[altrunox]

  Xplay 3s

 
What about the hiss with sensitive IEM?

 

[bobthedespot]

I have ordered the 3s and I am looking forward to getting it.
 
I'll post my thoughts and questions after pairing it with my JH Roxannes.
 
Bob

 

[Pondu]

Congrats for your purchase Bob, I am very impatient to read your thoughts.

 

[wkkm007]

http://www.vivoglobal.com/product/xshot/

Basic Feature
Operating systemFuntouch OS (based on Android 4.3）
Internal Memory2GB RAM, 16GB ROM
ProcessorSnapdragonTM 801
Extended StorageTF card up to 128G
ColorWhite / Black

this better

 

[bobthedespot]

http://www.vivoglobal.com/product/xshot/

Basic Feature
Operating systemFuntouch OS (based on Android 4.3）
Internal Memory2GB RAM, 16GB ROM
ProcessorSnapdragonTM 801
Extended StorageTF card up to 128G
ColorWhite / Black

this better

The only advantages are the extended storage and a better camera. The Sd801 is an overvolted 800. Easy to do to an 800. Also, the xshot does not support OTG usb connectivity, but the xplay does, so I can play large quality files via usb - more than 128gb, which will always be the mobile limit of the xshot.
 
It has a smaller battery, smaller screen, lower pixel density, no NFC, mono (vs stereo) external speakers, and no fingerprint reader.
 
Most obvious though - and the reason I bought the xplay, not the xshot or the new note 4 for ex. is the headphone out section.
 
Check out this spec comparison.
 
http://www.devicespecifications.com/en/comparison/50d15084
 
It also suggests that the vivo xplay has a sd slot. I will find out.
 
It may be under the hood somewhere, but I will be disassembling to remove the wifi from the phone for hiss, so I will be under there anyways.
 
Will post a detailed review when it arrives.
 
Bob

 

[bobthedespot]

Phone arrived today.
 
Will get a review put together before I send my Roxannes back to JH audio.... they are cracked and the right ear cuts in and out.

 

[bobthedespot]

Okay, so I unboxed yesterday and set up the Vivo xplay 3s. It took a while for me to change the language since there were no instructions and I had a different rom than is typically installed on the 3s for some reason... I FREAKING LOVE IT!!!!
 
Before I continue, I should note a few disclaimers.
 
 
WHO I AM:
 
I have very little experience with hifi sound, except that I buy whatever I think sounds best while fitting the application and budget. I am 20 yrs old, and I have not done too much in the way of side-by-side comparison of equipment etc. If I like something, I keep it. If not, I sell it. 
 
That said, I am more musical than your average 20 yr old engineering student. I grew up playing classical piano, and my performances have been televised. I also play the drums, especially speed metal, djent, and prog jazz genres. Finally, I play guitar, and Andy James' work is mostly within my reach musically, but not always technically. Nearly every song I will use to describe the xplay 3s is a song I have played in some way or another.
 
HOW I LISTEN TO MUSIC
 
When I listen to music, I listen for musician's intent. I want to feel what the artists feel while they play. When I was 15 I decided to listen to music while I slept to develop better musicality. I would say that was one of my best decisions I have made in my whole life musical enjoyment aside. But that is beside the point... through the process of listening to music 8+ hours a day, I developed ASMR, or attention induced euphoria. 
 
So my basic criteria for equipment evaluation is the impact the equipment bring to me in terms of my listening experience with ASMR.
 
I do have moderately discerning ears, however, and I will do my best to describe the sound of the xplay 3s objectively.
 
 
XPLAY 3S BUILD QUALITY
 
The packaging is every bit the user experience that any apple product is, and I enjoyed taking the phone out of the box... maybe too much. It didn't feel like the sketchy chinese website I bought it from: http://liaow.com/
 
The phone has a usb 2.0 port on the bottom, unlike early 3.0 prototypes, and the version I bought included 600 series iems, not the 800s originally paired with the handset.
 
The screen is crisp, and I can only barely pick out the individual pixels. This is the first phone I have ever held that has such a crisp display. Be warned however, that upscaling on the phone is pathetic. You have been warned.
 
The user interface is decent, and I enjoy the phone overall, although I don't use the phone for anything besides music. On that note, the phone only has 23 gb useable space, and I filled that overnight by loading my favorite spotify playlists. I plan to buy a few usb dongles for my favorite genres and play music via an OTG hub.
 
I cannot comment on the cellular capabilities of the phone, but I can attest to the phone's insane wifi reception - it is incredible, outpacing my dedicated asus wifi card in my computer. As a quick sidenote, there is 0 hum due to the wifi in the headphone amping circuit. 
 
One thing I already hate about the phone is the battery life... it barely lasts half a day. Maybe that has been due to the heavy downloading I have been doing. I will update on this soon.
 
The phone only has a snapdragon 800, but it can be overclocked. Naturally, it bogs down when you have 15 tabs open along with spotify downloading music and flash games running in the background.
 
If you have any other spec questions about the phone, I can try to answer them
 
 
AMP QUALITY:
 
The two amps I have used heavily in the past are a JH-3a and the sansa clip. I have used all three (including the xplay 3s) with my JH Roxannes.
 
In my opinion, the xplay 3s blows away the sansa clip. It also seems to have better high-range projection than the JH 3s. Compared to both, the xplay 3s lacks a large degree of warmth in it's upper volume levels, but makes up for it with low-range extension and total detail clarity. At lower volumes, the 3s feels alot like the jh3a with slightly recessed mids. At the very low volumes I listen at night while I sleep the 3s really shines. While the jh3a starts to feel boxy, and the sansa clip muted (dropping entire frequency ranges), the xplay 3s gains an ethereal spaciousness that I haven't seen in any other portable amp.
 
One thing to not be phased by is the hifi mode in the on-board music app. It has a hifi mode (which noticeably decompresses the songs and expands the soundstage), but I think it is really just a down-scaling toggle (that downscales music to a lower quality when deselected).
 
_____________________________________
 
I need to get some sleep now, but I'll review the 3s in a genre-specific way tomorrow morning.

 

[bobthedespot]

Reserved.

 

[goodvibes]

 
i wish to state that it will be good enough if they get the same thing as clip+
 
if clip+ can make a whole good player in 30$,,,vivo can certainly do what u are saying.lets hope it did something good

Clip uses the class D amp that's part of the SOC. I'll take a bit more impedance to get a proper amp chip.

 

[bobthedespot]

Just a note for the record, the ak100 mark II uses a Wolfson WM8740 24bit DAC , not a CS4398 like the xshot. Just to be clear.

 

[rumina]

@bobthedespot
 
great that you enjoy your vivo xplay 3s, i have since its out and it's the best smartphone i ever had.
one importent thing, as you know the vivo xplay 3s has a sabre es9018k2m dac (2 channel version
of the normal es9018) and a burr brown opa2604 (amplifier) to enhance the sound quality. importent
for you, only i you use the imusic app with hifi mode "on" your smartphone is using the opa2604 chip,
so you wont get the best quality with 3party applikations. sadly you can only activate the hifi mode for
the vivo imusic and video app, i'm looking around since i have it for a hack to enable the hifi mode
(ea the opa2604) for other players, the imusic player has some strange sorting issues. you may have
fun to look at some inside pics of the phone: multicorechina.com/vivo-xplay3s-review/

 

[goodvibes]

  Just a note for the record, the ak100 mark II uses a Wolfson WM8740 24bit DAC , not a CS4398 like the xshot. Just to be clear.

but the new ak100 II uses the cs4398. There's also a lot more to this than what bits get thrown into the box.

 

[Rixsta]

Any more news on this phone, Im thinking hmm yes or no to getting it, anyone know what the video recording (audio bitrate) is ? and is it stereo microphones built in ?
and does anyone know if there is some kind of microphone you can buy for phones ?
 
Ok I just checked and Im confused by conflicting info, does the 3s have an SD card slot or not ? lolThanks