FiiO X3 Mark III Portable High Definition Audio and MP3 Player 192Khz/32Bit Bluetooth 4.1 Satnav Wheel

Product Information

My XRK Uber + X3II combo sounds very good and combined with the excellent UI, the experience is very enjoyable. I’d like to see the hardware used in the design that is friendlier to alteration in the next model. The X3 plays an even hand. Neither frequency gets more love than the other. Mids, of course, are far easier for the ear to interpret. Detail in both bands is very high and distortion is low. Moot to how the ear hears bass is its slightly lower dynamic range. The only real fancy accessory is the Coaxial adapter. Basically, one end is a female Digital Coaxial(S/PDIF) plug while the other is a 3.5mm one. The 3.5mm end plugs into the Coaxial Output port on the X3, and the other end receives a regular Digital Coaxial(S/PDIF) cable. This allows your X3 to be the source, and to allow another unit to work as the DAC and then amp. The X3 SG now does Native DSD and supports up to 192kHz/24bit. It also has dual oscillators to run 44.1kHz and 48kHz. Power wise the new SG X3 puts out ＞224 mW (16 Ω/THD+N＜1%). The first X3 >540mW. At 32Ω the old one did >270mW, the new one 200mW. At 300Ω the old one did >30mW and the new one >24mW. Purely looking at the numbers the original X3 has more power but numbers aren’t everything of course. The original X3 also was developed for a headphone impedance range of 16-300Ω while the SG is now best between 16 and 150Ω. All this naturally means the the X3 SG sounds quite different from the original one…

is a new, low price point for a portable potentially able to deliver sound quality better than any CD player, as well as far better sound than portables like the iPod. FiiO has also upgraded a lot of aspects of the new X3 Gen 2 functionality. With the new chipset implementation, the X3 2nd Gen can now decode DSD natively unlike the older X5 which converted DSD to PCM output, and the X1 which does not do it at all. The X3II dishes out 210mW, roughly, and that just isn’t much at all for anyone using a Planar or anything above 120Ω. I find it unsuitable for portable USB DAC usage because of that fact. The FiiO X3 III can also be used as a DAC for a computer, much as the bigger sibling the X5 3rd Gen. It needs a USB cable for the connection and it allows to play the music on the PC using the X3 III as the source. Alas, the FiiO X3 III does not seem to work as a DAC under Linux as the FiiO X5 3rd Gen does – as confirmed by FiiO themselves – nor under macOS.As mentioned just a bit ago, the midrange falls in line with the bass experience, and the entire bottom and middle sections of most of my listening tests were extremely linear feeling. Meaning, equal bass, and mids without either feeling more prominent than the other.

Its shape is simple. Its looks are clean. Had Fiio employed a more traditional plus controller and discrete volume control, the X3 would be even sleeker.Output power is reasonable though not outstanding and is more suited to powering IEMs and efficient headphones than anything more demanding. In unbalanced, you will get≥ 160 mW (32 Ω/THD+N＜1%) and balanced at a similar weighting will get you≥ 190 mW. For pop, jazz, and other closed miked modern recording, Yamaha EPH-100 gives the best sound, nice bass, full bodied and rounded vocal, soft and smooth treble that never have any problem with sibilant. Superlux HD 381F also pairs nicely with X3, but EPH-100 sounds nicer with better detail. This is a massive feature for usability purposes in the OS of the X3iii. Inside the systems menu, you will find the three settings under the title Rotary sensitivity. You have high, medium and low. since the OS is quite list based changing it to high sensitivity reduces the margin of error in scrolling as well as generally make everything much snappier and easier to navigate. The X3iii uses a2350 mAh Li-polymer battery which is slightly smaller than the 2600mAh battery inside the 2nd gen X3. The X3iii will give you around 10 hours compared to the rated on a paper spec of 11 hours on the older version. That is actually not bad considering the additional features on the X3iii. The X3 Mark III uses a 2.3″ 320x240px TFT screen on the front panel. It is a non-touch screen with navigation and control through the physical buttons and touch-scroll wheel below it. The type and resolution of the screen are the same as the last gen X3, however, it is slightly bigger than the 2.0″ version used on the 2nd gen unit.

Design-wise the Mark III is a huge step up from the older shape of the X3ii. It looks far more modern and slimline than the two previous X3 generations. For those that have seen, used or own asecond-generationX1, the X3 Mark III form factor is very familiar. In fact, face down you could argue that the Mark III is a blown-up X1 Mark II. update media lib” can be set to “auto” or “manual”– it will automatically update the library when changes are detected, as opposed to only when manual action is taken; The FiiO X3 was used in conjunction with my Project-H unit, FiiO HS2, FiiO E12, Miu Audio MRB. And plugged into AKG Q701 and RHA SA950i for the purpose of this review. It also helps that the CS4398 is a bit more power savvy than other DAC chips in the market with regards to keeping your battery life reasonably long despite the higher processing capability than the older Wolfson. Battery LifeThe midrange is not bloomed and does not feel very forward. It is moderately relaxed in the physical locale and does not feel recessed at all.

There are no gaps for the button arrays on the left but there are outlines of where they are and the material is soft enough to be able to easily use the controls. I can’t see the X3iii ever sliding out of this case despite the open bottom end. It seems rigid enough to hold everything in place. The Earsonics SM2 stressed the X3 only minimally. The combo was able to hit 100+dB without error, however compression of the dynamic range began after sustained 105-110dB loads. Of course, no one should listen to those levels, ever. That is, unless you’re Jonesing for a new Phonak hearing aid. Sadly, the X3II fails to impress me with staging dynamics. Although, I am happy to note that the soundstage feels excellently coherent and well-formed. While not large or deep feeling, what is there is very similar the what I consider the Beyerdynamic T1 to have been: the ultimate incoherent and proper feel and setup.It is a well-lit screen with bright clean colors, decent viewing angle also and in contrast to the X1ii it has better lighting and more complex theme coloring. The depth from the LCD to the tempered glass is not that deep which helps in terms of legibility and viewing angles.