[JK1]

Why are you so focused on long batterie life? When I am on a flight , I simply use a mobile batterie loader.

Why? There have been enough times when I wanted to listen, and I ran out of power, or forgot to charge the player when it was out of power. The longer the battery life is, the less likely I am to run out of power. I have portable battery packs, but rarely carry them with with me, as carrying that and a usb cable is annoying. Also around 30% of the power in the  power pack is lost as heat as the player battery is recharged. Having a player  use an  inexpensive, easy to find swappable battery that can be charged two or more outside the player is a much better solution. 
 
I could carry a second small player to use when the first player runs out of power, however that is also an awkward solution. 
 
Having a player with from 40 to 80 hours of battery life seems like a much better solution. Having more than around 80 hours of battery life might mean that the player is starting to become larger than I want. It seems like a relatively compact player can be made with up to around 80 hours of battery life if it uses efficient circuitry. The Sandisk Clip Sport runs for 25 hours on a 220 mah battery. It is somewhat limited in functionality though. I am just using it to contrast lossless players with inefficient circuitry that get around 9 hours or so using a 3000 mah battery, which consume power at around 40x that of the Clip Sport. I want a player somewhat more capable than the Clip Sport, which integrated card contents with main memory, and supports a database of at least 20,000 songs. It doesn't need to power 300 ohms headphones though, as I plan to use efficient earphones between around 16 and 32 ohms or so.

 

[JK1]

I'm still waiting for the Fiio M3 to be released. When the Fiio M3 was announced in September and expected at the start of November, I decided not to buy a second Sandisk sport, and to buy the M3 instead. Since the M3 has been delayed, and the 8GB clip sprt was on sale for $35, I ended up buying a second Clip Sport. I still plan to buy the Fiio M3 though, although it seems like the M3 might be hard to get before the end of the year. 
 
Since it seems like I might not get the M3 until early next year, I wonder when the M5 will become available, and hope it will be under $100. It seems like the M5 will have bluetooth and FM radio, and hopefully much longer battery life than the M3(especially when the M5 bluetooth is turned off). I hope Fiio will continue to expand the diversity of its players.
 
I wonder when the M1 will become available. I guess the M1 will be a clip on model. I wonder if there will be versions of it with or without FM radio, how long its battery life will be, and how it will be priced.
 
As for the M3, it seems curious that it was originally listed as having 18 hours of battery life, and now battery life is listed as 24 hours. Did they change the way they measure it(perhaps first with lossless then later with mp3 files), develop more efficient firmware, or did they decide to put a higher capacity battery in it? I wonder why the M3 wasn't made as a Clip on player. Perhaps Fiio could sell an accessory to convert the M3 into a clip on player. The M3 seems close in size to the Sandisk Clip Sport, which is a clip on player. I expect the fiio M3 to have much more power and much better sound quality than the Clip Sport.

 

[JK1]

I am still waiting for the M3 to be released. Last week when the X1 was on sale for $80 with a free 32GB card I bought one. I was very curious about it for quite some time, and hadn't bought a music player for well over a year. When I bought the X1 I realized it was heavy(almost 4 ounces), and wouldn't be so comfortable in a shirt pocket. I figured I could use the X1 at home. I still have Sandisk Clip+, Clip Zip, and Clip Sport players I could use portably. I am very curious about the M3 and want to buy one ASAP, but not at a premium price. I guess the $55 list price is the maximum I would pay, although I would like to get it cheaper. 
 
What do I think of the X1? The battery life of only around 11 hours is a great inconvenience, as is the manufacturer's recommendation not to use it as it charges, as it might overheat. As for the X1's sound quality, at first I wasn't so impressed using 256 kbps mp3 files, however as a test I reripped some of my CDs to 320 kbps mp3. I was impressed with how the 320 kbps files sounded. I get the feeling that the X1 might be quite good using FLAC files and high quality headphones or earphones(I have mostly used it with Sony XBA-1 earphones). Having the X1 makes me hungrier for the M3, as the lighter weight of the M3 and longer battery life seem quite promising. I wonder when Fiio will live up to its promise of making a firmware for the X1 that increases battery life to 15 hours. Do I recommend people buy the X1? It seems very solidly built, having an aluminum housing, and comes with a rubber skin. Imo all players should come with a skin or case.  The almost 4 ounce weight though, and only around 11 hours of battery life though make the player not so ideal for many people. The M3 seems like it might be a player that is more suitable for most people, especially those who want to keep a player in a shirt pocket. The lack of FM radio on the M3 though might disappoint quite a few, who may wait for the M5 which has FM radio and bluetooth. If the M5 has long battery life, bluetooth, FM radio, great sound quality, a card slot that takes 128GB cards(including a large enough database to deal with 50,000 songs-Yes, some people still like to cram a player with 128 kbps songs. Handling up to 20K songs though(128GB of 320kbps songs) would satisfy many) and is priced under $100, it is likely to be extremely popular. It seems like the M5 might not be out for quite a while. I guess some think it might be out around September.

 

[fourrobert13]

  I am still waiting for the M3 to be released. Last week when the X1 was on sale for $80 with a free 32GB card I bought one. I was very curious about it for quite some time, and hadn't bought a music player for well over a year. When I bought the X1 I realized it was heavy(almost 4 ounces), and wouldn't be so comfortable in a shirt pocket. I figured I could use the X1 at home. I still have Sandisk Clip+, Clip Zip, and Clip Sport players I could use portably. I am very curious about the M3 and want to buy one ASAP, but not at a premium price. I guess the $55 list price is the maximum I would pay, although I would like to get it cheaper. 
 
What do I think of the X1? The battery life of only around 11 hours is a great inconvenience, as is the manufacturer's recommendation not to use it as it charges, as it might overheat. As for the X1's sound quality, at first I wasn't so impressed using 256 kbps mp3 files, however as a test I reripped some of my CDs to 320 kbps mp3. I was impressed with how the 320 kbps files sounded. I get the feeling that the X1 might be quite good using FLAC files and high quality headphones or earphones(I have mostly used it with Sony XBA-1 earphones). Having the X1 makes me hungrier for the M3, as the lighter weight of the M3 and longer battery life seem quite promising. I wonder when Fiio will live up to its promise of making a firmware for the X1 that increases battery life to 15 hours. Do I recommend people buy the X1? It seems very solidly built, having an aluminum housing, and comes with a rubber skin. Imo all players should come with a skin or case.  The almost 4 ounce weight though, and only around 11 hours of battery life though make the player not so ideal for many people. The M3 seems like it might be a player that is more suitable for most people, especially those who want to keep a player in a shirt pocket. The lack of FM radio on the M3 though might disappoint quite a few, who may wait for the M5 which has FM radio and bluetooth. If the M5 has long battery life, bluetooth, FM radio, great sound quality, and is priced under $100, it is likely to be extremely popular. It seems like the M5 might not be out for quite a while. I guess some think it might be out around September.

Are you not following the m3 thread?  It's been released.  FiiO also said the m5 is dependent on m3 sales.  I got an m3 and so far i'm not impressed.  I'll decide in a few days if i'm going to return it.  The X1 is an excellent player.  You're going backwards if you get an m3. 

 

[JK1]

  Are you not following the m3 thread?  It's been released.  FiiO also said the m5 is dependent on m3 sales.  I got an m3 and so far i'm not impressed.  I'll decide in a few days if i'm going to return it.  The X1 is an excellent player.  You're going backwards if you get an m3. 

I have been banned from the M3 thread. As for the M3 having been released, actually getting one without paying a premium price seems quite difficult at the moment. Perhaps in a week or so(or perhaps in January?) availability of the M3 will probably be much better. I won't pay an additional $20 or $25 extra just to have the M3 a bit (a few weeks?) sooner. Perhaps it might be $50 or less in early January? Now that I have the X1 to play with, I will have more patience waiting for the M3. It is a pity that the M3 wasn't out in quantity for black Friday. It would have made a great $35 black Friday special.

 

[fourrobert13]

I gave $55 for mine and will most likely be returning it.

 

[JK1]

  I gave $55 for mine and will most likely be returning it.

Why aren't you happy with the M3? What do you plan to buy instead? At around that price and having a card slot are the Xduoo X2, the Sandisk Clip Sport(and the Clip Jam). The Sport and Jam include FM radio. The Sport(and Jam) keeps the database for internal memory separate from that of the card memory, and the database for each each limited to around 2,000 songs(4,000 with the experimental Sport firmware that uses fewer letters for sorting). I haven't used the Xduoo X2 yet. The Sony players under $100 don't have a card slot. For $78 now you can get the Sony 16GB NWZ E385. the 4GB Sony E383 is $48. If the E383 had a card slot, I would have bought that so quickly. With the E385 limited to 16GB, and the Sony A15 which has a card slot at around $230, the Sony players don't seem to me to be worth buying. A few times I almost got tempted to buy the E385, however 16GB is just too limiting. I guess I could make do with a player without a card slot with 32GB built in, but not so comfortably with just 16GB. 

 

[fourrobert13]

  Why aren't you happy with the M3? What do you plan to buy instead? At around that price and having a card slot are the Xduoo X2, the Sandisk Clip Sport(and the Clip Jam). The Sport and Jam include FM radio. 
The Sport(and Jam) keeps the database for internal memory separate from that of the card memory, and the database for each each limited to around 2,000 songs(4,000 with the experimental Sport firmware that uses fewer letters for sorting). I having used the Xduoo X2 yet. The Sony players under $100 don't have a card slot. For $78 now you can get the Sony 16GB NWZ E385. the 4GB Sony E383 is $48. If the E383 had a card slot, I would have bought that so quickly. With the E385 limited to 16GB, and the Sony A15 which has a card slot at around $230, the Sony players don't seem to me to be worth buying. A few times I almost got tempted to buy the E385, however 16GB is just too limiting. I guess I could make do with a player without a card slot with 32GB built in, but not so comfortably with just 16GB. 

The UI is terrible.  You can't just play an album.  You either play through all folders, repeat, or shuffle.  There are other annoying UI quirks as well like error messages when you first turn it on.  Look at my signature, I have some of the other devices you mentioned, so i'm just going to get my money back and be done.

 

[JK1]

  The UI is terrible.  You can't just play an album.  You either play through all folders, repeat, or shuffle.  There are other annoying UI quirks as well like error messages when you first turn it on.  Look at my signature, I have some of the other devices you mentioned, so i'm just going to get my money back and be done.

Can't play an album?????? Perhaps that might soon be remedied with a new firmware? I can't believe they don't give the option to play an album. 

 

[fourrobert13]

Can't play an album?????? Perhaps that might soon be remedied with a new firmware? I can't believe they don't give the option to play an album. 

You can play an album but it doesn't stop at thend of it. It continues to play through all folders.

 

[JK1]

You can play an album but it doesn't stop at thend of it. It continues to play through all folders.

Huh? It can't play based on tags? With most players, one can browse through the album list, choose an album, then the player plays all the songs with that album tag then stops.

 

[JK1]

Is the case on the M3 made of metal? How does the M3 compare to the Xduoo X2?
 
The M3 looks like it will be a nice player once the firmware is better developed. That is a good reason to not pay a higher price to get it in a hurry, but instead to wait for it to be discounted decently, 
then wait until the firmware is developed decently before actually using it much.

 

[fourrobert13]

  Is the case on the M3 made of metal? How does the M3 compare to the Xduoo X2?

It's plastic.  I don't own the X2 so I can't help you there.
 
The M3 seems like a well built device, but the UI leaves little to be desired.  It comes with the default language set in Chinese.  You have to load music onto it or a card and play said music in order to access the settings menu to change the language.  Some folk advised that the music they put on the device and card would not display in alphabetical order.  I did not have this problem.  I would get an error message when trying to play a track right after boot up that would say file not supported and then it would skip to the next track.  I could skip back and play that track, but this is very annoying.  The music options are play through folders, repeat and shuffle.  I listen to albums so basically when one album was done, the next one on the list would begin to play and this was also very annoying.  It sounded fine and nothing good or bad to say about the sound.  The UI was just behind the times compared to my Sans'a and other FiiO DAPs.  All of the buttons felt solid and there were no issues there.  Some say the UI is because of the chipset/SOC, but considering I can get a Sansa Clip for $10 to $15 less and them have a stable and easy to use UI, I find it hard to believe FiiO can't do this.  Perhaps this can be addressed in FW updates, but I'm not waiting that long.  I got my return authoration and it's boxed up and being sent back tomorrow.  I'm a little upset because I expected more than what this device turned out to be.  I thought it would be comparable to my Sansa's, but it was not (sound wise, yes UI/operation, no). 
 
Good luck with you quest for a DAP that fits your needs.

 

[god-bluff]

Sounds like a pretty poor effort. I can't understand why things like this are still being released in an unfinished state in 2015 when companies like SanDisk, Sony & Apple perfected music players nearly a decade ago.

Sometimes wonder why Fiio and the like have such a following. We seem to be going backwards. I did have an X3 very briefly

 

[JK1]

  It's plastic.  I don't own the X2 so I can't help you there.
 
The M3 seems like a well built device, but the UI leaves little to be desired.  It comes with the default language set in Chinese.  You have to load music onto it or a card and play said music in order to access the settings menu to change the language.  Some folk advised that the music they put on the device and card would not display in alphabetical order.  I did not have this problem.  I would get an error message when trying to play a track right after boot up that would say file not supported and then it would skip to the next track.  I could skip back and play that track, but this is very annoying.  The music options are play through folders, repeat and shuffle.  I listen to albums so basically when one album was done, the next one on the list would begin to play and this was also very annoying.  It sounded fine and nothing good or bad to say about the sound.  The UI was just behind the times compared to my Sans'a and other FiiO DAPs.  All of the buttons felt solid and there were no issues there.  Some say the UI is because of the chipset/SOC, but considering I can get a Sansa Clip for $10 to $15 less and them have a stable and easy to use UI, I find it hard to believe FiiO can't do this.  Perhaps this can be addressed in FW updates, but I'm not waiting that long.  I got my return authoration and it's boxed up and being sent back tomorrow.  I'm a little upset because I expected more than what this device turned out to be.  I thought it would be comparable to my Sansa's, but it was not (sound wise, yes UI/operation, no). 
 
Good luck with you quest for a DAP that fits your needs.

"Some folk advised that the music they put on the device and card would not display in alphabetical order.  I did not have this problem."
 
That seems to be how the Sandisk Clip Sport is. My music is in order on my Sport though, as it apparantly sorts the songs within a folder in the order of the time they were transferred to the player, so if you add an album at a time to the player, the songs will be in order since they were transferred from the player in order. The problem occurs though when tracks are added later to a folder.
 
The Sandisk Clip Sport and Clip Jam have separate databases for internal memory and card memory. Each is limited to 2,000 songs. There is an experimental firmware for the Clip Sport that allows a database of around 4,000 songs for each, however it sorts tags based on fewer charachters, which might at times be a problem. The Sandisk players also seem to have issues with cards faster than class 4 when running the Sandisk firmware. I don't know if the Sport or Jam are different in this regard. I have a class 4 card in my Clip Sport. The Clip Sport has good sound quality, however the database limitations, and the inability to create playlists on the player(other than the Go Lists. They just allow adding one song at a time though, and not a full album or all the songs of an artist the way the other Sandisk players can.
 
The Sandisk players seem so plasticky. I am in the mood for a portable lightweight player with a metal case. While the x1 has a metal case, it is quite heavy at 106 grams(around 3.74 ounces).
I guess that leaves the Xduoo X2 at around 50 grams, although battery life is listed as around 10 hours. I wonder if that is for lossles or mp3, and what it actually gets using 320 kbps mp3.