[CosmicHolyGhost]

Guys,whats the use case of using x3 as dac/amp for cellphones? Wouldnt you be better off to play from X3 directly?
Y need to consume two batteries........

 

[binc]

Guys,whats the use case of using x3 as dac/amp for cellphones? Wouldnt you be better off to play from X3 directly?
Y need to consume two batteries........

For me it's streaming of hi res files and a better ui(at least while fiio don't fix some of the quirks).

 

[CosmicHolyGhost]

For me it's streaming of hi res files and a better ui(at least while fiio don't fix some of the quirks).

I thought usb recorder pro has primitive Ui.. No?

 

[AgentXXL]

My Xperia Z1 simply detected the X3 on DAC mode, just by plugging it in. X3 woke up from sleep and immediately went into DAC mode.
It is showing up as 192kHz 24bit DAC on USB Audio Recorder Pro and sound comes out of it.

Did you change the USB mode of your Android to debug mode?

Photo attached

Ok, tried it again with my Galaxy Tab 2 running JB 4.2.2 and got it to see the X3, but only if I use a powered USB hub inbetween the X3 and tablet. Alas the playback is unuseable - lots of crackles, pops, buzzing, etc and the tempo of the music during playback varies like it was an old reel to reel tape deck with slipping drive belts or a bad motor.

Certainly nowhere close to perfect, but it's at least one step in the right direction. I did have to use USB Audio Recorder Pro.

Dale

 

[AgentXXL]

Guys,whats the use case of using x3 as dac/amp for cellphones? Wouldnt you be better off to play from X3 directly?
Y need to consume two batteries........

I agree for the most part, but depending on the device, it might just be more convenient to attach the X3 as a DAC so you don't have to transfer your entire music library to microSDXC cards. Since I'm usually carrying my cell phone, tablet and X3 with me, i's just the convenience of being able to use all of my media, regardless of which device it's stored on.

Of course that becomes somewhat moot if/when Fiio implements OTG support so we can copy all of our media to a 256GB USB flash drives and just attach them to the X3. Heck, even with 256GB USB keys, I'll need 4 of them to do most of my music.

Dale

 

[sandalaudio]

Guys,whats the use case of using x3 as dac/amp for cellphones? Wouldnt you be better off to play from X3 directly?
Y need to consume two batteries........

 
It was just something cool to test. I didn't really have any benefit of doing it.
 
Anyway, most USB DACs draw too much power so it alway needed a USB "Y splitter" cable to get power from elsewhere. The fact that X3 doesn't have this problem is a great bonus.

 

[sandalaudio]

Ok, tried it again with my Galaxy Tab 2 running JB 4.2.2 and got it to see the X3, but only if I use a powered USB hub inbetween the X3 and tablet. Alas the playback is unuseable - lots of crackles, pops, buzzing, etc and the tempo of the music during playback varies like it was an old reel to reel tape deck with slipping drive belts or a bad motor.

Certainly nowhere close to perfect, but it's at least one step in the right direction. I did have to use USB Audio Recorder Pro.

Dale

 
My Xperia Z1 did not need a separate powered USB hub. It does have the power issue with other DACs, so it must be case-by-case for each DAC/phone combination.
 
The player does not have a realtime sample rate conversion, so you need to set the sample rate to match the song you are playing.
Otherwise it will speed up or down and will be messed up.
 
The USB Audio Recorder is not a very practical player. It's fun as a technical evaluation, but I wouldn't use it for everyday purposes.

 

[AgentXXL]

My Xperia Z1 did not need a separate powered USB hub. It does have the power issue with other DACs, so it must be case-by-case for each DAC/phone combination.

The player does not have a realtime sample rate conversion, so you need to set the sample rate to match the song you are playing.
Otherwise it will speed up or down and will be messed up.

The USB Audio Recorder is not a very practical player. It's fun as a technical evaluation, but I wouldn't use it for everyday purposes.

Agreed about the power issue - whether you can direct cable, use a passive hub or require a powered hub is dependant on the device being used. I find it interesting that your Xperia phone handles the X3 power draw better than my 7" Galaxy Tab 2 tablet.

As for sample rate, I did set USB Audio Recorder to the same rate as the songs I tried, but I still encountered the noises and speedup/slowdown issues. Again, not sure why it worked on your Xperia better than my Tab 2, but I suspect it has to do with overall Android device performance. Apparently, your Xperia is more powerful than my Tab 2 (quad core vs dual core CPU).

And agreed about USB Audio Recorder Pro - people complaining about the X3 user interface should look at the non-existent UI included with that app. Fun to play with, but hopefully we can get the Android consortium (and Apple too!) to include native support for USB Audio Class 1 and 2 DACs in future OS releases.

Dale

 

[Dixter]

  SORRY!!! I did not know there is a thread here!!!

I will update the theme there when I get anything new.

No reason to be sorry...    I think its great that your sharing your design with us all...  
I just wanted to make sure you get the credit for it and hope you win the X5,  thats going to be a great player too...
 
you can post your designs here and there...   good luck with the contest

 

[MattTCG]

Still unable to get the x3 to work as dac with my pc. Everything installed fine, no problems. I've set the device as primary sound device in windows. I've tried both foobar and music bee. The x3 shows up as an option under both players but fails to play. Anyone have suggestions?

 

[shrimants]

Guys,whats the use case of using x3 as dac/amp for cellphones? Wouldnt you be better off to play from X3 directly?
Y need to consume two batteries........

You can have the phone plug into a proper amp, for one. You can access not just your phone media but ALL media including streaming stuff and video. I agree that there isn't too much point in using it as a portable dac interface when it acts as a standalone pmp. But the point of it is not strictly for phones. Its for use as a USB DAC, like with a computer. In that use case, you bypass the computer sound card and can get very high quality aback of just about anything short of multichannel. I don't know of if the dac supports a52 pass through.

 

[LightBlue77]

MattTCG,
do system sounds or youtube play? do you hear sounds outside foobar? if so, in foobar go to library/configure/playback/output and increase buffer length. mine is set to 1000 ms, if it's around 400 it has small breaks, if it's lower, it stops longer, then plays. Also, you should know that i have wasapi and it's set as playback device in foobar so maybe you should check out what output device you have. And keep in mind that once a song starts in foobar with wasapi, you won't hear system sounds or other app sounds.

 

[binc]

I thought usb recorder pro has primitive Ui.. No?

I was talking about iOS, from my understanding any app can use dac on 7.x.

 

[MattTCG]

  MattTCG,
do system sounds or youtube play? do you hear sounds outside foobar? if so, in foobar go to library/configure/playback/output and increase buffer length. mine is set to 1000 ms, if it's around 400 it has small breaks, if it's lower, it stops longer, then plays. Also, you should know that i have wasapi and it's set as playback device in foobar so maybe you should check out what output device you have. And keep in mind that once a song starts in foobar with wasapi, you won't hear system sounds or other app sounds.

 
No...no sounds outside of foobar. 

 

[good sound]

 

  MattTCG,
do system sounds or youtube play? do you hear sounds outside foobar? if so, in foobar go to library/configure/playback/output and increase buffer length. mine is set to 1000 ms, if it's around 400 it has small breaks, if it's lower, it stops longer, then plays. Also, you should know that i have wasapi and it's set as playback device in foobar so maybe you should check out what output device you have. And keep in mind that once a song starts in foobar with wasapi, you won't hear system sounds or other app sounds.

 
No...no sounds outside of foobar. 

My suggestion to you is to contact FiiO support. They are very good.