[Polky74]

Anyway, FiiO is reading you right now on this forum, so now they know what happened and if they want, they can help you.

 

[MusicalDoc8]

I'm sorry but I didn't understand one thing... did you contact FiiO directly or did the distributor do it? I wish you had ended up in a dispute between FiiO and the distributor in question. If so, contact FiiO directly and cut the distributor out... in the end the customer is mainly a customer of the brand and not of the distributor, the only reason it could be the customer's fault is if he bought dubious material provenance but if you have proof of purchase they can't appeal anything.

1.st contacted the distributor. and also fiio because i like to be thorough. Fiio told me that the lcd was off limits impossible to repair etc etc. Distributor at least tried to send it to them also pointing out the faulty battery. In the end i had to SHIP IT TWICE to china to get it repaired. And just to make it even easier, in the package i sent back i even printed an A4 paper detailing the issues.
So, even if the distributor had ignored to forwad them, fiio ignored it. I have even screenshots of fiio messaging the distributor that "all the issues were fixed" and then shipping me back the broken screen broken charge device to me. Because the distributor cared enough to show their good will and transparent communication.

 

[Polky74]

Now you are in the right place to report the problem to FiiO and FiiO will prove to all of us and to you if it is a company that can be trusted or not. The problem of some bad screens on the M15 presented itself to many users even on the first units. Let's see what happens.

 

[MusicalDoc8]

Sincerely, i didn't post all of this from the get go because i gave them the benefit of fixing the issue privately. I guess that didn't work out.

 

[Dixter]

on a different subject... Fiio has released the M15s and it seems to be a upgraded M15 towards the M17 side of options... on paper it looks like a pretty good upgrade.... and I started looking into it to upgrade path for a M11pro.... while trying to figure out if I would like to get the M15s I thought the choice is really either the M15s or the M17... and even though the M17 is a bit old in the chain Fiio put the same parts/options in the M15s with exceptions of a single DAC and different opamps... the question becomes... buy the M15s for the size or just go ahead and get the M17 and be done with it all... any ideas ???

 

[MusicalDoc8]

on a different subject... Fiio has released the M15s and it seems to be a upgraded M15 towards the M17 side of options... on paper it looks like a pretty good upgrade.... and I started looking into it to upgrade path for a M11pro.... while trying to figure out if I would like to get the M15s I thought the choice is really either the M15s or the M17... and even though the M17 is a bit old in the chain Fiio put the same parts/options in the M15s with exceptions of a single DAC and different opamps... the question becomes... buy the M15s for the size or just go ahead and get the M17 and be done with it all... any ideas ???

Neither. Unless you need very high power there are other daps with the ak4499ex that go for 800-1000. Won't go crossposting other makers, but it's easy to find.
And even then on their forum the m17 seems to have swollen batteries and another guy posted that his m17 suddenly stopped turning on. And they even include the "fan stand" on the m15s so it's guaranteed pocket nuclear reactor. This is how batteries die young.

 

[Dixter]

what other DAP would you refer to with high output power ~1.5 watt and a newer android OS ?? for around $1K

 

[MusicalDoc8]

what other DAP would you refer to with high output power ~1.5 watt and a newer android OS ?? for around $1K

If you need that power output, then there's only the m17. But it you don't need so much power, there's the same day in others, as i wrote

 

[Polky74]

Honestly, I don't see all the need for watts, by now all IEM manufacturers (especially the best ones) need little power but great quality. Chasing a thousand thousand watts makes no sense to me, if you want to drive large headphones instead, desktop solutions are much cheaper and much more performing.

 

[Dixter]

Honestly, I don't see all the need for watts, by now all IEM manufacturers (especially the best ones) need little power but great quality. Chasing a thousand thousand watts makes no sense to me, if you want to drive large headphones instead, desktop solutions are much cheaper and much more performing.

I travel a lot.... home solutions I have...

 

[Polky74]

I stopped buying dap one after the other for a while when I realized that on a scale of 1 to 100 the dap counts for 20 and the iems for the remaining 80. In fact the M15 is the last one I bought, when it had just gone out of production... I was intrigued by the pair of Ak4499s (after the factory fire) and not so much by the power.

 

[Polky74]

Listening to the M15 with the latest additions (Aroma Jewel) is absolutely not comparable to listening to it with my previous and still much appreciated Mest MKII. It looks like a different dap… very different… yet it is still the same. lol

 

[Gymboy]

on a different subject... Fiio has released the M15s and it seems to be a upgraded M15 towards the M17 side of options... on paper it looks like a pretty good upgrade.... and I started looking into it to upgrade path for a M11pro.... while trying to figure out if I would like to get the M15s I thought the choice is really either the M15s or the M17... and even though the M17 is a bit old in the chain Fiio put the same parts/options in the M15s with exceptions of a single DAC and different opamps... the question becomes... buy the M15s for the size or just go ahead and get the M17 and be done with it all... any ideas ???

I have M17 and it is powerfull great sounding dap. Mostly driving fully fledged headphones and this is where this player stands out, easier to drive without PS, big planars like Audeze with PL 50. I wouldn't know how is the customer support, but I also own DX300, which is another phenomenal player, more romantic but quality is little lower I would say, had the issues with volume wheel and Ibasso sorted it out without any hiccups, very, very good support, Paul from Ibasso is wonderful and helpful person. Both players are amazing, and M17 has also occasional weird software issues but I restart it and keep listening.. astell kern was my first entry to highend daps, original Kann was very slow and heating alot, quality best of the bunch.
I believe if you get used m17 for good price and you are all sorted.

 

[Klmahnn]

Hello everyone.
I'm going to tell you a story of how wonderfully this player has been supported by FiiO and how they handled the warranty.
So i bougt it in Q1 2021. Not even 3 months passed, and the screen started showing a slight tint around the edges. And then more. And more. It grew in a thick line all around the screen, that darkened the screen.
So i asked Fiio "what can i do?".
And thus started the headache:
First they said it was "maybe humidity". They said to keep it in a dry environment. Did buy a literal pack of silica gel and put it inside. Nothing happened after a week of keeping it there. Then i started looking online and it seemed it was a VERY Common issue with the screen. So i wrote them again, confronted them about it, and guess what?
"Sorry we don't have any more spare parts".
It was released in 2020, and after a SINGLE YEAR they alreay were out of one of the main components. And the best thing: they offered me a 5% off in their aliexpress store to buy an M17. And if you ever saw the prices on aliexpress, at least here, it's way over 20% markup.
So a device that is 1399$ was made, with a screen that was notoriously bad and couldn't even be fixed by them.
Now you might think "is that all?"
YOU WISH!
So when i bought it i didn't pay mind to it, but from the get go, i didn't notice it charging when turned off. Thought it just didn't have any on-screen notice and just ignored it. But, as you can see in the thread, i found out this WAS NOT a normal thing! It once hit 0% and that was it. No longer possible to charge, not possible to use, dead weight.
Thanks to my stubborness, i managed to "force reboot" it enough times (when the battery is exhausted, there is an animation that asks to charge it. If you keep force rebooting it, while connected to the charger, in my case it ended up booting up with 0% battery and THEN started charging) that it turned on for a split second and the charge managed to start.
So this time i contacted the seller, a very nice shop that immediately told me to ship it to them for repairs. And so i did, sent it to them and they sent it to fiio. About a month after that, it came back.
And guess what? Fiio didn't fix it! they literally told the shop "oh yeah we fixed it" and when i tried charging it while turned off, it stil had the same issue! So, 3 months after the initial shipping, i had the same issues and also paid for the shipping.
So i contacted the shop and told them about it, they didn't even think it could be possible they trusted fiio had fixed it. I can understand, so i sent them videos and they immediately asked to ship it back again.
This time, after 3 more months i got it back and now, finally the battery charges even when turned off with an animation showing it's charging.
It took them, all in all, 6 months to fix the issue.
Of course the screen is still bad and now a LOT of stuck red/green pixels are on the display, so it's basically a dead player walking.
My experience was beyond bad, and all this after i had put a lot of trust in fiio by buying a K9pro, a Q5s TC, BTR5, gifing another one to my gf and to my father, so i could say i had high hopes and trust in them, but now that i saw how they handled my case and how they handled repairs, i will no longer be interested in any of their offerings.
They had many ways to show sincere support or at least take responsability for their shortcomings, but the only one that was actually willing to support me in the warranty was the shop i bought it from, that has been very supportive and didn't leave me alone hanging.

It’s mainly for this reason that I have always stopped myself from buying a dap. It seems there is always bare minimum warranty with little suggestion of after sales support. Chord are know to have a good system in place for battery replacements on their portable devices, but no dap that I know of.

 

[MusicalDoc8]

It’s mainly for this reason that I have always stopped myself from buying a dap. It seems there is always bare minimum warranty with little suggestion of after sales support. Chord are know to have a good system in place for battery replacements on their portable devices, but no dap that I know of.

Rs8 from hiby has a metal backplate with screws that can be easily opened. Similar design on a hiby r6 pro II, two screws on backplate.
But it's a unicorn tier rare characteristic. Better buy with full 2 year warranty in the eu.
And i reccomend looking for "device gets very hot during use" or similar phrases. Batteries die WAY faster if the internal temperature is high.
https://www.nature.com/articles/srep12967
This article is quite well made: jumping from 35 degrees to 55 DOUBLES the battery degradation. And 45 going 55 is where the most degradation start to spark.
So if you install a program to monitor temperature of the battery and it says above 40, i'd say that device ain't gonna live too long.
Instead, if your dap measures around 35, then there is very good dissipation and very good chances for a long lasting battery.