Switching from desktop audio system to the dap system is a painful experience if you have a seriously monitoring taste for any music and get used to top-notch headphones system like hd800+ ecba +da8. There is no exception for me, yep, I know I am on the journey seeking the best dap system for my daily routine, the bridge between mobility and sound quality, between pleasantly memorable and particularly noticeable. And here comes aune M1, a HIFI wav-only player.
Cd-related culture is classic and inerasable for 70s and 80s audiophiles who used to buy the whole cd albums, which seems overwhelmed by IPod and iTunes store when people cater to an instant now that light-weighted AAC and MP3 are dominant the market downloaded directly from the Internet. When I grab this M1, it tributes to the old tech and machinery devices representing something we missed for a very long time. Covered with quality aluminum, M1 is a pure product for functionality, not stunning, not even particular noticeable but pleasantly touch and durable.
Wav-only means old-fashioned, daring to say no to all ipod and the mainstream, which seems to fit the trend of the reference headphone. I tried several ones to match M1 like hd650, Hd800 and shp9000; and compare it with the most popular daps like X5 Dx90 Hm901, 06mx and of course, iphone 5s, my laptop and my desktop audio system. Here is my result:
Strengths:
Amp and clarity: after Hm901 balanced card, 06mx and m1 might be the driving kings, which beats the rest of the Daps. I love the way that hd800 sound signature is floating from the m1, even when the hd800 is not fully driven compared with the desktop system. But the amazing thing is that the sound is already isolated from any the daps. It is articulate (but not as articulate as 901 and 06mx), and it amplifies the signal to show more detail compared with my 5s and laptop.
Transparency: sine it is articulate, it is apparently more transparent than x5 and dx90. M1 gives me a lot more sense of hd800 soundstage, even it barely drives the hd800 to have more soundstage. This does not mean that m1 is not a good player, but it still cannot drive these topnotch reference headphones to their maximum at all. Relatively, the soundstage is pretty similar between 06mx and m1, and 901 with balanced card is just a little bit better than both.
Natural: the sound is pretty natural and almost uncolored but not plain like iphone 5s. M1 has a lot more detail than iphone 5s and my laptop that makes the sound a lot more vivid than just narrative sound like iphones and laptops. Dx90 is similarly natural as m1, but for reference headphones, m1 has more control to drive them especially in mid and low frequent.
Weaknesses:
Lack of design: especially in system, it is incomplete. It cannot be auto turned off, so I found no power when I forget to turn it off last night. The system lock is obscure for humanity. It turns off the screen and locks the system automatically as soon as you do not touch it for a little while; and next time you feel idiot that you cannot activate the system and screen unless you press the lock button. So the user has to learn the instructions carefully from the manual. Similar obscure instructions like “go to upper folder”, “back” etc. Besides that, the UI is too simple, and sometimes naïve—it only reads Chinese and English, not for other language. The song info is too simple on screen (just the name and duration, OMG ) to catch the trend when you compare it with iphone5s, I feel the usability is back to 5 years ago. The appearance is also lack of design. The same black small round buttons give you a sense of instability and incapability. It is too small and concentrated in the small panel creating a sense of confusion, when your thumb touches the panel, it is simply easy to press the wrong key. Plus, they are all the same in size, color and shape, hard to differentiate. So the user have to remember the position and different functions for each buttons for all the UI scenarios, which is not clear, simple, and efficient for most people to use.
Wav-only: Even the audiophiles fond of CD would go against wav-only in dap. The audiophiles like me collect hundreds of loss-less albums in pc based on flac or ape, wav is twice space-consuming, which is not practical for database organization. Lack of tag is another shortage for wav. Even with cue, it still far falls behind aac and mp3. Since I am a software developer, I know even the simple algorithm can decode these formats, which at least save the time that I have to convert my flac to wav and put it to m1 manually.
Compatibility: M1 only plays at 16bit/44.1khz. In addition it cannot read all kinds of sd cards. You’d better grab a sdhc not sdxc up to 32gb, with class 4 speed not class 6 or 10, otherwise the chance is high that even if the m1 can read the sd card, some of music cannot be played. To make thing worse, there is no system protection for this bug, which means once the m1 is stuck by not playing the song, the system is always stuck at that point.
On the fence:
While there are a lot of reasons to complain the UI, system, usage design of M1, the hard core function—playing wav is stunning which makes M1 a beast for lossless music in any possible way . Given the price of less than 200 usd, the sound quality is extremely recommended for the audiophiles at the cost of converting all their loss-less to wav.
Cd-related culture is classic and inerasable for 70s and 80s audiophiles who used to buy the whole cd albums, which seems overwhelmed by IPod and iTunes store when people cater to an instant now that light-weighted AAC and MP3 are dominant the market downloaded directly from the Internet. When I grab this M1, it tributes to the old tech and machinery devices representing something we missed for a very long time. Covered with quality aluminum, M1 is a pure product for functionality, not stunning, not even particular noticeable but pleasantly touch and durable.
Wav-only means old-fashioned, daring to say no to all ipod and the mainstream, which seems to fit the trend of the reference headphone. I tried several ones to match M1 like hd650, Hd800 and shp9000; and compare it with the most popular daps like X5 Dx90 Hm901, 06mx and of course, iphone 5s, my laptop and my desktop audio system. Here is my result:
Strengths:
Amp and clarity: after Hm901 balanced card, 06mx and m1 might be the driving kings, which beats the rest of the Daps. I love the way that hd800 sound signature is floating from the m1, even when the hd800 is not fully driven compared with the desktop system. But the amazing thing is that the sound is already isolated from any the daps. It is articulate (but not as articulate as 901 and 06mx), and it amplifies the signal to show more detail compared with my 5s and laptop.
Transparency: sine it is articulate, it is apparently more transparent than x5 and dx90. M1 gives me a lot more sense of hd800 soundstage, even it barely drives the hd800 to have more soundstage. This does not mean that m1 is not a good player, but it still cannot drive these topnotch reference headphones to their maximum at all. Relatively, the soundstage is pretty similar between 06mx and m1, and 901 with balanced card is just a little bit better than both.
Natural: the sound is pretty natural and almost uncolored but not plain like iphone 5s. M1 has a lot more detail than iphone 5s and my laptop that makes the sound a lot more vivid than just narrative sound like iphones and laptops. Dx90 is similarly natural as m1, but for reference headphones, m1 has more control to drive them especially in mid and low frequent.
Weaknesses:
Lack of design: especially in system, it is incomplete. It cannot be auto turned off, so I found no power when I forget to turn it off last night. The system lock is obscure for humanity. It turns off the screen and locks the system automatically as soon as you do not touch it for a little while; and next time you feel idiot that you cannot activate the system and screen unless you press the lock button. So the user has to learn the instructions carefully from the manual. Similar obscure instructions like “go to upper folder”, “back” etc. Besides that, the UI is too simple, and sometimes naïve—it only reads Chinese and English, not for other language. The song info is too simple on screen (just the name and duration, OMG ) to catch the trend when you compare it with iphone5s, I feel the usability is back to 5 years ago. The appearance is also lack of design. The same black small round buttons give you a sense of instability and incapability. It is too small and concentrated in the small panel creating a sense of confusion, when your thumb touches the panel, it is simply easy to press the wrong key. Plus, they are all the same in size, color and shape, hard to differentiate. So the user have to remember the position and different functions for each buttons for all the UI scenarios, which is not clear, simple, and efficient for most people to use.
Wav-only: Even the audiophiles fond of CD would go against wav-only in dap. The audiophiles like me collect hundreds of loss-less albums in pc based on flac or ape, wav is twice space-consuming, which is not practical for database organization. Lack of tag is another shortage for wav. Even with cue, it still far falls behind aac and mp3. Since I am a software developer, I know even the simple algorithm can decode these formats, which at least save the time that I have to convert my flac to wav and put it to m1 manually.
Compatibility: M1 only plays at 16bit/44.1khz. In addition it cannot read all kinds of sd cards. You’d better grab a sdhc not sdxc up to 32gb, with class 4 speed not class 6 or 10, otherwise the chance is high that even if the m1 can read the sd card, some of music cannot be played. To make thing worse, there is no system protection for this bug, which means once the m1 is stuck by not playing the song, the system is always stuck at that point.
On the fence:
While there are a lot of reasons to complain the UI, system, usage design of M1, the hard core function—playing wav is stunning which makes M1 a beast for lossless music in any possible way . Given the price of less than 200 usd, the sound quality is extremely recommended for the audiophiles at the cost of converting all their loss-less to wav.
