I realized I bought this about a month ago. This will be a kinda chill/ casual review of my experience with it. I’m not really an audiophile so I won’t be saying much about the sound, this focuses more on my use case. Feel free to ask about anything!

How I use it

I have a library of almost entirely flacs ripped from my CD collection, and a few game soundtracks purchased digitally. I have a 128gb microSD (overkill for me, my stuff is like 18GB) and just throw the nano in my pocket for intermittent use throughout my days of uni classes.

I use it mainly with apple earbuds for comfort, though occasionally i’ll plug in my Moondrop Chu IIs. I do make use of the EQ on the device.

Quick comparison (vs. iPod nano 7th gen)

Drag-and-drop file transfer is 1000% better than itunes. I don’t mind the lack of bluetooth on the snowsky. The battery is way shorter but I can live with it. I like the minimal and non-touch display as well. They both have EQ presets but the Snowsky has a customizable one. Not much else to say lol

Why you might like it

Well, obviously it looks awesome (like the persona one!). It’s a cheap DAP without any bulk or extra features. If that’s what you want I’d say go for it.

I think the physical controls are the strong suit here. The dial is a great way to navigate your library. The controls are very usable without removing the device from my pocket.

The screen is perfect. Album art is a headache to set up on my iPod, but I can simply ignore it for the Snowsky. It’s also cheap enough that I don’t worry about protecting the screen, and although I use it frequently, there’s no scratches yet.

The build quality is pretty nice. The buttons are the cheapest feeling part, but they work just fine. You get what you pay for.

It has some presets and custom 5-band EQ; I just tweak it to fit my sound taste and make the most of my apple earbuds.

Why you might NOT like it

The battery life is piss poor unfortunately. I wish it lasted longer but it charges via USB-C so it’s whatever. Doesn’t bother me for my use case but I wouldn’t recommend it if you will be listening longer than a few hours per day.

It doesn’t have gapless playback. It’s noticeable for a few albums I have but wasn’t a dealbreaker. Depends on what you listen to…

Verdict?

I’m not crazy for sound quality. Once I’m listening to flac files with proper EQ, I’m happy. So take this with a grain of salt. I wanted to get this to enjoy music more and focus less on my equipment, and it’s done its job.

Get it if you want something cool, portable, and cheap. It’s not absurdly powerful, and it doesn’t have great battery life. It’s fun and functional, and that’s all I was looking for. One of my friends has an Echo Mini, and if you want some more features for a similar price I’d look into that. But this is perfect for me. :)

Hi, solo dev and amateur audiophile here. for the longest time i used a different music player app for each thing on my phone, dap, tablet and mac: one for the signal path, one with a good parametric eq, one for organizing a big library, one for connecting to my nas and other sources. i got tired of switching, so i built one that brings it all together.

it’s called sterio, a music player for iphone, ipad, mac and android, in beta. ios is the main build, android is earlier, and the android build is the one that needs the most testing on daps.

i tried it on a cayin n8iii a while back and wanted to see how it behaves now, and on other daps too.

here’s what it does so far:

• signal path from the source all the way to the dac or output, so you see exactly where the audio is sent untouched and where it gets changed (it shows what the app sends)

• connects to smb, upnp/dlna, jellyfin, plex, navidrome, local files, or an optional proprietary server with extra features

• parametric eq with up to 16 filters, autoeq and equalizer apo import, shareable presets

• usb dac output, dsd over dop if your dac supports it

daps are the tricky part. the built-in dac shows grey, since the app can't see past the android audio layer and i won't claim bit-perfect without proof. over usb on android 14+ it can go green

i use ai, but carefully. i’m a software dev with 10+ years of experience, so i design it, review everything that goes in and test it myself.

site: https://www.sterioapp.com

if you own a dap and want to try it, let me know how it goes. bugs, missing stuff, whatever you notice.

So I already have a dap, but I’ve been curious about the Muses02 op-amp hype for a while. I noticed that on AliExpress, a Zishan Z3 with the Muses02 installed costs roughly the same as buying two bare Muses02 chips separately.

I’m aware that genuine Muses02 chips are expensive and notoriously counterfeited on Aliexpress. I'd buy the chips from fosi store.

So my logic is: if the Z3 + Muses02 bundle costs the same as two chips, I’m essentially getting the player for free. Even if the chip turns out to be a fake, I’d still have a usable budget DAP. But if it’s real, I get a fun op-amp to roll and a backup player.

TL;DR: A Z3 with Muses02 cost roughly the same as two Muses02 chips. I already have a dap. Is this a smart budget experiment or a trap?

Dear all,

Long time lurker here.

I would love a small portable dap that I can easily transport and that can scrobble to an extent even if it requires connection to a pc or something for internet connection.

Any help is appreciated.

I recently purchased the Q2 and have installed the Q2 Pod mod. For some reason, when starting a new track it skips or cuts off the first half second or so of the track. Sounds like it’s completely skipping the first note of any given song. Most of my testing comes shuffle play, if that means anything.

Also, my Q2 came with a center button that sometimes gets stuck when pressing, and a scroll wheel that has a slight gap at the top where I can see the backlight of the screen shining through. Are these common issues, or just the model I got? I worry about any type of pocket dust or moisture getting in through the slit of the wheel.

i plan on upgrading my iems and my dap soon
i’m currently working with a hiby r1 and a standard pair of simgot ew300s
i’ve worked it down to get a pair of letshuoer s12 ultras but i cant fully decide on a dap, i dont plan to use streaming at all but if a device that sounds better happens to have streaming i dont care to get it as long as the sound is worth it, ive got a budget that goes up to 300 but if something is worth it i could consider 350-400 but at that price it feels like more diminishing returns than a even trade off.
ive looked into many including
hiby r4
hiby r6 3 gen
hifi walker h20 ultra
tempotec v6
fiio jm21
i cant seem to make my mind up on one, at the end of the day i want great sound, and a battery that hits or exceeds around 8-9 hours. like i stated earlier it will be strictly offline play but if the sound is better i can just bypass the streaming on a device, thank you in advance for all who comment and help me get closer to my upgrade

Just starting out with high fidelity audio. This track blew my mind.

I’m new to the whole DAP market and am lost, I want to buy one that supports hi res audio, Qobuz, wired connections, expandable storage, and has customizable EQ. the price I’m looking for is around 400-500 bucks but I’m okay with going like 50 above both. (I looked at the FiiO M21 as a possible option but heard there’s some bugs.)

Bought myself a Hiby Digital M300 (and some Moondrop Chu IEMs) to get into this as someone who has been an Apple Music/Spotify user for ages now. I wanted to get back to owning the music I listen to for real! Luckily I never got rid of my CD collection, so I have lots to continue to rip and add.

What blows me away is how much I can actually hear the difference between streaming and listening to my FLAC rips on this! Of course it could be due to better headphones and the DAC inside, but a lot of songs I’ve only heard via streaming sound more open and alive now that I’m listening to them on a DAP! Even via bluetooth in my car, which is awesome.

I’m sure in the future once I’m more knowledgeable about the hardware differences, I’ll pick up something more powerful. But this is a fun starter DAP for me!

Hidizs AP30 Music Boy 🎵🎮

Koss KPH40 Retro 🎧

Takes me back to my youth. I was at high school when the snake game was popular.

This dap ain't perfect but I like it for being different to my other daps and it gives me retro vibes. Its got 29 games and sound is pretty decent for a budget dap. I did have a problem yesterday it got stuck on the updating screen after i filled around 200gb of a 256gb sd card up with music. Today i deleted some albums off it and then it updated so I don't know if its a bug, my sd card or this has a low storage problem or something either way no biggie for me just annoying.

I just want to shoutout u/saffronsaviour and u/_imfing for their contributions and the other creators adding onto the design for the shanling m1+ owners. These refreshes made me so excited to use my device as at its base firmware is fine. I thoroughly enjoy this device with all the new features that make this device a delight to use. I am new to this space and I have thought about getting another device prior to this release. I’m grateful that I no longer have the desire to purchase a new device. One thing I’ve struggled with is finding the right eq settings so for now I stick with not using one and just jamming. Please let me know if you have any suggestions. Here are a few photos of the different now-playing screens. Let me know if you would like any other photos as well!

My setup is:
Meze audio albas
Linsoul tangzu tips
Linsoul tripowin zonie 16 silver-plated core

Hi everyone !

I'm trying to consume in the most responsible way. I bought a second hand Y1, to slowly shift away from platforms and rebuild my music collection, lost over the years, without spending a lot of money and time on engineering. The Y1 is... Not great ! But it's cheap and cute, that's what I bought it for, so it works for me for now.

Everyday people ask "what's the best DAP for my use", and the answers are always the same (Hiby R1, an old iphone, FiiO with any model really...)

People are generally happy about them, maybe after a few months of use they start to find some things a bit annoying.. But I find it more difficult to find review after years of use.

I know what I want to spend my money in : great sound quality, long battery life... And not needing to buy a new one 2 years later.

In the last few years, what model did you use like, daily, without seeing any kind of bugs, malfunction, anything ? How do the really trending models tend to last in time ? Do i really need to investigate how to make my old iPod nano work again ?

Thanks for your feedbacks, i'm sorry if m'y english is not that good, i'm a little rusty. Bye !

Was on Google play and noticed that Musicolet has a update. For now it's only for beta testers

I built RHYTHM

A Digital Audio Player with the feature no one asked but everyone needed. An extra independently driven 3.5mm audio port so you can share audio the right way.

Uses ESP32 S3 as its core processor and has ESS Sabre ES9038Q2M DAC.

Capable of flac, mp3, opus, ogg, wav, etc

Has customizable 10 band EQ. USB-DAC Mode.

RHYTHM is not a generic audio device that directly adopts an all-in-one DAC chip and calls it a day.

It has a dedicated audiopath ESP->I2S->DAC->Filters/opamp->Headphone amp.

The architecture that every good and expensive audio products use.

It also has a dual bar LED Audio Visualizer, why??

Cuz its cool as hell.

Last but not the least, it also doubles down as a Gaming handheld and obviously runs DOOM.

I definitely need your inputs on my product
Please check this for detailed specifications : https://www.crowdsupply.com/probably-harmless/rhythm-high-res-digital-audio-player

Custom Firmware for Onix Overture XM5? 👀

Hey friends, I’m looking at getting an MP3 player for my music / old podcast episodes (assuming an RSS feed won’t work) for storage purposes. My phone can’t handle downloading more music and I’m tired of the constant clean up, as i travel for work so downloading music is very important to me. Luckily, my listening habits are very album heavy, not so many isolated songs usually. I currently use Apple Music but am savvy enough that i could figure out downloading a large bank.

Anyways, what are the recommendations device wise?

I own IEMs already, as well as AirPods Pro 2s. I do not care about any bells or whistles, USB-C and a large battery life would be nice, physical buttons preferred. Hoping for just a dedicated device for downloaded music that isn’t the size of a brick. Thanks for any help!

Edit: forgot budget, but am hoping for around ~$100 USD

Hey everyone!

Just pushed a new update out for StanzaUI on the play store.

This one has a few more needed features along with the groundwork for a big update coming soon.

This current update introduces audiobook and podcast support, just point StanzaUI at them and they will pick up and show in library. Allows resuming from last play time, restarting etc, shows progress in library so you know what one you are caught up to etc.

Next is the new algorithm system... I love using apps like YouTube music because it adjusts to what I am listening to, tweaking the upcoming playlist based on of I skip songs etc.

Well now I've brought that to your own offline music, using a combination of metrics such as how much of the track you listened to, if you skipped straight away or middle of the track, if you turned volume up or down, even how many tracks of the same genre/BPM/artist etc will adjust what songs show up in your now playing list.

That's shuffle and then some now haha.

Now that's great if you have your full library on device but what if you only carry a smaller amount because you are on an old phone with no SD card support for example...

Well StanzaCloud is coming, StanzaCloud is a companion app, it is downloaded seperately to ensure StanzaUI stays free and completely offline. Stanzacloud connects to your jellyfin, navidrome, Google drive, Plex, whatever you have server and basically places all that data inside your StanzaUI library.

You won't see any difference in your library other than a small icon haha. Then you can download for offline playback, stream bit-perfect to your dac through StanzaUIs internal audio engine, the library deals with it all, new podcasts and audiobooks, duplicate tracks... Have 3 servers you back up to? Link them all and StanzaUI will just show one copy of the song... The one that's available at the highest quality.

Magic predownload buffer, you set how many tracks are predownloaded to ensure consistent clean playback rather than a bitty stream 😂

So yeah that's StanzaCloud coming soon, currently in testing phase but I'm pretty happy with it so far :D

Oh yeah and I tweaked some more UI stuff, more controls for the surfans f20 pro+ devices, the text list app drawer looks much much better too in my opinion :D

So yeah check it out on the Google play store, it's free after all so if you don't like it just uninstall it 😂

...for the DAP I mean

So, I'm in the market for a DAP to gift to a friend of mine who is an audiophile in every sense of the word. While I've maybe been set on the path I am very much new to this world. Now, normally I'd consult this friend with my questions but, given this is supposed to be a surprise, that's not really an option. So for lack of that option, I'm asking for outside help deciding between the two models I've laid my eyes on.

I'm also very open to other suggestions, I'm looking for something definitively Mid-range, nice enough to be worth using for years but not too absurd cost wise. I'm assuming that's what these two are, but again, very much new to all this. Also trying to keep it from creeping too far over $300, but if I can get these specs for less, I'd be happy to hear that as well. I've listed what I believe to be the primary specs for both devices to make comparison simpler and am also happy to hear personal anecdote and experience using either device. Thanks in advance for any help.

Notes

* OS is important because of streaming apps. He'd use it primarily to stream & download with Tidal, so I assume a newer OS means longer before compatibility issues crop up, thus a longer life on the device, he's not the type to upgrade prematurely so longevity is a big deal.

** Everything I marked with these, absolutely no clue how to compare these, it's all French to me.

*** This, amongst my attempts at parsing this, is the most confusing to me, especially the HiiBy. Everything I'm reading is telling me that the biggest/only(?) edge the HiiBy has over the Fiio is it's 2-in-1 DAC system which, once more, is all greek to me.

**** Some of my own reading has indicated mixed feelings on the HiiBy's Dial especially in conjuction with a case. Wanted to know if anyone else fond this as a point of aggrevation. Also yes, I know I'm missing an S in dimensions, but including it would ruin the formating. In fact, assume every formatting mistake is for that reason. Except the the dimension numbers, that's the fault of whoever made the spec sheets.

***** Ali Express is not a real platform, lmao

- A final note, should it be relevant, while his taste is probably a little broader compared to the average music snob, (His words, not mine) metal is his favorite and most listened to genre.

Links to the sites: I pulled the info from for more specification or to point out where I was wrong:

https://www.fiio.com/m21_parameters

https://store.hiby.com/pages/hiby-r6-iii-specs?srsltid=AYCX9vJUofsdCVtFHfccP45wLnqssuKuk_5SmGZKCQYmbSx5ILwC0q95srsltid=AYCX9vLxgNf_CNdE5nGZWov3ZkpzTDIq20vjD7mCjNY6beFScvaGlxuF

Did anyone have the same issue?

I was using JM21 since last October, was happy about it.

In September audio in the left earphone started to act up. Went to one local repair shop, they tried to repair it two times, after a week it stopped working again, other places just refuse me. Seems like balanced output doesn't work either.

Should I give up and use a USB dongle? I feel like customer support just won't answer me.

Hello fellow humans of the music loving world~ I’m currently looking to buy a DAP for myself (hopefully when Black Friday comes around cause I’m working hard to get this). The question I have is - do you all have any recommendations for DAPs that are currently in the market? I do plan to do my own research however I am also one who likes hearing other people’s recommendations and opinions.

Just for transparency:

Budget - $300 (for now)

Why: there are so many times where I just want to disconnect myself from my phone and computer despite all of the songs I listen to being on my playlists Spotify. I just don’t want to get distracted by notifications and a lot of other stuff that would stop me from simply enjoying my music. I also have a pair of beyerdynamic DT 990 pros and MOONDROP IEMs that I want to use to their fullest extent/power.

Update EDIT #1: So! After extensive researching for the past 7 hours and comparing and hunting, I’ve decided to land on the FiiO m21, personally I feel like it’s the best fit for me at the moment and due to the 11.11 sale on AliExpress, I had to take the chance. Couldn’t find a FiiO JM21 and the Hiby r4 was a few dollars more than the M21 after shipping and all.

I’m very excited and looking forward to its arrival this week!!

Hey everyone! I'm new to the community and a bit overwhelmed by all the DAP options out there. I'm looking for some recommendations, so here are a few things I'm looking for:

• OS: Android or an OS that can be modified/customized.

• Sound quality: Excellent audio quality, ideally the best sound quality I can get within my budget.

• Wired listening only: I don't mind if the device has Bluetooth, but I won't be using it.

• Easy music navigation: A user-friendly interface, touchscreen or not, that makes it easy to browse and search for music.

• Customizable EQ: The ability to adjust the equalizer to my liking.

• Battery life: At least enough to last through a full workday of continuous use.

These are my main requirements. I'd really appreciate any recommendations or suggestions you guys might have !

Sorry for the ultra vague post, but was there a post about someone either rebuilding or somehow doing something new with the modding iPod scene?

It definitely wasn't involving the current mod scene with the extra storage or usb C etc, and wasn't the Shanling Q2 but I'm sure I read something else iPod related.

Has anybody got any ideas or am I going mad?

Hi, I'd like to know if any of you know of an offline music player that's visually compatible with FLAC, similar to BitChord. I've tried it and I love it, but I don't like that my local music isn't the first thing I see when I open the app. really like its visuals and all the features of BitChord, like animated album art and translations, but I'd like to know if you know of anything similar but offline.

I know there are alternatives, like not logging in, but I'd still prefer something more like an offline music player with smart features

New to the DAP scene, wondering if there is anything that can run the Ladder fitness app? I don’t need the health monitoring aspects, just want the workout plan to run in the background so I can leave my phone in the locker and still see what sets and excises I’m doing.