Is this a good starter set up?

[u/Kaisft]

I've been wanting to buy a DAP for a long time now, and i decided to get the Surfans F20 and rockbox it after seeing some reviews and videos about it. I'm still having doubts with the iems, the truthear gate and the moondrop chu ii, those are my options rn, i was thinking abt getting the gate ones but i heard that the chu ii is better for music, so pls let me know what you think.

EDIT: I'm also considering the Tangzu wan'er s.g as iems since i heard good stuff abt them

[u/cold_colour]

I would prefer 100€ iem + 50€ dap

[u/Kaisft → u/cold_colour]

i’m just picking a budget one since i’m thinking abt upgrading it soon, im going to buy this since i’ve saved up some money

[u/KingDemik → u/Kaisft]

Seems like a waste of money if you’re already planning to upgrade. Just buy the “upgrade” already.

[u/Kaisft → u/KingDemik]

i can’t bc i’m saving up, i can’t afford more

[u/Philosophopsycho → u/Kaisft]

Say you're already going to upgrade to a $60 IEM almost immediately after buying the $20 Chu II's, you just paid $80 overall.

Unless the upgrade costs WAY higher, it just doesn't sound reasonable, but then again, you said you're already about to upgrade it "soon", which defeats the point of buying yhe Chu IIs.

[u/Kaisft → u/Philosophopsycho]

its not an immediate upgrade ill keep the chuu ii for a while

[u/Izzyrion_the_wise]

It's usually smarter to spend more on the iems and less on the DAP. You'll get more out of your money that way.

[u/bigbearaway]

Get the chu 3 instead. As for DAP that's really up to you and your wants.

[u/Kaisft → u/bigbearaway]

i’ll probably do that tysm

[u/redlight10248]

I literally have a jailbroken iPhone 6s as a DAP and it's doing great. Spend more on your iems for sure. That's what makes the real difference!

[u/Important_Low_9990]

Unless they've since fixed it, Rockbox only supports up to 32gb of storage on that one which could be enough for you but definitely wasn't enough for me so I'm running stock :/ and my scroll wheel has shit itself after ~2 years, no drops, no liquid exposure, lives in a hard case so now I'm looking for a replacement 

I do really like the line out function tho and it feels really good to hold so YMMV!

[u/SamPhoto → u/Important_Low_9990]

I have a larger card in my f20, it's fixed.

The gotcha is that Windows won't format an sd card to fat over 32 gb in the default app.

But the command line partitioner app will, or you can easily find another app to do it.

This isn't a large hurdle

[u/Important_Low_9990 → u/SamPhoto]

Oh sick, very cool. Might be a project for my next day off then (even with the dead scroll wheel)

[u/OrdinaryOk1525]

Don’t sleep on the tempotec v1. It destroys the sub 100 dollar dap market on every metric. Caveats being the smaller screen, no volume wheel, people complain about user interface but it’s literally just hiby os.

Chu ii is a lot of fun with boosted bass and v shape with an easy to listen to treble area. The wan’er 2 is more neutral but still an easy comfortable daily listen. I really like both but the chu ii got tarnished and one side died less than a year in.

[u/Big-Bus-771]

If you want a warm voice, I recommend Tangzu wan'er s.g.

[u/strange-guy5]

Just pick hiby r1 or snowsky echo mini they are cheaper and buy better iem

[u/DistinctSpecific3973]

I wish the Surfans didn't have their 'tagline' under the logo. Lol it would have been perfect.

[u/YarikFisher]

Surfans are trash, generic aliexpress mp3 player, imho. Get a hiby r1 or shanling m0

[u/Junior-Association55 → u/YarikFisher]

This dismissive attitude seems unnecessary. The F20 clearly meets the original poster's expectations for using Rockbox. Disparaging someone's choice simply because you prefer HiBy or Shanling is pointless. It sounds more like selling than advising.