The FiiO X3 2nd gen (ex X3K, X3II) Thread : 192K/24B, CS4398,Native DSD, USB DAC with LO and inline remote

[aaDee]

  What I'm referring to are the prices of the Fiio DAPs and the relatively higher price of the X3ii.
 
The current X5 costs $349.99 USD in the USA. Converted to Canadian dollars, that's $433.56 CAD. And the X5 price in Canada is $424.95 CAD. Even cheaper!
 
The new X1ii costs $99.99 USD in the USA. Converted to Canadian dollars, that's $124.23 CAD. And the X1ii price in Canada is $124.95 CAD. Close enough!
 
The new X3ii costs $199.99 USD in the USA. Converted to Canadian dollars, that's $248.45 CAD. But the X3ii price in Canada is $289.95 CAD. Why?

New X1ii ???

 

[imackler]

 
New X1ii ???

 
No new X1ii. Must have just been at typo. 

 

[dogmusic]

   
Your point is moot because even when the US and Canadian exchange rate is the same like it was through 2013, Canadian prices are still higher. 

Not at all. You don't explain why the X1 which came out recently is closer to the exchange rate than the X3ii.
 
(Sorry. I referred to the X1 as "X1ii" because it has a similar look to the X3ii.)

 

[aaDee]

   
No new X1ii. Must have just been at typo. 

ohh thank god..

 

[dogmusic]

I read the following review of the X3ii at B&H. Since I have no experience of the operating system of this DAP, I am hoping someone will comment on the difficulty the reviewer had with it and whether there is an easy way around his/her problem. Thanks in advance.
 
"Great sound, but I'm ready to smash it to bits.


By Len
from Mahwah, NJ


There's no doubt that the sound quality is excellent, but I am very sorry I purchased this device.

For some reason, after many years, my 80GB iPod Classic will no longer sync. with iTunes, and apparently I'm not the only one experiencing this this issue. After reading various reviews of Fiio products, which are overwhelmingly positive, I decided to give the X3 2nd Gen. a try.

Going into it, I knew that the user interface would be "clunky" compared to Apple, but I thought I would be able to live with it, not realizing just how much it would bother me. The main issue has to do with scrolling. You may have to spin that wheel thirty or forty times to get where you want to go, depending on the size of your collection. Also, some kind of "search" function would be extremely helpful, but if there is one, I haven't been able to find it.

But much more serious is the difficulty of transferring my music collection from iTunes to the X3. I'll give you an example. Suppose I drag and drop the first 1000 tracks from iTunes to the X3. After the transfer is complete, you run a function on the X3 called "Update Media Lib". I guess this is what organizes the files by the various categories - genre, artist, album, etc. So far, so good.

Then suppose I drag and drop another 500 tracks to the X3. This time, when I run the "Update Media Lib" function, the device freezes. This means that there is a file that the X3 doesn't "like" in that second batch of 500 tracks. Unfortunately, the device doesn't identify the problem tracks. Fiio customer service referred me to a utility called SAMedia (Windows only). This utility also does not specifically identify the bad track. It just tells you how many bad files there are in the batch of files you ran through the utility. So you have to do a kind of "binary search". Try the first 250 tracks. They're all good? Then try the next 250 tracks. Oh, there are two "bad files"? Then try the first 125 of that second group of 250. Continue like this until you're able to "zero in" on the bad tracks and eliminate them.

As cumbersome as that process is, and it is VERY cumbersome, it wouldn't be so bad if it worked, but Fiio told me that, unfortunately, there are some bad files that the utility is unable to identify.

Also, my experience has been that once the device has frozen, you must go back to square one. Using my example, if the first 1000 tracks transferred to the X3 are good, but the next 500 tracks cause the device to freeze, even if I were to remove those 500 tracks from the X3, the device would still freeze again during the next "Update Media Lib" function. The only thing to do at this point is to reformat the memory card and start all over again.

Will I keep the X3? I'm not sure. If I knew I would have all of these difficulties, I would never have purchased it in the first place, or maybe I would have chosen the lower priced X1 instead. After purchasing it, I re-ripped my entire CD collection in Apple Lossless format, and if those are the only files I transfer to the X3, I don't seem to have the problem with it freezing. So I could use it just for those. But it falls far short of my expectations. I had hoped to keep my entire audio collection on the X3, which in addition to CDs also includes numerous tracks purchased on iTunes, extensive "sound clips" from my Olympus recorder, and several downloaded audio courses from The Great Courses.

If Apple winds up releasing the rumored iPod Touch 6th Gen. later this year, I will probably purchase that. Does the X3 sound better than my iPod Classic? Probably. Is the sound quality so great that it makes up for the usability issues? I'm sure it does for some people, but definitely not for me."

 

[dbdynsty25]

That entire review is fairly accurate, but then again, any player dealing with corrupted MP3s or whatever is going to have the same issue.  It does bother me that there is no way to search and you have to scroll and scroll when you've got a giant audio collection on a 128gb card.  The way around that is using folder view...that way you can organize your SD card by letter, or by groups of letters (like A-F, G-K, etc.) so the scrolling is less obnoxious.  That's really the only way around it.

 

[Smurfs2010]

 The main issue has to do with scrolling. You may have to spin that wheel thirty or forty times to get where you want to go, depending on the size of your collection. Also, some kind of "search" function would be extremely helpful, but if there is one, I haven't been able to find it.
But much more serious is the difficulty of transferring my music collection from iTunes to the X3. I'll give you an example. Suppose I drag and drop the first 1000 tracks from iTunes to the X3. After the transfer is complete, you run a function on the X3 called "Update Media Lib". I guess this is what organizes the files by the various categories - genre, artist, album, etc. So far, so good.

 
The scroll wheel takes time to get used to as the clicks don't correlate to whats happening on the screen.  Yes, this is a nuisance but it's not a major flaw.  As for the freezing and transferring of data, I have had zero problems but I don't use iTunes.  I find iTunes software to be a royal pain.  The X3ii unit OS isn't an iOS, it's a MS Windows like product

.  I am very happy with my unit.

 

[Smurfs2010]

  That entire review is fairly accurate, but then again, any player dealing with corrupted MP3s or whatever is going to have the same issue.  It does bother me that there is no way to search and you have to scroll and scroll when you've got a giant audio collection on a 128gb card.  The way around that is using folder view...that way you can organize your SD card by letter, or by groups of letters (like A-F, G-K, etc.) so the scrolling is less obnoxious.  That's really the only way around it.

 
Yup, that's how I do it.

 

[aaDee]

Ordered mine from ebay.in.....cant wait to listen the mind boggling sound

 

[ZMan2k2]

I can't find any hard and fast numbers on the amp output of either the X3ii or the X5ii. I'd like to get better numbers than what's on the FiiO website, which is >225 @ 32ohm for the X3ii, and >245 @32ohm for the X5ii. I'd like some firm numbers so I can compare, and decide if I want to upgrade when the X5ii comes out. I'd like to be getting about 300mW @ 32ohm, so I can make sure I'm driving my Aurisonics 2.5s properly, without a stack, as I want to keep it pocketable. If the X3ii already does this, then I can forget the X5ii, and just enjoy what I have.

 

[dogmusic]

  That entire review is fairly accurate, but then again, any player dealing with corrupted MP3s or whatever is going to have the same issue.  It does bother me that there is no way to search and you have to scroll and scroll when you've got a giant audio collection on a 128gb card.  The way around that is using folder view...that way you can organize your SD card by letter, or by groups of letters (like A-F, G-K, etc.) so the scrolling is less obnoxious.  That's really the only way around it.

Thanks for that tip!

 

[dogmusic]

   
The scroll wheel takes time to get used to as the clicks don't correlate to whats happening on the screen.  Yes, this is a nuisance but it's not a major flaw.  As for the freezing and transferring of data, I have had zero problems but I don't use iTunes.  I find iTunes software to be a royal pain.  The X3ii unit OS isn't an iOS, it's a MS Windows like product

.  I am very happy with my unit.

I won't be using iTunes either, but will be transferring audio files from an external hard drive. Should I set up a folder system specifically for the X3ii?

 

[dbdynsty25]

 
I won't be using iTunes either, but will be transferring audio files from an external hard drive. Should I set up a folder system specifically for the X3ii?

 
You can certainly do it on the external drive to save time transferring to the SD card, but that seems silly because future players might be able to search and scroll faster.  So you're better off just spending the time doing the new folder structure on the MicroSD card prior to the X3II arriving (assuming u haven't got one already).

 

[svalentine]

I went ahead and purchased the FiiO X3 2nd gen. This will be my first player that natively supports FLAC. I'm coming from being a long time iPhone user. Anyways I will be pairing the device with my Shure SE535 IEMS. I'm very excited on how this combination will perform. I'm sure an amp won't be required for these IEMs, but I may pick one up to get the exact sound I want. Also ordered a Sandisk Ultra 128GB card and some Comply T-100 tips for my Shure buds.
 
I was wondering if anyone else is currently using a similar set up? 

 

[dogmusic]

   
You can certainly do it on the external drive to save time transferring to the SD card, but that seems silly because future players might be able to search and scroll faster.  So you're better off just spending the time doing the new folder structure on the MicroSD card prior to the X3II arriving (assuming u haven't got one already).

No, I haven't got one yet. In fact, I'm still wondering whether to wait for the X5ii, but reviews and comparisons are slow in coming. What little has leaked out does not sound like a huge difference between the two units.