To begin, this review is based on a Lotoo Paw that has been on loan to me, I have no financial gain or otherwise from completing this review, it has been supplied to me to review and will be returned after a short review period to the sponsor.

My initial impressions are regarding the packaging, to me this is not important but we are all guilty of being biased one way or another based on first sight impressions. The box is quite large for what I thought was going to be a small Dap, it is split along the middle horizontally and contains the Dap in the lower half and all the accessories in the upper half, a very neat idea!

From the first listen, I really liked this Dap, it's ability to extract detail is wonderful. Recently I splashed out and bought myself a Shanling M2 Dap, I thought it extracted detail brilliantly, especially compared to DX50 but the Paw takes it to another level, the missing details are laid bare, some tracks that I have known for years took on another story altogether. There is no slurring of words, or instruments being hidden behind another instrument or voice, it all sits in it's own little area waving it's arms looking to be detected but this alone may be causing a small loss of emotion, it seems almost clinical. The more you listen, the more you hear and the more you begin to enjoy the music even greater, almost like hearing it afresh!

Another enjoyable asset for me is the sound stage, it really goes from one ear to far the other side of your other ear, I didn't know my headphones could go that far...

The first set of headphones I decided to use were my new set of Aurisonic 1Plus's, they have a beautiful clear midrange but slightly limited in the treble and bass regions, the sound was nice but not great, I could listen to it but I constantly felt the urge to increase the volume to hear a bit clearer. To me they didn't quite gel, nothing too specific but with the 1Plus headphones the emotion was dead.

Next up was the Vsonic VSDS headphones, I use these mainly for listening on my Xduoo X2 when I am cutting the grass, they are crystal clear, a bit intense in the treble and definitely lacking in bass but that I feel is normal for these, one thing I had to do was reduce the volume, the Paw was easily able to push these to ear damaging levels. Again the detail retrieval was excellent, though the treble was strident on the Vsonic, it didn't work that well, I cannot blame the Paw for this, this is a characteristic of these headphones.

Next up was the Trinity Delta hybrids with the neutral filters and foam buds, once they got warmed up they began to work nicely but still they seemed strained with the Paw, the detail was again crystal clear, vocals were detailed and crisp but a slight cupping of the sound was evident and again the bass sounded a bit light, though there was sufficient power to drive the Delta's to painful levels. One album I have that is full of detail and hidden sounds is Jethro Tull, Heavy Horses, I suspect this has been recorded from a vinyl disc as you can actually hear the track before it begins, just like vinyl tends to do. This album has been upsampled to 24 bit and 48khz, for those who say it doesn't make any difference I say, you just cannot hear it! It does make a difference, no matter what is said about the calculations, it doesn't take into account everything that the human ear can hear and I believe in it, so there! Another album that is nicely recorded is Ozric Tentagles, Jurassic Shift, with the Delta's a similar effect was a slight cupping of the sound but again with fabulous retrieval of detail and airiness around the various instruments. I tried these headphones listening to Pink Floyds The Endless River, I personally think this album sounds "computer" recorded, with all the emotion removed and filtered but with the Delta and Paw combination, things began to take on a new meaning, I actually began to like this album!

The headphones that seemed to work the best with the Paw were my Rockjaw Kommands, they gave all the detail without the cuppiness, bass was rumbling along nicely without being over blown, the treble was clear and detailed, not harsh or strident, some emotion was even beginning to creep in, of all my headphones, these seemed best suited to the Paw!

My only pair of full sized heasphones are my Sennheiser HD598's, I thought the Paw would not be able to make these work but here I was very wrong, in fact this is the best I have heard these headphones sound, ever! The only down side was that they seemed to be lacking slightly in bass, normally these headphones can rock but they just seemed very dry, the treble was clear and detailed, again I cannot remember when these headphones produced such a enthralling sound, it was just a shame that the bass was so dried up.

Sometime last year someone put a link for a set of cheap headphones on one of the Chinese wholesale sites, claiming they were great, at approimately £12.00 delivered, I thought they might be worth a listen, well to my astonishment, the Paw seemed to get on with them famously, a nice big soundstage, clear treble, slightly lifted midrange and good clean bass but again slightly lacking, especially in the lower registers. But truely a wonderful sound, more listenable that most of my headphones that I tried with the Paw.

While I had a chance to play, I dug,out my old set of Fischer Audio headphones, normally these are great for bass but lacking in treble but not with the Paw, if anything, the bass excess has been tamed and the treble enhanced to make these sound pretty good, again a tad analytical and definitely emotionless but the soundstage is much improved over their normal operation.

While in my bits box, I found my Hifiman R0's, to be honest, I don't like these at all, they are very lacking in bass, the upper sounds are very clear and detailed but not to my liking, with the Paw they still lacked bass and were crisp and clear, definitely emotionless and boring! To my dismay, when I played Pink Floyd, The Endless River, these things began to work like a proper headphone, even a bit of bass detail appeared.

Mostly this review has been based on how this device sounds connected to my varying sets of headphones and I make no apology for this, if I was looking for a new Dap, this is what I would be doing and it has been truely eye opening. Personally I think this Dap is a wonderful piece of kit, up until now, the Shanling M2 has been my favourite, it replaced my DX50 which had a Fiio E17 and the Minibox E+ setup connected to it to improve the sound. When next I go looking for a Dap, this will be high on my list, in fact before Christmas I was looking at this Dap but after reading some of the reviews of the M2 and the fact that it came up at a good price, I plumped for the M2, if I had of gotten a chance to hear this Dap, it would have been at the front of the wanted list! I like my M2 but it just cannot compete with the Paw for detail retrieval, maybe a bit more emotion is available with the M2 but given the option, the Paw would have been my first choice.

I like how simple it is to work, the UI is logical, the scroll wheel does just that, scroll and nothing else, there are proper buttons to push to achieve what you want to do, from my short time with the unit, the battery seems to last long enough for me and it can produce enough power to run all my headphones to loud enough levels. What more can you ask for? I have not had the chance to try mega buck Daps's like the Astell and Kern's but how much better can they be for all that extra money, if you are looking for a crystal clear Dap that can play music beautifully, maybe with a slight loss of emotion, then have a really good look at this Lotoo Paw, it's worth the effort.

Hello folks,
 
I have been reading the various opinions expressed regarding the Shanling M2 and having seen the photo's, I was rather taken with this DAP. In the past I have looked at the wonderful CD and DVD players this company has made and I always fancied buying one but never really got around to it.
 
Anyway, after reading what was available and seeing what looked like a sexy DAP, I bit the bullet and bought one from Eglobal in the UK for a pretty good price that pleased me no end!
 
A bit of background on me, I have worked in industry all my life and so my hearing is rather limited at the top end, I tend to need either a bright top end DAP or the headphones need to have a clear treble. Hi-Fi has been part of my whole life from about 12 years old onwards, a lot of which has been valve amplification and vinyl until the dreaded CD came along and I made the big mistake of selling all my L P’s for Cd's, unforgivable! Portable music listening has taken over for me for the last five or so years, more so when I found out that serious headphone were now being made, ones that actually sounded good but didn't cost the earth.
 
My gear; DAP's; Ibasso DX50, Hifiman HM601, Colorfly CK4+, Xduoo X2, Sansa Clip.
Headphones; Trinity Delta's, Rockjaw Kommand, Shure SE215, Sennhieser HD598 and other assorted cheap and cheerful units.
Amplifiers; Fiio E17, Cayon C5, Minibox-E and a Little Bear valve unit.
 
To my meager review: I ordered this device and it was due for delivery on a Saturday, only I was out, you know how frustrating that can be but luckily due to the Christmas madness, the unit was delivered on the Sunday, wonderful! In some ways when I got the box out of the packaging, I was a little bit disappointed but I bought the DAP to listen to, not the box, so that is really irrelevant.
The unit was fully charged on arrival and was ready to run, so in went a new 64gb card with a combination of MP3, OGG, WAV and FLAC files to try, and I must say my initial impressions were not good, this thing sounded bland and lifeless!
 
My first listen was with the Rockjaw Kommands, there was no bass to talk of, the treble was weak and nothing seemed to gel at all, this was one of those moments where you think, looks like I need to box this back up and move it on, I was heart broken, especially as so many seemed to like this unit so much!
Anyway, I left it until bed time, (that's when I get some peace to listen to my music, at least for a while,) and first tried the Trinity Delta headphones, all of a sudden something seemed to be working, this was good, I normally have a few songs I like to test things on, like “Camel”, A Nod and a Wink, the album was recorded in HDCD and personally this type of recording seems to have disappeared but what a loss, it just seemed to improve Cd's no end. In this instance though, I had opened ELP, In The Hot Seat, an album I know very well but to my amazement, the extra detail being delivered was astonishing. Not only was there more information being extracted but the music that was there was being cleared, the mush was being separated into individual notes and phrases, sounds that I had grown up with were totally different, some extra keys on the keyboard, a cymbal that was being hit repeatedly and not a long hit like it was originally. It's not very often I listen to this album, in the past maybe but not nowadays, that has changed, I can tell you. As an example, cymbals went from being “tussh, tussh, to tiissh, tiissh! Like a right loony, I am hearing voices now, voices I never heard before, they were a sound in the background but now they are backing singers, the clouds have parted.
The next session, I tried the Sennheiser HD598's, it usually takes me a few minutes to dial into these over-the-ear devices but this time it just didn't work at all, I added the Cayon amplifier but still the “Emotion” was missing, I think I have found that I now prefer in-ear headphones rather than over-the-ear unit's but it is a personal preference, and unless I can find a good set of over-the-ear headphones, I will stick with the IEM's.
 
The following night I went back to the Kommad's and this time they sounded much better, I like the bass drive of these headphones, the treble is clear and detailed but the bass kicks nicely for me. All that detail that was present with the Delta's was also there with the Kommand's as well, what happened the first time around, I have no idea, maybe it needs a bit of burn in to get running properly? Some different music, Ozric Tentagle this time, again, the detail retrieval was amazing, the drummer with Ozric is something else, that man is rhythmical!
 
I seem to be jumping about a bit but most of this is how I find things, so please bear with me.
 
The operation of the M2 is good but not brilliant, this again is a personal thing and I am not slating off this unit but for me I find it a bit difficult! As the unit came, it was strange to use, hard to put my finger on it and I have forgotten what the initial problems were, when I finally got it to update, things did improve but I still find it funny to use. The rotary wheel is a good idea, I find it a bit too small, one problem for me is that when trying to push the centre button, I tend to push the whole wheel and end up going back or changing track. As the wheel is quite small, scrolling up and down can be difficult, I know it is in proportion to the size of the DAP but I personally would have liked it a bit bigger. Another dislike is the default volume setting, it is in 20% increments and 40% is too low while 60% is too high, I prefer it to default to the previous volume setting and glad to see, this is an option on the settings.
Another niggle is when trying to select artists or tracks, the wheel either goes too far up or too far back, saying that, I had a similar problem with the review sample of the Fiio X3 vii I had, so it may well just be me that is the problem. I am old fashioned, I prefer buttons to press rather than all this touch screen malarkey or scroll wheel selection, that will be the problem!
Nearly all of my music listening life, I have refrained from using sound enhancements, and I still tend to steer away from it these days but I have given the various EQ settings a try and personally, I don't like any of them, I even tried to use the EQ custom but again I think the standard setting is just fabulous! So my listening is with no EQ changes from the standard.
 
The battery life may not be to every ones joy, I managed to use it for a week but only in the evenings when I go to bed, this equates to approximately 8 to 9 hours for the very first charge, I have fully charged it now and we will see how long it last this time, I find that new batteries gradually last longer after they have been exercised a few times anyway.
 
When I had the Fiio X3vii, I compared it to my then current set-up, which was an Ibasso DX 50, the coax output went to a Fiio E17 as the DAC, this then fed from the headphone output into the Minibox-E+, the X3 replaced all three of these units with one that did the same job in one unit! But this M2 has a much better detailed output directly to the headphones without the need for an external DAC! Apart from adding more power, connecting the Cayon C5 amplifier to the line output has made very little difference, it has maybe even coloured the sound ever-so slightly and as long as the M2 can drive the headphones, I wouldn't even bother to make any changes. Unfortunately I have never had the option to try some of the high end DA P's like the Astell and Kern's but if this is what they sound like, I now understand why so many people believe in them and are willing to spend so much money on this sort of sound, it's fab-U-lous! With a headphone connection and a second connector that can be changed from “line out,” to “coax” and a nice neat little plug that you can move from one plug to the other depending on which connection you use, this opens up extra options for this as a transport but so far in my opinion this is a stand alone unit that needs nothing else unless you need to drive some difficult headphones. In my box I have a set of UE TF10's that I have not used in a while as I find them lacking in bass with a soft treble, connect these up to the M2 and bass is well controlled and digs deep, the treble is still slightly rolled off but now these headphones do the business, they are even a match for my favorite Kommands
 
For me, though it may well be new toy syndrome, I think this device is superb, the extra detail retrieval is way beyond anything the DX50 is capable of, the expression and clarity that comes through gives you goosebumps at times and apart from one or two problems, like a short battery life and the scroll wheel that “I” personally find slightly difficult, this is a cracking unit. I was once told not to waste money on a source, get the best headphones (or speakers), you can afford as most source components sound the same but with this DAP, it has the ability to make some of my El-cheapo headphones sound wonderful!
 
My biggest gripe, they have just announced that they are building them in Gray and Gold, I want a gold one!!!

Fiio X3 V2 World Tour 2015, UK.
 
Let me begin by saying that this Fiio X3 v2 is on lend to me for a short time as part of the world tour of 2015, the unit does not belong to me and I have no affiliation to Fiio in any way, nor am I getting any financial benefits from this review. All opinions are my very own! And you will not necessarily agree with me, which is only right and proper.
 
Lets begin by setting the stage based on ME! From a very young age, I have been into “Hifi,” for want of a better word, I have built my own valve amplifiers, quite a few speakers and have owned an enormous amount of equipment in one shape or another, be it valve amplification, or solid state, to CD players, etc, etc. You know how it goes! This all started in the 70's, so that gives an idea of my age.
My musical pleasures have been the normal fare, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Nice and recently I have been scouring the music industry for new sounds and have found to my delight, the likes of Ayreon, Anathema and IQ. Not to mention the tried and trusted Genesis and Nightwish!
 
In recent years I have gone from the living room to the portable music machine, some rather basic and not very good sounding and I was amazed to find that there is a thriving world of portable audio out there for those who choose to follow it but like normal hifi, it is also very addictive!
My pet hate though, is badly recorded music, ( or at least in my own opinion,) and I find that there is no need for it at all. In the past vinyl has been supreme and I still believe that it is one of the best music reproduction methods, try listening to a saxophone on good quality vinyl, then listen to it digitally, not quite the same, though the gap is diminishing! Some recent albums by well known artists are badly recorded, I won't mention who but to me they are so flat and un-emotional, it is unforgivable! I could ramble for ages, sorry. Most of my life has been in industry and with my head under the bonnet of cars, so hearing is a tad reduced, this means I need some treble emphasis to make it easier to hear, this goes for the upper mid-range as well, please take this into account when reading my review. My other burden is big ears, the actual ear hole is quite large and I need very large seals to make most of the headphones fit my ears and seal to be able to produce bass properly.
 
My equipment;
As mentioned, I have had a few bits and bobs over the years but my portable enjoyment began with a Sansa Clip, then I moved on to a Colorfly CK4, then added a Hifiman HM601 and lately an Ibasso DX50.
 
Sansa Clip; Simple small easy to use, not too shabby on the sound production front and always there when you need it.
 
Colorfly CK4; Liked it at first but now it seems dependant on what headphones you use and can even sound good or bad on what music you play through it, I find it a bit dry, un-emotional, but it can extract a reasonable amount of detail from the music. It always seems able to power any headphones, though you may need to use almost full volume. Soundstage is slightly forward of centre and spans a good 190 degrees and it seems to work best with .wav files rather than .flac files. But the UI is not very good and it is not able to go back to the last played song on re-powering, (or I cannot find how to do it!)
 
Hifiman HM601; This unit was my favourite for quite a while, it is slightly valve like in it's reproduction, some reviews I have read say it distorts badly, maybe but the sound in life distort, it's not perfect but I enjoy the way it plays music, it seems to favour .flac files but throw .mp3 and .ogg files at it along with .wav and it just plays the music. My only gripe, is that the line-out socket is damaged on mine and I cannot use an external amp as I want to!
 
Ibasso DX50; Such hype for this piece of kit, at first I found it had a strange soundstage, it feels inclined at about 30 degrees from the back of your neck, to somewhere forward and above your forehead, the left to right seems to be from approximately 8 to 10, with a break from 10 to 11, then 11 to 13 where you find another hole between 13 and 14, then 14 round to 1600 hours to complete the picture. Detail is reasonably good with, for me a reasonable depth to the music, I also expect my players to reproduce “bass!” The world around us is bass orientated, so why have a player or headphones that do not reproduce the main basis for all sounds? And this DAP is a bit dry in this region, I almost put it up for sale after a short time as I just didn't like the sound it made, then I bought a Fiio E17 and plugged it into the digital output and listened to the music from that DAC, then it all came together, clear music, a brilliant soundstage, front to back, side to side, everything, it now has bundles of emotion. And me being quite old, I find that now I need more emphasis on the treble and mid-range, (too much time in industry,) this DAP, plus DAC and amplifier make sweet music for me, it doesn't matter if it is .mp3. .ogg, .wav or .flac files, it plays and can be enjoyed with clarity and detail, I love it. But just to add a bit of spice, I now have a “Three Stones, Minibox E+” amplifier which feeds from the Fiio E17 into the headphones, now we are cooking.
 
Headphones; Sennheiser HD598's, UE TF10's, UE 900's, Vsonic VSD3 (fixed cable,) and a set of RockJaw Kommand headphones. Plus assorted others.
 
Sennheiser HD598; My only pair of over-the-ear headphones, a joy to use, comfortable, they can take a short time to tune into but then they just draw you into the music.
 
UE TF 10; My favourites for a long time, good bass, great detail, soundstage that is as big as the amplification will allow, slightly muffled in the treble but this can be useful with some recordings.
 
Logitech UE 900; For me, these are my ultimate's for detail, soundstage and musicality, my only gripe is that they are too light on the bass, treble detail is fabulous, midrange is clear and informative, not overbearing at all. It took me quite a while to find “tips,” to fit my large ear holes but when I did, then these began to shine but still with a slight lack of bass, for me!
 
Vsonic VSD3 (fixed cable); These are a recent purchase and I tried them for a while, they were ok, nothing more so, they sat in my headphone box for a month or two, until I took them out and ran them in, now we have a set of headphone's that reproduce good music. To begin I thought they lacked bass, too much treble and strong mid-range, now they can dig deep into the bass, the treble is tamed to my level and the mid-range sings sweetly! Clarity and detail abound, I would almost put these in the same bracket as the TF10's, but with better treble!
 
Rockjaw Kommand; Another recent purchase but I loved these from the moment I heard them! The bass was a bit squawky and not at the same level as the treble, the mid and treble seemed very withheld or restricted but as they have been used more and more, the bass is taming down and getting closer to a matching volume level compared to the treble. I cannot put my finger on it but these are just so nice to listen to, the balance is not quite right but do they boogy? They sure do! My main problem with these headphones, was getting a seal with the tips, but a set of Comply large seals sorted that problem. Even the over-the-ear clips are just right for me, it was just the seals, now that they are sorted, the whole lot sings.
 
Enough rambling about my equipment, though I wish to paint a picture of my tastes and to allow people to understand where I am coming from with this review.
 
 
Fiio X3 v2;
 
Likes; The unit is nice in the hand, soundwise, you get a lot of unit for your money.
 
Dislikes; The rubber boot, everything sticks to it and there is not a slot to fit the SD card, the click wheel sometimes works on single and sometimes it takes two clicks. No on board memory. Slightly more volume on the right channel.
 
First Impressions.
 
I am not really a reviewer, so my explanations may not seem very good but I will try and convey what I mean!
 
The box looks good, it looks like you are buying something decent and substantial, when you get it open, the inner box is also pretty good, then when that is opened, the player is revealed, getting it out of the snug fitting back board is not so easy but not that bad, it could have done with some finger grooves. I finally got it out of the box and it is a nice solid piece of kit but the rubber protector is not so good, a few things I am not too keen on.
 
What I do like is that this DAP will drive everything that I have, with ease and my opinion is that I could replace my Ibasso DX50 and the Fiio E17 with this single unit and save me some money and carrying weight.
 
Being a “man,” I didn't bother to look at any instructions but rather relied on learning how to operate the unit by playing, not the best way but you tend not to forget as easy. The UI is quite good, there are a lot of options but it took a while for me to fathom how to go back and forth through my album lists, I got there in the end but did find one problem, I have a lot of .wav files as for some reason I like how they sound but this player puts them all into an “Unknown” file and lists them in numerical order, there is more than likely a way round this but I didn't try too hard, I just ripped my CD's to .flac as well.
The fact that there is no on board memory is slightly disappointing but not a sale killer, the DAP can see the SD card easily enough and you just need to update the media and you are away, much better than the DX50, it can take some time before it decides to see the SD card and if you are not careful, it locks up and needs a complete reset which then wipes the DX50. The X3 is much better in this respect.
One gripe I have is with the rubber boot, it gives a bit of protection but needs removing every time you wish to swap the memory card and everything sticks to it! Fluff, wool, dog hairs, human hairs, you could possibly use it to stick the DAP to your dash, only joking! If it was finished in a shiny or smooth finish, it may well become slippery and more easily dropped, so I can see where that may have come from but it is still annoying. All the buttons are accessible from the boot, I never had a problem with non-operation of any buttons through it and it even blocks the digital/line output socket to keep it clean, which is good.
Loading files directly through the DAP is easy and at the usual expected speed, (my laptop is getting on a bit, so I don't expect fast transfers,) and when updated, the files can be viewed by either “album or artist,” or if you are bored, by “song.”
When the DAP is starting and shutting down, there are no untoward clicks or pops, unlike some other DAP's, so this prevents me from needing to get the headphones off before switching off.
Another feature that I like is the ability to change the output type of the extra socket, this can be either a digital output to connect to an external DAC, or as a line output to be able to feed it into an external amplifier, it means one less socket to worry about.
Another thing I noticed and this will most likely be corrected in the final builds if it is a problem, is a small imbalance between left and right channels, at first I thought it was ok but I went into the setting to check and the previous user had adjusted the balance two clicks to the left, when I centred it, the right sounded louder.
This DAP has a lovely flat back but this worries me as well, I think it needs some dimples, or some rubber dimples just to prevent the back from getting scratched in normal use, though if you keep it in the boot, then there should be no such problem.
Another slight quibble is the click wheel, sometimes it needs two clicks to move, others it needs only the one, I still have not found any connection between one or two clicks as it seems random.
Reading this back, I seem like I am finding lots of faults, these are niggles not faults, this unit is brilliant for the cost, there will always be something better to beat it somewhere but overall, this is a quality unit as you would expect from Fiio. And I like the size, the X5 is too big for my liking but this is just right!
 
How it sounds;
 
From the start, I decided to try and keep this as simple as possible, I wanted to use my favourite headphones and also to see if the DAP excels with any particular one of my headphones, then look for the detail and differences.
As mentioned earlier, I use the DX50 + E17 + Minibox amplifier, I love how this sounds with most of my headphones but the Kommands need to go directly into the E17 for my liking. On the other hand, the X3v2 does it all in one unit, I would say that the sound is very much like the newer E17K, a bit on the dry side for my personal taste but detailed with a soundstage that starts about 8 going round to 4 on the clock but with a canopy that limits the depth away from the listener, whereas, the E17 seems to push the soundstage further out but is limited to 180 degrees of spread.
A very small difference also noticed was with piano, the X3v2 produces this wonderfully clear and expressive but with the voice of the lead singer from IQ, the slight vibrato in his voice is smoothed over.
 
Headphones;
 
Sennheiser HD598; These are the only over-the-ear headphones I have at present, I like them because they sound the way I like it and when plugged into the X3v2, this was no exception, the X3 had no problems driving them, nor would I expect there to be a problem as all my equipment drives these easily. I much prefer IEM's, I can get closer to the music and keep most extraneous noise out.
 
Rockjaw Kommand; At present these are my favourite, good bass and forward treble, they sound really good with the X3, the bass has punch, articulation and rhythm, the treble has great detail and a piano sounds absolutely brilliant. This combo produces emotion in bucket loads, you want to lie back and listen. “LB&L!”
 
Logitech UE900; Before I got the Kommands' these were my preferred headphones but now they seem much too lean, using the X3 gave them more depth to the bass but not as much as when connected to the Minibox amp, I always thought of them as too much treble but the X3 seems to have tamed them and I don't like the sound I hear, it's to dry and emotionless.
 
Vsonic VSDS3 (Fixed Cable,); Another headphone with detail but lacking in bass, even when coupled to the Minibox, these things are dry and using the X3 made no difference at all, I got the impression that this was not a match at all, very dry, extremely detailed but no real dynamics and most definitely no emotion.
 
Ultimate Ears TF10; Now here we have a headphone that sounds like it was made to partner the X3v2! Again my impression is that these can produce some bass but not a lot and the top end is slightly limited, not with the X3, these things boogie, bass is detailed and not overpowering but can kick, mid range is clear and detailed and the treble is smooth, no aggression or harshness, just fluid. I must admit, I was surprised how well they worked together.
 
Another trial I put the X3 through was using the line output and feeding it into my Minibox amplifier, this produced a lush smooth sound that makes you just want to lie back and listen to album after album of varied music. I like the ability to be able to assign the socket to either a line out or a digital output, rather than having extra sockets for different types outputs, a very versatile DAP.
 
With my own equipment, I tend to leave the EQ alone, I did this also with the X3 but when I tried to use the EQ, the fixed settings were not at all to my taste and switching between the “off,” and the “custom,” settings, even when the custom was all at zero, made a huge difference in the sound, almost as if when you put all the settings to full, they then matched the “off” settings.
 
Conclusion;
 
As with all equipment, it comes down to personal taste, you have the option to buy and buy until you find what you like but considering how much I have spent to get to where I am at present, the Fiio X3v2 is fabulous value for money. The sound signature is not much different from what my three unit combo produces but in one package and you still have the option to add an amplifier or a DAC and amp to fulfil your spending or sound requirement needs. I found the rubber boot an annoyance but it will add some protection and it definitely will not slip from your hands with that on! The UI is good, not brilliant but I wouldn't know how to improve upon it, support for .wav files seems strange but that may well be me not knowing how to make the changes needed and the click wheel was sometimes one and sometimes two clicks to make a change. But all in all, a very enjoyable player to use and at a good price point, well worth the money, I think these will fly off the shelves when released.
 
Thank you Fiio for the option to try this DAP, I have enjoyed it and like what you have produced, I look forward to your next generations of units to come.
 
Dickymint.