the mid-range and its ability to reveal detail isn't what I find in an iBaso DX50. Don't get me wrong here, the sound of X3II is very good, especially where I mentioned, but I always sense a little too much warmth from the presentation or soft veil which restricts those final levels of clarity or bite in the presentation.
 
Whilst this can have a huge upside of lessening listening fatigue for long sessions it always leaves me a little underwhelmed, at least compared to my DX50 unit. Then I think what the hell and listen to how strong X3II is technically and those feeling go away. It isn't a complete deal breaker what I hear in X3 detail retrieval, but a little more next time would be welcome please, or at least a lift in the tonality. Soundstage is adequate in width, though nothing overly excessive. I never feel closed in however and your headphone plays a major role.
 
 
Line out
 
When using the line out I'm able to bypass X3II's internal amp section and it does sound that little bit cleaner. I hear on the forums many people are having great results using X3II with their external amps, so if adding an amp for more power, flavouring  the sound is your thing you'll be mighty impressed overall. Personally, I think X3II headphone out will suit brighter sounding headphones, take Grado for example, this will show great results. The beauty of having line out is you can increase power output and add some flavour!
 
 
Conclusion.
 
I think what X3II has, offers, shows the audio world is marvelous, it packs so many features, settings, everything you would want from a player in 2015, the most features I've seen from any player since my time in audio at under the $300 mark. The build quality and overall package is just great and you will get above what you pay for. And I think for the majority out there X3II will serve up a competitive sound level that can show any mainstream player a thing or two. Its just for those of us who are seeking a little more bite or vibrance, maybe even cooler/brighter preferences may be a little under the rain with the sound X3II puts out. I personally am one of those people.
 
Will this stop me enjoying X3II? Hell no, because I can hear the potential X3II has technically, I can admire the way it makes my foot tap without trying. X3II will be used as my main on the go player where critical listening isn't of great importance. and if I ever want to get critical I can bypass the warmish amp section using line out.
 
Thanks again FiiO for showing the audio world what you can do!
 
~H20

Many Thanks to Fiio for the review sample!
I`ve been a Fiio user for some time. Currently I have Fiio X3 (1st gen) and Fiio E12DIY amp. Also had Fiio X5 before, and I reviewed Fiio X1 a while ago. So far my experiences with Fiio products have been positive.

 

Review sections:

Summary, Pros & Cons, Suggestions for improvement.
Sound Quality & Comparisons.
Features & Measurements.

 
 



 
 

 

Summary

Design wise, Fiio X3 2nd gen looks closer to Fiio X1, and very different from the older Fiio X3. The heart of the player is DAC chip Cirrus Logic CS4398, which is also used in higher end players such as Astell&Kern AK120 II and AK240. X3 2nd gen supports playback of both PCM and DSD, all the way up to PCM 24bit-192kHz and DSD128. Not only it supports most of the common audio file formats, it also supports CD image formats (wav / flac / ape + .cue) and SACD ISO image. Basically it plays nearly almost all common audio formats.  

 
 

Beside as a standalone player, Fiio X3 2nd gen also functions as USB DAC. As USB DAC it also supports both high resolution PCM and DSD format as well. While PCM support is up to 24bit-192kHz, in DAC mode DSD support is only for DSD64. Probably it will support DSD128 as well in the future, but as the time of this review, only DSD64 is supported in DAC mode. Nevertheless, for such a small player in this price range, those features are already very impressive.  

A few features that I consider improvement from X3 are:
Sleep or hibernation after a certain time of idles, instead of total power off. We know that iPod already implemented this long time ago, but this is a great improvement from previous Fiio players. After idle for a few minutes (adjustable from 1 to 8 minutes), the player goes to hibernation mode, and consuming less than 5 mW during hibernation. And the player will immediately ON when we press the power button. Anyway, even without this feature, X3 2nd gen starts pretty fast, from power off to ready to use in less than 10 seconds.
Improved EMI immunity. My experience with Fiio X1, X3, and also iBasso DX90, they might get interfered by phone EMI, and occasionally I can hear EMI noise when hold them side by side with my smartphone. But so far none with Fiio X3 2nd gen. The all-metal chassis function as an excellent EMI shield for the player. Watch the video below showing EMI test on X3 2nd gen and other players.  

 
 

Feature rich is not good enough without good sound quality. Don't be fooled by the modest price tag, Fiio X3 2nd gen sounds way beyond its price tag, both the headphone output and line output sound quality. What impresses me most is the soundstage. It has 3D holographic imaging that has been greatly improved from 1st generation X3. Imaging is more 3D, wider, and more spacious, with good layering and better depth. Also quite accurate in instruments separation & placement. Hall's acoustic portrays realistically. The improved soundstage greatly improved the music listening experience.  

Although the old X3 has more powerful headphone output than X3 2nd gen, but most of the time the extra power doesn't translate to better sound on IEMs, and even on some full size headphones. Headphone output of the X3 2nd gen has more than enough power for most IEMs. X3 2nd gen sounds powerful with all earphone / IEMs I've tested. Therefore, IMHO, the more refined sound quality of Fiio X3 2nd gen with its spacious holographic imaging is preferable than the high power output of the X3. I've also tested X3 2nd gen to drive some full size headphones, Philips Fidelio X1, Philips SHP9500, Shure SRH840, Audio-Technica ATH-MSR7 & Audio-Technica ATH-M50, no driving issue at all, X3 2nd gen drove them with full authority, spacious imaging, detailed, with good quality & powerful bass. Really impressive to hear this little player drives those full size headphones, it really has good driving power.  

Beside the imaging quality that impresses me most, X3 2nd gen has a very neutral tonality. It has excellent detail, clarity, and transparency, at the level that is just right, before entering to the analytical region. Both line and headphone outputs have good bass and treble extension. Dynamic is surprisingly quite lively. Transient is fast and snappy. Bass has good punch and speed, with good texture, at neutral level, without any bass emphasize or de-emphasized. Detail and clarity are excellent, clean sounding with realistic transparency, without sounding analytical. The headphone output can drive some low impedance full size headphones really well, with sound quality that pretty much conveys the quality of the DAC, and relatively sounds as good as the line output.  

It could be due to the dual clocks in X3 2nd gen are very well implemented and perform better than X3 clock, or it could also be due to better design of the analogue output stage, or other improvements. But one thing for sure, Fiio have done it well on X3 2nd gen. It is not only feature rich, but to my ears it has the sound quality that is simply punches through its suggested price tag. Overall I rated it a little less than 5 stars due to mostly the quality of the LCD display, and playlist management that could be improved. But for sound quality alone, I would rate it 5 stars. Kudos to Fiio!  

 
 

Pros:

Exceptional sound quality from such a small and affordable player.
Feature rich. It has almost everything we could expect from a modern player in this category.
Sleep / Hibernation mode.
Good battery life.
Very good all-metal chassis build quality with excellent EMI immunity.
 

Cons:

LCD display could be improved, especially for day time outdoor usage.
Not the best playlist management.
Silicon protective cover easily attracts dust and lint.
 

Suggestions for improvement:

Higher contrast and better resolution LCD display.
Better material for the protective cover, material that doesn't attracts dust and lint. 
Beside 'pure mode' line output, fix gain and without equalizer, it would be a nice feature if user can choose to enable volume and equalizer for the line & SPDIF output.
Option to enable headphone output when the line or SPDIF output is connected.
Option to enable and disable battery charging in USB DAC mode.
Option to disable volume lock feature when screen is off.
Larger database capacity for the library to manage more than 5800 songs.
Automatic playlists such as: Recently played lists, Most frequently played lists, and Recently added lists.
 


 
 

 

 

Sound Quality & Comparisons

 

The sound signature of Fiio X3 2nd gen is clean, detailed, spacious, and transparent, without sounding analytic. The detail and transparency sound natural, and not over emphasized to make it entering the analytic category. Overall tonality is neutral with very good spaciousness and driving power. It significantly sounds more spacious, with better imaging than the older X3. Clarity and detail are also improved from X3. X3 2nd gen is not a warm and mellow sounding type of player, but also not the harsh and analytic type. It has excellent perceived detail with the right level of smoothness to make it sounds musical. Driving power is good on X3 2nd gen, most of IEMs and full headphones I tried with it sound well driven.  

Personally I'm impressed with the sound quality of Fiio X3 2nd gen, and it has been my daily player for the last 2 months now. I found that it has good matching ability with most of the IEMs and headphones I tried, with my favourite pair would be to pair it with DUNU DN-2000. Simply a wonderful sounding portable system, probably one of the best neutral sounding portable system for under $500. Beside DN-2000, ATH-IM50 also matches beautifully with X3 2nd gen. The transparent and spacious X3 2nd gen complements the warm and bassy signature of IM50 really well. Resulting a full and spacious sounding, powerful bass with clear and full bodied mids, and silky smooth treble. Listening to both DN-2000 and ATH-IM50 paired with Fiio X3 2nd gen, are truly addictive.  

 
 

Previously DX90 was my daily player since last year, now using X3 2nd gen for 2 months somehow I don't feel that I missed my DX90. They have different sound signature, and DX90 still has slightly better transparency and treble sparkles, but X3 2nd gen sound quality is good enough to make me not missing my DX90 for daily commuting. X3 2nd gen smaller size is also more comfortable in the pocket.  

Pairing Fiio X3 2nd gen with portable amplifier Fiio E12DIY (Op-Amp OPA827 + Buffer LME49600), I was simply impressed by how well they drive my Sennheiser HD800. They manage to give body to HD800 mids and bass, while maintaining good detail and transparency. While not really quite up to the level of good tube desktop amp which I prefer for HD800, this small system is good enough that I would confidently bring them around in a headphone meet or local shops to test IEMs and headphones. Recently I brought this pair, X3 2nd gen + E12DIY to a local shop to audition MrSpeakers Ether, and they don't disappoint. They have good tonality, power, with excellent detail and imaging. Impressive!  



 
Testing MrSpeakers Ether at local headphone shop
 

 

 

Comparisons

During the more than 2 months period, I've compared it with other players:
Fiio X3 (1st generation, Ver. 3.3)
Apple iPod 6th Generation 80 GB (Ver. 1.1.2)
iBasso DX90 (Ver. 2.1.0)
Astell&Kern AK100 (Ver. 2.4)  

As for the Fiio X3 2nd gen itself, the latest firmware version I tried for this review is version 1.1.  

Main headphones and earphones used for comparisons:
Audio-Technica MSR-7, Shure SRH840, Yamaha HPH-200, DUNU-DN2000, DUNU-DN-1000, DUNU Titan 1, and ATH-IM50.  

 

Comparison with Fiio X3 (1st generation)

Fiio X3 is using Wolfson WM8740 professional DAC and AD8397 high current op-amp. Fiio X3 2nd gen is using Cirrus Logic's top-flight CS4398 DAC and OPA1642+LMH6643 for the amp section. To me, X3 2nd gen is totally a different player than X3 1st gen. What puts them together is only their price which is within the $300 price bracket. Other than that they don't have many things in common.
 

Most noticeable difference in sound character is the imaging. Switching from X3 to X3 2nd gen I can hear better, and more spacious soundstage, better depth, and clearer instrument separation. X3 soundstage sounds a little flat and congested when compared to X3 2nd gen. The 3D & spacious imaging adds a lot of pleasure in music listening, and probably the best improvement of X3 2nd gen over X3.  

Besides that, X3 2nd gen sounds more transparent than X3, not much, but audible. Nothing wrong with X3 treble, but X3 2nd gen sounds like it has smoother upper treble extension, so treble sounds silky smooth, more airy and transparent. X3 2nd gen has slightly better micro detail, and sound slightly more refined than X3.  

There is also improvement on power efficiency on X3 2nd gen, it doesn't heat up as much as X3. X3 will gets quite warm after sometime, especially when kept in less ventilated place, like in a bag or pocket. So far I didn't have any heat issue with X3 2nd gen, at max it only gets a little warm. Power efficiency seems to be better on X3 2nd gen, smaller battery, yet longer playing hour and less heat. Beside that I also found the navigation is a little easier on X3 2nd gen, requires less button clicks with the scroll wheel.  

 
 
 

Aside from their sound quality, in my opinion, the following are some features of each model that can be considered better than the other:  

X3 1st generation:
1. Analog circuit bass and treble adjustment that sounds good, and works even when playing high resolution PCM and DSD format, where digital EQ of both models doesn't work for DSD, and only works up to 48 kHz PCM.
2. More powerful headphone output.  

X3 2nd generation:
1. Plays DSD 128 and DSD ISO image. Well, practically to me this feature is not very important, but YMMV.
2. More efficient battery consumption, less heat and slightly longer playing time.
3. Scroll wheel for easier navigation.
4. Hibernation mode.
5. Playback from USB OTG storage.  

Both are excellent players in their category. Sound quality wise, both won't disappoint at their price point. Features wise, easy to use and user friendliness, I prefer X3 2nd gen.  

 

Comparison with Apple iPod 6th Generation 80 GB

My iPod is probably too old to be compared with the new X3 2nd gen, but just for comparison sake I will write a brief comparison between them.
 

The 2 x 30mW iPod headphone output is no match for the X3 2nd gen more powerful headphone output. X3 2nd gen has better driving power, bass has better texture, tighter, and punchier than iPod. Fiio X3 2nd gen also has better detail and faster transient. Upper treble is more extended on X3 2nd gen, and overall sounds more transparent than iPod.  

I used my iPod classic for years, and it is more or less retired early last year. It is a nice sounding player, smooth, polite, with friendly sound characteristic, but it is rather too old, and doesn't offer many features as compared to modern players. Limited playable formats, no line output, no USB DAC function, etc. But I think iPod has better UI, and especially the automatic playlists, the recently added, recently played, and Top 25 most played playlists are quite useful.  

Size comparison with Samsung Galaxy S4 and iPod classic 6th gen.
 

 

Comparison with Astell&Kern AK100 (first generation)

AK100 20 ohms output impedance might not be suitable for some multi drivers IEMs, so for fair comparison, I mostly use single driver IEM, but also tried the DN-1000 and DN-2000 hybrid just for comparison. For example, DUNU DN-2000 has wonderful matching with X3 2nd gen, it sounds transparent and holographic, with excellent detail. on AK100, DN-2000 bass is slightly boosted, and treble level is slightly less than X3 2nd gen. Overall still sounds balanced and enjoyable, and I do like AK100 pairing with DN-2000. With DN-1000, the difference is even more audible, as DN-1000 starting to lose its transparency on AK100.
The difference is quite audible between X3 2nd gen & AK100 when comparing them using multi driver IEM.
 

Operation wise, X3 2nd gen feels quicker and more responsive than AK100. Probably due to simpler OS and the lack of touch screen. As for the size, AK100 is smaller. About similar width and thickness, but much shorter.  

AK100 sounds warmer and a little smoother than X3 2nd gen. AK100 also has slightly stronger and fuller bass presence. While X3 2nd gen sounds more transparent and open sounding. Vocal sounds fuller and more intimate on AK100, and overall I do prefer the smooth and intimate vocal on AK100 for pop music. If you like open sounding vocal, X3 2nd gen vocal sounds a tad more open and transparent. But the difference is not much. I also notice that the perceived transient is slightly faster on X3 2nd gen. Both have good imaging, with excellent detail and dynamic. Though the price difference is quite high here, IMHO X3 2nd gen doesn't sound inferior to AK100. They do have different character, but I don't hear one player to be inferior to the other. It is all depending on personal preferences, as well as matching the right earphone to the player. For example with ATH-IM50, X3 2nd gen transparent signature really helps to balance the warm and bassy signature of the IM50, in this case, better than AK100. While AK100 might be better on other pairing. In general, those who like smooth & warm character with stronger bass will find AK100 is preferable, while those who prefer transparency will find X3 2nd gen is really a good deal.  

 

Comparison with iBasso DX90

DX90 sounds a little more transparent and powerful than X3 2nd gen, with better dynamic. DX90 treble sounds more extended with more treble sparkles. It also makes DX90 a little more prone to sibilant as compared to X3 2nd gen. Bass punches harder and fuller on DX90. Both the sparkling treble and more powerful bass make DX90 sounds livelier. But vocal sounds a little smoother on X3 2nd gen, less grain, more focused and rounded. Sometime I do like vocal of the X3 2nd gen a little better than DX90, especially with matching IEMs such as DN-2000 and ATH-IM50. DX90 vocal may sounds a little sharp and grainy sometime. But again it comes back to matching. With smooth sounding full size headphones like my new ATH-R70x, DX90 sounds better, more open sounding with better detail.
 

Soundstage presentation is rather different between the two. DX90 imaging is perceived wider, while X3 2nd gen is perceived deeper. Both have excellent capability to produce 3D holographic imaging.  

I observed that sound quality between low and high gain on X3 2nd gen is quite consistent. While on DX90 I always set it to high gain due to noticeably better sound quality at high gain. DX90 sounds tighter with better driving capability at high gain.  

Though in general, I feel that DX90 is still a better sounding player, but the difference is not night and day despite of the double price. And X3 2nd gen comes pretty close.  


Size comparison with AK100 & DX90:
 
 
 
 

 

 

Features & Measurement

 

Fiio has listed most of the features of X3 2nd gen here:
http://www.fiio.net/en/products/39
 
The following are some of the features I would like to highlight or have been tested.  

Line Output & SPDIF Coaxial Output

Beside the headphone output, there is a switchable multi-function output, for analogue line output and digital SPDIF coaxial output. Selection is done in system settings menu. Headphone output is disconnected when line output or SPDIF output is connected.
 

 
 

Line output level is fix at 1.45 Vrms (measured 1.46 Vrms), bypassing the digital volume control and digital equalizer. Probably due to the limitation of the battery voltage, the level is slightly below the standard 2 Vrms for line output. Some users provided feedback that it would be nice if there is an option to enable variable gain and equalizer for the line output.  

SPDIF coaxial output connector pin assignment is different than the X3 and iBasso DX90. That means, we cannot use SPDIF cable from X3, for the X3 2nd gen SPDIF output. Older X3 and DX90 use the Tip and Shield of the 3.5 mm connector for SPDIF output. X3 2nd gen use the 4 poles TRRS 3.5 mm connector. From the Tip, Ring 1, Ring 2, & Shield (TRRS), X3 2nd gen SPDIF output uses the Ring 2 and Shield poles. Ring 2 connected to the ground or shield of the RCA connector, while the Shield pole of the 3.5 mm connected to the Tip of the RCA connector. So it is similar to CTIA standard for TRRS phone connector, the SPDIF coaxial output uses the microphone pole for the SPDIF signal. The new arrangement is quite make sense, since the SPDIF is sharing the same port with the line output.  

 
 

The SPDIF coaxial output works for all PCM sampling rates from 44.1 kHz up to 192 kHz, including 88.2 kHz and 176.4 kHz. SPDIF output sampling frequency follows the sampling frequency of the audio file.  

The interesting part of the SPDIF output is when X3 2nd gen playing DSD64 files. Instead of muting, the SPDIF output will output 88.2 kHz PCM signal, converted from the DSD64 files. So X3 2nd gen functions as DSD to PCM converter. Brilliant! But please take note, DSD128 is not supported by the SPDIF output, therefore when the multi-function output is set to 'Coax Out', DSD128 files are not playable. In order to play DSD128, the output must be set to Line Out.  

 
 

CTIA Inline Remote

Another interesting feature is the compatibility with inline remote. Using earphones or IEMs with microphone and inline remote, the remote middle answer button functions as the following on X3 2nd gen:
1 click: Play or stop
2 clicks: Next song
3 clicks: Previous song
 

Please take note, X3 2nd gen only supports the more common CTIA standard, not the less common OMTP headphone jack standard. More info here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_connector_(audio)
 
 

USB DAC & USB OTG

Beside a standalone player, X3 2nd gen also functions as USB DAC. All PCM sampling rates from 44.1 kHz up to 192 kHz are supported, including DSD64 format. DSD128 is not supported in DAC mode. Probably not yet. DSD playback method in foobar is using the common DoP Marker setting.
 

 
 
 

The micro B USB port also supports USB OTG storage. Using the common USB OTG cable for Android smartphone or tablet, X3 2nd gen can access flash storage connected to the OTG cable. I tested PNY 128GB USB 3.0 flash drive (formatted in exFAT), as well as Transcend USB 3.0 card reader to read micro SD, so far the OTG function works well. This feature is quite useful especially if we have a full micro SD in the player, but want to try some audio files with the player. Simply copy the files to a flash drive, and plug it to the OTG cable.  

 
 

Storage

Officially supported file format is FAT32, up to 128GB maximum capacity, and it is recommended to use the player to format the micro SD card. Nevertheless, I found that X3 2nd generation (firmware v1.1) supports exFAT file system as well. At the time of this review, I haven't seen this feature mentioned on Fiio website, but I have tested both 64GB micro SD and 128GB USB flash drive connected using OTG cable, both formatted in exFAT, and both were supported by X3 2nd gen. I have tested exFAT cluster size 32kb, 128kb, and 256kb, all work. Though during testing, exFAT file system works fine most of the time, but some users reported that occasionally they have issues playing 24/192 PCM files and DSD files from exFAT storage. exFAT support is probably still in early stage and need further development, but this is a good sign to support larger storage in the future.
 

 

Media Library

The media library scanning is quite fast, faster than DX90 and AK100. It scans 1114 songs in about 21 seconds. Currently, with firmware 1.1, media library maximum capacity is 5800 songs. Not sure if the capacity will be expanded in future firmware update, but IMHO, 5800 is generally sufficient for 64GB storage. With 64 GB micro SD, in average we could use around 59.5 GB of storage space. Averaging some of my collection, around 2739 songs, a mixture of MP3 320kbps & AAC 512kbps, resulting an approximate of 11 MB file size per song. It means, for high quality lossy formats, 59.5 GB could hold around 5400 songs. Most of my songs are in FLAC format (mixture of standard and high resolution), which is in average around 4-5 times larger than 320 kbps MP3 file. Therefore the 5800 songs of media library capacity is quite sufficient for 64 GB storage, especially for mixture of lossy and lossless formats. But when 128 GB is getting cheaper and more popular, it might not be enough for a collection with mostly lossy formats.
 

But please take note, that this 5800 capacity is 'Media Library' capacity, and not X3 2nd gen file browsing capacity. The file browser is not limited by the media library capacity. We can have 128GB storage with much more than 5800 songs, and we can browse them all using the file browsing feature. Since most of my song collections are folder organized, I never used the media library so far, and always use file browser to select songs. So the 5800 limitation is not relevant if we browse our songs using file browser. But I could imagine if in the future the playlist management has been much improved, more will start using the media library function, and with 128GB storage, the 5800 capacity will need to be expanded.  

 

File Formats

Tested the following file formats & sampling rate, except the DXD format, all are playable, including DSD files, both DSF and DFF format, in both DSD64 and DSD128 resolution.
 

 
 
 
 

CD & SACD Image

Supporting various common audio formats is probably not something unique these days, but playing CD images and SACD ISO images directly from the player is not what many portable players claim able to do. This is especially useful for those who backup their collection of CDs and SACDs as images.
 

I've tested the following CD images format:
CD_Image.ape + CD_Image.cue
CD_Image.flac + CD_Image.cue
CD_Image.wav + CD_Image.cue  

 

All are playable on X3 2nd gen. Only gapless playback on CD image is still not perfect, with a very short, probably around 0.3-0.4 second gap. Hopefully future firmware upgrade will fix it.  

The neat way to organize the image files is probably to put each of the image file in a separate folder, with proper naming. But we have the option to put all the CD images together in the same folder. The displayed artwork for the CD Image playback will follow the file name of the CD image file. So just name the artwork jpeg files accordingly, with the same file name as the associated CD image, and X3 2nd gen will display the artwork accordingly.  

 
 
 
 

Also tested SACD ISO image that was placed in a folder together with artwork jpeg file with different file name, and X3 2nd gen has no problem displaying the artwork file while playing the SACD ISO file.  

Please take note some of the following limitations for DSD playback. Some SACD ISO images might be in DST format (compressed DSD) and is not supported by X3 2nd gen. The solution is to convert the ISO image to DFF files, with DST to DSD conversion option selected. When I found some the SACD ISO images were not playable by X3 2nd gen, I was not aware of the DST codec. I have to thank @WayneWoondirts for the tips to check the DST codec! ISO image in DST format may be converted to DFF files using Sonore ISO2DSD (freeware). The other limitation is surround DSD files. Fiio X3 2nd gen is a stereo player, meaning DSD 5.0 and 5.1 files are not supported. Only 2.0 DSD file is supported.  

 

Display Quality & User Interface

There is not much improvement for the LCD display from previous X3, most probably to keep the cost low. But I do hope that in the next generation X3, Fiio would improve the quality of the LCD display, especially to improve the contrast & resolution. It is difficult to use the display in bright outdoor condition. And it would be nice to have higher resolution display.
 

 
 

In my opinion, the new wheel navigation is preferable over the buttons navigation on the old X3. The X3 2nd gen wheel and buttons arrangement are quite intuitive and easy to use. User interface has also been improved and quite user friendly.  

What I would like to be improved is the back button behaviour and playlist management.  

1. I prefer for the back button to have the following behaviour:
Short click from the currently playing song is dedicated to always bring back one level up to the song file directory, or one level up of the playlist hierarchy, for example back to the list of songs in the album.
Currently, once we long press the back button to go to the home menu, when we go back to the currently playing song, when we short click the back button, it won't bring us back to the song's folder or album, but goes back to home menu.  

2. Automatic playlists such as:
Recently played:
Songs; Albums; Folders; Artists
Most frequently played:
Songs; Albums; Folders; Artists
Recently added:
Songs; Albums; Folders; Artists  

Something like this:
 
 

Equalizer

Equalizer is standard 10 bands digital equalizer with +/- 6 dB adjustment. Equalizer only works for PCM files with sampling rate 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz. It doesn't function for higher sampling rate and DSD files. When EQ is on, it reduces the whole level by 6 dB to provide a 6 dB headroom for EQ adjustment.
 

 
 

This is quite a common implementation in today's digital audio players. I would like to suggest a slightly different approach to Fiio (and other vendors). I suggest integrating the digital volume and the digital equalizer, so headroom calculation can be done in an integrated manner. Instead of cutting the volume by 6 dB immediately when EQ is activated, why not just reduce the maximum volume instead. For example, if maximum volume is let say 18 dB without EQ, when EQ is activated maximum volume is reduced to 12 dB max, providing the 6 dB headroom for EQ. The digital volume control is limited to 12 at max when EQ is activated, instead of 18 dB max without EQ. The reason is, when using IEMs, we seldom use near the maximum volume, so there will be some headroom from digital volume control that can be used for EQ. When EQ is activated, users don't have to experience that the overall volume is reduced, because EQ is using the leftover headroom from the digital volume control. Only the maximum level of the volume control is reduced when EQ is activated. In headroom calculation, it might looks the same, but different user experience, since user no longer has to adjust the volume when activating EQ.  

For example, maximum volume of X3 2nd gen is at level 120, and -6 dB from maximum is at level 108 (the same for both high and low gain). So, just make it that when equalizer is enabled, reduce the ceiling of maximum volume level from 120 to 108. Most of the time my listening volume with my IEMs, DN-2000, DN-1000, ATH-IM50 are only in the range from 40 to 70. If the ceiling of max volume is lowered from 120 to 108, it is not affecting the playback volume, and I don't have to adjust the volume when enabling equalizer. My 2 cents  

 

Power Management and Battery

Mentioned earlier, the newly implemented sleep / hibernation feature is a very welcomed feature. Sleep when idle can be set between 1 to 8 minutes. Sleep mode is indicated by blue LED. The LED will turn off when in sleep mode, and the player consumes less than 5 mW of battery power. To activate the player, press the power button.
 

From my experience, battery life is pretty good. Though battery life varies by many factors, with more than 2 months of almost daily use, I don't feel the battery capacity is lacking.  

X3 2nd gen uses similar 0.8 mm P2 pentalobe screws to those found on the iPhone 4. Using the pentalobe screwdriver from generic smartphone tool kit, we can open the back of the X3 2nd gen. Pictures below shown the battery and circuit board or the X3 2nd gen. The battery seems to be removable.  

 
 
 
DIY expert might know how to open the battery connector.
 
 

EMI Rejection

As mentioned earlier, the X3 2nd gen all-metal chassis design has improved the EMI rejection from the first generation X3. X3 also has metal chassis, but EMI rejection is not as good as the X3 2nd gen. Using X3 2nd gen, now I'm no longer annoyed by EMI when holding the audio player side by side with my smartphone.
 

The following video is showing a simple EMI test using the base of home DECT phone. The base of DECT phone is transmitting consistent radio signal, that easily interfered audio players on close distant. A simple electromagnetic transmitter for EMI test.  

 
 

The test setup is simple:
4 players: Fiio X3, Fiio X3 2nd gen, iBasso DX90, & Astell&Kern AK100.
All players were set to high gain (except AK100 which doesn't have gain adjustment), and the volume was set to 0.5 Vrms when playing 0 dBFS 100 Hz sine wave. So output level were equal.
During the test all players were playing silent track.
Headphone output of DUT (Device Under Test) connected to Line Input 1 (Left) and 2 (Right) of Zoom H6, gain set to 7.
Zoom H6 headphone output connected to a small active speaker (Creative Woof), to monitor the sound of the EMI noise.
Video recording was using Panasonic DMC-FZ1000. Sound in the video was recorded from the speaker sound using the FZ1000 build-in mic. No audio post processing.  

http://youtu.be/OQsoGI-uzYE

 

From the Zoom H6 recorded file, we can see that Fiio X3 2nd gen has the best EMI immunity from other players in the test.  

 
 

Headphone Output

The following is some measurement of the headphone output. I don't have lab grade accuracy measurement instruments, or dedicated audio analyzer, so the measurement result should be taken as estimated value.
 

Low gain maximum output voltage at 600 ohms: 1.345 Vrms / 3.8 Vpp
High gain maximum output voltage at 600 ohms: 2.69 Vrms / 7.6 Vpp  

Low gain output impedance: 0.34 ohm
High gain output impedance: 0.39 ohm  

 
 

Measured power output:

My digital oscilloscope doesn't do THD measurement, but it has FFT feature. Power output criteria is maximum output at less than 1% THD. To estimate the maximum output voltage before the waveform get distorted, I visually monitor the waveform on oscilloscope, and monitor the FFT window to keep the harmonic distortion is less than 40 dB (100 times) from the main frequency.
 

Maximum volume before distortion, at 20Hz & 200Hz on 15 ohms load (at volume 106 - high gain):
 
 
 

Waveform started to get distorted, at 20Hz & 200Hz on 15 ohms load (at volume 107 - high gain):
 
 
 

For low impedance load, I made a custom cable as shown below, where the load is connected using 4 pins XLR. This way I can use the cable with various load, including balanced headphone.  

 
 

Maximum output voltage at high gain, at 15 ohms load:
At 20 Hz: 1.157 Vrms (volume @ 106)
At 200 Hz: 1.167 Vrms (volume @ 106)
Average: 1.162 Vrms
Maximum current at 15 ohms load: 1.162 / 15 = 77.5 mA  

Maximum output voltage (Vrms) at high gain, at 600 ohms load: 2.69 Vrms  

Calculated maximum power output @ 32 ohms: 192 mW
Calculated maximum power output @ 300 ohms: 24 mW  

 

Line Output:

Measured output impedance: 99 ohms
Measured maximum output voltage: 1.46 Vrms
Line output is fix gain, bypassing the digital volume control and digital equalizer.
 

 

RMAA Test Results

Audio interface for RMAA test is using HRT LineStreamer+. HRT LineStreamer+ doesn't have any gain at the input stage, so it is a direct connection to the ADC stage, at 24bit-96kHz sampling rate. Line output is connected directly to HRT LS line input as shown below, while headphone output is connected with 600 ohms load (different cable).
 

 
 

Please take note:

RMAA test is only as good as the quality of the audio interface used for the measurement. And in most cases, only useful for verification purpose of the audio quality within the 20Hz to 20 kHz range. For example, most audio interface line input only have linear frequency response up to around 20 kHz, if I measure an amplifier with flat frequency response up to 100 kHz (which is common), RMAA test result will only shows frequency response up to 20 kHz. In this case RMAA test result doesn't reflect the frequency response of the amplifier under test, but the frequency response of the line input of the audio interface. Besides that, noise and total harmonic distortion result are also affected by the performance of the line input interface, which in many cases has inferior specification than the tested unit. Once again please take note, RMAA test is only for verification purpose, and not accurately reflecting the real specification of the equipment.
 

Sampling mode: 24-bit, 96 kHz
Fiio X3 2nd Generation Outputs: Line Output, Headphone Output at Low Gain & High Gain.



 
The frequency response (FR) graph is pretty close to the official FR graph published by Fiio. The HRT LineStreamer+ FR is 20Hz-20kHz in +0 / -.4 dB tolerance, so won't get better result than that even if the player FR is flatter. From the individual output result, I don't see any issue with channel imbalance. Output level balance between Left and Right channels is good.  

 

 

That concludes my Fiio X3 2nd generation review. It is a wonderful audio player, very reasonably priced, with performance that exceeds many other players in the category. Congrats to Fiio!



 
   

 

Additional pictures:

 

Accessories:
 
Fiio X3 2nd gen comes with silicon protection case and screen protector. One of the screen protector already applied to the player from factory.  

 

User Guide:
 
 
 

System Settings:
 
 
 
 

Play Settings:
 
 
 

Equipment used in this review:

 

Headphones:
Audio-Technica ATH-R70x
Audio-Technica MSR7LTD
Audio-Technica M50
Philips Fidelio X1
Philips SHP9500
Sennheiser HD 800
Shure SRH840
Yamaha HPH-200
 

Earphones / IEMs:
Audio-Technica ATH-IM50
Audio-Technica ATH-IM70
DUNU DN-1000
DUNU DN-2000
DUNU Titan 1  

DAPs, DACs & Headphone Amplifiers:
Apple iPod Classic 6th gen 80GB
Astell&Kern AK100 (loan)
Fiio X3
Fiio X3 2nd gen
Fiio E12DIY (Op-Amp OPA827 + Buffer LME49600)
iBasso DX90
ifi micro iDSD (firmware 4.06)
Mytek Stereo192-DSD  

Computer & Player:
DIY Desktop PC: Gigabyte GA-H77-D3H-MVP motherboard, Intel i7-3770, 16 GB RAM, Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit SP1.
foobar2000 v1.3.3  

Measurement & Other Instrument:
Amprobe Digital Multimeter AM-160
Amprobe Pocket Meter PM51A
Owon VDS3102 Digital Storage Oscilloscope
Velleman PCSU 200 PC Scope & Generator
Zoom H6  

 

Some recordings used in this review:

 

Video review of the Fiio X3 Second Generation player.
 
  
 
DSD SQ comparison:

Before I get into my review, I should state that I received a pre-production unit from Fiio as part of their pre-release “World Tour.” I got to keep the unit for 10 days, during which I used it extensively, before sending it on to the next reviewer on the Canadian tour. I did not have to pay for the unit (only to forward it to the next reviewer), and unfortunately do not get to keep it. Because I was reviewing a pre-production unit running beta firmware, it is quite possible that release models will feature changes and/or improvements to hardware and firmware over what is reflected here.
 
In my review I did comparisons using the X3 1^st generation, Fiio E12A and Cypher Labs Picollo amps, and Sennheiser HD598 and Sony XBA-H1 headphones. I also did extensive general listening using the previously listed headphones in addition to the RHA MA750 and Audio Technica ATH CKX9. All of the above equipment is my own, paid for by me.
 
Early news of the X3 update had it called a number of things, including X3K and X3ii. The literature that came with my review unit explained that Fiio’s naming conventions are changing, and that the update will be sold as the X3 on release, with the term “2^nd Generation” to set it apart from the original. For the sake of my fingers, I’ll call the new model “2G” in this review, and the original “1G.”
 
While I’ve been a music lover for decades, I am relatively new to the MidFi/HiFi/Head-Fi game, especially high quality portable audio equipment, and this is my first review. I haven’t listened to a lot of different equipment (certainly nothing in the high price, TOTL realm), so this is very much a review by a newbie, for other newbies.
 
Unboxing and First Impressions:
 
Box and notes from Fiio about the review process. Box still says X3K, but, as noted, the production model will be X3 (2nd Generation), and will simply say “X3” on the packaging.
 

 
Stuff that came with the review unit: USB cable, coaxial adaptor, 2 spare screen protectors in addition to one pre-installed, 3 sets of "body armour" stickers, and a rubberized protective case. The case is thicker and more substantial than the one that came with the 1G. Not 100% sure if this is what will come with the production models.
 

 
The unit itself: The 2G has a gorgeous finish! Full metal jacket, good heft and nicely finished all over. Feels significantly more high-end than the 1G. Horizontal screen, mechanical scroll wheel with select button in centre, menu button top-left, back button top-right, and track forward/backward at bottom of scroll wheel. Layout very sensible and intuitive.
 

 
Top Side: Headphone Out jack and switchable Line Out/Coax
 

 
Left Side: Power button and volume controls. Volume can also be controlled during playback using the scroll wheel by pressing and holding the select button in the middle.
 

 
Right Side: Micro SD slot. That is all.
 

 
Bottom: Micro USB, for charging and DAC usage. Little LED below the scroll wheel glows blue when X3 is powered on, red when charging and green when charging is complete.
 

 
2G, E12A and 1G side-by-side. In my opinion, the 2G’s colour is a better match with the E12A than the 1G.
 

 
2G and 1G are about the same thickness. 2G is about 1 mm wider than 1G (2 mm when in their cases). 2G is significantly shorter, and has a really nice hand-feel (fitting perfectly in the palm). I never was a big fan of the 1G’s elongated shape.
 

 
Other impressions:

1. As a long-time iPod user, the scroll wheel is so much more intuitive than the 1G’s diagonally arranged buttons. I’ve gotten used to the 1G over time, but it still feels clunky. I actually prefer the Fiio mechanical scroll wheel over the old iPod tactile wheel.
2. The 2G’s micro SD slot is recessed (as in, the card doesn’t stick out at all). This is an improvement over the 1G in my mind, where the SD card stuck out just a smidgeon.
3. The 2G lacks internal memory: This is one of only two faults I could find with the new X3. I have two 64 GB micro SD cards at the moment, one with Classical music, and one with Jazz, Rock, Pop, Funk, etc. With the 1G’s 8GB of on-board memory, I could have a few favourite, heavy rotation albums at my finger tips at all times without having to switch out SD cards. This is a relatively minor quibble, but a quibble nonetheless.
4. Protective silicon case: The 2G’s black silicon case is sturdier and more attractive than the 1G’s rather flimsy clear case. That said, the 2G case attracts lint lie a magnet. Again, a minor annoyance, but an annoyance.
5. User interface: I far prefer the horizontal display and user interface of the 2G over the vertical display and zig-zaggy arrangement of the icons and options on the 1G. The 2G is far more intuitive.  I won’t go into detail about the UI as Brooko and twister6 do a great job of this in their extensive reviews.
6. Deep Sleep feature: Once the 2G has been powered on and booted up for the first time, the power button acts like a sleep/wake switch, with "instant-on" feature a massive improvement over having to wait through the 1G's full boot-up cycle every time you wake the device.

 
Comparative Listening Tests:
 
As an owner of an X3 1^st generation that I rarely use without either the Fiio E12A or Cypher Labs Picollo, my interest in comparing revolved around these three pieces of equipment. Even without having heard other DAPs (besides iDevices) before this review, I found the 1G to have shortcomings in sound quality, and so used it with an amp to improve sound quality and staging. Because I travel a fair bit for work and am also a runner, it would be nice to have a DAP that doesn’t require stacking with an amp when on the go, and my comparative tests were done with that in mind.
 
Test 1: X3 2^nd generation (FW0.22Beta) vs. X3 1^st generation (FW3.3)
 
Low Gain, EQ off, Sennheiser HD598. Tracks: Supertramp – Give A Little Bit (Even In The Quietest Moments), Joni Mitchell – Carey (Blue)
 

 
I found the 2G very slightly quieter at the same volume settings, but more balanced from low to high than the 1G. The 1G was more mid-forward with occasional sibilance in treble, some bass bleed into mids, and overall a bit muffled. The 2G mids were less prominent, with treble clearer and bass tighter and no bleed into mids. There was greater clarity and texture, and I could hear vocals and each instrument distinctly.
 
The 2G had wider soundstage and depth, with an airy freshness. Even listening un-amped, the SQ was rich and sonorous. The 1G felt like listening inside a cardboard box in comparison; sound didn’t “travel” anywhere. I stress "even listening un-amped" as I have always amped when using the HD598s with the 1G as the SQ is too restricted without. The sound quality and staging using the 2G unaided was thus a hugely pleasant surprise.
 
Test 2: 2G un-amped vs. 2G + E12A
 
Un-amped: Low Gain, EQ off, Sony XBA-H1. Amped: LO, Low Gain, EQ off, Bass Boost off, Sony XBA-H1. Track: Miles Davis – Blue In Green (Kind Of Blue)
 

 
I was surprised at how little difference I noticed between un-amped and amped. I found very slightly more instrumental separation and texture using the 2G with the E12A, but minimally so. What differences existed were certainly subtle. Trumpet and sax were perhaps a little clearer and brighter in the upper registers with the E12A. Piano was very slightly recessed through just the 2G un-amped, and cleaner and more prominent when combined with E12A.
 
I found that the 2G’s sound quality fell somewhere between the two E12A Bass Boost settings. The 2G alone was a touch more bass-forward than with the E12A and Bass Boost off, while the 2G + E12A combination was noticeably more bassy with boost on.
 
I also found soundstage differences minimal with the 2G un-amped and amped. Amping gave slightly more depth, but not to the level that I felt something was missing when listening to the 2G on its own. As mentioned already, this was a pleasant surprise as it means portability isn’t limited by the need to stack with an external amp.
 
Test 3: 2G un-amped vs. 2G + Cypher Labs Picollo
 
Un-amped: Low Gain, EQ off, Sennheiser HD598. Amped: LO, Low Gain, EQ off, Sennheiser HD598. Track: Wilhelm Kempff, Henryk Szeryng & Pierre Fournier – Beethoven Piano Trio No. 2
 
     
 
As with E12A, I didn’t find a huge difference with or without the Picollo. Kempff’s piano was ever so slightly more nuanced with the Picollo, but Szeryng’s violin was pretty much the same either way. Fournier’s cello was more textured (less buttery) without the amp in this case. The Picollo is described as a “warm” sounding amp, and that colouring came through compared to the 2G on its own, but not in a way that made me prefer one set-up over the other.
 
Conclusions of my A/B tests: First, the 2G is a significants step up on the 1G. Second, I felt less need to use an amp with the 2G compared to the 1G. I can happily use my IEMs and HD598s with just the 2G and not feel like I’m “missing out” on anything. Am less willing to use the 1G un-amped as sound quality and staging suffer. I realise that my headphones are all pretty easy to drive, so your mileage may (and probably will) vary if you’re using more power-hungry cans.
 
General, everyday listening:
 
In his review of the Pono music player on the InnerFidelity site (which I read a few days into my time with the new X3), Tyll Herstsens wrote, “Blind testing back and forth between gear may give me the opportunity to hear the differences between products, but it's difficult because most gear is only subtly different. But when it comes to long-term listening, those subtle differences can mean the large difference between an irritated or ecstatic experience.”
 
I have not listened to the Pono, and this is not a review of the Pono. As mentioned at the beginning of the review, I am relatively new to the audiophile world, and so my experience of DAPs up to now has been limited to iDevices and the X3 1^st generation, sometimes on their own but usually in concert with one of my portable headphone amps (E12A, Picollo and Meier Porta Corda III). But that thought from the Pono review stuck with me with regards to my listening for this one.
 
     
 
I listened to the X3 2^nd generation DAP a LOT in my 10 days with the unit, and found myself lost in my music – in listening ecstasy – over and over. Myaskovsky Cello Sonatas, Dusty Springfield, Miles Davis, Roxy Music, Gaelle, Thad Jones, Daft Punk, Beethoven Piano Trios, Rush, Doris Monteiro, Jean Michel Jarre, Al Di Meola, Rickie Lee Jones, Brahms Symphonies, Rodriguez, Supertramp, Billie Holiday, Pink Floyd, New Order, Haydn String Quartets, Fleetwood Mac, Etta James, Zero 7… I could go on (and already have a bit). In all the myriad musical styles and artistic stylings, I heard things and noticed nuances and sounds in songs and albums that I hadn’t heard or noticed previously with my other equipment.
 

 
While I did perform some A/B tests, and did find subtle and not-so-subtle differences in those tests, for me the experience in my everyday listening is what set the X3 2^nd generation apart. Immersing myself in the listening experience, letting it take me away, and suddenly realizing the quality of a horn passage, a thumping bass, an exquisite electric guitar riff, a textured cello, a swirling synthesizer, a syncopated drum rhythm, a soaring vocal, a wailing sax solo, a strummed acoustic guitar, or an intimate piano run… album after album, song after song, I had moments of connection with my music that raised goose-bumps. I listened a lot, and loved every minute of it, and my ears were never fatigued – never irritated. In a nutshell, my general listening experience made me feel the X3 2^nd generation is a special music player.
 
Conclusions:
 
If it isn’t obvious already, I seriously loved having the opportunity to play with the X3 2^nd generation. I really was disappointed when I had to send “my” unit on to the next reviewer. I’m sure there is a lot of equipment out there that is “better” than the 2G (for the prices charged for some of the more popular equipment I see hailed in audio forums and on Hi-Fi websites, I certainly hope they’re better), but I can’t imagine you’ll find more bang for your buck right now. For someone just entering the head-fi audio game, I truly believe you can’t go wrong with the X3 2^nd generation, and for those who’re already in it waist-deep, the 2G makes a strong case for consideration as your next addition to the DAP collection.
 
Thanks to Fiio for the opportunity to participate in the tour, and I hope this review was useful. If you have a question or comment, please leave feedback in the comments below.

FiiO X3 Generation 2  Review sample. 
 
From the start FiiO has given value for the money you spend. The new X3 Generation 2 continues the history of the value given for what you spend. Starting with the X3 and now the X3 G2, improvements have been made that add to the positive side of the equation on what you get. 
 
One the the first things the X3 G2 impressed me with, before we get to the sound, is the update user interface, UI. For me the X3 never jelled. I had to do too much thinking about what button did what, it wasn’t intuitive, to me. The new X3 washes that away and brings this DAP in with a new UI that is intuitive and functional. There is almost no learning curve, which bespeaks a well thought out concept on what the user goes through to get to what they want, music. The wheel and button placement is easy to follow and now is intuitive. 
 
The all aluminum body also has a great feel to it and should hold up to the unfortunate abuses that our DAPs occasionally go through, like the fall from a place on the desk or pocket and will be more unscathed and yes I do drop things or pull them off the desk from time to time. Forgetting that your headphones won’t reach 20 feet isn’t always helpful. 
 
The new X3 charges via the USB, which makes it easy to keep it ready to go as there are so many sources of usb charging now. There is a headphone output jack on top and on the opposite side to the right, is the combination line out and coax output. As a complete package the X3 G 2 pretty much as everything you need to use as a portable player, a source using the coax or a source feeding an external amp. 
 
For me a simple straightforward easy to use UI and enjoyable sound are pretty much on the same level. If I have to fumble around figuring out how to get to the music or switch to new music, even if the sound is excellent, the whole interaction is decreased. So with that in mind I am glad that the new X3 is easy to use and has a sound to match. How is the sound? 
 
I use the ESW10 Japan headphones quite a bit. They are a portable, though I don’t wear them when out and about but do take them with me on trips in a nice semisolid carrying case. They are on the ear phones that I am so familiar with, I can tell how music sounds or will sound on my much more expensive phones. To this end I used them most of the time with the X3 G2. For music type, I listen to most everything, favoring well recorded no matter the genre. I don’t enjoy mono much, never have and if it is hard panned right and left stereo with no depth, again, I don’t use the album much. 
 
Sound:
 
Even I often skip ahead after a short bit of reading of a review, wanting to know how something sounds, later, possibly, going back to the other details if I am further interested in the item, whatever it happens to be. 
 
The X3 G2 is a step up from the sound of the sound of the X3. It is more open, dynamic, more detailed, transparent and less warm. So how is that? I don’t enjoy a too warm sound as it covers the music in a thick blanket and I miss the contrasts and musical inspiration that I seek. The X3G2 isn’t cold sounding and slants to the warm but not enough to suck the life out of the music. 
 
On some favorite tracks that I listen to, Neil Young’s live acoustical album from 92, Dreamin’ Man Live 92, there is plenty of space around the sound, that live sound that is important to capture. There is good hall reverb retrieval to connect you with the event. The voice of Mr. Young, is caught with his slight strain unconventional sound is Neil Young’s voice. I enjoy his voice and if you can appreciate it, it has to be done right. I once had Fang of HiFiman listen to a cut I enjoy and he didn’t care for it. He thought Neil sound nasally and he does, a little but it is part of his charm. But if this is glossed over and the bite of his harmonica playing isn’t there, then neither is the essence of his music. 
 
Highs on the X3 G2 are thankfully free of grain, they are smooth and extended. The bass could have more definition but we are not talking about a 1200 or 2400 dollar DAP and for the approximately 200 dollars, the new X3 does a great job of conveying the music to your ears and the bass while not the most defined is not overblown, which can detract from the music. I had no problem driving most all my headphones from the Foster TH900, HiFiman HE-560 and various IEM’s. 
 
Summary:
 
So what do you get with the X3 Generation 2? You get a well laid out machine. It is versatile, easy to use with a great UI, a solid body and some accessories to take care of your needs for charging from a 5 volt source, external amp or digital transfer to another dac and you get a silicon slip on case to protect your conveyor of musical enjoyment! 
 
Looks like to me, for a small package, if you want to have fun and enjoy your music the X3 Generation 2 is waiting for you. 
 
 
Support for: 
Native DSD 64 and 128
AIFF
APE
FLAC 
ALAC
WMA
WAV
MP3 and 2
 
Full specifications can be found here: http://www.fiio.net/en/products/39/parameters

DISCLAIMER

 
I was provided the new X3 as a review sample as part of the U.S. tour. There is no financial incentive from Fiio in writing this review.  I am in no way affiliated with Fiio, and this is my honest opinion of the new X3.  I would like to thank Joe & James from Fiio for giving me the opportunity to test drive the new X3.
 
 
ABOUT ME

 
I'm a 43 year old father who loves music. From electronic (Autechre, Boards of Canada) to modern/minimalist composition (John Cage, Philip Glass) to alternative rock (Flaming Lips, Radiohead) to jazz (John Coltrane and Miles Davis) to metal (Behemoth, King Diamond) to classic rock (Eagles, Rush), I listen to a wide variety of genres and artists. 
 
My portable music journey started with the venerable Sony Cassette Walkman and then progressed to portable CD players, minidisc recorders (still have my Sharp DR7), and finally on to DAPs like the Rio Karma, iRiver IHP-120 (just picked a lightly-used IHP-140 for nostalgia's sake), iPod 5.5, iPhones, and the newer crop of DAPs from Fiio and iBasso. 
 
I typically listen with IEMs from my ever-growing collection from budget to mid-fi. Less often, I grab a pair of full-size cans. Recently, I've been listening a lot with Brainwavz S0 & S5, Heir 4Ai-s, Philips Fidelio L1, and Vsonic VSD5. You can always check my profile for a reasonably up to date gear list. 
 
As with a lot of people my age, I've got some hearing issues. I've got mild tinnitus and suffer from allergies, which often affect hearing in my right ear. I'll admit it, I'm not blessed with a pair of golden ears. That said, I've been listening to portable gear for a long time and feel confident in assessing audio gear - just wanted to be transparent up front. 
 

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INTRO

 
Previous reviews have great unboxing pics, specs, and a full accessories list. I'm not going to duplicate that effort and will instead focus on a more experiential take on the new X3. I will say that if you've purchased a Fiio product recently, the unboxing experience will be very familiar and you get all the accessories you need to get up and running and protect your new DAP. And it's really nice that the X3 comes with screen and rear protection films pre-applied. Thumbs-up, Fiio! Do you (and your new X3's) a favor though, and buy a Dignis leather case for it when they become available - you will not be disappointed!
 
Glamor Shot #1: New X3 + Philips Fidelio L1

 

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BUILD & ERGONOMICS

 
My first reaction after opening the box was, "Whoa, this thing is tiny!"  When I lifted it from the box, I was reassured by the weight. It may be smaller than I expected, but it felt really solid - especially compared to the old X3 which felt light for its size. I was also struck by how attractive it is with careful attention to detail and gunmetal finish. 
 
As I turned it on and started to play with the controls, I was again impressed by how well-centered all the buttons were in the frame. This is something that can get overlooked and was definitely appreciated at this price point. Not only were all the buttons nicely centered, they felt good when pressing them with just the right amount of resistance. 
 
Some much-appreciated differences coming from my X5 were the four control buttons, which are now round and well-marked. The four control buttons on the X5 are okay, but their shape makes them easier to accidentally press. Having smaller targets means fewer navigational faux-pax. 
 
The power button was moved from on top on the X5 to the left side just above the volume controls, and it's now recessed. Again, this means fewer accidental presses. The volume buttons are more distinct and separated than those on the X5, and the X3 volume up button has a small raised dot to distinguish it from the nearby recessed power and volume down buttons. Nice touches!
 
In contrast to my old X3 and my X5, the new X3 has a shared Line / Coaxial Out jack. I think this is a quite reasonable compromise to conserve space, but I found one UI quirk that I hope is fixed before final release. The default is Coax Out, which is an odd choice given how many people use Line Out vs. Coax Out. I could easily see this leading to confusion when people hook their new X3 up to their favorite amp and get no signal. Fiio, please fix this and make Line Out the default.
 
I saved my two favorites for last: the screen and scroll wheel. The screen is flush with the X3's body and there's no wasted screen space. In contrast, the X5's screen is raised up a few mm above the X5's body and has a bezel on the left and right sides which gives a letterboxed look to the screen. 
 
And finally the scroll wheel, what a love or hate thing it is. I'm in the love it club and found the X3's scroll wheel to be a nice improvement over the X5's. The X3's scroll wheel is tighter and has quite noticeable clicks when rotated. In contrast, the X5's scroll wheel feels much looser and has no clicks as you rotate the scroll wheel. The one nit I have to pick with the X3's scroll wheel is that with noticeable clicks, I felt an expectation that each click would represent one line or movement through the X3's UI. That didn't happen, and I could see it leading to frustration for some people.
 
To sum up: The size, weight, and placement of controls makes one-handed use easy. It also makes the new X3 very pocket-friendly. Attention to detail like "right-sized" buttons with just the right amount of resistance means fewer accidental button presses. Small details like the recessed power button and raised dot on the volume up button allow Fiio to place important buttons in close proximity while allowing for blind operation.
 
The lineup: X5, old X3, DX90, new X3
 

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USER INTERFACE
 
User Interface (UI) can make or break a positive experience with any piece of technology. Luckily, Fiio is learning fast! I was an early adopter, buying the original X3 on pre-order. To be completely honest it was a bit of a wild ride at first. But to their credit Fiio not only listened to customer feedback, they actively solicited customer feedback. I'm proud to say that I and many fellow headfiers actively participated in that process, identifying bugs, suggesting new features, and beta-testing firmware, making the original X3 a much better DAP. 
 
Next came the X5, and it had a much more mature UI than the original X3 had - even with all the community-driven improvements the X3's UI now had. The X5's UI was very stable but was lacking some some features more mature DAPs have, especially when it came to reading tags and building a database for tag-based browsing. The new X3 shares those limitations, so you need to go in eyes wide open if you're used to using a smartphone or a DAP with more mature firmware. Many commonly-used tags just aren't recognized by Fiio's DAPs - like Album Artist, CD#, and Composer. And when browsing by Genre, you just get a big list of songs for each Genre in numerical order. IMHO, it would be handier to have Genre browsing act like a filter for Genre-specific Artist -> Album browsing. 
 
To overcome these limitation many Fiio DAP users have become fans of File Browsing, which doesn't rely on the database. For instance, the 128GB mSD card I used while testing the new X3 was organized at the top level with folders named A-C, D-F, G-I, etc. Inside those, I maintained the following folder naming scheme: Artist / Year  Album / Songs. To easily accomplish this, I set up Media Rage or MP3Tag to rename my folders to follow that folder structure, pulling the relevant information from tags. This structure lets me quickly navigate through my artists and once I'm at the album level, albums are all arranged I chronological order. Nice!
 
Other than weak support for tags, the new X3's UI is very easy to navigate and is easy on the eyes. Of course, there is a flourishing community of themers for Fiio DAPs on headfi. So if you're not completely satisfied with the stock UI, once the new X3 is released you should be able to easily find a number of alternate themes to choose from - from professional to fun!
 
Just like the X5's, the new X3's features a very functional10-band equalizer with several fully-customizable presets. If you learn how to mod the firmware, you can even rename them. I did this with my X5, renaming the presets after my most commonly-used HP / IEM. This allows me to tailor each preset for my HP / IEM and then easily switch between them without remembering whether my VSD5 was the Metal or Rock preset - handy!
 
On a related note, the new X3's "deep sleep" mode works a treat! Fiio DAPs are known for good battery life to begin with, so I wasn't expecting to charge the new X3 much during my time with it. No surprise there that I only had to charge it once during my time and then topped it off before mailing it out to the next reviewer. I was pleasantly surprised with how fast the new X3 was at resuming playback when picking it up after a period of non-use. Instead of waiting for the DAP to boot before I could listen to music, I experienced near instantaneous resumption of music playback - brilliant!
 
To sum up: The new X3 is no iPod and does lack support for some commonly-used tags that will frustrate some users - especially classical music fans. For most users though, this is easily overcome with some basic file / folder organization and File Browsing. And despite not being as feature rich as a more mature DAP like an iPod, the new X3 is very easy to use and most users will find little to complain about especially with lightning-fast response with the new "deep sleep" feature. 
 
Glamor Shot #2: New X3 + Heir 4.Ai-s

 

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SOUND

 
Since Gold Master firmware was not released yet, I tested the new X3 with firmware 0.22b.  During my time with the new X3 very, I used the following HP / IEM: Brainwavz S0 & S5, Heir 4.Ai-s, Philips Fidelio L1, TPEOS Altone200, and Vsonic VSD5. I didn't encounter any sound-matching issues with any of these, and could easily recommend any of them for use with the new X3. For critical listening, I set the new X3 to a comfortable listening level with a pair of Denon AH-D1100 I had close at hand, played a 1kHz test time, and volume matched the new X3 with my X5 and DX90 using the Decibel 10th iPhone app. I don't have a setup to volume match IEM yet, so I extrapolated the results with my AH-D1100 to the other HP / IEM I used. Here are the volume matching results I got:
 
X3 @ 30 (Low Gain) = 77dB ->1x multiplier
X5 @ 26 (Low Gain) = 77dB -> 0.87x multiplier
DX90 @ 160 (Low Gain) = 77dB -> 5.3x multiplier
 
Other reviewers much better at describing what they're hearing have weighed-in on the new X3's sound - and have done a very good job at it! In light of that, I'm going to make my sound section the lightest part of my review. I listened to the X3 as my sole DAP for my time with it, only comparing it with my DX90 and X5 at the end of the week before my time was up. 
 
I typically switch off between my DX90 and X5 from week to week and was just coming off a week with the X5 when the new X3 arrived for testing. As soon as the new X3 arrived, I immediately started using it as my sole DAP and sound-wise found nothing to be lacking. It drove all of my HP / IEM to my satisfaction. I typically used High Gain for HP and Low Gain for IEM, as I would with my X5.
 
When comparing more closely with my DX90 and X5 later in the week, I found the new X3 was indeed very close sound-wise to my X5. Close enough in fact, that I could see the new X3 being a very good substitute for the X5 if one doesn't need the extra mSD slot. I'm glad Fiio has adopted this quite neutral sound signature as their new house sound. 
 
Comparing the new X3 with my DX90 (Lurker0 2.1.8 FW), the DX90 has a more v-shaped sound signature with slightly enhanced bass, more energetic treble, slightly better separation and layering and a slightly larger soundstage. There are plenty of advocates and detractors in both Fiio and iBasso's camps. I find both Fiio's more neutral sound signature and iBasso's more v-shaped sound signature complement each other, and I enjoy having both around to switch back and forth between. 
 
To sum up: I found the new X3's and my X5 to have very similar sound signatures. So similar in fact, I could easily live with the new X3 in lieu of my X5 sound-wise. As compared to my D90, both the new X3 and my X5 have a more neutral, more linear sound that purists will appreciate. Those looking for a more v-shaped sound should look elsewhere. 
 
Glamour Shot #3: New X3 + TPEOS Altone200
 

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SUMMARY

 
The new X3 is a very attractive, well-made DAP with excellent attention to detail that solves a lot of the little niggles I had with previous Fiio DAPs. Fit and finish are definitely upgraded when compared with the original X3 and X5. It's size and design make it it very ergonomic for one-handed use. It's small size and strong-enough amp stage make it pocket-friendly with no need for an amp to get a great portable listening experience. The neutral sound signature really allows the unique sound signature of your HP / IEM to shine through without worrying about synergy. 
 
The only detractors for me are minimal and not enough to prevent a strong recommendation. First - the UI isn't as polished as more mature DAPs like the iPod. However, this can be easily mitigated with basic file management and tagging practices. Second - when compared with the X5, the new X3's has only one mSD slot as compared to the X5's two mSD slots. For me, this is the difference between carrying around my music library in AAC (new X3) vs. FLAC (X5). Third - when compared with the old X3, the new X3 is missing the very nice hardware bass and treble controls. This is a feature that really works a treat, and I'd like to see incorporated into more of Fiio's DAPs in the future. 
 
In short, if you're looking for a new DAP with a neutral sound signature that's easy to use, well-built, stylish and very ergonomic and pocket-friendly and don't mind living with one mSD slot, the new X3 from Fiio should be at the top of your list. Fiio's learning how to make very competitive DAPs very quickly, and I can't wait to test out the X5 2nd Generation when it's released!
 
Thanks again to Fiio for giving the headfi community an early taste of this brilliant new DAP!
 
Glamor Shot #4: New X3 + Vsonic VSD5

 

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P.S., If you do end up buying a new X3, I'd suggest investing in a nice leather case from Dignis.  I have one for both my X5 and DX90 and love them.  Here's an example of a nice leather X1 case from rakuten.com:
 

So, first off, I must say that for 200 dollars (or 170, in my case, for a unit that was previously a store-display model), you CANNOT go wrong with this superb little DAP.  The soundstage and dynamics, detail separation, and overall frequency-response are FAR AND AWAY better than what you hear in something like an iPod, Zune, or Smartphone.  That being said, does it sound as good as a 1400 dollar hi-Res Walkman, or a 1000 dollar Astell and Kern or HiFiMan DAP?  No, of course it doesn't, but you're only paying 200 bucks for it so just sit back and enjoy it, guys   The bass is very accurate, in fact, the WHOLE frequency-range seems incredibly accurate on this through my V-Moda Crossfade M-80 headphones, but I will say thaty the treble seems just a LITTLE bit bright, to the point where when it's on a high enough volume that the mid-range doesn't QUITE hurt my ears yet, some of the higher treble-notes sound a bit painful.  But it's probably not good to listen to it that loudly for extended periods of time anyway, so it's not much of an issue.  The sound also is a TAD bit more analytical as opposed to warm or fun, but many people may like this. . .personally, I'd prefer a bit more warmth, but heck, this is still WAY more fun-sounding than my laptop's on-board sound, or the sound from my old iPod for that matter!  Then there's the fact that unlike the X1, you can use this as a USB DAC for your computer. . .and oh BOY does it improve vastly upon the onboard sound in my laptop!  As a result, you're basically paying for two devices in one, both a DAP AND a DAC, which only serves to make this an even BETTER value for your money.  It is also quite good at driving headphones at al different impedance levels, even without an amp, although I'd imagine that if you're using something with an impedance int he range of a few-hundred ohms, you probably want to pair this with an amp.  The UI is quite customizable, and it has a very nice built-in equalizer.  The build-quality is excellent, all solid-aluminum, and it comes with some nice accessories: a silicone carrying-case, and a line-out with gold-plated connectors.  Also some stickers that personally I think are kind of silly, haha.
 
All that being said, the X3 2nd Gen certainly has its issues, although nothing that I find to truly be a nuisance.  The UI seems to "glitch out" sometimes, and in very random ways that I can't even quite describe, leaving me no choice but to force a shutdown and restart the device.  I use this for at least six hours a day, and the glitches seem to occur maybe every third day or so. . .not too bad, really, it hardly bothers me at all.  Right now the device is only on v1.1 of its firmware. . .I'm sure that the glitches will be fixed in future updates from Fiio!   UPDATE (September 10, 2015): Sure enough, since installing the newest released stable firmware, v1.3, for the X3ii, I have not experienced a single glitch, either in DAP mode or USB DAC mode.  Also, it seems like things lag a little bit less when browsing through files and skipping songs.  This is still a very early version of the device's firmware, but already seems to have fixed the vast majority of stability issues.  Very nice job, Fiio programmers!
 
I would recommend this device for ANYONE looking to buy a good DAP for anywhere under 300 dollars to vastly improve upon the sound they get from their smartphone, laptop, or other such devices.

 
 
 
-~::The Review::~-
 
I’m not much of an audiophile. I’m too new. It was only this last January I bought my first pair of decent headphones. Since acquiring the Klipsch R6m it’s been a weird romp of financial irresponsibility. 
 
After upgrading to the Klipsch X7i a month later, I realized I needed a better DAC than the one inside my Galaxy S4. I could hear the limitations of that poor thing. So I did some research and settled on the Dragonfly 1.2 by Audioquest.
 

 

 
 
In a lot of ways, this is a review of the Dragonfly nearly as much as it is of the X3ii. For the last four months, my mobile Digital Audio Player has been my Samsung Galaxy S4 connected to the Dragonfly via USB On-The-Go. That’s the comparison I must make. As I said, I’m new to this. My store of equipment has the limitations of a light purse and short time.
 
Be warned, ere you read on! I’m not a professional reviewer. In fact, I’m a ramped amateur. There will be no readings, or measurements, and if the review happens upon some semblance of structure, know in your heart it was incidental.
 
For the first two days with the X3ii I paired it solely with my newest IEM, the Audio Technica IM03. I’d owned these phones for a few weeks now, and was intimately familiar with the sound they produced with the Dragonfly. 25 days of near-perfect auditory rapture. So you can perhaps understand my irritation when I plugged them into the FiiO and was aggressively underwhelmed. It sounded cheap and small compared to the Dragonfly. There was plenty of power, but no comfort to any of the notes.
 
I thought, “Holy Hell! This can’t be right.” All the reviews spoke very highly of it. Maybe they weren’t comparing it to DACs, but only other DAPs. Maybe the DAP market is cluttered with poor audio. I wouldn’t know. Like I said, the Galaxy>Dragonfly combo is the closest thing I have to a DAP.
 

 
 
Two days, I fiddled with it at work. My job has me sitting at a bench all day testing controller boards for air-conditioning units. I’m an electronics bench tech. So I can listen to my music all day long… and I do. When I say I fiddled with it for two days, I mean two whole work days.
 
At the end of the second day, I came home quite depressed over the affair. Not only because my new toy was poop from a butt, no, this suggested the whole DAP market was a cesspool of undesirable products. If, of course, you inferred the state of the market by the praise the X3ii received. Which I did, and then howled at the moon with a belly full of despair… and tacos.
 
It was in this dejection I pulled out my Klipsch X7i. I had always intended to try out the FiiO on all my headphones. You need data to make a cake. Or you need cake ingredients. But I was all out of eggs and flower.
 
Sad and miserable, I put the eartips in and pressed Play. HOT DAMN! This thing sounded kind of good. No, it sounded excellent. The music was smoother, no longer dark, and the details were coming out to play. It even sounded more open. It was a transformation the likes of which I couldn’t believe.
 
You’d think I was happy. And I was… sort of. The burr in my panties was that this meant the awesome-sauce ATH-IM03 was the problem. Everyone knows the ATH-IM series are tricky to pair. The 03s sounded messy in my desktop DAC/Amp as well. So my best and favorite earphones would not pair with my one and only DAP. This notion did not uplift my rotting spirit.
 
As I tried to sleep that night I was struck by a moment of clarity. I jolted out of bed, turned on my computer monitor and submitted a return on Amazon for the IM03. Three days before the 30-day return policy expired. Then, to do this properly, I placed an order for the IM04, and splurged on 1-day shipping.
 
That was Wednesday night. Thursday and Friday were spent with the fabulous paring of X3ii and X7i. Friday evening I came home to the ATH-IM04.
 

 
 
If the Klipsch phones brought the X3ii out of the muck, the IM04 unlocked its full potential. Four drivers need a little extra juice, so I run on High Gain, and there is nothing about the sound that does not impress. The bass is enormous and ever-present. There is sparkle in the guitar plucks and vocals. Plenty of micro detail pops up all over. You can hear the slight echo of vocals as the soundwaves bounce around the recording room. The X3ii renders a wonderfully smooth, vibrant sound.
 
What was once a chasm between the FiiO and the Audioquest is now a mere hop and a skip. Nonetheless, the gap is there. Audioquest’s USB DAC gives a more refined sound. The overall signature is much alike between the two, yet the Dragonfly has an extended soundstage and depth. They create more or less equal levels of detail. In the sub frequencies there are more natural tones and texturing with the Dragonfly.
 
When the sound is narrower and more in-your face, as it is with the X3ii, it comes off a little artificial. The Dragonfly spaces everything out quite well, and it sounds more realistic because of it. This impression might owe some tribute to how familiar I am with the Dragonfly’s sound. However, over the last week I’ve listen to the X3ii almost exclusively, save a little A/B testing.
 
I volume-matched the two units by ear, and even gave the X3ii a notch or two extra, out of wanton benevolence. My appraisal is as accurate as I care to make it. I do get ever so bored with tedium.
 
On the grounds of amperage, the X3ii wrestles down the Dragonfly and sprains the DAC’s ankle. I’ve had an ankle sprain many times; I use the metaphor with all the weight one can muster in times such as these. It gave my Sennheiser HD600 enough power to sound more than decent at high volume. In order to really rock-out I need to set the volume very near the X3ii’s limits, but it works. Of course, it’s fairly far removed from the might and beauty of a proper headphone amp. Still… not bad. The Dragonfly really loses grace when trying to power the HD600. When I start raising the gain in USB Audio Player Pro, the sound deteriorates.
 
I solemnly deem the FiiO X3K a brilliant device. If I had paid much more for it, I would have expected more. As it stands, the DAP does not carry with it great financial burden. Instead, it mocks its price tag and delivers a lovely, clear, and rich auditory experience.
 
There. That happened. You want to know about menus and buttons? Do you lust after information about that sultry scroll wheel? Read those other reviews. They're better.
 
-~::Pinky_Powers::~-

I've only used Sansa devices prior to getting this player a few weeks ago - Fuzes and Clip+'s - and I wondered if the Fiio X3 2nd Gen would provide any perceptible audio improvement. Within a minute or two of swapping the SD card over the answer became obvious: yes, there's an improvement and it's actually a pretty big one. I'm no word-smith audiophile and it's pretty much all been said but I can say this: transparency, detail, separation, sound-stage, blackness of background - they are all simply better with the X3 2nd Gen than with the Sansas. I've kept a Clip+ for ultimate portability (for jogging  with, basically) but I've sold the Fuzes as the X3 2nd Gen made them instantly redundant. I was very fond of my Fuzes and I would never have guessed that the audio upgrade would have been so noticeable or so devastating with regard to my affection for the little Sandisk devices.
 
In terms of the usability: it's great. My player came loaded with the newest 1.44Beta firmware and it makes using the wheel simply an efficient and straightforward way to navigate files and volume with no niggles or glitches at all. It may not have been so in the past and I can see that a scroll wheel with such noticeable clicks that wasn't synchronised with items on a list would be a recipe for instant crazy irritation - but with this firmware though, as far as I can see, the matter is just closed. It's fixed, it works and for me at least, it's a non-issue.
 
Actually getting my hands on the X3 2nd Gen made me realise how misleading reading lots of reviews prior to actually using a device can be. It's possible to pick up on several points that individual reviewers have found to be sticking points and accumulate them all into a ball of confusion about the player. So I had a pile of preconceptions and worries about the X3 2nd Gen that turned out to uniformly baseless: I'd need to upgrade the firmware with it straight away (no); the wheel was glitchy in use (absolutely not); the wheel cannot be used to adjust volume (it totally can); you can only skip tracks with the side buttons when the player is locked (nope, you can use them to adjust volume too: long press versus short press); the screen is unreadable outdoors (no, it's fine - and my eyesight is pretty poor. Just boost the brightness and take the small battery life loss in your stride); having no internal storage is a pain (no, it doesn't matter at all if you can put huge micro SD cards in, and you can); the drivers for the DAC are almost impossible to install in Windows (really no, they're not. I just followed the guide and bingo: a great USB DAC as well as a great DAP).
 
So it's a great player and a clear upgrade - for me at least - over the Sansa's that I've owned before. Does it mean that my lust for portable aural pleasure has been sated for good? I suspect not. Those DX90's look kinda interesting to me and the fun of putting Rockbox on them appeals too (Rockbox for the X3 2nd Gen? Well, yes please!) but the price jump to the Ibasso is a pretty big one. So for the time being, the X3 2nd Gen suits me just fine.

FOREWARD: as a relatively new user to head-fi, i dont expect many of you to take my review seriously. however, although i'm new to POSTING on this site, i've been an audiophile and a lurker of this site for quite some time. i've got several years of hifi under my belt, a low post count, and an electronics degree to work with, so thats my resume to you guys. without any further ado: the FiiO X3ii!!!!
 
UNBOXING: the item arrived beautifully packaged. the presentation was beautiful, and upon first opening, you could tell that effort was put into fitting everything in this box, while still making it look beautiful. multi-lingual directions, the DAP, a micro-usb cord (of good quality), extra screen protector, stickers (kind of cheesy USA flag, carbon fiber, and fake wood grain). as soon as i registered the product and made a user name on FiiO's site, everything was promptly thrown away (i'm not gonna use any of that crap). also, it comes with a sleek, sexy silicone case which i prefer to leave on. its very thin, but seems very secure and allows for headphones to feel securely inserted into the jack.
 
FEATURES: this DAP is quite feature packed for its price, hardware-wise. the build quality is phenomenal. as mentioned in other reviews, its a one-piece metal body, rather than last-gen. it feels like it could take a drop on the floor and be ok functionally, although the screen is suspect to durability. features include a headphone out, line-out/coax out, recessed power button (useful for when it's in your pocket), a decent scroll wheel, basic control layout, integrated DAC features (plug and play for linux/posix systems i.e. ubuntu, fedora, debian, mac), and a USB charging/data transfer port. software EQ is decent, software hi/low gain allows you to drive different impedence headphones accordingly without introducing noise. battery life is quite long on this device, as of this submission, ive been listening for a solid 4 hours straight and i've still got a full 4 bars, VERY IMPRESSIVE FiiO!
 
USER INTERFACE: this is easily the worst part of this DAP. i really really dont want to give this DAP a bad mark on anything, but as a newbie to portable hi-fi, this is unacceptable. i'll let many, many things slide. but the screen/UI is abysmal. i realize that there is only so many pixels you can fit on a small TFT screen like that, but its just not well made. i dont wish to start any flame wars, and no, i couldnt make one better, but thats not whats on trial here. i realize that FiiO devs post here, and aware of the current situation, but for people like myself who are just jumping into this market, its hard to "accept" this in 2015. understandably, to keep the price point low, sacrifices had to be made, and FiiO did do the right thing by cutting corners on the screen rather than the circuitry. the UI is simply not very intuitive. the main screen is split into 5 categories: Now Playing, Category, Browse Files, Play Settings, and System Settings. within 2 minutes of using this device, i could see glaring issues. on such a small screen, why wouldnt you minimize the amount of onscreen objects to simplify the UI? "now playing" shouldn't even exist, it should be accessible by long holding the "back button". "play settings" should be IN "system settings", why have multiple settings categories? just put all configuration settings in ONE place, dont over-complicate things for the end-user. "browse files" and "category" should be unified into one as they both are ways to play your audio. these steps would simplify the UI, while at the same time, getting the user to their music quicker. 
 
SOUND QUALITY: the best part of this product (besides how small and light it is). i'm usually a fan of mids/highs, but i'll make acceptions for this DAP. its not that mids/highs aren't clear, they just seem less prominent in the mix. however, its not a bad thing, the soundstage allows the instruments to sound evenly spread across the mix (having nicely mastered FLACs doesnt hurt either). i'm running this DAP straight into a pair of SHURE SE215's and for low impedance IEMs, this is a dream to listen to. in the end, thats exactly what this hobby is about, and in that regard, FiiO really knocked it out of the park with this one. i'll admit that i never turned on EQ because i like a flat response. i prefer to listen to the recordings as they were mastered and not try to compensate, its a personal thing. whatever rocks your world, keep doing it
 
OVERALL: put it this way, if you were on the fence about buying this, do it. if you're just getting your feet wet in portable hifi audio but dont want to spend too much money, buy this. if you dont need a fancy pants flagship device, buy it. if you want to be pleasantly surprised with what a portable can provide/do, buy it. the only reasons i can think of NOT buying it, would be if you are a) broke b) already have something you are happy with c) don't like excellent sound quality. for what you pay, i feel like the X3ii will be the model that other DAPs aspire to become. its got the right features-to-pricepoint ratio. sure, there are some areas that need improvement, but its not the audio department, FiiO has clearly listened to its' customers, and its paying dividends. FiiO: if you are listening, your UI needs some drastic improvements, its the only reason i cant give you 5 stars. its THAT bad. simplify it, it HAS to feel natural, and at this point there's too much clutter. its literally the only glaring issue i have.
 
tl;dr sound quality rules, n00bs should buy this and be done with it, everything is 0mG except UI, but that can/will be improved.
 
ALBUMS LISTENED TO: (all flacs)
 
thin lizzy - jailbreak
genesis - the lamb lies down on broadway 24-bit SACD rip
queen - innuendo
porcupine tree - the incident
camel - rajaz
camera obscura - desire lines
10cc - how dare you!
king crimson - the power to believe
marillion - misplaced childhood
tears for fears - the seeds of love
the smashing pumpkins - adore

How much more can we possibly hear? At some point audio, and personal audio by default, becomes a continual series of efforts to throw oneself over the walls of the physical world. We try desperately to defy our bodies and minds, and so chase file resolution, processing effects, driver technologies endlessly. We are Alice in Wonderland, chasing the White Rabbit, eating this cookie, that mushroom and experiencing all manner of auditory hallucinations.
 
I am drawing dangerously close to a drug analogy, so I’ll wrap this up quickly….Alice took whatever was available to try and enhance her experiences or surmount problems. Different combinations of actions, consumables and words took her to different places.
 
Plenty of people will give you a detailed review covering packaging, build, specs, etc, etc...allow me to give you the "quick and dirty"... How is the X3K like munching mushrooms and talking to a disappearing cat? The X3K is a rather potent *ahem* mushroom, that is guaranteed to help you throw yourself, willingly, back into trying to improve your next audio experience just a little bit more than the last one.
 
I spent a week with the tour unit for North American tour participants. I received no compensation from FiiO for doing this, and am in no way affiliated with them or employed by them. I did not get to keep the unit either. This is what I found: the X3K has a richer, more “classic hi-fi” sound than the X5. This means it sounds fantastic, as long as you pair it with the right headphones. I found that with neutral/clinical iems (like the TPeos Altone 200) and earbuds, it was very pleasing. A little of that hi-fi love (ie: warmth and bass) from the X3K and they shone.
 
Surprisingly, warmer iems and buds do very well too. I thought the Zero Audio Carbo Tenore would be muddy and dense. Not so. It felt delicate and easy, non-fatiguing, with great soundstage and detail. They came across as more engaging and musical than via the X5, where they sound muddier.
 
I wanted to challenge it a little as well, so I tried my personally modded T50rp too. These have been tuned to have a “just-South-of-neutral” signature. The X3K easily powers them on high gain. The sound was clear and appealing, just as it was with the Carbo Tenore. The X3K signature shone through again.
 
With my collection of earbuds, I found the Blox M2C and the Yuin PK3 were less easy-going than the Zero Audio Tenore IEMs. They were driven nicely, and the detail, soundstage and bass were all there. The synergy was not as markedly good as the Zero Audio though.
 
I was recently sent a pair of the VE Zen and Asura to review. These are a particularly challenging earbud. They sound gorgeous, but they like a powerful source. Both buds have a similar signature, which I am guessing is the VE house sound…detailed, engaging, not fatiguing…most enjoyable. The Zen has an impedance of 320 ohms, the Asura has one of 120 ohms. The X3K amp section handled both with aplomb.
 
Overall, after a long and steady diet of X5 and E12 only, I found the X3K a refreshing change. Despite the better implementation of the scroll-wheel in the X3K, and the nice flush screen though, I will not be selling my X5 yet (I am guessing the X7 is going to be the one to make me do that when it comes out). I have no doubt that plenty will find the X3Ks signature more enjoyable than the X5 and the X1. It’s more refined than the X1 and less “serious” than the X5. It’s also pretty powerful as a stand-alone unit, driving difficult headphones with admirable effort. It’s definitely worth trying once….you might even find yourself coming back again….and that’s not a bad thing….everything in moderation….right?
 
All source files were FLAC 16/44, with the exception of a few FLAC 24/192. I did not test DSD playback at all.