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

[FiiO Willson]

To be honest, that's exactly what I missed. I like to see the disc index first and then press the play button myself. Like in the old days. It's a kind of habit and ritual. I think it wasn't worth making autoplay in the first place - it wasn't the best idea, since this product is aimed at getting the old experience, like it was 40 years ago.
I personally also miss the stop button. (Yes, I know about the secret key combination). But if we are talking about the classic understanding of a CD player - then, I think, a physical stop button is also necessary.

Yes, I think it's a design philosophy issue. Every product manager of every product has his or her own opinion, and so does DM13

And our whole team has to move in the same direction to make it work.

With direct play, and the stop button, our design philosophy is modern. But now we basically have to change it back, and it's a lesson that our subsequent products will have a separate stop button

 

[FiiO Willson]

For the entire thread, you have seemed very focused on cutting down on cumbersome operation, with autoplay being more in line with modern habits. I'd like to say that I completely agree and I like autoplay.

My old Memorex CD player I got from a thrift store had autoplay. I absolutely loved it. The reason that wasn't a problem is the Memorex actually played the entire CD. When I buy a CD player, I expect it to be able to play my whole CD front to back. You could say the entire purpose of a CD player is to accurately play CDs. I miss my crappy Memorex with a subpar DAC and no digital out because the DM13 does not play the entire CD. I paid a lot more for the DM13 than the Memorex, so I expect there to not be regressions on core functionality.

This is an issue on the same scale as the gapless playback issue that was fixed by v25/v15. A redbook standard CD player should play an entire CD front to back with no artificial gaps. You got the gapless part down. Now you just need to fix the first second of audio being chopped off.

And this is not even getting started on enhanced CDs, which should be redbook compatible and were also perfectly playable by my crappy Memorex. My 1 enhanced CD in the collection plays with gaps and sometimes doesn't even read on the DM13. I realize that's a much more complicated issue to fix (random access drive hardware), so I'm perfectly fine burning my enhanced CDs to CD-R and listening that way.

At the end of the day. I really don't care how antiquated you think it is to press the play button if the CD player can't do its primary function well. Make a good CD player first, then worry about extra features that make the player stand out - such as autoplay, CD ripping, balanced output, the DAC, etc. You aren't selling cheap CD players that will end up in the bin in a few years, you're selling Hi-Fi equipment to people who are more passionate about listening to music. The bar is much higher, and you're still failing to achieve the bare minimum.

In DM13, the lack of sound for the first second is directly related to autoplay. If we change it to show the index first and then play it you won't have this problem.--We've tried a lot of things over the past few months and still can't solve it on the software

Of course, this is not to say that we can't do a compatible direct playback while having sound in the first second, mainly because we didn't take this into consideration when the DM13 was first designed, and this is the first time we've done a CD player.

However, I think the subsequent products will also display the index first, and then play after the user presses the play button, which is more in line with the habits of the old-fashioned CD players.

 

[Sorys]

AFAIK it is the receiver that does negociate with the transmitter on which max bitrate, sample frequency, bit depht and protocol (codec) to use ?
Because it is the one that limits the possibilities in the end, right ?
So why does my Qdelix work at 44.1 with my phone and 48 with the DM13; my phone can do 48 and more I guess...

As you say, trying to push up bitrate and sample freq when in the end you are limited by ~600-700kpbs bandwith is a bit silly.
I always wondered; if you have 1141 kbps available, is it really a better option to use a lossy codec with crazy 24/96 settings or to stick with a 16/44.1 lossless ?
With a lossless codec similar to FLAC, we could have 100% original 16/44 signal within 600Kbps, with sufficient on board real time decoding power of course

In the end, I agree that this is picky, and I most probably cannot hear any difference.
Whereas 24/96 or DSD is overkill for me, and I still listen to OGG vorbis Q6 files, I tend to think that true lossless 16/44 1:1 from source material to the DAC is the way to go.

Bluetooth has never really been about fidelity it has been about convenience. By definition it is a destructive transmission and is there as a nice to have not a priority. If you have lossless available you really should prioritise that in my personal experience but different strokes for different folks. Even though that brand new qualcomm codec states it can do lossless, it is only in ideal conditions and real world is far from ideal conditions

It is also very possible like I mentioned that the chip is limited in such a way that it doesnt allow for 44.1khz. The 48khz alliance does exist and it could be playing a role here. I will say it would be nice for us to be able to get a lossless codec that compresses even better than FLAC and to get the data transmission into the 600kbps in a non destructive way I dont think we really have the incentive or compute power available for us to do that in real time currently.

I am very much with you 16/44.1 or 16/48 1:1 is always where i prioritise things. I cant tell the different between that and hi res audio (24/96 and above) but i can definitely tell the difference with that and spotify or lossy mp3s

 

[dougie69]

Couple of things since purchasing:

1. The “Vol” doesn’t seem to stop flashing (uncertain why as some time it does so don’t know how to stop it).
2. Everytime I start it up it reads disk then “PAIRING” for what seems like ages.

Any advice on these two issues?

 

[FiiO Willson]

Couple of things since purchasing:

1. The “Vol” doesn’t seem to stop flashing (uncertain why as some time it does so don’t know how to stop it).
2. Everytime I start it up it reads disk then “PAIRING” for what seems like ages.

Any advice on these two issues?

“Vol” doesn’t seem to stop flashing--------This is normal, there will be no other problems

2. Everytime I start it up it reads disk then “PAIRING” for what seems like ages.----------
At this time, he is in Bluetooth transmit mode and he is prompting you that you need to pair your Bluetooth headset.
If you want to cut back to the wired headset output, you need to press the power button briefly until he shows PRE OUT

 

[akso]

Funny bug on my skylight version running v25 firmware @FiiO Willson. I am feeding Mojo 2 using a toslink optical cable. I start listening to a CD and sometime after if I press the back button the song restarts bu also left and right channels switch. Press back button again, it restarts and switches again. Most noticeable on songs that start from one channel. Just noticed on Angie from Rolling Stones. Happens with all CDs but it is difficult to notice what is happening for some songs. Does NOT happen with headphone outputs. Did NOT test with coax cable or line-out. Don’t think it is specific to my unit but maybe someone can test and confirm.

 

[dougie69]

“Vol” doesn’t seem to stop flashing--------This is normal, there will be no other problems

2. Everytime I start it up it reads disk then “PAIRING” for what seems like ages.----------
At this time, he is in Bluetooth transmit mode and he is prompting you that you need to pair your Bluetooth headset.
If you want to cut back to the wired headset output, you need to press the power button briefly until he shows PRE OUT

So I need to pair the same Bluetooth headset every time I start the device?

 

[FiiO Willson]

Funny bug on my skylight version running v25 firmware @FiiO Willson. I am feeding Mojo 2 using a toslink optical cable. I start listening to a CD and sometime after if I press the back button the song restarts bu also left and right channels switch. Press back button again, it restarts and switches again. Most noticeable on songs that start from one channel. Just noticed on Angie from Rolling Stones. Happens with all CDs but it is difficult to notice what is happening for some songs. Does NOT happen with headphone outputs. Did NOT test with coax cable or line-out. Don’t think it is specific to my unit but maybe someone can test and confirm.

Thanks for the feedback on this Bugs, the original version was changed but the new firmware missed it again.

We will fix this together in V26!

Thank you very much for your information!

 

[FiiO Willson]

So I need to pair the same Bluetooth headset every time I start the device?

Not need，Paired devices will automatically connect back when both your headset and DM13 are in Bluetooth mode

 

[Safeinthemountains]

Funny bug on my skylight version running v25 firmware @FiiO Willson. I am feeding Mojo 2 using a toslink optical cable. I start listening to a CD and sometime after if I press the back button the song restarts bu also left and right channels switch. Press back button again, it restarts and switches again. Most noticeable on songs that start from one channel. Just noticed on Angie from Rolling Stones. Happens with all CDs but it is difficult to notice what is happening for some songs. Does NOT happen with headphone outputs. Did NOT test with coax cable or line-out. Don’t think it is specific to my unit but maybe someone can test and confirm.

Amazing bug
I guess this has something to do with the L/R clock signal in the internal I2S interface. This is how even and odd samples of the data stream are fed into one channel of the DAC or the other... Maybe the spdif out is managed in a different way than the stream that goes to the DACs...

When I have time I'll try myself, just need to find a proper CD

 

[Kogut]

Funny bug on my skylight version running v25 firmware @FiiO Willson. I am feeding Mojo 2 using a toslink optical cable. I start listening to a CD and sometime after if I press the back button the song restarts bu also left and right channels switch. Press back button again, it restarts and switches again. Most noticeable on songs that start from one channel. Just noticed on Angie from Rolling Stones. Happens with all CDs but it is difficult to notice what is happening for some songs. Does NOT happen with headphone outputs. Did NOT test with coax cable or line-out. Don’t think it is specific to my unit but maybe someone can test and confirm.

I’m experiencing the exact same bug when using the coaxial cable.
I’ve also tested the Bluetooth output and it seems to work fine.

 

[dougie69]

Not need，Paired devices will automatically connect back when both your headset and DM13 are in Bluetooth mode

That's not my experience so far. Using a pair of B&W PX7 and was working earlier. Turned device off - now in pairing mode (again) and still looking for the previous device - trying to put the headphones in pairing mode (again) - PAIRING not flashing and still not connecting.

 

[Kogut]

Another bug?

Gapless playback doesn’t work when playing from stored (favourite) tracks.
I understand that the mechanism needs to jump between tracks when the order is custom, and that can take time. But even when the programmed tracks are consecutive on the disc, there’s still a delay — a noticeable gap.

For example, I have an audio CD with 10 tracks. I want to play them in this order: 4, 8, 10, 2, 3.
Tracks 2 and 3 are next to each other on the CD, so they should play gaplessly — but instead, there’s a big pause.

 

[Twizzle]

Hi. Just got my DM13 today. I want to use it as a desktop CD player with my Denon AVR-X2800H via a digital connection. The CD player comes with an adapter to convert the 3.5mm jack to a coaxial, but my Denon only has optical digital inputs. Is there a lead or adapter I can get to convert the 3.5mm jack output to an optical input? I don't want to have to power a separate converter. Any advice appreciated. Thanks

 

[pacmanbr]

Hi. Just got my DM13 today. I want to use it as a desktop CD player with my Denon AVR-X2800H via a digital connection. The CD player comes with an adapter to convert the 3.5mm jack to a coaxial, but my Denon only has optical digital inputs. Is there a lead or adapter I can get to convert the 3.5mm jack output to an optical input? I don't want to have to power a separate converter. Any advice appreciated. Thanks

All you need is a mini toslink cable like this