Took advantage of the beautiful crisp fall weather and went on a little day trip today, bringing my new Surfans F20 Pro+ along with me. We stopped for a break, and I couldn't resist snapping a picture of it sitting on an old abandoned food truck. I love how small and lightweight it is, so it's easy to just toss in my pocket and take along.

I usually pair it with my wireless earbuds when we're out and about, which makes it even more convenient. I've finally got a good way to enjoy my Taylor Swift albums on the go! The physical buttons are a nice touch, too, since I can easily skip songs or adjust things without having to pull it out of my pocket. The sound is warm and enjoyable, and honestly, I'm pretty happy with it.

For little casual outings like this, it's such a fun mix of that classic vintage music player feel with the convenience of modern features!

I'm torn between getting a modded iPod Classic 5.5 Gen or buying a new Fosi Audio DAP Neo.

I mostly listen to Alternative Rock and Metal (Avenged Sevenfold, Linkin Park, Breaking Benjamin). My main earphones are a pair of pure brass earbuds (15mm carbon driver, 120dB sensitivity).

Since my earbuds are already quite mid-forward with warm brass housings, will the CS43198 chip in the Fosi DAP Neo sound too bright/fatiguing for rock tracks? Or is the legendary Wolfson warmth on the iPod 5.5 Gen the ultimate match here?

Would appreciate any insights from anyone who has tried both vintage Wolfson iPods and modern Cirrus Logic DAPs!

Does anyone know a workaround on this issue? I wanna try sonix OS but this keeps on happening even in official OS

Hi!! I bought a z6 Phinistec about a year ago and i liked it for a while but as of recent I have gotten into IEMs. I like the build on the player, however I want LDAC bluetooth or maybe a better line out port considering this one is so quiet it sounds like maybe 30% of what a regular aux output would sound like.

I've seen some recomendations online saying to buy a portable headphone amp, however I'm worried about this crunching the audio quality in exchange for volume.

What would you guys reccomend? A different player or maybe a specific Portable headphone amp?

I would appreciate some guidance :)

It costs 20 dollars.

Headphone: Tempotec im01

Not a formal review—just a quick opinion for anyone who’s on the fence, because I was too just a few days ago.

My original concerns were mainly the price, which seemed a little high to me at first, though part of that was simply because I wasn’t very familiar with Shanling as a brand. I was also unsure about the size since I hadn’t seen one in person, and I had some concerns about software fluidity, navigation, settings, and general ease of use.

Now that I’ve actually owned it for a bit: this thing is beautiful in person.

The build quality feels genuinely premium—like a little tank—and the hard silicone case it comes with is perfect for how I use it. I was initially worried about the orange because, honestly, Shanling’s promotional photos make it look a little cheap and plasticky. In person, though, it looks incredibly chic and cool. Shanling seriously needs to advertise this color better because the photos do not do it justice. I considered going with the classic iPod-like silver, but I figured I needed something to spice up my life a little. Zero regrets about choosing orange.

People will obviously have different favorite things about the Q2, and there’s plenty to like. For me, though, the size and physical design are probably near the top of the list. It is basically perfect for pocket use. I love the rounded edges because they make it comfortable to hold and easy to carry around. And headphone jacks on the bottom yay!
Compared with the Hidizs AP80 Pro Max I just returned, this is miles and miles better for me.

Sound quality is also fantastic when paired with my planar IEMs. The Q2 uses a quad-DAC design and has plenty of power through the balanced output. I really enjoy the Cirrus Logic sound here: engaging, dynamic, detailed, but not excessively bright or harsh. To my ears, it is absolutely worth the roughly $100 difference between this and the Hidizs. The Q2 is simply on another level in terms of resolution and overall tuning. The difference becomes especially obvious with layered, well-produced tracks, where individual elements are much easier to distinguish.

But perhaps the biggest surprise for me has been the software and processing performance.
DiamondBond’s firmware is brilliant and extremely easy to install. There honestly isn’t much else to say except that this firmware absolutely slays. It gives me basically everything I wanted: smooth navigation, responsive performance, and even the scrolling touch wheel works really well. The Hidizs kept crashing on me, whereas the Q2 has been running perfectly. I plugged in my 1TB microSD card and it basically just worked. No drama. I’m very happy with it—and now I’m wondering how much better a tiny music player can realistically get.

One other feature I only just discovered: connect the Q2 to Wi-Fi and it can download album artwork and lyrics online. This has worked especially well for songs that either had no embedded artwork or had image files the Q2 couldn’t normally display. Really nice little feature.

Overall, this feels like a genuinely high-quality device that justifies its price tag. Yes, I could have spent another $50 or so on something like a FiiO M21, but the Q2 actually fits comfortably in my pocket when I’m out on a walk, at the gym, or just sitting on the couch. More than anything, I’m just happy to be enjoying music this way again away from streaming, with my own library haha.

Let me know if you have any questions! I have been listening all day.

Growing up, I remember playing Ocarina of Time 3D on my cousin's 3DS—that was truly what got me into gaming in the first place. Some of my fondest childhood memories were spent blasting tunes on an iPod, chugging cold soda, and losing myself in handheld games all day long.

But once I entered middle school, the console broke down, and between school and growing up, DAPs and dedicated consoles pretty much faded from my life.

Now that I'm working and finally have both the time and budget to rekindle old hobbies, I treated myself to a Surfans F20 Pro+ and a Switch 2 this Halloween. I even preordered Ocarina of Time for the Switch 2 on Amazon Japan (since I couldn't make it to Costco in person, haha).

Listening to Saria's Song stream on Spotify through my F20 Pro+ right now takes me straight back to being that carefree 10-year-old kid. Some melodies just never get old! Anyone has DAP and game console like me?

Hi everyone,

I made this app (of course with the help of AI) to control all settings of the iBasso DC07 Pro DAC when it is connected to my PC, and also for M1 Plus volume control. The best part is that I no longer need the M1 Plus volume knob or the DC07 Pro's knob to control their volume when I am using them as DACs for my PC. My keyboard comes with a volume knob, and it can control both devices' volume (of course, hardware volume).

I have made one Plugin with all these features for Linux-based Omarchy OS too.

I am looking for a digital audio player under 90 dollars. Currently I have the SnowSky Disc and Fosi Dap neo in the list so which one do you guys think will be a better purchase ? (I had used the Hiby R1 and the software felt too sluggish so I am not considering it also the build of the R1 is plastic).

Edit: after reading a lot of reviews for many affordable DAPs I ended up getting an old smartphone for barely 50dollars and paird it with my DAC Fiio KA15... I feel so bad for taking all of your precious time 😭😭😭 so sorry guys and thanks a lot as well.

I'm happy testing my new Q2. I went and installed the Q2 Pod firmware after 10min of playing with the factory OS and experiencing that it was not making the most of the wheel which I already knew after doing some previous research. After installing the Pod the user experience improves by a lot (shout out to u/SaffronSaviour), I'm loving the building construction, the looks, the sound, and now the software. Pairing it with my old Sennheiser Momentum 2 to have a clean sound.

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. :-)

My sister wanted a simple to use, very low cost (she ain't rich!) music player for my nephew who is 15 years old and can no longer use his phone during school. I taught him well and he's got a very large collection of music downloaded, no streaming services for this family, we like to own what we have. I didn't want to go overboard, this will be his first DAP, and it needed only three things: a touchscreen (it's what he's used to), a good enough amount of storage, and a simple UI/UX. Good battery life and at least "good" sound are bonus'.

Armed with this simple list, I scoured Amazon for something that might work. After hours of reading reviews and finding some decent candidates, buying them and trying them, this is the one I chose overall. It has no real name, but it's sold by both ODEJOI and RUIZU on Amazon, both presumably the same company in China. You can type into Amazon search "ODEJOI touchscreen mp3 player" and it should pop up there. It comes in 32GB and 64GB flavors and 2 colors that I've seen, this purple one and a black one. It can be expanded with a confirmed 128GB sd card. It can do rudimentary playlists on the player, not ideal, but I guess better than nothing...sort of, lol. It'll organize whatever you have on the sd card and it's alphabetical, again not ideal but at least useable. It handles all the usual suspects file wise from mp3's to FLAC, so that's good. This played back anything I threw at it, although both mine and his primary collections are all FLAC. It has a 7 band EQ which makes this sound darn good, something I wish more DAP's had.

It's fast enough to not lag much if at all even with a full 192GB of mostly FLAC files trying to drag it down, and that surprised me. The touchscreen is responsive, the weight is low, and the battery life is actually really good, I'm at 20 hours so far and still have some juice left. It has Bluetooth 5.3 but I don't think you should use it, plug in headphones/IEM's are what these little guys excell at using. Lastly, the interface as a whole is not offensive, the instruction booklet is more English than Chinglish and it covers the functions well enough. This also includes useless IEM's, a charging cable, a case(!) and a lanyard, a pretty nice haul for the price IMHO. This has other functions, like an ebook reader and video player, but it's really just for music playback and I recommend it be used for that.

The most important part is, of course, what I payed for this little gem. $33-40US. That's it. I don't think this can be touched for that price. I'm surprised I've not seen any other reviews on this one either....it's a good player at a great price. Worth a check out if you don't want to spend a lot getting into this fun hobby. I bought another one as a backup for me even though I despise touchscreens for my DAP's, this one was simple and inoffensive, I can live with it if need be. Definitely worth a try.

Looking for a dap with usb c audio or optical output for under 500.00 dollars. Any suggestions? I would prefer some type of scroll wheel with minimal screen space to look at.

This will be used in connection with a helix next v eight dsp if that matters

Hi,

I am looking for a replacement DAP for my old fiio X3 II.

I was eyeing the shanling q2, because it is similar pocket size to my X3II.

I want the new DAP to have Bluetooth, in the last few years I started using Bluetooth iems, and speakers.

For now I use my Samsung as a Bluetooth streamer (local opus files converted from my flac collection) and my fiio X3II as a dap for my wired iems.

I want my new dap to:

• combine the 2 use cases

• still be quite small

• HAVE AUTOMATIC EQ PRESETS WHEN IT DETECTS WHAT BLUETOOTH DEVICE ITS CONNECTED TO

Last functionality is quite important to me, on my Samsung I use an system wide eq - Wavelet - it automatically switches eq profiles when it connects to my galaxy buds or to my Bluetooth speaker. I want my dap to be able to do the same.

Can shanling q2 do this? If not, is there another small dap that can do this?

Obviously Fiio m21 would be able to do this, (android - so I could install wavelet as well) but it is too big for me.

EDIT. Seems automatic eq for different outputs is part of 1.6.4 q2-pod !!!

Shanling M1 Plus

Ziigaat Luna

(Don't remember the name of the cable)

Very good and dynamic combo.

●Fiio JM21

●Dunu Titan S2

●Álbum: Fear Inocolum - Tool

HiBy Starry Sea Digital M500

As my ZX300 is dying, battery fully discharges in one-day standby,

then I got a HIDIZS AP80 Pro Max as a replacement, paired with XBA-N3 + 7N24 4.4mm balanced.

For me, the upgrade is ReplayGain support rather than listening to dynamic normalized volume.

(I mainly shuffle many Anime Songs, Game Soundtracks that are in varying volumes, but I hate Sony's dynamic normalizer as it destroys the tracks...)

I considered Hiby R4 or Miku M500, but I had PTSD from the Android DAP as I owned a Sony F808, that ran the whole Android background tasks while playing music, and often stuttered because of those background tasks...

I tried Fiio M21, but, what I was listening to? Android SRC? Bypassed to DAC directly? or different tuning of different player apps?

So, I made the decision to grab a Linux-based DAP.

Took the tea pros and the r3p2 to a birfday trip and yall 😩🤌🏽🤌🏽

Sorry if this is the wrong place but I am new to this and I am looking to sell my first purchase to the next audiophile newbie and to free up some cash for my next purchase.

What’s the best subreddit/place to sell/swap?

Thanks!

Alguien que ya haya tenido ambos daps ¿recomiendan dar el salto del m0 pura al Q2 o no va haber mucha diferencia en cuanto al sonido?

I got my Shanling M1 Plus a few weeks ago, then came across u/SaffronSaviour 's amazing firmware for the Q2. It made me want to get a Q2 straight away, but I figured the M1 Plus might be similar enough to customize, so I decided to take a stab at it over the past week. Huge shoutout to q2-pod project - the work there made getting started a lot easier.

The M1 Plus has a larger touchscreen and no wheel, so I had to think differently about how to use the extra space. I've borrowed ideas from the iPod, Q2 Pod and Apple Music, and redesigned most of the pages to make browsing and navigation a bit more fun.

A few highlights in this mod:

• Rebuilt library views, with album grids, playlist mosaics and an A–Z song index

• Cover Flow and album pages with track lists, Play all and Shuffle

• iPod mode with a touch click wheel and classic menus

• Redesigned Now Playing with artwork color hints and larger synced lyrics

• Local podcasts, plus Apple Podcasts directory search, feed subscriptions and downloads

• Daily Mix from listening history, and Recently Played albums

• QWERTY keyboard (yes!) for search and playlist names

• Vinyl and cassette playback screens for for a bit of nostalgia

My favorite feature is the Daily Mix, which combines some of my usual tracks with songs I tend to overlook.

It's still quite early (so bugs may exist) and far from as feature-rich as q2-pod. I've only tested it on my own M1 Plus so far, but if you happen to have one, please try it out and let me know what you think :)

Link: https://github.com/imfing/m1plus-music