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- Jan 2, 2012
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Still waiting for gapless issue to be solved.
Still waiting for gapless issue to be solved.
dnun8086
Thank you very much my friend. I appreciate all your feedback. I will order it right now. Have a good night and we will talk. all the best!
Hi dnun8086!
I got my AR-M2 on Wednesday and I have been playing with it on various full size cans. What can I tell you? Well with a bit of tweaking on the EQ and bass/3D space, it sounds "Awesome"! This is truly audiophile grade stuff. At first I was a little disappointed, but with just the 10 or so hrs I have used it and played around with it, my opinion shifted 180 degrees. It is better sounding than my AK120II, HiFiman 901s, Plenue P1,
Cayin N6 with C5 amp, and the only DAP that gives it competition is the new Luxury & Preceision L5P, the M2 is still better especialy for the full size cans I have tried (HD800, HD700, LCD-X, LCD-XC, Dharma 1000(awesome), AGK812 (a tiny bit bright but still playing with it eventhough it still sounds really nice). The M2 has incredible power and tonal clarity. It can sound a little darker or brighter depending on sound playback selection. So, really, it leans toward neutral for the most part. Tweaking it, gets you pretty much the sound you want depending on the headphone. I have some nice cans so I can make a fair assessment based on the variety and I still have at least 5 more full size to try out including Beyerdynamic T1 and T90.
As far as the firmware, it is not that bad as some claim it to be. They will fix a few of the items that need some tweaking/improvement. As it is right now, it is a solid player and worth the money. AR will improve it soon enough. If you spend time with it and play around, you will be surprised at how truly good this thing is. I mean, are you buying it for sound quality or for the Android system to do all the things you can on a smart phone? It is not that sophisticated. It is a "MUSIC" player and geared towards full size cans from what I can tell and it excels at that! For IEM's, it will sound good but the power is high and this is not the player to carry around and have IEM's in your ears. The volume gets loud.....really loud so be very careful with IEMs. It does the job perfectly for what it was meant to do.
I highly recommend this as a "Definite Buy" for those who want to use it on full size cans. You will not go wrong.....trust me!
I bought it through Voxx Electronics international out of Hong Kong. I think it is the parent company for AR and several other brands. I dealt with a gentleman (Raymond) who was absolutely great to deal with. Totally professional and responses were almost immediate to any questions I had. I got the player within a week of ordering it and they covered the shipping. They also gave me a new leather pouch that it fits in. This is the prototype (now approved by Voxx) as the leatherette pouch for the player. He threw it in for me free of charge and that was " Truly Awesome" and a very kind gesture on Voxx's behalf. The pouch in a tan/brown color and very well made and fits like a glove. I would highly recommend to purchase through Voxx in Hong Kong and go through Raymond. These people are serious and very up front, honest and commit to what they promise. I could not be more pleased both from the dealings with Voxx and the player itself (Truly Great).
Now as far as any improvements, I would like to see the following done if possible and then the player would be absolutely stellar:
1.) Recommend adding a high/low gain switch if possible (would help for IEM use).
2.) Upgrading the unit to have a 10 band EQ instead of current 5 band.
3.) UI has a few updates/upgrades that would be nice but I would prefer they take the time and do it right and not like some other manufacturers that give you a pile of "tidbit" updates. I fully agree with dnun8086 on this!
So, go for it. I took the chance and I am glad I did as this was what I was looking for in a DAP. I like my full size can over IEMs any day of the week. You will not be disappointed in the least. The M2 in my opinion (spend time with it) out-performs and out-classes the vast majority of DAPS on the market regardless of price. For $1200 USD, it plays in the "Big Leagues" for fun. I take it over AK120ii/240/380 all day long and the Sony high end DAPS are not in the same league!
This is currently my favorite DAP and I have 6 of them to pick from, all being medium to high end units. So, I have had a couple days to convince myself of that and I will be doing a lot more comparisons and will post my impressions and a full review soon.
interesting...Interested to know how you set the EQ and 3D effect. I too have the AR-M2 (but primarily using IEM, which I do notice the hissing sound from time to time but it doens't bother me that much).
I'm also interested to know how the M2 compare with the AK120ii or even 240. To me the M2 sounds perhaps a touch brighter than neutral to provide that airy, analytical signature.
Hi dnun8086!
I got my AR-M2 on Wednesday and I have been playing with it on various full size cans. What can I tell you? Well with a bit of tweaking on the EQ and bass/3D space, it sounds "Awesome"! This is truly audiophile grade stuff. At first I was a little disappointed, but with just the 10 or so hrs I have used it and played around with it, my opinion shifted 180 degrees. It is better sounding than my AK120II, HiFiman 901s, Plenue P1,
Cayin N6 with C5 amp, and the only DAP that gives it competition is the new Luxury & Preceision L5P, the M2 is still better especially for the full size cans I have tried (HD800, HD700, LCD-X, LCD-XC, Dharma 1000(awesome), AGK812 (a tiny bit bright but still playing with it eventhough it still sounds really nice). The M2 has incredible power and tonal clarity. It can sound a little darker or brighter depending on sound playback selection. So, really, it leans toward neutral for the most part. Tweaking it, gets you pretty much the sound you want depending on the headphone. I have some nice cans so I can make a fair assessment based on the variety and I still have at least 5 more full size to try out including Beyerdynamic T1 and T90.
As far as the firmware, it is not that bad as some claim it to be. They will fix a few of the items that need some tweaking/improvement. As it is right now, it is a solid player and worth the money. AR will improve it soon enough. If you spend time with it and play around, you will be surprised at how truly good this thing is. I mean, are you buying it for sound quality or for the Android system to do all the things you can on a smart phone? It is not that sophisticated. It is a "MUSIC" player and geared towards full size cans from what I can tell and it excels at that! For IEM's, it will sound good but the power is high and this is not the player to carry around and have IEM's in your ears. The volume gets loud.....really loud so be very careful with IEMs. It does the job perfectly for what it was meant to do.
I highly recommend this as a "Definite Buy" for those who want to use it on full size cans. You will not go wrong.....trust me!
I bought it through Voxx Electronics international out of Hong Kong. I think it is the parent company for AR and several other brands. I dealt with a gentleman (Raymond) who was absolutely great to deal with. Totally professional and responses were almost immediate to any questions I had. I got the player within a week of ordering it and they covered the shipping. They also gave me a new leather pouch that it fits in. This is the prototype (now approved by Voxx) as the leatherette pouch for the player. He threw it in for me free of charge and that was " Truly Awesome" and a very kind gesture on Voxx's behalf. The pouch in a tan/brown color and very well made and fits like a glove. I would highly recommend to purchase through Voxx in Hong Kong and go through Raymond. These people are serious and very up front, honest and commit to what they promise. I could not be more pleased both from the dealings with Voxx and the player itself (Truly Great).
Now as far as any improvements, I would like to see the following done if possible and then the player would be absolutely stellar:
1.) Recommend adding a high/low gain switch if possible (would help for IEM use).
2.) Upgrading the unit to have a 10 band EQ instead of current 5 band.
3.) UI has a few updates/upgrades that would be nice but I would prefer they take the time and do it right and not like some other manufacturers that give you a pile of "tidbit" updates. I fully agree with dnun8086 on this!
So, go for it. I took the chance and I am glad I did as this was what I was looking for in a DAP. I like my full size can over IEMs any day of the week. You will not be disappointed in the least. The M2 in my opinion (spend time with it) out-performs and out-classes the vast majority of DAPS on the market regardless of price. For $1200 USD, it plays in the "Big Leagues" for fun. I take it over AK120ii/240/380 all day long and the Sony high end DAPS are not in the same league!
This is currently my favorite DAP and I have 6 of them to pick from, all being medium to high end units. So, I have had a couple days to convince myself of that and I will be doing a lot more comparisons and will post my impressions and a full review soon.