Aune M1 Hi-Fi Wav Player

cleg

Headphoneus Supremus
Pros: sound, speed of work, battery life, simplicity
Cons: wav only, support not every SD card
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This Aune's player is almost not-know on Head-Fi, but it is very interesting device with exceptional sound quality for its price, so I've decided to write my brief impressions. English isn't my native language, so I'm sorry for some possible mistakes, and for not being as interesting as other Head-Fi reviewers :)

I don't know why, but some Aune products became extremely popular on Head-Fi (like T1), while others remain pretty unknown, regardless of their exceptional quality. Their first DAP, M1 leaves really mixed impressions. On the one hand, its sound quality is really impressive, especially for $150 price, on the other hand, it have lots of really noticeable shortages.

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But first of all — exterior.

Player is sold in small white cardboard box, very similar to Apple iPhone's box. Inside you got player itself, coaxial output adapter, micro USB cable for charge and manual. That's all. It's not the fanciest accessories set, but for M1's price, this player is OK.

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M1 itself is very solid device as it's made completely from black anodised aluminium. Size is 103,1 mm x 56 mm x 20 mm, weight is 181 g. Aune M1 not the smallest DAP, but it fits nicely in hand, because width is less then average.

On top panel you'll find headphone out, coaxial out and analog volume volume regulator. Out of the box it was set to zero, so I've spent few seconds trying to figure out, why there is no sound. On bottom panel you'll find SD card slot, LED for battery indication and toggle switch for turning M1 on and off. M1 doesn't have power off feature, so you should always remember to turn it off, to avoid battery drain.

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Official specs told that M1 suppord SD cards up to 32 Gb, but some 64 Gb works too. One of the biggest device's disadvantages — it's very whimsical when it comes to SD cards. Some of them work, others don't and I don't know, is there any consistent pattern. So, it's better to try SD card before buying. Other player's feature — it won't turn on without SD card. But this decision is pretty logical, what to do with player if no music is found?

On front panel you'll find all other controls: 5 buttons and screen. Player firmware is really simple. It can play only WAV files and only 44.1/16 resolution. When you turn M1 on, you see your card's contents, you select folder, it plays. That's all. No cover art, no sleep timer, no bass/treble selection. Absolutely no options. Only available option is paly order, it can be switched with dedicated button and chose to play songs one by one, in random order and so on. On the screen you'll see song title, play time, battery status and that's pretty all. From "additional features", M1 offer .CUE support, but it works not with all files (at least for me). Positive side — M1 boots up really fast, after flicking the switch it takes just few seconds.

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To reduce power, M1 enters "sleep" mode after approx. 30 seconds of inactivity: turns screen off and locks buttons. To turn it on again, you need to press rightmost button.

I know, everything described above, sounds devastating. But M1 offers one really great feature — its sound.

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Stock M1 build with PCM1793 as DAC and NE5532 + OPA2134 as amplifier. It's able to push 700 mW into 32Ω load, and it's pretty good amount of power for most of the headphones. DAC and amp placed inside on replaceable board, and Aune told that they'll release other DAC, but I have doubts about that. Anyway, stock sound is really superb.

M1 sound really neutral and natural. It have both transparency and musicality. Bass is really nice, it's punchy, it's energetic, well controlled and goes really deep. Mids are detailed and emotional. Highs are also transparent and well controlled, but sometimes I miss their quantity a little bit.

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Overall, soundwise, I'd place M1 above Fiio X5 and iBasso DX90 (just my oppinion), M1's sound is just more natural, and good amount of power helps it shine.

There is spare module, made by thirdparty developer from China, based on CS4398 (called Modile Choir [http://tw.taobao.com/item/40367662569.htm?fromSite=main]). It's also sounds really interesting, but with less of energy in sound. Choir's sound is more like QLS360, with absolute neutrality, with spacious sound stage and more resolution.

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With full battery, M1 is able to play for 7 hours, really nice for such a powerful player, and it takes about 2.5 hours to charge it.

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To conclude, Aune M1 is really lacking lots of modern features, but it offers outstanding sound quality for small amount of money, so if you want really good sound — it's worth trying.
cleg
cleg
Well, there are plenty of DAPs, using CS4398, but they all sounds different So, I'm sure Aune M2 will be great, but it can have nothing in common with L&P (or can be it's brother
Bellyworshipper
Bellyworshipper
Thats the most intriguing and promising part:)
emusic13
emusic13
Is it too powerful for high sensitivity iems? No channel imbalance? Also, how is the volume control? Precise or no room for small volume increases? Thanks

wtnwin111

Head-Fier
Pros: exceptional sound signature; fast-scan directory ; simple UI, button; sdhc compatibility; drive entry level full-size headphone; good battery life;
Cons: wav-only,compatible issues, no auto turn-off, cannot switch music while listening, slow battery charge, sd compatibility issue
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.

 
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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.
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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. 

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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. 
Bluess
Bluess
I'm using SDHC 16gb class 10 Toshiba UHS-1 and having an issue with the songs, the singer's voice sounds wierd, like reflecting from the other side in the bathroom, with the same file on the computer I have no problem at all, so is it because of the SD card? What format are you using it with? Mine is Fat32.
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