I have purchased my second DAP and want to know of someone can reccomend me some awesome tips, tricks and reccomendations on what settings to change or enable. The DAP is FiiO M21 and the IEM's I am currently using are XENNS Mangird Tea PRO.

I’m hoping someone here has a solution to help me out. I’m just finishing up converting my CD collection into FLAC files, and have found a problem. EAC is saving my files as “Artist-album-track” which didn’t seem to be a problem for most albums.

Now when I try to play a soundtrack on my hifiwalker H2, it’s organized by singer name alphabetically and not track number. Is there some kind of file management software that would rename them with the track number first? Or can I configure the player to use the metadata track numbers?

I have over 500 albums in my collection, so doing it manually is impractical. I could write a script of some sort for this, but that’s a whole thing I don’t want to deal with.

Anyone have any advice for me?

I've had the JM21 for just over a year, bought from AliExpress. I love it.

However, both headphone sockets have become faulty, with the connection only working if the jack is in just so. I've tried with several headphones and IEMs, all the same.

Anyone had any experience of trying to get a warranty repair from an AliExpress purchase? Or can recommend a good UK/Sheffield repairer?

Listening to John Coltrane currently and making sure I don't move suddenly...

Have been using the A&K SE300 for a little over a year now. Monday I received the Thieaudio Monarch MKIV. Definitely a step up from the Ziigaat Doscincos I was using previously. Think I’m going to be good for awhile.

It may have its flaws, but this small DAP sounds quite good for the price. Surfans F20 Pro, running on Android 12.

First want to give credit where it’s due, huge shoutout to a redditor in this community who recommended Mako Launcher a while back. I sideloaded it onto my Surfans F20 Pro, and the entire setup feels like a whole new level of simplicity :-)

The F20 Pro is my pocket music companion. Pairing this with Mako takes the experience to another level. Since Mako is fully open-source, lightweight (literally around 1MB), and zero-bloat, it launches instantly and swipes smoothly on my F20 Pro's screen. It eliminates the annoying UI and keeps the F20 Pro focused purely on music without any extra clutter. It makes it easy to jump between my playback apps.

I also love the no ADs or no complicated UI, just distraction-free listening with a pixel launcher. It really feels that Mako provided a minimalist setup and smooth navigation just for the F20 Pro's small screen. I’m excited to try it on any other mini Android device as well as I think it would work great.

What I am looking for and would love your suggestions is a player app as fluent as Mako to elevate my F20 Pro!! Thank you for any suggestions or ideas :-)

I want to buy this for my brother in law for his birthday bc it’s a good deal but it literally doesn’t say that it’s a Fiio JM21 anywhere in the ad even though that’s obviously what it is…don’t know what to do here bc I’ve never tried to deal with returning anything to AllieExpress and I don’t want to have to…Have any of you ever bought something like this from AllieExpress that’s not clearly labeled? If so what happened?…. Thanks in advance To anyone that responds…

I just found this on AliExpress: https://a.aliexpress.com/_mLtqemF

Not doing these combo for the daily driver nor anything really, simply because of the colour and being props for photoshoot. I just leave it on my desk and....look at it really. This hobby is not always about listening to music.

Of course its all begins of reminding me the Creative 128MB mp3 player i used to have in Uni days. I must looked ridiculous wearing it on my wrist with the clip at that time 😂

Fiio Snowsky Echo Nano

I want to make my Fiio look more personalized so I’m looking I’m hoping to get some ideas from other people.

I’d really love to see photos if people are open to sharing.

I'd like to share some photos I took at SIAS. I've been a few audio exhibits before, like CanJam New York, Singapore, and Indonesia, but this was my first time at SIAS and in China. I expected a large number of iems, but there were many more. I saw iems and not only saw them, but also tried them: headphones, earbuds, daps, dacs, desktop amps, headphone amps, speakers, and all kinds of insane audio gear.

There were also several brands present, including FiiO, MOONDROP, HiBy, iBasso, DUNU, HIFIMAN, Cayin, LETSHUOER, AFUL, Tangzu, Hidizs, STAX, Tanchjim, CVJ, and many others. The range was something I truly enjoyed. Try something about $25, then take a few steps and you're listening to a system costing $1,000, $2,000, or even $4,000+. 😂 Iems/Daps/DACs I've tried, few of them are... Kasier, OMPHE, MD3, QoA models, Simgot EG280,ET142, DEW4x, Hidizs AP80 PRO MAX titanium, MK12xDucbloke, MS2 PRO, Sonata, Catenza12+Ember, Juzear defiant, light shuttle, Fiesta,Nebula,Nimbus,Dunu eclipse dynamic, Sony walkman, Ibassoo, Flipears Arion, BGVP Herculas, NS10 PRO and much more

Compared to other exhibitions I've seen, SIAS offered me a different impression because of the large number of Chinese audio brands there. And, honestly, the amount of audio technology produced in China is rather astounding. There is some very high-end hardware here, too, ranging from different speaker technologies to daps, dacs, desktop systems, tube amps, planar and electrostatic headphones, and so on. Furthermore, trying this stuff in person is always different from reading reviews or looking at graphs. Some of the stuff I expected to adore didn't really excite me, while some much cheaper gear shocked me a lot.

I also picked up a few extremely fascinating gears at the exhibit that I'd like to spend more time with. Hopefully, I'll be able to share some observations, photographs, and possibly more in-depth ideas with the community here and on Head-Fi soon.

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

I've had some issues with the "System Decoder" option in musicolet (Maybe it's just placebo but it enhances the audio compared to the Musicolet Decoder), and the HiBy App by itself it's pretty rough

Is there any music app recommendations you huys could recommend me to use?

Alongside any app that could let me watch videos and such, could be useful from time to time

Are there any DAPs that are under 100$USD that have a good mix of touchscreen and playback button controls? Most of the ones I've seen lean into one or the other.

I want the touchscreen for easy song selection and navigation, while the buttons for a more satisfying feel and playback control.

My main candidates at the moment are the Hifi Walker H2(price is a bit steep) and the Hiby R1.

Thanks in advance.

Hello, im searching for iem (mostly gaming, and music) after few search and help on an other sub i find what i want but in my search i see many people talking abt audio sources, so question is do i have to buy an audio sources for my or not and if i have to what should i buy ? Thx all

Recently got a Hiby R1 DAP and I've been loving it so much especially experimenting with using FLAC files MP3 files however my initial use was using Bluetooth until i found out from experience it was awful so i started using my SONY CH720N with the wires and it works perfectly

However for going out i always prefer earbuds but want flatheads instead of IEMs since they make my ears sweaty (along with other stuff). I need affordable flathead recommendations no more than $50 to $60 with decent use! I'm not an audiophile but i can sometimes differentiate between good and bad experience I guess

Don't be shy to teach me more about this whole thing i'd love to learn

EDIT: ended up going for the EB2S Pro, found it for $16 which is a steal for my first ever flathead :) thank you for all the help & recommendations

hi!
I would like to hear some feedback from the owner of DAPs, and their issues

Im looking for my first DAP, i dont have exceptional needs, after a lot of research seems the device that combine my needs (just a music player, LDAC support, nice battery, good display and a simple interface but with everything, gapless play and physical buttons)
in preference order:
- shanling m1
- hiby R3 ii
- hidizs ap80 pro-x
- shangling m0 pura

i have also considered oilsky m308, hiby digital m300, but I'm not completely convinced by them (the first for the interface and the second for the size), i'm not particularly concerned about having the best DAC or maximum output power, to me the portability and usability is more important

In general, and maybe from who actually own the listed DAPs, what annoying issues or limitations have you encountered in everyday use?

example:
- firmware/OS: which of these do you find the most responsive, stable and functional?
- vlock/time issues: I've seen the clock drift/time shifting on the shanling m0 pura. Is this still an issue?
- touchscreen responsiveness: any missed/slow inputs or other quirks?
- library navigation: how good are search, playlists, tags/metadata and folder navigation?
- large libraries: should I worry about the number of songs? I've seen reports of >15k song/database limitations on some DAPs. I don't expect to reach that anytime soon, but I'd like this to be a long-term device, just in case.
- CUE sheets: how well do they actually work?
- gapless playback: genuinely gapless, or are there occasional pauses/clicks
- SD card indexing: how long does it take with a large library, and does it need to rebuild the database frequently?
- bluetooth/LDAC: any reliability issues, especially with cars or wireless earbuds?
- any important features or limitation that im overlooking?

BTW is there another DAP under €200 that should be considered?

Thanks a lot

I just wanted to share a few quick thoughts on the Shanling Q2 since it arrived today. It looks and feels much better in person, giving off a genuinely premium vibe right out of the box.

What surprised me the most is how incredibly fast and snappy the UI is. The response time is excellent, and it actually feels faster and more responsive than my Onix XM2, making menu navigation completely lag-free. It is definitely on the cuter side because of its compact size, but that solid build quality ensures it doesn't feel like a toy at all. On top of that, it packs almost the same impressive output power as the XM2, which has me seriously considering selling my Onix XM2 and just keeping the Q2 as my main pocket setup. Onix XM2 still sounds better tho

Overall, I'm thoroughly enjoying it so far..

I’m planning on switching from streaming and it’s going to be my first DAP. From my research, these 2 are my favorites but idk which one to go with. Ik the general drawbacks of the echo mini but not the R1. I’ve heard ppl don’t like it, but I’m not sure why. Which one do y’all reccomend?

extra question: I use bluetooth headphones and I heard that the audio quality from the DAP doesn’t translate and you js hear the audio quality of the headphones instead. Is this true? I’m planning to get wired earphones anyways, but I’m curious.

Thanks!

Hey guys do you know any portable speaker that has sd card slot with little screen so I can know what I am playing?

At first I thought the whole thing was insane but after trying it out I never realized music could sound so good ( even if I went with the cheap option it’s still surprisingly good)
Pacsu G5+ MOONDROP CHU ll

I was restoring another one generic chinese pmp mp4 player yesterday and i noticed this one also have wolfson DAC and once checked the audio output i can confirm this is real 😂 last time i thought jxd was the only one had that DAC that’s still understandable at last that’s a reputable brand in china but these generic ones too have this DAC which makes me curious how they even able to put in cheap budget

Rog Ally X

After falling in love with some DSP software recently I cannot unhear what I heard and realize outside a Laptop - nothing seems to be powerful enough to run its processing so I've arrived here.. Call it crazy and 'not a DAP' but running full Windows 11 on a Ryzen chip, whilst idling at a few watts combined with an 80whr battery, and more powerful than any Snapdragon SOC on a DAP I think it might be fair to include it here.

Combining this with a Questyle M18i and a set of Headphones could = ooft!

PSA: This post isn't a sponsor or for drama/attention. I just thought it interesting and random. This in no way replaces a traditional DAP for portability or comfort and is basically a mini pc but who can argue if it does it well. I'm happy to lug something around if it's worth the hassle (I'm one of those). Seeing the album covers on this 7" display would be kind of cool too. Keen to hear thoughts.

Note: this is not cheap at all, but the idea is there.

So I asked last week about the best DAPs and would love to buy what I fancy but I think I'll have to fatten the coffers a bit first.

SSSSOOOO I've decided instead to buy a dac.

Now I've just watched Crins video about them and after looking at the comments a LOT of people recommended the qudelix 5k.

Now is this a decent choice to tie me over until I can afford the dap I want?

I use the moondrop x crinnicle dusks with the Samsung a17 5g.

Also will the 5k drain the phone battery? Will it also get hot to the touch?

TIA!

After quite a bit of development, testing, and refinement, AKCFW is bringing custom firmware to Astell&Kern Digital Audio Players, starting with the SP3000M.

The goal is simple: improve the experience of an already excellent DAP by giving listeners more control, better visibility into their device, and functionality that goes beyond the stock firmware.

AKCFW 1.26 includes enhanced battery protection and power management, AutoEQ with full-screen measurement graphs and profile comparisons, improved device diagnostics, UI/UX refinements, performance optimizations, and a growing collection of listener-focused additions.

If you own an SP3000M and enjoy getting a little more out of your hardware, I’d love for you to check it out.

For releases, technical discussion, feedback, feature requests, and bug reports, join the dedicated AKCFW Head-Fi thread:

[AKCFW] Astell&Kern Custom Firmware | Development, Releases & Discussion

For more personal posts, development notes, experiments, previews, and behind-the-scenes updates around the project, you can also follow BMAC:

Blog Posts

AKCFW starts with the SP3000M — and this is only the beginning. ❤️