[Dobrescu George]

  Is the new Fiio A5 a good pairing with X3 II? How's sound improving?

 
The short answer would be yes - especially given your other question. 
 
The long answer is that I would really recommend you to listen before buying A5 has a very unique signature that many love - it should sound musical, smooth, sweet and there should be more bass and blacker background - if it sounds like E12A, as they use similar circuits. 
 
On the other hand, I don't know for sure if E12A and A5 have the same sound.. 
 

  +4, +2, +2 and last to -2, -2.....sounds better instantly. Thanks.

 
Glad I could be of help!!

 

[weekendtoy]

Hi all,
 
This is my first portable player since a Sony Discman from the early 90's. 
 
So yes, it's been awhile and the learning curve has been a bit steep and somewhat daunting.
 
The daunting part is that at the same time, I'm uploading my CD collection to FLAC using Foobar2000.  Storing files on an external 2TB drive.  I spent the better part of a day and got through Aerosmith so this is going to take awhile.
 
Two questions (for now);
 
1.  What is the best way get newly uploaded files from the external drive to the X3?  Currently I'm dragging files over, using Microsoft's library area.  I don't necessarily want to have every album I upload to the external drive be placed on the X3.  So perhaps this is the best way.
 
2.  What is the Gain and ReplayGain options for in the system settings?
 
 
Observation;
 
Just for fun I tried my Beyerdynamic DT880 600ohms headphones with the X3.  I was surprised that the X3 had no problem driving the headphones.  Granted the speaker level was on 110 and the sound, while at a very comfortable listening level, wasn't exactly ear splitting either.

 

[Dobrescu George]

  Hi all,
 
This is my first portable player since a Sony Discman from the early 90's. 
 
So yes, it's been awhile and the learning curve has been a bit steep and somewhat daunting.
 
The daunting part is that at the same time, I'm uploading my CD collection to FLAC using Foobar2000.  Storing files on an external 2TB drive.  I spent the better part of a day and got through Aerosmith so this is going to take awhile.
 
Two questions (for now);
 
1.  What is the best way get newly uploaded files from the external drive to the X3?  Currently I'm dragging files over, using Microsoft's library area.  I don't necessarily want to have every album I upload to the external drive be placed on the X3.  So perhaps this is the best way.
 
2.  What is the Gain and ReplayGain options for in the system settings?
 
 
Observation;
 
Just for fun I tried my Beyerdynamic DT880 600ohms headphones with the X3.  I was surprised that the X3 had no problem driving the headphones.  Granted the speaker level was on 110 and the sound, while at a very comfortable listening level, wasn't exactly ear splitting either.

 
Gain is the setting that sets the gain of X3ii's AMP section - if you need more power / volume. You generally want this on high if your headphones require it.
 
ReplayGain is the setting that decides if your ReplayGain tags are read and if the volume is adjusted accordingly. You generally want this turned off unless you applied and managed it personally as some of the settings can break your experience - happened in my situation. 

 

[bms44974]

  1.  What is the best way get newly uploaded files from the external drive to the X3?  Currently I'm dragging files over, using Microsoft's library area.  I don't necessarily want to have every album I upload to the external drive be placed on the X3.  So perhaps this is the best way.

1) format the SD card in the X3ii
2) on 2TB disk, create your library of albums in folders by artist and album with tracks ordered within folder
3) take the SD card out of the X3ii and, using an adapter, mount the SD card on your computer
4) copy all folders (that will fit) onto the SD card,
5) dismount SD card
6) put card in X3ii
7) enjoy!
 
Cheers... Brian

 

[triplew]

Gain is the setting that sets the gain of X3ii's AMP section - if you need more power / volume. You generally want this on high if your headphones require it.

ReplayGain is the setting that decides if your ReplayGain tags are read and if the volume is adjusted accordingly. You generally want this turned off unless you applied and managed it personally as some of the settings can break your experience - happened in my situation. 

May I know how's your experience of the High gain? Do u find it useful? Or you prefer connecting to another Amp for higher power output?

 

[Dobrescu George]

May I know how's your experience of the High gain? Do u find it useful? Or you prefer connecting to another Amp for higher power output?

 
Most of times I do just fine with High gain 

 
E12A was used a lot when I used to own it, if this helps but high gain is enough power wise for me 

 

[weekendtoy]

So the only trade off when using high gain is shortened battery life.

 

[Dobrescu George]

  So the only trade off when using high gain is shortened battery life.

 
I think so. I haven't noticed a major decrease in battery life when using high gain though. 

 

[DavidA]

  So the only trade off when using high gain is shortened battery life.

Tried to see if the high gain setting uses the battery faster but it was with my X1, after 8 hours on high gain it was still going, battery indicator at one bar.  A few days later set on low gain and after 8 hours it was still going and the battery indicator was at 1 bar.  It could be that using the low gain with the same headphone causes me to turn the volume level up higher so there is really no power saving which makes sense to me.

 

[Dobrescu George]

  Tried to see if the high gain setting uses the battery faster but it was with my X1, after 8 hours on high gain it was still going, battery indicator at one bar.  A few days later set on low gain and after 8 hours it was still going and the battery indicator was at 1 bar.  It could be that using the low gain with the same headphone causes me to turn the volume level up higher so there is really no power saving which makes sense to me.

 
That would also sum up my explanation for no real power consumption differences 

 
Some peple said that high gain sounds exactly the same as low gain - in my experience I get something like a feeling that HG is better so I'm using it for the time being. 

 

[DavidA]

   
That would also sum up my explanation for no real power consumption differences 

 
Some peple said that high gain sounds exactly the same as low gain - in my experience I get something like a feeling that HG is better so I'm using it for the time being. 

I think the only way that going from low to high gain would change the sound is if the output impedance is affected, or its a different set of op-amps being used for low gain versus high gain and since none of these is going on with the X3ii there shouldn't be any change in the sound between low and high gain as explained to me by an electrical engineer while having a few beers so take this explanation with a grain of salt.

 

[triplew]

Most of times I do just fine with High gain 

E12A was used a lot when I used to own it, if this helps but high gain is enough power wise for me 

Thanks for sharing

 

[Dobrescu George]

Is there a thread or collection to all X3ii custom FW and UIs? 

 

[javre76]

No that I am aware of. If you want to create one, I have my custom FWs links on my signature.

 

[Dane]

Been away for a while. Anyway, just upgraded X3II fw to 2.0 and they managed to ruin gapless for flac, What (MP3 never worked gapless for me). Down-graded to fw 1.6 and gapless flac works. They *still* didn't add acceleration when scrolling through albums etc. with the keys, LOL.