[mrback]

my x3 is stuck on a screen after trying to roll back from rockbox to the stock firmware. 
just saying 'mounting disk' loading firmware. error file not found. cant get out of this screen. can anyone help?
kind regards

 

[giuguar]

Guys sorry to bother you if the argument has been already talken but I got lost in the crowd of posts.


Is the player capable of formatting the sd itself? if so how?


Also, maybe a silly question, but in order to load music on the sd do I have to copy music directly on the sd or can I just directly plug the x3 to the PC and it is seen as an external storage? Actually this last option seems not to work and I'm wondering if my x3 has any issue...

Sorry again if topics have been pobably repeated, maybe you can just post the links?


cheers


 


Julia

 

[skajohyros]

Use a card reader to format to FAT32(4000 KB .. Something like that).

Create Music folder on sd and put your music in there.You can connect the x3 to pc but it's easier and faster using a card reader.

 

[Dexter22]

my x3 is stuck on a screen after trying to roll back from rockbox to the stock firmware. 
just saying 'mounting disk' loading firmware. error file not found. cant get out of this screen. can anyone help?
kind regards

I had this once, but its a long back it happened that I dont remeber exactly what saved mine. But from a vague memory, it must be the sd removal/reset/reformatting the micro sd, copying rockbox to it again/ and trying the uninstall process carefully again. First just try the reset pin option. And try reinstalling the rockbox into the mem card. See if it works. Mine survived after some trials anyway.

 

[jeromeaparis]

Hi, I received recently my X3 (baught on gearbest)
I did choose it for the inside DAC, opamps and layout design.
I am very satisfied with this little piece of art.
The design is very classical, as a hifi element.
The all Aluminium body looks great but care, it could be easily scratched.
 
Because of the small size, I do use it only with inear phones, mostly chinese KZ brand.
My favorites actualy are the hybrid ZST and dual dd ZS2. I did test the ZS3, very good,
a lot of body, but the sound is to me "too powerfull and too fat." The ATR that fits very well the Benjie S5
does not sound well on the X3
 
I did Rockbox it, it's a very confortable alternative firmware, with lot of usefull settings,
for the sound and the layout with lots of themes from the sansa clip +
I found several themes  I like much.
I use "Dac's filter roll-off : Slow" "Dac oversampling: 128x"  Gain + 0.5
 
The sound seems to me rather flat, but with my KZ, specialy the ZST, I had  voices rather
placed backward and a bit difficult to understand. I believe it is due mostly to the earphones.
 
As I did very often on hifi and tube equipment (that I modded more than this) , I made a little mod:
I did add a small Wima mks film capacitor  // with the chemical 470 uF 6.3v of the X3
I did test 0.1uF, 0.056uF and 0.022uF I keep the 0.022
The voices are now closer, and clearer. The trebles that where a litlle shy are more present.
The ZS2 that was not adapted for the stock X3 due to a lack of high medium and trebles are now OK.
The ZST has very impressive sharp trebles, the percussions and small noises sound very real.
 I would have like too change the stock 470uF cap for an Elna Silmic, but they are twice bigger
than stock and there is no space.
 
The sound is very spatial, and the different instruments have their distinct "place and life."
 
 

 
 

 

[Slater]

  Hi, I received recently my X3 (baught on gearbest)
The all Aluminium body looks great but care, it could be easily scratched.
 
As I did very often on hifi and tube equipment (that I modded more than this) , I made a little mod:
I did add a small Wima mks film capacitor
 

 
Nice mod, I'll have to give it a try. Do you have a closeup of this area, so I better understand where you added the capacitor to the board:
 

 
As far as the case being easy to scratch, it's easy to make your own case for the X3: http://www.head-fi.org/t/803844/rockbox-xduoo-x3/1380#post_13317169
 
And while you're at it, you can also change the screen cover from tinted to a clear one, making the screen readable outdoors: http://www.head-fi.org/t/803844/rockbox-xduoo-x3/1500#post_13376076

 

[jeromeaparis]

Hi, here a picture of detail with soldering points.
The film cap is in // with the chemical, soldered at the same points.
it is mounted on a dip socket, cut from the part you see on left, to be changed easily.
You need a thermostat temp controlled soldering iron with very thin tip.
 
I warn you that the burnin is disturbing and takes time:
during the first hours, the sound is wonderfully improved,
then it becomes harder and agressive, then you must not give up, but
continue the burnin during at least 10h (30 is more safe) till it softens.
Then if necessary you can eventualy think about changing the value or the kind of cap
 
The tool to open the X3 (2 screws on back) is Torx T5
 

 

[charleski]

  As I did very often on hifi and tube equipment (that I modded more than this) , I made a little mod:
I did add a small Wima mks film capacitor  // with the chemical 470 uF 6.3v of the X3
 

 
Take a look at the components right next to the long lead from the electrolytic. It's soldered to the positive terminal of a tantalum cap (i.e. it's already bypassed to some degree); the small three-legged chip on the left is a voltage regulator and the chip above the cap is a FET array that's usually used as a load switch. I'm pretty sure that electrolytic is just there to filter the 5V from the USB before it hits the battery charging circuit. In normal use you're running power straight from the battery so there will be no voltage across that cap and bypassing it will have no impact on the sound. It makes sense to bypass electrolytics that are in the signal path or filtering the power that's directly feeding the signal processing chips. But this is merely an ancillary circuit.

 

[jeromeaparis]

A Li-ion charging circuit does not need any chemical cap.
See such a well known circuit I do use sometimes on the left of my picture.
I did check the voltage of the chemical cap when the X3 is ON and OFF
ON, I found 4.1V (battery was nearly fully charged)
OFF, I found around 0.4V slowly decreasing
And no doubt, there is a change in sound quality with an added film cap.
The X3 is very sensible, 100nF will increase  the level and speed of the medium & trebles, a lot !
the bass seems recessed. 56nF was too much too, 22nF sounds good at first,
let see how it will mature after 30hours of burnin...! 
 
 
 

 

[charleski]

  A Li-ion charging circuit does not need any chemical cap.
See such a well known circuit I do use sometimes on the left of my picture.
 

 
xDuoo were trying to save money. Rather than using a (relatively) expensive battery-management chip (like this, which only requires 10uF decoupling caps), they made do with a voltage-regulator and load switch. A design like that will work, but you need a decent amount of capacitance on the input to keep the regulator stable. It's clear the electrolytic was added as an afterthought: they thought they'd get away with just the 220uF tantalum cap, but found they needed more capacitance so had to solder on the additional cap. 
 
Obviously after spending a lot of time soldering this on you're going to think you hear a difference, and that's fine. But ...

 

[stellarelephant]

Hi Jeromeaparis, Cool mod!
A few questions: what is the battery voltage?What is the capacity of the stock tantalum cap? And what brand of electrolytic cap are you using?

Many say that PSU bypass caps should be placed as close as possible to the load. I wonder if you'd see further improvements if you switched the positions of the two caps so that the film cap was connected via the shorter wires.

Some folks insist that they can hear differences between power smoothing caps while others say it is impossible to hear, since they are not in the signal path. I am contemplating upgrading the caps on the power rails of my Pocket Class A amp and your post makes me believe that this may be worthwhile.

Interesting that you hear a difference with vocal presence...that is an area where the stock X3 needs improvement IMO.

 

[jeromeaparis]

The Li-ion battery is 4.2v when full
The chemical power reserve cap is 470 uF 6.3v 85V
Most of X3 caps are tantalum (the yellow-orange cubes with a line at one edge)
 
I just added a mks 0.022uF // with the chemical
from my experience this lenght of the wire (this is pure cooper) does not play
I cannot change the chem for an Elna Silmic I wish cause they are twice bigger.
 
Main manufacturers like Sony, Pioneer, Yamaha, TEAC etc can use film caps in // with chemicals
Most often, it is 0.1uF mks caps.
at main power big caps. and at output caps (in signal path)
and all have more or less an effect on sound.
 
mks are maybe 10x quicker than chem and mkp 2x than mks
mkp can be very interesting in power, mks on signal path are softer.
 
The difficulty with the film cap I did add on the X3 is that the sound is not stable.
At first glance it's Whoah !! then after about 5hrs the sound becomes harder and youre deceived,
10hr after, it's a bit better, but then there is a "warming effect" I power the X3 and the sound is fine with KZ ZS2
but after one hour, the sound becomes harsh, with few bass.
It's an experiment I have to be patient and wait 30hr more...

 

[giuguar]

Hi again guys, sorry to bother you but User manual that came with the X3 is really poor and to me it's not very clear the meaning of the CUE function or what is the Dac filter and the gain function and how to properly set them...
Also, is it possible, when playing a song, to get back one level and see the song list in the folder where that song belongs instead of getting back to the main folder tree everytime?
Does rockbox implements this navigation in the folders? Is there any more complete manual downoadable anywhere?

 

[stellarelephant]

The Li-ion battery is 4.2v when full
The chemical power reserve cap is 470 uF 6.3v 85V
Most of X3 caps are tantalum (the yellow-orange cubes with a line at one edge)

I just added a mks 0.022uF // with the chemical
from my experience this lenght of the wire (this is pure cooper) does not play
I cannot change the chem for an Elna Silmic I wish cause they are twice bigger.

Main manufacturers like Sony, Pioneer, Yamaha, TEAC etc can use film caps in // with chemicals
Most often, it is 0.1uF mks caps.
at main power big caps. and at output caps (in signal path)
and all have more or less an effect on sound.

mks are maybe 10x quicker than chem and mkp 2x than mks
mkp can be very interesting in power, mks on signal path are softer.

The difficulty with the film cap I did add on the X3 is that the sound is not stable.
At first glance it's Whoah !! then after about 5hrs the sound becomes harder and youre deceived,
10hr after, it's a bit better, but then there is a "warming effect" I power the X3 and the sound is fine with KZ ZS2
but after one hour, the sound becomes harsh, with few bass.
It's an experiment I have to be patient and wait 30hr more...

Thanks for taking the time to answer all my questions. So am I understanding correctly that the 470uF cap is a factory part? At first I thought you had added it along with the WIMA. If you want to try to replace it with a higher end electrolytic, Nichicon has a new "high quality audio" cap series with miniature size called KA. I used them as power rail caps and output caps in my amp and think they have a nice transparent sound, much better than the OSCONs I compared them with. Probably not as good as Silmic, but small!

Did you choose MKS over MKP because of size constraints or sound preference? You said MKP is "interesting" for power and MKS "softer"...can you elaborate?

When you say the sound is not stable, do you mean that you are experiencing burn in? Or that the sound is somehow changing with battery voltage as the player runs through each discharge cycle while playing?

I am about to place a Mouser order for some new caps to play with in the amp I mentioned(speaking of which, if you like DIY and you use your X3 on the go, you should consider building a Pocket Class A to stack with your X3. It adds a huge amount of body, presence, and impact to this player!). I may grab a few little film caps to try in the X3. What is the biggest size you think would fit?

Thanks. I look forward to your further impressions of the sound with your mod.

 

[wskl]

Hi again guys, sorry to bother you but User manual that came with the X3 is really poor and to me it's not very clear the meaning of the CUE function or what is the Dac filter and the gain function and how to properly set them...
Also, is it possible, when playing a song, to get back one level and see the song list in the folder where that song belongs instead of getting back to the main folder tree everytime?
Does rockbox implements this navigation in the folders? Is there any more complete manual downoadable anywhere?

 
If you don't use cue sheets, then don't worry about it.  Basically some people prefer to rip a CD into a single file instead of individual tracks, the cue sheet will contain the track info.
 
'Gain' provides a bit more power, an additional +6db.
 
I have not use the dac filter, but I read in a review that it provides 'slow' or 'hard' roll-off.
 
And Rockbox can give you the folder navigation that you want.