[ngs428]

   
Nice - photos?

 
Sure, ask and you shall receive...
 

 

 

[Reality]

Just a quick first impression of X3II. FiiO has done a really wonderful job on the X3II. Its a beautiful little piece of kit. I have been smiling all afternoon. The sound is fantastic! I was listening to a 24/44khz remaster of Van Halen 5150 and Alex VanHalen was sitting in my living room and the drums were whipping around my head with a holographic presence I have never heard from a portable before. I can't wait to hook this into my home system and give it a try. I am Super impressed!. I will do a full review after I spend some more time with it but I would defiantly recommend the X3II to my friends and family. 

 

[WriterHead]

  I see some people talking about the organizing.
 
Doesn't the X3 have metatagging?  Sorting by title/artist/album as opposed to your folder layout or file-name on the sd card?
 
If it does already have this, whats the problem?

5800 songs limit.

 

[betula]

   
Each to their own I guess.
 
Mine was side by side
 
Alternative amp was NFB-12
 
Volume was matched to within 0.1 db using a calibrated meter.

I do not say, HD600 is bad straight out from the X3ii. But it definitely sounds much better with an amp.
And it is not just just the volume. (X3ii with high gain and volume around 100-110 is loud enough with HD600. Although, you push the X3 to the limits...)
Apart of volume what I gain with amping is bigger soundstage, more clarity, better separation, more body to the sound, more balance, etc... An overall "higher quality sound" impression...

 

[Brooko]

 
I do not say, HD600 is bad straight out from the X3ii. But it definitely sounds much better with an amp.
And it is not just just the volume. (X3ii with high gain and volume around 100-110 is loud enough with HD600. Although, you push the X3 to the limits...)
Apart of volume what I gain with amping is bigger soundstage, more clarity, better separation, more body to the sound, more balance, etc... An overall "higher quality sound" impression...

 
If that's what you hear - I'm not debating it with you

.  Like you, I heard a difference - but it was minimal, and properly volume matched the difference was in the bass presentation.
 
I'm just suggesting that the traits you mentioned:
 - bigger perceived soundstage
 - more perceived clarity
 - better perceived separation
etc
 
can also be manifested when one source is slightly louder than the other one 

 
But again - I'm not saying you're wrong - I'm just relaying my experience in comparison to yours.  Interestingly enough, I have a Luxury & Precision LP5 with me at the moment - and I can honestly say that the HD600 is stunning with it.  Enough power to fully drive the T1 as well. I never thought I'd get to the stage that a portable (if a little bulky) DAP would rival my desktop set-up.
 
I think you'd like this one.  Wish we weren't half a world away ......... 

 

 

[Bu11dog]

Curious, are you using the headphone plugged directly in to the line out? I only ask because you also mentioned high gain, which has no effect on the line out. High gain only affects the headphone out and you should never plug headphones directly in to the line out. It's dangerous for your headphones and for your ears.

Ops, thank you for catching my typo.  I am plugging into headphone out not line out.  I will try line out later this weekend with Pico Power.  So far really enjoying go through my headphone/ime collection with X3 ii without amp.  

 

[betula]

   
If that's what you hear - I'm not debating it with you

.  Like you, I heard a difference - but it was minimal, and properly volume matched the difference was in the bass presentation.
 
I'm just suggesting that the traits you mentioned:
 - bigger perceived soundstage
 - more perceived clarity
 - better perceived separation
etc
 
can also be manifested when one source is slightly louder than the other one 

 
But again - I'm not saying you're wrong - I'm just relaying my experience in comparison to yours.  Interestingly enough, I have a Luxury & Precision LP5 with me at the moment - and I can honestly say that the HD600 is stunning with it.  Enough power to fully drive the T1 as well. I never thought I'd get to the stage that a portable (if a little bulky) DAP would rival my desktop set-up.
 
I think you'd like this one.  Wish we weren't half a world away ......... 

 

Luxury & Precision LP5 must sound good. I am getting tempted to order a Headstage Arrow... People rave about it, you just have to wait months to get one.
Yes, a worldwide head-fi meeting would be fun. But at least we have these forums to share thoughts and experience. I doubt many head-fiers can share their audio joy with the people around them.
 

 

[Brooko]

I used to have an Arrow - fantastic amps.  Was actually very tempted to get another one - especially the newer combined DAC/amps Robert is releasing now (+ you can pick where you want the bass boost / changeable frequency).  Problem is that I probably wouldn't use it - especially with the likes of the X3ii and X5.  For my gear and my preferences - I really don't need to amp further (most of the time).
 
If you get the chance to try an Arrow (at a meet or something) - take it.  Great form factor.  Quality parts. Clean amplification.

 

[betula]

  I used to have an Arrow - fantastic amps.  Was actually very tempted to get another one - especially the newer combined DAC/amps Robert is releasing now (+ you can pick where you want the bass boost / changeable frequency).  Problem is that I probably wouldn't use it - especially with the likes of the X3ii and X5.  For my gear and my preferences - I really don't need to amp further (most of the time).
 
If you get the chance to try an Arrow (at a meet or something) - take it.  Great form factor.  Quality parts. Clean amplification.

Can you compare the Arrow to any desktop amp?

 

[Brooko]

  Can you compare the Arrow to any desktop amp?

 
Sorry mate - its been a good two years since I had my Arrow.  What I've learnt over that time changed my reviewing style quite a bit, and on a lot of things I've learnt not to trust my ears as much as I used to.
 
Here was the review from 2 years ago - http://www.head-fi.org/products/headstage-arrow-12he/reviews/9145
 
At the time I thought it was a really good amp, but not quite as good with the HD600 as the NFB-12 was.  I do remember it was very clean and very neutral (where the NFB-12 is slightly warm).  I'd imagine it would be the same with your Vali (cleaner and brighter).
 
If I ever get the chance again - I'll revisit, volume match, and hopefully be able to compare it to an iFi Micro iDSD (that hopefully should be here within a couple of weeks).

 

[leezhunjin]

IMHO the x3ii is just simply amazing at this price point, although the amp section of the player leaves much to be desired, the DAC section is wonderful. I only use lossless files, so the 5800 song limit isn't a problem.

 

[betula]

If I ever get the chance again - I'll revisit, volume match, and hopefully be able to compare it to an iFi Micro iDSD (that hopefully should be here within a couple of weeks).

That iFi Micro iDSD seems to be a very exciting unit as well...

 

[Tober138]

Just an FYI that Amazon dropped the prices on the Dignis leather cases for the 2nd Gen X3 to $29.95 yesterday (with free Prime shipping if you have that).

 

[Tober138]

  I see some people talking about the organizing.
 
Doesn't the X3 have metatagging?  Sorting by title/artist/album as opposed to your folder layout or file-name on the sd card?
 
If it does already have this, whats the problem?

 
The X3 will recognize metatagging.
 
The issues are:
 
1 - If you have more than 5800 songs on your card, only 5800 will be recognized in the library when you use the Artist or Album category from the "category menu", and only these 5800 will appear under "All Songs".  Using the "folder view" option, you can still access all files on the card.  But it is a bit of an annoyance, especially if you're looking to play all songs on your player or all songs by a single artist.  This was an issue with some firmware versions for the 1st gen X3, but it has been corrected in FW updates, so hopefully this will be corrected soon.
 
2 - When using the title / artist / song options, every time you open the menu you start with the first entry in the list, and have to scroll down to where you want to go.  There is no way to "jump" to a further point in the list (for example, jump to Artists starting with the letter, M").  This can be a bit of a pain if you have a lot of artists loaded onto the card and, hence, a long list to scroll through.
 
Also, while album artwork is recognized, it is not properly rendered - you get a bit of a zoom-in on the album art images and the edges are cropped off.
 
While these may seem like minor issues, what makes them particularly annoying is the fact that things like lack of song limits, better folder navigation and properly displayed album art are not new improvements in the world of portable, digital music players.  Players have existed for years without these issues, so there should be no reason why a new DAP made in 2015 should have these issues. Its kind of like getting a brand new smart phone that has an amazing quality screen and lightning-fast operation for apps and web-browsing, but has issues when actually trying to make a phone call.
 
Even more frustrating is that (on the 1st Gen X3), album art displayed properly and there was no song limit on earlier FW versions, but then they released later FW versions where these issues popped up (the former is corrected in the latest 1st Gen beta software, the other has not) - it comes across as that no one at Fiio quality checked the new FW and said, hey - this is an issue, we should correct it before we release it.
 
That aside, I think the X3 is an excellent quality player and I am happy enough with the sound quality and form factor of the device to begrudgingly deal with some of these UI issues for the time being, with a hope that they get resolved in a FW update in the near future.  But yeah, while the sound is awesome, the user interface is lacking in some respects.

 

[PSORngr]

   
Can't comment on the K7XX  - but can on the K615Pro, K701, K702 and Q701 - as I've owned all of those.  Their problem is that they are all not very efficient headphones, and although you can get them to a reasonable volume - even out of an iphone! - the bass goes AWOL.
 
I''ve seen a lot of people refer to the AKGs as bass light headphones - but they are surprisingly linear through the bass if they have enough current.  IMO they deifntiely need amping.  I used to have a link at one stage to someone who had taken measurements and made calculations of voltage and current required (comparing the HD650 to the K702).  The K702 at 62 ohm were actually much harder to drive than the 300 ohm HD650.
 
If I can find the link, I'll repost it - it was an interesting read.

Yeah, I picked up a pair of Q701's and an E12 with my purchase. I think the sound is a bit better when using the E12 (I also use the bass boost and the crossfeed on the E12).
I had no idea the difference between the line out and headphone out ports initially. Used the headphone port the first couple of times and needed the amp at nearly max since that seems to go with the X3ii's volume. Surprise of a lifetime the first time I turned it on with the amp hooked up to line out. Practically threw my headphones off.
*This is my first delve into nicer stuff. Had been using my Cowon J3 and Koss PortaPros for years.