Colorfly C10 - Colorfly Is Back!

[JASru]

1599 yuan?

Hope I will not get banned for this link =D : https://goo.gl/nx3wzQ

 

[JASru]

Blue seems to be low/gone on stock, but gold is still there. The price is bit higher though.

 

[kova4a]

They seem to be getting small stock every few days. If one checks the page several times throughout the day might get lucky. It was available the other day. I ordered one last week. Yeah one can buy a more feature-rich DAP with more consumer-friendly UI nowadays, but I don't care at all for its drawbacks, so it was an easy decision at $144 with the option for paypal payment.
Colorfly might not ne up to par on the software front but they sure do know how to make great sounding DAPs.

 

[JASru]

They seem to be getting small stock every few days. If one checks the page several times throughout the day might get lucky. It was available the other day. I ordered one last week. Yeah one can buy a more feature-rich DAP with more consumer-friendly UI nowadays, but I don't care at all for its drawbacks, so it was an easy decision at $144 with the option for paypal payment.
Colorfly might not ne up to par on the software front but they sure do know how to make great sounding DAPs.

Well for IEMs the functionality is sufficient. The noise is low, output impedance seems to be low too, it reads all major formats and has decent memory. Plus if you want to change it's signature you can use the line-out to amplifier. And the software seems to be ok, with some flaws present, yet not too many.

 

[kova4a]

My early impressions of the C10 https://www.head-fi.org/threads/obscure-chinese-daps.720512/page-236#post-13757475
It's great. Yeah, some people will nag about UI simplicity and lack of bells and whistles but IMO at this discounted price sq-wise it slays.

 

[siruspan]

C10 is really awesome player. I've been using it for the past 2 years, I've just recently replaced it with sony wm1a. Colorfly has very organic, weighty. tube like sound. Too bad there are basically no reviews and it wasn't advertised at all. They also didn't spoil users with firmware updates because there were just 2 and since the last one was over a year ago I don't think there will be more.

It has pretty good battery life (around 12 hours on 16/44 flacs), it's rather small, it's rather powerfull, it supports basically all the formats known to mankind. The downsides are that it has high gain all the time so it's not the best with sensitive iems and it's hard to set proper volume with the slider. There was a clicking sound on the beginning of each song, which they replaced with cutting out of first second or so of each song.

If anyone interested I've checked most of other players on the market and others that are comparable in terms of sound to C10 and are so good that I could live with them are:
colorfly C4 - same signature but sounds even better but is way worse in terms of usability, size, file support etc
Pono Player - more base, worse dynamics and it's not as involving as c10 but still good organic and very "big" sound
Shozy Alien Gold - on par with sound quality but shozy is more technical and less warm
Shozy Alien+ - clear step up in sound quality, much more technical and very energetic.
Sony wm1a - the best of the bunch in terms of technicalities, neutral signature with just a tad of warmth, incredible resolution, very big soundstage, relaxed sound signature, not as involving as shozy or colorfly but still very musical.

 

[kova4a]

That's interesting coz my c10 is far from tubey sounding. In fact it is all about clarity and separation. I wonder if colorfly did any revisions coz mine came with the latest firmware installed.Also should check for clicking when I get home coz I didn't notice any but maybe it was weak.

 

[siruspan]

I've bought one first it was available as a import from china 2 years ago. It came in with the black and white themed software installed The clicking sound was very apparent at the beginning, then on newer firmware it was less prominent and on the newest one it's basically gone, but there are also gone beginnings of the tracks. First second of each song is muted.

The sound is thick, rounded and has more weight but some of the microdetails are lost because of that. It has a slight upper treble and bass roll off and sweet mids are very prominent. The sound is beautiful, very engaging, full of emotions but it's not a clarity master but that didn't stop him to beat other players that I've bought is the last 2 years. I've owned players like astell ak300, cowon plenue p1, pioneer xdp 100r, The bit opus 1, questyle qp1r and I think that c10 sounds superior to them.

 

[kova4a]

Well, then there has to be some sort of change coz the c10 I got is far from thick and rounded but rather light and open sounding, very resolving andeasily pushing micro details. Anyway, I am very happy with its sound

 

[cattlethief]

Just received my unit from joybuy, took about 2 weeks for delivery to Scotland, tracking was useless but it got here well packaged and have not been stung by customs even though full value was on package,first impressions are great,build is nice.I love the sandalwood finish the ui is straightforward and the buttons and slider work well, I would say on a brief comparison using the lineout to my Xduoo XD-05 it bests my AK100ii in sq having the same DAC chip the CS4398 while both being fairly neutral, the C10 has a bigger soundstage,more warmth and the bass hits lower,the AK being more digital and maybe slightly better detail.The real cowhide leather case is also very good.

All in all not bad for $143, probably the price of a new AK leather case!!!

 

[HombreCangrejo]

SQ is really astonishing. It doesn't have EQ, but I think it's not necessary at all. The only annoying thing is the small cut at the beginning of the songs, but if everything would have been working fine, I really doubt we would have been able to get this DAP at such price.

 

[Isuas]

144$ ist super, I ordered one because of it's beauty to compare it with the DX90.

 

[alexandros a]

many prefer the C200 to c10, btw

I certainly do by the way.....
i have C200 for a year or so and also own X1 & X3II, DX80 and C3 as well...
C200 easily outperforms IMHO any of the above mentioned daps.....ES9018 dac from ESS works miracles there.....its the most clear and transparent sound i have ever heard in my short experience with these devices.....every single little detail of any recordings easily demonstrated in the sound field....soundstage and instrument separation is of unbelievable transparency and definition..
.......with C200 i do not even care about the fact that i have to reset the device occasionaly (because of stuck issues occour there during playback. ) (using a needle to press the reset button there) ...its the minimum cost to pay having a totally transparent and stellar performance from C200......
In addittion to this C200 uses microproccescor instead of a updated UI system for proccescing the sound signal and achieving the minimum interfferance to the final audio outcome (this is also the reason for the loss of an about 0.5 sec or so... in the beggining of each song) but this is of no importance as well because the sound quality is so unbelievably beatifull there....
..
.C200 is my favorite dap so far and something tells me that this is not about to change any time soon........

 

[HombreCangrejo]

Your impressions are of great interest for me, @alexandros a , as I was in search of a new mid-price DAP and. until recently. my first option was the M3s, but now I'm waiting to see opinions about N5 II, that uses the ES9018K2M DAC. The C200, at the price Joybuy is selling it (less than 100 €), seems like a great deal, but if it does suffer the same problem at the beginning of the songs that the C10 has, I'll better wait to see opinions about the newest models, including the long awaited Ibasso DX120. Anyway, it seems that, when well implemented, the ES9018K2M is really hard to beat.

 

[cattlethief]

Your impressions are of great interest for me, @alexandros a , as I was in search of a new mid-price DAP and. until recently. my first option was the M3s, but now I'm waiting to see opinions about N5 II, that uses the ES9018K2M DAC. The C200, at the price Joybuy is selling it (less than 100 €), seems like a great deal, but if it does suffer the same problem at the beginning of the songs that the C10 has, I'll better wait to see opinions about the newest models, including the long awaited Ibasso DX120. Anyway, it seems that, when well implemented, the ES9018K2M is really hard to beat.

Both the c10 and c200 back in stock at joybuy,143$ for both colours of c10 and 104$ for c200. I have ordered a gold c10 as back up and c200, hopefully they will escape customs again.
I love the sound of c10 and only the new sonys that I have beat it in a square-go, I use it everyday.

the bug at the start has never bothered me.