[FIIO DM13] HiFi Balanced Output Portable Stereo CD Player DM13 Is Officially Released!

[aceedburn]

Any LDAC support on dm13? Any update on dm15

It doesn’t even support APTX HD as they claim, so hold your breath for LDAC. forget about any new developments or fixes for the DM13. FiiO has washed their hands on yet another product and basically abandoned it.

 

[Fulaeetoy]

That's not good. I'll just stick to my cheapo kc 918 and been looking to upgrade it. Good dac chips aptx and ldac codec support is the one i need. Any recommendation

 

[Safeinthemountains]

Any LDAC support on dm13? Any update on dm15

As I remember, they said they won't support it on DM13, but maybe the DM15 will support it

 

[aceedburn]

As I remember, they said they won't support it on DM13, but maybe the DM15 will support it

Like I said, I won’t hold my breath because they said the DM13 supports APTX HD but it doesn’t. So just marketing lies again.

 

[Safeinthemountains]

Like I said, I won’t hold my breath because they said the DM13 supports APTX HD but it doesn’t. So just marketing lies again.

I agree, I did test my DM13's bluetooth, but I don't remember exactly which codec was displayed... I guess it was at least Apt-X...
I wouldn't say it is marketing lies. I think they wanted it to support those codecs, but they made a statement on future specs even before the product was finished...
As I said somewhere else, I think I prefer a company like Hiby that tells nothing about future products and then pulls out one product every now and then, than FiiO that makes a lot of announcements, with delays, and when finally the product comes out, there are shortages, and the software is still beta...
There is a lot of expectations, people are getting nervous about waiting, and if there is a deception, it is worse, at least in my opinion...

At this stage, what customers are waiting for are updates (and not upgrades) for the device to work as advertised in the first place, that's all.
For me the DM13 works at 80%, there are still glitches here and there, so let's correct the bugs and get the remaining 20% done...

 

[FiiO Willson]

Many folks have explained this issue so many times and you simply ignore the posts or pretend to not understand.

Even with ESP turned off, the player is buffering, or if you preffer, storing data on a memory. This is so bad that deteriorate the integrity of signal measured.

Here is a review that analized the signal and found what we're speaking for months: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...review-portable-cd-player.60621/#post-2220345

THIS IS NOT A NORMAL BEHAVIOUR FOR A CD-PLAYER. IF WE TURN THE ESP OFF, THE DATA SHOULD BE READ FROM DISK AND SENT DIRECTLY TO DAC, AND NOT STORED ON A MEMORY.

Sorry, I did overlook to this test result before.

I'll get an engineer to analyze the issue and see if it can be improved with software

 

[Safeinthemountains]

As I understood the chosen CD "transport" mech is designed for data (random access) rather than audio (linear access), so Fiio devs cannot replicate the behaviour of "old" red book CD players of the 90's. But in the end it should work "like" a normal audio CD player, reading tracks from the very first sample, no few seconds skipping, no freeze...
From my point of view, there is no problem with the buffering, as long as it doesn't lead to degradation of the digital stream. When I had hiccups with one specific CD recentlty, I saw that the disc was accelarating when there was the 10-second blank skip, like if it was looking for something it never found, then the audio came back, but with 10 seconds lost in the process... Some tracks won't even play starting from 00:00... and the disc isn't scratched at all.

[EDIT] My apologies to FiiO... I checked again the disc and there were big spots of dirt in one region of the disc; after cleaning the disc reads perfectly.
I am sorry for this bad feedback...

I don't know for other manufacturers, but on my Shanling EC-3 there is no such behaviour; this player seems to work like a "normal" Audio CD player, for track skipping as well as fast forward and reverse. So despite problems of supply of proper CD mechanism, Shanling seems to manage better CD readout. Maybe they have always had the know-how, because they've been doing this for decades... ?

 

[Kogut]

Guys, I feel like a beta tester. This product isn’t ready for the market yet. I just hope future updates will fix these issues.

Autoplay sucks. Bluetooth is still connecting, but the CD starts playing right away. Every other player I’ve used just loads the disc and waits for the user to hit play.

Bluetooth sucks. Sometimes it connects with aptX, other times with SBC — using the same external DAC. It’s unstable. Sometimes the sound just cuts out, and I have to restart the DM13.

Buffering without ESP sucks. This seems to be their workaround for issues with gapless playback and skipping on longer audio CDs (70+ minutes).

The optical output sucks. I can’t plug in a mini-Toslink. I had to order a coaxial cable instead.

Now, for some good news: I can’t hear any difference between the optical output from the Atoll MD100 and FiiO’s digital out. Hooray!

 

[Safeinthemountains]

Now, for some good news: I can’t hear any difference between the optical output from the Atoll MD100 and FiiO’s digital out. Hooray!

At least this is quite normal; any CD player should output exactly the same data, regardless of it being a high end tabletop player or portable one
The SQ difference lies only in the DAC and the analog stage, in my opinion...

As for the DM13 in BT; I just tested on 3 devices: on SMSL AD18 FDA it works, the DM13 says Apx but there are random glitches in the sound. With my Focal .Listen Wireless headphones, it connects , no glitches but no codec display: the Vxx volume indicator blinks...
And last but not least, with the Qdelix 5K forced to Aptx HD it works fine, see pics...

[EDIT] Works very well also with SMSL RAW-MDA1 dac...

But it resamples to 48 Khz... very weird for a Cd player, which is supposed to output 44.1Khz by definition

 

[FiiO Willson]

At least this is quite normal; any CD player should output exactly the same data, regardless of it being a high end tabletop player or portable one
The SQ difference lies only in the DAC and the analog stage, in my opinion...

As for the DM13 in BT; I just tested on 3 devices: on SMSL AD18 FDA it works, the DM13 says Apx but there are random glitches in the sound. With my Focal .Listen Wireless headphones, it connects , no glitches but no codec display: the Vxx volume indicator blinks...
And last but not least, with the Qdelix 5K forced to Aptx HD it works fine, see pics...




[EDIT] Works very well also with SMSL RAW-MDA1 dac...

But it resamples to 48 Khz... very weird for a Cd player, which is supposed to output 44.1Khz by definition

That's because the Bluetooth output adjusts the sample rate to 48kHz, which is normal.

 

[Safeinthemountains]

That's because the Bluetooth output adjusts the sample rate to 48kHz, which is normal.

OK, why not, but I wonder how is done the interpolation, as 48Khz does not match an harmonic of 44.1, and I wonder if it does not degrade the original data/signal...
All BT transmission does this ?
Here is a screenshotbof the status of my Qdelix 5K linked to my smartphone in AptX HD, it works at 44.1Khz...

 

[Kogut]

That’s it — I’m done! I thought the random glitches and skips were caused by Bluetooth, but nope! I switched to the coaxial output and they’re still there.

The FiiO DM13 is a great-looking device — it feels solid and is beautifully crafted — but if a CD player can’t read discs properly, I’m out. And I’m talking about brand-new, perfectly clean discs.

I’m not asking for much. I just need something that can read audio CDs flawlessly and send a digital signal to an external DAC. Nothing more, nothing less.

Even the cheapest $40 Sony DVD player reads CDs better than this FiiO unit.

I’ll give it one more firmware update. If nothing changes, I’m selling it. See ya!

 

[aceedburn]

@FiiO Willson @FiiO @FiiO Support Lin Lin @FIIO ALAN is FiiO so stubborn or just naive or plain ineffective? You have first hand reports on all these issues and you still haven’t issued a new firmware to fix them? The last update was 5 months ago. Are you serious about the audio business at all? Why bother making a cd player that sucks so bad. Surely your company has better things to do than to con the users into buying a product that’s useless?? Very very shameful of FiiO.

I urge everyone to shame FiiO on all social media sites and ask them to remove the Dm13 from shelves and make a public apology. They have taken us for a ride far enough. Stop buying any FiiO products. I repeat, stop buying FiiO products and return all products that are still within the return window. I’m starting a campaign to this effect until they start showing some respect to the users who spent hard earned money to buy crap products.