[Marlene]

German guy here. I've received my unit yesterday. Built quality is very nice, sound as well. But... there are a few things that bug me.

@FiiO Willson
Hello to China. I have a few questions about the DM13:

Will there be firmware updates? Because it has some issues I hope that would rectify.

1. Battery charging is not constantly visible. A small LED somewhere on the unit would have been nice to indicate it's charging (perhaps an idea for a potential successor). Alternatively, a display being kept on, saying "charging". Because as of now it just says "charging" a few times and then it goes dark so I never know if it's charging or not.
2. Gapless doesn't work all the time. Sometimes it's just gapless for every other track, sometimes it isn't gapless after you've been searching through a piece of music with one of the foward/previous track buttons
3. Sometimes next track / previous track buttons won't work properly, they exchange their function, next track turns into previous track
4. Sometimes the play/pause button turns into previous track. In both cases, player has to be restarted.
5. It would be nice to be able to switch off the "resume" function. So far, it appears to resume when you change function (from S/PDIF to Bluetooth for example and back to Pre) during playback.
6. (EDIT): For some CDs, the first second of music is cut off after you've switched the unit on (I assume it's because the output is muted before playback has started).

To everyone else: the buffering function (ESP) always has some part activated. I haven't measured it but I assume that, as long as the ESP switch is off, it's lossless. Meaning: even with ESP switched "off" you will have some skipping protection.

 

[Katysax]

I was thinking of buying this. Can I bypass its DAC and use my Schiit Modi Multibit?

It has optical out. The3.5 mm output is multiuse. You could use it if you modi has optical in.

 

[Angel III]

It has optical out. The3.5 mm output is multiuse. You could use it if you modi has optical in.

Thank you.
I can use both coaxial and optical cable in the Schiit Modi Multibi.
In my second DAC the Khadas Tone board only cable coaxial (it should be like that).

 

[ergotpoisoning]

German guy here. I've received my unit yesterday. Built quality is very nice, sound as well. But... there are a few things that bug me.

@FiiO Willson
Hello to China. I have a few questions about the DM13:

Will there be firmware updates? Because it has some issues I hope that would rectify.

1. Battery charging is not constantly visible. A small LED somewhere on the unit would have been nice to indicate it's charging (perhaps an idea for a potential successor). Alternatively, a display being kept on, saying "charging". Because as of now it just says "charging" a few times and then it goes dark so I never know if it's charging or not.
2. Gapless doesn't work all the time. Sometimes it's just gapless for every other track, sometimes it isn't gapless after you've been searching through a piece of music with one of the foward/previous track buttons
3. Sometimes next track / previous track buttons won't work properly, they exchange their function, next track turns into previous track
4. Sometimes the play/pause button turns into previous track. In both cases, player has to be restarted.
5. It would be nice to be able to switch off the "resume" function. So far, it appears to resume when you change function (from S/PDIF to Bluetooth for example and back to Pre) during playback.
6. (EDIT): For some CDs, the first second of music is cut off after you've switched the unit on (I assume it's because the output is muted before playback has started).

To everyone else: the buffering function (ESP) always has some part activated. I haven't measured it but I assume that, as long as the ESP switch is off, it's lossless. Meaning: even with ESP switched "off" you will have some skipping protection.

Gapless playback not being consistent is a big issue, hopefully this can be resolved quickly and isn't present with every unit

 

[DantoIzzo]

I was thinking of buying this. Can I bypass its DAC and use my Schiit Modi Multibit?

There's SPDIF out.

 

[FiiO Willson]

German guy here. I've received my unit yesterday. Built quality is very nice, sound as well. But... there are a few things that bug me.

@FiiO Willson
Hello to China. I have a few questions about the DM13:

Will there be firmware updates? Because it has some issues I hope that would rectify.

1. Battery charging is not constantly visible. A small LED somewhere on the unit would have been nice to indicate it's charging (perhaps an idea for a potential successor). Alternatively, a display being kept on, saying "charging". Because as of now it just says "charging" a few times and then it goes dark so I never know if it's charging or not.
2. Gapless doesn't work all the time. Sometimes it's just gapless for every other track, sometimes it isn't gapless after you've been searching through a piece of music with one of the foward/previous track buttons
3. Sometimes next track / previous track buttons won't work properly, they exchange their function, next track turns into previous track
4. Sometimes the play/pause button turns into previous track. In both cases, player has to be restarted.
5. It would be nice to be able to switch off the "resume" function. So far, it appears to resume when you change function (from S/PDIF to Bluetooth for example and back to Pre) during playback.
6. (EDIT): For some CDs, the first second of music is cut off after you've switched the unit on (I assume it's because the output is muted before playback has started).

To everyone else: the buffering function (ESP) always has some part activated. I haven't measured it but I assume that, as long as the ESP switch is off, it's lossless. Meaning: even with ESP switched "off" you will have some skipping protection.

May I ask if you have purchased the silver version, this can only be sold within China. However, your machine doesn't feel very stable, I'm not sure about the state you're describing

We already have the new version of the software upgrade

The black and white machines have the latest firmware.

 

[Marlene]

May I ask if you have purchased the silver version, this can only be sold within China. However, your machine doesn't feel very stable, I'm not sure about the state you're describing

We already have the new version of the software upgrade

The black and white machines have the latest firmware.

Since I'm in Germany I've ordered from the official German retailer (fiio-shop.de). Meaning, I have the black version (since it's the only one available). And you're right, the machine doesn't feel very stable. It works when doing nothing but playing CDs but once you start interacting with it, it gets tiresome.

 

[ermwhat]

@Marlene I am seeing exactly the same as you with the gapless playback (and other issues). Sometimes it works, and sometimes not, regardless of ESP state.

More concerning, I also get small skips and silent gaps within a track. They also seem random and ESP has no effect.

The fast forward/rewind don't always work, and when they do they jump forward/backward by a random number of seconds. They also always play sections of the track, even when paused.

I wrote up more of my findings here before I found this forum: https://www.reddit.com/r/Cd_collectors/comments/1gnbx3j

I have a black DM13 in the UK.

Edit: I've also just noticed it lost battery overnight while it was off. It went down from 5 to 4. I had charged it for a few hours before bed and left it off overnight.

On a more positive note, other than the issues, it sounds so good I am discovering a love of music I have never had before.

 

[Marlene]

@Marlene I am seeing exactly the same as you with the gapless playback (and other issues). Sometimes it works, and sometimes not, regardless of ESP state.

More concerning, I also get small skips and silent gaps within a track. They also seem random and ESP has no effect.

The fast forward/rewind don't always work, and when they do they jump forward/backward by a random number of seconds. They also always play sections of the track, even when paused.

I wrote up more of my findings here before I found this forum: https://www.reddit.com/r/Cd_collectors/comments/1gnbx3j

I have a black DM13 in the UK.

Edit: I've also just noticed it lost battery overnight while it was off. It went down from 5 to 4. I had charged it for a few hours before bed and left it off overnight.

On a more positive note, other than the issues, it sounds so good I am discovering a love of music I have never had before.

The findings you posted on Reddit align with my own. Though I haven't tested every function (Ripping to USB stick, for example). I also had problems with playing CDs consistently and also found that it skips within CDs, albeit rarely. On my own post I concentrated on the issues that felt, to me at least, the most important.

For all these reasons, I've decided to return it, I've just started the return process. It sounds good, very good in fact, it's the best sounding portable CD player I've ever heard (and I've heard many!). But good sound isn't enough when operating the unit is sketchy or feels unreliable.

 

[ermwhat]

The findings you posted on Reddit align with my own. Though I haven't tested every function (Ripping to USB stick, for example). I also had problems with playing CDs consistently and also found that it skips within CDs, albeit rarely. On my own post I concentrated on the issues that felt, to me at least, the most important.

For all these reasons, I've decided to return it, I've just started the return process. It sounds good, very good in fact, it's the best sounding portable CD player I've ever heard (and I've heard many!). But good sound isn't enough when operating the unit is sketchy or feels unreliable.

I'm hoping there's a firmware patch that can fix these issues - they don't feel like hardware ones, other than maybe the button presses. I'll be keeping it for a bit because AliExpress seems to have a 90 day return period for it.

I really want to like it, and when it works I really do. It just feels very beta.

 

[FiiO Willson]

Since I'm in Germany I've ordered from the official German retailer (fiio-shop.de). Meaning, I have the black version (since it's the only one available). And you're right, the machine doesn't feel very stable. It works when doing nothing but playing CDs but once you start interacting with it, it gets tiresome.

I think there's been a misunderstanding.

The black version of the DM13 uses the new firmware and the work is very stable. Are you still not understanding how to go about it?

The DM13 has a lot of features that require some learning costs

 

[FiiO Willson]

@Marlene I am seeing exactly the same as you with the gapless playback (and other issues). Sometimes it works, and sometimes not, regardless of ESP state.

More concerning, I also get small skips and silent gaps within a track. They also seem random and ESP has no effect.

The fast forward/rewind don't always work, and when they do they jump forward/backward by a random number of seconds. They also always play sections of the track, even when paused.

I wrote up more of my findings here before I found this forum: https://www.reddit.com/r/Cd_collectors/comments/1gnbx3j

I have a black DM13 in the UK.

Edit: I've also just noticed it lost battery overnight while it was off. It went down from 5 to 4. I had charged it for a few hours before bed and left it off overnight.

On a more positive note, other than the issues, it sounds so good I am discovering a love of music I have never had before.

About what you said about "the battery was off" on night.

Is it possible that you put the D.MODE switch on the back to ON?
If this is the time, you have to plug it in to turn it on

In other words, if you want to leave the power supply on, you have to turn the D.MODE switch off.

 

[FiiO Willson]

I'm hoping there's a firmware patch that can fix these issues - they don't feel like hardware ones, other than maybe the button presses. I'll be keeping it for a bit because AliExpress seems to have a 90 day return period for it.

I really want to like it, and when it works I really do. It just feels very beta.

I think what the user above is saying is an operational issue

We also had a lot of users at the beginning of our sales in China who were not used to operating the way we did. It's a very versatile product, not a single function CD player, so I think it's normal to not know how to operate it!

If you have time please check this link:
https://www.fiio.com/dm13_faq

 

[ermwhat]

About what you said about "the battery was off" on night.

Is it possible that you put the D.MODE switch on the back to ON?
If this is the time, you have to plug it in to turn it on

In other words, if you want to leave the power supply on, you have to turn the D.MODE switch off.

I had turned the player off (not left it to turn itself off) when the battery was on 5, and left it plugged in for a couple of hours extra, then unplugged it to move it. When I turned it on in the morning and the battery was on 4. Desktop mode was off the whole time.

 

[ermwhat]

I think what the user above is saying is an operational issue

We also had a lot of users at the beginning of our sales in China who were not used to operating the way we did. It's a very versatile product, not a single function CD player, so I think it's normal to not know how to operate it!

The button presses are an operational issue. I find them confusing. Whether that's a design issue with the interface approach, or my own one for not having the type of brain that remembers lots of unlabelled combinations, is up for debate.

A fair few of the other issues seem like software bugs though.

I wanted to include it as some feedback (because I also design tech products/user interfaces as a career), and it sounds like a lot of your Chinese users have the same issue?