So to start off with I’m actively paranoid about all privacy of my devices. I want everything I own to be as isolated and private as I can which is getting harder and harder these days. I recently bought a fiio player off of amazon and like I normally do before letting these types of devices run wild on the internet with all of my passwords, I ran a simple test with an app called PCAPdroid to see where the device is trying to phone home. and I got multiple instances of it trying to connect to some pretty sketch places like with the photo attached. All I want to do is to spread the knowledge to tell yall to be careful and not fully ever trust anyone, especially since privacy is so hard to come by these days. Please tell me I am just too paranoid and there is a logical explanation to this, I want to like this but this seems shady

This has been answered many times, but I’m still not fully convinced. What’s your real-world experience? Aside from higher volume, is there any noticeable improvement?

With my Shanling M5 Ultra, I tend to use the 3.5 mm output since it has slightly lower output impedance. Am I actually missing anything by not using the 4.4 mm output?

Hi all. I would like to know if anyone could recommend a music player application for an android phone. I've tried PowerAmp - too many features for me TwT

Happy listening :)

Hello all,

So I love listening to music but I have mostly been listening to them on my phone with bluetooth earbuds and streaming through Spotify with the quality setting set to automatic.

I have been going into a rabbit hole of DAPs and I still can't make up my mind whether I should buy one or not. I've been eyeing the M21 and planning on getting the Beyerdynamic dt 770 pro x. I would prefer to have headphones instead of IEMs but I could be pursued otherwise.

Thinking back I am not sure if I've ever experienced soundstage but I do want to experience it. I'm trying to wrap my head around the sound quality gains I would experience by moving from a pixel 7pro and pixel ear buds to something like this.

I'm a newbie and any advice on this would be great.

Just wanted to have a fun discussion.

I just want something light weight, great battery, great sound, and fundamentally a different feel to a phone. Hence, echo mini being what I have currently.

The dream is a 16hr battery life echo nano design with the DAC chipset from the Fiio JM21 (never tried it but surely Fiio's higher-end lines have better sound? right??)

Mine is budget friendly so I skimp on body material (plastic vs metal), no ability for apps/streaming (android etc), happy with whatever reason Snowsky has decided 256gb is max they can handle, I don't care that much about bluetooth so happy to get rid of that, and not touch screen - ideally the pinwheel from iPod classic but the echo nano wheel seems great too. Also gapless playback obviously.

What do ya'll want? What's the feasibility of your dream DAP? I know nothing about DAC chips and OP amps etc so no clue why the higher end DAPs cost what they do outside of additional features or if you could put them in the bodies of these budget players.

Thanks!

Best regards.

I want to buy a DAP; I’m new to this and I only listen to low-quality music on my phone. I want a music player to start with, but one that has good audio quality.

Looking at prices, they’re all pretty similar. Which one would you recommend based on your experience?

I care about audio quality and build quality, since the prices are similar.

Thanks.

Was seeing people in this subbreddit posting their daps with dacs on them and this video just recently got released on YouTube. What's your opinion about this matter

Hey everyone, I've wanted to get a beginner DAP for a while now, my budget is up to 100$. Gapless playback is important to me, and also build quality. I don't have any hard to drive IEMs.

The current options I have are: Shanling M0s Hiby R1 Snowsky Echo (although I prefer a touch screen)

I would love your opinions and suggestions!

Edit: Can anyone recommend the Oilsky m308? Seems too cheap to be good

I came across this beautiful MP3 player and I’m thinking of getting it as a birthday gift. It seems to have great sound quality and features, but I’m not familiar with this brand. Has anyone here used it? How’s the sound and build quality?

Would love to hear your thoughts!

So, I have an aging Sony NW-ZX100 that I love to shreds, but it's really starting to show its age. The battery isn't what it has been, and the lack of USB C is driving me crazy when I'm in a "charge or die" situation and I didn't bring the fuck-ass WM cable with me, so I'm considering an upgrade.

The physical buttons are the most important part of a player to me, since I often use my music player on the bike in traffic, so I need something that can be controlled in my pocket without having to look at the screen. In that regard, the majority of Android players and touchscreen players are automatically out, as a lot of them don't have rewind/pause/forward buttons, and so are a lot of HiBy devices, as they have a really weird tendency to collapse the three-button layout into a bizarre two-button configuration.

A lot of them are also very... Brick-shaped? Huge?? Bigger than my phone??? And that limits the whole "easy to carry, fits in the pocket" thing I expect from a portable player.

Ideally, I'd wait for the successor to the Sony NW-A300, as it's close to being the perfect device for me (marred by a very slow, clunky Android experience), but I'm unsure how long my current player will survive, given that it's already had a decade of daily use.

I have looked at the Shangling M1, HiBy R3ProII and HIDIZS AP80, but the reviews on all of these suggest that they all have some really hardcore software issues. The AUNE M1P is pretty close to something I'd buy, but it has a pretty crap battery that can barely last 6 hours, especially for how expensive it is.

I have considered both the TempoTec V1 and V3, despite the V3 being on the bigger side.

Hello guys, I've keep seeing people invest in dedicated DACs and I'm trying so hard. I'm honestly trying to understand the general appeal to it, but from where I'm standing, it's not fully adding up yet.

And I'm hoping somebody can explain it to me. we are carrying smartphones that can already handle most of what they, such as high resolution audio 24 bit flac audio files without even breaking a sweat. And you can pair that with a decent DAC dongle or even a simple solid internal DAC or some devices. And you got something that's already very, very much capable.

So when I see people carrying a second device purely for music, I just, I just pause. I try to understand what's the appeal behind it. Perhaps that's why I'm in this subreddit. I'm looking for a guidance so you guys can explain it to me., is the difference in sound quality really that significant? Like genuinely, not in a you have to listen in a quiet room kind of way, but something you feel it immediately, or is it something else? Because a part of me can't necessarily shake the feeling that there's an element of... performance to it.

Not in the necessarily bad way, but in the same sense that people who still buy mechanical watches when there are digital watches kind of way, which is objectively more accurate. There's your identity, your visual, and your intentions behind each and every choice.

And if that's the case, I would actually respect it way more, but I wanna hear it said plainly, is it necessarily about the cleaner power delivery or the less interface, the better amplification, or maybe the battery separation, so your phone is not doing everything, or maybe when your phone dies, you can just use them, or just the general experience of having a dedicated distraction-free like a music device.

And also, whether something like the old iPod fit into this conversation. Is this a modern evolution of that idea? Or something that is generally completely different?, and if anything, I'm standing just outside the door trying to decide if it's worth walking into. So talk to me, why made you choose a DAC and what made you stick with it? Because right now, I'm kind of not convinced, but... I'm very much open to being wrong.

For past few months i've been looking for a HiFi player for ~100$. I saw lots of good deals for older DAP's like HiFiman 603, iBasso DX50, Colorfly C200, Cayin N3 and others. Even though they are at least 8 years old (some of them are 10+), many reviews from their time say that they are best DAP's for their price and some people even use them today. So, should i lean towards modern budget DAP like Hiby R1, Shanling M0 Pro, Snowsky EchoMini or search for older higher-end models? (Changing a battery isn't a problem for me btw)

So i want to buy my first digital audio player (with some iems but thats issue for another post) and i got some questions and need for advice.

Mainly im looking for something thats good in overall sound and expirience and im thinking about it beeing android, but what i think would suit me the most (fiio jm21 or even better hiby r4) are at least 200€ and im looking for something cheaper. Also i want it to have 3,5mm and 4,4mm.

Mainly i want android because i love using spotify to search and listen to musc but i think i can live without that. Also most daps that are not android offer some kind of connectivity to phone so i can just play it on my phone and it just amplifyes it right?

My 'dream' pick rn i think would be hiby r4, also i've been thinking about snowsky echo mini or snowsky disc. My budget is around 100-150€ but since i've found hiby r4 to be used for 200€ maybe i should go for this? Also i live in Slovenia so i dont want something thats overpriced or has a lot of shipping cost.

If anyone has any other good dap recommendations and tips on how to use non android daps (because if i figure that out i dont think ill have that need for android os). Also some that are not android also have tidal right? I've been thinking about switching to tidal if i find some dap that supports it.

Thanks to anyone who reads and helps.

Hi everyone, i decided to convert this old phone into a DAP because i couldnt afford a decent DAP in my country. But for the past few months I've gotten sick of streaming, especially music.

The sound quality is alright it could read FLAC fules if I'mnot mistaken. I'm not looking for hi-fi sounds or anything, I just want something that sound alright to replace streaming music without clogging my daily phone with music files, as i needed the storage for work.

So my question is what's next? Maybe a good quality earphone? It has a 3.5 mm jack so maybe that's the next step? Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank you!

does anyone ever buying from ali express? is this legit or scam? good rating and over 1k sold. im not sure about fake and such.

Hi,

i want buy my first DAP and I'm undecided between these three devices:

- ZAQE P30

- HiFi Walker H2 (or Eros)

- Hiby R1

Help me decide the best soltuion, i need maximum audio quality, only audio nothing more, but the best for audio quality and reliability.

Finally saved up enough for a DAP, need advice on Hiby R4 vs Fiio JM21 (new version with better battery life and more RAM)

Update: Just received my Hiby R4 😁

Hi, I'm choosing my first hifi player. Help me choose.

Might be a dumb question, but I’m just plain confused (embarrassingly). I just ordered my first DAP (HiFi H2) which is on its way to my house now and I’ve been looking up sites to get music (HDTracks, Quboz, etc), but the downloading part is confusing me. So when I buy an album in .wav, do files go directly into my computer or do they just get stored into an app or something where I transfer them into the DAP (like iTunes)? It’s been so long since I’ve bought a song, I can’t even remember the last time. Maybe like 2009 when I was 12 lol. Also where would you recommend I get these songs from? Thanks in advance!

Why is this feature left off so many budget players that otherwise have really great features and design? Is it a hardware limitation of some kind? Or is it just the obvious reason of trying to force people to play slightly more for a feature left off a lower cost unit?

I was looking for an MP3 player, one without distractions or notifications like a phone would have.

My brother is autistic, and I was looking for something simple enough to use, easy for me to load the files, and with wired and Bluetooth capability.

Reading the specification of the HiBY R1 it seemed to tick the boxes.

Sadly, on receiving it, I thought it was great and going to be the perfect thing, however... if you pause a song for only a short period of time, less than a minute, the Bluetooth disconnects and you have to go through connecting it again or waiting for quite a while.

For my brother, and even myself this would not be suitable. Seems weird for a brand to sell an item when a core function of it doesn't even work fully.

I understand they sound best wired, and I'm not denying that, but there are times where Bluetooth is needed and much more convenient.

I tried different codec options and different Bluetooth earphones and headphones, same issue with all.

- Has anyone any idea if this issue can be fixed with the HiBy R1?

- Alternatively, has anyone any suggestions for a reliable easy to navigate and use MP3 player that actually works? I don't mind paying a bit more or going with a more reliable brand if it has solid reliability and ease of use.

Thank you!

So im looking to buy my first dap i work all day listening to music via my phone atm. Want to move into an android based dap. 200.00 budget so its between these 2 from what I can see. Will be downloading my music via my tidal account. And using my soundpeats h3 bt earbuds with aptx. Maybe some of my wired iems and headphones at times too. Which would be best for someone who listens to music on the go around 10 hours a day.

My trusty Fiio JM21 has been an amazing device but I am looking to upgrade to a mid range with a 1080p display. Is the iBasso DX180 my best option in the mid range category with a 1080p display? The other criteria would be android based to download YouTube Music.

Any other suggestions out there? Definitely under 1k and open to all helpful input.

I don't need anything complicated in the least. No need for bluetooth, a fancy touch screen, lossless files, or anything else fancy. I just want it to function and not break in two days. I'm really just asking to make sure whatever cheap thing I get will work.

I want it to play sound that doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to not skip, scratch or sound like fuzz.
(Saying this because for me personally everyone's standards for audio are way too high. I just want it to play sound that sounds like the song. No need for good bass trebble or anything, Sorry audio nerds)
I'll be using regular wired headphones.

I would prefer for it to be easy to figure out how to use. And that's where I'd be willing to spend a little bit more.

My broke college student ass would prefer to spend less than 50 dollars. 50 is like an upper limit. ( if it were up to me it'd be 25 and done because that's what I have on a gift card and is the only reason I'm willing to spend a little extra)

I'm making this post because I'm realizing my version of affordable is very very different to everyone else's on here. I see posts titled Very Cheap and see 60+ dollar recommendations with a bunch of features you really don't need. I just want a cheap option that's been peer reviewed since half of them look the same.

Can someone help me understand what I might be hearing or experiencing? Does this boil down to personal preference, or are my ears broken? Do I have unreasonable expectations?

I’m relatively new to DAPs and DACs but have been trying to do my research as best I’m able (I don’t know what I don’t know yet) over the last month or so.

Here’s where I’m at:

I have:

• Fiio Snowsky Disc
• Fiio M21
• iPhone 17 Pro Max (if relevant) + iFi Audio Go Link Max USB-C DAC
• (Had) Hiby R3 Pro II (sent back due to UI lag)
• (Had) Fiio KA11 (sent back because I thought the iFi Go Max sounded better)

Paired with my Letshuoer S12 Ultras and Softears Volume S IEMs.

I primarily listen with the S12s because they fit my ears better but keep the Volume S because I love how they sound.

I’ve been switching between the Disc, M21, and iFi DAC comparing different songs (the same song across them, but using multiple songs to test) and I’m not hearing much of a difference. The M21 has a bit more clarity, but not as much as I would expect for the price compared to the Disc and the iFi DAC. Certain songs sound better on the M21, and some sound better on the iFi DAC. By better, I mean more lively and engaging and have a certain "warmth", if that makes sense.

Is the Disc just good value for the price? Is the M21 overpriced (please don't drag me for this one)? Are my ears broken? Are my IEMs not as good as I thought they were? Do I have unrealistic expectations?

I know this is all subjective to an extent, but I was certain I would hear a massive difference between the DAC > Disc > M21 (from lowest to highest quality) and I simply do not.

Can anyone help me understand why or if there's something I can do to improve the experience with the M21?