I got my hands on this as a part of the UK X5iii review tour.   1. Almost at once there was a keen ‘Oh ****, I’m just going to have to buy one of these’ moment for me when listening to Joni Mitchell and getting a sense for the first time ever of being able to judge or perceive the actual sound absorbency or acoustic qualities of the particular and different environments in which she recorded each of her individual vocal tracks. Just crazy.   2. The very, very slightly smooth tone of the X5iii made me switch from almost always using HD650’s (with...

I've only used Sansa devices prior to getting this player a few weeks ago - Fuzes and Clip+'s - and I wondered if the Fiio X3 2nd Gen would provide any perceptible audio improvement. Within a minute or two of swapping the SD card over the answer became obvious: yes, there's an improvement and it's actually a pretty big one. I'm no word-smith audiophile and it's pretty much all been said but I can say this: transparency, detail, separation, sound-stage, blackness of background - they are all simply better with the X3 2nd Gen than with the Sansas. I've...