[dnun8086]

 
Class A operation often leads to a lot of power being dissipated as heat. I am guessing that the AR-M2 may get rather hot if used in a pocket, during summer temperatures? Is this so, or does it run cool? (I did see the mention of copper heat spreaders to direct the heat away from the PCB and towards the aluminium chassis, but still...)
 
 
I think it will find some success with cans lovers.

Well depends what your doing with it running just from Spotify offline yields quite a cool temperature, now on the other hand if you are streaming or using high res the device becomes a few degrees hotter for sure.
 
On the whole the unit doesn't heat up too much it only gets a little warm unless you're really pushing it screen on, youtube, hard to drive cans etc. I owned a Cowon Z2, nowhere in the same league but, that thing would get hot and to boot the battery life was just well amazingly crap.
 
I am becoming a little bit of a fan boy here but the player for me is suburb. In my review I briefly mentioned the HD700 If I can get a pair on loan I'll add in some impressions, reason being is when I initially heard the M2 it was the first headphones I got to listen to out of it and man just never heard them sound as good. Put it this way I would take this over a CLAS+Duet set up anyday balanced mode or not.
 
I'm sure it will find a place amongst can lovers although, an actual 1/4 inch socket or even an adaptor would have been a nice addition seeing as it was created with hard to drive cans in mind.  

 

[jk47]

  Don't know can find out though. Price U.K is £899 which is about $1315 USD.

u.s. buyers would be credited back the vat of 20%, so it's just under u.s.$1100 + shipping.  of course the forthcoming questyle qp1r [the higher end model] is to be $1000, and the cayin n6 is around $600.  anyone know what the soundaware esther is going to cost?  the new hifiman 901s is reputed to cost rmb8,999, which would be around us$1500. then we get to the lotoo paw gold at $2k.  oops, i forgot the new fiio x7 and then there's got to be a new ibasso high end product in the pipeline.  it's shaping up to be a crowded marketplace, with lots of entrants between the dx90/x5 price level and the ak240 level.

 

[DGCFAD]

  u.s. buyers would be credited back the vat of 20%, so it's just under u.s.$1100 + shipping.  of course the forthcoming questyle qp1r [the higher end model] is to be $1000, and the cayin n6 is around $600.  anyone know what the soundaware esther is going to cost?  the new hifiman 901s is reputed to cost rmb8,999, which would be around us$1500. then we get to the lotoo paw gold at $2k.  oops, i forgot the new fiio x7 and then there's got to be a new ibasso high end product in the pipeline.  it's shaping up to be a crowded marketplace, with lots of entrants between the dx90/x5 price level and the ak240 level.

Actually the QP1 will be $600 and the QP1R will be $900

 

[robfol]

Hi Everyone
 
Daniel Nundra's Review here - http://www.head-fi.org/products/acoustic-research-ar-m2-dap/reviews/12888#comments-title
 
Cheers Robert

 

[bmichels]

Dear thread ? no more mouvements here !  dead product ??

 

[dnun8086]

Not a dead product just needs more exposure and some hands on impressions. If anyone is near Leicester i'd be more than happy to offer out a demo if anyone is interested. 
 
I think with the abundance of new high end daps coming out, with additional features and more aggressive pricing makes it a particularly niche product which is going to be hard to market. However, the sound quality, power and UI make it a really contender in the market but unfortunately you'd have to overlook its shortcoming to really appreciate that. 

 

[bmichels]

  Not a dead product just needs more exposure and some hands on impressions. If anyone is near Leicester i'd be more than happy to offer out a demo if anyone is interested. 
 
I think with the abundance of new high end daps coming out, with additional features and more aggressive pricing makes it a particularly niche product which is going to be hard to market. However, the sound quality, power and UI make it a really contender in the market but unfortunately you'd have to overlook its shortcoming to really appreciate that. 

 
Well, i like this AR-M2, but I really have a hard time to find good reasons to buy it instead of the Sony ZX2 which has more memory and A DIGITAL OUT (I owe a HUGO).   Your comments will be welcome. 

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

Well M2 has over 1500uF of tantalum capacitance which is more than any other dap, and tantalum is better than commonly used electrolytic. Paw Gold comes in at second with ~1000uf of tantalum. Course this doesn't mean anything by itself, but just shows quality and quantity together in a well powerful output. M2 might not have what you want, but there is no denying it's a good dap with it's own unique qualities that make it worthwhile.

 

[jk47]

  Dear thread ? no more mouvements here !  dead product ??

1. aside from dnun's review here on head-fi, and a customer's review at custom-cables, there are NO other reviews.  i am leaving aside some brief comments in this thread.
 
2. neither of the 2 reviews extant give real, extended comparisons with other daps, or discuss a variety of pairings. thus, neither is very compelling.
 
3. i see no point in a 5" screen.  many players, including the most highly rated ones, make do with much smaller screens or no screen whatsoever.  the only excuse i can think of for having such a screen is if ar picked them up really cheaply because they were overproduced for some smartphone.  i think most dap buyers are especially interested in how their daps sound, not in the cover art display.  the only other reason to put on that screen is that the sole competitor in ar's eyes is sony.
 
4. the only sellers are [as far as i can tell] in the u.k. or hong kong.  ar doesn't seem to be making much effort to distribute these.
 
5. as further evidence of ar's lack of commitment, there is no a.r. representative participating in this thread. contrast this to cayin, ibasso, fiio, lotoo, questyle.  will there be any support for this dap?  will there be firmware updates or bug-fixes?  you can't even find this dap mentioned on ar's own website.
 
6. commenting on chips or other circuitry may be interesting to those knowledgeable about such matters, but tells us next to nothing about how the dap will sound.
 
7. how many participants in this thread have heard the ar m2?  not many. [3?] how many have heard it for more than 20minutes? [2?]   compare that to the cayin n6 or lotoo paw thread.  there is virtually no member experience to share and discuss,
 
8.  given all the items listed above, how many people will spend $1100-$1300 to buy this dap?

 

[dnun8086]

   
Well, i like this AR-M2, but I really have a hard time to find good reasons to buy it instead of the Sony ZX2 which has more memory and A DIGITAL OUT (I owe a HUGO).   Your comments will be welcome. 

True as I've mentioned there are certainly bits and bobs to be improved. In all honesty I wouldn't be able to tell you how well the AR-M2 stands against the ZX2 however, whilst down in cambridge I did have a chance to try the ZX1 and as good as it sounded it really wasn't quite up there with the AR-M2 soundstage in particular and just lacks some of the added detail, refinement and nuances we love to hear from our music.
 
End of the day its all going to boil down to exactly what you want and what sounds good to your ear so it becomes quite subjective.
 
Oh as a side note love the Hugo very refined, smooth, extended and spacious sound it really offers so much. But it isn't by any means a lot better than the AR-M2 if Acoustic Research work on the firmware I wouldn't be surprised if it really gave it a run for its money with regards to sound alone.
 
For me I am just loving the portability factor in combination to the sound so far everything I've plugged into it just sounds better and has some great synergy. I completely understand though this unfortunately won't be an all in one solution for some. All I can say for my personal use it suits me down to a tea and sounds fab so worthwhile having it imo.  

 

[dnun8086]

  1. aside from dnun's review here on head-fi, and a customer's review at custom-cables, there are NO other reviews.  i am leaving aside some brief comments in this thread.
 
2. neither of the 2 reviews extant give real, extended comparisons with other daps, or discuss a variety of pairings. thus, neither is very compelling.
 
3. i see no point in a 5" screen.  many players, including the most highly rated ones, make do with much smaller screens or no screen whatsoever.  the only excuse i can think of for having such a screen is if ar picked them up really cheaply because they were overproduced for some smartphone.  i think most dap buyers are especially interested in how their daps sound, not in the cover art display.  the only other reason to put on that screen is that the sole competitor in ar's eyes is sony.
 
4. the only sellers are [as far as i can tell] in the u.k. or hong kong.  ar doesn't seem to be making much effort to distribute these.
 
5. as further evidence of ar's lack of commitment, there is no a.r. representative participating in this thread. contrast this to cayin, ibasso, fiio, lotoo, questyle.  will there be any support for this dap?  will there be firmware updates or bug-fixes?  you can't even find this dap mentioned on ar's own website.
 
6. commenting on chips or other circuitry may be interesting to those knowledgeable about such matters, but tells us next to nothing about how the dap will sound.
 
7. how many participants in this thread have heard the ar m2?  not many. [3?] how many have heard it for more than 20minutes? [2?]   compare that to the cayin n6 or lotoo paw thread.  there is virtually no member experience to share and discuss,
 
8.  given all the items listed above, how many people will spend $1100-$1300 to buy this dap?

If anyone has a few of the higher end Daps you would like to see compared to the AR-M2 shoot me a message and I can try get my hands on a few for more detailed comparisons.

 

[JML]

Too bad AR doesn't seem interested in the US market.  They list almost nothing on their website but for some outdoor speakers.  Sad ending for a once-great US-maker's name.  There's no way I'd buy a DAP this expensive that's available only overseas.

 

[Sound Eq]

  Too bad AR doesn't seem interested in the US market.  They list almost nothing on their website but for some outdoor speakers.  Sad ending for a once-great US-maker's name.  There's no way I'd buy a DAP this expensive that's available only overseas.

yeah it seems this dap will be forgotten very fast

 

[Mython]

  Too bad AR doesn't seem interested in the US market.  They list almost nothing on their website but for some outdoor speakers.  Sad ending for a once-great US-maker's name.  There's no way I'd buy a DAP this expensive that's available only overseas.

 
 
LOL...  well iBasso, amongst a few others, do pretty well with little formal global distribution 

 
I'm not actually disagreeing with your sentiment, which is quite understandable, but the very nature of the current high-end niche DAP market is that many of these devices are from niche manufacturers, in the far-east, selling largely over the internet.
 
 
I wish the AR-M2 some success, because I appreciate that it is a risky venture to create and produce a niche device in an increasingly-competitive market sector, and I'd like to see AR achieve a worthwhile return so that they can produce more such devices in future.
 
 
I'd love to see wider formal distribution of the various niche DAPs, but the main thing is that I am grateful these devices are at least being made available - when the HM-801 first appeared, there were very few serious high-end DAPs available to the high-end DAP enthusiast. What a fantastic difference we've all witnessed during the past 3 years or so!
 

 

 

[jk47]

   
 
LOL...  well iBasso, amongst a few others, do pretty well with little formal global distribution 

 
 

ibasso has a us distributor and us retailers.  recently my dx90's headphone jack got loose and positional in terms of keeping proper contacts for 2 channels.  i contacted ibasso, they referred me to their u.s. distributor, which in turn referred me to the retailer from whom i made the purchase.  furthermore, the distributor followed up in several days to inquire whether i'd been helped by the retailer.  when i said i hadn't heard back from the retailer, the distributor gave me an alternate email address.  after using that i received an rma number, and i'm told i'll be getting a new unit.
 
what will happen if i buy an ar-m2 and have a problem?  do you think ar will pay attention when they don't even show the dap on their own website?  if they don't care about their product, why should we?