IMHO Tech Blog

The War of High Resolution Digital Audio Players (DAPs) just got hotter! 

FiiO popped up recently in this market and has acquired a lot of traction. Why? They are just making high quality, beautifully designed products focused at Audiophiles. Yay! That’s why we are so happy! :D

Here’s a picture of the Review unit. 

Initially, High Res Audio was only for people with deep pockets. Now FiiO, Vivo, Mi and the likes have dived head-on into this market because it’s the next big thing. Probably the highlight of 2015 from a tech perspective would be High Res DAPs. 

Yes. It’s a Chinese brand. And like some Chinese companies making beautifully designed products, FiiO is definitely the forerunner. 

Here’s a snapshot of the insides of this little piece of metallic goodness.

 Yup. Here is the list of things you’d notice first and be excited about:

New DAC chip from CirrusLogic. An upgrade. The older X3 had the Wolfson DAC. This is a new and improved DAC with a whole lot of capabilities without draining the battery. 

Native DSD Support BABY! Suweeeet. Well it’s for Nerdy Audiophiles who get goosebumps just getting their hands on a DSD File. What is so great about DSD - They are uncompressed studio masters and what’s used in making Super-Audio Music CDs.  

Asynchronous USB DAC. Something I’d been waiting for in a DAP that wouldn't break the bank. 

I must say that FiiO really know how package their products. They come in beautiful premium boxes. 

Here are some pictures of FiiO X3 2nd Gen DAP. It’s Titanium coloured! Brushed metal on the sides and a chrome lining to give it a premium feel.  

A premium chrome lining all around. Neatly chiseled buttons. 

(Observation: Since this is a review unit, the buttons were not very clean and neatly chiseled, but I’ve seen them on my FiiO X1, they are very neatly done.)

FiiO X3 2nd Gen comes with separate Head phone and Line out jacks. (I use the FiiO X1 while I work and you have to switch between Headphone and Line-out settings, so you don’t by mistake blow your ears out) This is very convenient. 

(Observation: Headphone is an icon but Line out and Coax Out is text)

This a Review Tour Audition unit. And not the final unit that’ll hit the market. Which will be even more refined. 

The back of the player is very reflective. It can attract fingerprints, but who cares about finger prints!?

Now, once you un-box, this is what you’d get: (Yeah, quite a lot of things)

FiiO packs these following goodies:

FiiO X3 2nd Gen comes with a screen protector by default, they also provide 2 spares. (Now, how can you not fall in love with FiiO!) 

A Silicone protector for the whole device, (which is extremely useful. FiiO were you my mother in my previous life?) 

A Quick Guide to start using the DAP

A Coaxial cable

USB cable

Decals to customize your DAP. (I don’t know when I’d ever use these, I dont want to stick anything on my DAP.)

A lot of people who think it looks like FiiO X1, here are some pictures to show the differences. (The one on the left is FiiO X1 and on the right is FiiO X3 2nd Gen)

It’s definitely Fatter and Heavier. 

You power it up and the first few things you’d definitely notice are:

The Boot-up is fast, with a new animation. 

The menu themes are so cool

Most importantly. The Navigation Wheel is very good, its much much more accurate, more confident! (Compared to FiiO X1)

First thing I did, was check out the Settings menu. There were quite a few additions. (From FiiO X1)

The USB DAC is an awesome bonus feature. Esp. when you want to play some high res music from your computer. So happy!

(Observation: Need to install drivers for the USB DAC to work. On my Windows PC the drivers wouldn't install because it couldn't verify its certificate. The work around is you disable this application verification process entirely on the Windows PC) 

MAIN REVIEW:

Now let’s get down to business. I loaded it with my favorite High Resolution music bought off HDTracks.com through my favorite headphones the Sennheiser HD202II. And I drifted off into a trance. 

Here are some of my observations in chronological order:

You can actually choose Gain settings. Low or High. Though during the 1st hour of listening to my playlist of High Res Music, I set the Gain to ‘High’. Actually wondering what’s the real use of Gain at Low setting. Was sounding very flat. 

Wide Sound Stage. I had goose-bumps when I heard to some instruments like never before. ‘Another Country’ by Cassandra Wilson, left me breathless for a second. Believe me, I listen to music almost 6-7 hours every day. Cheers to the new DAC

High Res Audio sounds much better than music bought off iTunes. You can make out the difference. Proof that the DAC is doing a great job. 

Really appreciating the navigation wheel now. 

Now 3 hours into listening to music on the FiiO X3 2nd Gen and start appreciating the ‘Play through Folders’ feature. Very useful. Avoids extra clicks to just play the music you want.

I bumped up the screen brightness to 100% to match the screen brightness on my FiiO X1′s 50%. 

I noticed that when I use Line-out instead of my Headphones (I’m aware that Sennhieser HD202II are a little on the Bassy side) the Lows were a little less tight but had good detail. The Highs and Mids are very very clear and sound Amazing!

Anomaly: Some songs, it paused on its own. I was like Huh! I hope that’s fixed in the final production units. 

Anomaly: Didn't shutdown/power-off on idle. Once when I checked it after a gap of 8 hrs, pressed the power button and it was already on. 

I don’t like that ‘blue’ power light, doesn't go with any of the themes. I wish it was ‘white’. Minor issue. 

In the quick start guide etc it says SD Card but in the menus it says TF card. A little confusing. 

Observation: The folders showed OTG support. I couldn't check this feature since I didn't have an OTG drive accessible. But a nice feature when you want to share music.     

Conclusion:

A fantastic personal High Resolution music player with a great sound stage, that can power even the big headphones with ease. An asynchronous USB DAC thrown into an already awesome little device. 

The FiiO X3 2nd Gen fits perfectly into the gap between the FiiO X1 and the high-end FiiO X5. 

Im sure FiiO will make another player to be more like FiiO X5 but more affordable. 

AMD FX9590 5Ghz Piledriver Architecture, TDP - 220W and AM+ Socket. Introduced June 2013.

Quick Review:

Costs a bomb right now.

Nothing compared to Intel i7 4770k in benchmarks 

Draws a ton of power @ 220W

Good for 3D rendering due to the 8 cores.

For more details on how it compares with other processors, check out kitguru.  

I was waiting for Nokia to share the full resolution images taken with the Lumia 1020. 

The first thing I checked out was is it really that good. 

Check out the image below. Zero post processing. 

Key things that you should notice:

The 100% crop is from the bottom left corner. Biggest achievement. Amazing corner sharpness. Which just proves the supreme quality of the lens. 

The quality of the lens marries really well with the 41 Meg sensor. 

Noise levels in the shadow area is better than most semi-professional cameras.

Colors look so vibrant.

Pretty good dynamic range for a small sensor.

All that in such a small form factor. (Innovation aka Nokia)

A beautiful device with a revolutionary camera. Industrial design at it's best. People, like me who take 100s of pictures on their phones every week would love this phone. 

The Nokia's Pro Camera app is like a dream come true. All the exposure settings on the screen in a very intuitive way. Awesome!

Loved the Nokia Camera Grip accessory with an extra battery, a camera grip with a shutter button and most importantly a tripod mount.

Nokia Lumia 1020 is an amazing phone paired with the beautiful Windows Phone 8 OS. 

Nokia phones can be used for more than 2-3 years without upgrading while Android phone users want to buy a new one every time they release a new Sweet Toothed OS. 

I’m pretty surprised and mighty impressed with this little phone.

Why you should by this phone?

Dual Micro SIM

Capacitive Touch

If your budget is around Rs.5000

Very smooth UI

Fantastic UI Design

Facebook integration for Contacts

A sibling of Windows Phone 8 from a UI perspective

Has the Nokia Sleep Screen for a quick glance of info/clock

Has Wifi, Bluetooth, GPRS, Micro USB

Good battery life when you use it for just calls and sms

Very good build quality, feels better in your hand than the Samsung Galaxy S4

Comes with a 4GB micro SD

Has a decent camera and loads of camera apps