[mattg3]

Has anyone compared sound quality between the M6 and the M3K ?

 

[mono-type]

That’s weird, mine sorts alphabetically by default.





And don’t ever put a big water bottle in a puppie’s cage, otherwise he/she can escape from con collage

Hmmm...that's really strange. It doesn't sort out alphabetically on mine at all, even though I already chose either sort by filename or first letter via that menu. Maybe it has something to do with my FAT32-formatted microSD card. Did you used exFAT on your card?

BTW, I'm more of a cat person, but that's a really adorable Labrador(?) puppy you got there. XD

 

[abitdeef]

Hmmm...that's really strange. It doesn't sort out alphabetically on mine at all, even though I already chose either sort by filename or first letter via that menu. Maybe it has something to do with my FAT32-formatted microSD card. Did you used exFAT on your card?

BTW, I'm more of a cat person, but that's a really adorable Labrador(?) puppy you got there. XD

Honestly the card in my m6 is pretty old and I don’t know how it’s formatted but I can find out. Oh and she’s part pug,beagle and jack Russell. But thanks-she’s a real terror, but cute I was pretty gobsmacked when she climbed up onto the water bottle and started climbing over the cage. I also have a big fat cat named binx

I love critters!

 

[abitdeef]

Hmmm...that's really strange. It doesn't sort out alphabetically on mine at all, even though I already chose either sort by filename or first letter via that menu. Maybe it has something to do with my FAT32-formatted microSD card. Did you used exFAT on your card?

BTW, I'm more of a cat person, but that's a really adorable Labrador(?) puppy you got there. XD

Yes it’s formatted with exFAT.

 

[mono-type]

Yes it’s formatted with exFAT.

Guess I'll have to try an exFAT-formatted card later and see if it'll solve the issue.

 

[tronth]

@FiiO @JamesFiiO I have a few suggestions software wise for the Fiio Music app that I think would make it a much better experience and shouldn't be difficult to achieve. If these could be sent to the software time I would be thankful.

1. When scrolling in "artist" instead of showing number of songs by that artist, display number of albums you have. This is more helpful, ipod style.

2. When scrolling in "artist" it would be amazing to have a small miniature of a random album cover by that artist, because when you have loads of artist (some with the same names), you tend to relay in the visual aspect more than in the names. It makes the scrolling much more visual, beautiful and easier because our minds tend to associate images, colors, etc more easily. This is something that even my little Ipod nano 6th did with a much smaller screen so it should be possible. A plausible way of doing this without trouble for long name artist, could be to eliminate the little play icon in the right which is really redundant and useless, therefore there would be more room for a picture preview to the left of the artist name.

3. Being able to change font size so people with a not so good vision could also be comfortable. Like for example, when scrolling in "artist", instead of seeing 7 by page you can choose to see 4 but with a bigger font size, etc.

Plz @JamesFiiO @FiiO, submit these suggestions to the devs, if they could be done it'd amazing, software wise M6 is already good (except for the chinese letters bug), but a bit of Ipod aesthetics when browsing artist and the subsequent folders would make it the best quality/price DAP on the market by a large margin.

Hiby and Hidizs also have that feature of seeing album covers to the left, so I think it should be posible considering the inferior hardware and screen size.

 

[fish1050]

So the only dealer in Canada I can find besides amazon to pre-order the M6 from has pulled it from their site. I called them and they now have no eta on when they will get stock. Amazon.ca still says they will have stock on Feb 21, but given their penchant for changing eta's on stock I don't know if I can trust it and @FiiO mentioned a stock shortage for the M6.. I have someone that wants to offer me a good price for my Shanling M0 but he doesn't want to wait that long.

So my question is, is the M9 worth paying $180.00 more for over the M6? Also I have a Musician friend who bought the M7 over the M6 because he thinks it sounds better and headphonia gave the M7 8.5 for tonality vs only 8.1 for the M6. The dealer that just pulled the M6 has the M7 on sale for $250.00 CDN. Still hearing the M7 has issues so not sure I want to go that route either.

So for all you Fiio fans out their that have maybe tried all 3 models can you make a recommendation? I understand you have gone with M6 but any advice would be appreciated. I don't really need the wifi and streaming that the M6 offers so feature wise the M7 fits my needs but I understand it has bluetooth issues?

 

[abitdeef]

So the only dealer in Canada I can find besides amazon to pre-order the M6 from has pulled it from their site. I called them and they now have no eta on when they will get stock. Amazon.ca still says they will have stock on Feb 21, but given their penchant for changing eta's on stock I don't know if I can trust it and @FiiO mentioned a stock shortage for the M6.. I have someone that wants to offer me a good price for my Shanling M0 but he doesn't want to wait that long.

So my question is, is the M9 worth paying $180.00 more for over the M6? Also I have a Musician friend who bought the M7 over the M6 because he thinks it sounds better and headphonia gave the M7 8.5 for tonality vs only 8.1 for the M6. The dealer that just pulled the M6 has the M7 on sale for $250.00 CDN. Still hearing the M7 has issues so not sure I want to go that route either.

So for all you Fiio fans out their that have maybe tried all 3 models can you make a recommendation? I understand you have gone with M6 but any advice would be appreciated. I don't really need the wifi and streaming that the M6 offers so feature wise the M7 fits my needs but I understand it has bluetooth issues?

The guy from headfonics is a bass head- so he likes warmer gear. It appears the M7 is warmer than the M6. I haven’t heard the M7 but here’s what headphonia had to say about M6 vs M7

Pick your poison, warmer or more towards neutral. Oh and a bigger soundstage on M6

 

[dharmasteve]

So the only dealer in Canada I can find besides amazon to pre-order the M6 from has pulled it from their site. I called them and they now have no eta on when they will get stock. Amazon.ca still says they will have stock on Feb 21, but given their penchant for changing eta's on stock I don't know if I can trust it and @FiiO mentioned a stock shortage for the M6.. I have someone that wants to offer me a good price for my Shanling M0 but he doesn't want to wait that long.

So my question is, is the M9 worth paying $180.00 more for over the M6? Also I have a Musician friend who bought the M7 over the M6 because he thinks it sounds better and headphonia gave the M7 8.5 for tonality vs only 8.1 for the M6. The dealer that just pulled the M6 has the M7 on sale for $250.00 CDN. Still hearing the M7 has issues so not sure I want to go that route either.

So for all you Fiio fans out their that have maybe tried all 3 models can you make a recommendation? I understand you have gone with M6 but any advice would be appreciated. I don't really need the wifi and streaming that the M6 offers so feature wise the M7 fits my needs but I understand it has bluetooth issues?

There are one or two reasons I rate the M6 a slightly better buy for about 50% of users. If you want to listen using IEMs then the socket is on the top of the M6 and the bottom of the M9. For this reason the M6 is better for listening on the go in a shirt pocket with IEMs. Also travelling, doing sports would be clearly more suited to the M6. Perfect size and weight. Also Bluetooth LDAC and APTX-HD are slightly, at the same setting,
louder from my M6 than from my M9. The form factor of the M6 is perfectly small but just right. Compared with the M9 almost all screen. I prefer the button press volume controle of the M6 than the wheel volume control of the M9. The M9 wheel is harder to get clear control of.

The M9 though does have that velvety sophisticated sound that the AKM4490 x 2 delivers, so the M9 clearly sounds better. The M9 goes louder if you have hard to drive IEMs or CANs. The M9 has an excellent 2.5mm balanced socket. The M9 is much bigger and feels better in the hand. Beautifully built.

For home use I would recommend the M9. For travel, training or commuting definitely the M6. Purely for sound the M9. The Sabre ESS chip in the M6 is a tiny bit more raw, but exciting. Both have good bass with the right IEMs. My BQEYZ KB100's make bass stand out on both. Other IEM's are bass shy on both.The M9 has a miniscule amount more bass than the M6 to my ears. Hope something helps. You can't go wrong with either.

Steve

 

[greenflash]

For home use I would recommend the M9. For travel, training or commuting definitely the M6. Purely for sound the M9. The Sabre ESS chip in the M6 is a tiny bit more raw, but exciting. Both have good bass with the right IEMs. My BQEYZ KB100's make bass stand out on both. Other IEM's are bass shy on both.The M9 has a miniscule amount more bass than the M6 to my ears. Hope something helps
Steve

Helps a lot, I'll be using this in the commute so it makes sense to buy the M6 (also the M9 is out of my reach lol). The BQEYZ are looking more enticing everytime to alternate with my PX100IIs. I'll try to get them when possible.

 

[Brava210]

Sounds beautiful

 

[fish1050]

The guy from headfonics is a bass head- so he likes warmer gear. It appears the M7 is warmer than the M6. I haven’t heard the M7 but here’s what headphonia had to say about M6 vs M7







Pick your poison, warmer or more towards neutral. Oh and a bigger soundstage on M6

Thanks for the input, much appreciated

Yeah I read this review and since I am not a basshead not a big fan of his reviews. I only consider the M7 because my buddy is all about music. He plays lead guitar in a classic rock cover band, builds guitar amps for St Louis Music including all Sammy Hagar's amps. He even owns his own music instrument repair business. He is a studio guy who values accuracy over musicality and he just felt the M7 was more natural sounding and found the M6 a little to tweaked sound wise to use his terms.

I mean for features they all have what I want and I guess it is a matter of sound quality and availability with the M6 having a big ? right now as to when it might be available. As I was considering the Shanling M5S spending $400 on the M9 is not such a stretch. The M5S I just found today is available in Canada but not locally for me at $600 CDN so much cheaper than importing but still a bit rich for me. If the M9 gets me closer to M5S sound quality for $200 less then I might consider it. Looking for a dealer close to me that carries the M9 to demo it. It isn't carried as widely as the M7 and I have to say the extra battery life on the M7 would be nice. The M6 my friend demoed belongs to his drummer and he isn't to happy with the battery life getting nowhere close to what Fiio rates it at, seemingly an ongoing issue with android based DAP's. If the M9 gets close to the same battery life as the M6 then worth considering it.

My wife of course would prefer we keep the money and the M0 for now but I am not getting any younger and would like to have a more functional DAP. Ahh decisions desicions, tough to make the call. I just wish there were more DAP's available in this price range with LDAC. No Sony A55 anywhere in site leaving the M0 and Fiio M7 and M9 to possibly demo right now.

 

[fish1050]

There are one or two reasons I rate the M6 a slightly better buy for about 50% of users. If you want to listen using IEMs then the socket is on the top of the M6 and the bottom of the M9. For this reason the M6 is better for listening on the go in a shirt pocket with IEMs. Also travelling, doing sports would be clearly more suited to the M6. Perfect size and weight. Also Bluetooth LDAC and APTX-HD are slightly, at the same setting,
louder from my M6 than from my M9. The form factor of the M6 is perfectly small but just right. Compared with the M9 almost all screen. I prefer the button press volume controle of the M6 than the wheel volume control of the M9. The M9 wheel is harder to get clear control of.

The M9 though does have that velvety sophisticated sound that the AKM4490 x 2 delivers, so the M9 clearly sounds better. The M9 goes louder if you have hard to drive IEMs or CANs. The M9 has an excellent 2.5mm balanced socket. The M9 is much bigger and feels better in the hand. Beautifully built.

For home use I would recommend the M9. For travel, training or commuting definitely the M6. Purely for sound the M9. The Sabre ESS chip in the M6 is a tiny bit more raw, but exciting. Both have good bass with the right IEMs. My BQEYZ KB100's make bass stand out on both. Other IEM's are bass shy on both.The M9 has a miniscule amount more bass than the M6 to my ears. Hope something helps. You can't go wrong with either.

Steve

I think only the M7 would be a stretch power wise but my old weak powered Sony A17 was almost adequate to drive my headphones so the M7 might be okey. Yeah the reviews definitely give the edge to the M9 sound wise over both the M6 and M7 as it should. I don't have any balanced headphones so not a feature I would use. I mean all 3 Fiio models have features I wouldn't use. I guess the real question I am pondering is what makes the M7 more expensive than the M6 it isn't the features, even with recent price drops it is still priced $40 to $50 higher than the M6? I would hope it would be better sound quality but unfortunately I can't compare the two.

For home use I would likely only use LDAC bluetooth so no advantage for any model over the others in that regard.

I am not working on Friday so I am hoping to find an M9 I can try and maybe an M7 to compare it to and then make a final decision.

 

[abitdeef]

I think only the M7 would be a stretch power wise but my old weak powered Sony A17 was almost adequate to drive my headphones so the M7 might be okey. Yeah the reviews definitely give the edge to the M9 sound wise over both the M6 and M7 as it should. I don't have any balanced headphones so not a feature I would use. I mean all 3 Fiio models have features I wouldn't use. I guess the real question I am pondering is what makes the M7 more expensive than the M6 it isn't the features, even with recent price drops it is still priced $40 to $50 higher than the M6? I would hope it would be better sound quality but unfortunately I can't compare the two.

For home use I would likely only use LDAC bluetooth so no advantage for any model over the others in that regard.

I am not working on Friday so I am hoping to find an M9 I can try and maybe an M7 to compare it to and then make a final decision.

They’re all pretty close, I would imagine from reviews m9 and M7 sound warmer than M6 and probably the balanced of m9 would be quite a step up.

To me m6 sounds a little more tame than A80 and M0, a little more even in the frequency response- but it still has that zing of an ESS chip. And the hiby R3 is warm also and doesn’t have that typical ESS thinner sound.

I imagine the M7 has a bit more weight and the treble is smoother and more in line and that’s why you friend likes it- probably sounds richer. I’m mostly using m6 through a great sounding Bluetooth dongle and both my all the iems/cans I’m using are pretty full bodied so the more neutral sound is good in that respect.

I don’t know if you considered hiby R3 or how their availability is in Canada, but one can be had here for as low as 149.00 dollars from music teck- used like new. And that is a very nice capable dap that has a great Eq and dsp effects. It’s got tidal but it’s Linux based and has pretty much all the stuff you want.

Lol not to confuse you anymore or anything, just throwing it out there. I had one but I thought it was too warm sounding for me , but I guess subsequent firmware releases fixed that, Worth checking out if you can.

The Fiio m6 has more tricks up it’s sleeve but as you said you’re not going to be using all the apps and such. I don’t think any are a ‘wrong’ choice as their all similar in audio quality and all have bigger screens than M0.

 

[SteveUK]

I've got an issue with Tidal where using bluetooth (to BTR3) sound mutes after one track.... waking the screen up starts the sound again, but the track has actually been playing, just muted. Other forums suggest that adding a 1s crossfade might help, but the latest version on Tidal (with MQA) has removed crossfade! Anyone else??