[specKtre]

-Battery life is very poor (I think something like 5 hours but I need more time to confirm it)


 

Well, this sounds sad. And also weird. There are two M2 Pro owners on a player.ru/forum. Both claim their dap is able to play up to 7 hours. One of them ran a continuous playback test actually. The possibilities I see are a) your earphones are greedy; b) there are two slightly different fw with a battery optimized in one; c) M2 battery can be trained so its lifetime gets better after some emty/charge cycles.
Nevertheless, thank you fo this little review. Sadly, it made my choice even harder as playback time is crucial for me. 

 

[Mimouille]

I should have my M2S when I get back home. Apparently the S model is only for outside China. If it sounds even better than the pro, it is quite promising. Too bad the S is only in blue now.

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

What is the advantage of M2S over the Pro? From the pics it looks like M2S has a funky red and white PCB while the Pro version has the regular black PCB.

 

[specKtre]

-Battery life is very poor (I think something like 5 hours but I need more time to confirm it)
 

Well, this sounds sad. And also weird. There are two M2 Pro owners on a well known russian-speaking forum. Both claim their dap is able to play up to 7 hours. One of them ran a continuous playback test actually. The possibilities I see are a) your earphones are greedy; b) there are two slightly different fw with a battery optimized in one; c) M2 battery can be trained so its lifetime gets better after some emty/charge cycles.
Nevertheless, thank you fo this little review. Sadly, it made my choice even harder as playback time is crucial for me. 
 
P.S. Sorry, if this message will appear twice. I've found i'm not allowed to post links, so i removed the aformentioned forum's name

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

This graph shows the differences between the models:
 

 
Base model M2 is $350, extra $150 gets you M2 Pro with femto clocks, extra $300 gets you M2S with femto clocks + teflon substrate PCB.

 

[VintageFlanker]

Well, this sounds sad. And also weird. There are two M2 Pro owners on a well known russian-speaking forum. Both claim their dap is able to play up to 7 hours. One of them ran a continuous playback test actually. The possibilities I see are a) your earphones are greedy; b) there are two slightly different fw with a battery optimized in one; c) M2 battery can be trained so its lifetime gets better after some emty/charge cycles.

Nevertheless, thank you fo this little review. Sadly, it made my choice even harder as playback time is crucial for me. 

P.S. Sorry, if this message will appear twice. I've found i'm not allowed to post links, so i removed the aformentioned forum's name

The thing is my M2 is brand new right out of the box since yesterday only. Maybe battery needs one or two full charge to "burn in". About headphones, I use Shure SRH 1540 which is not the most difficult to drive around. One important fact during battery tests is what is the volume level used. I personally listen from 59 to 79% (quite loud but needed in subway) on my M2 and there is no doubt this is a factor.

I will give you other feedback after charge/discharge 3-4 times, but I confirm the first discharge from 100 to 0% was less than 6 hours yesterday and this morning (being in France, it's almost 4pm! )

 

[specKtre]

The thing is my M2 is brand new right out of the box since yesterday only. Maybe battery needs one or two full charge to "burn in". About headphones, I use Shure SRH 1540 which is not the most difficult to drive around. One important fact during battery tests is what is the volume level used. I personally listen from 59 to 79% (quite loud but needed in subway) on my M2 and there is no doubt this is a factor.

I will give you other feedback after charge/discharge 3-4 times, but I confirm the first discharge from 100 to 0% was less than 6 hours yesterday and this morning (being in France, it's almost 4pm! )

It would be really nice of you and also really useful. 
Also there is another possibility. Maybe it is a non-pro version of M2 that suffers from such a poor battery life. We know that M2 Pro has a battery with a slightly bigger capacity, so maybe it is also better optimized in terms of energy saving by now. 
A bit off offtopic: our counties are not too distant from one another (I'm in Ukraine), so time is also close (5pm here) )))

 

[yoghurtlidlicker]

I just bought it yesterday and I confirm my point of view. The UI is purely old school in the bad way.
Playback by folders in late 2015 for a 350€ (375$) DAP is difficult to forgive...

I owned or tried AK JR, iBasso DX80, Fiio X5II and Cayin N5 this year in the same price range and M2 is far far behind regarding UI and ergonomics.

Now a quick feedback (please read entirely)

-Chinese language right out of the box.So the first thing is to search the language setting (also in chinese)
-Screen has bad resolution (no idea what is it and UI is in grey levels...back to 2004. However it seems able to show some colors, battery charge screen being green.
-For me, UI is unintuitive and controls difficult to use right now
-It's bulky and heavy compared to Fiio X5II, AK JR, and even iBasso DX80 or Cayin N5...
-...However this is one of the best build quality and finish I've ever seen: massive aluminium body with logo and marks carved in metal. Awesome!
-Battery life is very poor (I think something like 5 hours but I need more time to confirm it)

Now,...SOUND:

For the few hours I listened to it, and despite I'm not used to 1k$ players, this is the best sounding DAP I ever heard. Period.

-Soundstage and imaging are far beyond from his rivals can do, including DX80. Despite the air and instruments separation, it's full, consistant and organic.
-Signature is pure candy, warm but very detailed and dynamic with a unusual sense of rythm.Closest rival is N5 but M2 does everything better.
-Highs and mids are very detailed, textured, never receased neither agressive or bright (DX80 or X5ii can at high volume).

I don't know if some kind of burn in will improve SQ. But for now, I cannot imagine switch back to rivals in this price range (350-499$). SQ is such a strong point for the first hours I listened to it that I'm ready to forgive all others weaknesses.

For now, I'm waiting for MASSIVE firmware updates including music library with tags, album cover, controls optimised, maybe (if I may dream) improved battery life, USB transfer, USB DAC with ASIO driver (I'm sorry to repeat myself, but this is the most important point for me).

Now, I' going back to listen it before starting work

(Sorry about my English)

thanks for the review.
SQ and build quality is the most important thing for me.
I'd like old school UI as long is not laggy.

I can't wait for comparison to Chord Mojo etc.

I better start saving ££!
 
cheers! 

 

 

[nmatheis]

yoghurtlidlicker: The UI is not laggy. It's quite fast. No worries there.

Would a quick video help?

 

[yoghurtlidlicker]

@yoghurtlidlicker: The UI is not laggy. It's quite fast. No worries there.

Would a quick video help?

video would be great!

I'm a big fan of simple UI's. I prefer no artwork and just folder browsing.

 

[nmatheis]

YouTube is processing the video now. Be back soon...

 

[nmatheis]

Here you go. It's just a crappy iPhone video. I shot at 720p but is getting uploaded as 320p, so vid quality isn't the best. Sorry about that.
 

 

[yoghurtlidlicker]

  Here you go. It's just a crappy iPhone video. I shot at 720p but is getting uploaded as 320p, so vid quality isn't the best. Sorry about that.
 

thanks a lot nmatheis! 
It looks great/solid.

 

[nmatheis]

Glad to be of service

 

[cattlethief]

Like the look of this player amazon uk have got a seller looks a good bet at £225.