[Skolar311]

Cool, thanks man! Sounds like I found my new DAP!
 
I do a lot of private listening and I just want my HD600's to be as loud and clear as possible with the X3/E12 combo while remaining as clean of a setup as possible. Btw, the E12 on high-gain mode provides more volume to my HD600's than my HiFiMAN EF2A and Schiit Magni desktop amps. Very, very impressive. I know this is not the thread for that, but FiiO is effin' awesome!

 

[sbradley02]

  Cool, thanks man! Sounds like I found my new DAP!
 
I do a lot of private listening and I just want my HD600's to be as loud and clear as possible with the X3/E12 combo while remaining as clean of a setup as possible. Btw, the E12 on high-gain mode provides more volume to my HD600's than my HiFiMAN EF2A and Schiit Magni desktop amps. Very, very impressive. I know this is not the thread for that, but FiiO is effin' awesome!

I have a Schiit Asgard at work and also find the E12 stacks up very well.

 

[Skolar311]

  I have a Schiit Asgard at work and also find the E12 stacks up very well.

 
That's good to know as well!
 
The performance of the E12 was really what got me into an impulsive mood to buy a nicer DAC, and ultimately the X3 has everything I need and more. I was hoping to buy a portable AMP that brought me comparable performance to my desktop setup, and from what I've heard from my E12 and what I've been reading about the X3, it sounds like it might surpass my desktop setup.
 
Very excited to get the X3!

 

[sbradley02]

   
That's good to know as well!
 
The performance of the E12 was really what got me into an impulsive mood to buy a nicer DAC, and ultimately the X3 has everything I need and more. I was hoping to buy a portable AMP that brought me comparable performance to my desktop setup, and from what I've heard from my E12 and what I've been reading about the X3, it sounds like it might surpass my desktop setup.
 
Very excited to get the X3!

Would appreciate your impressions when you get it.
 
I first started doing portable listening around 8 years ago (was truly awful to start) and have gotten progressively better since then. This is the first time I feel I am in as good a shape as I am on the desktop. X3/E12 was a big step up from my Colorfly C4 and cheaper to boot (though not as good looking

)
My next step up might be the Audeze closed model if/when it comes out.

 

[Skolar311]

  Would appreciate your impressions when you get it.
 
I first started doing portable listening around 8 years ago (was truly awful to start) and have gotten progressively better since then. This is the first time I feel I am in as good a shape as I am on the desktop. X3/E12 was a big step up from my Colorfly C4 and cheaper to boot (though not as good looking

)
My next step up might be the Audeze closed model if/when it comes out.

 
One day, when I have $1000 to burn, I'll be getting the Audeze LCD-2's. I look forward to that day as well!
 
When I pick up the X3 I'll make sure to keep you posted on my experience.

 

[Vidmaven]

  Cool, thanks man! Sounds like I found my new DAP!
 
I do a lot of private listening and I just want my HD600's to be as loud and clear as possible with the X3/E12 combo while remaining as clean of a setup as possible. Btw, the E12 on high-gain mode provides more volume to my HD600's than my HiFiMAN EF2A and Schiit Magni desktop amps. Very, very impressive. I know this is not the thread for that, but FiiO is effin' awesome!

 
 

  I have a Schiit Asgard at work and also find the E12 stacks up very well.

Sounds like my kind of place. I have the E12, the Magni, the HiFiMAN EF2A and the Asgard. The E12 is my go to portable for harder to drive cans. I picked up the Asgard to see how it stacked up to the Magni (Schiit came out with the Asgard 2 when they realized the Magni came very close to the Asgard in performance). I prefer the Asgard and have put my Magni up for sale. The EF2A is really fun when tube rolling and can make my various cans sing. I know it's OT but I thought it was cool to see some of my amps posted on this page. The X3 and Colorfly C3 are my go to DAPs nowadays.

 

[sandaz93]

"As of 1.2, ALAC/AAC have problems with their id3 tags showing up. Meaning all your .m4a songs will be stuffed into the Unknown Album and Unknown Artist folders. But this should get fixed in a release soon"
 
Thank you for your review, it was very informative. Does anyone know if this issue has been fixed yet? My CD's are all in ALAC. Also, I'm currently using a Sony NWZ-F806. Would this Fiio be an upgrade? 

 

[bowei006]

As of the latest fw, it has been fixed

 

[Sargatanas]

does the X3 have a stronger built in amp than the hm-601? im torn between these 2. i listen to mostly metal and will be pairing the Vsonic gr07 be's with either one of these dap's. i like it loud with good kick-drum

 

[sbradley02]

  does the X3 have a stronger built in amp than the hm-601? im torn between these 2. i listen to mostly metal and will be pairing the Vsonic gr07 be's with either one of these dap's. i like it loud with good kick-drum

Look at the specs, not even close:
HM-601: 30mw at 32 Ohm; 26mw at 150 Ohm
X3: 270 mW@32Ω   > 30 mW@300Ω
 
The VSonic is 43ohm so the X3 has almost 10X the power.

 

[Sargatanas]

  Look at the specs, not even close:
HM-601: 30mw at 32 Ohm; 26mw at 150 Ohm
X3: 270 mW@32Ω   > 30 mW@300Ω
 
The VSonic is 43ohm so the X3 has almost 10X the power.

 
sounds to me the clear winner is the X3. wow. i had no idea the X3 had that kind of power. i always thought the clip zip paired up with some monster turbine gold's was powerful lol. sounds to me like the x3 is gonna rip my head off

 

[bowei006]

   
sounds to me the clear winner is the X3. wow. i had no idea the X3 had that kind of power. i always thought the clip zip paired up with some monster turbine gold's was powerful lol. sounds to me like the x3 is gonna rip my head off

 
The increases in power do not co-relate to a linear increase in sound outputted by headphone X Y and Z.
 
 
example: 15mW @32 ohms is what the iPod Touch/iPhone generally do. And so we plug headphone X into the iPod and can listen to it with the iPod at 3/4 volume with good sound output. Then we plug that headphone into X3 with 270mW @ 32 ohms and have power at 35% on high gain. You may think that that is thus 94.5mW @ 32 ohms(not even an accurate number) and thus will BLOW your head up right? Nope......seriously no.

 

[s0lar]

I have tried the E12 from a friend and I did not find it a clearly better amp then the standard X3. 

 

[Vidmaven]

I have tried the E12 from a friend and I did not find it a clearly better amp then the standard X3. 

To me it depends on what cans I'm using. With my HE-400 the E12 gives them much more slam and authority with more headroom than just the X3 on high gain.

 

[jwong]

Here's a question... how would the sound quality of the X3 by itself compare to a Rockbox Clip Zip fed through an O2 amp?
 
I'm not concerned with portability, just the sq. The Clip/O2 route would be cheaper, and the amp portion has to be at least as good, but I'm not sure how the source signal from the clip would affect things.