[Killcomic]

Hey everyone,
I'm a long time lurker and first time poster.
I need a bit of advise. I'm currently using a 4GB Sony Walkman (NWZ-E473) which sounds OK with my ATH-IM70 (at least better than my phone) but the 4GB storage space is killing me.
I'm an aspiring audiophile, meaning I appreciate sound quality but can't spare a lot of cash for it.
I'm looking for something around AUD$100 (that's kangaroo dollars) that will hopefully sound as good, if not better, than my current Walkman.  I'm thinking along the lines of the Fiio M3 or the XDuoo X2.
Anyone knows how these compare against the Walkman or if there are better alternatives out there?

 

[JK1]

  Hey everyone,
I'm a long time lurker and first time poster.
I need a bit of advise. I'm currently using a 4GB Sony Walkman (NWZ-E473) which sounds OK with my ATH-IM70 (at least better than my phone) but the 4GB storage space is killing me.
I'm an aspiring audiophile, meaning I appreciate sound quality but can't spare a lot of cash for it.
I'm looking for something around AUD$100 (that's kangaroo dollars) that will hopefully sound as good, if not better, than my current Walkman.  I'm thinking along the lines of the Fiio M3 or the XDuoo X2.
Anyone knows how these compare against the Walkman or if there are better alternatives out there?

 If you can get the Fiio M3 for under $100AUD that isn't bad, since it is $50 in the US,and Australian prices tend to be much higher than US prices(besides just the difference in the exchange rate). The M3 has its quirks though. The first is that its firmware has a bug and the player won't play an album in order by track number. It is also picky about which card you use in it. It gave me trouble with a Transcend class 10 card in it, but now plays fine using a Sandisk class 10 32GB card. The player has 8GB buit in, but keeps the songs in the built in memory in a separate database from the songs on card memory. each database is limited to around 4,000 songs. I don't use the internal memory on mine. The M3 puts out plenty of power and is listed as having 24 hours of battery life. I haven't tested the battery life on mine. See my M3 review.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/products/fiio-m3-digital-portable-music-player/reviews/14785
 
The Xduoo X2 browses only by folder, and only has 10 hours of battery life. its display is very small.
 
Both of these don't have FM radio. If you want a player with FM radio, then get one of the Sandisk Clip models(Clip+, Clip Zip, Clip Sport or Clip Jam).

 

[Killcomic]

Quote:

 
 If you can get the Fiio M3 for under $100AUD that isn't bad, since it is $50 in the US,and Australian prices tend to be much higher than US prices(besides just the difference in the exchange rate). The M3 has its quirks though. The first is that its firmware has a bug and the player won't play an album in order by track number when you choose it from the database. It is also picky about which card you use in it. It gave me trouble with a Transcend class 10 card in it, but now plays fine using a Sandisk class 10 32GB card. The player has 8GB buit in, but keeps the songs in the built in memory in a separate database from the songs on card memory. each database is limited to around 4,000 songs. I don't use the internal memory on mine. The M3 puts out plenty of power and is listed as having 24 hours of battery life. I haven't tested the battery life on mine. See my M3 review.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/products/fiio-m3-digital-portable-music-player/reviews/14785
 
The Xduoo X2 browses only by folder, and only has 10 hours of battery life. its display is very small.
 
Both of these don't have FM radio. If you want a player with FM radio, then get one of the Sandisk Clip models(Clip+, Clip Zip, Clip Sport or Clip Jam).

 
Yeah, the M3 is about $70-$80 here so it's well within budget. And 10 hour battery life on the X2 is kind of crappy. I would've expected it to last a bit longer.
 
Good review!
I kept hearing conflicting reports about the M3's sound quality with some people saying it sounds no better than a mobile phone while other say it's a good step above.
It's inability to read playlist files (m3u) kind of puts me off, but I guess that at the price I shouldn't complain.

 

[JK1]

  Quote:
 
Yeah, the M3 is about $70-$80 here so it's well within budget. And 10 hour battery life on the X2 is kind of crappy. I would've expected it to last a bit longer.
 
Good review!
I kept hearing conflicting reports about the M3's sound quality with some people saying it sounds no better than a mobile phone while other say it's a good step above.
It's inability to read playlist files (m3u) kind of puts me off, but I guess that at the price I shouldn't complain.

You will get better sound from the M3 than your phone if you use 320kbps mp3 files or lossless files. If you use 256kbps mp3 files or an even lower bitrate, then you might not hear that much of a difference. The M3 puts out much more power than a typical phone does, so if your headphones or earphones benefit from having more power, then it will improve the sound. Do you find that you need to boost the volume on your phone close to the maximum  to get adequate volume? This will depend on how much power your phone puts out, and how efficient the headphones or earphones you use are. I haven't even tried making playlists on the M3. It seems like they have to be made on the player itself, and just one song at a time. I do use playlists though on my Rockboxed Sandisk Clip+ and Rockboxed Clip Zip players, since making playlists on them is so easy, and an album at a time can be added to the playlist.

 

[Killcomic]

 
You will get better sound from the M3 than your phone if you use 320kbps mp3 files or lossless files. If you use 256kbps mp3 files or an even lower bitrate, then you might not hear that much of a difference. The M3 puts out much more power than a typical phone does, so if your headphones or earphones benefit from having more power, then it will improve the sound. Do you find that you need to boost the volume on your phone close to the maximum  to get adequate volume? This will depend on how much power your phone puts out, and how efficient the headphones or earphones you use are. I haven't even tried making playlists on the M3. It seems like they have to be made on the player itself, and just one song at a time. I do use playlists though on my Rockboxed Sandisk Clip+ and Rockboxed Clip Zip players, since making playlists on them is so easy, and an album at a time can be added to the playlist.

Yeah, on my phone you really, really need to up the volume to get a decent level (and it was double worse with my old Sennheiser CX3.00). And yes, most of my music is in 320k.
Thanks for the advise, I think I'll be getting the M3!

 

[JK1]

 
Yeah, on my phone you really, really need to up the volume to get a decent level (and it was double worse with my old Sennheiser CX3.00). And yes, most of my music is in 320k.
Thanks for the advise, I think I'll be getting the M3!

The M3 sounds good, but not playing the songs in an album in the correct order bugs me. It also bugs me that I need to take the player out of my pocket to press the play/pause, as I can't determine where to press while it is in my pocket. I can easily press the play/pause on my Sandisk players while they are still in my pocket. I also miss not having FM radio on the Fiio players. The Fiio players do put out much more volume than the Sandisk Clip players, and even the M3 has better sound quality than the Sandisk Clip players, although the Sandisk Clip players still sound good. In the US the original Fiio X1 is now only $30 more than the M3. The X1 feels  like a professional player, with  very ergonomic buttons and a scroll wheel. The X1 is much larger and heavier than the M3 though, and only gives around 10 hours of battery life.

 

[Killcomic]

 
The M3 sounds good, but not playing the songs in an album in the correct order bugs me. It also bugs me that I need to take the player out of my pocket to press the play/pause, as I can't determine where to press while it is in my pocket. I can easily press the play/pause on my Sandisk players while they are still in my pocket. I also miss not having FM radio on the Fiio players. The Fiio players do put out much more volume than the Sandisk Clip players, and even the M3 has better sound quality than the Sandisk Clip players, although the Sandisk Clip players still sound good. In the US the original Fiio X1 is now only $30 more than the M3. The X1 feels  like a professional player, with  very ergonomic buttons and a scroll wheel. The X1 is much larger and heavier than the M3 though, and only gives around 10 hours of battery life.

I can't say I'm overly worried about ergonomics. I'm more concerned about sound quality. The X1 is about $140 here so it overshoots my budget a bit, unless the sound quality is way above the M3, I don't think I could rationalise purchasing one.

 

[JK1]

 
I can't say I'm overly worried about ergonomics. I'm more concerned about sound quality. The X1 is about $140 here so it overshoots my budget a bit, unless the sound quality is way above the M3, I don't think I could rationalise purchasing one.

Perhaps the M3 is good for you then. My X1 stays at home, since I like to keep a player I use portably in my shirt pocket, and the Fiio X1 is too heavy and bulky to comfortably keep in a shirt pocket.