[FiiO M15S] Pocket Desktop-Level Player Discussion & Impressions Thread

[Patlezinc]

@FiiO

Wanted to try the Coax connection of the M15S to my Q7. Will be making my own interconnect.

Can you confirm the pin out of the 3.5mm and RCA I have is correct?

Mono 3.5mm


RCA Male

Do you know what is going through the SPDIF? Is it the RAW signal from music files? Or is it the music already treated by the M15S with its own DAC and maybe its PEQ?

 

[Dixter]

I'm not a SPDIF expert at all.. this is copy/paste from the manual...

SPDIF (Coaxial out), generally used when connecting to DACs

SPDIF out
(it only needs to be set in this way when the coaxial output is used)
D2P mode: when playing PCM signals, it will output raw PCM signals; when
playing DSD signals, it will first convert DSD to PCM and output PCM signals.
DoP mode: PCM will be output as PCM signals while DSD will be output as
raw DSD signals.
Notes:
Select DoP first. For some devices that are not supportive of DoP, please
select D2P.

 

[Patlezinc]

Ok, seems clear. But I want to link the m15s to a hifiman EF400 and I can’t find cable mono/usb-c. Only stereo/usb c. Dont know if it works then…

 

[karloil]

Do you know what is going through the SPDIF? Is it the RAW signal from music files? Or is it the music already treated by the M15S with its own DAC and maybe its PEQ?

Been using SPDIF and Optical in a few of my devices - normally they will be treated as transports.

Ok, seems clear. But I want to link the m15s to a hifiman EF400 and I can’t find cable mono/usb-c. Only stereo/usb c. Dont know if it works then…

Coaxial is a mono connection, the RCA at the back of the EF400 won't work - and from my understanding, the RCA of the EF400 is for Line Out. Your only Inputs are USB B and USB C.

 

[FiiO]

@FiiO

Wanted to try the Coax connection of the M15S to my Q7. Will be making my own interconnect.

Can you confirm the pin out of the 3.5mm and RCA I have is correct?

Mono 3.5mm


RCA Male

Dear friend,

The 3.5mm one should have following defintion:

Best regards

 

[karloil]

Dear friend,

The 3.5mm one should have following defintion:



Best regards

Ok noted, also have a 4 pole 3.5mm plug here - will use that instead.

But how about the RCA side? Can you please confirm the polarity/pin out assignment?

 

[Patlezinc]

Been using SPDIF and Optical in a few of my devices - normally they will be treated as transports.



Coaxial is a mono connection, the RCA at the back of the EF400 won't work - and from my understanding, the RCA of the EF400 is for Line Out. Your only Inputs are USB B and USB C.

Yes yes, that is why I wrote usb-c. I need one of these two, 3,5mm and usbc or usbb. Don’t even know if it exists…

 

[FiiO]

@FiiO
Hi there.
There are very few infos about your PEQ in the lab features on the M15s. It seems to me that the Q factors are not really matching the Crinacle tool. For instance your Q4.0 seems to be a Q2.0 in Crinacle PEQ.
Do you have any guidance about this?

Dear friend,

Are you using the peaking filter for testing?

Best regards

 

[FiiO]

Ok noted, also have a 4 pole 3.5mm plug here - will use that instead.

But how about the RCA side? Can you please confirm the polarity/pin out assignment?

Dear friend,

The RCA side in the picture you show is correct. The engineer told me that most RCA port in the market is using this definition.

Best regards

 

[karloil]

Dear friend,

The RCA side in the picture you show is correct. The engineer told me that most RCA port in the market is using this definition.

Best regards

Thanks for confirming. Yep, that is the normal pin out for RCA, but of course manufacturers can always change them - so a confirmation coming from you guys is appreciated.

 

[Dixter]

been playing around with the wavelet app and the poweramp app today.... very interesting as between the two there are so many options to fine tune the DAP.... the poweramp has a built in PEQ with upto 32 sliders with Q and gain adjustments.... I found a EQ for the LCD-X that uses 32 sliders so I printed it out and copied it into the app and it works quite well... so what I found out is you can build a EQ in the poweramp app and then the wavelet app will see the EQ and in the wavelet app you can turn the EQ on or off and it turns the PEQ into a universal app for your other playback apps... you don't even have to have the poweramp app active.... so the wavelet app will auto adjust to the harmon chart target and if you want to adjust even further you can place the PEQ on top of that and the results are pretty cool...

 

[Patlezinc]

I already downloaded it and did not find it very useful because of the PEQ included in the M15s. But as I wrote earlier, I think it is bugged and not corresponding to what you want. Then I did a new try and found the Poweramp one is really better and has more options.
Did you try the Crinacle Graph comparison tool? You have a EQ panel and can see what modify live. I would say that targeting the full curve is not a good idea. It can change the sound a lot. It is an alchemy and and it not so simple. If I fully EQ the He1000SE it doesn’t sound good. In fact it sounds good by nature ON GOOD SOURCES. But bad mixed tracks have a bad treble behavior and it becomes too bright. So I just add a -5db at 12000hz. Otherwise the sound signature starts to change too much. The big difference at 2000hz (with the Harmann curve) should not be EQed, it is on purpose and would result in an unbalanced result.

 

[Dron86]

Received mine yesterday.
M15s + Yanyin Mahina. Top synergy.
Thank you, Fiio for such an outstanding, balanced device.

P.s. do I need to proceed with m15s burn-in? If yes, for how many hours? What changes will I face?

 

[Dixter]

I already downloaded it and did not find it very useful because of the PEQ included in the M15s. But as I wrote earlier, I think it is bugged and not corresponding to what you want. Then I did a new try and found the Poweramp one is really better and has more options.
Did you try the Crinacle Graph comparison tool? You have a EQ panel and can see what modify live. I would say that targeting the full curve is not a good idea. It can change the sound a lot. It is an alchemy and and it not so simple. If I fully EQ the He1000SE it doesn’t sound good. In fact it sounds good by nature ON GOOD SOURCES. But bad mixed tracks have a bad treble behavior and it becomes too bright. So I just add a -5db at 12000hz. Otherwise the sound signature starts to change too much. The big difference at 2000hz (with the Harmann curve) should not be EQed, it is on purpose and would result in an unbalanced result.

thanks for reminding me of the crinacle site... didn't know they have a EQ export function to the wavelet app.... makes EQ much easier...

 

[RIGATIO]

How would a DAP like this compare to an iFi xDSD Gryphon in terms of sound quality?

I will report on Saturday as i ordered the m15s and currently using the Gryphon paired with the u12t.
I have a feeling that the m15s will go back because it doesn't have these fantastic features like XBass and XSpace which are analog and work better than a typical EQ to my ears.
With these options ON, the u12t, even via BT sound like crazy. The soundstage is on the same level as on the Arya paired with a desktop amp and the bass hits way deeper.
When going via USB everything gets even better lol. The quality and fun factor of this combo is out of this world.