[bhabba]

   
Don't really know about any 'fatal' bugs in X3. I have been using it since it is out and it only gets more stable after every firmware update. In fact, mine hasn't crash since 3 firmware update ago, which is over a few months now (*provided my files are pretty well sorted to begin with). I don't want to point finger at you or suggest that X3 has a flawless firmware, but if those 'fatal' bugs keeps happening to you, over a certain files, you might want to consider there is a possibility that the problem might lie in your files instead of the player. Or maybe it is an old DB leftover from last firmware update and can be fixed by restoring the default setting / format the player. What I am trying to say is, there might be something you can do on your end to fix the problem. I know this because I used to have some oddly encoded files that will crash some DAP before (but play fine on PC). I re-encode them and now they are problem free. So it might not always be the problem of the player.
 
You also have to realize just saying 'X3 freezes' doesn't actual help the firmware team to narrow down any bugs. They need to know precisely what kind of situation that causes the freeze (for example, a certain file) before that can find out why it happens and try to fix it. If they don't know why it happens, then they will have to keep trying to make it happens again (which will not be easy if their X3 is as stable as mine) and that will take much more time.

I don't know in which parallel universe you and your X3 are living, but these freezes and quite a lot of other glitches are just REAL! I've listened to my music for about 40 hours with my X3 and already experienced 3 freezes, multiple display errors and some other strange behaviour with the HOLD button. To shift the responsibility of those issues to the user and his/her files is simply a colossal cheek in my humble opinion! Your attempted whitewashing of the situation won't be helpful for any X3 user either! Faulty files never are a legitimate reason for a device to freeze but rather an indication of bad software engineering! I'm always a promoter of constructive feedback and of course you're right about your demand of more detailed bug descriptions but for that the corresponding bugzilla page would be way more suitable than this forum! There is quite a lot of eulogy for all kind of devices here at head-fi, so some criticism – especially if it is applicable – is just a matter of pluralism!
 

 

[bhabba]

  About the bug (for those who don't know already)
- nothing to do with encoding (unless FLAC does encode "oddly"). Tried various levels from 0-8, no difference
- I have no idea whether the bug appears with other formats and I personally don't care about mp3, ogg and the lot - this is a high res player
- is highly dependent on whether X3 is set to Gapless or not (without gapless option it nearly never happens but it still does from time to time, with gapless turned on the first or second track transition causes the freeze, where you can only "hard reset" the unit by reset button or play button pressing for >10s)
- happens on two X3 players in my "vicinity" the same way, since fw 2.1.
- Since November 2013 I can choose to revert to fw 2.05 (where it doesn't happen - so much for my "oddly encoded" files) and have either an unusable file browser due to chaos-sorting or have to click until my fingers bleed running through albums in the category mode) or turn off gapless (which I currently do, but personally I wouldn't have bought the X3(s) without the gapless feature advertised
- I checked for behavioral differences between internal flash and the TF card - happens to both in the same way.
- I wiped (and erased, yes I am capable to check "show hidden files" and "show system files" in the Explorer) the database several times - no effect on the bug.
For those who use gapless with 2.1 and don't encounter the problem: congratulations! Maybe FiiO changed something or their hardware suppliers had a bad batch of chips produced - I don't know. Hopefully they will combine the working gapless function (or let me say more stable playback routine) of 2.05 with the orderly sorting in browser mode of 2.1 and I'm satisfied. But still can't recommend the X3 (or the others) to anyone else.

Nice and comprehensive collection of information around this problem! Would you mind adding it as a comment to the corresponding bug report at FiiO's bugzilla page?

 

[Marlene]

  About the bug (for those who don't know already)
- nothing to do with encoding (unless FLAC does encode "oddly"). Tried various levels from 0-8, no difference
- I have no idea whether the bug appears with other formats and I personally don't care about mp3, ogg and the lot - this is a high res player
- is highly dependent on whether X3 is set to Gapless or not (without gapless option it nearly never happens but it still does from time to time, with gapless turned on the first or second track transition causes the freeze, where you can only "hard reset" the unit by reset button or play button pressing for >10s)
- happens on two X3 players in my "vicinity" the same way, since fw 2.1.
- Since November 2013 I can choose to revert to fw 2.05 (where it doesn't happen - so much for my "oddly encoded" files) and have either an unusable file browser due to chaos-sorting or have to click until my fingers bleed running through albums in the category mode) or turn off gapless (which I currently do, but personally I wouldn't have bought the X3(s) without the gapless feature advertised
- I checked for behavioral differences between internal flash and the TF card - happens to both in the same way.
- I wiped (and erased, yes I am capable to check "show hidden files" and "show system files" in the Explorer) the database several times - no effect on the bug.
For those who use gapless with 2.1 and don't encounter the problem: congratulations! Maybe FiiO changed something or their hardware suppliers had a bad batch of chips produced - I don't know. Hopefully they will combine the working gapless function (or let me say more stable playback routine) of 2.05 with the orderly sorting in browser mode of 2.1 and I'm satisfied. But still can't recommend the X3 (or the others) to anyone else.

 
Boy, this IS a perfect overview of this particular problem!

 

[ClieOS]

  For those who use gapless with 2.1 and don't encounter the problem: congratulations! Maybe FiiO changed something or their hardware suppliers had a bad batch of chips produced - I don't know. Hopefully they will combine the working gapless function (or let me say more stable playback routine) of 2.05 with the orderly sorting in browser mode of 2.1 and I'm satisfied. But still can't recommend the X3 (or the others) to anyone else.

 
I guess I am few of the lucky one. Have had gapless on all the time (it is the first option I turn on after every firmware update) and never had any freeze issue so far. Or maybe I am just in the parallel universe typing this post through a wormhole

. Then again, I don't really have many gapless album in my collection. So maybe it is (gapless) tag related? Try remove all the gapless album from your music and only load in non-gapless music and see if it freeze just as easy, then add back the gapless album and compare. If the freezing occur most with gapless album, then we know where to look at.
 
p/s: I just listened to my X3 last night for almost 6 hours continuously, gapless on of course - no crash, no freeze, no any problem.

 

[gatucho]

My "critical" bug list:
1)THE FIIO X3 DOES NOT SUPPORT MP3s.
 
There, that's my bug report. If it is not considered a bug, then my which list:
1)Please, add MP3 support for the X3.
 
"But the X3 already supports MP3 decoding" you say? Well, I dont want to sound harsh but, you must be deaf then. I someone really says that the X3 sounds, not better but equally as cleaner as other DAPs, say the clip+ or any average cell phone, then they really need to see the audiologist.
 
Please FIIO, delete the MP3 support from the X3 specs or really add it. As is, the claim that the X3 can decode MP3 is just as bogus as non-fat gourmet ice-cream.

 

[ClieOS]

  My "critical" bug list:
1)THE FIIO X3 DOES NOT SUPPORT MP3s.
 
There, that's my bug report. If it is not considered a bug, then my which list:
1)Please, add MP3 support for the X3.
 
"But the X3 already supports MP3 decoding" you say? Well, I dont want to sound harsh but, you must be deaf then. I someone really says that the X3 sounds, not better but equally as cleaner as other DAPs, say the clip+ or any average cell phone, then they really need to see the audiologist.
 
Please FIIO, delete the MP3 support from the X3 specs or really add it. As is, the claim that the X3 can decode MP3 is just as bogus as non-fat gourmet ice-cream.

 
There is some problem with the mp3 decoder in the current firmware (mainly high noise floor), which we already discussed in the main X3 thread over at the portable gear forum a few weeks back. I believe FiiO is already working on a fix.

 

[ngs428]

I have been using the lyrics display function.  It seems to work OK, but I would like to see the removal of the image that is shown below the lyrics.  Sometimes the lyrics are choppy in flow and limited lines of lyrics are displayed because of this image.  The image looks to be half a record...  A full lyrics display would make the most sense to me.
 
Thanks James for the great work so far!

 

[dmurray0]

First time poster, seen the thread and tried to get an answer from the 500 plus pages but didn't see any.I've had my x3 for about 6 weeks now and it has recently started to shows signs of a fault. I have a mixture of flac/mp3 etc on the player and have a lot of mp3 DJ mixes on it. These mixes would be 1-2 hours long and played fine until a few days ago. Now, when I go to fast forward parts of the mix, the fast forward mechanism appears faulty. For example, if I want to fast forward to 40 minutes in and keep the buttom held until the 40 minute mark and then press play I expect the 40 minute track to play, but the song playing would only be about 5-6 minutes into the mix. I have tried this on numerous mixes, on a different TF card, internal and external storage. I am running FW 2.1 at present. I've tried reformatting via the X3 itself or with the PC, playing various formats but the problem still exists. Any clues what to do?

 

[fburgos01]

That's weird on mine if I pause a song and fast forward the song plays instantly without pressing play again

Have you tried fast forward while playing


The largest song I have is 23 min flac but can't reproduce that issue

 

[vincik]

I want this:
 
1. gapless without freezing
2. simple lyric text over whole display with possibility to scroll up and down
 
any idea when we can expect new firmware?

 

[JukeBoxJimmy]

Stops playing with FLAC files and always after forth track. Then each track after has to be started manually................Jim

 

[angeche]

I also experience quite frequently crashes. I play FLAC files.

Also I have noticed failures in gapless playback. I was listening to a classical 196/24 flac file. It was pretty painful, because the piece was divided in very short files....firmware is 2.1

Do not take me wrong: sound quality is so strong that I am ready to withstand crashes. In fact, I have ordered the X5......

 

[angeche]

I also experience quite frequently crashes. I play FLAC files.

Also I have noticed failures in gapless playback. I was listening to a classical 196/24 flac file. It was pretty painful, because the piece was divided in very short files....firmware is 2.1

Do not take me wrong: sound quality is so strong that I am ready to withstand crashes. In fact, I have ordered the X5......

And now, the same track is playing perfectly well in gapless way…. very disconcerting…..

 

[angeche]

  And now, the same track is playing perfectly well in gapless way…. very disconcerting…..

And now, it stops playing gapless at the end of the 4th song…..and freezes, and I need to reboot…….

 

[BRCMRGN]

The X3 software is so flakey that I am going to drop it in the trash when the X5 arrives. I would be too embarrassed to sell the X3 to anyone. Granted, the DX50 software isn't much better, so it will probably end up in the same trash can. Fortunately, HIFIMAN, Astell & Kern, Google, Sansa and even Apple can all write software the can read and understand tags, play all bits in a track without freezing and not crash hourly. I just hope that the X5 code was stolen from one of the other companies and not written by the X3 programmers.