r/DigitalAudioPlayer

I plan to buy them, but I've heard they're uncomfortable.

R1 is so small and well-built. I think this is the best music player for those who don't need a fancy retro look or powerful output through 4.4mm. FiiO's may sound better, but R1 has a better interface, controls, screen. I purchased it to test Hiby's OS in comparison with Shanling. The phone in the photo is a 6.2" Samsung.

Bought some headphones on eBay last month. They were fake. Refunded and it got sent as a gift card. Might as well get a $50 dap/DAC.

Fiio Echo Nano. It's cool. It's small.

Now I need more music. Rip my old family PC and our music library. Just have whatever CDs I have left and whatever Amazon Music let me have for buying physical music.

(The DAP is the Hidizs AP 30 Music Boy, the IEMs are the Fosi IM4s and the cable is an orange 8 core OpenHeart cable)

Now I just have to figure out how to get a bunch of flac files of some of my favorite playlists. I have a playlist that is super low res! I pretty much use Tidal exclusively. But I was an 80s/90s kid so this adorable little guy immediately caught my attention. Also it matches perfectly with my Fosi IM4s and orange OpenHeart cable. If I were a SF Giants fan I wouldn't be able to not have this exact setup lol. I really like the other aluminum version they have. The purple with bright green buttons.

It's funny cuz I watched Mark's review (Super*Reviews) and he had mentioned a handheld called the Miyoo Mini and I started my search aaaand now I'm charging it after just receiving it today. (Totally not audio related) But it's definitely retro. Ahh, nostalgia is always a serotonin release for me.

Have been using the A&K SE300 for a little over a year now. Monday I received the Thieaudio Monarch MKIV. Definitely a step up from the Ziigaat Doscincos I was using previously. Think I’m going to be good for awhile.

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

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 :-)

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.

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..

Rog Ally X

After falling in love with some DSP software recently I cannot unhear what I heard and realize outside a Laptop - nothing seems to be powerful enough to run its processing so I've arrived here.. Call it crazy and 'not a DAP' but running full Windows 11 on a Ryzen chip, whilst idling at a few watts combined with an 80whr battery, and more powerful than any Snapdragon SOC on a DAP I think it might be fair to include it here.

Combining this with a Questyle M18i and a set of Headphones could = ooft!

PSA: This post isn't a sponsor or for drama/attention. I just thought it interesting and random. This in no way replaces a traditional DAP for portability or comfort and is basically a mini pc but who can argue if it does it well. I'm happy to lug something around if it's worth the hassle (I'm one of those). Seeing the album covers on this 7" display would be kind of cool too. Keen to hear thoughts.

Note: this is not cheap at all, but the idea is there.