[AndySocial]

I guess 0:45 answers my question about scrolling. If I had to scroll at that speed through a thousand artists it would be unusable for me because I would never be able to actually get to the bottom. This device sounds great otherwise, but that would just kill it for me.

Right there with you. That scrolling function is a massive deal-breaker.

 

[deepness]

Right there with you. That scrolling function is a massive deal-breaker.

I'm in the same boat. My last dap was the x1 gen 1 and I had scroll issues with it from day 1. I have around 400 artists or so atm in my library and the problem was with the mechanics of the scroll wheel. Was very unresponsive and just felt awful to use but i put up with it over the years and it gradually worsened.

Fortunately, the m3k has touch capacitive controls and not the poorly designed mechanical wheel of the x1's. That being said, firmware updates could greatly improve the touch functionality, particularly with scroll-speed settings for massive libraries.

My m3k should be here in the next couple days, so I'll give my thoughts on the ui navigation when it arrives.

 

[microphonic]

I guess 0:45 answers my question about scrolling. If I had to scroll at that speed through a thousand artists it would be unusable for me because I would never be able to actually get to the bottom. This device sounds great otherwise, but that would just kill it for me.

Actually the m3K scroll is bi-directional - it treats the list as a "loop" so to speak - so if you are at the top of your list (A) and you scroll up it immediately jumps to the bottom (Z). But why not just separate your music into subfolders by artist - I use "artists A - D", "artists E - K" etc. You can find a given track faster with nested subfolders than having thousands of albums in one folder - regardless of scrolling speed. At any rate the m3k is a $70 unit. There is nothing near that price point that has clearly better file navigation. The cheapest dap right now with a smartphone-like UI is the Hiby R3 at 3x the price.

 

[AndySocial]

Actually the m3K scroll is bi-directional - it treats the list as a "loop" so to speak - so if you are at the top of your list (A) and you scroll up it immediately jumps to the bottom (Z). But why not just separate your music into subfolders by artist - I use "artists A - D", "artists E - K" etc. You can find a given track faster with nested subfolders than having thousands of albums in one folder - regardless of scrolling speed. At any rate the m3k is a $70 unit. There is nothing near that price point that has clearly better file navigation. The cheapest dap right now with a smartphone-like UI is the Hiby R3 at 3x the price.

The Sansa Clip had a scrolling feature with acceleration over ten years ago. It seems that the DAP manufacturers of today have chosen to ignore the features that enhanced ease-of-use from the early MP3 player era. I'd love to see a device with the Rio Karma's UI with modern battery and storage technologies.

 

[Paul Davidson]

Do the titles and tracks show in numerical/alphabetical order by default? I remember with the early firmwares for the M3 they were displayed in the order in which they were copied.

 

[Giangregorio]

Embedded lyrics are supported?

 

[deepness]

My m3k finally showed up, and I've been fiddling with it for the past couple hours. Some things I'd like to note;

-the player is much smaller and aesthetically pleasing than I imagined it would've been, at least compared to my 1st gen x1

-the touch capacitive controls are nice and responsive, which is a huge step up to the mechanical wheels of the x1 players that I've used

-the ui is actually pretty nice to look at and interact with, tho I'd much prefer a different theme/look for the main menu but that's just me. Maybe a theme option in the future!?

-sadly the device doesn't have a line out option for external amps, I'm not sure if that feature can be added or not but would be great if so

As far as navigating the ui, it's quite fluent and snappy scrolling through the menus with the touch bar or using ff or rw to scroll as well. However if you have a large library, quickly scrolling and locating a paticular track or artist isn't all that possible.

Currently I have about 400ish artists and around 2500-3000 songs(which probly pales to others) and its a bit of a struggle trying to pin point a specific artist or tune. Holding ff or rw is the quickest option for scrolling compared to the touch bar.

The touch bar works but trying to stop quicky can be tricky. The scroll speed is on the slower side like mentioned and there seems to be a bit of acceleration, maybe to speed things up a bit but also makes stopping precisely difficult as it's seems to have some momentum to it. Meaning the highlighted box will continue to scroll for a bit once you let off.

Also another weird thing I've noticed, is that the device won't play some wav files I have. Some play fine others will just give me a file not supported prompt...kinda odd as I've never experienced this before.

Hopefully future updates can remedy these issues. So far I'm really enjoying the m3k but the navigating really needs work. Particularly the speed and accuracy. My fingers are crossed

Edit- another thing I've noticed just now is that fast forwarding or rewinding results in a small but audible pause right after you stop. How much you rr/fw you do doesn't seem to effect the time before the pause, sometimes it will show up right after you stop or a few seconds later. Also, the player volume doesn't seem to affect the pause volume.

 

[microphonic]

Do the titles and tracks show in numerical/alphabetical order by default? I remember with the early firmwares for the M3 they were displayed in the order in which they were copied.

As soon as you do a library update scan the the list becomes alphabetical.

 

[FiiO]

Embedded lyrics are supported?

Dear friend,

No, the external lyric in LRC format is supported.

Best regards

 

[Montree]

I’ve had my MK3 for two days so some initial impressions.

Very easy to use UI and I didn’t need the instructions to get things set up as I like them. I only use Folders and sub-folders for my files and these appeared correctly arranged alphabetically.

Using both the central scroll area and the fast-forward and fast-rewind buttons to scroll I had no difficulty finding the file I wanted and it’s no slower than my other current DAPs (Shannling M1, Hidizs AP60, Ruizu A50). I actually prefer the navigation on the MK3 to the scroll wheel type.

The UI is fast although the central area doesn’t always respond to my first touch when the side Pause/play button always does.

One bug: With “Resume Play” selected as an option, if I turn off the player right at the end of a track when I turn it back on the first five seconds of the next track are horribly distorted before it settles down and plays normally. If I turn off part way through a track the resume works properly.

It’s also locked up on me twice, once part way through a track it just stopped and although the UI still worked I couldn’t select any new tracks or get it playing again. Holding the On/Off button for ten seconds sorted it out OK. The same track subsequently played with no problems.

Album art looks very good although this has to be embedded as it doesn’t load a “Folder” or “Cover” JPG unlike all my other DAPs which meant several hours editing my files.

I don’t need Blue Tooth or WiFi etc and I don’t own a Smartphone so don’t need any linking software so this player makes sense for me. However, the main reason I got it is the claimed battery life to cope with fairly frequent long distance travel. I’ve not charged it yet so that’s looking very good and far better than any of my other DAPs.

It sounds good, looks good and is nicely made. Another very Important feature for me is that it does “Gapless” perfectly.

It’s still early days but I suspect this will become my main player.

 

[AndySocial]

I’ve had my MK3 for two days so some initial impressions.

Very easy to use UI and I didn’t need the instructions to get things set up as I like them. I only use Folders and sub-folders for my files and these appeared correctly arranged alphabetically.

Using both the central scroll area and the fast-forward and fast-rewind buttons to scroll I had no difficulty finding the file I wanted and it’s no slower than my other current DAPs (Shannling M1, Hidizs AP60, Ruizu A50). I actually prefer the navigation on the MK3 to the scroll wheel type.

The UI is fast although the central area doesn’t always respond to my first touch when the side Pause/play button always does.

One bug: With “Resume Play” selected as an option, if I turn off the player right at the end of a track when I turn it back on the first five seconds of the next track are horribly distorted before it settles down and plays normally. If I turn off part way through a track the resume works properly.

It’s also locked up on me twice, once part way through a track it just stopped and although the UI still worked I couldn’t select any new tracks or get it playing again. Holding the On/Off button for ten seconds sorted it out OK. The same track subsequently played with no problems.

Album art looks very good although this has to be embedded as it doesn’t load a “Folder” or “Cover” JPG unlike all my other DAPs which meant several hours editing my files.

I don’t need Blue Tooth or WiFi etc and I don’t own a Smartphone so don’t need any linking software so this player makes sense for me. However, the main reason I got it is the claimed battery life to cope with fairly frequent long distance travel. I’ve not charged it yet so that’s looking very good and far better than any of my other DAPs.

It sounds good, looks good and is nicely made. Another very Important feature for me is that it does “Gapless” perfectly.

It’s still early days but I suspect this will become my main player.

Thanks for the great write-up, Montree. If they show a little love for podcasts, I may be following you in the purchase. We may be the only people left that don't carry a smartphone.

 

[NihilGuru]

Hello! I wanted to know if it is possible to connect a dac?

 

[Montree]

Thanks for the great write-up, Montree. If they show a little love for podcasts, I may be following you in the purchase. We may be the only people left that don't carry a smartphone.

I use a very old, Rockboxed, Samsung Player for Podcasts that I managed to put a new battery in. Sadly I'm not optimistic about new players these days adding such support but I'd love to be proved wrong.

 

[snoopy007]

I’ve had my MK3 for two days so some initial impressions.

Very easy to use UI and I didn’t need the instructions to get things set up as I like them. I only use Folders and sub-folders for my files and these appeared correctly arranged alphabetically.

Using both the central scroll area and the fast-forward and fast-rewind buttons to scroll I had no difficulty finding the file I wanted and it’s no slower than my other current DAPs (Shannling M1, Hidizs AP60, Ruizu A50). I actually prefer the navigation on the MK3 to the scroll wheel type.

The UI is fast although the central area doesn’t always respond to my first touch when the side Pause/play button always does.

One bug: With “Resume Play” selected as an option, if I turn off the player right at the end of a track when I turn it back on the first five seconds of the next track are horribly distorted before it settles down and plays normally. If I turn off part way through a track the resume works properly.

It’s also locked up on me twice, once part way through a track it just stopped and although the UI still worked I couldn’t select any new tracks or get it playing again. Holding the On/Off button for ten seconds sorted it out OK. The same track subsequently played with no problems.

Album art looks very good although this has to be embedded as it doesn’t load a “Folder” or “Cover” JPG unlike all my other DAPs which meant several hours editing my files.

I don’t need Blue Tooth or WiFi etc and I don’t own a Smartphone so don’t need any linking software so this player makes sense for me. However, the main reason I got it is the claimed battery life to cope with fairly frequent long distance travel. I’ve not charged it yet so that’s looking very good and far better than any of my other DAPs.

It sounds good, looks good and is nicely made. Another very Important feature for me is that it does “Gapless” perfectly.

It’s still early days but I suspect this will become my main player.

Have you updated to the latest firmware? On the initial firmware, the player hanged on me a few times when I tried to test lots of different songs by jumping to lots of different folders. After the updates, the player haven't locked up once (fingers crossed). But I usually power off the machine rather than leave it in sleep mode though.

For me, a nice little cheap player with a long battery life. Output is more than good enough for all my different IEMs

 

[Montree]

Have you updated to the latest firmware? On the initial firmware, the player hanged on me a few times when I tried to test lots of different songs by jumping to lots of different folders. After the updates, the player haven't locked up once (fingers crossed). But I usually power off the machine rather than leave it in sleep mode though.

For me, a nice little cheap player with a long battery life. Output is more than good enough for all my different IEMs

Mine came with FW1.0.0.5 installed which I think is the latest version. It’s not locked up on me again after quite a lot of use so it doesn’t seem to be a big problem.

I agree it’s an excellent player that drives my IEMs perfectly with more power in reserve than any other of my small DAPs with the possible exception of the Ruizu A50. It also has zero background hiss or noise that I can hear.