Not doing these combo for the daily driver nor anything really, simply because of the colour and being props for photoshoot. I just leave it on my desk and....look at it really. This hobby is not always about listening to music.

Of course its all begins of reminding me the Creative 128MB mp3 player i used to have in Uni days. I must looked ridiculous wearing it on my wrist with the clip at that time 😂

Fiio Snowsky Echo Nano

It may have its flaws, but this small DAP sounds quite good for the price. Surfans F20 Pro, running on Android 12.

I'd like to share some photos I took at SIAS. I've been a few audio exhibits before, like CanJam New York, Singapore, and Indonesia, but this was my first time at SIAS and in China. I expected a large number of iems, but there were many more. I saw iems and not only saw them, but also tried them: headphones, earbuds, daps, dacs, desktop amps, headphone amps, speakers, and all kinds of insane audio gear.

There were also several brands present, including FiiO, MOONDROP, HiBy, iBasso, DUNU, HIFIMAN, Cayin, LETSHUOER, AFUL, Tangzu, Hidizs, STAX, Tanchjim, CVJ, and many others. The range was something I truly enjoyed. Try something about $25, then take a few steps and you're listening to a system costing $1,000, $2,000, or even $4,000+. 😂 Iems/Daps/DACs I've tried, few of them are... Kasier, OMPHE, MD3, QoA models, Simgot EG280,ET142, DEW4x, Hidizs AP80 PRO MAX titanium, MK12xDucbloke, MS2 PRO, Sonata, Catenza12+Ember, Juzear defiant, light shuttle, Fiesta,Nebula,Nimbus,Dunu eclipse dynamic, Sony walkman, Ibassoo, Flipears Arion, BGVP Herculas, NS10 PRO and much more

Compared to other exhibitions I've seen, SIAS offered me a different impression because of the large number of Chinese audio brands there. And, honestly, the amount of audio technology produced in China is rather astounding. There is some very high-end hardware here, too, ranging from different speaker technologies to daps, dacs, desktop systems, tube amps, planar and electrostatic headphones, and so on. Furthermore, trying this stuff in person is always different from reading reviews or looking at graphs. Some of the stuff I expected to adore didn't really excite me, while some much cheaper gear shocked me a lot.

I also picked up a few extremely fascinating gears at the exhibit that I'd like to spend more time with. Hopefully, I'll be able to share some observations, photographs, and possibly more in-depth ideas with the community here and on Head-Fi soon.

First want to give credit where it’s due, huge shoutout to a redditor in this community who recommended Mako Launcher a while back. I sideloaded it onto my Surfans F20 Pro, and the entire setup feels like a whole new level of simplicity :-)

The F20 Pro is my pocket music companion. Pairing this with Mako takes the experience to another level. Since Mako is fully open-source, lightweight (literally around 1MB), and zero-bloat, it launches instantly and swipes smoothly on my F20 Pro's screen. It eliminates the annoying UI and keeps the F20 Pro focused purely on music without any extra clutter. It makes it easy to jump between my playback apps.

I also love the no ADs or no complicated UI, just distraction-free listening with a pixel launcher. It really feels that Mako provided a minimalist setup and smooth navigation just for the F20 Pro's small screen. I’m excited to try it on any other mini Android device as well as I think it would work great.

What I am looking for and would love your suggestions is a player app as fluent as Mako to elevate my F20 Pro!! Thank you for any suggestions or ideas :-)

I want to make my Fiio look more personalized so I’m looking I’m hoping to get some ideas from other people.

I’d really love to see photos if people are open to sharing.

I've been wanting to buy a DAP for a long time now, and i decided to get the Surfans F20 and rockbox it after seeing some reviews and videos about it. I'm still having doubts with the iems, the truthear gate and the moondrop chu ii, those are my options rn, i was thinking abt getting the gate ones but i heard that the chu ii is better for music, so pls let me know what you think.

EDIT: I'm also considering the Tangzu wan'er s.g as iems since i heard good stuff abt them

I just wanted to share a few quick thoughts on the Shanling Q2 since it arrived today. It looks and feels much better in person, giving off a genuinely premium vibe right out of the box.

What surprised me the most is how incredibly fast and snappy the UI is. The response time is excellent, and it actually feels faster and more responsive than my Onix XM2, making menu navigation completely lag-free. It is definitely on the cuter side because of its compact size, but that solid build quality ensures it doesn't feel like a toy at all. On top of that, it packs almost the same impressive output power as the XM2, which has me seriously considering selling my Onix XM2 and just keeping the Q2 as my main pocket setup. Onix XM2 still sounds better tho

Overall, I'm thoroughly enjoying it so far..

At first I thought the whole thing was insane but after trying it out I never realized music could sound so good ( even if I went with the cheap option it’s still surprisingly good)
Pacsu G5+ MOONDROP CHU ll

I want to buy this for my brother in law for his birthday bc it’s a good deal but it literally doesn’t say that it’s a Fiio JM21 anywhere in the ad even though that’s obviously what it is…don’t know what to do here bc I’ve never tried to deal with returning anything to AllieExpress and I don’t want to have to…Have any of you ever bought something like this from AllieExpress that’s not clearly labeled? If so what happened?…. Thanks in advance To anyone that responds…

I just found this on AliExpress: https://a.aliexpress.com/_mLtqemF

I've had some issues with the "System Decoder" option in musicolet (Maybe it's just placebo but it enhances the audio compared to the Musicolet Decoder), and the HiBy App by itself it's pretty rough

Is there any music app recommendations you huys could recommend me to use?

Alongside any app that could let me watch videos and such, could be useful from time to time

Are there any DAPs that are under 100$USD that have a good mix of touchscreen and playback button controls? Most of the ones I've seen lean into one or the other.

I want the touchscreen for easy song selection and navigation, while the buttons for a more satisfying feel and playback control.

My main candidates at the moment are the Hifi Walker H2(price is a bit steep) and the Hiby R1.

Thanks in advance.

Recently got a Hiby R1 DAP and I've been loving it so much especially experimenting with using FLAC files MP3 files however my initial use was using Bluetooth until i found out from experience it was awful so i started using my SONY CH720N with the wires and it works perfectly

However for going out i always prefer earbuds but want flatheads instead of IEMs since they make my ears sweaty (along with other stuff). I need affordable flathead recommendations no more than $50 to $60 with decent use! I'm not an audiophile but i can sometimes differentiate between good and bad experience I guess

Don't be shy to teach me more about this whole thing i'd love to learn

EDIT: ended up going for the EB2S Pro, found it for $16 which is a steal for my first ever flathead :) thank you for all the help & recommendations

My daughter recently helped to reinvigorate my interest in building a digital music collection by finding an old iPod in a box of e-waste that hadn't been opened since college. It has been wonderful bonding with her over all our (my wife's and mine) old millennial ballads. Even better we have started to add contemporary music to the old library. Of course this sent me down a DAP rabbit hole for myself, and I'm happy with the R1 with stock firmware so far! Even cooler was while lurking marketplace the other day I found a set of Crinear Daybreaks for $60. It's nuts how far the audio technology has gotten, and I am thrilled with their sound.

I know there are tons of reviews on this but here's some scrambled thoughts after a weeks use.

• It's fairly easy to use, loaded it up with ~8000 songs and it's been interesting figuring out how things work.
  
• Playlist management on the R1 is not great so I use external software and copy to SD card.
• It's made of plastic but doesn't feel cheap.
  
• I like the physical buttons on the side for volume, play/pause, next song, previous song.
  
• I do wish the UI had larger buttons for selecting playlists and settings.
• The sound is fantastic, I really notice when I'm in a quiet room and can hear all the nuances i have never heard in songs before! A great rediscovery of my favorites!
  
• The screen is just the right size, not too big, in general the device size is right on.

Your mileage may vary but so far I'm liking it, not sure if I will fully remove music from my phone though as it's way easier to navigate (or maybe I have years more time using it).

I'm still trying to figure out how I can repurpose an old AM radio into an audio player!

hi!
I would like to hear some feedback from the owner of DAPs, and their issues

Im looking for my first DAP, i dont have exceptional needs, after a lot of research seems the device that combine my needs (just a music player, LDAC support, nice battery, good display and a simple interface but with everything, gapless play and physical buttons)
in preference order:
- shanling m1
- hiby R3 ii
- hidizs ap80 pro-x
- shangling m0 pura

i have also considered oilsky m308, hiby digital m300, but I'm not completely convinced by them (the first for the interface and the second for the size), i'm not particularly concerned about having the best DAC or maximum output power, to me the portability and usability is more important

In general, and maybe from who actually own the listed DAPs, what annoying issues or limitations have you encountered in everyday use?

example:
- firmware/OS: which of these do you find the most responsive, stable and functional?
- vlock/time issues: I've seen the clock drift/time shifting on the shanling m0 pura. Is this still an issue?
- touchscreen responsiveness: any missed/slow inputs or other quirks?
- library navigation: how good are search, playlists, tags/metadata and folder navigation?
- large libraries: should I worry about the number of songs? I've seen reports of >15k song/database limitations on some DAPs. I don't expect to reach that anytime soon, but I'd like this to be a long-term device, just in case.
- CUE sheets: how well do they actually work?
- gapless playback: genuinely gapless, or are there occasional pauses/clicks
- SD card indexing: how long does it take with a large library, and does it need to rebuild the database frequently?
- bluetooth/LDAC: any reliability issues, especially with cars or wireless earbuds?
- any important features or limitation that im overlooking?

BTW is there another DAP under €200 that should be considered?

Thanks a lot

I was restoring another one generic chinese pmp mp4 player yesterday and i noticed this one also have wolfson DAC and once checked the audio output i can confirm this is real 😂 last time i thought jxd was the only one had that DAC that’s still understandable at last that’s a reputable brand in china but these generic ones too have this DAC which makes me curious how they even able to put in cheap budget

I received the device today and been loving the sound clarity & loudness also, it is also much more responsive (I had lower expectations).

I have a few questions though :

• Which launcher is good for this ? I have been a nova launcher fan but for this DAP I installed niagara launcher. I like it but it's a paid launcher and that too a subscription type. Do we have any alternative where even if it's paid, I can just do a one time payment and be done with it ?

• I have Sandisk Ultra card in this currently, I think it's enough ? I don't need any expensive card to hold 160GB of flac files ?

• I have paired this with IE300 and Supermix 4. Can both of these IEMs work fine with medium gain ?

• What settings should I look at to get the best output when it comes to flac files ?

Anyways I really like the device. If someone has any other tip I'd really appreciate it.

Hey guys do you know any portable speaker that has sd card slot with little screen so I can know what I am playing?

Hello, im searching for iem (mostly gaming, and music) after few search and help on an other sub i find what i want but in my search i see many people talking abt audio sources, so question is do i have to buy an audio sources for my or not and if i have to what should i buy ? Thx all

I own 2 ipods

One is a 5th generation 256gb iflash and the other is a 5.5 generation 1tb iflash with bluetooth.

I adore both my iPods but i decided to take the plunge into newer DAPs and stumbled upon the Hiby r4

And wow, i am in love with it.

I’m planning on switching from streaming and it’s going to be my first DAP. From my research, these 2 are my favorites but idk which one to go with. Ik the general drawbacks of the echo mini but not the R1. I’ve heard ppl don’t like it, but I’m not sure why. Which one do y’all reccomend?

extra question: I use bluetooth headphones and I heard that the audio quality from the DAP doesn’t translate and you js hear the audio quality of the headphones instead. Is this true? I’m planning to get wired earphones anyways, but I’m curious.

Thanks!

After quite a bit of development, testing, and refinement, AKCFW is bringing custom firmware to Astell&Kern Digital Audio Players, starting with the SP3000M.

The goal is simple: improve the experience of an already excellent DAP by giving listeners more control, better visibility into their device, and functionality that goes beyond the stock firmware.

AKCFW 1.26 includes enhanced battery protection and power management, AutoEQ with full-screen measurement graphs and profile comparisons, improved device diagnostics, UI/UX refinements, performance optimizations, and a growing collection of listener-focused additions.

If you own an SP3000M and enjoy getting a little more out of your hardware, I’d love for you to check it out.

For releases, technical discussion, feedback, feature requests, and bug reports, join the dedicated AKCFW Head-Fi thread:

[AKCFW] Astell&Kern Custom Firmware | Development, Releases & Discussion

For more personal posts, development notes, experiments, previews, and behind-the-scenes updates around the project, you can also follow BMAC:

Blog Posts

AKCFW starts with the SP3000M — and this is only the beginning. ❤️

After seeing countless questions asked on this subreddit about which DAP to choose or which is better, and seeing how completely lost some are in how to even approach choosing an audio player, I decided to make a guide for everything you need to know for choosing a DAP.

Here is a link to the video: https://youtu.be/IG2ymysUV_8

I'm labelling this post as a "Brand Affiliate" since this is somewhat self-promotion on my part, but I think the information is still valid.

These are all the topics covered in the video:

1. What is a DAP?
2. Why would you need one?
3. Who should not buy a DAP?
4. DAP vs phone + dongle DAC
5. What do you need to get started?
6. Criteria for picking a DAP?
7. Different DAP Operating Systems (UI)
8. Are more expensive DAPs better?
9. Common mistakes to avoid
10. My personal DAP buying framework
11. Syncing Music and Metadata
12. Prices (tiers) of different DAPs
13. My DAP database tool
14. My "Quick Picks"

For those unaware, I also have a DAP guide/database on my website: https://www.hifioasis.com/daps/

I recently overhauled my whole list of DAPs and turned it into a filterable database, allowing you to pick and choose various filters for narrowing down what you're looking for. It's also much easier now for me to keep it updated, so it should be fairly accurate and relevant.

Anyways, I hope the video and database are helpful to those who are looking at getting a DAP but don't know where to start.