xDuoo NANO D3

The speed of the ui is slow, when ever you go to switch tracks, or simply going thru the menu it lags, there been times where I press the back button to go back up but because I pressed it more then once I’d end up going back to the main menu. Not to mention if you don’t press the buttons hard enough the device wont pick up the press. The display is nice and bright, easy to read.

Some times when the display is asleep trying to change the track will cause the same one to play again, til you awake the display and try it again. I had it happen often but not every time when display goes to sleep.

While the D3 nano does come with 8GB of built in storage, it supports up to 256GB in micro SD. The read speed of the built in storage is fast, but for some reason external micro-SD storage is slow, even if the micro-SD in question is actually fast in other devices. The nano will take it’s time scanning for tracks.


I wasn’t able to try the Line out port on my unit as the port did not work so it seem to be some QC issues, unless I’m just missing something. When I used the D3 headphone out I didn’t have any issues and it paired very well it with my Sound magic P30s, CCA CRA, ATH-CLR100ISBK and the ER2Se. The HP port supplies 250mW @ 32ohms, not enough for my sundara when I tried, I had to set the volume settings high and even then I didn’t sound right to my ears.

The gain setting is set to 3+ with no way to lower it, While I don’t use EQ my self, it did give one the option to change their sound profile with the EQ presets as well had an option to create your own eq settings.


Battery life I found to be very good, better then the 2-3ish time of my old Ipod nano 7th. With the D3 having 20 hours of play back time, but the time it takes to charge is around 3 hours using a 5V 1A charger. But the positive is you only need to charge it once a week which is good.


In my hands The D3 nano feels durability and I been carrying around in my pocket without it being a problem to the D3. No issues or problem, The included screen protectors is a nice addition for this. The buttons could be better due to the issues I mention.

Every song that I tried with the D3 nano sounded very good to my ears, Better then my iPod nano 7th gen. Which was one of the main reasons aside from improved battery life ipod and removable micro SD which the ipod doesn’t have.

But sadly the issues the D3 nano has hurts it’s, when I bought mine it came with 1.6v firmware, even so I thought it would at-least help with the issues, I saw other users mention, sadly it did not. If the issues was some how fixed and the D3 UI was improved, then this little device would be worth recommending.

Today we're checking out the XDuoo Nano D3.

After some great experiences with the XDuoo X3, I was looking forward to the Nano D3. Small in size with better battery life and a more modern UI. What could go wrong? Read on...


Disclaimer:

Thanks to Penon Audio for arranging and providing a sample of the Nano D3 for review. The thoughts within this review are my own and do not represent Penon, XDuoo, or any other entity. No financial incentive was provided.

At the time of this review the Nano D3 could be purchased for 79.00 USD: https://penonaudio.com/xduoo-nano-d3.html

What I'm looking for:

When it comes to portable amps and DAPS I take a pretty casual approach. If you're looking for an in-depth look at this thing with measurement graphs going over THD, sinewaves, etc. you'll want to look elsewhere. None of that matters to me, nor do the compenents inside that make the device tick. All I really care about is ease of use, how well it can drive my headphones and earphones, and if they still sound good to me plugged into it. Great battery life is a bonus. This review will be mainly my subjective experiences with the Nano D3 and how it has served me over the last few months.

Specifications:

From XDuoo's site. I'm not typing all this out.


**Note that the battery is actually 950mAh, not 900 as shown in the image, and on the packaging for that matter. I opened mine up to check after finding out the Auglamour GR-1's battery was smaller than advertised.**

Packaging and Accessories:

The front of the Nano D3's packaging contains an image of the device and some features set on top of a blurred out image of a woman wearing headphones. On the rear is an extensive list of features and specifications along with some contact information for XDuoo.

Inside is a dense black cardboard box emblazoned with the XDuoo branding. Lifting the lid sees the Nano D3 securely set within a foam insert. Underneath is a which cardboard box containing the accessories. In all you get:

• Nano D3
• Screen protector x2
• Micro USB cable
• Warranty card
• Instruction manual

Overall a barren kit, but this is a budget player so I'm not expecting XDuoo to bundle in a ton of stuff. That they even bothered including some screen protectors is greatly appreciated.


Build:

The Nano D3's shell and buttons are constructed out of CNC machined aluminum. Fit and finish is quite good with all the ports lining up properly, and the back plate fitting with only a slight gap to one side, not large enough to squeeze a finger nail in. It feels durable enough, being metal and all, but squeezing the sizes and pushing on the back you can see and feel the flex. I'm sure it'll hold up fine to abuse, but it lacks the same sense of quality that you get from other players like the XDuoo X3, F.Audio S1, and even the plastic HiFiMan MegaMini. Labeling seems to be lazer etched into the aluminum which is great because you won't have to worry about it rubbing off over time. The screen is vibrant and clear, and quite bright. Really bright actually. You can't adjust it. Enjoy blinding yourself and everyone around you should you choose to use it at night.

Battery:

At 20 hours the Nano D3's 950 mAh battery life is pretty good, though 3 hours of charging is a little long when the F.Audio S1 charge in 2-2.5 hours despite a 1,300 mAh battery. As long as you're not a power user, you should be good to charge the Nano D3 once a week as the standby time also seems pretty decent. It is at the very least miles better than what you from a device like the Walnut V2S which has an abysmally short standby.


Using the Nano D3:

The firmware out of the box is hilariously laggy, taking about a second to register any button press. Upgrading the v1.3, while it worked, shortened that delay significantly, though it was still slightly laggy and plenty unresponsive. You need to really hammer on the buttons to get them to register a press, even though you're getting audible feedback via a satisfying “snick”.

The menu layouts, minus the annoying grid-based home layout that you can only cycle through left to right, are logical and clear. Some features like screen brightness and gapless playback are missing, but in general you've got everything you'll want and need in a budget DAP.

How does it sound. Meh? I found it to be a fairly lean sounding player with lots of roll off in the bass. Treble is nicely extended and quite detailed, though that's partly due to the thin note presentation. Mids are again nice and clear but are a touch bright and tend to exaggerate sibilance. Not a device you want to be pairing with bright earphones or headphones, like the Echobox Finder X1 or HiFiMan HE-350. Sound stage is good though. The lean presentation allows for lots of air between instruments and effects. Pair it with an earphone that already had good staging and you're in for a treat.

It also has plenty of driving power, able to push somewhat demanding earphones like the Havi B3 Pro I and II, and the KEF M200 to listening volumes without much hassle. For headphones like the thinksound On2 and Campfire Audio Cascade, I found an amp was beneficial adding a little more umph to the presentation and improving bass control.

Bugs and Quirks:

Messing around with the EQ, I found that if you maxed it out in either direction, it would reset to 0 despite showing at +6. Not a huge concern because I found the effect it had on the overall sound was surprisingly minimal. The various presets which I find terrible on any device that has them, no exception here, are going to be more useful I suspect.

Changing between songs resulted in a massive and unsettling pop. That seems to have gone away over time and instead you're just left with an annoying background hiss. Lovely.

After updating to the most recent firmware found on Xduoo's site, v1.3, I ran into a pretty nasty bug. Turn on the player and you'll see the screen light up, but no picture. If you plug in a pair of headphones you'll hear music playing and you can navigate the menus (hopefully you've got them memorized...), but you can't see jack. So yeah, it's been relegated to essentially a featureless, screenless player that cycles through whatever is on the SD card in shuffle.

I'm sure there are more but the device was pretty much useless following the update to v1.3 so my notes and testing ended there.

Final Thoughts:

Nope. Not a fan. I like the looks and the build (mostly) and the mid-range and up is quality stuff, as it the soundstage, but the bass roll off really saps all power from the presentation. The laggy UI and unresponsive buttons make interacting with the Nano D3 a exercise in patience, of which I have little when it comes to electronics. The screen looks great but the lack of adjustable brightness is a pretty silly oversight. Lastly, don't update to firmware v1.3 unless you want to risk watching your snazzy player become virtually unusable. POn the bright side, at least we got some pretty pictures out of it.

Thanks for stopping by.

- B9Scrambler

Overview

The Nano D3, one of the last audio players from xDuoo. With a RKNanoD chip from Rockchip (and thus the model name), it goes back to the more compact design for best portable use, close to what the first X2 model was like. Keeping the a good quality screen like the X10 model, a much easier and simple interface, and while it skips some cool features it compensates with the best battery performance among all the xDuoo players products up to date. Solid build quality too with good sound quality for something priced just around the $80.

Nano D3 page


Specifications



Price (msrp): $80. Or $75 (and sometimes lower) from Gearbest

Like all the xDuoo products, the Nano D3 arrives in a simple cardboard box; soft outer box and more solid inner box, and thanks to the small player design the box is also smaller and lighter (and easier to overlook by customs).

Inside you’ll find the Nano player itself and a small white box beneath with a manual, extra screen protector and USB-to-MicroUSB cable.


Design and Interface

While the Nano D3 takes the name of the chip inside, it also is ‘nano’ with its compact and most portable design. It goes back to the X2 small design, but just a bit larger and pays off with more comfortable interface, better color screen and overall build quality. The whole body is made of thick CNC aluminum material, very well finished and smooth to the touch without any sharp ends. The buttons both on the front panel and right side are well assembled with no rattling sound, and they of the same CNC material too.

The buttons layout and all the connection ports are well distributed. On the upper side there are the MicroSD slot and the MicroUSB port.


The Nano D3 only supports one micro card, unlike the X3 and X10 which had 2 slots, probably trying to save in space; not a major disadvantage, as it is the first player from the company that has an inner storage of 8GB.

On the lower side, there are the two output options, headphone jack and LineOut, both for normal or mic’ 3.5mm plugs, and do accept TRRS balanced plugs (despite not having a real balanced output).


Note on the LineOut port: while it’s meant to be used for extra amplification, it doesn’t function as with the X3 or X10 that simply set the volume to the max 100 step. Instead, the D3 keeps the same current volume and needs to be adjusted manually, but drops a large amount of dB in the volume level. It takes around half the volume down that using fairly easy to drive sets like the Monk Plus/Lite (64/40ohms) or some less sensitive IEMs the volume can reach the 100 range and still sound safe enough. However, the volume does not go down back to the ‘Phone’ level, so you’d take care when plugging the headphones back to that port as it gets really loud.

On the right side are 3 common buttons, power button that acts for screen on/off too and volume, and also the ‘reset’ slot.


On the front panel are 4 more buttons for playback and navigation. In the middle there’s the play/pause/enter larger button, a back button on the left that also works to return to the main screen when held for a few seconds and back to the playing screen, and the up/down for both navigation through menus and music playback.


The screen occupies around 60~70% of the front panel and it is actually of fairly good quality for a small 2” display. Very similar to the X10, and for half or less of the price it has good resolution, depth, color and brightness. The brightness level is fixed, but has a wide angle view.

Battery is rated up to 20hrs of continuous use. I cannot confirm the exact time, but it certainly reaches at least the 15hrs, which is a record time for any xDuoo and good enough for many small players. Charging time does take close to the stated 3hrs.

I won’t be covering the whole navigation and system options on the Nano D3, mainly because the included manual is very well written and despite the language barrier it explains in details each of the menus and different options. On the main screen there 6 tiles for the common music, folder and different music and system settings.

I will still say the D3 player is the easiest and most logic to use of all the xDuoo devices and also among the so random Chinese players. The X10 was a high step over the X3, and I find this one even much comfortable to use. It drops the unnecessary wheel of the X10 and while is missing the hold option that even the X3 had, it is possible to lock the whole player when screen off. On the settings options it is possible to set up the screen off usage, locking all, partial or none of the buttons. The screen returns to the same screen it was left and not to the playback.

The buttons are not easily pressed, and do require just a tiny bit strength to respond. Not a real deal.

However, not everything is positive on the Nano D3. The system response is rather slow both on the buttons and when navigating from the different menus. The player sometimes also skips the very first seconds on each track; an issue that was present on the X3 as well, and does not want to be fixed by the xDuoo team for whatever reason. Moreover, the CUE support possible but is not as smooth as with the X3 (see the manual). The system is fairly stable, but did suffer from some crashes when updating the files list. And, needless to say that the firmware update is not well taken care of by the xDuoo team side.


Sound impressions

Best way to describe the sound out of the Nano D3 should be linear, a bit flat, and mostly colorless. For the small size it is quite a powerful device for the more portable earphones/headphones sets and able to drive even 150ohm earbuds like the VE or TY Hi-Z options to a very good degree. From warm or bass focused up to more treble and detailed earphone sets, the player doesn’t seem to emphasize any certain part, but it doesn’t try to improve a certain area either.

Extension on both ends is limited. There’s not much depth on the low bass, and with a rather neutral response there isn’t much rumble either. Speed is average, but fairly good for the price. The lack of warmth means there’s a clean transition from the upper bass to the midrange, though with the limited dynamics range there isn’t much separation from sub to mid bass. For instance, it pairs well with the Falcon-C, if having a very slight extra emphasis on the mid-bass, but it gets too congested with the much bassier Kaleido hybrid; not because it adds quantity but because not being able to separate among much the low frequencies.

The mids are pretty neutral and linear. Not as transparent as with the X3 but they sound a bit more forward, musical and fuller than the thin/leaner X3. The X10 was more colored and warmer, while the D3 is ‘safer’ and moderated in tonality. The midrange gets a rather smooth response with a little bit sparkle on the upper mids where female singers can sound a bit more sibilant from brighter earphones. For example with the Tin Audio T2, Falcon-C or GR07 the mids have good presence and body, but a bit raw texture and lacking emotion.

The instrument separation is decent without much air or large stage dimensions. Resolution is decent too, and good for its sub $100 tag. There is some extra sparkle on the highs and they do not sound as synthetic as could be expected; in fact, the D3 sounds much natural and well controlled than other similar or lower prices players, like the Clip Sport, IQQ C16, Nintaus X10, and a couple of Benjie options., and the overall control is quite good actually.

The player doesn’t have a best synergy with very sensitive IEMs as it may have too much power even at lower volumes and lose in control and accuracy, and there’s also some noise and hiss. Adding some impedance can help here.

Overall, the xDuoo Nano D3 is a very nice and comfortable player for best portable use. Despite some complains on the slow system response and certain bugs or missing features, it has a quite good sound quality and worth a try at the $80 or possible lower price.