[ClieOS]

Yep, don't know what to say about that. How is remembering the position of 6 buttons and a hold switch to be significantly difficult than... oh wait, DX50 has 6 buttons and a hold switch just as well. Hmmm....

 

[Amitl]

help please...
im a little confused.
The Fiio X3 is widely talked about for being able to play "Hi-Res" music.
my Samsung Galaxy S plays FLAC files, so.. is the Fiio X3 an upgrade at all..???
what's the benefit of the Fiio X3 over modern smartphones that play all music formats?

 

[undersys]

  Usually we will upgrade our products in 2 years. I can understand that the user will not be happy to see the new one. 

 because the new one always means better.  but we will close our business if we keep manufacturing the old model .
 
so the best we can do is let people know what we will do in the future . anyway, the X3K will not launch in market soon .

 
 
I am looking forward to the X3K.... I may even buy one (x5 is to much for my linking) 
 
How ever don't forget we all paid$$  you money for a product to do X.
Honestly set a list of features and bugs to be fixed and call it a day, but do fix the bugs that have been brought up.
If you forget this some of us may forget your company for the next purchase. ( Not that I want to, I love my x3)

 

[JamesFiiO]

   
 
I am looking forward to the X3K.... I may even buy one (x5 is to much for my linking)
 
How ever don't forget we all paid$$  you money for a product to do X.
Honestly set a list of features and bugs to be fixed and call it a day, but do fix the bugs that have been brought up.
If you forget this some of us may forget your company for the next purchase. ( Not that I want to, I love my x3)

 
of course, the old X3 will become a total new one with the DSD playback and the new UI. I don't see any other products has such big change from it launch market.

 

[Androbot v4]

Hi All,
 
Finally Fiio X5 is going to be available in India, and it seems like a pretty good deal, I might even consider pre-ordering, my only concern is the sound, compared to X3(My current DAP) do you think I should upgrade to X5, only sound wise(I don't care much about the other factors btw the two), Cause I'm a big fan of Wolfson DACs, cause I like warmer, darker and little more punch in my songs, and X5 uses TI PCM 1792 that's y I'm double minded should I go for it or not
 
Hope you guys will help me figure it out!
 
Thanks!

 

[undersys]

   
of course, the old X3 will become a total new one with the DSD playback and the new UI. I don't see any other products has such big change from it launch market.

100% agree with you on such a bit improvement (amazing effort), but its yet to been seen if all this "change" fixes the original bugs.
Or if it adds a pretty UI and more bugs 

 
Some of us may find fixing old known issues more important the new features (some of us...)
 
Thanks James anyways

 

[HWTest]

  Some of us may find fixing old known issues more important the new features (some of us...)

 
I'm one of them ...

 

[OK-Guy]

on a separate note... I popped in to see Simon of Home Media today (Hi-End Dealership that are new FiiO stockist in the UK), I was mightily surprised to see the FiiO X3 being used as the source to a £7k hi-fi system.
 
System: FiiO X3 >Quad Elite Pre-Amp>Quad GMP Mono-Block Amps(pair)>KEF R700 Speakers
 
sounded pretty awesome to these ears, if you're in the SE area well worth a visit.
 
http://homemedialimited.co.uk/

 

[mikroski]

  on a separate note... I popped in to see Simon of Home Media today (Hi-End Dealership that are new FiiO stockist in the UK), I was mightily surprised to see the FiiO X3 being used as the source to a £7k hi-fi system.
 
System: FiiO X3 >Quad Elite Pre-Amp>Quad GMP Mono-Block Amps(pair)>KEF R700 Speakers
 
sounded pretty awesome to these ears, if you're in the SE area well worth a visit.
 
http://homemedialimited.co.uk/

I also tried X3 with my Martin Logan Speaker, very impressive. Not as good as my Cary Audio 303T Professional player ($6000) but, yes, very impressive. Its sound even better than Marantz SA-11S2 that I used for years

 

[KT66]

bizarre, my Linn Ikemi sounds much better than X5!

 

[ProtegeManiac]

help please...
im a little confused.
The Fiio X3 is widely talked about for being able to play "Hi-Res" music.
my Samsung Galaxy S plays FLAC files, so.. is the Fiio X3 an upgrade at all..???
what's the benefit of the Fiio X3 over modern smartphones that play all music formats?

 
X3 plays high res, meaning 24-bit 96khz recordings. I'll leave it up to the thread in the sound science forum for you to read and make a decision whether you'd want to try such files, but even for regular 16-bit 44.1khz files, there area  lot of improvements. I have an S3 and played around with an X3 at a hi-fi show last November, so these impressions I have come from about an hour of listening back and forth between both driving my Aurisonics ASG-1.

1. X3 drives my IEMs a lot better. This is very surprising actually, since I assumed that a very efficient IEM presenting a not-stressfully low (to an integrated audio chip, like that on a smartphone) 32ohm load would not improve much, but it does. Dynamic range is noticeably better, with snappier attack and better-controlled decay of the percussion. I can go louder with the X3 but note that I can't really find the limit, nor care to do so, given the S3 can drive it loud without too much distortion than my ears would care to handle. Also I question why the distributor strapped them to some portable amps, when even the AKG Q701 was driven well enough by the X3 on its own.

2. Background noise. The S3's very, very low hiss (on this 32oh load) actually sounds loud by comparison thanks to the noticeably blacker background on the X3. Not even switching to Airplane Mode on the phone can isolate the noise, which means that isn't the problem.
 
3. Better fullrange response. On the S3 the sound is quite dark; if I run a sweep from 20hz to 20khz on it, with the ASG-1 it drops off after 12khz, then disappears at 16khz. The drop is less severe on the X3 (although I'd have to really pump it up to still hear anything above 16khz), and better yet on actual music the treble noticeably opens up. There was more detail to the cymbals, more detail in female vocals, sopranos sound more natural, etc. (Note: an IEM wthat won't drop off as severely as the ASG-1 will not be that bad on a smartphone in this regard; like the Westone 2 for example)
 
----------------
 
Still, I went home without spending on the X3 for these reasons:
 
1) Right now $200 isn't exactly just disposable for me
 
2) I got a subsidized phone, and along with #1 and the efficiency of the ASG-1, I can live with the smartphone for a while

3) After using iPod wheels and now touchscreens, I didn't enjoy using buttons; that said I didn't find the UI software to be the problem - for me it really was just the input hardware.
 
4) I might usually have a laptop bag or camera bag with me, but I held out for smaller DAPs like the upcoming X1 to go in my other pocket (portable charger goes in the bag with my IEM Otterbox case), considering the X1's output power won't be overkill for my IEMs and I already had a reference amp at home for my HD600 anyway (which uses the Android phone as a USB audio server with a convenient stand, see below).

------------------------------------------------------
 
Basically, if you don't have the same reasons for not getting that I do, then consider the pros in the first list.

 

[Mmet]

Is there any way to convert the coax out of the X3 to mini usb to use it with any portable DAC\ amp compo like C5D or Practical devices XM6 ?

 

[justblue]

I guess the dx50 would be easier as it has 3 buttons only.

 
 

I generally have my DX50 in my pocket and forward through songs pause and adjust the volume with ease and not looking. I'm also able to easily navigate the X5 with its bigger buttons.

 
That's it. And you simply can't make it with the X3.

 

[batteraziiz]

 

What brand/model of stand is that? I've been looking for one for my galaxy player/SGS4 to slap on my stereo....

 

[OK-Guy]

  I also tried X3 with my Martin Logan Speaker, very impressive. Not as good as my Cary Audio 303T Professional player ($6000) but, yes, very impressive. Its sound even better than Marantz SA-11S2 that I used for years

 
 

  bizarre, my Linn Ikemi sounds much better than X5!

 
I was surprised by the quality of the X3 through a full-blown system, and that was just using Flac.. if you would of said to me a year a go that a DAP could perform as well as a £1.5k CD-Player I would of laughed my bollox off & become a eunuch , not no more.
 
KT66... nice bit of kit mate.