Dixter
Headphoneus Supremus
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Another youtube impression/review...
FiiO M15S Pocket Desktop-Level Player Discussion & Impressions Thread
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Dixter
Headphoneus Supremus
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cool.... I hope he finds one..
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Today we review the M15s on Headfonia as well, it's a new recommended buy!
cleg
Headphoneus Supremus
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Well, I will add my humble 5c too. M15S is an outstanding player with a mature sound and a bunch of useful features
Dixter
Headphoneus Supremus
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https://www.headfonia.com/fiio-m15s-review/Today we review the M15s on Headfonia as well, it's a new recommended buy!
rocksarkar
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Hi,
Need advice.. i currently own m17 and in market for something portable to use with iems .. will it be advisable to buy used m15 for around 500$ or m15s.. how much difference will i notice between m15 and m15s.. i am planning to use only iem with m15 or m15s...
Need advice.. i currently own m17 and in market for something portable to use with iems .. will it be advisable to buy used m15 for around 500$ or m15s.. how much difference will i notice between m15 and m15s.. i am planning to use only iem with m15 or m15s...
EdgeDC
100+ Head-Fier
If you use streaming apps, don’t buy the older M15 - you will not be satisfied. However, if you only care about listening to your own music offline (i.e. loaded onto a microSD card), then the M15 might be suitable for you.
If you *do* listen to streaming services, and you want another, more portable FiiO DAP than the M17, stick to either the M11S, M11 Plus, or M15S - in increasing order of size and cost.
rocksarkar
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Super explanation and yes most of the time spent is on streaming..i tried m11s but not happy with sound.... i will go with m15s
EdgeDC
100+ Head-Fier
If you are happy with the M17 sound with your IEMs, there’s a good chance that the M11 Plus will sound more similar.
That’s not to criticize the M15S, but it has a different sound signature, since it does not use THX amps, whereas the M17 and M11 Plus do. The M11 Plus is also more portable than the M15S.
livingplane
New Head-Fier
Candid question as a M15 owner using exclusively streaming apps (Deezer and Quobuz): can you please elaborate on the reasons which lead you to recommend avoiding it for streaming apps? I can obviously see the Android version as being a long term limitation but focusing on the current experience I can't say I have anything against it in that use case (bluetooth lack of stability is on another story altogether but for different use cases).
EdgeDC
100+ Head-Fier
For me, it's less about the Android version (although Android 7 is more likely to present a compatibility issue with newer streaming app version moving forward than Android 10, of course - Apple Music is already one of them), and more about the general performance of the SoC.
IMO, the M11S, M11 Plus, M15S and M17 are more "future proof" simply due to their processing power (i.e. Snapdragon 660). That doesn't mean you can't stream anything with the older Exynos 7872-based DAPs (M11, M11 Pro, M15) - clearly you are doing it now - only that for better "future proofing", it would be wiser to buy a current-gen model, especially when already used to the M17, as @rocksarkar is. These differences matter much less for offline music listening though.
On the M15 vs M15S, one thing that helps is that the M15S has an MSRP that is US$300 lower than the M15 was when it was released. Yes, a used M15 will likely be even cheaper now, but the gap between a used M15 and a new M15S is not as wide as it would have otherwise been, had they priced the M15S the same as the M15 had been.
That all being said, based upon what @rocksarkar said - that he/she wants a more portable device than their M17, and they only intend to use it with IEMs, I think the M11 Plus is likely a better solution for them than either a used M15 or new M15S anyway. The fact that a new M11 Plus goes for ~US$644-650 now, depending on where you buy it (AliExpress vs. Amazon in this case), down from the original ~US$700 MSRP price, just makes it that much more attractive. Plus it's smaller than the M15 & M15S, which is part of the reason @rocksarkar is even looking for another DAP in the first place.
Dixter
Headphoneus Supremus
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If your going to push the M11 series over the M15s then wait for the M23 to be released as its the new M11plus ... I have no other info on it.. fiio has placed the order of the M23 just below the M15s... so the lineup is M23 ... M15s... M17
EdgeDC
100+ Head-Fier
A fair point - and presumably the M23 will have an updated SoC… but when is the expected release date? I haven’t looked it up (nor heard incidentally).
If it hasn’t been set yet, then it’s an easy trap to get into, constantly waiting for the next model. At some point you just have to jump in.
(I still hate the new naming convention, BTW. I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to having the revision number before the series number.)
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jsmiller58
Headphoneus Supremus
Expected M23 release is sometime in the Fall. https://www.head-fi.org/threads/fiio-2023-new-product-schedule.966914/
EdgeDC
100+ Head-Fier
Well there you go then - only @rocksarkar can decide if they want to wait until November for another DAP. However, the M11 Plus is still a good DAP in the meantime (especially for IEMs), and is just as fast as their existing M17, since it uses the same SoC.
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