[DWbirdseye]

Still waiting for gapless issue to be solved.

 

[curtain]

A few days with now with my new Acoustic Research AR-M2 paired with the Audeze LCD-3s and what impresses is:
 
*the clarity and space between instruments and vocals
*the lack of distortion and lack of coloration
*the amplification for a portable device (at full volume on 99% of tracks it is too loud with an LCD-3)
*the authority and control in the bass areas (when compared to Schiit Lyr amplification for example, there is nothing lacking)
*the big display, album art is important and part of the experience the artist wants you to have (think David Bowie)
*the physical buttons on the side, being able to skip, pause tracks without looking is very handy.
 
The software needs gapless support for such amazing hardware which I hear is forthcoming and some further improvement with the player software which has been previously mentioned.
Recommend that you buy the AR-M2 folio case which comes with a screen protector, a magnetic clasp and adhesive backing so the device never leaves its comfy abode.
I bought this as a portable Cans system at home and have no qualms recommending it what-so-ever to those who want a little piece of heaven in your pocket!

 

[dnun8086]

Still waiting for gapless issue to be solved.

I know it's taking some time but I promise it's coming hope it's sooner rather than later. 

 

[dnun8086]

  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!

You're very welcome my apologies for the very late response just been very busy. Let me know how you get on when the player arrives I'm sure you'll love it. 

 

[Drizzyman28]

Wait for new firmware. Wait for a long time.

 

[dnun8086]

quote name="Drizzyman28" url="/t/754114/2015-acoustic-research-m2-audiophile-grade-hi-res-portable-player-out-now/345#post_12152749"]Wait for new firmware. Wait for a long time.[/quote]
Hi I know it's taking time but I want you all to know this is because they are planning to iorn out as many issues as possible. This won't be a iBasso update although their company is great this will be a big fix and makeover! At least that's what I'm hoping for, sometimes quality does take a little longer than we wish.

Still can't believe how great this thing sounds! Been trying out some new earphones and cans just suburb driving power!

 

[zman123]

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.

 

[Fr_eak]

  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.

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.

 

[robfol]

Great feedback, Thanks zman123

 

[Duncan]

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.

interesting...

Haven't been around these parts for a while, hectic work schedule, and dedicating my time to building a killer gaming rig, anyhow, I have the opposite impression, the M2 is the darkest sounding player that I have [had], with the Sony ZX2 being mid centric and QP1R being treble centric...

Nothing wrong with a dark[er] presentation, but would love to see your impressions of the QP1R, I think it would grate on you...

 

[dnun8086]

Quote:

  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.

Hey I am so glad you're enjoying the player, thank you so much for the already detailed and informative impressions! 
 
I particularly like the T90 combination I sincerely hope you enjoy that pairing as much as I did. You're absolutely right about some of the suggestions and it might be something that can be considered in the future. The company is always striving for excellence so I can't see why they wouldn't take every weakness and want to turn it into a strength. 
 
You've mentioned the power output, which is still a thing of glory in itself, I was just wondering if anyone including yourself has had any particularly hard to drive cans that gave off that lovely sense of euphoria. Would like to hear some more about people's favorite pairings earphones included!?
 
@Duncan, I know where your coming from but I thought the QP1R was actually a touch smoother than the AR-M2 and was a micro fraction of a hair behind on detail. Can I ask what earphones/headphones your using with the AR-M2 and the QP1R? 

 

[zman123]

Hi there!
 
For 3-d effects, when you are in the actual music menu, there is a settings icon at the bottom left of the screen just above the play/back touch keys. When you open that settings menu, you have 2 options (settings and sound effects). Go to sound effects where you can choose form a variety of pre-set sound effects. There is the option to pick user where you can set the 5 band EQ the way you want and then there are also 2 slider options below that to select " Bass Boost", this will enhance your bass without having to set the 60/230/910 hz on the eq too high to get more low end. You can set those frequencies at -7db/-9db/-6db roughly and then the 4khz at about -3db and the 14khz at about -2db (these are the settings I use as "USER" option and then the Bass boost i have set at about 40% of the way and the 3D effect at about 20%. This seems to give me the response and just enough punch where the sound signature is crisp yet not too "in-your -face" sounding. It sounds absolutely great at these settings with all the big cans I mentioned in my previous post.
 
As far as comparing the M2 to the AK120II (ihave this one), it is really like comparing apples and oranges. The M@ is really a beast from a power perspective where the AK120II cannot drive full size cans with anywhere near the authority of the M2. The M2 is a little touchy with IEMs due to the shear output it can produce. It would have been nice if there was an option for low gain that would have made it sound great with IEMs. With full size cans, the M2 absolutely blows the AK120II out of the water bother from an output as well as sound clarity and imagine perspective (that I prefer anyways). With the settings I mentioned above, you will be impressed. You can try those even on the IEMs but be careful with the volume as it gets "LOUD" on IEMs in a hurry and you can blow your ears out. So if IEMs are you preference, then the AK120II is probably a better way to go and run it with balanced input. I have a WyWires RED balanced cable for my full size cans.  IEMs I use are  (SENNHEISER IE800. IE80, IE8, Shure SRH425,  B&W C5-2, HIFiman RE600s, Fidue A83). They all sound good on the M@ but I prefer them on the AK120II. But I think that the Cowon Plenue P1 is even better on low gain and using the JET Effect EQ options, you can get some truly great sound signatures from IEM's as well as full size cans up to 150 ohm. After that I find the M2 the hands down best option. Now the new Luxury & Precision L5Pro is a really great sounding player as well. Not as good as the M2 but it will drive ful size cans up to 300ohm and has gain options (ultra low, Low, medium, High and Ultra high). So you can use you IEMs comfortably and get truly great sound. I use the EQ presets on the " Rock" option as it suits my sound preferences the best on this player. The HiFiman HM901s is also a very good player and really nice when you run it balanced. I have 3 different amp cards for it (stock, gold and balanced). The gold is great for full size cans, the balanced is a great option all around if you have full size cans and IEMS that will run balanced. I hope that somewhat answers your question and helps point you a little better in the direction you would like.
 
Personally though, I find the M2 currently my favorite player (full size cans are my absolute preference over IEMs) and after the M2, it is a toss-up between the Cowon P1 and the L&P L5Pro. I think that the AK120II is way over-priced for what you get. There are players at half the price (Cowon P1 and L&P L5Pro) that are as as good sounding or even better in my honest opinion. The AK120II has a very nice UI as all AK players do but sound quality is ultimately the goal here. The UI on the Cowon is very good as well (almost at the same level as the AK). Even with the few issues on the M2, the UI is pretty good. The Android OS is very basic but then again, it has all I would ever need in an Audiophile Player. If I want the extra toys to play with, then I have my Samsung S6 or Apple Ipod. I typically really don't care for either one, as I only use my S6 for phone and texting. All the other toys really don't interest me as when I work, I have little time for that and at home I use my PCs or Tablets. 

 

[zman123]

Thanks!
 
The QP1R is my next player to get. I think it is over-priced as it has more issues (I am told) with the UI than the M2. I have not heard it yet to even think of making an intelligent impression about it but I am hoping I can get my hands on one to compare to my other players. I have heard opinions where some people have told me that the QP1R is similar to the L&P L5 Pro that I have (I like it a lot).
So, if that is truly the case, I would be happy with it. But again, I listen to the full size cans as my preference even when I am not using my big headphone rig (Auralic Vega Dac and Taurus II headphone amp). This is a truly high end system that can run with Full size systems at 2-3 times the price. My Auralic system ran me about 5K $USD and it is awesome! It can run standard 1/4" input as well as balanced. On balanced mode, "Look out"! It will blow your mind away as to how great it sounds with both the Audeze and Sennheiser high end cans as well as the AKG K812. So I have somewhat spoiled myself to where It is hard to play any one system, cans or IEMs long enough based on how much free time I have. I will need to do some clearing out and only keep my absolute favorites. My wife is ready to throw all my toys in the trash. She thinks I'm nuts and she is probably right. But, this is my hobby (VERY EXPENSIVE HOBBY) but I do really enjoy the items I have and can speak pretty confidently as to how they perform and sound. So, I will give some more updates on the M2 aginst the other players I have and with various IEMs and full cans. I just need a few more weeks to properly compare. Thank goodness the holidays are coming as that is all I plan on doing! 
 
Take care and have a good one!

 

[zman123]

Well as far as hard to drive cans, I have just tried the T1 which are 600 ohm cans and they sound very nice on the M2 with the EQ settings I suggested in an earlier post. T1 is a very difficult headphone to tune in to any real preference. I find it the most picky to be honest. It images really nicely and is very natural sounding if used with the right front end equipment and settings. Personally, I find the T90 at about half the price is almost as good! Not quite but almost. Again, with the M2 it sounds very nice. There are not too many portable players that can really push the T1 to it's best. I find the M2 and the HiFiman are the only ones that can do a solid job with them. The other players just do not have enough juice to get them up to where they need to be to get the SQ that does the T1 justice and give you any real pleasure from them, especially during longer sessions. The other players end up sound too laid back and to me somewhat "boring" with the T1. 
The Cowon P1 and L&P L5Pro are O.K. but not nearly as good as the M2 and 901s (in balanced mode). If you run the HiFiman with the base amp card and try and drive any more difficult full size cans, you will be sorely disappointed. You need the Gold or balanced cards which give you 2x the output of the base card. Balanced is euphoric with the Audeze LCD-XC and the AKG K812 (very rich and detailed but strong on the treble). The HiFiman is more dark sounding so the K812 balances out very nice.
Still, the M2 is my preference overall. If it had balanced mode, 10 band EQ and Hi/Low gain settings, it would be an absolutely dynamite player for all headphones and IEMS. Not perfect with all but I think it would be the best overall option on the market with those additions. It is already outstanding with most full size cans. IEMs are somewhat too delicate for the M2 IMHO.
But, I have been trying to find a player to handle all of my full size cans with authority and so far the M2 has been the absolute best option I have encountered, bar none!

 

[curtain]

I've got some feedback regarding using the SanDisk Ultra microSDXC UHS-I Card Premium Edition 200 GB card with this player.
Got this on Cyber Monday for ~US$100. Now straight off the bat this card did not play nice, not sure because it's formatted as exFAT and whether Jelly Bean 4.3 has issues, but it would not allow copying of files from the computer to the SDXC card via the AR-M2. Windows 10 would just advise it couldn't copy the file to the card.

The 200 GB card does work somewhat with the player if you

1. Use the program guiformat to format the SDXC card to FAT32 with an allocation unit size of 65536 and quick format
2. Only write files to the SDXC card with your computer , I used the SD slot in my monitor (don't use the AR-M2 at all)
and 
3. Ensure the AR-M2 is off before you insert (or eject) the microSDXC card

I found that any deviation from the above results in the card becoming unmounted. Hopefully this gets fixed via a firmware update however its not too much to bear to get ~200GB of extra music on your player.

64 bit version of the tool is here: http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/guiformat-x64.Exe
or go here http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm

Otherwise once copied the SDXC card memory plays every file including .dff/.dsf (2822.4kHz/1bit), .flac (24bit/192kHz) until every now and then it somehow loses the SDXC card again and you need to tap the File Explorer application and then go back to the AR Music Player application for the player to see the SDXC card files again.