Awesome, mine was supposed to be here already alas, it looks like I might gat it Monday if the package does not leave the “FedEx local facility” where’s been stuck the whole day!
[FiiO M17] Dual ES9038PRO, dual THXAAA-788+, dual power supplies, 9200mAh battery, 2 volume control modes
Well... I've only listened to the M17 for about an hour and I must say I'm mightily impressed. Those who own either a 3MAX SS or even a Ti will be interested to hear this DAP. I won't go into saying it's way better or worse or whatever... what I will say is that I own both SS and Ti and this is another sensational DAP. The Sub Bass is what surprises me the most. Wow! Bass is also solid and thumping with vocals really clear and 3D sounding. No harshness anywhere. Soundstaging is wide... really wide. Whitigir... I know you're not quite a fan of this DAP, be it for what's inside or whatever... but you really need to listen to one. It may just surprise you. It's got that 'sparkle' but not too 'sparkly' if that makes any sense to those with a Ti. Onwards I listen... with a big smile on my face that says it all... ☺
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Pictograms
500+ Head-Fier
APortable Desktop-Class DAC and Headphone Amplifier, FiiO Q9
In the previous post, I have put forward an idea of making a portable desktop-class DAC and headphone amplifier Q9 on the basis of M17. Q9 is designed for those users who mainly use mobile phones as their audio sources, and people who hope to enjoy the strong driven power and high sound quality as that of M17. Of course, as the high cost of main control and display are saved, the price is expected to be halved and become more affordable. Now we have started our appearance design, let's see which one you like (see the below pictures), A or B? Also, we welcome any comment and suggestion on the design of Q9.
PS, Q9 is still in a very early stage of our exploration, and whether it will be formally set up for development project is yet to be determined. So the design/functions/specification has not been determined.
Rub it in won’t you…where the effing is mine!!!!
But seriously, glad your first impressions are so positive!
keep us all posted
davidmolliere
Headphoneus Supremus
Oh my... I have to resist to the BF deal I found on M17... can't get this and Shanling M9 at the same time...
You say no harshness, do you consider 3MAX to be harsh in any way? I know I had 220MAX and sold it because for all its greatness I had issues with it in the upper mids region...
orangecrescent
100+ Head-Fier
I am sorry but that's not how westerners, easterners, northerners, or southerners think, it's only what you think. So far you are the only poster (or poster id) I have ever encountered in several dap forums to seriously ask for or complain about lack of multi-tasking capabilities on their daps. I thought we choose daps primarily based on their dac and amp capabilities, are we not? Or do we choose according to their ability to play games, surf the web, or running spreadsheet apps? For functions other than dac/amp we mostly use our phones (or tablets, pcs), right? And if one is working out do they put on a susvara/lcd-5 that only big and heavy $2000 daps can drive or go with something smaller? And if one can still manage to really care about having great sq on top of multi-tasking during those jumpy and breathless times will that be much easier to use a really good dongle attached to the phone instead? That way you will have all the accesses to your apps, emails, messaging, chats, videos, games, etc. etc. There are many daps way more than $2000 and I have not seen one that advertise their capabilities other than dac/amp and to a lesser extent UI/stream/storage. A multi-thousand dollar dap is still a dap, as long as it's not marketed as a pda then the company is not at fault when it doesn't function like a pda. I am sure no one complains about a two thousand dollar washing machine does not also clean dishes.
Industrial design involves too many variables and compromises. It is fairly interesting to read about their design philosophies and how they choose to implement what they implemented. How many times we read reviews and have the reviewer question about why company didn't do things differently on a product. I appreciate that FIIO is open and willing to share their internal thoughts and processes, as it provided the consumers like me a better understanding on why they did what they did. Because given time we will almost certainly complain about this and that. With their sharing at least I know what they had thought about and investigated and it's not a case of simply overlooking them. If you don't like it then just scroll down and don't read it. None of the materials presented is offending to you, right? Why are you discouraging an interesting but nonetheless harmless sharing from a company just because you don't like it? Who cares? I care, and I am sure many of the posters here do too.
It's not that I have issues with your way of using a heavy high powered two thousand dollar dap because I am in no position to question anyone's usage habit, I am just not comfortable about your claim to represent a whole segment of population of this planet, and in the process inadvertently discouraged informative postings from a company to make them shy away from sharing them in the future, and leave all the guess works back on our hands.
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What are you talking about, I only talk about daps on this forum and this forum only,I only listen to music on said daps that I own,now I wouldn't mind a step counter while I'm walking, riding or working out,I don't use headphones with daps, have desktop equipment for headphones ,I don't play games on the phone,tablet or dap,I have gaming laptops and desktops for games, if I want to seriously listen I would go to pure music mode and bypass android, but I don't have to do that and no I don't have the so called golden ear,it's just that I've been a musician for over 30+ years and sometimes you have to learn stuff by ear, experience buyers are asking questions and fiio is putting out chapters that don't make a lot of sense. That's just my opinion, have a great weekend.
The Story of FiiO M17-From @JamesFiiO
Link: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the-story-of-fiio-m17-from-fiio-james.960565/
Chapter 6 Why would the M17 cost thousands of dollars? Does FiiO break their price rules?
Since the announcement of the M17, most users expressed that the price is reasonable. But there are indeed some consumers who didn't know much about the player industry and products said the M17 is too expensive!
So, today I would like to talk about the pricing of the M17.
You may agree that the price of a commodity should be determined by its exact value. To evaluate the price of a product, we cannot ignore the design, configuration, material as well as market competition, supply and demand.
The materials used in the M17 are rich enough to achieve excellent performance. Here I will give some examples.
--Contains the best high-resolution display screen in the current player market.
--Contains Qualcomm 660 SoC with the fastest computing speed in the current player industry.
--Contains two of the most expensive top-level ES9038PRO DAC chips.
--Applies currently the most powerful THX788+ analog amplification technology.
--Contains a top-three 9200mAh battery.
--Contains currently the Bluetooth receiver chip QCC5124 with the highest configurations.
--Contains currently probably the only standard supercapacitor.
--Applies currently the most state-of-the-art VC heat dissipation technology.
--Contains currently probably the most luxurious accessories, such as a heat dissipation cooling fan stand and DC power adapter.
The commonly-seen unibody aluminum alloy CNC housing is a sure existence. Actually, some expensive music players used stainless steel, copper and even titanium alloy which are harder to process with higher costs. Also, I would skip similar designs like the FPGA. In a word, the M17 is absolutely the best music player in hardware configurations in the same price range.
Some of you may question that it is just piles of materials heaped up together yet without paying attention to real stuff at all. Frankly speaking, rich materials are the greatest respect to users.
Therefore, from the user's point of view, it is a bit weird to criticize manufacturers for stacking materials in a product.
Let us talk about the pricing of the M17 from the perspective of supply and demand and market competition.
As we all know, the price ceiling of portable music players was broken by imported brands 7 years ago. The market and users were shocked. They did not expect that there were many people who were willing to buy one, and after that, the price became higher and higher. The price ceiling of portable music players in the China market was constantly broken again and again, not only for foreign brands, but also brands in China.
In fact, FiiO has not followed the trend, and has been steadily making cost-effective music players. In the first two years, we have successively released popular music players like the M11 and M11Pro. With users' encouragement and support, we continued the success of releasing the M15.
In general, from the X3 in 2013 to the M17 in 2021, time has proved our effort and progress. The birth of the M17, which was widely praised and popular among users, proved that FiiO has taken a space in the HiFi player market at the same price range as similar products.
We have received a lot of feedback from our old users, especially the M15 users, that they were expecting a music player that could better meet their needs when listening to music in different ways. After all, we are always chasing better, newer and more powerful products within our budget.
Link: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the-story-of-fiio-m17-from-fiio-james.960565/
Chapter 6 Why would the M17 cost thousands of dollars? Does FiiO break their price rules?
Since the announcement of the M17, most users expressed that the price is reasonable. But there are indeed some consumers who didn't know much about the player industry and products said the M17 is too expensive!
So, today I would like to talk about the pricing of the M17.
You may agree that the price of a commodity should be determined by its exact value. To evaluate the price of a product, we cannot ignore the design, configuration, material as well as market competition, supply and demand.
The materials used in the M17 are rich enough to achieve excellent performance. Here I will give some examples.
--Contains the best high-resolution display screen in the current player market.
--Contains Qualcomm 660 SoC with the fastest computing speed in the current player industry.
--Contains two of the most expensive top-level ES9038PRO DAC chips.
--Applies currently the most powerful THX788+ analog amplification technology.
--Contains a top-three 9200mAh battery.
--Contains currently the Bluetooth receiver chip QCC5124 with the highest configurations.
--Contains currently probably the only standard supercapacitor.
--Applies currently the most state-of-the-art VC heat dissipation technology.
--Contains currently probably the most luxurious accessories, such as a heat dissipation cooling fan stand and DC power adapter.
The commonly-seen unibody aluminum alloy CNC housing is a sure existence. Actually, some expensive music players used stainless steel, copper and even titanium alloy which are harder to process with higher costs. Also, I would skip similar designs like the FPGA. In a word, the M17 is absolutely the best music player in hardware configurations in the same price range.
Some of you may question that it is just piles of materials heaped up together yet without paying attention to real stuff at all. Frankly speaking, rich materials are the greatest respect to users.
Therefore, from the user's point of view, it is a bit weird to criticize manufacturers for stacking materials in a product.
Let us talk about the pricing of the M17 from the perspective of supply and demand and market competition.
As we all know, the price ceiling of portable music players was broken by imported brands 7 years ago. The market and users were shocked. They did not expect that there were many people who were willing to buy one, and after that, the price became higher and higher. The price ceiling of portable music players in the China market was constantly broken again and again, not only for foreign brands, but also brands in China.
In fact, FiiO has not followed the trend, and has been steadily making cost-effective music players. In the first two years, we have successively released popular music players like the M11 and M11Pro. With users' encouragement and support, we continued the success of releasing the M15.
In general, from the X3 in 2013 to the M17 in 2021, time has proved our effort and progress. The birth of the M17, which was widely praised and popular among users, proved that FiiO has taken a space in the HiFi player market at the same price range as similar products.
We have received a lot of feedback from our old users, especially the M15 users, that they were expecting a music player that could better meet their needs when listening to music in different ways. After all, we are always chasing better, newer and more powerful products within our budget.
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So far Battery only. Tomorrow I will enter the realms of Super Audio Mode via Mains connection to see what it's all about.
3MAX SS is wonderful. Ti is even better but has a slightly high 'sparkle' sound as I call it. Nothing major but to me is a very slight bit off putting but may get better as time goes on. There is no clear winner anywhere here as it has all to do with your own ears and how you personally perceive the sound from these DAPs and your IEM's or Headphones.
So, i comeback from my night out to find no M17 and this from the FedEx tracking.
To say i am fuming will be an understatement!
To say i am fuming will be an understatement!
Fedex has been completely terrible lately. I had a package due tomorrow for the past week. Today it said arriving earlier than expected. Then this evening changed to tomorrow. Total amateurs there. Botched my LCD5 delivery too.
i am sure as hell not going to put up with that kind of shenanigans, so I’ll be phoning them tomorrow and pick it up from their “local facility” myself!
I guess on top of my "Does the M17 work as a usb-c dap on linux" question I also am curious if it actually runs Apple Music through the play store.
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