The Fiio X3 Thread.

[Painful Chafe]

 
For what it's worth I wonder about some of the comments describing the X3 as overly warm, having a very noticeable mid-bass hump and the like.
The X3 to me is definitely more resolving than something like my rockboxed Sansa Fuze or Clip+ and there's a lot of detail and resolution on hand here.
One thing of note is also that there are still some issues with mp3 and ogg decoding which is why the sound quality should be judged by listening to lossless formats atm.
Fiio promised to address these issues in future FW revisions.
 
I think what a lot of people are describing as being overly warm in comparison to other players is due to the relatively high output power (for a portable player) that gives the lower frequencies more oomph and presence on a lot of IEM's and headphones as compared to players with lesser output stages that have less controll over the bass.
 
The sound signature is certainly not on the cold and overly neutral side but to my ears also not in the overly dark/somewhat veiled territory as some have described (not singling out anyone in particular).
Seems to me there's a bit of an expectation bias at play here since some of the early reviews described the X3 as being on the warm side.
I would describe the sound signature as well rounded and musical but not necessarily as dark or lacking in detail.
The X3 can sound quite bright with the right headphones, for example the Beyerdynamics DT990's. YMMV.

I've noticed this also. My X3 is more detailed and certainly not warm compared to my Clip+.

 

[Mmet]

it is here now 

 after looong painful waiting and i am very exited ....with 64 gb sandisk card and digital and line out stereo cable ^_^ the cables look very well built ......now i am charging it and i will update news later ^_^ .....but for a start it looks awesome and very well built ...... i - surprisingly - got the black silicon with it or something like that but it is indeed not white  

 ....every time i switch it on it switching off again ...need charging so i am leaving it charge in peace now 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the next big happy surprise for me it has INDICATION LIGHT FOR CHARGING STATUE 

 ......and i love that feature too much 

 

[Lifted Andreas]

You can't achieve what dBpoweramp does for free. That's exactly like saying I can play music on a $10 player so why should I get a X3.

 
Hmm... well I can. Don't mind doing stuff manually if it means if I get to save a few pounds.
 
 

Mainly because itunes has junk mp3 ripper. Real good aac/alac ripper though if that is your taste.

 
+1
 
Its absolute *****.
 
LameXP uses the Nero AAC plug-in which is even better than iTunes and encodes up to 500kbps!
 

  Agree, but why re-post them?

 
+1
 
No need for duplicated long posts with pics.
 
Btw, I'm guessing my Tuff-Luv case is coming today. So those pics make me want it even more!
 
It looks so sexy.

 

[e30pilot]

I spent some time last night to really test out the the Fiio X3. I compared the following:

Fiio X3>RE-400
Diymod>silver LOD>Fiio E12 (Rockboxed)>RE-400
Sansa Clip+ (Rockboxed)>RE-400

All EQ settings were set to default. X3 was on low gain.

I decided to use Thriller by MJ (FLAC) which has some nice micro details and soundstage.

Impressions:

Clip+ - lean sound compared to the X3. Instrument seperation was good but soundtage was not as deep, width was about the same as the X3. Still an impressive little player.

Diymod - leanest sound, less bass than either X3 or Clip+, and slightly less treble extension/sparkle than the X3 (which surprised me).

X3 - full, rich sound, bass and treble well extended. Mids were neither forward or recessed. I felt the sound was much more 'complete' with the X3.

I have to say I am very impressed and happy with my purchase of the X3. In direct comparison with my diymod and e12 combo I felt it sounded better to me with a more rounded performance. The best part for me was the slightly better treble extension and detail it conveyed.

I love my Diymod/E12 but I think the X3 will be my daily driver from now on as it means carrying less equipment and weight. Time to order a 64GB micro sd card I think!

 

[Lifted Andreas]

I love my Diymod/E12 but I think the X3 will be my daily driver from now on as it means carrying less equipment and weight. Time to order a 64GB micro sd card I think!

 
Do it, I filled mine up with 59.4GB of FLAC albums yesterday and OMG this X3 loves playing FLAC files soo soo much.
 
I've gone from not really finding the sound that exciting to feeling like "OMG this is heaven!!".

 

[Saidear]

For the record - found a way to remove the artwork and the files still register as "Invalid".  Could converting them to FLAC work?  (if so, what would be the easiest way to convert 9000+MP3s with minimal loss to sound quality)
 
Edit: I tried to encode them via Audacity, no luck.  I removed all the metadata and still not working.  I'm kind of running out of ideas.   Would posting a sample of the file help?

 

[HWTest]

FYI - bought a Transcend 64GB microSDXC card (TS64GUSDU1), formatted in the X3, loaded with nearly 10 000 mp3s, so far no problems, the X3 is working great - I use only browse mode, gapless on.
The transfer rate in my old card reader was slow (in the X3 very slow), bought a Transcend USB3 card reader (TS-RDF5K) and the transfer speed is very good (in an USB3 port).

 

[razorblader]

  Agree, but why re-post them?

What are your talking about?

 

[Lifted Andreas]

 
What are your talking about?

 
Think he meant delete the pics when quoting the post.

 

[razorblader]

   
Think he meant delete the pics when quoting the post.

They are...that's why I responded, lol.

 

[good sound]

Originally Posted by Mmet /img/forum/go_quote.gif....every time i switch it on it switching off again ...need charging so i am leaving it charge in peace now 
 
The X3 normally comes with the  battery about a third charged.. It also usually  comes with the hold button engaged which will cause the player to turn off almost immediately after turning it on if it is engaged. I would check to make sure that the hold button is not engaged. Small black switch on right side of the player.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

[Mmet]

   

Thanks a lot .......i discovered that when i saw the hold button after writing that post

 

[Mmet]

  it is here now 

 after looong painful waiting and i am very exited ....with 64 gb sandisk card and digital and line out stereo cable ^_^ the cables look very well built ......now i am charging it and i will update news later ^_^ .....but for a start it looks awesome and very well built ...... i - surprisingly - got the black silicon with it or something like that but it is indeed not white  

 ....every time i switch it on it switching off again ...need charging so i am leaving it charge in peace now 
 

 

 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
the next big happy surprise for me it has INDICATION LIGHT FOR CHARGING STATUE 

 ......and i love that feature too much 

 
updated firm ware to 2.1 with 8GB TF with no proplem
reformated the 64GB card by fiio x3 itself with no proplem
put 11 gb of songs and updated the library with less than 1 minute 

 

[Togril]

Well, against all my better judgement I finally bought my x3
Got it from Mp4nation, and I get some free brainwavz R3's. It came in at AU $233 including free fedex.

Anyways, I REALLY had to think about this one, I just have issues with software that doesn't work as expected, but I'm taking a leap of faith
Now I'm going to go through my collection and looking at my tags.

Anyone reccomend good tagger for osx?
I think I have TAGR somewhere.....

 

[Lifted Andreas]

   
updated firm ware to 2.1 with 8GB TF with no proplem
reformated the 64GB card by fiio x3 itself with no proplem
put 11 gb of songs and updated the library with less than 1 minute 

 
That's weird.
 
Mine came with FW 2.1 installed.
 
Also thats a clear case, same as I and everyone else gets included with the X3.