[JaZZ]

I just discovered something incredible:
 
Comparing X3 II and X5 II via digital out and Chord Hugo revealed no sonic differences at all! They sound the same.
 
But that's not the point. I also compared the X5 II with the X5 via Hugo and Shure SE846. It's hard to believe, but they sound very different, even in the digital domain. The X5 has its well-know warmth with an analogue touch, sounds quite bassy. The X5 II sounds cleaner and more transparent and a little less bass-friendly. Shifting the X5's five EQ sliders below 1 kHz down by 0.4 dB at least brought the sonic balance closer, but the over-all impression of a clear sonic difference remained.
 
Those who own both (X3 II or X5 II and X5): Try the same and report your findings!
 
 

If the original x3 had a less colored sound signature it would be a highly desired item as it has hardware eq.

I really hope that the next x3 brings back that feature. And a display that can be seen in daylight.

 
Maybe the coloration has to do with the hardware equalizer. I own a Technics SH-9010 – a semi-professional parametric equalizer rated highly at its time – which colors the sound massively, sacrifices a lot of transparency. I don't expect hardware EQ components of the size necessary for portable players to be any more neutral and transparent. Electronics components are bad for the sound anyway.

 

[goodyfresh]

  I just discovered something incredible:
 
Comparing X3 II and X5 II via digital out and Chord Hugo revealed no sonic differences at all! They sound the same.
 
But that's not the point. I also compared the X5 II with the X5 via Hugo and Shure SE846. It's hard to believe, but they sound very different, even in the digital domain. The X5 has its well-know warmth with an analogue touch, sounds quite bassy. The X5 II sounds cleaner and more transparent and a little less bass-friendly. Shifting the X5's five EQ sliders below 1 kHz down by 0.4 dB at least brought the sonic balance closer, but the over-all impression of a clear sonic difference remained.
 
Those who own both (X3 II or X5 II and X5): Try the same and report your findings!
 
 
 
Maybe the coloration has to do with the hardware equalizer. I own a Technics SH-9010 – a semi-professional parametric equalizer rated highly at its time – which colors the sound massively, sacrifices a lot of transparency. I don't expect hardware EQ components of the size necessary for portable players to be any more neutral and transparent. Electronics components are bad for the sound anyway.

Huh.  That's really interesting, actually!

 

[maheeinfy]

Realised something today. X3ii alone cant power Alpha dogs properly, even on high gain.
 
Line out to E11K, and E11K on high gain, makes Alpha's sing. i am not talking about volume only. Most noticeable is the bass has more punch.
I thought with my purchase of X3ii, my brand new E11K was already obsolete in my setup. Good to know that E11K still has a meaningful place in my setup 

 

 

[jimmers]

However, I did not delete the cute meme of the doggy with glasses, since that part of the post was indisputably awesome

I though tdockweiler was visiting

 

[goodyfresh]

  Realised something today. X3ii alone cant power Alpha dogs properly, even on high gain.
 
Line out to E11K, and E11K on high gain, makes Alpha's sing. i am not talking about volume only. Most noticeable is the bass has more punch.
I thought with my purchase of X3ii, my brand new E11K was already obsolete in my setup. Good to know that E11K still has a meaningful place in my setup 

 

The headphones from Mr. Speakers require quite a bit more amping than is typical for headphones at their impedance-level, from what I've heard.  Yeah, the amp in the X3ii woudl not be able to drive them to even close to their max potential.  It's actually good to know that the E11k does a good job with them as I am planning on getting the Alpha Dogs or Alpha Prime someday in the future, and was wondering what amp I would need!
 
 

  I though tdockweiler was visiting

Huh?  What?  I. . .do not get that reference.  Lol.

 

[gonefishing]

  I just discovered something incredible:
 
Comparing X3 II and X5 II via digital out and Chord Hugo revealed no sonic differences at all! They sound the same.
 
But that's not the point. I also compared the X5 II with the X5 via Hugo and Shure SE846. It's hard to believe, but they sound very different, even in the digital domain. The X5 has its well-know warmth with an analogue touch, sounds quite bassy. The X5 II sounds cleaner and more transparent and a little less bass-friendly. Shifting the X5's five EQ sliders below 1 kHz down by 0.4 dB at least brought the sonic balance closer, but the over-all impression of a clear sonic difference remained.

 
Could the same be said (no sonic difference) when comparing the X3ii to the x5ii when using the line out to a portable amp?

 

[ngs428]

Further update! Righto then ... I've got an issue with some(??) files being corrupted when they are copied from my macbook/wd hd onto the Sandisk microsdxc 64gb card - but not copying the same file anywhere else!! Checked this out by using adaptor for said microsd card into my my macmini main digital audio setup: same files as per Fiio X3ii won't play. Copying same files from macbook onto mini desktop - no problem.

I'll get around to trying different copying strategies onto X3. Might try really limiting to say half an album at a time or less (the Cassandra Wilson 24/192 album is about 4gb). If anyone has heard of this sort of stuff before, please chime in ...

You can use the following utility to scan files to see if they will cause problems with the x3. Fiio sent it my way..

https://www.dropbox.com/s/91e70rgazxxk6nh/samediascanner.exe?dl=0

 

[jimmers]

  Huh?  What?  I. . .do not get that reference.  Lol.

allow me ...
http://www.head-fi.org/u/148711/tdockweiler

 

[goodyfresh]

  allow me ...
http://www.head-fi.org/u/148711/tdockweiler

I had no idea that someone uses that as their avatar!  It's just a meme I found online

 

[rkt31]

Hi, I want to use fiio x3 2nd gen as transport to Hugo Dac but supplied 4 pole to rca female cable in coaxial out mode gives distortion when fed to Hugo. May be I am missing something.

 

[JaZZ]

 

  I just discovered something incredible:
 
Comparing X3 II and X5 II via digital out and Chord Hugo revealed no sonic differences at all! They sound the same.
 
But that's not the point. I also compared the X5 II with the X5 via Hugo and Shure SE846. It's hard to believe, but they sound very different, even in the digital domain. The X5 has its well-know warmth with an analogue touch, sounds quite bassy. The X5 II sounds cleaner and more transparent and a little less bass-friendly. Shifting the X5's five EQ sliders below 1 kHz down by 0.4 dB at least brought the sonic balance closer, but the over-all impression of a clear sonic difference remained.

 
Could the same be said (no sonic difference) when comparing the X3ii to the x5ii when using the line out to a portable amp?

 
They don't sound identical. I don't own a portable amp, so I used the Corda Symphony for the comparison, driving the HiFiMan HE1000.
 
The X5 II sticks out with a more pronounced upper treble. After shifting the 16 kHz slider down by 0.6 dB the sonic balance of the two is similar. Hard to tell which is more accurate. Still the X5 II provides the slightly finer grain, a tiny bit higher resolution, with a hint of coolishness compared to the warmer, more organic X3 II. The X5 II does instrument layering in spatial depth slightly better, but this is only apparent in direct comparison. Without it, the two sound comparably realistic and enjoyable to my ears.
 
I used two homegrown Y cables with very similar geometry and wire material/configuration. Nevertheless the cables made a larger sonic difference than the players themselves (after the treble adaptation), so I had to swap the cables for a fair A/B comparison.
 
 

Hi, I want to use fiio x3 2nd gen as transport to Hugo Dac but supplied 4 pole to rca female cable in coaxial out mode gives distortion when fed to Hugo. May be I am missing something.

 
Try to push the plugs as far in as it gets! Maybe there's a bad contact. My two adapter cables (for X3 II and X5 II) work fine with the Hugo. How about the headphone plug in the Hugo's jack?

 

[martoediefroets]

Last Friday I got my x3ii and I love it !
I never thought my cheap mdr ex650ap would/could sound so good.
Only weird thing is that my x3ii seems to have a life of its own.
It randomly stops to play tracks or skips the track completely(mp3 and flac files). 
It even starts to play when paused..........!! Saturdaynight was the first time it woke me and last night i was treated to Eminem's Rap God at 3:47.
I have one of the NB: w233b with the box stock firmware 1.1.
Anybody had the same issue with the pausing or am i doing something wrong??? 

 

 

[Zweistein]

randomly stops to play tracks or skips the track completely

Never seen anything like that in 4 months. The only very minor bug I experienced, apart from odd behaviour in the UI, is that when forwarding or reversing through a particular heavily compressed MP3 file (speech only), the player freezes for seconds before continuing.
 
Maybe it's due to album art - there have been reports here of that. I didn't notice any trouble, but I've removed all album art from the files simply because I don't like how these pictures are stretched and interfere with the text displayed.
 
Or perhaps it's the memory card - can you try another?

 

[maheeinfy]

Last Friday I got my x3ii and I love it !
I never thought my cheap mdr ex650ap would/could sound so good.
Only weird thing is that my x3ii seems to have a life of its own.
It randomly stops to play tracks or skips the track completely(mp3 and flac files). 
It even starts to play when paused..........!! Saturdaynight was the first time it woke me and last night i was treated to Eminem's Rap God at 3:47.
I have one of the NB: w233b with the box stock firmware 1.1.
Anybody had the same issue with the pausing or am i doing something wrong??? :blink:  

I have a Sansaclip+ rockboxed that skips songs sometimes. Its annoying. I fixed the problem by not using it

My X3ii doesn't have any of those problems...or so i thought. It just skipped a song and when playing next track, it suddenly stopped playing and all i hear is constant buzz. I already faced an issue before with the electronics noises, but it was a one time deal, atleast so far. Looks like i might have to contact Fiio

 

[fooboo]

Got my etymotic hf5 iem-s. Not bad in this combination. Just two things
puzzled me enormously:
Amazon.de sent a box with buds with no additional parts. Default one is
good and looks fine. On the carton box I see a mention of accu tips and
filters and filter removal tool. Somebody has an insite? Sending back the
pack would be quite difficult, since I'm in a different country, than the one
box was sent to.
Spite I read I should insert iem-s deep, deep inside ear cannal, doing that
makes no desired effect. For me it is fine to just insert tip not to be seen. Mo-
ving it in and out, I found sweet spot and it was not as deep as possible.
Sorry to bother posters with mundane problem.
X3 and hf5? Not bad. Better than shure se210, zillion times.
Best regards.