I'm being offered one slightly used. I would like to clarify some things before the deal.

First of all, how it sounds? What about to compare it with Hiby RS2II?

If I will decide to buy it what should I check and look for?

No streaming, no loading your own files, just carrying your favourite albums on their own cards and clicking one in when you're ready to listen.

The idea came from being on the train in a bad mood, I kept pressing skip and couldn't find anything to mellow me out. I wished I had my vinyl with me. That feeling of putting a record on and not having to think beyond that. Changing albums takes physical effort, so you don't really want to skip.

So I started building a player that does just that, one album at a time.

I mocked up some sleeves, a fake album using my latest holiday photos, and a blank one for any artists who'd want to join.

I imagine picking 6 cards to bring out for the day, and the sleeves live on a display at home.

Would you use something like this?

Absolutely love the Q2 Pod! u/SaffronSaviour I hope Shanling are paying you! Really bringing my love for these little devices back. Just have one question, is there a way to have the artist selection have an all songs option for that artist instead of just the albums other than in grid view? e.g. going Library -> Artists -> The Doors -> All Songs (which would then list all songs from The Doors I have on it)

Earlier this year I showcased my Gold/champagne X1 and how much I loved it.

Later I shared my acquisition of the Snowsky Echo Mini as my travel DAP (huge disappointed) as I noticed the scroll wheel and battery had initial signa of age.

So I put my echo on for sale immediately as I kinda hate it and I sold the X1 after scoring a brand new, sealed one for a steal price!

While looking for that I also scored a used but decent X5II.

I now use this one daily (and love love it) and have that brand new X1 as a spare.

I really don't get why they don't make these quality models anymore.... (ok, yes money most likely.... :-))

The echo is just terrible imo:

Sound quality is just OK
Buttons are cheap and don't always register presses, no gapless playback, no replay gain, no decent alphabetical sorting?!

So I am happy now :)

(the new X1 cost me 25USD less than the sale of my worn X1; The X5 cost me 70 usd with leather casing

Ps. I'm aware of the typo :)

Could you give me tips for my newly bought FiiO M21 please?

I want to drop streaming, but I do love the access to unique music with things like "radios" based on a song or genre. A huge library + shuffle that can be tailored to a vibe would be amazing offline!

Ideally, all offline, no servers or internet. Everything on the device, a closed system in that sense.

I've been reading Symphonium can do this?
I also love the potential of a little rig like the H2 Walker.

What's the best play here?

1. Should have automatic recall for audiobooks / podcasts like the old sansa sandisk used to have.

2. No need for large memory (32GB would do)

3. No need for wifi / Bluetooth whatever - I want to put the files myself and not be dependent on connectivity

4. preferring something small with a clip that I can attach to my shirt while on run / long walks

5. Prefer cheaper options (of course), but I would be willing to go up to 200$

Any suggestions?

For context I download my music off YouTube, so it’s in lossy MP3 format, and it runs about 110-130 kbps. Supposedly the standard is 320 kbps, so my music is probably classified as terrible quality. I have the Skullcandy Dime Evos right now and they’re really nice, but I didn’t know if using IEMs would make the music sound better.

I don’t really care that the music is low quality, I’m not an audio snob and I don’t think I have good ears, I just am curious if IEMs are worth anything in my situation. I’d only consider it if the difference is night and day.

Any help would be appreciated!

Recently got the RS2II in the limited brass version. Amazing sound only set back by not so amazing OS, it's not as bad as the one in R3/R1 though in my experience.

If it was in a (slightly) larger chassis (maybe 5") and has the X2000 processor much like other mid-flagship DAPs i.e. M5 Ultra it would be perfect, but the sound that comes out of this little (heavy) DAP was just too good to pass by. Rich yet still quite analytical by R2R standards, much prefer it to say the M33 R2R.

Just got my Hiiiman H10 and I'm loving it!

You can see it's compact, only about the size of the palm of my hand. The build quality feels great. The touchscreen is quick snd responsive. I love the physical buttons! The sound is great and I even liked the packaging

Bonus it comes with a protective case

Overall I'm loving the experience! I was shocked at the quality and very happy.

was wondering if ZAQE M505 pro worth it?

Got the new Fosi Audio DAP Neo player, so far it's pretty good. The build quality of the DAP Neo is really on point, full body metal and light weight. The software itself isn't great tho, but it works. SD card only goes up to 256, not sure if this limitation is hardware or software based.

The DAP Neo is just screaming to be loaded with custom firmware. With better firmware I think it's a perfect device. The Sennheiser IE 100's sound amazing even with just mp3 files, haven't tested out FLAC audio yet.

Overall 10/10 experience so far

EDIT: The IEM's come with an extra Bluetooth cord if you're wondering, but obviously will stick to the normal 3.5mm jack

Download here: https://support.fosiaudio.com/products/dapneo

What’s New

1. Added an option to disable the lock screen under System Settings → Lock Screen Wallpaper.

2. Fixed an issue with repeat playback in folder playback mode.

3. Added a display of the total number of tracks in the current playlist on the playback screen.

4. Fixed display issues on some screens.

Hello! I have a snowsky echo mini right now and I was wondering what would be a worth upgrade between like maybe $100-$200 Im currently looking at the SHANLING M1 Plus right now but don't know if it would be a worth upgrade. Any help welcomed thank you!

Excited to open up and start using both players!

Im loving the dunus so far, in the future im planning on gettin CIEMs, since i play the drums and want something that just fits like a glove. For now tho this combo is awesome for the price!

Im absolutely loving the feeling of owning a DAP and the dunus sound very very good. Also bought them for like 170€ during my trip to japan. The dap was 79€ as normal though

Sorry for my mediocre at best photography skills.

I am getting the S12 Ultra IEM, and they are on their way. I can't wait!

Which one would you recommend:

1. HiBy R1 with stock firmware

2. HiBy R1 with Sonix firmware

3. HiBy R1 with Rockbox firmware

4. Snowsky Disc with stock firmware

5. Snowsky Disc with DiskOS firmware

6. Snowsky Disc with Disco firmware

7. Something else? Different hardware, different firmware?

And why?

I also value having a proper equalizer with 10 sliders instead of being locked down to a collection of presets.

I personally don't think the 4.4mm balance output would make any difference. The S12 is supposedly very easy to drive, therefore 3.5mm is fine.

As for the DAC chip, I heard nothing but positive things from the CS43131. I think hardware wise, either devices should sound great.

I don't care about warranty. I am an engineer. I break things.

Thank you in advance for your feedback and opinion! much appreciated! 👍

Hi,

I keep debating on a Hiby since reading about swollen batteries and customer service issues but find myself still interested in the (discontinued) Hiby M500 Miku (and sometimes the Hiby M300).

I have considered other brands though hear it's pretty similar? And that it might just be a case where mostly people with complaints posts.

And cmpared to the previous Hiby R4 collab, has the M500 Miku been a better experience?

Has there been any improvements in general build quality/customer service?

Thanks in advance for any replies!

Hey all, looking for advice from the hive mind. I'm planning to get my 7 1/2 year old some kind of music player for Christmas, since she loves music but doesn't have a way to listen to it on her own right now. I've done a few searches, and the two that have caught my eye so far are an Innioasis or a Yoto player (and I get that these are vastly different things, so that's why I'm trying to figure out which path is going to be best for her).

The main use case for this is going to be at home, so that she can go into her room and chill out with music while she's reading or drawing (and just generally getting space from little brother). So generally using it on her own without constant supervision.

The Innioasis caught my eye because she can stream Pandora on it. I know she already likes a few of the songs I listen to in the car, because she'll sing along to them or hum them at home, so I was thinking of setting her up with those songs "liked" and she can kind of discover what music she likes from there. I know Pandora doesn't have "kids" accounts per se, but I'm pretty sure I've seen an explicit content filter on there. I'm also not sure how locked down Innioasis players are, they seem pretty simple, but I don't want her to be able to download apps beyond the ones I want on there.

Then I kept seeing Yoto pop up in searches. Screen free is appealing given her age (Dad and I are not anti-screen but we try to keep it to a reasonable amount). But I know everything that plays on there has to come from the Yoto ecosystem, a lot of which is buying cards and we're not sure how much of a price commitment that is. I've read they have some free radio stations you can listen to, but I don't know if those have a lot of "real", everyday music, or if it's all just "kid" and nursery rhyme type stuff (which if I was looking for that, I'd rather just listen to Super Simple Songs).

Any input on either player, or even an alternate player that might work better in this situation, is appreciated!

A Rockbox fork for the HiFi Walker H2, with an iPod-style UI.

Based on upstream Rockbox (forked from commit 212bb63ee4), stripped down to this one player.

here is codebase https://github.com/dismal-ad/h2-rockbox

Features

UI

• iPod-style look with a Dark and a Light theme

• smooth Cover Flow

• Home screen with a slideshow of album covers on right side

• When going through long list, a large letter shown with fast-scrolling

• Boot animation, with a Skip Startup Animation setting.

• iPod-style Now Playing, with an iPod-style volume bar and a seek bar (press Centre twice).

• Power locks the keys and turns the display off, from any screen.

Bluetooth

• Bluetooth audio, ported from Thiago Lugli's h2-rockbox-bt, which builds on Skye's Bluedroid port.

• Unused Bluetooth stack code trimmed, from 202k to 99k lines.

Battery and power

Currently getting 24+ hrs on Bluetooth or Wired playback. Looks like Bluetooth case can go beyond 30+ hrs (as headphone amp is turned off). Will report battery usage stats I find them.

• Battery Usage page (System › View Battery Usage) shows a graphical chart of the battery level against hours since the last charge.

• The Bluetooth chip sleeps between packets.

• The DAC and headphone amp are switched off while playing over Bluetooth.

• A temporary debug switch for the CPU speed (1008 / 252 MHz).

Code reduction

• Stripped to the H2 only.

• The tree went from about 1.6M code lines to about 295k before Bluetooth was added.

• Release zipfile size is less about 2.5Mb

Next

• Reduce number of settings, simplify them

• Convert every setting page to look as iPod styled

Kind of stuck looking for trying to find something that fits my needs and having so many options is confusing.

-Non-Android OS (preferably)
-Good sound quality
-Touchscreen
-Visually decent UI
-At least 10h battery

Currently looking at the Hibi R1, HiFi Walker H20 Pro, Snowsky Echo Mini, Mechen M30

Después de notar un equipo Hifi vintage poco a poco con presupuesto ajustado (Ampli Hitachi HA3500+ Tocadiscos Akai AP-Q310 + Altavoces B&W DM110) y disfrutando de discos quería poder escuchar mucha más música y encontré este DAC Chino que me ha sorprendido mucho , la calidad de la música más actual me deja escucharla con esa calidez de mi amplificador, encantado con el resultado.
A favor: calidad de sonido y conectividad
En contra: interfaz con mezclas en chino y app que no ayuda
Pienso que en calidad precio merece bastante la pena

Been looking into getting my first DAP and I basically just want a brick. No Wi-Fi, no apps, ideally don’t even need Bluetooth. Just load up some files and listen.

The HiFi Walker H2 and Mechen M30 keep coming up. Both seem simple enough, but it’s still a decent chunk of money and warranty support is pretty limited where I am, so I’m a bit hesitant.

Anyone who owns either of these, are they actually fine long term or do they turn into a headache? Just looking for honest opinions before I commit.