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

[seanwee]

I did more testing with the M15s and it may just be my playback style.

When I just left it to play through my library, temps were much lower




It only heats up significantly when I actually use it. Ie change tracks, look for the next track to play.

 

[RIGATIO]

I can't really compare the two as I let that one go a while back. But like you mentioned, I remember it sounding really good, albeit having some frustrations with its software. But most DAPs sound good these days IMO, and the difference between TOTL and the rest is never night and day. What I can say is that IMO, M15s is much better value and more unique with its USB desktop mode and being Roon ready. And I certainly don't believe M9 is significantly better in SQ.

Yeah i agree but remember the M9 having a very deep bass and vast soundstage. I should have made my question more specific about the soundstage.
Ive had the M8 and the dx320 and from memory when compared to the M9, only the dx320 was the one with such a huge staging. The M8 had slightly narrowe and i could detect it stright away (i liked the warmth on the M8 better tho).
So my question was mainly about the soundstage but in a normal, not desktop mode.

 

[DarginMahkum]

Yeah i agree but remember the M9 having a very deep bass and vast soundstage. I should have made my question more specific about the soundstage.
Ive had the M8 and the dx320 and from memory when compared to the M9, only the dx320 was the one with such a huge staging. The M8 had slightly narrowe and i could detect it stright away (i liked the warmth on the M8 better tho).
So my question was mainly about the soundstage but in a normal, not desktop mode.

Have you tried using an EQ to see if you can achieve that? For example, install the Poweramp EQ (which is system level EQ for Android 10+), slightly lower the 2-8 kHz region as a bell and bump the 10 kHz region about 3 dB with a high shelf.

 

[RIGATIO]

Have you tried using an EQ to see if you can achieve that? For example, install the Poweramp EQ (which is system level EQ for Android 10+), slightly lower the 2-8 kHz region as a bell and bump the 10 kHz region about 3 dB with a high shelf.

I dont use EQ, always prefer the stock tuning.

 

[Dixter]

I dont use EQ, always prefer the stock tuning.

Not that thats a bad idea its just that more recent developments seem to be pointing more and more to DSP and EQ solutions.... my older DAP would not run some of the more up to date apps and now that I have the M15s I have loaded Apple Music and Wavelet app.... as nice as the M15s sounds native it sounds even better with the Wavelet app applying auto EQ to individual headphones while playing lossless via Apple Music... I didn't like EQ in the past simply because I'm not good at building the EQ but those days are gone for me when the Wavelet App has perfectly tuned EQ for all of the headphones I use... its great... and free,

 

[Erolo]

Does the heat development also depend on whether battery power or power via USB PD connection is used?
If I bypass the battery, use USB PD as power supply and only use low gain for example, does the M15s still get warm and have to use the fan?

 

[FiiO]

M15S FW1.0.3 firmware download: Click here

How to upgrade the M15S：Click here

 

[WianFiiO]

Does the heat development also depend on whether battery power or power via USB PD connection is used?
If I bypass the battery, use USB PD as power supply and only use low gain for example, does the M15s still get warm and have to use the fan?

Hi, the heat mainly comes from the DAC and amp chips. Of course, the battery will also generate some heat when it is working.
When you use desktop mode, the temperature will be lower than use battery power.

 

[Dixter]

@FiiO now that the firmware is out and we get USB to iphone... how does that work... I looked for the answer in the manual... but THERE IS NO MANUAL

 

[FiiO]

@FiiO now that the firmware is out and we get USB to iphone... how does that work... I looked for the answer in the manual... but THERE IS NO MANUAL

Dear friend,

1. Switch the M15S to USB DAC mode;
2. Turn on iOS devices decoding option from setting menu in USB DAC page:

3. Connect the M15S to iOS device via the type c to lightning OTG cable:

Best regards

 

[Micha111]

@FiiO
the links for the firmwares seems to be wrong/broken.
The incremental will load a zip file called 1.0.2 and the link to full version seems to be broken.
When it is available OTA?

 

[maikelhd]

hi there. The fiio player app is very slow, on the go it doesn't show the covers. The Poweramp player is much better, too bad it can only be used on Android system. they have to improve it. sd card is one of the fastest. I hope they solve it quickly. Greetings @FiiO

 

[Galapac]

I prefer Poweramp as well as it has more customization and you can export your settings when you get a new player which keeps all your customization and playlists, etc.

 

[Dixter]

Used mine last night battery only... and yes it gets pretty warm after awhile... when on charger power it run much cooler... this was with all options turned on...

 

[seanwee]

Used mine last night battery only... and yes it gets pretty warm after awhile... when on charger power it run much cooler... this was with all options turned on...

Yeah that's what I've found as well.

Battery saver doesn't seem to make it run all that cooler but the most significant thing that affects temps is definitely interaction with the device.

Good news is the case makes it much more tolerable to hold and doesn't make it any hotter. Perhaps it's already thermal throttling at 48C which is in line with the thermal throttle point for mobile phones nowadays.

Perhaps fiio could set a lower thermal throttle point at 45C in a future update? Benchmark numbers will be a bit lower but it shouldn't affect usability at all.