[hema]

may be he expected flat sound signature which x3 doesn't provide

 

[aangen]

Maybe he is an ordinary troll.

 

[nmatheis]

Or an extraordinary troll :wink_face:

 

[betula]

  Does anyone suggest using this as a stand alone dac? With HD 700's or would I be better off with a desktop dac in the $50-$150. I'm going to compare it tomorrow with my hifimediy connected to a modi. I would like to utilize it as a second dac since I'm not using it often but not at the expense of sq for my speakers or headphones.

In my opinion X3 performs around 80% as a DAC compared to the sound quality, when you use it as a player. If that 20% is important to you, than buy a stand alone DAC. I use it as a DAC just every once in a while, so for me it is not an issue.

 

[AudibleLegend]

DACs aren't even necessary if you have very good hearing like me. I often just listen to music via the laptop speakers because I can still channel all the audio pretty well just using my mind and in-board recipient devices (a.k.a. ears). So I wouldn't put too big a price on the DAC feature. 
 
The FiiO X3 will likely meet all of your needs as most people are of limited hearing to begin with. A few of us are lucky though. 

 

[nmatheis]

Troll alert! Troll alert!

 

[aangen]

You forgot to put a Sony logo on the troll.

 

[CarstenF]

Been using this player for about 3 weeks now and still hoping for a miracle that the so-called burn-in process can fix its so unusual sound signature. But it gives me nothing but fatigue and head aches. Anyone can explain why it sounds sooooo different than any DAP's in the market? 

Using Sony MDR EX510 (neutral sounding)
FW 2.1, 2.14B, 3.22B, and 3.24B. 

2.1 sounds powerful than the rest, offers better volume with slight hiss and noise here and there but its what I use. Because other FW sounded small. Knowing how capable the hardware of the player is compared to a phone or iPod. Or I am just expecting more out of it. Come on! It was built and engineered to play music. For the asking price it should kick every music player out built on a phone or tablet! Or even players from Cowon, Apple or Sony with less capable hardware.

Perhaps give 3.0 a try, it had more bass than 3.2x....

 

[CarstenF]

The USB DAC functionality can be used on a sony walkman A17? f.e connect the digital line out of the walkman and plug an usb adaptor to the fiio to use it as an amp/DAC?

It should be possible to use usb out of the sony a17 and feed it to the x3, but why? The dac chip of the Sony appears to be quite good. The only advantage I could see to this if either you have some very sensitive in-ears (Sony A17 seems to create some hiss with some low impedance in-ears) or if you need the bigger amp of the X3 for some high impedance headphones. There's a problem though: currently there's no setting for the X3 to turn off charging from usb while in dac mode. So there'd be some drain on the Sony's battery.
I use my ipad 3 with the fiiio as usbdac sometimes with a chinese camera connection kit in between that misreports power consumptionto the ipad3 so that the ipad3 accepts the fiio even though it consumes too much usb power. Would be great if some future firmware could contain a setting to turn usb recharge off while in usb dac mode.

 

[CarstenF]

Tried it with several IEMs. Sony MDR-EX310 and 510. MDR-XB30EX and 90EX. and then the Sennheiser CX870. All saying the same thing, "FiiO X3 doesn't deliver". A good sounding player doesn't have the right to pick an ear or headphone just to sound good.

Well at least the fiio doesn't hiss with low impedance in ears as the sony a17 appears to do.
But it can well be that a different dac sounds better to you with your particular in-ears and preferences. You may also want to try different firmware versions, there was some change between 2.x, 3.0 and 3.2x. Or try the X1, X5 or one of the ibasso products.
Or switch to a different headphone. I find the Denon AH D2000 sounds great with the X3 and it even sounds great directly from an ipad or iphone...

 

[Mr Trev]

It should be possible to use usb out of the sony a17 and feed it to the x3, but why? The dac chip of the Sony appears to be quite good. The only advantage I could see to this if either you have some very sensitive in-ears (Sony A17 seems to create some hiss with some low impedance in-ears) or if you need the bigger amp of the X3 for some high impedance headphones. There's a problem though: currently there's no setting for the X3 to turn off charging from usb while in dac mode. So there'd be some drain on the Sony's battery.
I use my ipad 3 with the fiiio as usbdac sometimes with a chinese camera connection kit in between that misreports power consumptionto the ipad3 so that the ipad3 accepts the fiio even though it consumes too much usb power. Would be great if some future firmware could contain a setting to turn usb recharge off while in usb dac mode.

Always wondered if it would be possible to cobble together a usb cable minus the power pins. I'm not exactly sure how usb does the handshaking and stuff, but I would think if the usb only had the data connection then wouldn't power consumption be a non issue. Again I admit I know virtually nothing about how usb works.

 

[nmatheis]

You forgot to put a Sony logo on the troll.

Happy now???

 

[sandman1990]

It should be possible to use usb out of the sony a17 and feed it to the x3, but why? The dac chip of the Sony appears to be quite good. The only advantage I could see to this if either you have some very sensitive in-ears (Sony A17 seems to create some hiss with some low impedance in-ears) or if you need the bigger amp of the X3 for some high impedance headphones. There's a problem though: currently there's no setting for the X3 to turn off charging from usb while in dac mode. So there'd be some drain on the Sony's battery.
I use my ipad 3 with the fiiio as usbdac sometimes with a chinese camera connection kit in between that misreports power consumptionto the ipad3 so that the ipad3 accepts the fiio even though it consumes too much usb power. Would be great if some future firmware could contain a setting to turn usb recharge off while in usb dac mode.

 
The Sony A17, as far as I can interpret, is strictly a USB "device" and not a "host". Then again, if it were a host, the USB controller would also need to have the USB Audio class implemented in order to recognize an external USB DAC.
 

  Always wondered if it would be possible to cobble together a usb cable minus the power pins. I'm not exactly sure how usb does the handshaking and stuff, but I would think if the usb only had the data connection then wouldn't power consumption be a non issue. Again I admit I know virtually nothing about how usb works.

 
It is possible to have a USB cable without the VBUS (i.e. 5V) power line. The GND line is required as the communicating systems should be tied to the same ground connection. The D+ and D- lines are also required as these are the main communication lines. In such cases, the communicating systems need to have their own individual power supplies.
 

 

[gerelmx1986]

It should be possible to use usb out of the sony a17 and feed it to the x3, but why? The dac chip of the Sony appears to be quite good. The only advantage I could see to this if either you have some very sensitive in-ears (Sony A17 seems to create some hiss with some low impedance in-ears) or if you need the bigger amp of the X3 for some high impedance headphones. There's a problem though: currently there's no setting for the X3 to turn off charging from usb while in dac mode. So there'd be some drain on the Sony's battery.
I use my ipad 3 with the fiiio as usbdac sometimes with a chinese camera connection kit in between that misreports power consumptionto the ipad3 so that the ipad3 accepts the fiio even though it consumes too much usb power. Would be great if some future firmware could contain a setting to turn usb recharge off while in usb dac mode.

Yhanks for the information, I will better keep both devices and use one and oner in time to time, seems that the sony DAC is equally good as the fiio and yes I don't have hard-to-drive Headphones so better drive sony  as Is (not using fiio as DAC). Thoug i don't know what to do with TWO DAP's now

, maybe alternate one week fiio, one week walkman

 
I Love the sound of both devices, tough fiio sounds more musical to my ears (FLAC only, i used mp3 but i changed my mind in 2012 and since then i've moved all my tunes to lossless, involved re-ripping discs and buying again).
 
The reason i want to use the fiio as a external Headphone amp is because well, I ordered the sony walkman amazon says Cannot be delivered outside the US.
 
 Fiio replied that they will send me a new X3 to replace my defective unit. and b) because previous walkman sounded good buuut.. boy! fiio x3 has a superb sound quality that blew past walkmans out of the water.

 

[gerelmx1986]

  The audio coming on both earphones is compressed, combining (though perceived separated) all the details then injected in your ears with one shot resulting into a bad sound-stage and presentation. After a few songs, it gives me head and ear ache. 

Really? compressed, separated??... my definition of compressed is FLATTENED, 2D sounding (aka MP3). use FLAC and a pair of good headphones and it will sound airy, spacious 3D soundstage, i will not say theater-like experience but near.
 
My only complain is customer service in mexico, the device SQ is darn good, and the FIIO-DIRECT CUSTOMER SUPPORT ROCKS, WAITING FOR MY REPLACEMNT UNIT TO ARRIVE, waiting to test it with MDR-1R.
 
To refute your theory. Used mine with XBA-H3 (Bassy) but still had a lush 3D soundstage WOWed me, i had Ultrasone HFI-780 (gave them to my german boyfirend), sounded good in low but Grreat in Hi-gain, with the ultrasones it sounded fuller, more body, 3D was less bit a bit but never compressed.
 
Compressed sounding DAP: iPoop, iCrap and so on..