Hey all,
I've been busy with a whole lot of schoolwork concerning high school graduation lately but I'd like to take a bit of time to say a few things about the Benjie K8 (with a built-in speaker) I received in the mail 2 days ago.
Long story short, I'm extremely satisfied.
Haven't tested the battery life extensively yet but woah... all of the problems I had with both of my Benjie X1 DAPs - freezing when trying to power off on the clock screen, buzzing/ticking noises in the background, FLAC playback interrupted by stuttering, volume changing while on the now playing screen causing some of the song files in the song select menu to appear on it... ALL NON-EXISTANT with the K8! Not to mention the ADDED FEATURES on the K8 which I highly appreciate: there is an alarm I can set on the player, and the speaker + backlight buttons can be toggled on/off in the options menu (speaker works surprisingly well btw, it can be loud for such a small-looking thing!). Firmware is SNAPPY on both the K8 and X1, even though the touch controls are more finicky on my K8 than X1 (I have to tap in FRONT of the arrows on the directional buttons, not on the buttons themselves, to increase my chances of the press registering). Bluetooth seems to pair and play well, too (tried pairing it with my friend's Bluetooth IEMs with no fuss! Don't have any Bluetooth IEMs/Earbuds/Headphones of my own to double-check, though). I took quite a few photos for comparison with one of the Benjie X1 DAPs I own which I want to post later on, as the firmware, besides the Bluetooth capabilities on the K8, have some notable differences such as an entirely revamped extended menu (toggled by selecting the "Tools" option on the K8's home menu) allowing access to the extra features such as voice recording and the FM radio also present in the X1.
Navigation is also interestingly different between the K8 and X1; when browsing up and down through song lists/folders/playlists/etc., the up/down buttons are used to navigate, left is used to go back to the previous menu, and right is to choose between going to the "Now playing" screen for the current song or deleting it (if any song is playing) on the K8, whereas for the X1, navigation through the lists is done via left/right buttons, down is used to go back to the last menu, and up is to choose between going to the "Now playing" screen for the current song or deleting it (if any song is playing).
Finally, sound. Yikes, (arguable) the most important thing about a DAP, and I don't know how to comment on it like most of the more active and experienced Head-Fiers here? I need to learn, dangit... how can I say this with the limited knowledge and understanding I have concerning audiophile lingo? Um... take all this with a massive grain of salt, but: bass seems to be only odd aspect I've noticed in the K8 - light, lacking punch with my Yersen FEN-2000, BGVP SGZ-DN1 and Superlux HD668B. Haven't tried with my Tin Audio T2 yet but not expecting much of a difference. Sound feels a little congested overall compared to my Ruizu A50, but hey, the Ruizu A50 costs about twice as much in Canada compared to the Benjie K8!
Anyways, please let me know if you guys have any questions about the K8, and I hope you look forward to the comparison photos!
