[david8613]

Never thought of that, I'm very new to all of this. I am trying to avoid using my phone. I have been enjoying too much music on note 8 lately and its killing my battery. I would like to use a separate device for music listening and I figured if I am going to get something for the job get something better than a simple mp3 player.

 

[milesjunkie]

Have you thought about adding a dac/amp to your note8 rather than starting from scratch? There are some fantastic options.

Another option would be a used Sony ZX2. I think you need to clarify in your head your main use cases. For example, a Shanling m2s will cost less than a R3 and allow you to stream from your phone and send the signal to the DAP via Bluetooth. It also allows you to control your music from your phone if you so desire. Of course if you deem it necessary to stream from a native app it does point to an Android device. Bear in mind if you do go the ibasso route (and I have owned both) the DX150 is now available at a more affordable price level to the 200 but with most of the same features and sound quality.

 

[bonesb]

Never thought of that, I'm very new to all of this. I am trying to avoid using my phone. I have been enjoying too much music on note 8 lately and its killing my battery. I would like to use a separate device for music listening and I figured if I am going to get something for the job get something better than a simple mp3 player.

You will end up with two devices any ways, so why not the DAC/AMP, from my readings the DAC have better internals, I may be wrong. The battery drain is a problem with android, I wish there was an option like in iphone to charge and listen to music at the same time when using USB out.

 

[CoupleofBigGulps]

I'll throw my opinion on the topic. I have a Galaxy S8+ and I went with a Fiio Q1 mk2 to pair with the phone and use Spotify Premium. Well using the phone's USB-C + OTG adapter to the Q1 was hit and miss. Several occasions I would setup everything and turn on a song for it to be blaring out of the phone speakers. Also, every a time a call comes in, have to unhook the amp/dac. The cable provided was short so picking up to the phone and amp/dac was cumbersome to juggle both devices to preform phone tasks. So, being it was in my amazon return period I returned it and bought the Fiio X5 mk3. This device has a nice sound signature with my Pinnacle PX's but man the performance was terrible. Granted, it was only $300 new it was just a sluggish and down right frustrating experience. If you rely on streaming like I do, that device could not hold a wifi connection. I literally sit underneath an access point at work and it constantly dropped. The only way to make it consistently stay on was to keep the device from locking and turning the screen off. Even after updating the firmware it was still terrible. So like the Q1 I returned the X5 back to Amazon.

The $300 is burning a hole in my pocket and I have come down to three alternatives. The more expensive Hiby R6, the Pioneer 300R or the Onkyo DP-X1a. Currently the R6 is $560 on Amazon and what I can tell they have a great presence here on the forums. The product thread is constantly updated and I can see someone from Hiby taking the suggestions of the user community and bug reports and implementing those into updates for the device. That is something I doubt highly Pioneer/Onkyo would be doing. Not only that the snapdragon processor and 3gb of RAM will the be closest experience to a smart phone.

 

[Pro-Jules]

I like the LDAC on my Fii0 M9 but M9 doesn't work well with WiFi and LDAC running at the same time. The Android version and cpu power is too low.

is there a DAP with reasonably up to date Android + LDAC + wifi streaming + Qobuz offline download?

 

[Hyde8767]

What Android based DAP's are out there that actually allow you to install music apps (Spotify, Tidal, ...)?

I only know of the Acoustic Research M2 and the Sony models...

Hiby r6/r6pro