Before I start, I would just like to start off introducing myself.
The review is subjective and without knowing the person, you can be led to reach a completely different conclusion.
This will not be a full feature review, if you want to know what it is or the component used, stop reading.
*New additional update has been added at the bottom. (26/02/2017)
Self Introduction:
I am a new audiophile, living in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong is extremely popular with audio products, especially high end IEMs and DAPS.
We also get some of the newest toys around, so YAY Hong Kong!
I mostly listen music in FLAC format. I cannot tell the difference between 16 bit and 24bit audio, so I do not have a golden ear for sure but surely will know which is a good recording and which isn't.
My music collections are mostly movie sound track such as Hans Zimmer and Japanese Pop and some metal such as System of a Down.
And I am not a native English user, so please bear with me.
Anyway, gear that I currently own:
V-MODA Crossfade M-100 (which I dislike)
Philips L2 (which I love a lot)
Nuforce HEM6 (My favorite IEM at all time)
Oppo HA-2
Audeze EL-8 open
And of cause AR-M2 (almost a week use now)
Look and physical design:
This is one of the best looking DAP in the market imo, just have a look at the photos I took at below.
I definitly prefer this look than the AK brand DAPs.
It's clean and mature designed.
It is slightly heavier than a smart phone (I am guessing around 1.4x a LG G4)
The weight gives off a very premium build quality, something that a watch lover would love and appreciate.
The back has a very nice texture polishing, holding it in hand feels incredible. So good that I am not thinking to get a case at all.
It is thick, but notice the slight curve on the back, having this in the pocket feels comfortable.
Anyone who owned a sony Xperia phone would know how a sharp edge rectangle phone is a big annoyance in the pocket.
Onto the functionality, there are all the essential physical button. Nothing to rave about but something worth pointing out when comparing against the smaller brother, the M20. The M20 cut down quite a few of the dials.
My only complain is that the buttons are slightly too far apart, a bit hard to use one handed. Which is a shame because one of most important button for me is the fast forward button, and it is quite far down for me.
If AR is reading this, put everything closer and add something to the play/pause button so that it can be easily identified and used in dark environment.
Other notable points:
1. You can only fit one micro SDXC card inside, the DAP itself has build in usable 55.6GB. I wish it was larger because while it is expandable by the use of micro SDXC, in my experience that is never going to be as efficient as simply having a larger build in storage.
2. The SDXC slot door looks terrible, but I find almost all DAP doesn't know how to make it look nice. There is no lock mechanism and is very loose.
3. WiFi works
4. The system is VERY responsive, probably due to the very clean and customised android. I am extremely impressed here because navigating is silky smooth.
5. Drag and Drop, extremely easy to handle.
6. Monitor is very bright, too bright in lowest setting imo.
7. Battery life : roughly 6 to 7 hours.
8. The volume dial is extremely smooth
Audio experience:
The Audio Quality imo is super good, the difference between FLAC and spotify high quality is actually noticeable.
If you are purchasing a high end DAP, I don't think I would be dissatisfaction with any of them though.
I tested out against:
- Onkyo DP-X1
- Fiio X7 with AM2
- AK 70
That is with the store's pick of music, so I could not do a AB test and because of that, just take this as a grain of salt.
The ARM2 sounds more lively and just overall more of my liking in many genre of music.
I wouldn't say it is a HUGE win for AR-M2 but I suspect for certain type of audiophile music, it can be pretty significant.
The actual performance difference for me is the driving power.
Let's just say it was eye opening, it is far more powerful than Oppo HA-2 even with high gain.
I tested out with several big cans and below is the result:
HE400S (EASY)
HE560 (OK)
Hifiman edition X (EASY)
Oppo PM2 and PM3 (EASY)
Nighthawk (EASY)
Focal Elear (EASY)
The only difficult headphone to drive was really just the HE560, but it is totally at a reasonably GOOD listening volume at max setting.
In fact I suspect if the guy next to me won't blasting music via the bluetooth speaker, I would have enough room to actually adjust the volume.
Now that I have a EL8 Open, I can drive it with Oppo HA2 to high gain and it can be slightly too loud. But if I use my AR M2 and put it on max? The headphone is basically a speaker.
And the biggest improvement is the L2. the difference is pretty massive, almost sounded like another headphone entirely.
The Flaws:
No device is perfect and so here goes, AR-M2 is far from perfect.
Below is some of the more major "flaw" that warrants a mentioning:
1. This DAP is designed more for headphones, particularly full sized/ harder to drive set.
Adjusting the volume causes noise, and I read that you can also get noise from the wifi and using the monitor. Apparently this is caused by the strong AMP.
For me personally, I only have noise for using my L2, M100 and HEM6 when I adjust the volume.
I get very little noise when using the EL8, the EL8 for me is a perfect match with this DAP.
2. Pop when resuming play. Not terrible but over time it does get annoying.
3. No way to tell the volume until you listen to music. This is also quite an annoyance. Imagine I turn up the volume when listening to EL8, and going back to HEM6 to listen in bed, the volume is way too loud and there is no way to tell.
Overall:
I think this is one of the happier purchase in recent year and I have made a LOT of expensive purchase.
The flaw is completely overwhelmed by the awesome listening experience but they are there every single time it happens which does build up.
imo, it is slightly expensive for the original cost, but if I am happy with this purchase, I am sure a true audiophile will be even more impressed than I am.
But when I listen to my fav songs at this high quality, I can't help but to close my eyes and smile a little.
------------------------UPDATE (26/02/2017)-------------------------------
I would just like to add a small update just to ensure every detail is here and updated.
The goods/ improved/ additional positive comments:
The new addition - Gapless play works perfectly.
No more bugs or pops!
Classical music imo is the genre that shines the most. I tested it out with HD650 and the sound stage is unbelievably large and full with precision.
The bads/ hope to improve/ additional negative comments:
The music commands have small lags after the update.
The storage space is not enough, high res music takes up storage space pretty quickly and I already have a 256GB additional storage in.
I am using it more and more as a bed side set up.
Reason being is that I only really have 20 mins of travel time to work per day and I don't need the highest of quality for music playback.
The sound quality is so good that I actually am looking for a desktop set up to match this level of performance
The review is subjective and without knowing the person, you can be led to reach a completely different conclusion.
This will not be a full feature review, if you want to know what it is or the component used, stop reading.
*New additional update has been added at the bottom. (26/02/2017)
Self Introduction:
I am a new audiophile, living in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong is extremely popular with audio products, especially high end IEMs and DAPS.
We also get some of the newest toys around, so YAY Hong Kong!
I mostly listen music in FLAC format. I cannot tell the difference between 16 bit and 24bit audio, so I do not have a golden ear for sure but surely will know which is a good recording and which isn't.
My music collections are mostly movie sound track such as Hans Zimmer and Japanese Pop and some metal such as System of a Down.
And I am not a native English user, so please bear with me.
Anyway, gear that I currently own:
V-MODA Crossfade M-100 (which I dislike)
Philips L2 (which I love a lot)
Nuforce HEM6 (My favorite IEM at all time)
Oppo HA-2
Audeze EL-8 open
And of cause AR-M2 (almost a week use now)
Look and physical design:
This is one of the best looking DAP in the market imo, just have a look at the photos I took at below.
I definitly prefer this look than the AK brand DAPs.
It's clean and mature designed.
It is slightly heavier than a smart phone (I am guessing around 1.4x a LG G4)
The weight gives off a very premium build quality, something that a watch lover would love and appreciate.
The back has a very nice texture polishing, holding it in hand feels incredible. So good that I am not thinking to get a case at all.
It is thick, but notice the slight curve on the back, having this in the pocket feels comfortable.
Anyone who owned a sony Xperia phone would know how a sharp edge rectangle phone is a big annoyance in the pocket.
Onto the functionality, there are all the essential physical button. Nothing to rave about but something worth pointing out when comparing against the smaller brother, the M20. The M20 cut down quite a few of the dials.
My only complain is that the buttons are slightly too far apart, a bit hard to use one handed. Which is a shame because one of most important button for me is the fast forward button, and it is quite far down for me.
If AR is reading this, put everything closer and add something to the play/pause button so that it can be easily identified and used in dark environment.
Other notable points:
1. You can only fit one micro SDXC card inside, the DAP itself has build in usable 55.6GB. I wish it was larger because while it is expandable by the use of micro SDXC, in my experience that is never going to be as efficient as simply having a larger build in storage.
2. The SDXC slot door looks terrible, but I find almost all DAP doesn't know how to make it look nice. There is no lock mechanism and is very loose.
3. WiFi works
4. The system is VERY responsive, probably due to the very clean and customised android. I am extremely impressed here because navigating is silky smooth.
5. Drag and Drop, extremely easy to handle.
6. Monitor is very bright, too bright in lowest setting imo.
7. Battery life : roughly 6 to 7 hours.
8. The volume dial is extremely smooth
Audio experience:
The Audio Quality imo is super good, the difference between FLAC and spotify high quality is actually noticeable.
If you are purchasing a high end DAP, I don't think I would be dissatisfaction with any of them though.
I tested out against:
- Onkyo DP-X1
- Fiio X7 with AM2
- AK 70
That is with the store's pick of music, so I could not do a AB test and because of that, just take this as a grain of salt.
The ARM2 sounds more lively and just overall more of my liking in many genre of music.
I wouldn't say it is a HUGE win for AR-M2 but I suspect for certain type of audiophile music, it can be pretty significant.
The actual performance difference for me is the driving power.
Let's just say it was eye opening, it is far more powerful than Oppo HA-2 even with high gain.
I tested out with several big cans and below is the result:
HE400S (EASY)
HE560 (OK)
Hifiman edition X (EASY)
Oppo PM2 and PM3 (EASY)
Nighthawk (EASY)
Focal Elear (EASY)
The only difficult headphone to drive was really just the HE560, but it is totally at a reasonably GOOD listening volume at max setting.
In fact I suspect if the guy next to me won't blasting music via the bluetooth speaker, I would have enough room to actually adjust the volume.
Now that I have a EL8 Open, I can drive it with Oppo HA2 to high gain and it can be slightly too loud. But if I use my AR M2 and put it on max? The headphone is basically a speaker.
And the biggest improvement is the L2. the difference is pretty massive, almost sounded like another headphone entirely.
The Flaws:
No device is perfect and so here goes, AR-M2 is far from perfect.
Below is some of the more major "flaw" that warrants a mentioning:
1. This DAP is designed more for headphones, particularly full sized/ harder to drive set.
Adjusting the volume causes noise, and I read that you can also get noise from the wifi and using the monitor. Apparently this is caused by the strong AMP.
For me personally, I only have noise for using my L2, M100 and HEM6 when I adjust the volume.
I get very little noise when using the EL8, the EL8 for me is a perfect match with this DAP.
2. Pop when resuming play. Not terrible but over time it does get annoying.
3. No way to tell the volume until you listen to music. This is also quite an annoyance. Imagine I turn up the volume when listening to EL8, and going back to HEM6 to listen in bed, the volume is way too loud and there is no way to tell.
Overall:
I think this is one of the happier purchase in recent year and I have made a LOT of expensive purchase.
The flaw is completely overwhelmed by the awesome listening experience but they are there every single time it happens which does build up.
imo, it is slightly expensive for the original cost, but if I am happy with this purchase, I am sure a true audiophile will be even more impressed than I am.
But when I listen to my fav songs at this high quality, I can't help but to close my eyes and smile a little.
------------------------UPDATE (26/02/2017)-------------------------------
I would just like to add a small update just to ensure every detail is here and updated.
The goods/ improved/ additional positive comments:
The new addition - Gapless play works perfectly.
No more bugs or pops!
Classical music imo is the genre that shines the most. I tested it out with HD650 and the sound stage is unbelievably large and full with precision.
The bads/ hope to improve/ additional negative comments:
The music commands have small lags after the update.
The storage space is not enough, high res music takes up storage space pretty quickly and I already have a 256GB additional storage in.
I am using it more and more as a bed side set up.
Reason being is that I only really have 20 mins of travel time to work per day and I don't need the highest of quality for music playback.
The sound quality is so good that I actually am looking for a desktop set up to match this level of performance