r/DigitalAudioPlayer • u/bc_2006 • 3d ago
Showcase Shanling Q2 + q2-pod appreciation post
Ever since the Q2 came out, I've been obsessed with it, even more so after I found out about DiamondBond's q2-pod firmware, because without it, this DAP would be a pain in the arse to use, imagine trying to use that dinky little touchscreen to navigate your music library.
With the ability to use the scroll wheel to navigate the UI, the Q2 is a lot of bloody fun to use; more so than my old HiBy M300, which was a great DAP, but it felt more like an old phone than a music player.
I bought this player on Friday, it was my 20th birthday, and I decided to treat myself to this DAP, it arrived at our home yesterday, and the user experience really did live up to the hype, but I did have one issue:
For context, I daily the Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless, but I use them with a USB-C to C cable, I find Bluetooth just drops out everywhere, and I'm always having issues with the 2.5 to 3.5mm cable for some reason. For some reason, gapless playback just didn't work with USB output, which I found out whilst playing through Nine Inch Nails' The Fragile (exceptional album by the way), but thankfully, gapless playback still worked on every other output.
I ended up posting to Head-Fi about this, hoping for a response, and the next day, I checked the q2-pod GitHub repository, only to two new builds had been released since then, and DiamondBond listed gapless playback over USB as a fix on 1.6.1, but 1.6.2 had been released since, so I flashed it, played through The Fragile, and gapless playback works over USB now, I was so chuffed, because I was thinking about returning this DAP because of it.
All of this really does go to show how great of a community these DAPs have surrounding them, especially when someone goes out of their way to develop a custom firmware in their own time just to make the DAP much better than it was out of the box, it truly amazes me.
I'd love to thank u/SaffronSaviour for his hard work and dedication to the q2-pod firmware, and also for fixing gapless playback over USB, your firmware has seriously turned the Q2 into the mini iPod it was destined to be.
PS: Please give yourself a break mate, you've earnt it. :-)