About Me;
I'm a 63 year old mainframe computer geek. I won't claim the title of Audiophile but I've been involved with this
hobby in a serious way since 1975. My musical tastes run to Classic Rock, Blues both traditional and modern english,
a large smattering of jazz and vocals, and a smattering of electronica and classical.
I have some tinitus probably from too many concerts and barotrauma caused by scuba diving, it masks at approx 15Khz.
 
Disclaimer:
I was loaned the Soundaware Esther M1 Pro as part of Soundaware's Review Tour in return for my honest opinion.
I do not benefit financially from this review, nor do I have any connection with Soundaware other than to act
as an impartial reviewer.
As this is a purely subjective review your experience with the Soundaware M1(PRO) will probably be different than
mine.
 
The Soundaware Esther M1(PRO) currently retails for $658 US on Amazon.
 
Tracks used specifically for this review:
Bron-Yy-Aui                    Led Zepplin          Box set
Hotel California                Eagles                Hell Freezes Over
Blue Moon Revisited        Cowboy Junkies   Trinity Sessions
Flamenco Sketches         Miles Davis          Kind of Blue
Fat Man in the Bathtub    Little Feat            Waiting for Columbus
Roundabout                    Yes                     Fragile (FLAC)
The Islands                     Ralph McTell        Sand in Your Shoes    
Autumn Leaves               Eva Cassidy         Live at Blues Alley
River                              Joni Mitchell         Blue
Somnium                       Rodrigo y Gabriela 9 Dead Alive
Cello Concerto A minor Andante Tim Hugh   Bach (CPE):Cello Concertos
Dog on a Chain              Emitt Rhodes        Rainbow Ends
Some Nights                  Fun                      Some Nights            
You Know I'm no good     Amy Winehouse   Back to Black
Amy Amy Amy/Outro/     Amy Winehouse   Frank
Tocatta & Fugue D minor Kevin Macleod      Classic Sampler (FLAC)
Chan Chan                     Ry Cooder            Buena Vista Social Club
Speak To Me                  Pink Floyd            Dark Side of the Moon (MFSL Gold Disk)

Unboxing.
The Esther M1 Pro comes in an attractive reddish brown box with just Eshter embossed on the lid in gold letters. There is nothing to
hint at what lays inside. The back of the box is equally unadorned. Opening up the box, the M1 Pro sits underneath a viynl skine. The M1
sits snuggly in a plastic well. Underneath the M1 are the instruction manual, a micro USB cable and a USB card reader. A small reset tool
is also included. The review sample did not contain the 2A charger which comes with the unit if purchased. The review sample contained a
3.5mm interconnect and a coax cable. There are also a user manual, warranty card, a 16gb micre SD card and TF card reader included in the
package.

Build.
The Esther M1 Pro is a small all metal unit measuring 115mm x 59mm x 15mm. The M1 Pro has a satisfying feel when held, it's weighty
in a good way, feeling quite solid. The top front of the unit has a raised 2.4 inch screen below which are the control buttons. The M1
Pro does not use a touch screen, all operation is done by using the buttons. On the left side are the Return button, and a main menu
button. On the right side is a rather unusual cluster of buttons centered around the play/pause button. These are marked with arrows
denoting up/down/left right and are used to scroll through the menus and control playback (FFWD, Back etc.)
On the left side of the M1 Pro towards the top is the Lock Button, below this are a series of heat diffusion holes. On the right side
at the top is the power on/off button below which is the volume control. Further down are another series of heat diffusion holes and the
reset pin hole. On the bottom of the M1 Pro are the USB port and a covered slot for 2 mSD cards. The cover for the mSD slots is rubber
and was the only part of the M1 Pro that didn't feel substantial. On the top of the M1 Pro are the three gold plated output jacks
from left to right Headphone Out, Line Out and Coaxial Out.
The back of the M1 Pro has the company name, model and some verbage at the bottom (CE certificatin symbol etc.)
All edges of the M1 Pro are chamfered which makes for a comfortable feel when held.
 
UI
The Esther M1 Pro UI is fairly basic but provides all the necessary functions. The status bar on top has playing status, volume and gain
setting (Low Med, or High), and Battery level.
The main scrollable (left to right) Screens are Playing, List Manager, Storage, Music Library, Settings, Upgrade and About.  
Playing shows status, Gain setting, battery life, Song Name, Directory Name, Mode, Sampling rate and music format. Using the up/down
buttons allows one the cycle between sequential, repeat, repeat all, and random playing modes.
The List Manager screen shows Favourites and Recent list (recently played).
Settings has options for setting language, backlighting time, brightness, scan music, Digital Coaxial mode, Power on/off options,
fade options, DAC option and Sound Options.
Upgrade has two options Force Recovery and Firmware Upgrade.
About shows firmware version, serial number, Total Capacity, Free Space and Contact us.
I primarily set the M1 Pro to random play and let it go at that. Album art is nice but what I want is a unit that plays without
stuttering, freezing or crashing. The M1 Pro UI did just that, it functioned as I expected and just got out of the way of my
enjoying the music. While the UI is as I said basic Mary from Soundaware has stated that the UI is a work in progress and will be
updated periodically.
The only slight criticism I have of the whole screen/ui is that some of the icons are rather small (playing mode for example) and
a bit difficult for my old tired eyes to see. There's a lot of real estate on the screen it would be good to increase the size of
some of the icons.
 
Sound.
This is where it gets interesting. Soundaware states the M1(PRO) Analog sounds more like an analog system then a digital system.
I'd have to agree with that assessement, there was no hint of digital harshness or excessive bright or brittle sound from the M1 Pro.
One of the LPs that promised the best of the digital age is "Bop Till You Drop" by Ry Cooder. It was one of the first (if not the first)
fully digital LP. And it sounded awful, I bought 2 copies and dragged my system back to my retailer as I was sure something was horribly
wrong with my turntable/cartridge. Turns out it was the recording, the perfect DDD wasn't. Why am I telling you this? Because the digital
verions of the LP were not much better, listenable but I always thought something was not quite right. When I played this on the M1(PRO)
I was pleasantly suprized. I don't know if its the Femto Clock, the FPGA architecture or what but it was much more listenable to me.
Soundstage was both wide and had good depth. Music on some of my other DAPs has a sense of width in the sound stage but not too much
depth. With the M1(PRO) instruments were easily placed in the soundstage on recordings such as "Hotel California" from Hell Freezes Over
by the Eagles. I experienced none of the blurring of instruments across the soundstage. The M1(Pro) was especially well suited to live
recordings such as Trinity Sessions by Cowboy Junkies, or small venue live recordings such as Nightbird by Eva Cassidy.
The M1(PRO) has a polite if not slightly recessed sound. The sound is definitely not V shaped but I'd say fairly flat across the musical
spectrum. I do not have measurements nor instruments to verify this, it's purely conjecture. The M1(PRO) has good bass control and had no
difficulty with deep (Sub) bass such as in Tocatta and Fugue in D minor. There was no smearing of bass across sub and mid bass. The M1
(PRO) had smooth liquid sounding mids. The M1(PRO)was a wonder with female vocals, Eva Cassidy and Amy Winehouse never sounded more
natural, and that's not to say it isn't good with male vocals. Highs were not quite as shimmering as on some players but had a much more
natural sound.
Poor recordings will continue to sound bad, the M1(PRO) isn't a miracle worker. Jamming with Edward by the Rolling Stones still sounds
muddled and as if Mick Jagger is singing through tissues. Recordings that are overly bright still sound that way. An Equalizer option here
would be welcome but the Esther M1(PRO) does not have option, perhaps in a later firmware upgrade we'll see that added.
 
General Usage
I used the M1(PRO) with my Westone UM30 PRO, Westone UM1, Yamaha HP1 and Sennheiser 414. I had no problem driving any of my IEMs or
Headpones although none of them are particularly difficult to drive.
One thing I noticed in daily usage is that the M1(PRO) runs fairly hot. The M1(PRO) has holes for heat dissipation however they're fairly
small and are not that effective. When I carried the M1(PRO) either in a pocket or in a camera case on my belt the unit
became quite warm, almost hot to the touch. I'd be concerned that with extended use without proper ventilation the unit could become hot
enough to cause thermal damage.
Battery usage was good but not spectacular, I got about 9 hours playing time before needing to recharge.
 
Comparisons:
For comparisons I used an Xduoo X3, iPod nano 7th version with and without a JDS labs cMoyBB amplifier, and iPhone 6s.
All listening was done with volume being matched using a 440 hz tone and SPL meter.
 
Xduoo X3.  
All comparisons with the Xduoo were done on a rockboxed X3. The tone and pitch errors of the X3 running stock software
is so noticible to me that it renders all comparisons as useless and the unit nearly unlistenable.
The Xduoo and M1(PRO) both use the Cirrus Logic CS4938 Dac and there is a similarity in the sound of the two DAPS.
Where the M1(PRO) really shines and outperforms the X3 is soundstaging. While the X3 has a good sense of width of the sound stage
it is completely lacking in depth of sound stage. With the M1(PRO) the sound stage is much fuller and has a more realistic feel.
With live recordings the sense of sound stage was realistic whether the recording was done in a small venue or a stadium.
The M1(PRO) has a more polite presentation, the music isn't nearly as in your face as the X3. Bass had a little less slam and
highs were a bit more refined. This in no way means the M1(PR0) was a less musical DAP, it felt much more realistic to my ears, with
no real sense of one frequency emphasized over another. The M1(PR0) was better able to mine detail from the music than the X3, but at
more than five times the price one would expect that. The UI of the X3 is minimal at best, there is no support for album art and is a
purely text driven menu system. Again as I don't necessarily require pictures to enjoy my music this isn't an issue for me.
Both the rockboxed X3 and the M1(PRO)'s UI allow me to listen to my music with a minimum of UI issues. The M1(PRO) UI is much more
intuitive to use than the Rockbox UI and doesn't require a 200 page manual to use all it's features.
 
iPod Nano.
Comparing the M1(PRO) with the iPod running without amplication is like comparing my iPhone 6s with a circa 1995 Motorola flip phone,
they both do essentially the same thing but my what a difference.
by comparisson the little nano sounds thin with a lack of dynamics and general 'oomph'.
With the nano and the cMoyBB amplifier things get a little closer. I get a general sense of more music and a more fleshed out
sound stage. In terms of the DAC, there's no comparing the two units. The M1(PRO)is the clear cut winner here.
 
I also listened to music through my iPhone and much like the iPod there was no comparison between the two units.
Some listening was done using Westone's player ( same as the BBE player) and while I was able to boost bass performance and
spread the sound out a bit it still fell well short of the M1(PRO) in almost all areas.
 
M1(PRO) vs. Analog system.
Since Soundaware market this as an analog sounding unit I decided just for kicks to insert the M1(PRO) into my main listening system.
I substituted an amplifier that could handle Line In for my Bottlehead and Acurus amplification. Comparisons were done with an AR ES1
turntable, Ortofon M20 FL cartridge, Transparent Cables throughout and Sonus Faber speakers.
First comparison was Ry Cooder's Bop till You Drop. The M1(PRO) won this comparison hands down. Gone were the artifacts that bothered
me so much about this album.
On most of the tracks that I have on both LP and digital the M1(PRO) came fairly close to the LP version. Yes the M1(PRO) is quieter
on almost all the songs, but there is something about the LP version that the M1(PRO) cannot duplicate. The LP was just more visceral
to me, had more emotion or whatever it is in analog recordings that I prefer.
That said the M1(PRO) would be an excellent source component in anyone's system. It held it's own quite nicely in my system. I especially
liked the convenience of playing hours of music through the system without having to change LPs or CDs. One thing I have to note is
that througout this and my other listening sessions I found myself getting lost in the music and forgetting I was supposed to be
listening seriously and taking notes.
 
Conclusion.
The M1(PRO) is a very capable DAP that could still use some refinement around the UI. It is musical and well suited to all forms
of music. The ability to use dual Micro SD cards is a big plus here, and hopefully the M1(PRO) will handle dual 200GB cards allowing
one to carry approximately 1/2 a terabyte of music. That should handle anyones requirement for a portable library.
I'm still a bit concerned about heat dissipation when the unit is carried in a pocket or case.
Overall I enjoyed my time with the M1(PRO) and wouldn't have any reservations recommending it.