[JamesFiiO]

  I have some problems with the X3.
 
I started to use WMA Professional (please, no comments about its inferiority/uselessness/etc., I use it to conserve storage space) in 24/96. Files are encoded with 440 kBit/s CBR, 2-pass. They pose some problems with the FiiO. Playing them, it sometimes crashes (not on the same files).
 
Behaviour is always like this: X3 is starting to play one of these files, switches its display off (I configured it to 30 seconds) and when I then press a button the FiiO doesn´t react anymore. It´ll play the song to its end though, after that it simply stops playback but stays switched on (I can remove the headphone and can still hear the click of the relay, as though the FiiO is 'thinking' that it still is playing back). The solution to this problem always is a reset. This is not very convenient.
 
Another thing: those 24/96 WMA Professional files are decoded as 16/96. 24/48 WMA Professional files are however decoded as 24/48. Doesn´t make sense to me.
 
I would be glad if these problems could be solved as WMA Professional is a well sounding lossy HiRes format which conserves lots of storage space compared to FLAC or APE.

 
please send email to support@fiio.net and find a way share you music with us. we need the music files to check out what happened .

 

[Marlene]

   
please send email to support@fiio.net and find a way share you music with us. we need the music files to check out what happened .

 
Thanks for the answer, James. Email has been written, a selection of files has been uploaded. Hope they will be enough.

 

[sad cricket]

  Would this player really be a noticeable upgrade in terms of the sound quality compared to something like an iPod or Sansa Clip Zip?  I'm using 16/44 CD-quality files, listening with Audio Technica ATH-M50 headphones.

I actually have the STH-M50 headphones and an iPod classic.  I can say if you ripped a CD quality music to an X3 and then to an iPod Classic and compared the sound, that you would more than likely tell the difference.  The X3 has a superior amp, dac, and headphone jack compared to the iPod.  The difference is hard to quantify but if pressed I would say a 30%  better in overall fidelity.  
 
Of course the X3 is capable of playing Hi-Res music and that is where the big difference lies.  I have compared CD quality songs (lossless) that I have downloaded to the X3 and the Hi-Res counterpart.  The Hi-Res is hands down much better as expected.  The sound becomes much more full and goes deeper.  The instruments sound more detailed.  The bass becomes more defined with better roll off.  The vocals are moved forward and take a more prominent roll while the highs are a bit crisper without being too harsh.  Overall the Hi-Res playing on the X3 provides a more involving environment to enjoy the music.

 

[Sniperbombers]

Hey everyone, ive tried to search around the forum but was unable to find my current problem with the fiio.

I've upgraded the firmware and everything still works perfectly except for 1 thing.
The favorites list / action.

I'm currently unable to update my favorites list for some odd reason. Although the player says its been added onto the list, once i attempt to take a look, i won't see any of my songs recently favorite'd -  is there any way to fix this problem? 

 

[CH23]

Hey everyone, ive tried to search around the forum but was unable to find my current problem with the fiio.


I've upgraded the firmware and everything still works perfectly except for 1 thing.

The favorites list / action.


I'm currently unable to update my favorites list for some odd reason. Although the player says its been added onto the list, once i attempt to take a look, i won't see any of my songs recently favorite'd -  is there any way to fix this problem? 

Not sure if this might help, but trying couldn't hurt:

After adding tracks to your favourites, try to "update lib", maybe that'll make it work?

 

[Jamieson22]

So I recently got a Fiio X3 to replace my existing iPod 5.5gen/Rockbox > Fiio E11 + Westone 4R setup that was just too bulky.  So far I love it, but did have an issue at first.
 
When I first got it, I loaded 4 albums on a 32GB SD card, started one up and it played one song to the end and seemingly shut itself off.  Rebooted and same thing with same album. Plugged back into computer and Win7 prompted me to repair bad sectors.  Let win7 do its thing and loaded same albums to internal memory and same thing happened on same album.
 
So I loaded some different albums to SD and internal and all worked well.  Loaded back original 4 and a filled my SD card.  When I went to update Library it would lock up.
 
After all that it seems the there is an issue with one particular album.  All of my music is FLAC.  This album (Songs Ohia - "Didn't it Rain" one of my favs unfortunately) plays fine on PC, on iPod w/ Rockbox and on a Sansa Clip.
 
Any idea what to look for that would cause an album to lock up the library update?

 

[tjw321]

  ...
 
Any idea what to look for that would cause an album to lock up the library update?

IANAE, but I'd suggest taking a look at the tags to see if there are any unusual characters, punctuation marks etc. in them.
 
BTW, I'd never heard of Songs Ohia before but after a couple of listens to some samples, I may well be getting some new tracks for my X3 - so at least some good has come out of your trouble...

  Hopefully it can be resolved before it inconveniences you much more.

 

[Jamieson22]

  IANAE, but I'd suggest taking a look at the tags to see if there are any unusual characters, punctuation marks etc. in them.
 
BTW, I'd never heard of Songs Ohia before but after a couple of listens to some samples, I may well be getting some new tracks for my X3 - so at least some good has come out of your trouble...

  Hopefully it can be resolved before it inconveniences you much more.

 
FYI, Songs: Ohia was basically Jason Molina.  The last album under the Songs: Ohia name was called "Magnolia Electric Co", which then became the name of the band he played under.  Some amazing stuff under all three names to discover (check out the song "Farewell Transmission").  He was a prolific musician (hurts to say "was" - google his name for his tragic story).
 
And thanks for advice, will dig into the tags on that album to see if anything looks odd.

 

[CosmicHolyGhost]

   
FYI, Songs: Ohia was basically Jason Molina.  The last album under the Songs: Ohia name was called "Magnolia Electric Co", which then became the name of the band he played under.  Some amazing stuff under all three names to discover (check out the song "Farewell Transmission").  He was a prolific musician (hurts to say "was" - google his name for his tragic story).
 
And thanks for advice, will dig into the tags on that album to see if anything looks odd.

I love Songs: Ohia! The Lioness is my favorite! I did not follow after he changed name...
Oh sheez, just read wiki... this news is horrible....

 

[tjw321]

   
FYI, Songs: Ohia was basically Jason Molina.  The last album under the Songs: Ohia name was called "Magnolia Electric Co", which then became the name of the band he played under.  Some amazing stuff under all three names to discover (check out the song "Farewell Transmission").  He was a prolific musician (hurts to say "was" - google his name for his tragic story).
 
And thanks for advice, will dig into the tags on that album to see if anything looks odd.

Thanks for the info. I'd come across the connection with Jason Molina in my brief search for Songs Ohia but I hadn't delved any deeper. Kind of wish I hadn't, now. Seems to happen to so many artists. I'll be doing some exploration of all his stuff over the next few days and will be looking forward to coming across "Farewell Transmission".

 

[frankrondaniel]

 Listening to Magnolia Electric Company on MOG now - good stuff!  Thanks for the tip!

 

[subguy812]

Just got home and unboxed my X3 and am charging it. Any long time owners have any setup pointers to maximize my experience ,I use Westone W4R's. Assuming high gain?

 

[serious7]

  Just got home and unboxed my X3 and am charging it. Any long time owners have any setup pointers to maximize my experience ,I use Westone W4R's. Assuming high gain?

Sure. Set the high gain. While you're at it, set bass to +3, treble to +2, brightness to full. Oh, and make sure you don't wear the W4R's in your ear while plugging the 3.5 mm cable in. Set the Volume to about 7. Enable gapless playback. Profit.

 

[bowei006]

  Just got home and unboxed my X3 and am charging it. Any long time owners have any setup pointers to maximize my experience ,I use Westone W4R's. Assuming high gain?

Start with low gain always for any headphone. Doesn't matter what it is. Press the minimize volume button so the volume is around 10-15 on low gain. Start from this. Better safe than sorry when it comes to your hearing and protecting the electronic.
 
Especially if it is an IEM.
 
Update Firmware to the newest version on FiiO's site. Use my video tutorials or FiiO's written guides to familiarize yourself with how to update firmware, format SD cards, or folder management(too many folders in root folder lead to errors, a couple hundred is fine, but more than that have yielded problems with others).
 
Spend the next week getting used to the UI. IT is a bit weird and somewhat frustrating at first to people who are used to other UI's as its a bit weirder. 

 

[shrimants]

Just got home and unboxed my X3 and am charging it. Any long time owners have any setup pointers to maximize my experience ,I use Westone W4R's. Assuming high gain?

put it on low gain and see where your volume lies. Aim for 50% volume at w/e gain setting (I think it goes up to 60). You should be fine with low gain.

Change your brightness settings to something that works for you. Max brightness is extreme overkill on this device, and I can see the screen jsut fine on 50% brightness even outdoors. Direct sunlight or some other glare might make 100% backlight a good idea, but since the screen is perfectly flat you can just angle the device elsewhere.

Use a darker theme. it takes less energy to draw dark colors than it does to feed max values to RGB.

Change your screen off and idle poweroff settings. Make the backlight stay on long enough that you can refer back to the screen. make the idle poweroff something smaller because the device boots up so fast, its hardly any sort of a hiccup to leave your desk, come back, and turn it on.

Make sure all of your albums are meticulously organized by artist/album/## track.ext. You will want to use browse mode a LOT.

If you remove all track ID3 data from the file, it shoudl list all your tracks in alphabetical order. This way you can use Category view to listen to entire artists or genres alphabetically, or you can use Browse mode to listen to specific albums.

For multi-disk albums, you'll want to number them like 101 102 103 201 202 203 etc and keep them in the same folder.

You will run into problems with downright idiotic sorting behavior. thats normal for now, and i think there are plans to fix it SOEMWHAT, but even when they do, from what i understand they will not fix the track numbering/listing mechanism. Not until the X5 firmware has been developed, released, and criticised.

There is no rockbox because of legal issues but James is looking into it. no promises.

For a 32gb or 64gb microSD card, you need to use a MicroSD XC compatible reader (like the x3) and use a utility to format it to a 32kb allocation size. i use Bootice.exe and guiformat.exe. I've posted a guide. This also works if your card's allocation table screws up or something. Bootice can be used to restore all partitions and whatnot.

EDIT: also gapless playback has problems. Those will be fixed in the next FW version. We're beta testing it and the problems are being ironed out, hence the slightly delayed release.