[wirefriend]

  The AR M2 is on its way to me for review. I'll be putting it up against the AK120 II, Ibasso DX100, a regular-but-decent smartphone (HTC One M8) and trying it out with different headphones, from sensitive CIEMS to the HE500 planars. Should be fun, will post my findings.

I am courious how would you rate AR M2 vs DX100 in term of SQ....

 

[AR-Voice]

 
any update for M20 soon ?  thanks

Do you not follow the M20 Thread?
 
M20 - JULY FIRMWARE 1.3.6 UPDATE - OUT NOW
 
http://www.acousticresearch-hifi.com/AR-M20/ - GO TO BOTTOM OF PAGE
 
Confirmed fixes:

1. Gapless playback available for WAV and AIFF
2. Fix scanning of 384kHz files in media scanner
3. Fix muting sequence that causes an short instance of output volume drop at the beginning of music playback

 

[curtain]

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256GB Cards from Samsung now verified by Acoustic Research

Samsung: Evo, Pro, Pro+ (Up to 128GB) Evo+ (Up to 256GB)
 
[COLOR=1D2129]Anecdotally, we find the Lexar/Patriot 200GB card to sound slightly better than others[/COLOR]
[COLOR=1D2129] [/COLOR]

[COLOR=1D2129] [/COLOR]

I have purchased the Samsung the EVO Plus 256GB microSD card and can confirm it operates without issue on the M2.

The idea that Lexar cards sound "slightly better" without offering any data that quantitatively and qualitively describes this claim and making it open to scrutiny is pretty disappointing to read.

What I can offer is advice to not purchase Sandisk cards as they do not operate correctly with the M2 and will unmount themselves sporadically which anecdotally means the music will stop playing.

 

[Duncan]

Is that a SanDisk issue or an AR issue though? My 200gb cards work without issue on all of my devices

 

[AR-Voice]

Is that a SanDisk issue or an AR issue though? My 200gb cards work without issue on all of my devices

It's an industry issue and has been reported by other DaP manufacturers. There seems to be a variability between production yeaRS

 

[jynxed]

Can the M2/M20 save Tidal offline to SD card?

Iknow there is an option within Tidal to do this however, on some Android devices, eg X7, it just doesn't work and no matter the setting it saves to devices internal memory.

 

[denis1976]

Can the M2/M20 save Tidal offline to SD card?

Iknow there is an option within Tidal to do this however, on some Android devices, eg X7, it just doesn't work and no matter the setting it saves to devices internal memory.

hello , in the ar-m2 you can choose where you want to keep the tidal offline

 

[irablumberg]

I have purchased the Samsung the EVO Plus 256GB microSD card and can confirm it operates without issue on the M2.

The idea that Lexar cards sound "slightly better" without offering any data that quantitatively and qualitively describes this claim and making it open to scrutiny is pretty disappointing to read.

What I can offer is advice to not purchase Sandisk cards as they do not operate correctly with the M2 and will unmount themselves sporadically which anecdotally means the music will stop playing.

Sad to say I have learned the hard way about the Sandisk problem. I have the 200 GB card and it does indeed unmount itself regularly. Typically it unmounts when scrolling through music rather than when playing. Once I get it to start playing an album, it plays all the way through. In any case, I look forward to finding a sale on the new Samsung 256 GB card.

 

[Duncan]

Sounds more like an M2 issue than a SanDisk one, not heard of this outside of this thread?!?

 

[AudioJunki3]

I can't wait to see the 256GB cards, and then following that hopefully 500GB ones. Although I know Samsung are introducing the new UFS format soon. 

 

[AR-Voice]

Sounds more like an M2 issue than a SanDisk one, not heard of this outside of this thread?!?

Hey Duncan: You haven't looked very hard then! Sandisk's own forums are full of reports and just look at the multiple bad reviews on Amazon reporting problems with the 200GB cards. We do know rather lot about this sort of technology, but it's to you whether you want to listen to us or not.
 
"Sandisk Quality has been lacking lately. I have had two 32 GB cards stop working and now one of the 128 GB cards has become corrupted. the 128 GB card and one of the 32 GB cards saw light use. The second 32 GB card was purchased to store some backup data. The data was copied to it and it sat on a shelf for a few months. When I went to retrieve the data the card was corrupted."
 
"The device worked fine for four months, but no longer responds"
 
"That is until after a month (and the return policy expired) when the card began to corrupt data files. It started slowly at first with a single directory getting corrupted, but then more and more data (that was never accessed after loading it on the card the first time) began to get corrupted and the card speed slowed to a crawl."
 
All above taken from Amazon

 

[Duncan]

Looking at the one star reviews, of course you'll find such reviews...

If we look at Samsung's reviews via Amazon we will see similar reviews and thoughts...

Things fail, let's just hope that all the card manufacturers get their yield to be more consistent

 

[kdbur]

The AR M2 looks very tempting indeed. It seems to have a couple of things I 'need' in the same dap. Class A amp and a huge screen!
 
I only got a smart phone when the Samsung note came out because I hate reading stuff on small screens. Even with my reading glasses on I find it annoying, so seeing a proper stand alone DAP with a powerful amp  and a 5'' screen together seems perfect for me................and a warmish chip inside.......lovely!
 
The only issue, for me at least is the UI. I have multiple albums from the same artist and to  search by artist and get all the songs in alphabetical order would drive me crazy!.........................so I will wait to see if the promised update arrives and how it is before I seriously consider.............I bought a PURE PVR and it is brilliant, the best I've used but they suddenly stopped supporting it so I am going to hold on and see what fix AR come up with. 
 
I am currently using a sony Z ultra and as I have around 300gb of music, I use an  Ablytech SD-Micro to SD Card Adapter and use a Kingston 512gb SD card and it works perfectly with my mojo​ and  USB Audio Player PRO (​ UAPP), so I wonder if I can do the same with the M2?.................................has anybody tried?..................................Thanks

 

[kaneman]

The Samsung 256gb EVO+ cards are available in Hong Kong for approximately US$150. I bought several at the Golden Computer Arcade. Ran H2TESTW on them and they checked out fully.

 

[AR-Voice]

  The Samsung 256gb EVO+ cards are available in Hong Kong for approximately US$150. I bought several at the Golden Computer Arcade. Ran H2TESTW on them and they checked out fully.

Thanks, our head engineer is happy with these too. Should have bought a couple while I was there (-: