[Danivi]

Hi there,
The idea of this post is to create a sort of chart/advice in order to put first in the list the dap that better work in tidal (and qobuz/ Spotify etc etc) OFFLINE MODE.
Then , as second criteria, we'll put sound impressions
Your ideas and Experience are more than welcome

 

[JesvsR]

Very interesting thread!!

 

[Asspirin]

Well, basically any Android DAP.

https://www.head-fi.org/f/threads/best-android-dap.764349/page-3#post-13245756

 

[Seancs14]

Finally created an account just to subscribe to this thread. I'm aware that it's generally possible with android DAP's, but I want to hear people's experiences with the stability and ease for offline Tidal/Spotify on various players.

Edit: Offline is critical for those of us that use subways or fly a lot, or don't want huge data plans.

 

[psikey]

Best one for me based on design/SQ/price/storage & fully working with Spotify/Tidal is the Fiio X5III. Inline controls on iPhone compatible headsets also work.

Only other I had was a Sony ZX2 but that was not great.

Only consideration with the X5III is that you need to logout of Spotify before you turn off the DAP or it can loose the offline content on a restart.

 

[Asspirin]

I own a Pioneer XDP-300R and it works very well with Spotify and Tidal offline. The only thing is that Spotify still has some issues with offline content and SD cards, regardless of the device. So I'm saving Spotify stuff in the internal storage and have my FLACs on the SD card

 

[Danivi]

Thank you all for suggestions
So by now I would say more stable are xdp 300 r and fino x5 3rd.

Any thoughts about inizio xdp 1a and new i basso xdp 200?
And another question: can someone compare sonically xdp 300 to mojo or Ak70.?

 

[Danivi]

@Asspirin can you tell us difference between onkyo dp1a and piooner 300 ? which are the more stable of the two with offline streaming services? can you compare also sonically with other DAPs ?

 

[turkayguner]

I am so in between Chord Mojo (paired with iPad mini 4 w/o cellular) and Onkyo DP-X1A. In my opinion Mojo is more versatile just because you can use it with any transport in the future but no MQA support and lesser ideal solution for portability due to lack of hardware buttons which DAPs provide and the bulk of cables etc.

 

[Asspirin]

@Danivi it's basically the same device. I've read something about better capacitors in the new revision of the Onkyo device, but I don't think that makes an audible difference. I chose the Pioneer because I liked the shape of the housing better. I've been a strong advocate against DAPs because that's not a state-of-the-art solution for music on the go. Unfortunately, smartphone manufacturers have let audiophiles down big time recently. So no comparison from me. I can say that the XDP-300R beats LGs B&O module by a small margin and that's it

 

[coolcrew23]

@Danivi it's basically the same device. I've read something about better capacitors in the new revision of the Onkyo device, but I don't think that makes an audible difference. I chose the Pioneer because I liked the shape of the housing better. I've been a strong advocate against DAPs because that's not a state-of-the-art solution for music on the go. Unfortunately, smartphone manufacturers have let audiophiles down big time recently. So no comparison from me. I can say that the XDP-300R beats LGs B&O module by a small margin and that's it

So the xdp-300r has no issues with Tidal offline? Only spotify has bugs?

 

[Asspirin]

So the xdp-300r has no issues with Tidal offline? Only spotify has bugs?

Tidal is the buggiest music platform on earth on every device I've tried. So let's keep it like this: It works as well as it does anywhere else on the XDP-300R.

 

[turkayguner]

Tidal is the buggiest music platform on earth on every device I've tried. So let's keep it like this: It works as well as it does anywhere else on the XDP-300R

For a few months, Tidal has no bugs at all on my iOS devices and my desktop windows PC and my Macbook Air as well, can you explain those issues you are having with it?

One thing is not so clear that what if Tidal stops supporting it on older Android OSes one day? Since the Android version is so dated on many of the DAPs nowadays..

 

[Asspirin]

For a few months, Tidal has no bugs at all on my iOS devices and my desktop windows PC and my Macbook Air as well, can you explain those issues you are having with it?

One thing is not so clear that what if Tidal stops supporting it on older Android OSes one day? Since the Android version is so dated on many of the DAPs nowadays..

Good to know! I was talking about the android app, specifically. Stucks and crashes on a regular basis.

Android 5.1 hast still some strong market share: http://www.androidauthority.com/android-version-distribution-748439/

Would be a stupid move to give that up.

 

[newtophones07]

DP-X1A. would be my vote, only because it has the larger 64GB of storage.

The X5III has the better price point, but the balanced output is not as good and the internal storage is limited to 32 GB. That's loads up quick if you are storing only FLAC albums for offline use.

Neither have the greatest wifi chips though, with respect to range.