FiiO X3 High Resolution Music Player

[Kevin S]

Looking at getting this,It's a gen 3.Anyone have any experience on the FiiO's for digital music.Wanted to hook it straight into my Denon x3400h using a 3.5mm to digital coax.
Amazon link

 

[lovinthehd]

No experience but aren't the 3.5mm outputs analog? It has a digital coax output port if you want to use the dac in the Denon.

 

[Kevin S]

FiiO has a 3.5mm to coax cable just for these devices,I guess it would have to be analog out.So would it be worth using the DAC's on the x3400h?Just trying to figure out a good digital source to play on my main system.My next question would be,are DAP's the best way to utilize high res digital music FLAC,WAV files etc.to your main system?

 

[lovinthehd]

I only took a brief look at the manual earlier, thought I saw two 3.5mm ports but may have mistaken the 2.5mm port for one of them. It seems to share the same 3.5mm port, with internal settings, to switch the 3.5mm headphone out/line out/digital coax out options. That cable appears to provide a digital connection should you want to use an external dac. Whether you prefer the audio via the internal dac or an external one is something you'll have to determine for yourself.

Personally I just stream to my Denon from my android phone or computer via dlna/wifi, don't need a separate portable device otherwise....

 

[Kevin S]

Gotcha,kinda late on the whole hi-res digital age.I'm still old school and have a ton of CD's,but really would like to get into hi-res formats and enjoy my music in a simpler way.

 

[lovinthehd]

Gotcha,kinda late on the whole hi-res digital age.I'm still old school and have a ton of CD's,but really would like to get into hi-res formats and enjoy my music in a simpler way.

Do you have a home network and a pc? Have you ripped your CDs? I ripped all my CDs to flac and enjoy them in a number of ways, and can convert those to older players using mp3 easily enough.

 

[Kevin S]

Have not ripped my cd's,what's a good flac converter/program?

 

[lovinthehd]

I like Exact Audio Copy myself, plus Foobar2000 for playing/streaming them (as well as BubbleUPnP on my android phone)

 

[Kevin S]

Also,how's the audio quality with FLAC compared to just cd's and a dedicated player?
I read that FLAC hi-res format is superior to just plain cd's.

 

[Kevin S]

I like Exact Audio Copy myself, plus Foobar2000 for playing/streaming them (as well as BubbleUPnP on my android phone)

EAC and foobar2000 are the 2 sites that came highly recommended after searching,thanks for confirming that.

 

[lovinthehd]

Also,how's the audio quality with FLAC compared to just cd's and a dedicated player?
I read that FLAC hi-res format is superior to just plain cd's.

FLAC (free lossless audio codec) is merely a lossless container. You could record a low bit rate mp3 into FLAC if you want. If you record a CD in FLAC it's simply a compressed copy but lossless, so same quality on playback, just consumes less space than a WAV file. FLAC if truly from a higher res origin may or may not be audibly superior to the CD quality....I wouldn't worry about hi-res and I don't. I do have some hi-res on optical disc (bluray)....

 

[Kevin S]

FLAC (free lossless audio codec) is merely a lossless container. You could record a low bit rate mp3 into FLAC if you want. If you record a CD in FLAC it's simply a compressed copy but lossless, so same quality on playback, just consumes less space than a WAV file. FLAC if truly from a higher res origin may or may not be audibly superior to the CD quality....I wouldn't worry about hi-res and I don't. I do have some hi-res on optical disc (bluray)....

Great,thanks for the insight.I will do some experimenting....

 

[Kevin S]

After doing some research on this whole hi-res flac,wav being better than cd quality I'm coming to the conclusion that the only benefit is storing your cd collection to a more accessible location,pc.nas or dap.As far as a better than cd,16/44.1 v.s. 24/196 can you really HEAR the difference? I don't know,the more I read into it I see all these "superior hi-res DAP's" that cost hundreds-thousands are pure marketing bs.
Like lovinthehd said "
Personally I just stream to my Denon from my android phone or computer via dlna/wifi, don't need a separate portable device otherwise....