And suddenly I NEED a DAP...

[Borku]

Hi,


This is my first post (presentation aside) and somehow, I am inclined to tell you the process I am living now, it will look familiar to you for sure.

I don’t know why I have the urge to have a DAP, I had iPods but in the last years I have relied on my phone to listen to music on the go. I also had my share of Etymotic ER-6, Shure E3, Grado SR60 Sennheiser HD25, and recently K-ZS3 and K-ZS5, as well as other regrettable cheap options.

To me concepts as sound richness, stage, tonality are totally new, and the more I read the worse my phone sounds .

Anyhow, as I was saying, I NEED a DAP. After narrowing the search to a maximum of 200 EUR, I have 3 contenders: Xduoo X3, assuming an instant firmware upgrade to rockbox, Cayin N3, and Shanling M2s, this one my favourite so far, I think that I need BT, but unfortunately WiFi is so far too expensive to “need”, but it could be good.

After that I might need an AMP (I don’t think so, but you know…) and new earphones.

I would love to hear your inputs for a first step in the DAPs (under 200 EUR).

 

[Oscar-HiFi]

Shanling M2s is the most complete package, easy to use and sounds great. Under €200 it would be my choice.

 

[cossix]

I like FiiO because of the low price and good performance but I've heard consistently good things about Shanling

 

[Borku]

Looks like M2s is likely to be the option, no more upgrades! I have doubled the ideal budget from Xduoo X3 to M2s.
How fast must the Micro SD card be?

 

[cossix]

Looks like M2s is likely to be the option, no more upgrades! I have doubled the ideal budget from Xduoo X3 to M2s.
How fast must the Micro SD card be?

The speed of the card matters most in terms of write speeds. Many cards have a quick enough read speed to make playback seamless. I like SanDisk cards and I use them in all of my devices. They typically have fast and affordable cards

 

[Oscar-HiFi]

Looks like M2s is likely to be the option, no more upgrades! I have doubled the ideal budget from Xduoo X3 to M2s.
How fast must the Micro SD card be?

With players it really doesn't matter too much, as even a class 1 is fast enough, the main difference is when transferring music, if you get a class 1 it'll take longer to transfer your files from your PC to MicroSD.

 

[Oscar-HiFi]

I like FiiO because of the low price and good performance but I've heard consistently good things about Shanling

I just hear lots of people saying they have dropped the ball regading the UI... which is a shame as I used to like Fiio players quite a lot.

 

[cossix]

I just hear lots of people saying they have dropped the ball regading the UI... which is a shame as I used to like Fiio players quite a lot.

The UI isn't beautiful by any means, but it's simple and works as intended. When you buy products with this kind of value, the features tend to lean towards simple utility instead of pretty design. For me, it's worth saving the money to get a simple player that sounds great over a more expensive player with a more attractive UI. Its all up to preference!

 

[Borku]

The speed of the card matters most in terms of write speeds. Many cards have a quick enough read speed to make playback seamless. I like SanDisk cards and I use them in all of my devices. They typically have fast and affordable cards

With players it really doesn't matter too much, as even a class 1 is fast enough, the main difference is when transferring music, if you get a class 1 it'll take longer to transfer your files from your PC to MicroSD.

Anyway it is going to be difficult to get a 128GB card slower than 10x I guess. So another 50 EUR to add

 

[cossix]

Anyway it is going to be difficult to get a 128GB card slower than 10x I guess. So another 50 EUR to add

Good pick, I hope you enjoy it all!

 

[Oscar-HiFi]

The UI isn't beautiful by any means, but it's simple and works as intended. When you buy products with this kind of value, the features tend to lean towards simple utility instead of pretty design. For me, it's worth saving the money to get a simple player that sounds great over a more expensive player with a more attractive UI. Its all up to preference!

Hiby (what Shanling use) is really nice to use but it also comes down to preference.

 

[Borku]

Oh boy... I have just found out that an M3s is coming... This is never going to end

 

[Jerda]

The best ~200€ DAP is a second hand one.
If you still don't need the sd wait Black Friday and for 50 bucks you will buy the 200gb sandisk

 

[Borku]

In Spain the 2nd hand market is not active and by no means cheap, It is not unusual to find items with only a 10-15% discount. Black Friday is always an option, but once again, amazon here is not so price aggressive as in the States, but sure I keep all my options open.

 

[Jerda]

You could search in all the Europe and worldwide too but before doing that look the price to get you in Spain
Edit. Example: in this summer hifiman started to sell he400i at 250$, price in Italy is still 370€ And price second hand is like 300€, i ve bought the he400i massdrop edition at 165€ shipped with the suggested pads for better sound quality.
That's was an headphone, but if you search outside Spain you could get better option for second hand daps