Audiophilepure

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“Using FiiO Link is easy and FiiO is promising even more integrated support. To start, make sure your smartphone has FiiO Music installed and the Bluetooth is enabled. Then on the M9 or other FiiO link supported device, enable Bluetooth and hit the switch on “Bluetooth decoding amp mode” and then turn Bluetooth on again. Open the FiiO Music app, hit the gears Settings icon and enable FiiO Link. Then on the smartphone’s FiiO Music app, also go down to FiiO Link, enable that and hit Client. And you’re good to go. This needs to be done every single time and so is painful at the moment but FiiO says they are working on making it more seamless. The experience of using FiiO Link with the M9 DAP is mind-boggling with it still in a beta phase. It feels like you are untethered from having the headphone wire going to your device as you go to change your song since you are now using your DAP remotely. The speed is great and delays are rare. You can effectively do almost all the functions of the M9 as you would normally using the app, from searching for songs, browsing your playlist, changing the volume and even favoriting. Album art gets downloaded only when you click into the song and what is shown is lower quality to save on size of caching, but is good enough as is.”

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“Whether or not you listen to music on the go, there’s always room for one more piece of audio equipment. Herein lies my dilemma – I am head-over-heels in love with the musical presentation of the Cayin N5iiS, but I am having a hard time recommending it to people who, like me, focus on the user experience as a whole. Perhaps future firmware updates from Cayin will fix the noticeable lag in the response.

That aside, the N5iiS is a heavy portable powerhouse and will cater to listeners who want a player with both sound quality and connectivity options. Oh, and did I mention it has two (two!) TF card slots?”

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“The FiiO M9 uses a locked down Android and only supports specific applications. Repeat after me: “The FiiO M9 uses a low-power processor meant for wearables and only allows white-listed Android apps or else performance will suck”. And say it over five times, please. As one of the main contributors to Head-Fi’s FiiO M9 thread, it is excruciating to get the plethora of tin foil hat theories of why FiiO limits the apps you can install despite low-level engineering explanation and even James (CEO of FiiO) coming into the thread and confirming. The M9 comes with Tidal and some other music apps that are more relevant in Asia like KKBOX or MOOV with the ability to install Spotify through downloading the APK onto the SD card manually.”

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“Sonically the SE100 delivers the goods. If you want to tailor the sound, you can make and save your own EQ settings. My early Rolling Stones albums especially benefitted from some EQ adjustments. When I compared the default “normal” EQ settings with “EQ off,” the normal EQ setting had slightly lower volume coupled with a tighter, more controlled low end. I made several “UserEQ” configurations for “bad” recordings such as my Charlie Christian box set. I especially like the fact that you can easily erase especially egregious EQ experiments.

While the SE100 is certainly not inexpensive, it delivers a premium experience, with its physical style, ergonomic elegance, and sonic prowess. With its extensive networking, USB connectivity, and firmware updatability, the SE100 should remain a musical constant companion for many years in the future. Maybe that’s why it’s in Astell&Kern’s futura line.

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“It took me no less than a full album to get my hearing accustomed, even more with classical music. A good track to test was “Aulos” from Vladimir Cauchemar – Orchestre lamoureux version, beginning pianissimo and rising steadily to a massive fortissimo.

And this is where the Shanling M5S outshines its direct competitors : dynamics. Soundstage isn’t especially larger than other players, but once you begin to upper the volume you can distinguish subtle nuances previously unheard. Separation is excellent and above all, the player never differs from its neutral path.

Compared to the FiiO X5iii, found at the same price, the FiiO seemed more engaging and less natural. The M5S offers more detail at the same volume, you can really feel it when the drummer hits his drum, as if you couldn’t hear the skin going back and forth before.”

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“Getting away from a generic Android operating system is a real plus. The player responds to touch faster than the Android based players I’ve used. This was surely more expensive to offer, but I think the performance dividends are obvious when you use it.

At $2500, buyers should expect a lot, and sound-wise it is all there. Is it 2.5 times as good as a $1000 DAP? Probably not. But if you want to squeeze the last ounce of performance out of a portable player, and you want a beautiful compact design, you’d do well to consider the HiFiMAN R2R2000.”

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“This almost turned into a full review but then again there is a hell of a lot to talk about, so cutting this off at the right length to inform and I guess “tease” was a challenge. What I can say that at this point is the R6 Pro is looking very much like a contender for the price to performance ticket in 2019.

With more power, lower output resistance and an updated OS it should remain very relevant in today’s DAP market. I highly suggest you demo it in the forthcoming NAMM and CanJam events Q1 2019 and find out for yourself! Our full review will be coming along very soon also if you do not get a chance.”