Question 1: Because Android has a poor support on dual SD cards, it works unstable.
Iām considering a FiiO DAP. It would be a modest investment that Iād want to protect. Is add-on coverage a good idea, or do FiiO electronics run well?
I donāt know about FiiO, but I wish I had that kind of coverage for my $200 HiBy R3 Pro, may it Rest rest in peace. I have a Shanling that is still performing well, with minor battery degradation, well after the warranty expired.
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I had the q5s. Not a dap but a dac amp and it was good. I know others have had their daps and I havenāt heard bad things. Id day give it a shot.
Iām not big on daps because the interface isnāt as smooth as phones or tablets. The tech goes too quickly for them to keep up imo. Iād rather use a dac amp that has a roon endpoint and use a ipad or phone to control it.
But I also get the point of a dap if youāre using it outside the house, not on wifi, and more on the go.
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As with @Rhodey, I had (and still have somewhere) the Q5 DAC amp. Itās perfectly competitive in its price class, and Iād still use mine if I needed a mobile device (but COVID).
Also as with @Rhodey, I donāt like to get tied down by DAPs and prefer to split the software/touch screen from the DAC and amp. Any phone or tablet that can generate Bluetooth or a digital DAC signal works as an interface.
If Iām going truly mobile Iāll go straight Bluetooth or use a simple 3.5mm wired IEM. Nothing smaller or lighter than that, and the noise during travel interferes with refined listening anyway.
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Hi there. I am trying to find a DAP that can cope with 80,000 tracks (getting on for 600GB - and yes I know that they are not highest quality at that size). I have the Fiio X5III which struggles to manage that quantity of music and the AK SR15 which likewise struggles - the best I have got it working is with the Foobar 2000 app. Both sell themselves as having storage capacity of 1TB but at the same time are only tested to around 40,000 tracks (presumably because the expectation is that they will be higher quality and take up more space). Does the M11 have the ability to handle this volume of music seamlessly. Any idea? Alternatively, any ideas about a DAP that can? Many thanks for any help offered.
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My M11 Pro has ~20,000 tracks on it and I havenāt noticed any bit of slowdown but that is admittedly a bit under your numbers - I have a 512gb card in it. Iāve been real happy with it so far, but it is my first real DAP so I donāt have much to compare to, experience wise.
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Hey Dynamic! I know this is an old post but it was very informative. I too am/was considering the FIIO M11Plus LTD until I read your eval. I thought this might be it. Have you tried any others?
Wow, the quedelix (Now, one of the hardest items to find and buy, and has good reasons for this product shortage). I bought the Cayin N3Pro and happy with it so far, I have a unearthly penchant for the AK chips: 4490.4493.4495 with correct/excellent implementation) rare for sure. Iām still looking for the right musical dap with a 4.4 bal. out, decent battery life, etc. I have almost given up on that search. If you have any advice in that matter, please come forth! BTW, excellent photo too the HP-2sā . Currently Iām just about decided to pull the trigger on the GH40. Big chance, but the portability factor, & getting close to the GH50 sound signature might be the sweet pairing/contrast with my
HP-2. Love to hear your feedback, ideas, on all of theses topicsā¦Thx
Cheers
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I am Qudelix only. Actually, I own two Qudelix. And exactly zero other daps, amps or dacs. ( ok, technically I have a btr5 in a drawer somewhere )
Daps proved to be bad at everything for me. Too big, crappy battery life, unstableā¦ etc. I have a whole thread on the journey on here. Desktop stacks never proved their value enough to be confined to a specific location.
I donāt know much about the gh40. I also am not that interested in the gh50 based on what I know about how it varies from my hp-2. Honestly, I found headphones I like so much that I lost interest in the search.
I thought I would like ak sound. But most of the stuff I liked was either ess or burr brown. Dx300 was my favorite sounding dap. But it had other problems.
I just stick with my qudelii.
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Thank you for your quick response, I havenāt quite given up, yet. But your argument has sound logic applied to it. About the headphones, I too am happy with the HP-2sā, just adding a partner in sound for travels. Thank Dynamic for the insight.
Cheers
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For a partner sound, I would go drop ether cx. Completely polar opposite sound to the hp-2 but still amazing. If I owned two over ears in this price point, those would be the two.
I actually rely more on IEMs for a different sound. My zen fill that gap really well for me.
And the timeless scratches my desire for planar.
Morning! Iām not too sure about wanting a polar opposite, but that is intriguing. More of a complementary side dish. I love iems and have had my share (still have a few cheapos), but due to my ear issues I had to move into headphones. I am unable to tolerate canal inserted earphones for more than. 10-15 minā¦Hardly enjoyable for my music loving enjoyment. The portability, easy to drive factor, and weight were/are also a plus for me. But, the drop ether cx, will be another Iāll investigate. Being in AK, my options are limited, all via website or telephone ordering. Donāt forget to: Enjoy the Music
Cheers
My apologies for crashing a FIIO Forum with these mundane things.
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I have over 50 types of tips for IEMs. I have been able to make most IEMs work moderately well with the right tips. But I struggle with it too. Thatās what brought me back to over ear. Enjoy!
50 tips, wow. I have/had several different brands that I tried prob closer to 25 or so. I found that the smallest tips from Final worked the best. But my ear canal issues brought me to over the ear headphones.
What a roller coaster ride, but now settling in on the sound signature I love (HP-2), and possibly another flavor, slightly different or massively different is now the question. 
. Thanks Dynamic for the information and insight you bring to me and everyone.
Best
Unfortunately, with sticking stuff in your ears, itās not always enjoyable. One does need to find a good fit. After that, one kind of has to get use to or build up a tolerance.
I use to work in a call center. My employer actually paid to have custom ear molds for our headsets. I did had this done with padding when bad on mine and started getting the foam glue on my head. The mold fit very well, but it hurt after a while. Almost all my coworkers who got the custom molds had similar experiences. I would wear despite the pain. I would take it off here and there to give my ear a break. It took about a month for the pain to go completely away. After than, it only hurt when the headphone was ripped out of my ear. Usually because I forgot to take it out and got up and left my desk. More than once I would leave for lunch and still have it in my ear.
I think part of reason I can wear IEMs without an issue is because of wearing that custom ear mold piece for years. They bothered me a little bit, but it went away pretty quickly.
I think if it is bothering you after 10-15 minutes, you do not have the correct size ear tip. I would try going down a size if possible.
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I donāt know. I had problems with my M11 from the start. In my opinion the wi-fi sucked. I have very good mesh coverage and I could barely get a signal in my garage. It would buffer like crazy.
I would get piercing white noise streaming Qobuz. Spotify was fine (all the same bitrate) What would happen is, if I listened to 16 bit and switched to 24 hi-res (or vice versa) it would go haywire. High pitched noise( really loud!!) in the left channel and sped up music in the rightā¦ like if you played a 45 record at 78. You know, it sounded like a chipmunks album. Then the usb socket went out and it wouldnāt charge. It lived just over a year before it died but NEVER worked right. Customer service was a pita also. So I just gave up and was just very careful not to change bit rates and get my ears blown out. Butā¦ā¦
As far as I can tell, Iām an outlier. Most reports that Iāve seen people are happy with the Fiio daps. I personally wonāt buy another Fiio dap. Though I bought mine pretty close to launch and I think Fiio has come a long way in their QC and customer service. My 2 cents.
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This sucks. My m11 pro has not had any of the listed issues. In fact it is the best portable playback I have enjoyed so far. My only complaint is crappy battery life, which is somewhere shy of 8 hours. Sorry to hear of your difficulties.
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I experienced very similar problems with Qobuz and my FiiO Q5 several years ago. It crashed constantly with bitrate changes, and often switched to the lowest rate available (CD Redbook). I hope theyāve fixed that issue, as it was otherwise fine for the price.
Did you turn off the light on the power button? I was very disappointed about the battery life on my M11 Plus ā¦ until I turned the light off. Hard to believe how big of a difference it made.
Sorry youāre experience was sour. I went ahead with the M11 Plus. After nearly 4 weeks Iām very pleased with it.
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