Or maybe they are the old guard who still carry around their entire library in 1tb/1.5tb microsd cards and so don't really need any of the other features. I rarely connect my dap to WiFi (EM noise precaution, senseless purist mindset), but I am growing more accustomed to using streaming...

There are a few notable caveats for the R6 Pro II: Power: I find the balanced output to be JUST enough for planars if you listen at louder volumes. Battery life: 5-7 hours depending on how much output power you need, for me it was just shy of 5 hours. Sound wise it's overall better but I...

In my opinion, the FiiO M15S and Hiby R6 Pro II are better sounding, mainly in the dynamics and soundstage department. Software should be fine, it's been a long time since any android dap has bothered me with slow UI or glaring bugs.

In the budget category the CS43131 is your best shot. AKM doesn't really make ultra low power chips. And saber is well, saber sounding, until you get to the 9038q2m ones.

Most of campfire audio's lineup is as bad as KZ, just without the occasional gems. Only they are demanding the price of gold only to sell coal wrapped in gold foil. Masochists still buy them so

I'm also very picky lol, with very discerning gear and know my songs well so even small differences are noticeable to me. I won't look in poorly recorded songs where there aren't differences to be found, that's just a waste of time. Why get a supercar only to be limited by traffic? Anyhow...

Higher end daps use more capacitors and definitely burn in around 100 hours for most. I've tried a lot of daps out of the box vs the store demo and usually it's the bass and smoothness that improves most noticeably.

The PR2s are as hard to drive as my Anandas... I had the JM6, JM10, JM20. All don't power it sufficiently. I needed to step up to the Hidizs S9 Pro for it to sound unrestrained. And even then it still scales with better sources.

Why not N3 Ultra? Unfortunately so. I'll try with a few other sources like @RIGATIO mentioned.

Yeah, I also don't think it should sound like that at all, that's why I'm asking for advice. I'm all ears if you have any.

If you want dynamics the M15S is the undisputed champion (so far) in its price range and then some. As for the WM1A M2 vs DX260 I would personally go with the DX260, the sound is more refined, more nuanced and detailed. Soundstage is also bigger. I tried the DC Elite for a short while and...

He also mentioned that the ZX507/707 are better which brings into question his gear. It could be that his gear pairs better on warm/dark sounding daps.

Haven't had any issue because I usually keep a 15% margin from the max volume but I have noticed it's louder at the same volume setting. But yeah, makes sense. Maybe you could try applying a preamp value of -5.

Always open to try new players, but in this case I didn't like the "analog-ness" of the sound with this particular setting. Oversampling is a controversial subject in terms of benefit/harm but turning it to 16x and off I much prefer having off, the sound blooms and has a blurriness to it. The...

Been comparing sources for a long time now. Depending on your iem/song/loudness it will be easier or harder to hear the difference. I listen loud with super revealing gear on select songs in my album that are very sensitive to differences in spaciousness, attack, detail, crispness, extension...

Not sure if anyone here knows about video game anti aliasing solutions but FIR sounds like the audio equivalent of TAA. Ie it smooths/blurs out everything by averaging samples in the temporal domain, be it peaks, dynamics or details. It ruins the dap imo which is why I'm curious if anyone...

Yeah unfortunately dynamics is one thing the DX260 is quite weak at relative to the M15S and R6 Pro II. It's makes a bigger difference than the M15S and R6 Pro II slight roll off in the treble and bass respectively. If you asked me to guess the dacs used in the players I would have guessed...

Yeah you can do that on FiiO Daps.

@RIGATIO got his SP1000 under 1k iirc The R6 Pro II kills the Sr35 outright, no competition here.

Nah, if its anything like the K9 AKM it'll be soft and neutral-slightly warm. The R6 Pro II is the outlier here as far as AKM 4499EX implementations go being crisp, clear and neutral. The DX260 is Neutral-reference and soft.

Yeah we're both just taking a piss in the dark lol. I have way better gear than what I used to have when I tried the SP1000 so even with the M15S/R6 Pro II, my old impressions of the SP1000 won't reach the heights I'm at now. Been trying a few flagships again and I'm wondering if they have...

I suggest you give the Hiby R6 Pro II a try, you just described what I loved about it. Really wish I had the SP 1000/2000 to compare with it. I'm still finalising my comparative reviews on 3 but here's the gist of it. Bass M15S most extended. DX260 less extended but still more than R6 Pro II...

Any of the daps you're considering will be as or more neutral sounding that the DX300, with the exception of the M15S being perceived as sounding similar or warmer due to its more extended and powerful bass. Of the 3 I think would most people will be the most content with the M15S, even if I...

Managed to try the N3 Ultra. It's definitely a lot better than the N3 Pro. Balanced is actually usable now and a big step up from single ended on the N3 Ultra. User interface is also so much better than the one on the N3 Pro.