I have on my desk an engineering sample of an Aune DAP. The M1s.
I spent time with the Aune M2 about a year or so ago, and I liked it, but it had some rough edges on it. The sound it put out was like nothing I had heard. The UI was delightfully simple and functional. No bells and whistles, no unnecessary gee-taws, no bull$h1t. It bested a lot of other DAPs I had heard. In fact, it still mentally ranks remarkably high in my memory. It had horrendous battery life though. A deal killer for me.
Fast forward to today. A friend recommended I hear the M1s, and said he’d get an engineering sample to me. I get no compensation for this review, just the experience of listening to another Aune product and sharing my impressions.
Visually, its pretty easy to tell the M1s’ lineage. You can tell its by the same folks who designed and released the M2. Aside from that, it has balanced output (2.5mm), a line out/3.5mm single-ended output and….not much else. The body is neither large nor small. Its the length of my iPhone 5S, but not as wide, and about a third thicker. There were some who complained it was a little long and top-heavy. Not for me. I don’t have "Trump Hands” though, and am a taller, bigger guy (6 foot three). The edges on the top face (the face with the screen) are bevelled on the left and right sides, and there are some physical buttons on the right side of the unit: power, volume up, volume down. On the same side is a micro-SD slot. I am currently using a 128GB FAT32 formatted SanDisk card. I haven’t had any issues with the unit reading the card at all.
The main controls are a return button, home button and something that looks like a wheel (but isn’t). I believe this is what’s called a “D-Pad”. The build is solid, its all metal and looks like it could take a beating. The D-Pad’s center button does rattle a little, but from what I have read, this is an issue with the engineering samples, and was fixed for production units…for my unit, I slipped on a silicon case ordered from Penon and the problem was fixed.
With the M2 it was a mild annoyance that it had no USB functionality. To populate your micro-SD card you had to take it out of the player (at this time it would be smart to leave the player plugged into a wall socket to charge) and use an adaptor to plug it into your computer and add files. With the M1s this isn’t the case. Simply power it down, and plug it into your computer, and the micro-SD shows up as a drive. The unit charges at the same time. This is most handy in my opinion.
The M1s also has a delightfully simple UI. Fire it up, let it take a few seconds to update the library (if any changes have been made) and you’re ready to go. Fast boot up, no buggering around, just a UI. No album art, true, but you forget about that soon enough. The output is clean and smooth. Perhaps not as euphonic as the M2 was, but I am calling on some old and unreliable memories here. Balanced output is a delight. I tested it with a pair of Monk Plus, terminated for balanced, and found nothing wanting. The Monk Plus scales well with a good source, and this time was no different.
And thats about it.
Aune makes a simple DAP. Aune makes a beautiful sounding DAP. Aune crams nothing else into the same unit. No Android operating system, no streaming apps, no bluetooth, no breakfast in bed, no coffee on a tray. The M1s is a DAP, and no more, no less. This is appealing in a number of ways for some people. A large group of folks seem to appreciate being able to disconnect these days, and do the unthinkable: listen to music with no distractions, for the simple, sheer enjoyment of the act. They don’t want to check emails, they don’t want to text, and they sure as hell don’t want to read work emails at the same time. This is the thinking that, I think, is least partly responsible for the recent resurgence of interest in analogue media like cassettes and vinyl records.
If that’s what you’re looking for, the M1s is definitely worth looking at. Its a stripped down, functional, solid DAP that has great sound and balanced output. That’s it. I sincerely appreciate it for what it does, and value having it at my desk, in my messenger bag and just generally “around”. The folks who bought it early and got the bundle that included a pair of golden, recabled, balanced Monk Plus and three cases got a great deal.