Dear friend,
If it is only battery problem, you could try to contact your seller or support@fiio.com for help.
Best regards
FiiO M15 Audio Player | Dual AK4499EQ | 7490 mAh Battery | 64 GB ROM | $1299.99
- Thread starter xenoVa
- Start date
If it is only battery problem, you could try to contact your seller or support@fiio.com for help.
Best regards
whitemouse
100+ Head-Fier
Thank you for your kind help, I will let you know here how it works out.
I sincerely love the M15, I listened to all top DAP here in Bangkok, basically everything is in stock and can be auditioned, at least with an easy load of Aydeze small IEM Planar Magnetic LCDi4, the newer Daps have no advantage.
It is very unusual that owning piece of audio gear such as a DAP for 3 years, there is no need to upgrade, to my ears, there is nowhere to upgrade.
The only issue is battery life. Let's see how this works out.
I did buy a Sony WM1A as a back up, I always loved this design, never bought it because it is rather expensive in Thailand, now I have it, it is very nice DAP, but it is not offering better sound than M15, to my ears.
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Objectively the WM1A is actually worse than the M15. Its a nice DAP but it is no upgrade over the M15.
whitemouse
100+ Head-Fier
Agreed. I simply wanted the Sony for some time, few days ago got a good price and picked it up.
If the Fiio M15 will be travelling to China, for battery replacement , I have several DAP that I'll be using, none as good as M15. Parting with M15 for some period of time was an excuse to pick up the Sony. It is not on the level of M15, agreed. But with easy load to drive, it is similar ball park. With full size planars I would never consider it.
Oh, and ordered Shure KSE1200 Electrostatics finally, now was also a good excuse to buy it, but it will be travelling from Japan.
KSE need input as clean as possible, but output power of the source is not important, low distortion is important.
Otherwise I probably would chosen the huge Ibasso, even it's to heavy to carry around daily.
no other DAP plays like Fiio m15 it’s an Unique musical journey
What happens if you add pure class A amplification with Terathon Alpha technology from Astell&Kern to the two AKM4499EQ DACs of the FiiO M15?
It happens that a great combination is created between the two AKM AK4499EQ of the FiiO M15 with the A&K AK-PA10... truly to listen to. What is missing from the native amplification of the FiiO (delicacy, class, power, soundstage, refinement, three-dimensionality) is given to it by the truly special amplification of the AK-PA10 which, at the same time, enhances the musical qualities of the two AKM AK4499EQ that due to a "only powerful" amplification could not express themselves to their fullest. Now they can... and you can hear it.
littlexx26
500+ Head-Fier
that means m15 amp is very bad?
What happens if you add pure class A amplification with Terathon Alpha technology from Astell&Kern to the two AKM4499EQ DACs of the FiiO M15?
It happens that a great combination is created between the two AKM AK4499EQ of the FiiO M15 with the A&K AK-PA10... truly to listen to. What is missing from the native amplification of the FiiO (delicacy, class, power, soundstage, refinement, three-dimensionality) is given to it by the truly special amplification of the AK-PA10 which, at the same time, enhances the musical qualities of the two AKM AK4499EQ that due to a "only powerful" amplification could not express themselves to their fullest. Now they can... and you can hear it.
If you compare it to the ak pa10... they really play two different sports. If you listen to the M15 with the ak pa10 it will sound like a dap at the level of the ak sp3000 (I'm not joking) on its own it's just a FiiO dap.
I wanted to clarify better what I wrote above, otherwise I could be misunderstood ... I do not think at all that the FiiO M15 is a poor DAP, but like all DAPs it has its limits. The major limit concerns the amplification and for three main reasons that the use of the Astell & Kern AK PA10 makes disappear in an instant. The first is that, obviously FiiO could not propose at that price a DAP that had the amplification at the same level as the electronics (they already did a miracle), we are talking about a pair of AKM AK4499EQ, perhaps the best DAC chip of all time. Even today some companies (Luxury & Precision) look for these particular chips, but they have to "settle" for the little brother (AK4497EQ) to insert it in their current 4k dollar / euro DAPs (E7). The second concerns the high impedance of the internal amplification of the M15 which prevents its use with particularly sensitive IEMs. But the third main reason and certainly the most important of the three concerns the tuning of the dap. This has often been criticized by many reviewers for the lightness of the mids, the sound is very ethereal due to the extreme search for details and a general balance. According to many reviewers there was not much difference between the performance of the M15 if compared to that of the M11 PRO and they were surprised by this. Honestly I also thought that this was due to the tuning and the choice of timbre that FiiO had made for the M15, but it is not exactly like that. The real limit of the M15 and the thing for which it cannot distance itself from the M11 PRO concerns the amplifier that does not allow it to express itself as it deserves. With the use of the Astell&Kern AK PA10 everything becomes different ... the lightness of the mids and notes in general disappears, the sound acquires body, weight, density. The sound comes from everywhere, the soundstage becomes huge, the air between the instruments increases in an unexpected and truly hard to believe way. Everything becomes colorful, dense, alive, BIG and incredibly engaging. The presence of the lineout only in unbalanced (3.5mm) does not allow the connection in balanced, but as Chord and many other companies have taught us, balanced is not synonymous with "sounding good". This small limit is repaid by the two batteries present in the M15 (7490 mah) and in the PA10 (4000 mah) that thank us and allow us hours and hours of simply incredible listening. Are you worried about the low power in unbalanced? Don't even think about it, the PA10 in unbalanced (low gain) leaves the proprietary balanced amplification of the M15 (high gain) behind by miles. Now the M15 is finally free to let you listen to how it really sounds thanks to its splendid AK4499EQ ... without the cap resulting from its amplification. A new M15 is born... the real one, I call it M15-PA10.
P.S. If you have an M15 try it with an AK PA10, it costs as much as a good medium/high cable for iem, but it will transform your M15 like you can't imagine.
P.S. If you have an M15 try it with an AK PA10, it costs as much as a good medium/high cable for iem, but it will transform your M15 like you can't imagine.
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littlexx26
500+ Head-Fier
is there any portable amp better than pa10?I wanted to clarify better what I wrote above, otherwise I could be misunderstood ... I do not think at all that the FiiO M15 is a poor DAP, but like all DAPs it has its limits. The major limit concerns the amplification and for three main reasons that the use of the Astell & Kern AK PA10 makes disappear in an instant. The first is that, obviously FiiO could not propose at that price a DAP that had the amplification at the same level as the electronics (they already did a miracle), we are talking about a pair of AKM AK4499EQ, perhaps the best DAC chip of all time. Even today some companies (Luxury & Precision) look for these particular chips, but they have to "settle" for the little brother (AK4497EQ) to insert it in their current 4k dollar / euro DAPs (E7). The second concerns the high impedance of the internal amplification of the M15 which prevents its use with particularly sensitive IEMs. But the third main reason and certainly the most important of the three concerns the tuning of the dap. This has often been criticized by many reviewers for the lightness of the mids, the sound is very ethereal due to the extreme search for details and a general balance. According to many reviewers there was not much difference between the performance of the M15 if compared to that of the M11 PRO and they were surprised by this. Honestly I also thought that this was due to the tuning and the choice of timbre that FiiO had made for the M15, but it is not exactly like that. The real limit of the M15 and the thing for which it cannot distance itself from the M11 PRO concerns the amplifier that does not allow it to express itself as it deserves. With the use of the Astell&Kern AK PA10 everything becomes different ... the lightness of the mids and notes in general disappears, the sound acquires body, weight, density. The sound comes from everywhere, the soundstage becomes huge, the air between the instruments increases in an unexpected and truly hard to believe way. Everything becomes colorful, dense, alive, BIG and incredibly engaging. The presence of the lineout only in unbalanced (3.5mm) does not allow the connection in balanced, but as Chord and many other companies have taught us, balanced is not synonymous with "sounding good". This small limit is repaid by the two batteries present in the M15 (7490 mah) and in the PA10 (4000 mah) that thank us and allow us hours and hours of simply incredible listening. Are you worried about the low power in unbalanced? Don't even think about it, the PA10 in unbalanced leaves the proprietary balanced amplification of the M15 behind by miles. Now the M15 is finally free to let you listen to how it really sounds thanks to its splendid AK4499EQ ... without the cap resulting from its amplification. A new M15 is born... the real one, I call it M15-PA10.
P.S. If you have an M15 try it with an AK PA10, it costs as much as a good medium/high cable for iem, but it will transform your M15 like you can't imagine.
Sure... but the PA10 has the best performance/price ratio you could ask for. In my opinion, it wouldn't make much sense to pair a Cayin C9 (2400 euros) or an iBasso PB5 (1500 euros) or something even more expensive with the M15, also because it is not at all certain that you will get a better result than what you get with the 600 euros of the PA10. With the AK PA10 (which is a gift for how much it costs) you will hear truly incredible things from your M15, without even needing to push it too much with its infinite options to improve the audio (fine adjustment of the current/crossfed). The M15 and the PA10 (in my opinion) are twins separated at birth...
littlexx26
500+ Head-Fier
so this combo perform better than totl daps now?
It's time now that I no longer think in terms of "this is better or that is better" everything depends on the synergy that is created with the iem/headphones, the type of music you prefer, your personal tastes in tuning. The thing that used to be essential for certain types of listening was spending a lot of money... today it matters much less... better to know how to spend it. The thing you can be sure of is that for the same money 600 euros (used M15) + 600 euros AK PA10, so for a total of 1200 euros it is practically impossible to find something that sounds like this combo (personal opinion). Now the total dap have moved to really high figures, we talk about 3k/4k as if it were nothing... but the steps forward made in my opinion do not justify such figures. Then if you add the release of dongles like the iBasso DC-Elite or the ONIX Alpha Xl1 it has mixed the cards even more. But if you have an M15 that doesn't convince you... with 600 euros for an AK PA10 it will become much more convincing, I assure you.
I forgot... very often we blame the dac for the sound that is not as we want, but we forget that the dac does not sound... it is the iems that do it. This in the photo is an old Questyle QP2R that in its day had a great sound with the iems of the era in which it came out (even the most expensive ones). Now it is playing with a Myer Audio Sliivo SL-41 and it does not sound great... it sounds stellar!!!
littlexx26
500+ Head-Fier
have you tried other daps with pa10? sound good as m15?
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