[originalsnuffy]

  Hi all,
 
Been reading a lot of great info here at HF - thanks in advance!
 
Some background - I'm a long-time audio guy that's been through many floor-standing speakers and systems. Now I'm looking to get into portable hi-res audio with a nice DAP and a pair of headphones!
 
In particular, am interested in the X3 gen 2. My first question to the folks here - anybody use a portable HDD like the WD Passport Ultra or Seagate Backup Plus Slim to add storage to the Fiio?
 
I know the Seagate and the WD are both formatted for NTFS, and I read in the FAQ (http://fiio.me/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=40042) that NTFS is supported. Hopefuly I won't need to re-format to exFAT!
 
Thanks again!
 
Joe

To my knowledge nobody has tested these units. With regard to OTG, the only success that I am aware of its with units formatted in FAT32.  There are also some limitations with regard to the chipsets used by disc or flash memory vendors.  I suspect that these two major companies designs their own chipsets and that compatibility is far from assured.  I would love to be wrong, as it would be great to have 2 TB of portable storage.  There are also power issues; the drives would likely need external power.

 

[jockwong]

 
To my knowledge nobody has tested these units. With regard to OTG, the only success that I am aware of its with units formatted in FAT32.  There are also some limitations with regard to the chipsets used by disc or flash memory vendors.  I suspect that these two major companies designs their own chipsets and that compatibility is far from assured.  I would love to be wrong, as it would be great to have 2 TB of portable storage.  There are also power issues; the drives would likely need external power.

Thanks for the reply!
 
For external power, I'm thinking of using a portable battery/charger and an OTG Y cable.
 
Now all that remains is whether the SG or WD chipsets work!
 
Joe

 

[fourrobert13]

I can confirm that this device works with my X3II.  Cards tested were a PNY micro SD card and a Wingate SD.  I used my Samsung otg cable.
 
http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-Information-Card-Reader-TS-RDF5K/dp/B009D79VH4/ref=sr_1_8?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1435604361&sr=1-8&keywords=transcend
 
ETA: cards were formatted fat32

 

[originalsnuffy]

  I can confirm that this device works with my X3II.  Cards tested were a PNY micro SD card and a Wingate SD.

 Can you provide more information on the Wingate SD card?  My search only turned up hotels.
 
What capacity was it?  The reason I ask is that my working theory which I hope is wrong is that older SD cards (those with limited capacity) can work but not modern SDXC cards with higher capacities.  Like I said, I would like to be wrong.  I am not referring to micro SDXC cards; those are currently limited to 128gb (unless you buy the super expensive new 200gb cards).  Whereas PNY SD cards (which did not work for me) with 256GB can be purchased for under $90.

 

[fourrobert13]

   Can you provide more information on the Wingate SD card?  My search only turned up hotels.
 
What capacity was it?  The reason I ask is that my working theory which I hope is wrong is that older SD cards (those with limited capacity) can work but not modern SDXC cards with higher capacities.  Like I said, I would like to be wrong.  I am not referring to micro SDXC cards; those are currently limited to 128gb (unless you buy the super expensive new 200gb cards).  Whereas PNY SD cards (which did not work for me) with 256GB can be purchased for under $90.

Sorry, I misspelled it, it's Wintec.  http://wintecind.com/features/FileMate/FlashMemoryCards/MicroSD.html.  It's a 32gig filemate or something like that I used to use it in an old. digital camera.  It worked great through my card reader as ell as the PNY and a Sandisk 64gig micro-SD .
 

 

[originalsnuffy]

Unfortunately this tends to support my theory that older cards work OK but not higher capacity cards.  Again, I would rather be wrong!

 

[fourrobert13]

  Unfortunately this tends to support my theory that older cards work OK but not higher capacity cards.  Again, I would rather be wrong!

Unfortunately I don't have any newer high capacity cards to test with my card reader since everything I have uses micro cards.

 

[Jamnperry]

I've used a 128gb PNY microSD card as well as Sandisk 64gb with a few adapters including run of the mill crap off ebay with no issues. Also the PNY 256gb usb thumb drive with no issues. I really don't think capacity is an issue at all.

 

[fourrobert13]

  I've used a 128gb PNY microSD card as well as Sandisk 64gb with a few adapters including run of the mill crap off ebay with no issues. Also the PNY 256gb usb thumb drive with no issues. I really don't think capacity is an issue at all.

We were talking about regular larger capacity SD cards.  The micro cards seem to work fine as well as thumb drives (fat32 format).  @originalsnuffy thinks the higher capacity SD cards will not work based on his experience .  I only had the above card to test with so I can't comment on his theory.

 

[Jamnperry]

My point being that media type in my experience has not made a difference. If it recognizes it I doubt capacity matters. There's nothing in the thread that I see that contradicts that and I'm not sure why you would suspect an SD card to not work when it's confirmed that one does. Even a portable HDD works though power may be an issue there.

 

[fourrobert13]

  My point being that media type in my experience has not made a difference. If it recognizes it I doubt capacity matters. There's nothing in the thread that I see that contradicts that and I'm not sure why you would suspect an SD card to not work when it's confirmed that one does. Even a portable HDD works though power may be an issue there.

I don't suspect anything.  I was repeating what originalsnuffy said.  I merely said I have no way to test his theory because I don't have any larger capacity SD cards.  However, I can confirm the newest meenova card reader doesn't work with my X3II.  Maybe @originalsnuffy can chime in and explain things better.

 

[originalsnuffy]

I don't suspect anything.  I was repeating what originalsnuffy said.  I merely said I have no way to test his theory because I don't have any larger capacity SD cards.  However, I can confirm the newest meenova card reader doesn't work with my X3II.  Maybe @originalsnuffy
 can chime in and explain things better.

With all due respect my general understanding is that there are two kinds of sd cards. Older ones went to 64gb and the newer sdxc cards go much higher. But it seems that the controllers changed as the new generation rolled out.

To be clear I did test a 256gb pny elite sdxc card with OTG and experienced failure. My older lower capacity cards did work.

I would really like to find out that there are high capacity sdxc cards that work. Would be a good thing. Also interested in larger capacity hard drives.

We do know that higher capacity sticks work and some micro PCI based hard drives work depending on the controllers used.

 

[fourrobert13]

With all due respect my general understanding is that there are two kinds of sd cards. Older ones went to 64gb and the newer sdxc cards go much higher. But it seems that the controllers changed as the new generation rolled out.

To be clear I did test a 256gb pny elite sdxc card with OTG and experienced failure. My older lower capacity cards did work.

I would really like to find out that there are high capacity sdxc cards that work. Would be a good thing. Also interested in larger capacity hard drives.

We do know that higher capacity sticks work and some micro PCI based hard drives work depending on the controllers used.

I wasn't questioning your theory, nor do I dispute it.  I was trying to explain it to the other poster who was, hence why I was tagging you so you could explain it to him better.  I have no experience with it therefore don't want to make the wrong comment. 

 

[originalsnuffy]

 
I wasn't questioning your theory, nor do I dispute it.  I was trying to explain it to the other poster who was, hence why I was tagging you so you could explain it to him better.  I have no experience with it therefore don't want to make the wrong comment. 

I would be super happy if we found more high capacity storage options for OTG and FIIO units.  That implies I would be super happy if my theories about SDXC prove to be about as wrong as wrong can be.
 
On the X5 Gen II thread we have some evidence of OTG now working with micro SDXC cards but I would be much more pleased if we found solutions that worked with capacities in excess of 128GB.

 

[azamigo]

Just wanted to report that the mydigitalSSD pocket vault 512GB works well with the X3 gen2.  Had the X3 format it to make sure it was compatible. 
 
After loading 80GB+ (mix of flac, sacd material) it found and played all tracks using standard file mode.  I continued to load it to about 200GB or so and now it won't find anything to play.  File count is approx. 8600.  Double checked that the SSD is fine on Windows 7 - can read/write any files and it doesn't have any issues. 
 
I'm unsure why file mode would have any limitations, but I'm going to back it down to under 128GB to see if that is it.  I'll also check the file count - it's either the size or the # of files that is at issue.  Perhaps there's a limit to even file browsing mode?