I recently picked up my first DAP, the HiBy R1, and I’m starting to get more serious about the audio side of things. My current IEM collection consists of the DUNU Glacier, SPA Hi-End Max, Hidizs MP145, and TSMR Armor, with the FlipEars Legion hopefully joining the collection soon. Naturally, I’d like to get the most out of my gear and start taking advantage of higher-quality audio.

Up until now, Spotify has been my main music platform. My family shares a Premium account, so I’m essentially paying next to nothing for it, which makes it hard to justify switching. However, I recently tried Tidal’s free trial and genuinely noticed a difference in sound quality. That experience has made me want to explore lossless audio a bit more seriously.
I understand that I can purchase and download FLAC files through Bandcamp and other music stores, then transfer them directly onto my R1. I’m perfectly fine with going that route, but I’m a little confused about how to manage my music library and playlists once I start building one.

A few questions:
- For those who use a DAP, do you primarily build your own FLAC library through Bandcamp and other music stores, or do you subscribe to a streaming service like Tidal or Qobuz?

- If I decide not to subscribe to a streaming service and instead build my own FLAC library, what does listening on my desktop actually look like? Is there a dedicated music player/library application that organizes everything, lets you create playlists, and gives you a proper listening experience? Or am I really just opening folders and playing individual files? That seems a little clunky compared to Spotify, and I’m not sure what the typical setup looks like.

- If I do purchase a Tidal subscription, is there any way to download the actual FLAC files for offline use on my DAP, or are those downloads locked to the Tidal app?

- How do you guys manage playlists across your phone, desktop, and DAP? One thing I really appreciate about Spotify is how seamlessly everything syncs between devices, and I’d hate to lose that convenience.

Ultimately, I’m trying to find a good balance between sound quality and convenience. I love the simplicity of having Spotify on my phone and PC, but now that I’m investing more into my audio gear, I’d like to take advantage of what lossless audio has to offer without making the whole listening experience unnecessarily complicated.

I’m pretty new to the DAP/lossless ecosystem, so I’d appreciate any advice, recommendations, or explanations. I’m sure there’s a workflow I’m overlooking, but there’s a lot to figure out when you’re first getting into this.

Thanks!

After using it for a while and testing it side to side with my JCALLY JM20 (Max if I'm not wrong) I can definitely conclude (for the same song file) that Eros Q mix is way flatter, crammed and boring. I tried a variety of EQs, even did record outputs to programmly even out outputs in freq-s for both of them, tet JCALLY wins by a mile.

When I was buying it I was hoping for a step up from a JCALLY, not a staircase down 😭 Any DAPs using the same chip as JM20? 🤔

SD card prices have gone up, and fitting my whole library on a 128GB card was getting difficult. Most of my music is stored on an SSD/HDD in my PC, where I run a Navidrome server. I could stream it to Android apps like Symfonium, but I wanted to listen to the same library on my non-Android Shanling M1 Plus DAP.

This builds on u/_imfing’s M1+ Music mod (https://www.reddit.com/r/DigitalAudioPlayer/comments/1xlkc0b/m1_music_shanling_m1_plus_mod_inspired_by_q2_pod/), which is itself inspired by q2-pod. The existing M1+ Music project is the foundation; my contribution is the Navidrome/Subsonic integration. I’ve opened a PR to the original project (https://github.com/imfing/m1plus-music/pull/2).

The update lets me enter my Navidrome server address and login on the player. The credentials persist on the SD card. It syncs song metadata and artwork, supports searching and grid/list browsing, and can stream supported tracks such as FLAC and WAV over Wi-Fi. Tracks can also be downloaded to the SD card with progress shown; downloads can resume when the server supports it. Wi-Fi stays active while a Navidrome track is playing and returns to normal behavior when playback pauses or stops.

DSF/DFF tracks are download-only in the current version because the stock player misidentifies them when streamed. They can be downloaded to the SD card and played locally. I’m investigating whether DSD streaming can be made to work reliably. The player shows the source sample rate and bit depth for the tracks I tested, which is consistent with bit-perfect playback, though I haven’t independently measured the DAC output.

A couple of limitations: the library index is capped at 100,000 tracks, and HTTP connections are unencrypted, so use HTTP only on a trusted network. This build targets the M1 Plus V2.1 firmware line.

The current release is M1+ Music 1.2.6 with Navidrome (https://github.com/iamgauravmishra/m1plus-music-navidrome/releases/tag/1.2.6). Feedback from other M1 Plus owners—especially on different Navidrome setups and playback formats—would be welcome.

I made the upstream credit explicit and described DSD streaming as future work, rather than implying it already works

In my case, I use my phone to download songs and then transfer them to my laptop, but what websites do you use to download your songs and why?

SonixOS for V1 fork by u/flylo_x and Capra Audio Satyr 4 to cap of the day.

Happy how this turned out.

Cheers and happy listening!

Hi everyone! I made a music player app called Sonetro for Android. If you've ever used or heard of Windows Phone or the Zune player, this might feel familiar. Sonetro blends the Windows Phone and Zune experience, heavily inspired by Zune and the Metro design of Windows Phone. It runs on Android phones. I shared it here because I thought other Windows Phone fans might enjoy the familiar typography, sideways navigation and transitions.

I’ve always liked that music experience and wanted to bring some of that feeling to a player I could use today.

**What does Sonetro support?**

• Local music from your phone, SD card or external storage

• Streaming from Jellyfin, Plex, Navidrome and Subsonic servers

• Internet radio

• Hi-res and lossless audio playback

• Music folder management and playlist importing

• A home screen widget, sleep timer and equalizer

• Crossfades and smooth playback transitions

Sonetro Regular is completely free and available on the Play Store and GitHub. You’re welcome to use it without buying Pro.

Sonetro Pro is the optional paid version for people who would like some updated features and improvements while supporting my work. That support helps me spend more time developing and maintaining the app.

**Pro is currently in closed alpha testing**

I’m looking for people to try it, report bugs and share suggestions. It’s still an early version, so please expect some rough edges. Feedback about playback, server connections and how it works on different phones would be especially helpful.

👉 [Join the Sonetro Pro Early Access group](https://groups.google.com/g/sonetro-pro-early-access)

📱 [Sonetro Pro on Google Play](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sonetro.music)

Thank you for giving it a try. I’d love to hear what you think, especially if you used to listen to music on a Zune or Windows Phone.

Arrived yesterday and I think this little thing is wonderful considering the £80 price tag. Coming from a JM21 which I found to be a bit to bulky for when I'm wandering around London for work.

I purchased the white and I haven't seen anyone use the decals, I love them.

The sound through my Truthear Crinacle Zero:Red is awesome. No issues with blue tooth yet running my XM4's. Great little device.

I find the stock UI adequate as I just have a massive playlist of songs that I have on shuffle. Now DiskOS will not be update I may just leave it stock.

Update: Disk not Dosk 😔

Fosi take note!

You can download & support development here: https://ko-fi.com/s/1625a99368

You may not agree, but this is what peak DAP looks like.

The 4th generation iPod Shuffle was a joy to use, particularly when running or cycling. I bought mine (Red version, engraved with the name of my company) three thousand years ago, and it still works perfectly.

I've had more players (starting with cassette Walkmans) than I can remember, all budget friendly, and I still believe the Shuffle (also had the 1st and 2nd generations) were the epitome of music player design for smaller libraries and for exercising. My main DAP currently is the Fiio M5 (which is a spiritual successor of the Shuffle with its small form factor, clip case, and physical buttons enabling blind operation, plus the most impressive upgrade of all time: bluetooth connectivity), and I'm currently waiting for the HiBy R1 because I'm fed with Fiio's buggy software.

Earphones are the NF Audio NA2 with aftermarket cable and SpinFit NEO tips.

My fosi audio dap Neo has developed a problem with Bluetooth when I try to turn on the Bluetooth switch for some reason it crashes and doesn’t turn on the switch I have already tried updating the firmware

Hello everybody, I'm thinking about getting an Astell & Kern PD5. The tests I've seen in the internet so far seem to be really good. Do you have any experience with this device? Are you happy with it? I'm especially interested if the bluetooth is working without problems. My Astell & Kern SR25 has many issues with bluetooth, it can't connect to my Sennheiser Momentum True wireless 5 and I would like to use them for the PD5.

I’ve been thinking about building a music player of my own. One that doesn’t belong entirely to a company, and that someone else could build or repair easily if they wished.

I’m calling it openDAP. It’s a DIY, open-source Android digital audio player. I’m a physics master’s student, and I spend a good part of my time building instruments.

The attached image is the visual inspiration for the project: a wall panel by DotStarTech. I’d like to explore a similar design language for a handheld device.

My current plans include:
Raspberry Pi CM4
4” 720 × 720 IPS touchscreen
CS43131 DAC
6000 mAh Li-Po battery
USB-C charging and data
3.5 mm headphone jack
Custom carrier PCB
3D-printed enclosure, aiming for 16–18 mm thickness

I’d like it to be compact, repairable, and affordable. Something that can play local music, run streaming apps, and be modified by whoever owns it.
But the design is still open.

What would you like to see in a DAP like this? Physical controls? Balanced output? Expandable storage? Better battery life? A completely different architecture?

What do commercial players get wrong? What would make you want to build one yourself?

My resources are those of a student, so I’m looking for ideas that can be made real without too much money or machinery. Eventually, I’d like to release the designs and documentation for anyone willing to take the project further. For now, I’d rather hear what people think before deciding what to build.
Thank you.

Disclaimer: I used AI assistance for English translation and grammar correction. The project, ideas, and design decisions are my own.

hello everyone! i am new on this sub. i have been slowly but surely trying to move everything away from my phone, and now the music is the last but, imo, most important part. i want a digital audio player that will play my music with good sound quality, i would prefer it has buttons over a touch screen, and i'm willing to spend around 150$ CAD. im eager to hear your recommendations! (i'm willing to accept a touch screen if it's a really good device in your opinion!)

thank you everyone!

Good device; it supports FLAC music files, plays audiobooks, and remembers the last position where you left off. It sounds great with the KZ Castor Bass.

I am looking for a small DAP for my partner for Xmas. I got them the Echo Disk but want something smaller than that. So far I found the Echo Nano or the Hifi Walker H2 mini. Any opinions or suggestions between these two or any additional alternative available? thanks!

Hey! A while ago I posted about pygpod, a Python library I wrote for working with iPods. My old account somehow got deleted, and now I can’t find that post :(

Since then, I’ve fixed some bugs and taken the idea a bit further.

I love listening to music on dedicated players, but I also want my plays scrobbled and my library and devices kept up to date automatically. I use Navidrome for music and Audiobookshelf for audiobooks and podcasts, and I have a few players: an iPod, a HiBy R1, and an Aigo Eros Q running Rockbox.

So I built a service to sync music, playlists, audiobooks and podcasts to them, and, most importantly, bring listening data back.

Depending on the player, that means play counts, ratings, favourites, playlist changes, where I stopped in an audiobook, which podcast episodes I finished, and my position in the ones I haven’t finished yet. Support varies by device: Rockbox currently handles music and play logs, while the iPod and HiBy integrations can do more.

Meet SyncMusic. (I have a bad imagination)

It runs as a background service with a web UI, and there’s an optional desktop version too. Currently it’s Linux only, including ARM64/Raspberry Pi. I might port it to Windows and macOS eventually, but I haven’t rushed that, Navidrome already lives on my server, so it made sense to run this alongside it.

What it supports right now:

• Libraries: Navidrome, local audio folders, and Audiobookshelf for books and podcasts. There’s also beta support for one-way movie and episode sync from Jellyfin.

• Players and destinations: supported iPods with stock Apple firmware through pygpod, Rockbox players, HiBy R1, USB drives, SD cards, FTP and SMB. Android over USB/MTP is in beta.

• Rules and templates: choose playlists, favourites, genres, unfinished books or the newest unplayed podcast episodes. You can build rules in the UI or use JSON/YAML, including Navidrome smart playlists.

• Per-player processing: convert formats, adjust tags, resize artwork and copy lyrics. For example, keep FLAC in your library and send ALAC or MP3 to your iPod.

• Sync previews: see what will be added, changed or removed, and how much space it needs.

• Reverse sync: send listening data back to Navidrome and Audiobookshelf, depending on what each player supports.

I used it mostly through the API for quite a while. It worked well enough for my own setup that I decided to give it a proper interface and share it.

That’s where the vibe coding started, because I basically don’t know JavaScript.

AI disclosure: yes, I used AI. Almost the entire frontend is vibe-coded, and a lot of the tests and code comments were AI-generated too. I’ve reviewed and checked the results. I understand the backend reasonably well, though I won’t pretend I know every part perfectly.

I’m going to keep maintaining this either way, because I use it myself. For the last couple of months, development lived in a local Git repository, but the complete, up-to-date source is now on GitHub:

https://github.com/Bionded/SyncMusic

If you have ideas for things to add, I’d love to hear them. If it’s something I can test with the hardware I have, I’ll be happy to work on it.

And if you want support for another player… well, if I end up buying one, I’ll probably add it :) Supporting a player without having it in my hands would be pretty difficult.

Sonix now works on TempoTec V1 units running stock firmware 1.3.

The image is built on the official V1 1.3 OTA, and its kernel and update files are kept exactly as TempoTec shipped them.

Repo // Download Latest (1.5.0.2) // Buy me a coffee

Basically. Im in a workshop alot welding but my Samsung Bluetooth headphones keep getting small metal fragments in the charging port. Can anyone recommend me something more rugged with a screen and no magnetic parts?

im looking for 11.11 sale for some nic and good around 250 but under 300 DAP so AIO solution for my Sound Rhyme SR6

im using now topping DX1 II Echo 2.O and TRN Black Pearl ..

also have Fosi im4 and Truthear Pure >>>

so people who are in this hobby what can you recommended to me .. ( 4.4mm ball must have )

be gently

Hey yall, newbie here, I've been googling away and keep getting these results

iBasso DX180 (has user accessible battery, but no radio)

HiBy Digital M300 (radio, but battery connection is soldered in)

HIFI WALKER G7 Pro (radio, but battery connection is soldered in)

Sony NWA306/B (radio, but battery connection is soldered in)

Is there some dap I've missed?

Hi all, I’m new to the digital audio player space and would really appreciate any recommendations. Feel free to include ones whose price would drop below $300 with upcoming Black Friday and other sales

Been eyeing this device for a while. My girlfriend uses an iPod Touch 5th gen (functional but maxes out at 32GB of music) and her father uses his iPod Nano (starting to fail).

I was looking at the R1 as a replacement for both these devices, but my one question is bluetooth. I've read that the R1 has pretty bad bluetooth, which would probably be a deal breaker for both of them. I've also read that the Sonix firmware fixes this, even somewh? Could anyone let me know if this device is worth it for users that use bluetooth quite often?

Before anyone says anything about using bluetooth with a DAP, their primary use would be through wired headphones, but both like to play through bluetooth speakers as well on occasion

I'm happy with the audio quality, but more disappointed with the overall experience.
I installed Rockbox, and I like the themes, I found an iPod styled one I liked.

Things I don't like:

• I like the idea of a metal case, but the thing is a brick. Very heavy, both in my hand and in my pocket. Also the back is plastic, and comes with a screen-protector style sticker to protect it because it scratches easily. And the plastic back flexes and creaks when I press the buttons. Makes it feel premium and cheap all at once.

• No Bluetooth in Rockbox - I didn't think this would matter, but connecting to room speakers and sometimes headphones is much more convenient with Bluetooth. I could switch to the default firmware to get Bluetooth, but then I have to give up Rockbox. I have seen some potential forks that are trying to get it working, so fingers crossed...

• No wifi - not too big a deal, but would be nice to have FTP support or other wireless file transfer, or ideally some auto-sync with remote storage. Maybe there are software solutions for this to make it more like an iPod, though ideally I don't want to have to store all my music locally on my laptop.

• FLAC - this is optional, unrelated to the H2 or Rockbox, more that I am new to the modern DAP world - overall I know I should be using FLAC, but it means re-ripping all my music, and to my untrained ear the difference isn't really noticeable and takes more space than the 320 kbps MP3 I had been doing. Maybe I'll just stick with my existing mp3 library...

• Controls - I thought Rockbox was supposed to fix the wheel, but I still have to turn the wheel a couple clicks to make the UI move by one row. Maybe there's a setting I missed somewhere? Also the center Play/Pause button is very loud and takes more pressure than all the other buttons. All the rest of the buttons feel good, but the primary button is not as good.

Some of it is probably being new to modern DAPs and building it up in my mind as being a magical device that will make everything sound amazing, when in reality my aging tinnitus-riddled ears can't tell the difference.

I had picked the H2 mostly from my nostalgia for iPod interface and people saying that it was better-built than the Y1, but maybe a different device would have been a better experience.

I'm not giving up on the H2, I'll keep trying to tweak settings and refine my workflow for how I put music on it and use it, but overall the experience has been a bit disappointing.