[subguy812]

Technically speaking, what is the difference between high gain and low gain. Are there differences in sq or just volume?

 

[In-A-Song]

  Technically speaking, what is the difference between high gain and low gain. Are there differences in sq or just volume?

Ideally just more volume, but technically the specifications for the Amplifier are different at different gain settings. Distortion is generally always increased, but you likely will never be able to tell.  Your headphones will add more distortion than the amp ever could.  Your ears will have to tell you which you like and your headphones will respond differently so your ears are not just listening to a change in the amp, but in your system.

 

[subguy812]

 
Ideally just more volume, but technically the specifications for the Amplifier are different at different gain settings. Distortion is generally always increased, but you likely will never be able to tell.  Your headphones will add more distortion than the amp ever could.  Your ears will have to tell you which you like and your headphones will respond differently so your ears are not just listening to a change in the amp, but in your system.

Ok so with my iem, Westone W4R, is less distortion and better sound(with same flac song) achieved at bumping up volume in low gain or less volume in high gain. I ask about the specific iem because I had read something that said higher ohm iem's respond better to high gain.  Sorry if you answered this in above reply just trying to be clear. Is it a matter of sound preference?

 

[castleofargh]

gain is a tricky subject because the way it works changes form 1 amp to another.
also high gain being louder, you get thousands of gullible people telling you the sound is better because of course they don't A/B at the same volume level, they AB sound vs louder sound that will always seem better.
when changing gain does change impedance output a lot, it is important to check that you'll keep a good enough damping factor.
for everything else, if you don't need louder, the rule of thumb is to always use the lower gain that will supposedly have less noise and bigger dynamic.

 

[good sound]

 

  My freezing, or crashing if that's what you want to call it, happened while playing back a specific WAV file that was converted to 24/192  from a DSD ISO file. It has happened only twice and both times on this specific file, a track by the band Wheatus, a DSD download converted to WAV specifically for playback on my X3. In my case I didn't use the reset I simply held down the power button for more than ten seconds which caused a rather loud pop through my IEM's and then the player would power up again. I will not attempt to play that file again. I have converted many other DSD files of different types to 24/192 WAV and have had zero issues playing them back on the X3. I don't know what is different with this one particular file.

Haven't you ever tried Flac? They are smaller filetypes but saves the same sonic information from the original files, in just half the original size. Plus, you get idtag information, like in mp3, including cover and lyrics!

Yes, all of my other files on all of my other cards that I use in my X3 are FLAC. By the way I have found the size difference to be about 65% not half. My 44.1 files are ripped securely in EAC and converted within EAC to FLAC and all of my hi-rez files from HD-Tracks and from my ripped DVD-Audio discs via DVD-Audio extractor are also FLAC, converted from WAV within JRiver Media center 18.
 
As far as the argument or contention that there is no loss of sound quality converting to Flac from WAV that may be true, but I feel that I can sometimes hear a difference between the two with identical files. These differences are admittedly subtle and I would agree that I would most likely not be able to discern the difference in a blind listening test. The problem is I don't listen blind. Also I have read where there can actually be conversion artifacts affecting Flac files that have been converted from base WAV files. Yes the Flac file just unzips but the conversion process is susceptible to artifacts that could possibly create audible differences between the two file types.
 
For this reason I wanted, initially at least, to have these very high quality DSD files converted to the most transparent 24/192 format possible thus I loaded them onto my storage media without converting them to Flac. When I tried to convert these DSD files to Flac directly, I was unable to, using Media Center or Foobar. Neither program would even allow it. It came up as Error unable to convert, I'm not sure why.
 
None of this was however, the point. The point was that I had many DSD files converted to 24/192 WAV from Blue Coast Records and Opus 3 and many others, that play flawlessly on my X3 but these six files I have of the rock band Wheatus cause my X3 to lock up or crash or whatever term you wish to use. Considering the rapidly decreasing cost of larger and larger capacity storage media i may go back to using all WAV files as like I just said storage is now quite inexpensive. I paid less than $50CDN funds each for both of my 64GB Sandisk Ultra class 10 micro SD cards. I also purchased a 32 GB one for less than $25. Even in this economy I can afford basically all the storage I need to not have to worry about space and therefore whether or not to use Flac or uncompressed WAV. Using uncompressed WAV, whether or not it actually sounds any better than Flac, just gives me peace of mind and is a personal choice, nothing more.

 

[TokenGesture]

OK can you help - trying to update firmware. Downloaded file, copied to Sandisck Ultra 16gb, (formatted to Fat 32 with mac Disk utility). Load the card in the player, hold down power and menu, and every time it says "update file not found"
Tried holding power down 10 sec to reset, reformatted the card, re-downloaded the file. All same result.
 
What am I doing wrong?

 

[peter123]

OK can you help - trying to update firmware. Downloaded file, copied to Sandisck Ultra 16gb, (formatted to Fat 32 with mac Disk utility). Load the card in the player, hold down power and menu, and every time it says "update file not found"
Tried holding power down 10 sec to reset, reformatted the card, re-downloaded the file. All same result.

What am I doing wrong?

Did you unzip the file?

 

[TokenGesture]

Did you unzip the file?

Yes - the file reads X3.fw 2

 

[AgentXXL]

Did you unzip the file?

Exactly - the file comes archived when you download it. Extract the file from the archive and you should end up with a file called x3.fw - put that on your flash card, insert in the X3 and try the upgrade key sequence again.

Dale

 

[AgentXXL]

Yes - the file reads X3.fw 2

The file must be named x3.fw, not x3.fw 2.

Dale

 

[TokenGesture]

The file must be named x3.fw, not x3.fw 2.

Dale

D'oh
Brilliant - thanks!

 

[good sound]

  Will FiiO ever implement a feature where music won't stop at the end of each folder? This is annoying. It should go directly to the next folder as happens with my Sony X1060 and Cowon J3 players. I see no option for this in the main menu. Really strange...

You are the second person I remember complaining about the lack of this feature, but to tell you the truth it has been my experience that what you are asking for is more often  the exception, not the norm.

 

[In-A-Song]

You are the second person I remember complaining about the lack of this feature, but to tell you the truth it has been my experience that what you are asking for is more often  the exception, not the norm.

It would certainly have to be an option if it was provided. The last thing i'd want is the player the play anything else after i told it to play an album. There are other modes for multi album play.

 

[binc]

Have been following the thread for a while now, finally pulled the trigger on mp4nation, I hope it pairs well with the gr07 mk2.
 
Has anyone tried otg with the new fw? From what I remember James said OTG and DAC would be released together(I could be wrong though because it isn't listed on Fiio's fb). Just imagine this thing with a 256gb flash drive

 

 

[sandalaudio]

  Have been following the thread for a while now, finally pulled the trigger on mp4nation, I hope it pairs well with the gr07 mk2.
 
Has anyone tried otg with the new fw? From what I remember James said OTG and DAC would be released together(I could be wrong though because it isn't listed on Fiio's fb). Just imagine this thing with a 256gb flash drive

 

 
If you mean plugging a USB OTG cable onto the X3 and connecting a USB flash drive on it, then I just tried it and doesn't work. X3 doesn't see anything being plugged in.
 
If you mean plugging a USB OTG cable onto a smartphone and connecting the X3 onto it, then it works. I was able to use the X3 as a DAC from my Xperia without needing additional bus power.