I demoed the S8F while in China. I am not good in using the terms to describe sound. At the shop, the owner is so kind to loan me the Astell & Kern SP2000 to test with the S8F. Listened to Rolling in the Deep by Adele coz that's the only few English song in the SP2000. It is eye opener experience and I never knew the song is so lively and I am beginning to tap my feet while listening to the music.
Then, I switch to my own IEM UE900S and the song become so muddy and not lively at all.
To test further I plug S8F direct to my Samsung S9+ no hiss and very enjoyable. Switch to my UE900S into S9+ and this time the difference isn't that huge. Surprisingly, the UE900S performed very close to the S8F.
So I know that I need a proper DAP or a DAC dongle with my phone to bring out the full potential of the S8F.
My target now is ibasso DC01 and a used Fiio M11 in later stage. As my budget doesn't allow for a new Fiio M11. And A&S SP20000 is out of my reach.
If Fiio M11 is 80% close to SP2000 I would be very happy. If not the SP2000 will be forever haunting me.
I wanted to buy M11 too for its speed, 2 cards, nice screen, 2.5 bal... but several people reported hissing sound on quiet tracks.
Now what, well dx220 is out of my price range, so I have to investigate dx160 or r5...
Anyone, any DAP in this price range that pairs well with S8F?
ES100 is my choice for now. But I'll need a dap in the near future.