Few gadgets in the community of lovers of high-quality portable sound waited as long and eagerly as the player from Fiio. The project announced a few years ago was suspended and did not show signs of life for a long time until the company began shipping the first trial batches of the player at the beginning of the summer. Having overcome the supply shortage, Fiio began to expand its player X3 into the market. Let's see how good he is.
Why is this player so good that they have waited so much for it and broke spears on forums all over the world? Of course, the manufacturer. They expected a breakthrough from Fiio, because it was they who actually turned the portable HiFi market upside down, starting the production of amplifiers and DACs that had no equal in price / quality ratio. On AppleInsider pages, their products have been repeatedly reviewed (E02i, E09K, E17, E07K and E12).
Initially, the X3 was conceived more as a digital transport - a player focused on the output of a digital signal or sound through a linear output. The amplification part was planned to the extent that, in order to reduce the cost of the final product, the main use scenario was to connect the player to third-party DACs / amplifiers. At that time, the project "did not take off," and Fiio suspended it to save money. At the beginning of 2013, the X3 returned with a different concept, and you can say thanks to the company, since the “new X3” is noticeably better than what was planned.
Specifications
General specifications
- Processor: dual-core Ingenic Z4760 600MHz
- DAC: Wolfson WM8740
- Operational amplifier: AD8397 (headphone output)
- Internal Memory: 8 GB (7.3 GB available)
- Memory Cards: MicroSD, up to 64 GB SDXC (FAT32, NTFS)
- Data transfer: USB 2.0 High Speed, Read / Write - 4.5 MB / s
- Outputs: 3.5 mm headphone output, 3.5 mm line-out, 3.5 mm coaxial S / PDIF (adapter included)
- Recommended headphone impedance: 16 Ω - 300 Ω
- Dimensions: 55 mm x 109 mm x 16 mm
- Weight: 122 g
- Screen: TFT 320 x 240
- Volume: digital adjustment, 60 steps
- Hardware equalizer: Treble and woofer adjustment within ± 10 dB
- Channel balance: ± 5 dB, in 0.5 dB steps
- Gain: 0 dB (Low) and 6 dB (High)
- Charging: 5 V, from 500 mA (at least 1.5 A recommended)
- Battery: 3000 mA / H, Li-Polymer
- LED indicator: red - charging, green - charged
- Operating time on one charge: more than 10 hours
- Charging time: up to 4 hours (5 V, 1.5 A)
Linear output
- Distortion: <0.004% @ 1 kHz
- Signal to noise ratio: > 108 dB
- Frequency range: 10 Hz - 20 kHz (± 0.2)
- Dynamic range: > 103 dB
- Channel separation: > 90 dB @ 10 KΩ @ 1 kHz
- Voltage: > 1.7 Vrms
Headphone Out
- Power: > 540 mW @ 16Ω, 270 mW @ 32Ω, 30 mW @ 300Ω
- Output Impedance: <0.3 Ω
- Channel separation: > 75 dB @ 1 kHz
- Distortion: <0.005% @ 1 kHz
- Frequency range: 10 Hz - 20 kHz (± 0.2)
- Peak Voltage: > 8 Vp-p
- Signal to noise ratio: > 105 dB
- Maximum current: > 250 mA
- Output Protection: Relay
Format support
- Lossless: (Bit depth / Sample rate): APE (Fast) 24/192, APE (Normal) 24/96, APE (High) 24/96, FLAC 24/192, WAV 24/192, WMA 9.1 LOSSLESS 24 / 192, Apple Lossless (ALAC) 24/192
- Lossless: MP3, MP2, OGG, AAC, WMA
- Support for album art, text, ID3 tags and CUE lists
- Play without pauses
Package and Delivery
The box is standard for Fiio in white cardboard with red stripes. It has a corporate sticker to protect against fakes. It contains a special surface, by scrupulously which you can find the code that is checked on the company's website. Thus, you can verify the originality of the device.
Inside there is a player with a worn cover in a silver antistatic bag, instructions with a warranty card, a USB cable for synchronization and charging, an adapter for S / PDIF and a pair of protective films on the screen (Fiio’s special thanks for this, as often the film cannot be stuck with one time).
In my opinion, praise deserves the decision not to put in a set of headphones. Something more or less decent would have lifted the price tag up, and cheap consumer goods would immediately alienate X3. Soberly judging that buying a player of this level already own good headphones, the company did not do stupid things.
In the internal memory of the player is a good selection of tracks that allow you to test support for different formats, there is everything from the remastered album The Beatles and ending with the tracks of Michael Jackson. In the new versions of the player, “Dr. Chesky's Sensational, Fantastic, and Simply Amazing Binaural Sound Show! ”Is an interesting album recorded using binaural recording (two microphones installed in the layout of a human head allow you to record music exactly as a person hears, and when listening to headphones, feel the maximum three-dimensional Effect).
Design and management
The player is incredibly advantageous from other "colleagues in the shop" originally from China. Heavy bricks HiFiMan and top Colorfly - have long been the talk of the town. X3 on their background looks like a masterpiece of design ideas: black aluminum with a “metallic” texture, a plastic front panel with a screen, (almost) comfortable buttons. Dimensions roughly coincide with the typical mobile phone of the time when technology allowed the creation of compact devices, and marketers have not yet been forced to chase the thickness. Therefore, the player fits comfortably in your hand, it is comfortable to operate.
Of course, dyed aluminum is not the most scratch-resistant material (proven by Apple), so the future users of the device in Fiio were taken care of and a white silicone case was put in the kit. The player in it loses some of the charm, but much better preserved. For those who do not like the white color - bluish and pink covers are available (for a fee). In the future, promise even more interesting options from leatherette.
The ends of the device are actively used, there are various interface connectors located there. On the left side there is a slot for memory cards, on the right there is a hold switch that blocks the buttons. The top panel bears on itself earphone and S / PDIF exits, lower - USB and a linear exit.
The main control is carried out by the front panel buttons. They are exactly six, and it is in them lies the main interface "joke" X3. The fact is that for the sake of aesthetics, the developers placed paired buttons (forward / back and louder / quieter) diagonally. At first, this is a little surprising and confusing, but after a short time you get used to it. The buttons are responsible for the following functions:
- return back and call the track context menu,
- the next / previous track is also used to rewind and navigate through the menu items
- volume control (plus or minus) is also used to select options in the menu,
- play / pause, also serves to select the menu, long press turns on / off the player.
The screen of the player is not bad. Of course, it is inferior to modern mobile phones, but for the player super-resolution is clearly not needed. The main problem - the screen goes blind in direct sunlight, you have to turn it away or cover it with your hand, but in general, given the budget, this is already a nagging.
Very pleased with the menu of the player. The programmers did not reinvent unnecessary entities, pacified the craving for beauty, usually resulting in lurid icons, and gave away a convenient interface similar to the iPod Classic. The whole menu is constructed as lines of text, and the top line of the screen shows a series of status icons: battery charge, playback, volume, etc.
Playing - quickly takes you to the playback screen, showing what is playing there.
Play All - shows all your files in one large list.
Favorites - analog playlists on the iPod, allows you to collect your favorite tracks.
Category - allows you to view your media library by genre, artist or album.
Browse Files - direct access to your files in the player's memory and on the map. If you do not like the order in the library and carefully written tags, then this is for you.
Play Mode - switches the playback mode: in a circle, one track, random.
Treble and Bass - as you can guess, adjust the treble and bass.
Player Settings - player settings.
- Memory Play - whether to remember where playback stopped when the player was turned off (turned off, to memorize a track, to memorize a track and a position).
- Gapeless Playback - includes playback without pauses.
- Max Vol - limit the maximum volume.
- Default Vol - which volume to set after switching on: the one that was on when it was turned off, or the level that was set once
- Play Display - what to show on the playback screen: cover or lyrics.
- Gain - governs gain.
- Balance - actually regulates the balance.
System Settings - system settings
- Language - the choice of languages (alas, but Russian is not yet and is not planned).
- Sleep - sleep timer, for those who like to listen to music for a dream coming, changes from off to 120 minutes in 10-minute increments.
- Backligh Time - backlight time, from 10 to 60 seconds in increments of 10 seconds, or all the time on.
- Idle Poweroff - automatic shutdown when idle, changes from off to 210 seconds in 30 second steps.
- Backlight Brightness - backlight brightness, 4 steps.
- Theme - the choice of one of the three themes.
- Update Lib - update library. The +/- keys change the auto / manual mode, the Play key triggers a manual update.
- Info / Storage - shows information about the player, firmware and available place.
- Restore - resets to factory settings.
If you press and hold the “Back” button in the playback mode, the track menu opens, here you can see its metadata and bitrate, add / remove it to your favorites, adjust the bass and treble, select the playback mode and even delete it from the player’s memory.
The lifetime on one charge was promised "from 10 hours", on the latest firmware versions I even get out more than 13 hours when playing FLAC. The charge from the USB port is very slow, so it’s better to get a more powerful charger, for example from an iPad. With him, the charge time is at an acceptable level in 3 hours. I can not help but note the use of a good battery and controller - many Chinese players sin by losing the entire charge even when they are turned off. X3 does not suffer from such incontinence.
Sound
For a start it is worth noting that according to the results of measurements, both carried out by enthusiasts using RMAA, and Fiio's own measurements, the X3 turned out to be more than good. Absolutely flat frequency response, low distortion, in general, all the graphs are beautiful. What does the player offer by ear?
In general, it would be surprising if a company with products such as E07K and E17 in the portfolio would have released a player with a bad sound, but this, of course, did not happen. Frustrated were those who waited for some kind of superchild and tried to compare the Fiio X3 with top players, price tags for which exceed $ 700, but if you do not deal with such illogical things, you can say that the X3 was a success.
The closest to the sound of the player is to the Fiio E17, which is not surprising, since they use the same chip. The sound of the player is warm, but it doesn’t go deep into the dark sound, as the closest competitor in the HiFiMan 601 price group suffers. The X3 colors the recordings a bit, giving them musicality and smoothness of sound, although very rarely this leads to the bass that seems to be poorly controlled. If you switch to X3 from players easier, you will be surprised how many small details and nuances you have not heard before, especially if you used headphones with high impedance and / or low sensitivity. It seems that music acquires a new dimension, depth, when you can clearly separate the instruments from each other, concentrate on individual batches of instruments, hear the features of the recording. Energetic bass, clean middle, extended and high frequency air - all these X3 will please the owners.
Against the background of the competitors, the X3's “dark background” is very pleased, the minimum of noise and own noise contribute to the concentration on the sound.
The player requires a thoughtful selection of headphones, since not with all the headphones, it will correctly reveal its potential. I liked how he plays with HiFiMan Re400, VSonic GR07 and GR01, Ambient Acoustics AM6 HiRez, Soundmagic E10. Did not like the X3 c T-PEOS H-200.
By connecting the X3 through a line-out to the Fiio E12, I made sure that even tight isodynamic headphones sound good in such a bundle.
Another fun experiment is connecting the X3 to the Yulong DA8 DAC. As a digital vehicle, the X3 is also great for most music lovers.
By the way, I want to note that it’s rather inexpedient with the presence of the X3 that looks to buy an iRiver A & K 100 player that uses a similar circuit solution and offers almost the same sound, with a price tag several times higher.
findings
We can say that now, X3 in terms of price / sound has no equal. But for a long time to relax Fiio will not work - on the approach are two powerful competitors in the face of iBasso DX50 and iHIFI 760, which were quickly launched into development after the announcement of the X3. Definitely on the side of the X3 will be a compact and spectacular design, and the rest will have to be judged after listening to new models. One thing is for sure: the X3 turned out to be a great player in its price category, and Fiio managed to shift the price level of high-quality sound for players, as they used to do for amplifiers and DACs. I look forward to the next Fiio X5, scheduled for the end of this year.
Addition: modification
Michael, known in the circles of lovers of high-quality portable sound under the name , developed an inexpensive, but reasonably effective mod Fiio X3, allowing to correct some flaws of sound. After modification, the X3 acquires a more collected and deeper bass and better resolution, which has a positive effect on the sound picture. If you are interested in modifying, you can contact Michael via e-mail sanmigel on mail.ru.
Addition: DAC mode
Recently, Fiio has released a firmware that allows the X3 to be used as an external DAC. Thus, buying X3, in addition to the player, you also get an external sound card that will play better than most of the built-in laptops and PCs.
The article is based on materials .
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