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Post by Mr Trev on Sept 29, 2017 18:53:07 GMT
Here's my new toy Nice little unit. A tad smaller than the 1st gen X3. Nice clean sound, great bass response. Bluetooth - haven't used yet, OTG storage - as you can see
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Rabbit
Administrator
Posts: 7,087
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Post by Rabbit on Sept 30, 2017 17:57:04 GMT
Looks very nice. The Bluetooth implementation on the Fiio X1 is awful. They really shouldn't have bothered. It slows the player down terribly. Latency problems are dreadful. Very short range for some reason. Plus it's just flaky!!!
So no Bluetooth on the x1, which originally was what I bought it for to connect to my TV speakers.
I like the simple front layout of that Cayin. Presumably, it puts a healthy signal for slightly more difficult loads? It also has aptx implemented on Bluetooth which is good news.
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Post by Mr Trev on Oct 1, 2017 0:40:50 GMT
I haven't tried bluetooth anything yet, no need for it myself TBH. I'll probably play around with hibylink once it hits iOS though.
With my PFE - the IEMs in the photo - I'm typically running 40-45/100 on medium gain. There should be plenty o power to handle the more difficult IEMs. One thing that did surprise me was how low the line out is compared to the X3. Even with the attenuator I built, I would typically use a -8dB pre-cut in order to get some usable range out of the volume knob on my hybrid amp. Using the N3 that's completely unnecessary.
The capacitive buttons on the front can be rather fiddly though. The menu button is right above the rew. one, so it's too easy to skip back when you want to change play mode. Once playing, you can just use the buttons on the side so it's not a serious issue - thankfully you don't need to press the button twice (once to turn on the screen, again to do the action) like the X3.
The one thing that does bother me a bit is a "pop" between songs when I'm shuffling or using playlists. Apparently it happens due to changing formats and something about a soft mute. All I know is the X3 didn't do it It also seemed to have a slight random ticking (like a vinyl click) on DAC mode, but that seems to be cleared with the new drivers just released. Didn't seem to happen with my DAPhile server so it's all Microsoft's fault.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with it. Haven't even felt the need to plug it into the E12a
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Rabbit
Administrator
Posts: 7,087
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Post by Rabbit on Oct 1, 2017 6:57:07 GMT
I've had that noise between tracks on one of the Fiios. The X1 puts a gap in so it's not that one. The X1 doesn't do gapless although they did advertise it originally, but recently took it off.
I think the noises between tracks might depend on which format it's playing.
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Post by Mr Trev on Oct 1, 2017 15:53:54 GMT
The Cayin folks explained it on the N3 thread at HF. Something to do with the way the AK4490 soft mutes when it has to change sample rates/codecs. They claim it's baked into the DAC and any type of fix they implement could end up being worse. Hopefully they can minimze it anyways. The N3 has enough positives that I'm willing to overlook it - shouldn't be shuffling anyways, my mother said it'll make you go blind
The N3 does handle gapless really well, probably the first player I've read about where people weren't constantly bitching about it
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Rabbit
Administrator
Posts: 7,087
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Post by Rabbit on Oct 1, 2017 16:37:16 GMT
There's been quite a rumpus about the X1 V2 and gapless. Fiio apparently jumped in quick and changed their advertising bumph so that gapless was no longer mentioned because it looks like they can't fix it!!
I think they made a very bad move with the X1 which is unfortunate because the others seem ok. I'm very happy with my first version x3 and X5. Helena uses the x1 V1 to play music for her classes and she loves it.
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