[good sound]

Quote:

 
 
I am pretty sure both you guys know this already but just in case: Gapless has nothing to do with the file type, i.e. Flac or MP3. Gapless is done by the players FW. It either does gapless playback or it doesn't.

Now I know that Wikipedia is not always the most reliable source of info, but having said that the wiki about gapless playback seems to indicate that it does indeed have something to do with the file type in so much as that file type will often determine if the firmware and gapless system employed within the player will be able to properly detect the gapless nature of the file. The wiki also goes on to explain that lossless files such as flac and WAV are basically immune to gapless issues because they are automatically gapless by nature.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gapless_playback
 
Does anyone have any insight as to the issue I am having with my X3? Even accessing an album file via categotries does not produce gapless playback in albums that have tracks that blend together. I have never experienced this issue before and never realized how frustrating and annoying it can be. Has anyone else experienced this? Does anyone know if the next firmware upgrade will address this issue directly?

 

[kkcc]

Quote:

Now I know that Wikipedia is not always the most reliable source of info, but having said that the wiki about gapless playback seems to indicate that it does indeed have something to do with the file type in so much as that file type will often determine if the firmware and gapless system employed within the player will be able to properly detect the gapless nature of the file. The wiki also goes on to explain that lossless files such as flac and WAV are basically immune to gapless issues because they are automatically gapless by nature.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gapless_playback
 
Does anyone have any insight as to the issue I am having with my X3? Even accessing an album file via categotries does not produce gapless playback in albums that have tracks that blend together. I have never experienced this issue before and never realized how frustrating and annoying it can be. Has anyone else experienced this? Does anyone know if the next firmware upgrade will address this issue directly?

 
The "inherently gapless" of lossless files refers to the fact there isn't any algorithm required to determine the end of a track.
 
My understanding is that while the lossless files are inherently gapless, whether the player can play it without gap still depends on the firmware implementation - the player need to access the media to fetch data, and this usually involve having pre-fetching the next track into a buffer.  How effectively a player does this determines if gapless is achieved.  Issues could include the pre-fetching is not done or not done properly, the player does not know in advance which track is the next track until it finished playing one and then access the media to fetch the next, among others. Some player will relay on id3 tags for info required on gapless including end position and next track in album.  Hence we have some players that support gapless in album mode but not in folder mode.
 
Appreciate if anyone who had experience coding similar things to give a better explanation as I'm by no means a technical personal nor a programmer.

 

[ClieOS]

Quote:

I am pretty sure both you guys know this already but just in case: Gapless has nothing to do with the file type, i.e. Flac or MP3. Gapless is done by the players FW. It either does gapless playback or it doesn't.

 
Not the file type of course, but how well the firmware handles each file type differently.

 

[burtomr]

Quote:

 
Not the file type of course, but how well the firmware handles each file type differently.

I would hope that a DAP manufacturer would make sure that 'gapless' would work on any file type that the player can play.
 
If it only does 'gapless' on this file type, but not that file type, it would truly be a nightmare, but I'm sure it could happen....alas caveat emptor. lol

 

[ClieOS]

Quote:

I would hope that a DAP manufacturer would make sure that 'gapless' would work on any file type that the player can play.
 
If it only does 'gapless' on this file type, but not that file type, it would truly be a nightmare, but I'm sure it could happen....alas caveat emptor. lol

 
I would hope that there is no bug in any DAP, ever. But that is no to be. FiiO has acknowledged that the firmware has room for improvement, including the gapless support, and they already promise to work on it. If you can't stand that, I am not sure X3 will ever work for you and it is time to turn around and run away.

 

[ClieOS]

Just listen to Abbey Road by The Beatles in FLAC and I can confirm the gapless is working without any problem in 'category > album'.
 
Also though I'll mention this in case someone misses this - gapless playback needs to be enabled in the setting

 

[good sound]

Quote:

Just listen to Abbey Road by The Beatles in FLAC and I can confirm the gapless is working without any problem in 'category > album'.
 
Also though I'll mention this in case someone misses this - gapless playback needs to be enabled in the setting

Yes I have gapless playback enabled in the player settings but no matter what method I use to access the files in question, browse files or Categories/Album, gapless playback is not working. Is it possible i am doing something to cause this. If so what could it possibly be?
 
I have Abbey Road on CD. I will rip it into flac via EAC and transfer it to my X3 via JRiver Media Center and see what happens when I play it back through Categories/Album.

 

[hoichi]

Quote:

Yes I have gapless playback enabled in the player settings but no matter what method I use to access the files in question, browse files or Categories/Album, gapless playback is not working. Is it possible i am doing something to cause this. If so what could it possibly be?
 
I have Abbey Road on CD. I will rip it into flac via EAC and transfer it to my X3 via JRiver Media Center and see what happens when I play it back through Categories/Album.

Did you try to play the same album on your PC? Does it play without gaps?
Don't know whether JRiver supports gapless (though I guess it should) but you could always check with Foobar2000.

 

[ClieOS]

Also be sure your are on the latest firmware v1.25.

 

[good sound]

Yes the album files play fully gapless on my PC through JRiver MC18 or directly out of Windows Media Player and also on my previous portable player, which is a six year old Creative Zen. These are all  the exact same files, but for some reason when transferred to the X3 there is now a gap between each track when there should be none, regardless of which route I take within the X3 to play them back. Yes, I updated the firmware to 1.25 the day it came out, and yes I checked the settings menu on the X3 to ensure that is was installed correctly. I know it's a relatively minor thing and other than this one issue I really like the X3 but it's still frustrating and annoying and a little surprising given this day and age. I guess I'll just have to put up with it for now and hope that a firmware fix for this issue comes along soon, although I'm not so sure that the problem for me anyhow is the firmware, as unlike most people i can't get my X3 to play gapless at any time when the file contains tracks that flow into one another. What if a firmware fix comes along and doesn't alleviate the problem for me?

 

[burtomr]

Quote:

What if a firmware fix comes along and doesn't alleviate the problem for me?

 
You have (2) Choices:
 
#1: Bitch @ FiiO:   http://www.fiio.com.cn/support/
#2: HeadFi Classified:  http://www.head-fi.org/f/6552/source-components-for-sale-trade

 

[ClieOS]

Quote:

What if a firmware fix comes along and doesn't alleviate the problem for me?

 
You can sent a copy of the files in question to FiiO (just two files that supposed to be gapless in between should be enough) so they can analyse them and tell you what cause the problem and whether it can be fixed or not.

 

[ClieOS]

Alright, here is some FLAC music for those of you who wants to test gapless playback: MediaFire (6.14MB)
 
They are free of copyright, if anyone is concerned. I have confirmed they will work on X3, fw1.25, on both internal as well as TF memory.

 

[visanj]

Even after 100 hrs burn in I don't like the sound signature of X3. May be due to my IEM but not sure
 
I'm planning to sell my X3. If anyone is interested please let me know. I'm from India (would prefer to send it within India to avoid shipping problem)

 

[BillsonChang007]

would be nice to see comparison between these X3 vs DX50 from iBasso xD
 
Billson