[Brooko]

OP updated - thanks Lachlan

 

[n05ey]

Hey all,

Been using the x3ii for the last couple of days. I gotta say that I am really enjoying it. It has a great balanced sound with a good stage which was my main crit of the x1. There is nothing really missing with it and I have been super happy listening with my titan's and q701's. I will be putting it up against the pervasion and my nwz-A15 in a write up in the next couple of days but suffice to say that we are spoiled with all of these

Happy times and happier listening

 

[H20Fidelity]

Hey all,

Been using the x3ii for the last couple of days. I gotta say that I am really enjoying it. It has a great balanced sound with a good stage which was my main crit of the x1. There is nothing really missing with it and I have been super happy listening with my titan's and q701's. I will be putting it up against the pervasion and my nwz-A15 in a write up in the next couple of days but suffice to say that we are spoiled with all of these

Happy times and happier listening

 
I'm interested in your opinion between Hum and X3II. (sound)
 
Any sneak preview thoughts to share?

 

[n05ey]

I'm interested in your opinion between Hum and X3II. (sound)

Any sneak preview thoughts to share?

My personal view is that the x3ii is a bit more balanced and a better stage, but the hum has a really nice centred-ness and a bit more warmth and oomph to the sound. To me the hum sounds great with acoustic and vocals as it adds a little more meat and creates that intimacy with the vocals, that starts to trip up a little when you get to ambient, electronic and rock/alt where I start to feel a little more congested than I prefer (really small differences but hey, that is what this hobby is about ). I think the x3ii is better as an allrounder as it portrays it pretty faithfully to my ears. It doesn't warm up the sound, it brings all the staging and has great power.

To me, taking a headphone analogy, the hum would be say an hd650 and the x3ii an hd600 if that makes any sense...

 

[H20Fidelity]

My personal view is that the x3ii is a bit more balanced and a better stage, but the hum has a really nice centred-ness and a bit more warmth and oomph to the sound. To me the hum sounds great with acoustic and vocals as it adds a little more meat and creates that intimacy with the vocals, that starts to trip up a little when you get to ambient, electronic and rock/alt where I start to feel a little more congested than I prefer (really small differences but hey, that is what this hobby is about

). I think the x3ii is better as an allrounder as it portrays it pretty faithfully to my ears. It doesn't warm up the sound, it brings all the staging and has great power.

To me, taking a headphone analogy, the hum would be say an hd650 and the x3ii an hd600 if that makes any sense...

 
 
I agree, if there's one thing Hum doesn't have its a very wide soundstage, I need to use IEM or headphone which can try and counter weight that issue.
 
X3II continues showing me really positive impressions from all owners/reviews. Can't wait to get my hands on it soon. 
 
Cheers for your thoughts mate!

 

[n05ey]

Hey guys, the x3ii is with svyr and I will be posting my review in the next little while. Apologies for the delay in the message here, it was posted at the beginning of last week

 

[svyr]

on its way to H20Fidelity now

Idk if this is review enough, might repost it later as one:


Thanks to Brooko for including me in the tour at the last minute and to Fiio for sending around the review units for us to try.

I tried the unit with firmware v1.1 that by the looks of it mostly fixes cosmetic issues (no mention of sound)
(a few more poor quality night pics in there )
What I did like:

I expected a dark sounding unit owing to old Fiio house sound. To me it sounded balanced with slightly elevated treble. Detail across the range was good, probably a bit better than Clip+ and on par with O2 amp.
I couldn't pick it apart from the O2 amp from my MD30 for full sized cans and it definitely sounded on par with O2 amp and better than MD30 for IEMs.
I don't have any low impedance + sensitive IEMs on hand to confirm, but I couldn't hear much background noise from my H300 (22 ohm 105 spl ) and I can with Clip+. Power wise it drove all of my cans and IEMs fine: GMP450 (300 ohm/100db, 82 hgain volume) and H300 (22 ohm/105dB spl, 65 ), and thinksound on1 (high gain, 55 volume, 50 ohm, spl unknown)
Good accessories pack (cables, screen protector case, skins(?))
Navigation with screen off and on was good. (the other reviewer here found some volume button bugs though - I haven't used those much)
I really liked the volume limit feature as well.

Relatively Mature firmware/UI, benefiting from the other DAPs in the family re features and quality.
I think the firmware is rather mature compared to many other audiophile DAPs I tried (many of those were frankly unusable). I was able to figure out how to get All media + shuffle within seconds and the addition of user selectable EQ (band heights not bands is nice). Album art displayed fine and none of my FLAC tracks skipped due to playback issues. Media library updated at good speed. It supported Russian tags.
I don't have my media tagged properly and rely on folders, so I missed searching a bit.

The click wheel does facilitate navigation

Soundstage + separation + instrument layering I thought were better than on the clip+ but not dramatically..Even less so vs note3.





What I didn't like
1) no search (only an issue if you use folders and don't have propper tagging in which case you have problems, but Rockbox on Clip+ lets you get by. From what I can tell the clip+ one searches file names and paths at least.).
2) chunky - 2x the thickness of my note3, 4-5 Clip+s, very heavy. (a couple of people also asked what I was doing with an old ipod in an ugly black rubber case )
3) lag freezing controls when encountering a song with album art (would prefer if i could skip it prior to it loading)
4) EQ does not have user selectable band Q, F. DB only on pre-selected bands making it hard to tune out HP faults.
5) EQ limited to 6DB +- max preventing you from attempting crazy bass boosts and the like (I think 10-12 is better and routinely use them on the clip+).
6) Despite turning on the inline remote feature in the settings it didn't work with H300 remote or On1 remote.
7) Screen visibility outside in the sun.
8) DAC didn't work at all also despite turning it on in the settings. The 24b/192 flashes on the screen and disappears, and I can see the following in device manager. Tried 2 win8.1 laptops (different brands), 2 cables, multiple reboots of both. Tried turning on the unit first, then plugging in, or turning it off, then plugging in

Spoiler

'USB Composite Device' This device cannot start. (Code 10) STATUS_DEVICE_DATA_ERROR
Device USB\VID_2972&PID_0003\0007 was configured.

Driver Name: usb.inf
Class Guid: {36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000}
Driver Date: 06/21/2006
Driver Version: 6.3.9600.17238
Driver Provider: Microsoft
Driver Section: Composite.Dev.NT
Driver Rank: 0xFF2003
Matching Device Id: USB\COMPOSITE
Outranked Drivers:
Device Updated: false


Device USB\VID_2972&PID_0003\0007 had a problem starting.

Driver Name: usb.inf
Class Guid: {36fc9e60-c465-11cf-8056-444553540000}
Service: usbccgp
Lower Filters:
Upper Filters:
Problem: 0xA
Status: 0x0

9) if Usb DAC did work, you can't seem to have DAC+ Card to listen to the on player library.


Overall
not really sure I'd buy one. On one hand it's a solid performing DAP for what feels like a fraction of what it could cost (good on Fiio and shame on other cos for releasing rubish hardware and firmware 'audiophile' daps for 100-1000$ you know who you are) , on the other hand it's chunky, there are some bugs and I personally can't justify getting one over my Clip+ or Note3 for portable use (I just won't hear it on the god and the differences aren't that dramatic to me)

 

[svyr]

forgot one - one other feature i'd like to see is sound profile (basically remembering EQ settings etc for a specific HP (or just more than one user eq preset))

 

[Brooko]

forgot one - one other feature i'd like to see is sound profile (basically remembering EQ settings etc for a specific HP (or just more than one user eq preset))

 
All the EQ settings are personalisable / can be edited.
 
If you want to change the names though, you have to unpack the firmware, change a file, then repack and reflash.  That part could be made easier.

 

[svyr]

All the EQ settings are personalisable / can be edited.

If you want to change the names though, you have to unpack the firmware, change a file, then repack and reflash.  That part could be made easier.

as in bands as well (e.g. set a band 7000-8000hz, or specific center + q), or just that i can set 'rock' to 'vlad2 settings with pre-canned bands but any values for dB like with the custom eq'?

 

[Brooko]

as in bands as well (e.g. set a band 7000-8000hz, or specific center + q), or just that i can set 'rock' to 'vlad2 settings with pre-canned bands but any values for dB like with the custom eq'?

 
Unfortunately not the bands - That would be amazing if it was possible.  No just the dB increments, and you can actually rename them if you have the time to edit the FW.  It's not that hard once you know how.

 

[svyr]

Unfortunately not the bands - That would be amazing if it was possible.  No just the dB increments, and you can actually rename them if you have the time to edit the FW.  It's not that hard once you know how.

need bands =)

only seen it in rockbox.

 

[H20Fidelity]

FiiO X3II arrived safely. Thanks for leaving a 64gb card for me to keep. Very generous.  

 

[Brooko]

LMAO

You realise Luke that if I don't get that back eventually I'm gonna come ahunting

 

[H20Fidelity]

LMAO

You realise Luke that if I don't get that back eventually I'm gonna come ahunting

 
I've already formatted it and transferring music. (will replace with knock off eBay version)
 
Speak soon.