[Dobrescu George]

You know what, I actually meant the M9. I was thinking I posted in the M9 thread. Thanks for the catch.

Ah, no worries!

I have DX120, #1s and will soon have M9, to be able to offer some advice!

What are you looking for in a DAP?

I also have M3K in my hands right now, and honestly, it is becoming a favorite mini-DAP as well, but compared to something rteally smol like M0 or AP80, I can't stick M3k in my car as easily, quite yet. I wonder if there's any clip case anywhere (?)

 

[FiiO]

Margins very much depend on economies of scale, so if you can manage to sell many more than you anticipated, you will likely have much better margins. Component costs are also likely to decline over time, epecially with greater volumes. At the planning stages it is a guessing game about how many will sell. I'm just wondering how much more expensive it is to design similar models but with an additional feature, such as a model with built in FM radio(HD radio greatly preferred), or a clip on model, and perhaps a clip on model wth built in radio.

"I do not know the other people but I am shocked that they do not have internal storage, at least about 16-32 GB, this forces you to buy a micro SD."

I prefer not having built in storage, and never used the built in storage on my original M3. A second card slot would be a nice addition though. It would be especially helpful for those who listen to lectures or podcasts on their player, as they could use one card just for lectures/podcasts, and swap that out for a new one with new material on it, or add and delete podcasts or lectures without putting extra wear on the card ith the music. The card with the podcasts/lectures is likely to be a smaller capacity lower cost card. Adding and deleting podcasts/lectures is typically a very frequent event.

Dear friend,

Having an internal storage may be more convenient for user to use when first received it. However, adding the internal storage would also raise the cost for users. Considering most users have SD cards, we did not add the internal storage for the M3K.

Best regards

 

[JK1]

Missed the BT... Not a showstopper for me - I am still interested in M3K if you add audiobook and podcast support!
So, @FiiO - is there audiobook and podcast support in M3K? If not - is it planned as a FW update anytime soon?

Define what you mean by podcast support. For me it means variable speed playback with pitch correction, so you can play the podcasts at faster than normal speed or slower than normal speed and still have it sound natural. It also means that if the podcasts are in an album, arranged in order using the track number, the player should be able to remember which podcast/audiobook file it is in the middle of playing, and its place within the file, even if you stop listening to the podcasts, listen to some music, and turn off the player.

For audiobooks, some are protected. It seems none of the Fiio players are able to handle protected files.

 

[JK1]

Arrived this morning but i wont be able to play around with it until i get back from work

Paid 75 euros for it which is a bit over 87 dollars, but Spain has a 21% sales tax so actual price is 60 EUR or 70 USD

A 21% sales tax would be good if you have that instead of an income tax. If you have that in addition to an income tax though, then it is very bad.
I like the idea of taxing spending rather than income, as when when spending is taxed, basic necessities such as food and clothing items under $100
are typically excluded.

 

[Zachik]

Define what you mean by podcast support. For me it means variable speed playback with pitch correction, so you can play the podcasts at faster than normal speed or slower than normal speed and still have it sound natural. It also means that if the podcasts are in an album, arranged in order using the track number, the player should be able to remember which podcast/audiobook file it is in the middle of playing, and its place within the file, even if you stop listening to the podcasts, listen to some music, and turn off the player.

For audiobooks, some are protected. It seems none of the Fiio players are able to handle protected files.

In addition - skip 15 or 30 seconds button. useful for skipping boring sections or ads...
For audiobooks - I only use MP3 so pretty much just the ability to save last position even if you listen to music and then go back to your audiobook. So, pretty much a subset of podcast support.

 

[Dobrescu George]

I received M3K, so a few early impressioons

- This is amazingly small. Not Shanling M0 small, but really small for a DAP
- You'd imagine that I'd have something to complain about the browsing method, but I met with a friend today, and we played with M3K a little, and it is one of the most intuitive DAPs we ever played with. Actually, this is even better than X5 was
- The build quality is excellent
- The display is large enough for you to browse larger playlists and see whole song names (this was an issue with Shanling M0 and HIDIZS AP80, two other really smol devices)
- Battery life seems fine so far
- Sound is quite good, above other mini-shape devices, at least from my early impressions
- You would never believe that it can sound so powerful, given its smol size
- Comes with a silicone case, nice addition
- I wasn't enthusiastic about it still having microUSB connectors, but FiiO included a nice cable with it, so I don't mind it too much, given this is a smol-sized DAP

 

[JK1]

The M3K looks like a nice improvement over the original M3, and I will probably buy one. I am still hoping for a clip on player by Fiio with FM radio(HD radio greatly preferrred), and at least 24 hours of battery life, priced at under $100.

 

[Montree]

I received M3K, so a few early impressioons

I agree with your assessment. I'm enjoying my MK3 a lot and I am using it in preference to small DAPs from Hidizs and Shanling. Navigation is fast and easy and the battery life is a huge benefit for me.

 

[Kesava]

Just got my M3K. It's great for the most part.

A couple of things are pretty painful:

1. Since the album artwork takes like 4 seconds to update, it makes having songs on shuffle pretty difficult to identify since only the song title is shown. It would be amazing to have an option to hide the slow album artwork and instead show the song + album name + artist name for easy shuffling without the lag.

2. Navigation is already a little awkward, but long pressing the volume up button to change songs is weird. I don't know what would make for a better setup, but I skip through songs a lot, often on the go when I'm not looking at the screen. Perhaps if the delay was shorter it would make it more bearable.

 

[FiiO]

Just got my M3K. It's great for the most part.

A couple of things are pretty painful:

1. Since the album artwork takes like 4 seconds to update, it makes having songs on shuffle pretty difficult to identify since only the song title is shown. It would be amazing to have an option to hide the slow album artwork and instead show the song + album name + artist name for easy shuffling without the lag.

2. Navigation is already a little awkward, but long pressing the volume up button to change songs is weird. I don't know what would make for a better setup, but I skip through songs a lot, often on the go when I'm not looking at the screen. Perhaps if the delay was shorter it would make it more bearable.

Dear friend,

We will report to the engineers for checking the issue and suggestion you mentioned first.
As for long press the volume button, if the screen is unlocked, long pressing the volume button will change the volume.
But when the screen is locked, long pressing the volume button will change the track instead.

Best regards

 

[Kesava]

Dear friend,

We will report to the engineers for checking the issue and suggestion you mentioned first.
As for long press the volume button, if the screen is unlocked, long pressing the volume button will change the volume.
But when the screen is locked, long pressing the volume button will change the track instead.

Best regards

Thank you.

Also it would be great to have a setting which allows us to make the player pause when headphones are removed. Otherwise it's easy to stop using the player without realising it wasn't paused properly and it will keep playing until the battery runs flat.

 

[qsimeon]

I'd like to share my experience with my FiiO X3 Mark III which was recently bought brand new in october 2018


I bought this to replace my old and until now faithfull Apple iPod classic 160GB

1. Sturdy appearance, in a good way, it isn’t cheap and certainly doesn’t look cheap.
   
   
2. Booting the device: You’re welcomed by a message in bad English saying: “Born for music and happy”, “Born for music and happiness” or simply “Born for music” would be better. Something minor, but first impressions and all that...
   
   
3. The screen isn’t as powerful as the screen in the iPod classic…
   
   
4. The graphic interface is very basic.
   
   
5. There is no Cover Flow, which is annoying, I’ve really grown used to it, and scrolling through folder names isn’t the same.
   
   
6. Sound quality is excellent, and can not be compared to that of Apple’s iPod because it’s in a completely different league. Listening to the same tracks over an open backed headphone is a real treat.
   
   
7. When listening to a live album, short but noticeable dropouts are to be heard in between the songs, which are long enough to disturb you enjoying a live concert recording.
   
   
8. The overall user interface feels sluggish, I bought a micro SD card 256GB from Samsung Evo plus which easily supports speeds around 70MB/s up to 90MB/s so that can’t be that the reading of the card would be the problem of the sluggish behaviour.
   
   
9. Updating the song list takes forever, +/- 30 minutes for a library of 9000 songs. Even if just a few songs were added, the entire list has to be updated, this could easily be checked by checking the version of the songs, or logging the changed files...
   
   
10. When waking the device when it finished playing music, by short pressing the on/off switch, and selecting a song often a message is shown 0kHz/0bit, format is not supported, at first I thought there was a problem with the file, but after rebooting the device, the same file can be played without any problem. Rebooting the device, takes up several minutes, and this bug is a game breaker.
    
    
11. Another bug is that when rebooting your device, the device remembers which subcategory was used, Album, Artist, Songs and will start playing the first song in this entire list not the album you listened to last, but the first song of the first Alfabetical album of all albums, this is a pity for the first song in the list because you end up getting bored of hearing the same song, even when it’s a good song. As it remembers the active subcategory, it should remember the plast played song too.
    
    
12. In the beginning I was hoping that these bugs could be solved by software updates, there haven’t been any updates for quite a while, so I’ started checking user forums and have to conclude that FiiO’s costumer’s support can’t to be counted on. Be warned!
    

Conclusion: Would I recommend a FiiO device? If you’re looking for a high quality DAC, you’re at the right address, but you do care for user interface being efficient and stable, with trustworthy customer support you might better skip FiiO. To be honest It's that sluggish that I hesitate to show my player to otheers, especially if you want to compare it with an ipod or anything.

Message to FiiO: If you don’t like what I write do something about!

 

[steelgtr]

I'd like to share my experience with my FiiO X3 Mark III which was recently bought brand new in october 2018


I bought this to replace my old and until now faithfull Apple iPod classic 160GB

1. Sturdy appearance, in a good way, it isn’t cheap and certainly doesn’t look cheap.
   
   
2. Booting the device: You’re welcomed by a message in bad English saying: “Born for music and happy”, “Born for music and happiness” or simply “Born for music” would be better. Something minor, but first impressions and all that...
   
   
3. The screen isn’t as powerful as the screen in the iPod classic…
   
   
4. The graphic interface is very basic.
   
   
5. There is no Cover Flow, which is annoying, I’ve really grown used to it, and scrolling through folder names isn’t the same.
   
   
6. Sound quality is excellent, and can not be compared to that of Apple’s iPod because it’s in a completely different league. Listening to the same tracks over an open backed headphone is a real treat.
   
   
7. When listening to a live album, short but noticeable dropouts are to be heard in between the songs, which are long enough to disturb you enjoying a live concert recording.
   
   
8. The overall user interface feels sluggish, I bought a micro SD card 256GB from Samsung Evo plus which easily supports speeds around 70MB/s up to 90MB/s so that can’t be that the reading of the card would be the problem of the sluggish behaviour.
   
   
9. Updating the song list takes forever, +/- 30 minutes for a library of 9000 songs. Even if just a few songs were added, the entire list has to be updated, this could easily be checked by checking the version of the songs, or logging the changed files...
   
   
10. When waking the device when it finished playing music, by short pressing the on/off switch, and selecting a song often a message is shown 0kHz/0bit, format is not supported, at first I thought there was a problem with the file, but after rebooting the device, the same file can be played without any problem. Rebooting the device, takes up several minutes, and this bug is a game breaker.
    
    
11. Another bug is that when rebooting your device, the device remembers which subcategory was used, Album, Artist, Songs and will start playing the first song in this entire list not the album you listened to last, but the first song of the first Alfabetical album of all albums, this is a pity for the first song in the list because you end up getting bored of hearing the same song, even when it’s a good song. As it remembers the active subcategory, it should remember the plast played song too.
    
    
12. In the beginning I was hoping that these bugs could be solved by software updates, there haven’t been any updates for quite a while, so I’ started checking user forums and have to conclude that FiiO’s costumer’s support can’t to be counted on. Be warned!

Conclusion: Would I recommend a FiiO device? If you’re looking for a high quality DAC, you’re at the right address, but you do care for user interface being efficient and stable, with trustworthy customer support you might better skip FiiO. To be honest It's that sluggish that I hesitate to show my player to otheers, especially if you want to compare it with an ipod or anything.

Message to FiiO: If you don’t like what I write do something about!

I have a Gen5.5 Ipod which I bought for the Wolfson DAC's. Is that the same as your "classic? Lossless files sound great but not as good as the CD they were ripped from.

bob

 

[Montree]

The overall user interface feels sluggish

Can’t say I’ve found my MK3 to be any slower to use than my Shanling or Hidizs players. I actually find it easier and faster to navigate than any of my other DAPs. The only delay I find is how long it takes for the Album Art to load although that doesn’t delay the actual file from starting to play.

I’ve got nowhere near 9,000 files though and I only navigate via folders so the Database update is turned off and I never have to bother with it.

 

[FiiO]

Thank you.

Also it would be great to have a setting which allows us to make the player pause when headphones are removed. Otherwise it's easy to stop using the player without realising it wasn't paused properly and it will keep playing until the battery runs flat.

Dear friend,

The current playing music will pause after removing the headphone. Is this the function you needed?

Best regards