[Brooko]

X1ii currently Amazon at $100
Cayin N3 at $150
X3ii at $138

I know what I'd be buying - and it wouldn't be the X1ii or N3.

 

[bruce1967]

I know what I'd be buying - and it wouldn't be the X1ii or N3.

Can you give me a hint what that might be? I'm in the market for a new DAP.

 

[sponsor]

@FiiO So the X1 2nd Gen, which was advertised as offering gapless, will never offer gapless.

If you are sincerely apologetic for this false advertising, you can offer a full refund for the product or replace it with a player that does support gapless. Nothing else is acceptable.

@FiiO this is exactly what you should do in this case. Advertising a feature that couldn't be implemented is a really bad business practice.
Those who can return the player, charge a minimal amount for usage, and return their money, or release (don't know when) an updated player, X1III, that supports the advertised gapless as intended to work, and offer a replacement to the current X1II users, for a minimal price.
Or, atleast give us a proper update in the meantime, my player hangs randomly every couple of weeks, with me having to hard reset the player everytime.
Where I live, i paid $117 for X1II, so it's already at an inflated price.

 

[fourrobert13]

Well I'm pretty sure the SoC can handle it - so don't give up yet fellas.

With aac256 (currently) the gap is micro small - I barely notice it. With FLAC there is no gap. Not sure about MP3. And I don't honestly think they do this deliberately. I do think that because they're so eager to please the hundreds of requests they get for features etc, they sometimes end up breaking things.

I will agree that the X1ii is a let down speed wise though (too laggy). But remember the price of this thing. I mean HifiMan just dropped their MegaMini down recently. it doesn't have the build quality, sound is on par, lacks most features, and they charge $150 for it. So lets keep a bit of perspective.

@Jayden16 - which competitors in same price range?

So we should condone the lie? Give them a pass for misleading consumers because they may or not be able to fix it even though they've now said they can't. With that, they removed the feature from their website so that tells me it's not going to happen. You're more forgiving than me. $99 or $900, if it can't do something then you shouldn't say it can. It's false advertising which FiiO has a history of doing with other devices so it not just this one. Misleading consumers is a good way to go out of business real fast.

 

[Brooko]

@FiiO this is exactly what you should do in this case. Advertising a feature that couldn't be implemented is a really bad business practice.
Those who can return the player, charge a minimal amount for usage, and return their money, or release (don't know when) an updated player, X1III, that supports the advertised gapless as intended to work, and offer a replacement to the current X1II users, for a minimal price.
Or, atleast give us a proper update in the meantime, my player hangs randomly every couple of weeks, with me having to hard reset the player everytime.
Where I live, i paid $117 for X1II, so it's already at an inflated price.

1. You can't blame FiiO for the price being above $100 "where you live". They set the wholesale price, but can't control retail.
2. I see a lot of people talking about "it can't do gapless" as though its the worst thing in the world. Lets be completely honest here - it does gapless with FLAC, it does 95% gapless with aac256 (all that is left is a micro-gap). It is fixable if its SoC related - the X1 original is completely gapless. And c'mon guys - how many gapless albums do you have. I have maybe 10-12 out of 450, so are we making a mountain out of a molehill? I agree they should fix it (assuming they can) - but all this talk of refunds etc seems a bit over the top.

 

[fourrobert13]

They've pulled gapless from every DAP on their website, not just this...

 

[Brooko]

So we should condone the lie? Give them a pass for misleading consumers because they may or not be able to fix it even though they've now said they can't. With that, they removed the feature from their website so that tells me it's not going to happen. You're more forgiving than me. $99 or $900, if it can't do something then you shouldn't say it can. It's false advertising which FiiO has a history of doing with other devices so it not just this one. Misleading consumers is a good way to go out of business real fast.

Read it the way you want to. Honestly - if I was FiiO, I'd be almost starting to think about pulling out of Head-Fi for the hassles they get from a small minority of users.

I see a mistake - based on their testing with other formats. As I said, FLAC works, aac256 works almost perfectly. What history does FiiO have with misleading consumers?

I like to give companies the benefit of the doubt and give them a chance to fix things. And I see people ragging them for all the features they think it should have when they seem ready to accept more expensive products and make allowances for a lot less features. But thats just me. Resume with the lynch mob - it seems to be a pretty popular past time lately.

They've pulled gapless from every DAP on their website, not just this...

I don't see why - gapless works perfectly on X1 original X3ii and X5ii. They have minor issues with their android based DAPs - so do others. But with Android you can use Neutron. And if Neutron can do it, FiiO will work it out.

 

[Brooko]

Can you give me a hint what that might be? I'm in the market for a new DAP.

Sorry Bruce - missed you earlier. The X3ii at $138 on Amazon is an incredible bargain. Doesn't have bluetooth and might look a little less modern, but the fw is mature and it is really feature packed. Has more power than other models mentioned and works well as a DAC. Also has working replay-gain, and the UI is pretty speedy. it would be my choice.

 

[bruce1967]

Sorry Bruce - missed you earlier. The X3ii at $138 on Amazon is an incredible bargain. Doesn't have bluetooth and might look a little less modern, but the fw is mature and it is really feature packed. Has more power than other models mentioned and works well as a DAC. Also has working replay-gain, and the UI is pretty speedy. it would be my choice.

It is an excellent deal and I already have one. I think I might be sticking with it for awhile rather than buying something else new.

 

[Brooko]

Its still the one I return to often when reviewing - up until last year, was my favourite of the FiiO offerings - and that included X5ii and X7.

 

[bruce1967]

Its still the one I return to often when reviewing - up until last year, was my favourite of the FiiO offerings - and that included X5ii and X7.

Yes it certainly is a nice little DAP and I don't use bluetooth plus I really like the dedicated headphone out and line out. Maybe I'll pick up another one with the price being so low..

 

[Jayden16]

Yes it certainly is a nice little DAP and I don't use bluetooth plus I really like the dedicated headphone out and line out. Maybe I'll pick up another one with the price being so low..

I like the idea of the headphone out and line out being on separate jacks, as the software solution in the X1II has let me down and blasted my ears on multiple occasions. I've never tried the X3II, but I may pick one up seeing that the firmware is mature, can be used as a USB DAC on the go with my laptop and is priced VERY well right now. The only thing stopping me is whether or not I feel like giving more money to FiiO after being burnt on the X1II.

 

[bruce1967]

I like the idea of the headphone out and line out being on separate jacks, as the software solution in the X1II has let me down and blasted my ears on multiple occasions. I've never tried the X3II, but I may pick one up seeing that the firmware is mature, can be used as a USB DAC on the go with my laptop and is priced VERY well right now. The only thing stopping me is whether or not I feel like giving more money to FiiO after being burnt on the X1II.

I don't think you'd be disappointed with the X3II. It does what it's supposed to do very well.

 

[fourrobert13]

Read it the way you want to. Honestly - if I was FiiO, I'd be almost starting to think about pulling out of Head-Fi for the hassles they get from a small minority of users.

I see a mistake - based on their testing with other formats. As I said, FLAC works, aac256 works almost perfectly. What history does FiiO have with misleading consumers?

I like to give companies the benefit of the doubt and give them a chance to fix things. And I see people ragging them for all the features they think it should have when they seem ready to accept more expensive products and make allowances for a lot less features. But thats just me. Resume with the lynch mob - it seems to be a pretty popular past time lately.

It's obvious where you stand and I disagree. As someone who had to buy this, it's a disappointment. As far as FiiO's history of misleading, look at everything they've released since the M3. Besides, the M3, they all advertised gapless (which now appears none of them do it according to their website). They advertised a rich set of themes for the M3 and that never happened, but I'll stop there. I may be in the minority and that's fine. It seems like you've really taken your time to review this DAP considering how long you've had it. I look forward to reading it to see how far it has come from your impressions early on in this thread.

 

[Brooko]

It's obvious where you stand and I disagree. As someone who had to buy this, it's a disappointment. As far as FiiO's history of misleading, look at everything they've released since the M3. Besides, the M3, they all advertised gapless (which now appears none of them do it according to their website). They advertised a rich set of themes for the M3 and that never happened, but I'll stop there. I may be in the minority and that's fine. It seems like you've really taken your time to review this DAP considering how long you've had it. I look forward to reading it to see how far it has come from your impressions early on in this thread.

The review is finished and will be posted by the weekend. Its far from my favourite DAP and because of the speed issues I wouldn't recommend it. Give them credit though - no issues sonically. I do think they took the wrong direction with both X1ii and X3iii. A DAP can sound great, but at the end of the day if it's a pain to use, people won't rate it. That's where X1ii's issues really lie IMO.

Oh and FiiO have released X5iii and X7ii since the M3 - both are phenomenal. If you are disappointed with either then I'd suggest moving to AK or Sony and their exorbitant price tags. You'll get close to perfection - but you'll pay through the nose.