[aceedburn]

I purchased a X3 MKIII as soon as I found out a firmware was available to fix its initial problems. I have been following your posts and everyone else's on this thread. My X3 1st gen got wet when sailing on Labor Day and everything works but the display. Fortunately it was set as a DAP beforehand so I can still use it as such. I got it 2 months before gen 2 came out so I was trying not to miss the new one this time. My unit became unusable after enabling the resume function. It was generally fine beforehand with the firmware update so far as stability was concerned. After enabling the resume play from the place your were before, the problem started. I usually turn my player off and do not let it go to sleep. When I turned it off and then turned it on, it did play the track I was listening to from the spot it had stopped before. The player stopped at the end of track. It did not proceed to the next track. I tried the back button and every other eventually and the same thing happened. Zeros and ones started flying onto the display in black and white and every time I pushed any button, more zeros and ones would be added to the those that were already there. I tried holding down the power button to shut it off and that just made more zeros and ones. I finally shut the unit down by holding down the buttons you use to update the firmware, After that it started up fine and resumed the track it stopped at. It stopped at the end of the track. Then I tried to push buttons, especially back, and next, and previous track and got streams of zeros and ones again on the display. I tried changing the resume to off or start a the beginning of the last track and it did not help. I think my unit was defective like yours.

It's on its way back to Amazon. I ordered a Shanling M2s. There were things I did like about the sound of the X3 MKIII. I purchased the FiiO F5 IEMs with the player and I liked the sound of the balanced cable over the unbalanced. I kept the F5. I joined Head-Fi because of this player but I have been using Head-Fi as a resource for audio info for a while.

Hi,

Your problem seems a little different than mine. My earlier unit would just turn offf everytime I tried to switch it on and it starts playing music. The new unit i got seems to work fine now. Your problem seems rather different than mine. But what i did as well was to reformat my sd card in the x3-3 itself and re-transfer all my music back. It’s working as it should now. Sorry i can’t be more of help here as i haven’t experienced the problem you have.

 

[cleg]

My turn on X3-3

 

[aceedburn]

I too am having problems with line out function as reported by a few other users on the Fiio forum . I remember previously on the x3ii when using line out, the gain setting on the player has no effect. But now, it stays on the gain setting that you selected before switching to line out. When switching to high gain, almost all songs sound distorted and get clipped, but when using low gain, they sound better but still not as smooth as using head[phone out mode. I’m really fed up with all these bugs on my brand new x3mark3. Why can’t we just have a product that works? You mean the x3mark3 was designed not to be used for line out? Come on fiio, your recent products have really been turning into utter rubbish. I’m disappointed and regret buying the x3mark3, To me it is a failed player. You should recall all x3 mark3 players and issue a full refund to all if you have any dignity left.

 

[Dobrescu George]

I too am having problems with line out function as reported by a few other users on the Fiio forum . I remember previously on the x3ii when using line out, the gain setting on the player has no effect. But now, it stays on the gain setting that you selected before switching to line out. When switching to high gain, almost all songs sound distorted and get clipped, but when using low gain, they sound better but still not as smooth as using head[phone out mode. I’m really fed up with all these bugs on my brand new x3mark3. Why can’t we just have a product that works? You mean the x3mark3 was designed not to be used for line out? Come on fiio, your recent products have really been turning into utter rubbish. I’m disappointed and regret buying the x3mark3, To me it is a failed player. You should recall all x3 mark3 players and issue a full refund to all if you have any dignity left.

X3-3 is not broken, you're not supposed to connect anything but AMPs to the line out, and the sound might be different in a good sense - in my extremely short test, I felt that the HO wasw a bit too smooth, so a bit less smooth is good. That is the sound of the DAC inside, which is quite potent.

Also, it really depends what you're connecting it to, LO can easily clip on some stuff, especially car audio head parts.

I won't defent all aspects of it, the speed is not the best, but the sound is hard to fault.

What I think is happening, what you're plunning into its LO is getting too much voltage, thus the clipping.

 

[fourrobert13]

X3-3 is not broken, you're not supposed to connect anything but AMPs to the line out, and the sound might be different in a good sense - in my extremely short test, I felt that the HO wasw a bit too smooth, so a bit less smooth is good. That is the sound of the DAC inside, which is quite potent.

Also, it really depends what you're connecting it to, LO can easily clip on some stuff, especially car audio head parts.

I won't defent all aspects of it, the speed is not the best, but the sound is hard to fault.

What I think is happening, what you're plunning into its LO is getting too much voltage, thus the clipping.

The LO is supposed to be a signal straight from the DAC. If that signal is clipping, then this would carry over into whatever you plug into it. You'd hear it through your amp or whatever you are listening through I would think. Hopefully @aceedburn isn't plugging his headphones into the LO. Perhaps he should provide some more details. Still, if the signal from the DAC is clipping, there's a problem.

 

[Dobrescu George]

The LO is supposed to be a signal straight from the DAC. If that signal is clipping, then this would carry over into whatever you plug into it. You'd hear it through your amp or whatever you are listening through I would think. Hopefully @aceedburn isn't plugging his headphones into the LO. Perhaps he should provide some more details. Still, if the signal from the DAC is clipping, there's a problem.

No, no, what I'm saying is that X3-3's LO shouldn't clip in either LG or HG by itself, so either what it is plugged in clips because it cannot take the signal, like it expects lower voltage, or it is plugged into headphones, thing which is not recommended under any circumstances, as it can break the headphones.

At any rate, if the LO clips for his unit, it might be better to take it back to the original seller, as this would indicate a broken unit...

 

[aceedburn]

Thanks for the explanation guys. I’m pretty well versed with how these things work. I had the clipping when I connected the x3 mark3 to the A3 amp. It was constantly clipping with high gain on. When I switched to Low gain, clipping stopped. Previously on the x3ii, the moment I switch to line out, the gain settings don’t work which is a good thing. But now the gain settings carry forward. Hope this better explains the problem I’m facing. And I never connect the Fiio players to anything else but an amp.

 

[Dobrescu George]

Thanks for the explanation guys. I’m pretty well versed with how these things work. I had the clipping when I connected the x3 mark3 to the A3 amp. It was constantly clipping with high gain on. When I switched to Low gain, clipping stopped. Previously on the x3ii, the moment I switch to line out, the gain settings don’t work which is a good thing. But now the gain settings carry forward. Hope this better explains the problem I’m facing. And I never connect the Fiio players to anything else but an amp.

Good to know!

I'm not sure how much power A3 expects, but I'm somewhat concinved that you might get better sound from X3-3 alone rather than adding A3.

Hm... Might be something worth checking with @FiiO

If you experience tons of noise, that is a sign of a blown capacitor. This can happen with virtually any device, regardless of price, and it is usually a good sign you might need to send it back for repairs.

 

[Brooko]

@aceedburn - can you please advise exact audio chain, and also loud you are listening?

Eg X3iii > 3.5-3.5 connect > A3 > headphones ?
Volume on X3iii or fixed?
Volume on A3?

I have X3iii and A3. Going to try and repeat what you are doing and see if I get same/similar.

 

[Raketen]

Sounds like high gain might be exceeding input voltage of the amp- I have used good devices where the line out is affected by gain setting so I don't think this is necessarily an improperly designed feature..

 

[Grado Diesel]

I’m debating on getting one of these or another X3 2nd gen. Right now the contacts in my 2nd gen’s line out jack are wearing out and/or have actually broke and it’s only 14 months old. Left channel is dropping out and I’ve had to rig it with office clips and rubber bands to keep whatever’s plugged in in stereo. My other question is will the 3rd gen accept the micro SD right out of the 2nd gen with folders and tunes already loaded? And can you plug the 3rd gen into a PowerBook G4 with OS 10.4.1.1.1.1.1?

 

[FredFi]

Hi,

Your problem seems a little different than mine. My earlier unit would just turn offf everytime I tried to switch it on and it starts playing music. The new unit i got seems to work fine now. Your problem seems rather different than mine. But what i did as well was to reformat my sd card in the x3-3 itself and re-transfer all my music back. It’s working as it should now. Sorry i can’t be more of help here as i haven’t experienced the problem you have.

The issues you are having now with the replacement FiiO X3 MKIII can be replicated by using either of the resume modes. In my case invoking the resume mode caused a complete meltdown. Had you tried the resume modes before with your defective unit? You are right. I should have reformatted the sd card in the FiiO and reloaded the music to eliminate it as a cause of the problem. I wonder if anyone else has tried the resume functions before and after the firmware update.

 

[aceedburn]

The issues you are having now with the replacement FiiO X3 MKIII can be replicated by using either of the resume modes. In my case invoking the resume mode caused a complete meltdown. Had you tried the resume modes before with your defective unit? You are right. I should have reformatted the sd card in the FiiO and reloaded the music to eliminate it as a cause of the problem. I wonder if anyone else has tried the resume functions before and after the firmware update.

H Fred,

I never had a problem with the resume modes even on the earlier faulty unit. Resume used to work just fine whether set on position or song.

 

[aceedburn]

@aceedburn - can you please advise exact audio chain, and also loud you are listening?

Eg X3iii > 3.5-3.5 connect > A3 > headphones ?
Volume on X3iii or fixed?
Volume on A3?

I have X3iii and A3. Going to try and repeat what you are doing and see if I get same/similar.

HI BUDDY,

The exact audio chain is x3iii connected to A3 using fiio L17 3.5-3.5 short cable.
Line out selected with fixed volume. Volume on A3 between 4-5. Gain setting and bass boost on A3 is off.
Gain setting on x3iii when switched too high, massive clipping and distortion. On low gain, no clipping.
Tried on v-moda m100 headphones and soundmagic e10c. Waiting for my Meze 99 classics which is on the way to me from Romania as we speak.

 

[Brooko]

Wow - you listen really loud - huh

Looked up the M100 and it has 32 ohm impedance with sensitivity of - 103 dB @ 1kHz 1mW. the closest I have to those are my Allesandro MS Pro at 32 ohm and 98 dB @ 1kHz 1mW. So theoretically the MS Pro actually need more power to get to the same level. Set up exactly the same as you X3iii > L17 > A3 (set at 4.5 vol). Played some Bonamassa - which is pretty well recorded. At your listening level, the SPL (measured with my meter) was 80-85 dB ave and peaking at well into the 90's. To give you an idea of my listening level, its actually around 2.5 with the same set-up (peaks of around 75 dB at loudest), and remember that the MS Pro are actually slightly harder to drive if the specs are right. I'd estimate you are averaging 85-90 dB with your M100s.

Anyway - I couldn't listen at your volume level, but I heard no clipping. The distortion could possibly be that you just have them too loud? I'm not trying to be a prat here - but seriously - you're already causing yourself damage at these levels if you were listening to modern music.

I switched to some Vivaldi, and even that at a shade over 3.5 was starting to get too loud with the more dynamic pieces. But there was really no sign of clipping or distortion.

Do you think you are simply over-driving the drivers on your earphones?

Oh and all of this was low gain. But engaging the gain switch actually does nothing on the X3iii if you're running in line-out mode (as its fixed voltage). So if its actually changing something for you - are you sure you have it in line-out mode?