This is an awesome resource - thank you! For me, it reinforces that the WC are best for me, saving me the expense of trying the Dekoni and Deafen pads, but to each their own!

There have been FW updates, so FiiO is definitely providing that. Are there specific pain points you have that others might be able to help with, or that others also have and thus can be flagged as more urgent?

You have me very intrigued… I have too many (for me) dongles, but given that the two I’m using regularly are the iFi Kensei and the RU7, if the DC Elite is that much better than the RU7, well, I might need to break down…

Is it for sale already? Haven’t seen it on the website yet…

There’s probably a thread for Roon :wink: , but if all I do is stream music, or play downloaded music, from Tidal, Amazon, or Apple, does Roon offer any compelling advantages?

No, but hopefully it will be a pretty amazing offer! Everyone is reacting - either positively or negatively - to the only number out there. We’ll see in due time as you indicate!

The R9 is quite different from a a DAP, isn’t it? Or were you hoping the M23 would cover the basic bases that the R9 has to allow the M23 to fill the need?

I wish Penon well with the Voltage, I am sure it is a wondrous IEM. But it is priced in a way to limit access to many of Penon's fans, and above the mid fi tier where some amazing products are regularly being introduced. Anyway, let's see the demand the Voltage enconters, and best of luck to...

There's some truth in what you are saying, but it's also more complex than that. Penon is not selling in a vacuum, it has to compete, and that will affect pricing. Also, better tech at lower prices has been the hallmark of technology in general and electronics in particular...

Ouch… but let’s see what the actual price is. If this follows the TSMR X pricing approach, the actual price may be closer to half of this…?

I’ve also been experiencing this as well with my shipments to the US.

OK, sorry if I gave bad advice about SD card insertion. But, can I ask those who’ve managed to put the card in wrong, did you have to apply excess force? I never applied excess force and the proper direction was obvious to me when small force failed to insert the card because it was oriented...

Typically these cards actually physically cannot go in the wrong way, so no danger.

I don’t know, and certainly others might “season to taste” each track, but this sound signature suits me pretty well, unless the IEM or headphone is already overly dark, in which case I might disable XBass+…

Great review! Matches my observations, except I would give the Kensei the edge over the RU7 if I had to pick only one. I find myself enabling XBass+, XSpace, and K2HD almost all the time which makes all the difference :)

Possibly a regional rollout thing… I am a US user and did not get the option to update the app yet, and as of day before yesterday I am in France and also don’t have an update option yet, so UK may have an option before others.

Considering all of the design implementation choices in various dongles and DAPs I would expect that there is a difference. Of course as humans we bring our own expectations into play as well, which will affect the results. Ultimately I hope you enjoy the M23! P.S. A DAC chip does precisely...

To me, in comparing the KA17 to the Kensei (or RU7 which sounds to me somewhat similar), the Kensei mids are warmer and the bass is emphasized, while the KA17 is less colored without the warmth of the mids and extra bass emphasis, making it to me more transparent sounding. I do prefer the...

I agree if the designs goal is audio transparency, but it might not be. The concept of house sound might play a big role in the design decisions.

All DACs and Amps sound identical - if they are implemented identically (components, filters). But they're not implemented identically, so they don't always sound the same. My subjective opinion only... I cannot comment about DAPs as I have limited experience listening to DAPs (having only...

Yeah... I am telling myself to hold off ordering until I get home from my trip and that the GAS fever will pass by then, but I know where this one is going to end...

I just flew 9 hours and have to say the ANC of the ZX1 is amazing. Well beyond what I've experienced with the usual suspects from technics az80, sony xm5, sennheiser mtw3... and the sound quality is perfect for what I am looking for (a warmer set with good bass emphasis and plenty of mids and...

All of these preferences, be they from reviewers or consumers, are all subjective and about personal preferences. Lookong at the dongles I have or remember, for me between the L&P W2, FiiO K17, Lotoo S1, and the Kensei I would pick the Kensei hands down. Between the RU6, RU7, and Kensei it is...

I think that the MQA setting is essentially acting as a “bit perfect” setting, which logically would disallow any sort of EQ, because MQA requires bit perfect. What I think would be a friendlier implementation would be to allow both MQA and PEQ to be enabled and if the Q15 detects an incoming...

Oh, I definitely have a problem…!