Help with Player $100 or less

[The Apostle]

New member but have been browsing head-fi for quite a while. I am looking to get a music player under $100.

I guess my question is do I just jump on a Fiio X1 or does it make sense to look at something a little less expensive like the Fiio M3 or Sansa Clip?

I've read through a bunch of reviews but as you know, there are a plethora of choices. I was also looking at the Kubik Evo but I can't find any real valuable info on it.

I put the cart before the horse and already have an Fiio Q1 DAC. Haven't used it much yet. I'm an android user and I know the DAC supported apps are pretty limited.

I am also using Viper for Android with impressive results.

Current headphones :
*Sennheiser Momentum 1st Gen.
*Moneter Turbine (I know, I know)
*Audio Texhnica ATH-ANC33iS (picked them up for 80% off when radio shack was closing a bunch of stores)
*Klipsch s4i (mainly use at work to make calls. Has a good mic IMO)

Any recommendations will be greatly appreciated.

{Thread created on my phone so excuse any crazy autocorrects.}

 

[Makiah S]

Let me ask you, about how many hours do you spend listening to music with your phone?
 
Also where do you like to get new music from 

 

[The Apostle]

As far as listening hours, it depends. If I have the time I'll listen for hours. Usually when I don't have my midgets. Lol... At work I also listen for about 3hrs a day.

As for music. I have about 160gb on my PC. Some lossless. Some 320. Lots of 196 and below. If I do get new music it's typically from Google Play.

I also RIP'd about 150 CD ''s.

 

[Makiah S]

As far as listening hours, it depends. If I have the time I'll listen for hours. Usually when I don't have my midgets. Lol... At work I also listen for about 3hrs a day.

As for music. I have about 160gb on my PC. Some lossless. Some 320. Lots of 196 and below. If I do get new music it's typically from Google Play.

I also RIP'd about 150 CD ''s.

Very nice, given your listening time an collection I think you'd benefit from going with the Fiio X1. 
 
Frankly, I do enjoy using my phone for music but I use Rhapsody Premier an it's mostly for discovering new music. For any music that I personally like I always buy an Rip a CD if I can for the best quality! An having the X1 is going to give you a longer listening window between charges to 

 

[The Apostle]

Thanks man... And real quick. How would something like the xduoo X2 compare? I've read that the firmware needs some updating.?

Very nice, given your listening time an collection I think you'd benefit from going with the Fiio X1. 

Frankly, I do enjoy using my phone for music but I use Rhapsody Premier an it's mostly for discovering new music. For any music that I personally like I always buy an Rip a CD if I can for the best quality! An having the X1 is going to give you a longer listening window between charges to 

 

[eargasam]

++1 on the X1 don't think you will do better for the price for under 100

 

[The Apostle]

Thanks for the feedback. Looks like I'll order an X1. That black is sexy!

 

[eargasam]

Thanks for the feedback. Looks like I'll order an X1. That black is sexy!

Think if I was going to start with a player under 100 dollars it would be the X1 you made a good choice

 

[smy1]

I like the x1 but you could look into the Xduoo x3 i heard they are little bit better if you dont like your x1

 

[Sorpanino]

x1 good choice

 

[The Apostle]

I like the x1 but you could look into the Xduoo x3 i heard they are little bit better if you dont like your x1

I did look into the xduoo x2 and x3. From what I read people seem to not like the UI as much and the firmware needs some updates.

 

[Makiah S]

I did look into the xduoo x2 and x3. From what I read people seem to not like the UI as much and the firmware needs some updates.

Sadly I cannot comment on the XDuoo X series, but the UI on the Fiio Daps is very polished! 

 

[JK1]

I have the Fiio X1 and some Sandisk Clip players(the Clip+, the Clip Zip, and the Clip Sport). The Fiio X1 is almost 4 ounces, which is heavy to keep in a shirt pocket. It is also somewhat bulky for a shirt pocket. Battery life is only around 11 hours. Is that enough for you? I was thinking about buying the Fiio M3 and not the X1, however the store didn't have the M3 yet and had the X1 on sale, so I bought the X1. The X1 has nice sound quality, however its firmware is rather primitive compared to Rockbox on my Clip+ and Clip Zip players. The heavy weight of the X1 and the battery life of only 11 hours have made me decide to use the X1 only at home, and to use my other smaller and lighter players with longer battery life portably. 
 
The firmware on the M3 is rather primitive now, however it is expected to be improved over time. The M3 is much lighter and smaller than the X1. The X1 is great with lossless and 320 kbps mp3. With lower bitrate files though, especially 196kbps and below, you probably won't hear that much of a difference between the X1 and the M3 or a Sandisk Clip+, Clip Zip, or Clip Sport.  The Clip Sport though keeps the internal memory and the card memory in separate databases. The experimental firmware for the Sport allows up to 4,000 songs for each database, while the standard firmware allows just 2,000 songs for each. It has 25 hours of battery life. The Sandisk Clip+ and Clip Zip when used with Rockbox have an amazing number of settings and features, and it is easy to make on the fly playlists on the player itself. 
 
What do I advise you to get? It depends what is most important to you as far as battery life, small size and light weight, ease of making playlists on the player itself, or ability to drive more power hungry headphones. Since it seems like most of your music is 196 kbps or less(do you have the CDs for most of these so you could rerip them at 320 kbps or lossless?) the sound improvement for these files using the X1 instead of an M3 or Sandisk Clip player probably won't be much. After getting the X1 I reripped most of my CDs to 320 kbps. The Sandisk Clip players are an ounce or less, and the fiio M3 is 1.4 ounces vs 3.74 ounces for the X1.  I still want to get a Fiio M3 as it has a larger screen than the Sandisk Clip players, and probably has better sound quality(although not as good as the X1). The M3's much lighter weight, much smaller size, and much longer battery life(24 hours vs 11 hours) when compared to the X1 make the M3 much more practical than the X1 for portable use. Fiio claims the M3 supports cards only up to 64GB, although people have gotten 128GB cards to work in it. Perhaps though using a card over 64GB  that is full and using mp3 files, the M3 might not be able to fit all the songs in its database? 
 
Am I glad I bought the X1? Yes, although I am also glad that I have the much smaller and much lighter Sandisk players to use portably. It is nice to have a small lightweight clip on player especially 
when exercising. Would I want the X1 as my only player? Probably not. If I had to live with just one player, I would choose something much lighter and smaller with much longer battery life. Would I choose a Sandisk Clip Zip, Clip Plus, Clip Sport , or the Fiio M3? It might be a hard to choose between the Clip+ or Clip Zip with Rockbox and the Fiio M3. For now many are complaining about the M3 due to  firmware issues, however a new firmware is likely to be available for M3 soon. The question with the M3 is how much the firmware will improve, especially when it comes to adding features. The on the fly playlist creation with Rockbox, and the real shuffle with Rockbox(like a deck of cards, where there is no repeats until after everything is played) make using a player with Rockbox very enjoyable. 

 

[Makiah S]

My issue with a RockBoxed Clip is... well the rock boxing part. For your First DAP going with rock box isn't always the best idea imo. I did a Rock Box on my HM 601 an bricked it :/ it was a very difficult challenge getting it to work again
 
either way though if your some what tech savy the Clip Zip with custom Firm ware isn't a bad idea 

 

[JK1]

  My issue with a RockBoxed Clip is... well the rock boxing part. For your First DAP going with rock box isn't always the best idea imo. I did a Rock Box on my HM 601 an bricked it :/ it was a very difficult challenge getting it to work again
 
either way though if your some what tech savy the Clip Zip with custom Firm ware isn't a bad idea 

I don't know how long ago you tried Rockboxing the HM 601, and how stable Rockbox for it is. The latest stable Rockbox versions for the Clip+ and Clip Zip are rather stable, and it is highly unlikely to brick a player with those. I Rockboxed two Clip+,one or two Fuzes(I can't remember if I put it on both or not), and a Clip Zip player without any issues.