swbf2cheater
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2009
- Posts
- 5,044
- Likes
- 121
This is a very good Dap, no doubt about it. It's small, sleek, sexy and very powerful. This little guy is about the size of a Fiio E10 and is strong enough and loud enough to drive my Hifiman HE-500 to high volume, definitely louder than my beloved J3 can at least. Despite being a very attractive powerhouse, this player isn't without its faults.The top side of the player adorns a reset button and a standard 3.5mm headphones audio input jack. It seems very study, no loose connections at all, rock solid. The front face plate is a shiny finger print magnet, very well styled and reflective. Was near impossible to get a good snapshot of it without some glare, this was the best I could do!
The underside brandishes a mini usb charging input as well as a micro sd slot. The backside boasts some basic company info, model and ID tags. I must admit, I am very attracted to this Dap. If looks could kill...
( I apologize for my camera, it simply could not snap a pic that accurately showcases the true color and sheen of this mirror finish. The Edges are solid silver with a mirror like coating and the center rectangle area is a much darker gun metal grey. The sides are very similar to the brushed metal look of the Fiio E10 )
Build quality is top notch as this Dap feels like a small brick in my hands, its got some significant weight to it. Each button feels tactile, solid and satisfying. They feel like aluminum, no cheap plastic or something similar here.
J3 clocking in at 78g
Rocoo D at 80g
Fiio E10 just for Giggles, almost identical in weight to the J3. Well...at three are darn close.
In terms of sonic qualities, its a unique player. The lows are punchy and broad, reaching deeper than the J3 and sounding more vast and spacious, as are the Highs. More airy and light all around. That seems to be the "house sound" of every piece of gear that comes out of Hisoundaudio, they seem to specifically design all their gear to achieve maximum soundstaging qualities...and every piece of gear from this company delivers on this promise. Their budget $19 Paa1 earbuds are an astounding overall value on par with the famous M2C that was a recent hit here on Head Fi, two models that I've heard named the Popo and Hiphone 4 are also incredible in staging, all very open, airy and lively and mesh incredibly well with the Rocoo D. ( Naturally ).
This player is not the warmest player I've heard but it is within the realm of somewhat warm and bright. The highs are definitely brighter than the J3 and of an equal quality but again with audibly superior sound staging all around. The mids are another story, definitely grainier than the J3 but much more forward and engaging. Lows again, more deep, punchy and airy vs the J3s flat responsiveness and overall semi neutral and distant flavor. This is a forward and wide Dap. The J3 is a more distant sounding dap with noticeably less dimension, depth and separation.
Some faults and flaws I've encountered revolve around the UI which needs fixing immediately, before I get to that I want to talk about boot times. Without an SD card in the slot, the boot time is without question the fastest Dap Boot up I've ever seen. Clocks in at 3 seconds from the instant you press to button to the ability to move around in the menus. Kind of Awesome if you ask me. However, with my 32gb micro sd card the boot time is among the slowest I've ever witnessed. It takes nearly 2-3 minutes to boot up and scan. This is absolutely unacceptable.
Beyond that, the UI has some design flaws and is flat out missing some things that should be there. For instance, the ability to shuffle all tracks on the player is simply something you will have to wish for. I really do not understand why anyone would implement this into a portable Dap. Hifiman did it, a few others as well. This is a real deal killer as you only have the option of randomizing the current album you are in. So, if you want to shuffle all of your music, make one giant folder with all your music in it or else exit stage right. I found myself actually doing this ( actually I am doing it right now with my own playlist creations via my pc )
The Dap internal memory is only 4gb with a whopping 3.6 available. Dang...this feels like 2002 all over again. 4gb stock? Eh. There is a "favorites" option and sub folder in there but no way to actually add anything in there that I could actually find. EQ settings are atrocious but thankfully the normal ( they call it Natural ) is shockingly good. I was unable to match the spaciousness on my J3. Its a very good preset. The other handful in there are absolutely useless and sound worse than I am able to stomach. No custom EQ, sorry.
Battery life seems strong at about 10 hours with Flac music playing, which isn't bad considering its size but in todays world I'd expect double this. There are a lot of things lacking on this dap but the good far outweighs the bad. I will use this as my primary Dap because the presentation is wonderful and powerful. It has a higher driving ability than my J3. Despite some of the UI flaws that can easily be fixed with an update, this is a great Dap for the price of $150 or so. I'm very happy to have had the chance to experience it and wish to hear their flagship model called the Studio V.
Hisoundaudio is a new and up and coming audio company, expect good things from them in the near future. Whoever is in control of firmware for this Dap, please add the ability to view all songs on both the internal memory and external memory, also with the ability to shuffle and randomize every track on the player ( again both internal and externally ). Also fix the Favorites and actually add the ability to add Favorites to the Favorites list. With these simple updates the Dap will be an overall excellent buy. I am doing something I've not done in a long time in that I am making an actual compromise, despite the flaws I am using it as my primary Dap, the stage qualities are that good to my ears. I will endure the 3.6gb limit ( I will not bother to use a micro sd card because I cannot shuffle the entire contents and boot time is way too long ). I added all my favorites manually...I should not have to do this but I did it anyway, I enjoy the staging qualities very much.
-Mike
