[Gymboy]

I have had the M15 for like 3 days now. I feel like M11 Pro is probably ok, but I plan on getting back into headphones also, so the power of the M15 comes in handy.

Pairing my baby Westone ES60, M15 sounds natural, velvety smooth. There is excellent layering, imaging, separation. You can feel the width and depth of sound stage. You never feel fatigued. The instrument separation, imaging and sound stage are qualities I feel separate different tiers of gear. I happen to be on the review tour for Cayin N3 Pro. It's an excellent budget player, but you certainly hear the dramatic difference in all those qualities when you A/B.

Probably going to try to get a Denon D9200 to pair with the M15.

I am going for Sony ZR1 as my end game

 

[gordec]

I am going for Sony ZR1 as my end game

ZR1 is colored with a V shaped curve.

I am going for Sony ZR1 as my end game

My issue with Sony's is there Vshaped curves. The Z1R is colored as well. It is great for some genre.

 

[tjl5709]

I’ve used the M15 line out to the KSE1200. There seems to be too much voltage and I hear static at times so I stopped using the M15. Never noticed a channel imbalance though.

This is sad to hear. I was thinking of moving away from my X7mk2 for this. But my travel gear is SE846 and KSE1200 IEM's.

So there is no adjustment on line out and the low gain setting on the KSE is not enough?

I wonder if a firmware function could be added?

 

[Gymboy]

ZR1 is colored with a V shaped curve.


My issue with Sony's is there Vshaped curves. The Z1R is colored as well. It is great for some genre.

Yes, never heard ZR1's but I guess if they might be U shaped (hope), I am not big fan of V myself but U would pass. Also heard they have ridiculous amount of details and beautiful and textured bass. Old school 70mm dynamic driver makes a sound full bodied, I just cant listen to thin/weak sound, no matter of level of details.

 

[Pictograms]

This is sad to hear. I was thinking of moving away from my X7mk2 for this. But my travel gear is SE846 and KSE1200 IEM's.

So there is no adjustment on line out and the low gain setting on the KSE is not enough?

I wonder if a firmware function could be added?

There is a variable line out control, it just us to be enabled in the setting, just not sure is @tjl5709 has tried it or not.

Whoops I mean @kdphan....

 

[kdphan]

There is a variable line out control, it just us to be enabled in the setting, just not sure is @tjl5709 has tried it or not.

Whoops I mean @kdphan....

Sadly, I no longer have the M15.
I couldn't find variable line out control when I had it.

 

[DanIv]

Hi all,

About M15 heating , made some tests and I want to share:
- First 50 hours always hot, charging while playing made even hotter so stopped after first try,
- Now afer 100 hours - with BT connected with car - zero heat (Uapp on Tidal, MQA enabled do not transmit perfect bit to BT) but good sound
- With Fiio FH 5, 4.4 balanced out , Uapp Tidal MQA playlists, mild heat , nothing to worry, kept M15 in pocket. FH 5 is quite a sensitive iem , volume around 50, full MQA decode. Tried for 20 minutes All to Dsd, some more heat but nothing to worry about
- With Sony MDR Z7 -well here comes the heat , 80-90 volume , MQA , I think that temperature is around 50 Celsius degrees

I guess that the amplifier is generating the most of the heat, the dual dacs perhaps contribute in some degree but not sot some much.

Just my 2 cents here.

 

[krumplib430]

There is a setting in general called "disable battery charging". I would like to know what happens if the battery fully discharges while this setting is enabled. I will never be able to charge again and will get bricked? Is there a mechanism which turns this feature off automatically? This is only a theoretical question, so far I didn't enable this feature. I'm just curious.

 

[Pictograms]

There is a setting in general called "disable battery charging". I would like to know what happens if the battery fully discharges while this setting is enabled. I will never be able to charge again and will get bricked? Is there a mechanism which turns this feature off automatically? This is only a theoretical question, so far I didn't enable this feature. I'm just curious.

I’ve found that the battery stays at the charge it was at when it’s plugged in, so that should not be a issue but I would assume when the Fiio is off it automatically charges.
Just test it, enable “do not charge” and then turn it off and try

 

[journeyman63]

There is a setting in general called "disable battery charging". I would like to know what happens if the battery fully discharges while this setting is enabled. I will never be able to charge again and will get bricked? Is there a mechanism which turns this feature off automatically? This is only a theoretical question, so far I didn't enable this feature. I'm just curious.

I use this feature most the time, since my main use of the M15 is while I'm sitting at my desk and I like to keep the screen on without constantly charging the battery to 100%--better for battery health. When the 'Do not charge' feature is engaged, the M15 is being powered off the USB charger but the battery charge level doesn't increase. I haven't tested what happens when the unit is fully powered down, but I'd assume it would either charge or be powered directly by the USB charger, so there shouldn't be any chance of bricking.

 

[hmscott]

Fully powered down the M15 CPU is off, so only the automatic charging circuit is running - the battery will charge with the M15 OS not running even with Charge Disabled in the OS. The M15 takes time to charge from 0% before it will boot.

I only ran the M15 down to 0% battery once, and when I plugged in the USB power to the M15, eventually the M15 screen lit up with the battery charge level blue screen.

As I recall, it took time after being plugged in before the battery level screen would show. And, it took more time before I could boot up - after 2%-3% showed in Red in the Battery Level.

When the BTR5 runs out of battery, it seems bricked - no charge indicator shows and it also takes time to boot system . After a few minutes on USB power the BTR5 will then boot - then I immediately turn Charge back to On.

 

[krumplib430]

Thank you guys for the answer. I'm not worried then using this feature. My use case would be similar to journeyman63, sometimes using as desktop DAC for PC and I don't want to charge it all the time because that is not good for battery health.

Another issue I have run into lately. I'm using M15 for PC when I'm gaming and it is working perfectly. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for PS4, When I plug into PS4 USB port in USB DAC mode, the screen says 44k 32bit stream, but there is no sound. I couldn't find anything regarding this on the internet, seems like PS4 support for DACs are hit and miss I was also looking into ways of transforming optical out into USB without any luck. Bluetooth is also not good for gaming because of the latency.

@FiiO, can you please add optical input in next flagship DAP or at least make the USB mode compatible with gaming consoles (maybe this can be done to existing M15 via firmware update)?

 

[gordec]

Just to give you another perspective, I compare m15 to dx228 extensively this weekend and thought the ibasso was clearly the better performer. Go figure... Just clearly more detailed and higher resolution sound, punchier/better dynamics.

The M15 is the most holographic DAP I have heard. My best 3 DAPs before the M15 were AK380, DX220 with amp8, and Cowon P1. I had the same Westone ES60 for 7 years now. I know it's subjective, but DX228 is not even in the same ballpark. Ibasso had this waterfall hiss with sensitive IEMs. I just couldn't stand it. Not considering the UI, more responsive touch screen, the list goes on.

 

[Gymboy]

The M15 is the most holographic DAP I have heard. My best 3 DAPs before the M15 were AK380, DX220 with amp8, and Cowon P1. I had the same Westone ES60 for 7 years now. I know it's subjective, but DX228 is not even in the same ballpark. Ibasso had this waterfall hiss with sensitive IEMs. I just couldn't stand it. Not considering the UI, more responsive touch screen, the list goes on.

When I received M15, was comparing it with AK Kann, sound was pretty similar, Fiio was more boomy, but details and stage-ing neck to neck. M15 was left working few nights in a row, and listened to every day, sound has changed, there is very deep stage, with a good width, another layer of details came of top, and sub bass increased while bass being less boomy. Mids are beatiful, on par with Astell, but top end frequencies are way better, Kann now sounds dull, while Fiio's lower treble are way more detailed without any signs of sibilance. Dynamics are on another level and sound is full bodied without losing any information from audio files. To feel full power of dual 4499, it has to be fed with adequate audio files, hi-res, lossless then it starts to shine and stretch its legs and muscles, leaving Kann in a dust. DAP is TOTL and that is exactly what I was looking for, but it needs lots of hours to break in, components are high grade and require even 300h to settle properly.

 

[pkcpga]

I received my Fiio M15 earlier this week and I’d really have to agree the m15 needs plenty of break in time. Coming from the A&K 380 when I first turned on and started listening to the m15 it sounded lack luster and had poor control of bass and treble. A few days later and the amount of difference in sound is unbelievable, it now has a very nice wide sound with great detail separation and a responsive low end. Definitely beating out the older 380 and nicely powering full size headphones without needing the heavy large add on amp that the 380 needed to do that. I tried the newer A&K Kann Alpha, for some reason A&K stopped making powerful daps in their upper tier line and the kann alpha dacs do not give you the usual A&K sound they are very V shaped and closed in sounding. This was very disappointing having had A&K for a while now, but the AKM dacs really have great smooth details without the harsh edge or booming base and AKM have lovely full detailed mids without the recess the Kann Alpha has. Surprising choice for A&K they usually have a very detailed sound signature, I heard the 1000m and it sounded amazing but couldn’t power my full sized headphones like the m15, unfortunately the store was sold out of the 2000. While the Kann can power but not with the A&K sound signature I’m used to. The M15 is much closer in sound signature to the 1000m then the new Kann Alpha.