BrianZ
Active Member
i did a search didn't see a single thread here containing this phrase, so here's the first post about this unit i guess.
for those who haven't read about my recent initiation into decent HP equipment, i just got a set of HD600's and this set off a pursuit of better source equipment. i was previously coming from a Zune player feeding a set of V-Moda M-80's, and my music is almost entirely wma lossless.
so on to some quick thoughts about the X3. bottom line: it's really a nice unit, especially if sound quality, storage capacity, simplicity and cost are your priorities. all my listening so far has been done via the headphone jack as i don't have an HP amp yet. compared to the Zune, it is indeed more "audiophile" in freq balance, i.e. a bit smoother highs, a bit less prominent lows, and more focus on mids, especially in the vocal range. it sounds great. but what kinda surprises me is how small these difference are. the Zune imo does sound very, very nice too, and even seems to have a bit wider sound stage (but again, a very small difference).
but what really sets the X3 apart imo is a very nice compliment of features that enable a top-notch experience:
- hardware Bass & Treble adjustment. this is distortion free and great if you want a slightly more exciting presentation than the typical audiophile sound, which i ever so slightly do. and obviously this also can help those more oddly engineered recordings that we all have.
- adjustable channel Balance. this is very handy for those of us with some hearing loss issues (like me)
- Line Out! i intend to make full use of this once i get a portable HP amp (i have a FiiO E12 on the way). so far i have tested the LO on my small bedroom system (Yamaha CRX-322 receiver into PSB Alpha B1's) and i indeed hear a very nice step up in detail and resolution compared to the X3's HP jack. plus i don't have to turn the receiver up as loud, which is important because it has a fairly low S/N ratio (the receiver i mean). so anyway i expect very good things once i get my HP amp.
- microSD slot, which currently supports up to 128 GB.
- the X3 also has handful of EQ presets, which i was actually a little surprised to see being that's more of a mass market feature than an audiophile one. but i dunno maybe it's good. i haven't used this feature and don't really intend to.
now, only downside of the X3 is that FiiO is still working out some functional issues, which have been slowly addressed via back & forth with user feedback and firmware updates since it's introduction. the most frustrating issue is the limit of the number of files/songs that X3's music library can handle, which is currently 5800. for a unit that has almost 130 GB of storage this is kind of a joke. mine is not full yet and i already have about 8500 songs (vast majority are lossless). this makes library/categorical functionality useless because why would you only want half of your collection categorized? the work around is that you can browse your entire collection via file folder structures and this works pretty well for me because i already have my folders organized very intuitively. but if i didn't it would be a giant hassle to have to retroactively do that just to use this player. so beware to all who have a massively disorganized music collection. anyway i gather from the Head-Fi forum that FiiO is still working on a fix and it will be addressed in a future firmware update.
and speaking of firmware updates, there have been a lot of them. and i think this is because FiiO relies heavily on customer feedback to help them develop and refine functionality. they really pay attention - it's kinda cool.
CAUTION:
there has been a lot of talk over on Head-Fi that FiiO is developing a unit to replace the X3. this makes me a little nervous as a new owner. i hope it doesn't mean they will start slacking on updates for the X3 before the functional issues/imperfections have been addressed. maybe they have determined that some of the major complaints cannot be fixed with firmware updates so they instead decided to create a full-on replacement? god, i hope not - the X3 is so close to perfect for me!
for those who haven't read about my recent initiation into decent HP equipment, i just got a set of HD600's and this set off a pursuit of better source equipment. i was previously coming from a Zune player feeding a set of V-Moda M-80's, and my music is almost entirely wma lossless.
so on to some quick thoughts about the X3. bottom line: it's really a nice unit, especially if sound quality, storage capacity, simplicity and cost are your priorities. all my listening so far has been done via the headphone jack as i don't have an HP amp yet. compared to the Zune, it is indeed more "audiophile" in freq balance, i.e. a bit smoother highs, a bit less prominent lows, and more focus on mids, especially in the vocal range. it sounds great. but what kinda surprises me is how small these difference are. the Zune imo does sound very, very nice too, and even seems to have a bit wider sound stage (but again, a very small difference).
but what really sets the X3 apart imo is a very nice compliment of features that enable a top-notch experience:
- hardware Bass & Treble adjustment. this is distortion free and great if you want a slightly more exciting presentation than the typical audiophile sound, which i ever so slightly do. and obviously this also can help those more oddly engineered recordings that we all have.
- adjustable channel Balance. this is very handy for those of us with some hearing loss issues (like me)
- Line Out! i intend to make full use of this once i get a portable HP amp (i have a FiiO E12 on the way). so far i have tested the LO on my small bedroom system (Yamaha CRX-322 receiver into PSB Alpha B1's) and i indeed hear a very nice step up in detail and resolution compared to the X3's HP jack. plus i don't have to turn the receiver up as loud, which is important because it has a fairly low S/N ratio (the receiver i mean). so anyway i expect very good things once i get my HP amp.
- microSD slot, which currently supports up to 128 GB.
- the X3 also has handful of EQ presets, which i was actually a little surprised to see being that's more of a mass market feature than an audiophile one. but i dunno maybe it's good. i haven't used this feature and don't really intend to.
now, only downside of the X3 is that FiiO is still working out some functional issues, which have been slowly addressed via back & forth with user feedback and firmware updates since it's introduction. the most frustrating issue is the limit of the number of files/songs that X3's music library can handle, which is currently 5800. for a unit that has almost 130 GB of storage this is kind of a joke. mine is not full yet and i already have about 8500 songs (vast majority are lossless). this makes library/categorical functionality useless because why would you only want half of your collection categorized? the work around is that you can browse your entire collection via file folder structures and this works pretty well for me because i already have my folders organized very intuitively. but if i didn't it would be a giant hassle to have to retroactively do that just to use this player. so beware to all who have a massively disorganized music collection. anyway i gather from the Head-Fi forum that FiiO is still working on a fix and it will be addressed in a future firmware update.
and speaking of firmware updates, there have been a lot of them. and i think this is because FiiO relies heavily on customer feedback to help them develop and refine functionality. they really pay attention - it's kinda cool.
CAUTION:
there has been a lot of talk over on Head-Fi that FiiO is developing a unit to replace the X3. this makes me a little nervous as a new owner. i hope it doesn't mean they will start slacking on updates for the X3 before the functional issues/imperfections have been addressed. maybe they have determined that some of the major complaints cannot be fixed with firmware updates so they instead decided to create a full-on replacement? god, i hope not - the X3 is so close to perfect for me!
