[HiFiChris]

Seems so.
 
I actually don't blame FiiO for that though, they've provided the community with FW updates for the X3 for long enough (compared to Apple or any other smartphone manufacturer for example).
 
 

 

[HWTest]

IMHO it's not how long, what's important but if there are any bugs left in the final version ...

 

[jkauff]

  IMHO it's not how long, what's important but if there are any bugs left in the final version ...

There are always bugs left in the final version of any software, believe me. Fiio has supported the original X3 with software updates well past the discontinuation date--that's pretty rare in itself.
 
I think James and Joe Bloggs and the rest of the team have done very well by us early customers. Who could have imagined at the beginning that we'd be using 128GB cards in our X3s today?
 
Personally, I count this is one of the best consumer electronics investments I've ever made. If this thing ever dies (and it's built like a tank), I'll be buying whatever Fiio is selling at the time.

 

[HWTest]

Sorry, but I don't share you opinion on this.

 

[AluminumHaste]

@HWTest, what bugs are you still having?

 

[HWTest]

The most annoying (for me) is this bug - when playing FLACs with a cue sheet (the whole album as one file, tracks defined by the cue sheet) I get gaps between the tracks, not always but very often. That's very disturbing! More details are here: http://www.head-fi.org/t/651769/the-fiio-x3-thread/16785#post_12068292
The tags display problem.
Cropped album art.
Not verified but I have the feeling, that with the introduction of the equalizer (even when off), the digital output is no longer bitperfect.
And there is more but these are the bugs, which are bothering me.

 

[TheGiantHogweed]

  The most annoying (for me) is this bug - when playing FLACs with a cue sheet (the whole album as one file, tracks defined by the cue sheet) I get gaps between the tracks, not always but very often. That's very disturbing! More details are here: http://www.head-fi.org/t/651769/the-fiio-x3-thread/16785#post_12068292
The tags display problem.
Cropped album art.
Not verified but I have the feeling, that with the introduction of the equalizer (even when off), the digital output is no longer bitperfect.
And there is more but these are the bugs, which are bothering me.

We all seem to get bothered by different issues. None of these really bother me a huge amount. As I have said before, I have never really noticed gapless problems other that a really quiet pop.
 
Cropped art wouldn't actually bother me if it wasn't for the fact that it was actually correct on FW 3.0 and below as it wasn't zoomed in.
 
The tags problem does still seem to be there, I agree with that. I must have just got used to it to the point it doesn't bother me.
 
 
There is a problem that IMO is by far the biggest bug that the X3 has. When you use the quick menu and select song info, then press the return button to get back to the now playing screen, it skips to a totally random position on the track that is playing. Or, it skips to another track and displays the wrong track title. That makes very little sense as to why this would happen. It is quite annoying if you have lots of tracks that are over 15 minutes like I do. 
 
There are ways of getting round it. It only seems to do this if you set the X3 to remember the track position for when it is turned off. It also only does this if you go to the quick menu when the player has been turned on without selecting a song to play. I think it is a memory play issue. From the now playing screen, if you press the back button once and then select the track that is playing, that bug will not occur again until the player has got turned off and on again. If you remember to do this, at least you don't risk loosing your track position when looking at the song info.

 

[ahmedg23]

The other solution to the Quick Menu issue is to long-press the back button after selecting your Quick Menu option.
 
That will get you back to the main screen instead of the Now Playing screen, but no annoying starting the track from another position.
 
Then just select Now Playing to get back to that screen.
 
Learned that from this thread a long time ago. FWIW, I don't have the latest firmware.

 

[HWTest]

@TheGiantHogweed that's exactly, what I mean.
I've deleted the cue sheet files to get rid of the gaps (no big deal, I listen mostly to whole albums), which means I have an album long "tracks", which means I have to use track position memory.
Now I want to know what album I'm listening to and because it displays track name instead of the tag (no matter what you set up), I have to go to the info through the quick menu and when I go back it skip somewhere random ...
And this FiiO calls final firmware - no, I'm not happy and I'm not a satisfied customer.
 
Where would FiiO be without us early adopters, when nobody would buy they X3 until the firmware would be mature enough? And the reward for us is EOL with this final firmware?
 
 
I have a 10 years old iRiver H-140, I bought it when it was already EOL, it has firmware 1.66 and it simply works.
I'm pretty sure it has some bugs but I haven't encountered them, so I'm happy and satisfied with it.
I have also a H-10 and a S-10 - the same counts for them.
So it is possible.

 

[TheGiantHogweed]

  @TheGiantHogweed that's exactly, what I mean.
I've deleted the cue sheet files to get rid of the gaps (no big deal, I listen mostly to whole albums), which means I have an album long "tracks", which means I have to use track position memory.
Now I want to know what album I'm listening to and because it displays track name instead of the tag (no matter what you set up), I have to go to the info through the quick menu and when I go back it skip somewhere random ...
And this FiiO calls final firmware - no, I'm not happy and I'm not a satisfied customer.
 
Where would FiiO be without us early adopters, when nobody would buy they X3 until the firmware would be mature enough? And the reward for us is EOL with this final firmware?
 
 
I have a 10 years old iRiver H-140, I bought it when it was already EOL, it has firmware 1.66 and it simply works.
I'm pretty sure it has some bugs but I haven't encountered them, so I'm happy and satisfied with it.
I have also a H-10 and a S-10 - the same counts for them.
So it is possible.

I have the iAudio X5L which is pretty old now. It just stopped working in one channel both in the line and headphone out. I had that running Rockbox. Maybe the track details just aren't as important for me as I think the X3 shows all the relevant information on the now playing screen for my needs. On that playing screen, the only extra thing my X5L showed was the year. That is if that was in the track information. However, I must say that the X3 interface felt lacking in features since I was used to rockbox. However, the audio quality is so much better that I just seemed to get over most of the niggles with the X3.
 
Just thought of another thing that I think FiiO really should have added. A quick scrolling function. I mainly have 320kbps Mp3s and it took forever getting through about 55gb to find an album. I wish there was a way to jump through it. On my X5L with Rockbox, I hold the button down and it speeds up as it is held down. If only the X3 did this.
 
I have created folders call A - H, I - Q and R - Z and once my 128GB card gets close to full, I will probably have to create more like this. Maybe this is the issue with putting on music that doesn't take up much space - you can get more on! At least, it seems a bit of a problem on the X3. I also think that the navigation in the browse files section seems to have got to be a bit slower as my card gets more on it.

 

[HWTest]

Yes, Rockbox - I love it!
I'm using it in dual boot on the H140 and H10.
FiiO (and others) could learn a lot from Rockbox

 

[Allan Day]

 
There are always bugs left in the final version of any software, believe me. Fiio has supported the original X3 with software updates well past the discontinuation date--that's pretty rare in itself.
 
I think James and Joe Bloggs and the rest of the team have done very well by us early customers. Who could have imagined at the beginning that we'd be using 128GB cards in our X3s today?
 
Personally, I count this is one of the best consumer electronics investments I've ever made. If this thing ever dies (and it's built like a tank), I'll be buying whatever Fiio is selling at the time.

Totally agree with you on all points; the sound is stellar for those of us who are particular about how we listen to our music.
 
Speaking of 128GB cards, I'm upgrading from my 64GB Transcend and was looking for some suggestions on which to purchase.  Reading random reviews can be a bit daunting and they usually don't apply to DAP read/write speeds (I sync from my library with Dapper.)  Any suggestions?

 

[jkauff]

  Totally agree with you on all points; the sound is stellar for those of us who are particular about how we listen to our music.
 
Speaking of 128GB cards, I'm upgrading from my 64GB Transcend and was looking for some suggestions on which to purchase.  Reading random reviews can be a bit daunting and they usually don't apply to DAP read/write speeds (I sync from my library with Dapper.)  Any suggestions?

I've used SanDisk Ultra cards almost exclusively. Never had a problem with any of them, including the 128GB card. Read speeds have never been an issue. I don't write directly to the X3, I use a USB 3.0 MicroSD adapter plugged into my computer when I'm loading up the card, and the speeds are about as high as you can expect for MicroSD.

 

[Allan Day]

Nice!

 

[Allan Day]

 
I've used SanDisk Ultra cards almost exclusively. Never had a problem with any of them, including the 128GB card. Read speeds have never been an issue. I don't write directly to the X3, I use a USB 3.0 MicroSD adapter plugged into my computer when I'm loading up the card, and the speeds are about as high as you can expect for MicroSD.

Perfect.  Thanks so much for the info.  After doing more research, that's exactly what I ordered.  What do you use to handle customized playlists, or do you just load the card with albums and then switch them out manually?  Part of the issue I've run into is that, beyond using Dapper, which is a great app by the way, it's been laborious to keep track of all the music I want to load and swap out, even on a 64GB card.  I can't imagine what that would be like on a card double that size.