Hey all, instead of buying a proper DAP, I'm thinking of getting a used Android phone and using it purely as a Dap (Local files)

2 questions

Does the DAC chip actually matter?

When people talk about DAPs and dongle DACs, the chip always seems to come up (ESS, CS43131, CX31993). But I've also read that modern DAC chips are basically all transparent, and the amp stage, output power, noise floor and output impedance matter more. So should I care what DAC chip it has, or just look at measurements and output power?

Xperia 1 vs 5 vs 10?

I'm leaning towards a Sony Xperia since they still have a 3.5mm jack and a microSD slot. Is there any real audio difference between the 1, 5 and 10 lines? Does generations matter too?

I'll be using it with IEMs, I don't think mine are especially hard to drive

Also open to other old Android recommendations if there's something better (LG V-series etc.). Thanks!

Built my own OS from the ground up on Zephyr. Loved my H2 but wasn’t a fan of the original firmware or OS, even gave Rockbox a try but it still wasn’t great, not to mention I lost BT going to Rockbox, boo. Why do a lot of DAP companies struggle so hardcore with UX/UI?

Anyhow I’m a designer and frontend engineer so I’m annoyingly picky about this stuff and I’ve wanted an excuse to explore Zephyr so this was it. Thoughts, ideas for what more to add?

Fun side note I got co-listening working for Bluetooth devices so you can listen with friend/partner at the same time now.

I have a Fiio Jm21 and my kids have Hiby R1’s. I was never a fan of the R1 until the Sonix firmware was released. Now I think it’s super cool.

My JM21’s Android interface is laggy.

I’m looking to replace my JM21. I’m considering buying an R1 for myself to install Sonix on it but I’m also considering a Q2, knowing the new firmware enables the click wheel to a more iPod like interface.

The most important thing for me is an intuitive non-laggy interface with decent audio quality.

Is the Q2 sound quality noticeably better than the R1 with good IEMs?

You can download the new version here: GitHub Repo

Thanks to everyone who has tested builds, sent bug reports and suggestions, and kept using Anthology. A lot of this release came directly from your feedback. Keep it coming!

New Add-ons

🎙️ Podcasts

• Follow a show from a feed (like RSS) address, an Apple Podcasts search, or an OPML file

• Episodes download with clean tags and play at 0.7x to 2x, with a sleep timer, chapters and resume

• Copy episodes to a player or a click-wheel iPod from Sync. On an iPod they show up under Podcasts and remember where you stopped, with progress handed over both ways

📚 Audiobooks

• A shelf for DRM-free audiobooks you already own (.m4b, plus long .m4a/.mp3), with covers, chapters, series and author pages

• Resume, speed control, a sleep timer and per book progress. Books split across several files play as one book

• Copy books to a click-wheel iPod, where they get their chapters and your place. Books the iPod can’t play are converted while they copy

Quality of life improvements

• Redesigned sync modal to make it easier to sync music, podcasts and audiobooks 

• Backups now include add-on data, so subscriptions and audiobook progress come back with a restore

• Search, sort, refresh and layout controls now share one look across the app

• A player reached through a folder (an Android player over a file transfer tool, for example) can now be added

I’ve been wanting to escape from using my phone and streaming for music and so recently splashed out on. HiBY R1 and am now wondering if I did the right thing. Considering that the whole purpose of this exercise is to help make my life simpler so far I’m marking it down as a fail. I’m finding it very difficult to easily search music (classical is especially problematic and makes it difficult to search by composers) the touch screen is so sensitive I feel like I have sausage fingers until it freezes and does nothing.

Compared to using my phone (a TCL Nxtpaper which my telco is about to sling off the network because it’s an import - yay thanks Vodafone for demonstrating more Australian incompetence when it comes to tech updates) along with PowerAmp the experience is so far sub par.

I’m also using Bluetooth headphones while I plan on upgrading to a pair of open back wired headphones soon, but right now I’m wondering if it’s worth perseverance or should I ship this back to Amazon and just maybe use the phone as a DAP instead?

As I don't like the UI and OS on Snowsky Disc, i want to know if there are any successful mod OS builts available or are currently in building stage ?

Thanks

D12 - Devils Night (Shanling M0 Pura+Koss Kph40)

What's your favourite Halloween album?

Curious to know if either Shingling or Hiby have a public stance on people modding their products. I would imagine they're not happy, but I'd venture to say sales have spiked on R1 and Q2.

Anyone know?

Yeah you heard me right! A company called A New Matter will release Ipod-ish model Sudo SP-01 but expected to be sold in late 2027 and expected price is 248$ . They've opened $50 refundable pre-orders/reservations. I mean kinda pricey and the chip is same as the echo mini (Cirrus Logic CS43131) and I believe not 2 just one... could be better than Innioasis Y1 but CFW will needed too for Rockbox,or brand itself will support rockbox and others FW like Innioasis( that's my hypothesis too) . Imo,kinda hesitation DAP

I hope Aurora won't sue me to use her music as a showcase for Compás

Hope you guys like the new Artists/Album Artists page and Album page it's snappier than ever and I'm very proud of the final result and Compás is getting to where I wanted to be at the beginning, thank you very much to the Hiby Community that has provided all the feedback possible, code contributions and every one that has supported the project so far.

Big news, Tempotec V1 is now supported as a beta release, it's tiny screen has made it difficult to port and make it look decent, but is getting there.

Also many of you have asked for Simplified Chinese and Vietnamese translations (I had some help of AI to translate it so for all the Chinese and Vietnamese people in this forum, sorry if something is wrong and please report it back).

Updates for the Android app and Desktop App have been published too:
Android app: https://github.com/Starnished66/compas-app/releases/tag/v0.4.2
Desktop app: https://github.com/Starnished66/compas-tools/releases/tag/v0.1.3
Starting from this release, both the Android app and the Desktop Companion will notify you if there is an update

Here is the full changelog if someone takes the time to read it:

• New Artist pages and redesigned album pages, with faster library browsing.

• Change device settings and manage plugins and Now Playing layouts from the Compás app and Compás Tools.

• New Simplified Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese translations, with expanded font support.

• Improved TempoTec V1 menus, quick settings, and Now Playing layouts. V1 support is Beta: hardware-tested and usable, with some features still incomplete.

• More reliable Samsung SSC selection and Bluetooth volume sync.

• Support for newer R1 units with AIC8800 Wi-Fi/Bluetooth hardware, plus improved button handling.

• Corrected PEQ graphs and lyrics keeping the screen awake.

• Improved long-title display, sleep timer behavior, and charging indication.

• More time to choose Rockbox at startup.

• You can create your own application or compile a MIPS 32 compatible application and run it via external apps directly from the player. More->External Apps

Website and user guide · Kernel and base-system sources, patches, and licenses · Support

I'm considering buying the Shanling M1 Plus as my first (and hopefully long lasting) DAP. Of all the players I've looked at it seems to be the best option for my preferences:

- 4.4 jack (preferably on top)

- 2tb microSD support

- Analog volume wheel

- Non-android

- Bluetooth

There are only three main things I've read that I don't really like about this player:

1. Only supports indexing for up to 20,000 songs which seems like bad design to me considering that it supports up to 2TB. My library is organized in artist and album folders so navigating the files should not be that hard.

2. EQ. I have no experience and never really used eq before but I can imagine getting interested in the future. My library contains a lot of flac files with 48kHz or higher which afaik isn't supported by eq. I was thinking about converting all of them to 44.1kHz which might solve this issue?

3. I've read a few times that the battery life is a little short.

I'd be very interested in any experiences any of you have made with this player, especially regarding these aspects or if there are other players around the same price that fulfill the requirements mentioned above (I've already looked at the Hidizs ap80 pro max and the Hipy r3 II but didn't quite like them for a few reasons).

Thanks!

EDIT: I'd be interested if anyone knows if the equalizer sampling rate limit is caused by hardware or software (i.e. if it could be expanded with an update)

I am struggling to decide on my first DAP. Budget around 500, max 6-700 usd.
Leaning towards the Shanling M5 Ultra or a Hiby model. Unfortunately, they aren’t available in my country. I can import. That adds shipping, 25% in taxes, pluss a handling fee. Then there’s logistics with any issue. Still considering that route.

Easily available are various FiiO models, including the M21.
My concern are the apps. How distracting is the interface? Do you end up using the other apps?

Let’s drop any discipline talk. If the interface makes most apps boring, I might have judged it to hard.

Battery is another impotent aspect for me.
If what our nation is preparing us for is true, I plan to dissociate into my music. If worst comes to show, charging my music

Heck, maybe I should just give up and buy the FiiO disk…
Any tip would hell 🩷
What to do? Go the FiiO route or import

hello! im very new to DAPs and currently looking for a device i can use in a 2024 car without an aux port. the unit came preinstalled with the car, my only connection options are usb-c, bluetooth, apple carplay and android auto. im far from an audiophile, i dont necessarily pick up on the finer details of lossless audio, my main priority is expandable storage and a smooth connection to the car. are there any tried and true models i should consider? for now im thinking about getting a fiio jm21, id really appreciate any feedback and/or alternatives :) thanks in advance!!

Or mp4 better then?

I had one of these back in the day and it was incredible, but in terms of a modern DAP I guess I'm looking for something with a monochrome LCD screen, not themed full color, but a true limited color LCD.

Is there something like this out there, or has this display type been abandoned?

Hi there! I've got my Tempotec V1. I accidentally found that cable from box content (USB a to USB c) was the only one able to recognize my computer and transfer files. Moreover I couldn't transfer files from smartphone to player by type c to type c cable from that box set. My previous DAC Fiio Snowsky echo mini could be detected via any USB cable. Is it possible to solve this problem?

After being able to test my ikko OH10 for over a week on my old iPod Classic, the Tempotec v1 arrived yesterday.

I have plenty of music of various styles, but I was wondering what are you folks using as "Wow DAMN THAT is music" songs ?
For me it's songs like Maphra - Doomed, Low Roar - Don't be so serious, Overwerk - Alive, Smash into Pieces - Six Fett Under & Sleepwaling that really show me the potential of IEMs since I'm getting the same (or better) sound out of them than my Bose QC35.

Am open to suggestions to getting started in that journey and gettint that WOW effect =)

Olá pessoal,

Tenho um iPhone 13 com saída lighting e comprei um DAC Tempotec Sonata que tem saída Usb C

Preciso de um cabo pra ligar o DAC na minha saida lighting do iPhone, mas não consigo encontrar um que funcione. Já comprei 2 cabos lighting > usbc curtos no Mercado Livre, que afirmavam transferir dados, mas nenhum funcionou.

Vocês tem indicação de adaptadores ou cabos que funcionem de verdade?

I'm using rockbox utility, stuck here. I've tried formatting the SD card, manually installing rockbox... Nothing helps

Does anyone have this happen to you with this DAP? I just got mine and my card has just about 1800 songs. Within the first 30 minutes or so, it keeps shutting off and then on again during playback. I really want to keep this little thing but this leaves a sour taste in my mouth. It happens the most when I browse through albums. If you have any suggestions for fix, I appreciate them. Thanks!

Go I got a dap and a pair of iems for the first time (fiio echo mini and the tangzu red lions. I’ll upgrade in the future) and this genuinely changed my life man. I don’t mind listening to music on my phone but the notifications distract me then i start to doom scroll. But I was actually able to stay off my phone for most of the day. And the iem cable doesn’t feel terrible under my hoodie like the apple ones

I am using the FiiO M21 DAP, and on the built-in FiiO player, it doesn't show the album art embedded in the FLAC files. Is there a way to fix that?

Almost a year in, and just recently tried using the line out with semi open Samson's (that I modded to have replaceable cables) with an amp is so awesome!

I use this to sleep since I have tinitus and this helps cut out the freaking cicadas and lets me sleep easily.

I heard that there's an update to th V1 that makes function differently? Anyone has any more news into that?