The following review article is from Chinese media — Panda Wandering.
Newly Upgraded
Questyle has recently released upgraded versions of the M12/M15: the M12i/M15i.
Compared to the previous generation, the M12i/M15i have obtained Apple MFi certification, providing perfect support for iPhone/iPad and Apple ecosystem. This can significantly enhance the audio quality experience on Apple devices. Additionally, the circuit design and some hardware components differ from the previous generation, resulting in a more refined sound.
The M12i/M15i support interchangeable cables, compatible with Type-C, Lightning, and computer USB interface to headphone interface. They are compatible with iOS, Android, HarmonyOS, Windows, and macOS systems. By the way, the Lightning cable needs to be purchased separately. The device comes with a Type-C cable and a Type-C to USB interface, included in the package.
The M12i/M15i both utilize ESS's flagship DAC chip—the ES9281AC, supporting PCM768 and DSD512 decoding capabilities.
They incorporate Questyle's independently developed SIP current-mode amplifier module, which is not limited by op-amp power constraints. This module boasts an ultra-low distortion of 0.0003% and high current output capability, with a noise floor below -130dB, allowing you to enjoy the auditory feast of high-fidelity sound quality.
The M12i/M15i support an adaptive headphone drive for impedances ranging from 8Ω to 600Ω, with a maximum support for headphones with 600Ω impedance. Internally, they use the TOREX high-efficiency power management system, which offers high performance, low power consumption, and low heat generation, ensuring that they do not significantly increase the power consumption of your phone.
You don't need to worry about the dongle rapidly draining your phone's battery, while it still provides powerful driving force.
The difference between the M12i and M15i lies in their circuit design and the materials used.
The M12i only supports a 3.5mm single-ended headphone jack, while the M15i supports both 3.5mm single-ended and 4.4mm headphone jacks. The M15i also has a gain switch that allows you to manually adjust between low gain and high gain.
The M15i has an external adjustable gain switch.
In terms of sound, the M15i performs better than the M12i. If your budget is not tight, I still recommend the M15i.
In the image below, you can see that the circuit design and materials used in the M12i/M15i are significantly different from the previous generation. The sound of the M12i/M15i is more refined than the M12/M15, with more cohesive and delicate handling of fine sonic details, less likely to produce harshness.
On the left are the M12i/M15i, and on the right are the M12/M15.
Let's talk about the sound. If you want to learn more about technical specifications, you can check the product description on the official website. Let's discuss the listening experience of the M12i first.
Here is the description of sound performance:
Both the M12i and M15i maintain Questyle's tuning style: wide soundstage, excellent dynamics, rich bass, detailed midrange, and bright treble. The difference lies in the refinement of handling sound details.
Both headphone models exhibit significantly improved interference resistance compared to their predecessors. They effectively eliminate electrical noise when placed near a mobile phone, ensuring a clean audio experience. During normal use, users can enjoy a darker background with no electronic noise floor, enhancing the overall listening quality. This advancement makes them ideal for uninterrupted and immersive audio enjoyment in any environment.
Listening experience
Soundstage：The soundstage is well-balanced, wide, and has a nice three-dimensional feel with clear layers. It feels grand and comfortable, allowing for long listening sessions without fatigue.
Frequency Density: The low, mid, and high frequencies are all full and rich. The sound's structure gives a powerful impression.
Separation Quality: You can clearly hear the separation between different instruments, and the positioning of sounds is distinct and not overwhelming. However, it's not as good as the separation quality of the M15i.
High-frequency performance：The M12i offers an elegant high-frequency extension, delivering clear sound contours and rich harmonic details. Its timbre is warm and comfortable, avoiding harshness or thinness, which makes for a relaxed listening experience. However, it slightly lacks the subtle cohesion found in the M15i for delicate sounds.
Mid-frequency performance：The M12i excels in mid-frequency performance, with well-focused vocals that exhibit a wide sound profile and a richer texture. The details are clear, and the overall sound is expressive and smooth. Sibilance is significantly reduced and almost unnoticeable, resulting in a warm vocal tone. When rendering love songs, the M12i conveys deep emotion. The positioning of the vocals is natural, neither too forward nor recessed, offering a balanced and engaging listening experience.
Low-frequency performance：The low-frequency is abundant, focused, and full-bodied, with deep extension and quick response, without any dragging. Drum sounds are energetic, creating a rich atmosphere. The low-frequency is punchy and elastic, relaxed and easy to listen to for long periods, without harshness. There's hardly anything to criticize about the low-frequency performance. Questyle's low-frequency tuning has always been one of my favorite aspects.
Dynamic Performance: The M12i excels in delivering a wide dynamic range and grand momentum, making it particularly suitable for classical music. However, it falls short of the M15i in terms of refinement and detail.
Summary
The M12i features a full-bodied and warm tuning style, delivering robust energy across the bass, midrange, and treble frequencies. Its powerful performance is suitable for both pop and classical music, creating a rich and immersive listening experience. The M12i significantly enhances the audio quality of your phone, offering a wide soundstage that brings music to life. Listeners can enjoy extended listening sessions without experiencing fatigue, thanks to its relaxed and comfortable sound signature. The separation of different sound elements is excellent, with each part remaining distinct and uncrowded, ensuring a clear and detailed audio presentation.
The M12i may not match the sound refinement and clarity of the higher-priced M15i, particularly in handling subtle sounds. Yet, it still offers superior overall tuning quality. This enhancement elevates your phone's audio output to HiFi levels, significantly outperforming the standard adapter cable that comes with your device. Despite its minor limitations, the M12i provides a substantial upgrade in audio experience, delivering impressive performance within its price range.
M15i listening experience
Soundstage：Clearly exceeding the M12i in terms of soundstage, it is more expansive and well-organized, with a relaxed and grand presentation. It can compete with Questyle's previous portable HiFi players.
Frequency Density: The M15i's sound is more balanced than the M12i, with better coordination across the low, mid, and high frequencies. The sound remains full-bodied but not overly thick. Overall sound quality is more refined, with clearer outlines for various sounds. When paired with good audio sources and headphones, the M15i's performance can even rival some mid-range players.
Separation Quality: The M15i provides better separation across low, mid, and high frequencies compared to the M12i. It offers more space between different sound elements, allowing some instruments to be positioned at greater distances. This results in a more expansive and grand spatial listening experience, enhancing the overall immersion and clarity of the audio.
High-frequency performance：The M15i shines in mid-frequency performance, delivering clearer and more focused vocals compared to the M12i. With more defined outlines, it eliminates the roughness in vocal details sometimes present in the M12i. Listening to vocals with the M15i is a more enjoyable experience, offering a full-bodied sound with rich emotions and clear details. This makes the M15i an excellent choice for those who prioritize vocal clarity and emotional depth in their music.
Mid-frequency performance：The M15i delivers clearer and more focused vocals compared to the M12i, with more defined outlines. The issue of roughness in vocal details that the M12i sometimes has is not present in the M15i. Listening to vocals with the M15i is more enjoyable, providing a full-bodied sound, rich emotions, and clear details.
Low-frequency performance：The M15i stands out with more powerful and rich low frequencies, with a more solid sound, better elasticity, and clearer details. Compared to the M12i, the M15i's low frequencies has a more refined texture, while still maintaining excellent atmosphere, elasticity, and speed.
Dynamic Performance: The M15i delivers a more impactful sound performance compared to the M12i, with faster transitions in the music. It offers outstanding instrument separation and clearer detail resolution. When listening to classical music, the M15i not only captures the grandeur of the performance but also allows listeners to distinctly identify the positions and nuances of various instruments. However, while the M15i excels in many areas, there remains a gap in detail resolution when compared to more expensive players.
Summary
The M15i has significantly improved upon its predecessor, resolving the roughness in sound details that were present in the M15. This results in a more refined and polished sound quality. The clarity and density distribution across low, mid, and high frequencies are now more balanced, offering a harmonious listening experience. When paired with a phone or computer, the M15i's sound quality is comparable to that of some mid-range players, performing exceptionally well. If your budget allows and you appreciate the M15's sound signature but seek an enhanced listening experience, the M15i is the ideal choice.
When driving the 300Ω HD600, the M12i provides sufficient volume. It offers better dynamics, separation, and detail resolution compared to directly connecting to a computer. It allows you to experience the charm of Questyle's sound tuning. However, there's a significant gap when compared to the CMA15. Overall, the M12i performs much better than driving the HD600 directly from a computer or smartphone.
When the M15i uses high-gain mode to drive the 300Ω HD600 headphones, the sound performance is better than the M12i. The soundstage is more expansive, and the detail resolution is much stronger. You can think of the M15i as an upgraded version of the M12i. Compared to driving the HD600 directly with a phone or computer, the M15i sounds much better, and the improvement over the M12i is even more noticeable.
When driving low-impedance headphones like the AKG Q701, both the M12i and M15i provide more energetic sound with a wider soundstage and fuller density. If you own low-impedance headphones and don't want to use non-portable HiFi equipment, these two portable DAC and headphone amp perform much better than directly connecting to your phone or computer. They are particularly well-suited for driving low-impedance headphones.
Newly Upgraded
Questyle has recently released upgraded versions of the M12/M15: the M12i/M15i.
Compared to the previous generation, the M12i/M15i have obtained Apple MFi certification, providing perfect support for iPhone/iPad and Apple ecosystem. This can significantly enhance the audio quality experience on Apple devices. Additionally, the circuit design and some hardware components differ from the previous generation, resulting in a more refined sound.
The M12i/M15i support interchangeable cables, compatible with Type-C, Lightning, and computer USB interface to headphone interface. They are compatible with iOS, Android, HarmonyOS, Windows, and macOS systems. By the way, the Lightning cable needs to be purchased separately. The device comes with a Type-C cable and a Type-C to USB interface, included in the package.
The M12i/M15i both utilize ESS's flagship DAC chip—the ES9281AC, supporting PCM768 and DSD512 decoding capabilities.
They incorporate Questyle's independently developed SIP current-mode amplifier module, which is not limited by op-amp power constraints. This module boasts an ultra-low distortion of 0.0003% and high current output capability, with a noise floor below -130dB, allowing you to enjoy the auditory feast of high-fidelity sound quality.
The M12i/M15i support an adaptive headphone drive for impedances ranging from 8Ω to 600Ω, with a maximum support for headphones with 600Ω impedance. Internally, they use the TOREX high-efficiency power management system, which offers high performance, low power consumption, and low heat generation, ensuring that they do not significantly increase the power consumption of your phone.
You don't need to worry about the dongle rapidly draining your phone's battery, while it still provides powerful driving force.
The difference between the M12i and M15i lies in their circuit design and the materials used.
The M12i only supports a 3.5mm single-ended headphone jack, while the M15i supports both 3.5mm single-ended and 4.4mm headphone jacks. The M15i also has a gain switch that allows you to manually adjust between low gain and high gain.
The M15i has an external adjustable gain switch.
In terms of sound, the M15i performs better than the M12i. If your budget is not tight, I still recommend the M15i.
In the image below, you can see that the circuit design and materials used in the M12i/M15i are significantly different from the previous generation. The sound of the M12i/M15i is more refined than the M12/M15, with more cohesive and delicate handling of fine sonic details, less likely to produce harshness.
On the left are the M12i/M15i, and on the right are the M12/M15.
Let's talk about the sound. If you want to learn more about technical specifications, you can check the product description on the official website. Let's discuss the listening experience of the M12i first.
Here is the description of sound performance:
Both the M12i and M15i maintain Questyle's tuning style: wide soundstage, excellent dynamics, rich bass, detailed midrange, and bright treble. The difference lies in the refinement of handling sound details.
Both headphone models exhibit significantly improved interference resistance compared to their predecessors. They effectively eliminate electrical noise when placed near a mobile phone, ensuring a clean audio experience. During normal use, users can enjoy a darker background with no electronic noise floor, enhancing the overall listening quality. This advancement makes them ideal for uninterrupted and immersive audio enjoyment in any environment.
Listening experience
Soundstage：The soundstage is well-balanced, wide, and has a nice three-dimensional feel with clear layers. It feels grand and comfortable, allowing for long listening sessions without fatigue.
Frequency Density: The low, mid, and high frequencies are all full and rich. The sound's structure gives a powerful impression.
Separation Quality: You can clearly hear the separation between different instruments, and the positioning of sounds is distinct and not overwhelming. However, it's not as good as the separation quality of the M15i.
High-frequency performance：The M12i offers an elegant high-frequency extension, delivering clear sound contours and rich harmonic details. Its timbre is warm and comfortable, avoiding harshness or thinness, which makes for a relaxed listening experience. However, it slightly lacks the subtle cohesion found in the M15i for delicate sounds.
Mid-frequency performance：The M12i excels in mid-frequency performance, with well-focused vocals that exhibit a wide sound profile and a richer texture. The details are clear, and the overall sound is expressive and smooth. Sibilance is significantly reduced and almost unnoticeable, resulting in a warm vocal tone. When rendering love songs, the M12i conveys deep emotion. The positioning of the vocals is natural, neither too forward nor recessed, offering a balanced and engaging listening experience.
Low-frequency performance：The low-frequency is abundant, focused, and full-bodied, with deep extension and quick response, without any dragging. Drum sounds are energetic, creating a rich atmosphere. The low-frequency is punchy and elastic, relaxed and easy to listen to for long periods, without harshness. There's hardly anything to criticize about the low-frequency performance. Questyle's low-frequency tuning has always been one of my favorite aspects.
Dynamic Performance: The M12i excels in delivering a wide dynamic range and grand momentum, making it particularly suitable for classical music. However, it falls short of the M15i in terms of refinement and detail.
Summary
The M12i features a full-bodied and warm tuning style, delivering robust energy across the bass, midrange, and treble frequencies. Its powerful performance is suitable for both pop and classical music, creating a rich and immersive listening experience. The M12i significantly enhances the audio quality of your phone, offering a wide soundstage that brings music to life. Listeners can enjoy extended listening sessions without experiencing fatigue, thanks to its relaxed and comfortable sound signature. The separation of different sound elements is excellent, with each part remaining distinct and uncrowded, ensuring a clear and detailed audio presentation.
The M12i may not match the sound refinement and clarity of the higher-priced M15i, particularly in handling subtle sounds. Yet, it still offers superior overall tuning quality. This enhancement elevates your phone's audio output to HiFi levels, significantly outperforming the standard adapter cable that comes with your device. Despite its minor limitations, the M12i provides a substantial upgrade in audio experience, delivering impressive performance within its price range.
M15i listening experience
Soundstage：Clearly exceeding the M12i in terms of soundstage, it is more expansive and well-organized, with a relaxed and grand presentation. It can compete with Questyle's previous portable HiFi players.
Frequency Density: The M15i's sound is more balanced than the M12i, with better coordination across the low, mid, and high frequencies. The sound remains full-bodied but not overly thick. Overall sound quality is more refined, with clearer outlines for various sounds. When paired with good audio sources and headphones, the M15i's performance can even rival some mid-range players.
Separation Quality: The M15i provides better separation across low, mid, and high frequencies compared to the M12i. It offers more space between different sound elements, allowing some instruments to be positioned at greater distances. This results in a more expansive and grand spatial listening experience, enhancing the overall immersion and clarity of the audio.
High-frequency performance：The M15i shines in mid-frequency performance, delivering clearer and more focused vocals compared to the M12i. With more defined outlines, it eliminates the roughness in vocal details sometimes present in the M12i. Listening to vocals with the M15i is a more enjoyable experience, offering a full-bodied sound with rich emotions and clear details. This makes the M15i an excellent choice for those who prioritize vocal clarity and emotional depth in their music.
Mid-frequency performance：The M15i delivers clearer and more focused vocals compared to the M12i, with more defined outlines. The issue of roughness in vocal details that the M12i sometimes has is not present in the M15i. Listening to vocals with the M15i is more enjoyable, providing a full-bodied sound, rich emotions, and clear details.
Low-frequency performance：The M15i stands out with more powerful and rich low frequencies, with a more solid sound, better elasticity, and clearer details. Compared to the M12i, the M15i's low frequencies has a more refined texture, while still maintaining excellent atmosphere, elasticity, and speed.
Dynamic Performance: The M15i delivers a more impactful sound performance compared to the M12i, with faster transitions in the music. It offers outstanding instrument separation and clearer detail resolution. When listening to classical music, the M15i not only captures the grandeur of the performance but also allows listeners to distinctly identify the positions and nuances of various instruments. However, while the M15i excels in many areas, there remains a gap in detail resolution when compared to more expensive players.
Summary
The M15i has significantly improved upon its predecessor, resolving the roughness in sound details that were present in the M15. This results in a more refined and polished sound quality. The clarity and density distribution across low, mid, and high frequencies are now more balanced, offering a harmonious listening experience. When paired with a phone or computer, the M15i's sound quality is comparable to that of some mid-range players, performing exceptionally well. If your budget allows and you appreciate the M15's sound signature but seek an enhanced listening experience, the M15i is the ideal choice.
Driving full-size headphones test
When driving the 300Ω HD600, the M12i provides sufficient volume. It offers better dynamics, separation, and detail resolution compared to directly connecting to a computer. It allows you to experience the charm of Questyle's sound tuning. However, there's a significant gap when compared to the CMA15. Overall, the M12i performs much better than driving the HD600 directly from a computer or smartphone.
When the M15i uses high-gain mode to drive the 300Ω HD600 headphones, the sound performance is better than the M12i. The soundstage is more expansive, and the detail resolution is much stronger. You can think of the M15i as an upgraded version of the M12i. Compared to driving the HD600 directly with a phone or computer, the M15i sounds much better, and the improvement over the M12i is even more noticeable.
When driving low-impedance headphones like the AKG Q701, both the M12i and M15i provide more energetic sound with a wider soundstage and fuller density. If you own low-impedance headphones and don't want to use non-portable HiFi equipment, these two portable DAC and headphone amp perform much better than directly connecting to your phone or computer. They are particularly well-suited for driving low-impedance headphones.
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