[PeacockObscura]

by the way, what is your favorite DAP in your collection?
Shanling M6pro 2021 seem very promising...never heard any DAP using ES9068 dac...
im working on video review of Hiby RS2 right now. Very musical, analog euphonic wide tall open way. i was expecting more from NOS and sound tweaking...which are very subtle...apart MSEB and PEQ...battery life is impressive!

The M6pro (21) is indeed a great DAP its number 2 in my collection above the FiiO M15 but below the Sony WM1A the King of the castle running the Mercury firmware an honourable mention for the CAYIN N3pro and Cayin RU6 R2R dongle

 

[Ceeluh7]

lol, yeah, well...i like to over work on stuff so i will surely improvise and include this as bonus for headfi review since i feel dropping a youtube link is very low.
as well, ive listen more to them...
must admit i was surprise by my ultimate yuck face reaction listening to the Chu....really a mystery to me those that find them musical...i will never touch them again yet dont know who to give them too...not my ex gf since shes sensitive to shoutyness...not my brother nor my friends cause they deserve better. im happy i never accept to do giveaway of those on Chifi Love. this is very subjective rant i guess, yet...i really dont know who to give them too.

Dude I feel 100% the same about the Chu. I bought them thinking I was going to hear the next great Moondrop tuning effort only to be completely let down. I suppose it is genre specific. Hope you are doing well man.

 

[NymPHONOmaniac]

The M6pro (21) is indeed a great DAP its number 2 in my collection above the FiiO M15 but below the Sony WM1A the King of the castle running the Mercury firmware an honourable mention for the CAYIN N3pro and Cayin RU6 R2R dongle

wow...wth, you seem to have the ultimate DAP collection...can just dream of trying the WM1A one day, and M15 too

let say for now my fav is Tempotec V6, for its versatility, great clean smooth detailed sound, decent battery life and powerfull output (620mw) as well as bal se line out...for 400$ its a crazy bargain. Questyle QP¨2R is highly addictive too and this Hiby RS2 is great.

still, i havent found my end game perfect DAP yet.....

 

[NymPHONOmaniac]

Dude I feel 100% the same about the Chu. I bought them thinking I was going to hear the next great Moondrop tuning effort only to be completely let down. I suppose it is genre specific. Hope you are doing well man.

oh ok im not the only one then, ouf...let say its super boxy dry df neutral...i prefer spaceship and SSP over these for sure...now their the CHU Dsd usc c thing...and the Stellaris doesnt get big praise...not sure to understand what happen with Moondrop but they need to get a refresh or something tuning wise...imo....

right now I listen the Penon Serial....again...hooked on Moondrop Dawn 4.4....again...
bass is fabulous, especially electric and acoustic bass player sound so full and realist, with their own presence layer, super well separated...so captivating. And the same goes for vocal: fullness and separation of presence. wide and lush, nuanced in texture without being forced, mids seem to have extra transparency to them....

a beautiful love affair have begin with the Serial
what are you listen too right now or mostly this week mate??

 

[Ceeluh7]

oh ok im not the only one then, ouf...let say its super boxy dry df neutral...i prefer spaceship and SSP over these for sure...now their the CHU Dsd usc c thing...and the Stellaris doesnt get big praise...not sure to understand what happen with Moondrop but they need to get a refresh or something tuning wise...imo....

right now I listen the Penon Serial....again...hooked on Moondrop Dawn 4.4....again...
bass is fabulous, especially electric and acoustic bass player sound so full and realist, with their own presence layer, super well separated...so captivating. And the same goes for vocal: fullness and separation of presence. wide and lush, nuanced in texture without being forced, mids seem to have extra transparency to them....

a beautiful love affair have begin with the Serial
what are you listen too right now or mostly this week mate??

I have been so busy trying to finish the JD7 review which has taken a big chunk of my time as well as the Kima as I'm trying to double down and knock some of these out. However, right now I'm listening to the Ole school original Mangird Tea, just because. Ya man, I purposefully did not write a review of the Chu because it was going to be pretty bad. Sorry Moondrop. Anyways I whole heartedly agree that the SSP & Spaceship both represent the whole spectrum much better. Who knows, this is one crazy subjective hobby for sure. Also, I have to check out both the Serial and I'm kicking myself that I didn't pick up the Dawn. I have been hearing an onslaught of people praising that dongle of late. You were one of the 1st (that I saw) to really heap praises so... Right on mate. I'll pick it up very soon.

 

[NymPHONOmaniac]

I have been so busy trying to finish the JD7 review which has taken a big chunk of my time as well as the Kima as I'm trying to double down and knock some of these out. However, right now I'm listening to the Ole school original Mangird Tea, just because. Ya man, I purposefully did not write a review of the Chu because it was going to be pretty bad. Sorry Moondrop. Anyways I whole heartedly agree that the SSP & Spaceship both represent the whole spectrum much better. Who knows, this is one crazy subjective hobby for sure. Also, I have to check out both the Serial and I'm kicking myself that I didn't pick up the Dawn. I have been hearing an onslaught of people praising that dongle of late. You were one of the 1st (that I saw) to really heap praises so... Right on mate. I'll pick it up very soon.

Dawn 4.4 bro, its absurd that the 3.5 single ended cost just 5$ less when power output is 2 times less...as well as crosstalk...Dawn 4.4 have low gain 2vrms that have enough low impedance for most sensitive IEM, this is why i find it supreme versatile dongle. 4vrms can drive planar IEM very well too, better than M15 in that regard.
Tanchjim Space might be better value if you need se output...but i cant review it i think...im not part of marketing agenda and will never be so...c'est la vie!
oh, those Tea seem great for sure. and yes, Serial is excellent, i begin to enter critical listening mode so while i feel bass is star of the show, for ex, bassist sound freakin insanely good, with clean fowards presence yet kick drum lack a bit of well define and textured punch due to sub bass focus, anyway, its not a Moondrop Aria at all nor U shape with recessed mids...but all bass mids and treble have smoothed edge. still, i do think Serial will be among my best IEM of 2022, with Tangzu Zetian, Simgot EN1000, Sonic Memory SM2, Audiosense AQ4, Hisenior Mega5p and Tangzu Waner and...hum, ive decide to do Worst IEM of 2022 list too, CHU will be in there, some KZ CCA, Dioko, HZsound Pro......

 

[Ceeluh7]

Dawn 4.4 bro, its absurd that the 3.5 single ended cost just 5$ less when power output is 2 times less...as well as crosstalk...Dawn 4.4 have low gain 2vrms that have enough low impedance for most sensitive IEM, this is why i find it supreme versatile dongle. 4vrms can drive planar IEM very well too, better than M15 in that regard.
Tanchjim Space might be better value if you need se output...but i cant review it i think...im not part of marketing agenda and will never be so...c'est la vie!
oh, those Tea seem great for sure. and yes, Serial is excellent, i begin to enter critical listening mode so while i feel bass is star of the show, for ex, bassist sound freakin insanely good, with clean fowards presence yet kick drum lack a bit of well define and textured punch due to sub bass focus, anyway, its not a Moondrop Aria at all nor U shape with recessed mids...but all bass mids and treble have smoothed edge. still, i do think Serial will be among my best IEM of 2022, with Tangzu Zetian, Simgot EN1000, Sonic Memory SM2, Audiosense AQ4, Hisenior Mega5p and Tangzu Waner and...hum, ive decide to do Worst IEM of 2022 list too, CHU will be in there, some KZ CCA, Dioko, HZsound Pro......

You make a very enticing argument for the Dawn and the Serial. I would certainly go for the 4.4 Dawn as damn near every cable I have is 4.4 so that will work nicely. Within the next couple weeks I will purchase that and I will likely make one more good sized iem purchase and really trying to deduce what I will enjoy the most. I like the idea of a worst of 2022 list. Every new iem is a hype train anymore, all of them. They are flare gun shots to the sky that are as bright and promising as can be but fizzle out very quickly. It's a good thing to actually take time and weed through some of the overhype with an honest subjective opinion.

 

[helloh3adfi]

Why the heck would I limit myself to 1 output if I can just get a Fiio KA3 which is not worse?

Serial is excellent, i begin to enter critical listening mode so while i feel bass is star of the show, for ex, bassist sound freakin insanely good, with clean fowards presence yet kick drum lack a bit of well define and textured punch due to sub bass focus, anyway, its not a Moondrop Aria at all nor U shape with recessed mids...but all bass mids and treble have smoothed edge.

Well, I find the Serial to punch harder than the Aria. Then again there are a lot of variables between each user.

 

[NymPHONOmaniac]

Why the heck would I limit myself to 1 output if I can just get a Fiio KA3 which is not worse?


Well, I find the Serial to punch harder than the Aria. Then again there are a lot of variables between each user.

yes its what im imply with my ''its not an aria'', it sure have more slam, i love the bass but seek for supreme utopic bass perfection too lol where both sub bass line and kick drum will be full bodied and independant in dynamic rendering
what audio source you enjoy the Serial most with? do you feel they scale up with power?

 

[helloh3adfi]

yes its what im imply with my ''its not an aria'', it sure have more slam, i love the bass but seek for supreme utopic bass perfection too lol where both sub bass line and kick drum will be full bodied and independant in dynamic rendering
what audio source you enjoy the Serial most with? do you feel they scale up with power?

They're still burning in and so far I only tried them on Fiio K7. You can't go wrong with powerful amps, even if ASR guys say otherwise.

 

[Nimweth]

lol, yeah, well...i like to over work on stuff so i will surely improvise and include this as bonus for headfi review since i feel dropping a youtube link is very low.
as well, ive listen more to them...
must admit i was surprise by my ultimate yuck face reaction listening to the Chu....really a mystery to me those that find them musical...i will never touch them again yet dont know who to give them too...not my ex gf since shes sensitive to shoutyness...not my brother nor my friends cause they deserve better. im happy i never accept to do giveaway of those on Chifi Love. this is very subjective rant i guess, yet...i really dont know who to give them too.

Yes, I gave mine away to a charity organisation. Disappointing.

 

[NymPHONOmaniac]

Yes, I gave mine away to a charity organisation. Disappointing.

good idea, let do some CHUrity giving then!

 

[Carpet]

Yes, I gave mine away to a charity organisation. Disappointing.

In which way was your charitable donation disappointing....

1: you saw the person doing the local sorting for the charity wearing them.

2: you saw the CEO of the charity wearing them.

3: you recieved a letter from a third world country

"Please forget the donkey, well and seeds for planting. I need a Tidal subscription, DAP, 6N OCC 8 core cable and some better tips?"

 

[bantn]

Thoughts on budget DAPs? Thinking of picking up the xduoo x2s and wondering if there's something better out around that price now.

 

[baskingshark]

Thoughts on budget DAPs? Thinking of picking up the xduoo x2s and wondering if there's something better out around that price now.

My 2 cents is that if you don't mind dongle DAC/AMPs, I feel they give better price-to-performance ratio for sound, compared to DAPs. Though dongle DAC/AMPs may drain the battery of the phone, or phone may run out of memory if one uses too many lossless files.

Even a sub $10 apple dongle is quite decent in sound, though it can't power more demanding gear.



But if I were to recommend a budget DAP, my vote goes to the Sony A55.
I bought mine at $130 USD during sales first hand. The stock form is a bit meh. But Mr Walkman has kindly provided a free firmware update that unlocks its potential:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/sony-walkman-custom-firmware-non-android.943661/
https://www.mrwalkman.com/

With the firmware update, region locks are unlocked (so no volume cap), and you can customize it to 4 different sound signatures - bright to neutral to warm. The stock sound is buttery smooth and warm like the Sony housesound, but with the custom firmware, technicalities, layering and imaging are better. It sounds like a midFI DAP with the custom firmware. There is 2 way BT (very stable), and battery life is about 32 hours.

Only issue is the A55 cannot drive too demanding transducers.