[DarginMahkum]

The guy's just getting eaten up by Fiio's marketing, the marketing did say "rival modern smartphone" but it also mentioned Exynos 7872, which is, at best a 2 year old entry level SoC, heck the chip can be found in a 200 usd MSRP phone from 2 years ago. 2018 is... Modern (-ish) but really nothing to brag about, expectation can be lowered simply just by researching a bit.

Audio impression not being up to par tho. Its very subjective so not gonna comment about it.
Its just theres a lot of ports and settings on the DAP, just play around with it all, youll find something that make it suit you better.

But FiiO does not say it is rivaling smartphones, but "technologically rivaling" and lists all the points. It is not just about what the SoC is, but being able to use the hardware production technologies applied by the best smartphones out there. And these points are explicitly mentioned. Most probably they worked with Samsung and used a similar technology to their smartphone PCB/hardware design. That's it.

 

[Sp12er3]

Oh but they do, im talking strictly on the SoC perf here, which Fiio doesnt shy away from shouting as their best selling point

what they put on their marketing for they Exynos 7872 is nothing short of hyperbole
As they used words like "rivaling smartphone" and "unrivaled performance" right afterwards in the next slide. Fiio M15

The second point you may accept as "unrivaled" as a dap, but others can also argue that DAP's performance should be compared to smartphone as the two run the same OS thus face the same kind of load in its performance.
And, Fiio bring up the smartphone comparison themselves by putting "rivalling modern smartphone" catch.

In the same page Fiio claims to be using all the flagship chips Qualcomm and AKM makes, it makes putting the Exynos 7872 as the SoC right on the next slide sounds like a bigger deal than it actually is.
Not that its bad of them, its their marketing people being smart.

Buyers should heed and not really take anything the marketing material has to say seriously.

Its just that nothing really get up there in DAP's performance , and Chip makers surely wont just make a custom chip for such a low quantity sale device like DAP, so everyone is probably gonna be stuck with a low end chip, no matter how expensive the DAP are. Even more when This here is also the same chip the M11 uses and that thing's just 1/3 of the price of M15. There's no way a $500 DAP would have $300-500 smartphone performance. The cost have to go to improving the audio quality stuffs.

Expectations for it should all be rein in until entry level chip can reach flagship phones performance from 2-3 years ago IMO, ie Snapdragon 835's level is enough for anyone and is imperceptible in day to day use even to people sensitive to "slow-ness". Until then, just get used to sligt incoonvenience, thats just what you have to pay for when choosing a DAP with an Android.

Dont get baited with how fast smartphone's price drop (like 60-70% after a year), that only happens because of just how saturated smartphone market are, its not gonna happen with DAP. Nothing can compete with how cheap in performance per $ old smartphones are.

 

[LightBlue77]

Still talks about best smartphones, yet he doesn't understand what he is reading.

Not feeding this angry troll anymore, who sounds like just broke up with his girl and wants to puke what he couldn't tell her to this group.

You must be very unhappy to go this low on personal level. But no problem, at list I know how low can you go makes it easy to rate quality of a person.
If you want a piece of my personal life, my 4 years old kid loves this player he asks: "you have 3 players now? This one is big! The biggest! Give it to me so I can listen to my music" then: "Lollipop, lollipop...ta ta ta ta dam".

 

[AudioBomb]

"Unrivalling processing power" for a DAP, obviously.

 

[LightBlue77]

No, not obviously, they associate it to modern smartphones and THEIR perfomance. Think of the fact that most of the buyers are non native English speakers. And many of them do not read all the small descriptions on the fiio's page. They will not think of the details as you do.

Ah... And don't you just love when this happens? :-D

 

[Sp12er3]

Many just wished when Fiio increase the price to 2x+ of M11 while inluding a lot of upgrade over the M11, they should probably also include an upgrade of the SoC in that 800 usd difference.

 

[McCol]

No, not obviously, they associate it to modern smartphones and THEIR perfomance. Think of the fact that most of the buyers are non native English speakers. And many of them do not read all the small descriptions on the fiio's page. They will not think of the details as you do.

Ah... And don't you just love when this happens? :-D

Never had that despite hours of playback.

Fiio are not entirely wrong in their hyperbole as some are stating. The M15 is smoother in operation than most DAP's and as far as smartphones are concerned it is only really the latest models over the last 12 months at the top tier that run smoother. My partner has the older iPhone x and tidal/Qobus run at a very similar speed.

Most of all though the main aspect is the sound.
You are of course entitled to your opinion but for me the M15 is simply stunning. As an aside I owned the ZX300 and found it very over rated good but not anything special.

 

[McCol]

Many just wished when Fiio increase the price to 2x+ of M11 while inluding a lot of upgrade over the M11, they should probably also include an upgrade of the SoC in that 800 usd difference.

Never going to happen due to limited number of people buying premium product against cost of chips.

 

[Sp12er3]

Yeah I know (just read my long post), im just stating the preconceptions people would have from just seeing the price uptick.

 

[AudioBomb]

No, not obviously, they associate it to modern smartphones and THEIR perfomance. Think of the fact that most of the buyers are non native English speakers. And many of them do not read all the small descriptions on the fiio's page. They will not think of the details as you do.

Ah... And don't you just love when this happens? :-D

Never had such thing happening even during/after 8 hours burning-in at High Gain and charging at the same time. Don't know the temperatures in Romania, here their around 15ºC.

 

[AudioBomb]

double post.

 

[DarginMahkum]

Many just wished when Fiio increase the price to 2x+ of M11 while inluding a lot of upgrade over the M11, they should probably also include an upgrade of the SoC in that 800 usd difference.

This subject has been discussed so many times here.

SoC is not the main focus component of a DAP, but the audio components and the hardware design are, and these are all upgraded. As it is, M15 is one of two dual AK4499 based DAPs (other one is the $3500 SP2000, which has a less powerful SoC and older Android version), with one of the most powerful amps, and best possible passive/support components in the size/price you can think of, and the most powerful SoC in the DAP market. You might be right that, anyone who just interprets the headlnes the way that s/he wants to interpret them, and has no experience with DAP and portable market, can think that it is like a latest and greatest smartphone, but if you know about DAPs and the DAP market then you should know what to expect.

And as also mentioned before, FiiO has always been open about this since the very beginning. The SoC being used was open, Google Play issue was open, the other specifications were open. If someone hasn't done enough research about a product he is buying, and then complains about things that either does not fit the product category or are known to be there for months, then I am sorry but it is the consumer's fault.

I waited for this DAP for several months, and I pretty much got what I expected - my first FiiO DAP. I was even willing to wait for the M15 Pro and skip the M15, but it got cancelled because of some complaints by people that are not even customers for it.

 

[JamesFiiO]

Sorry for the content about the Soc of M15, I just double checked our website . we should be more clear but there are not double that Exynos 7872 is the best Soc among all the hifi DAPs. we are not tryting to compare with smartphone which is a very simple thing that HIFI DAPs can't compete with any decent smartphone in Soc .

 

[LightBlue77]

@DarginMahkum
First fiio dap? another good laugh coming...
i got my 3rd fiio dap, had fiio headphones.dacs and amps, lost the track of how many portables from other brands. So, for sure i know what i'm talking about, also for sure more than you.
when is the last time you had a temperature issue with a smart device? have you ever had such issue with any smart device? so much for technologically rivaling device, heat sinking and dissipating heat gibberish.

Look, James answered, thank you, you are putting this in line with BEST smartphones...it's clearly stated on m15's headlines.
" is a very simple thing that HIFI DAPs can't compete with any decent smartphone in Soc "

 

[McCol]

@DarginMahkum
First fiio dap? another good laugh coming...
i got my 3rd fiio dap, had fiio headphones.dacs and amps, lost the track of how many portables from other brands. So, for sure i know what i'm talking about, also for sure more than you.
when is the last time you had a temperature issue with a smart device? have you ever had such issue with any smart device? so much for technologically rivaling device, heating sinking and dissipating heat gibberish.

Look, James answered, thank you, you are putting this in line with BEST smartphones...it's clearly stated on m15's headlines.
" is a very simple thing that HIFI DAPs can't compete with any decent smartphone in Soc "

We shall all bow to your superior knowledge