[McCol]

Ok had another go on tidal this morning and yep I’m getting a similar issue.

With both online streaming and offline tracks they seem to mute/end the track around 10-20!seconds from the end and the same for the start of the next track.

I’m no expert but I think this is probably due to mis management from the processer, the laggy nature when searching and selecting doesn’t bother me however if it is the cause of this issue then it becomes no good for my useage purposes.

I assume it’s sometging than Fiio could resolve in a f/w upgrade, I’m also using the latest tidal apk.

 

[abitdeef]

Ok had another go on tidal this morning and yep I’m getting a similar issue.

With both online streaming and offline tracks they seem to mute/end the track around 10-20!seconds from the end and the same for the start of the next track.

I’m no expert but I think this is probably due to mis management from the processer, the laggy nature when searching and selecting doesn’t bother me however if it is the cause of this issue then it becomes no good for my useage purposes.

I assume it’s sometging than Fiio could resolve in a f/w upgrade, I’m also using the latest tidal apk.

Yes and I get skips like crazy on MQA master recordings on Tidal. I’m on a free trial of both Tidal and Spotify and on the m6 most stuff sounds better on Spotify- I have it set to ultra and it runs smooth. There seems to be more space between stuff and a slightly wider stage.

The master stuff sounds good, but stuff I really like to listen too I already have on hi res or DSD. Maybe tidal’s front end takes more processing power because even moving around in the app is slower.

It probably can be fixed with some firmware tweaking. I’m going to try some Tidal from my laptop just to see how much better it performs. It was faster on my as sr15 but that didn’t support LDAC.

 

[abitdeef]

@abitdeef

Hey quick question for you!

My friend has his A55 now and plans to do a thorough comparison with his M6 through the weekend. With any luck he will send it to me next week but he is also offering me a Hidizs AP80 for the same price $100.00 US. A friend of his is selling it and if I am interested he would send both together next week. I tried sifting through the 175 pages on the AP80 thread but it seems 90% of the posts are about delays in people getting their units and frustration over the fact it is still on a beta firmware.

I saw you posted alot about your frustrations in getting you AP80. Assuming you have it now do you think it is worth looking at? Or do you find the M6 is a much better player vs the AP80. I really don't want to pay the added expense of getting both players if the AP80 isn't worth it. Keeping in mind I am only interested in the UI and usability along with bluetooth functionality especially with LDAC. Spec wise power and battery life are same as my M0 so plenty good enough. I guess the big difference with the AP80 is the bigger screen for me.

I understand this is the M6 thread but I don't have time to sift through all the complaints on the AP80 thread to find any real feedback on the player itself. I quick assessment from you on the AP80 would be appreciated. The M6 is the definite unit I want to try and only the AP80 if it is worth comparing to the M6.

Lol that was my first and last experience with Hidizs. Yes they basically disappear once they have your money and are horrible on firmware updates. I sold mine due to poor hitbox detection having me to hit buttons several times. It did sound nice, but m6 still has a wider stage and it had magic 8 ball dsp to adjust the sound bit it and the company seemed half ass.

Build quality on mine was ok - although you could still see polishing grit in the grooves on the back (very sloppy), but I guess some people’s scroll wheels were very loose and some fell off, and with the poor customer service... Well you see where I’m going, I wouldn’t recommend them my friend no no no. I’d take M0, A55,R3, and definitely m6 over the AP80.

I guess there are people with models from them (Hidizs) that are several years old that never received promised features, and firmware support is non existent. Unless they miraculously improved over the last month- haven’t followed the AP80 thread.

I stand behind m6 it’s a great dap and the niggles I have with it well they are about streaming tidal which won’t effect you. Other than that it’s a fantastic dap.

I love Sony, because they always have a great sound stage and a meaty sound and great battery life, but I really like the ESS based Sabre sound, and have grown really fond of Spotify. I like m6 so much I purchased an amp to run through it so I can dust off my sennhieser hd600’s.

I’m also thinking about getting the Sony1000mx3 to use with m6, they sound fantastic and are seem really comfy- one of the few things I got to demo at the Sony store. I’m actually listening to wireless LDAC from Spotify on the m6 as I type this and it sounds amazing! Lol I’m rambling but no I can’t in good conscious recommend the AP80 it’s got some nice features and good sound but it’s iffy build and support and just the horrible attitude of the company I say STAY AWAY!

 

[McCol]

Yes and I get skips like crazy on MQA master recordings on Tidal. I’m on a free trial of both Tidal and Spotify and on the m6 most stuff sounds better on Spotify- I have it set to ultra and it runs smooth. There seems to be more space between stuff and a slightly wider stage.

The master stuff sounds good, but stuff I really like to listen too I already have on hi res or DSD. Maybe tidal’s front end takes more processing power because even moving around in the app is slower.

It probably can be fixed with some firmware tweaking. I’m going to try some Tidal from my laptop just to see how much better it performs. It was faster on my as sr15 but that didn’t support LDAC.

No problem when using laptop for me with MQA files.
Hopefully they can resolve it as it’s a bit of a game changer for me.

 

[greenflash]

Yeah definitely Tidal is faster in Windows. But well, we're comparing apples to oranges since a PC has tremendous power of processing, heck even my mediocre cellphone has a lot more than the M6.
So the M6 will always have to be very efficient with its memory/processing management (hoping the development team keeps working to enhance that in new firmwares)

What's more I think Tidal is faster (in computer or mobile) than Spotify (I started using Tidal only recently so that's first impression, and I have a few favorites vs a lot in Spotify).

Anyway, yeah, using Hifi/Master streaming quality in Tidal causes my 50mb internet connection to buffer stuff from time to time (gotta compare that with the cellphone). When I'm on the go, I'll use my phone's 4G via Hotspot. Not sure how that will work, but in any case that's more of a Tidal/bandwidth thing.

The problem where the playing would stop when the new track begins, was solved with the update/cache clearing. Then I had some hiccups during the play of a song but it didn't happen later.
We'll keep testing

 

[abitdeef]

No problem when using laptop for me with MQA files.
Hopefully they can resolve it as it’s a bit of a game changer for me.

Well let’s hope so, this is the smallest dap I know that has ‘full’ tidal support. Otherwise it’s a phone or a more expensive bigger dap.

 

[abitdeef]

Yeah definitely Tidal is faster in Windows. But well, we're comparing apples to oranges since a PC has tremendous power of processing, heck even my mediocre cellphone has a lot more than the M6.
So the M6 will always have to be very efficient with its memory/processing management (hoping the development team keeps working to enhance that in new firmwares)

What's more I think Tidal is faster (in computer or mobile) than Spotify (I started using Tidal only recently so that's first impression, and I have a few favorites vs a lot in Spotify).

Anyway, yeah, using Hifi/Master streaming quality in Tidal causes my 50mb internet connection to buffer stuff from time to time (gotta compare that with the cellphone). When I'm on the go, I'll use my phone's 4G via Hotspot. Not sure how that will work, but in any case that's more of a Tidal/bandwidth thing.

The problem where the playing would stop when the new track begins, was solved with the update/cache clearing. Then I had some hiccups during the play of a song but it didn't happen later.
We'll keep testing

Did you try Spotify on m6 yet? It runs really smooth for me. I’ve upgraded to the latest on tidal and it still skips, granted this is from streaming with LDAC also. I’ll have to try some tidal offline and see if it’s better.

I imagine it won’t be long before Spotify gets something similar to masters on tidal and the ultra high quality sounds amazing.

Just tried tidal offline and it goes from one song to another ok.. but if I scrub to close to the end of a song it goes silent until I pause- play again, just like before. Seems like a buffer problem.

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

Is there no option in Tidal to download files for offline listening?

 

[abitdeef]

Is there no option in Tidal to download files for offline listening?

Yes you can download files from tidal.

 

[greenflash]

Well let’s hope so, this is the smallest dap I know that has ‘full’ tidal support. Otherwise it’s a phone or a more expensive bigger dap.

Since the M6 took so long to arrive I did get first the BTR1K and I've been using Tidal and Spotify and my Moto G5 and wow, it sounds amazing. So the little M6 boy will have to catch up now!

Did you try Spotify on m6 yet? It runs really smooth for me. I’ve upgraded to the latest on tidal and it still skips, granted this is from streaming with LDAC also. I’ll have to try some tidal offline and see if it’s better.
I imagine it won’t be long before Spotify gets something similar to masters on tidal and the ultra high quality sounds amazing.

Spotify does work very good! Even in its highest quality (which is 320kbps I think - The Horror! LOL). I'm a spotifier.. I subscribed to Tidal since Hifi is so cheap in my country, I couldn't say no, but I'll use it mostly for speakers listening which is most of my listening anyway. Still have to spot (pun!) the differences with Spotify. I think Spotify will get the HQ too, yep, it's the natural move.

Question: did you try Tidal in "normal" mode (which I think is the same as Spotify? not sure, they have "high" too)? I bet it should fare better and that's a fair comparison to Spotify.

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

Yeah personally I'd just go with lower bitrate for streaming purposes. Spotify's Extreme setting (320kbs) is fantastic afaic. It's pretty hard (I'd argue realistically impossible myself) to hear a difference between them anyway...

 

[abitdeef]

Since the M6 took so long to arrive I did get first the BTR1K and I've been using Tidal and Spotify and my Moto G5 and wow, it sounds amazing. So the little M6 boy will have to catch up now!



Spotify does work very good! Even in its highest quality (which is 320kbps I think - The Horror! LOL). I'm a spotifier.. I subscribed to Tidal since Hifi is so cheap in my country, I couldn't say no, but I'll use it mostly for speakers listening which is most of my listening anyway. Still have to spot (pun!) the differences with Spotify. I think Spotify will get the HQ too, yep, it's the natural move.

Question: did you try Tidal in "normal" mode (which I think is the same as Spotify? not sure, they have "high" too)? I bet it should fare better and that's a fair comparison to Spotify.

No I have tidal set to hi fi, that’s the subscription I would get and it’s 10 dollars more a month than Spotify. Offline tidal sounds more forward than Spotify, spotify sounds more natural and more spaced out to these ears in general. And when I scrub anywhere in a track on tidal even offline I goes silent but track still runs and I have to hit play again to get sound again.

 

[dharmasteve]

Since the M6 took so long to arrive I did get first the BTR1K and I've been using Tidal and Spotify and my Moto G5 and wow, it sounds amazing. So the little M6 boy will have to catch up now!



Spotify does work very good! Even in its highest quality (which is 320kbps I think - The Horror! LOL). I'm a spotifier.. I subscribed to Tidal since Hifi is so cheap in my country, I couldn't say no, but I'll use it mostly for speakers listening which is most of my listening anyway. Still have to spot (pun!) the differences with Spotify. I think Spotify will get the HQ too, yep, it's the natural move.

Question: did you try Tidal in "normal" mode (which I think is the same as Spotify? not sure, they have "high" too)? I bet it should fare better and that's a fair comparison to Spotify.

Spotify at 320 kbps OGG is extremely good. The OGG format is exceptional. I have listened to Tidal and Deezer and others to compare and to my ears I can't differentiate any improvement in Tidal etc, although I have not heard the masters subscription. Also Spotify has the benefit of Spotify Connect and the ability through the little mobile phone program HiFy to cast Spotify to regular HiFi streaming devices and your main amp and HiFi system.

 

[greenflash]

Yeah personally I'd just go with lower bitrate for streaming purposes. Spotify's Extreme setting (320kbs) is fantastic afaic. It's pretty hard (I'd argue realistically impossible myself) to hear a difference between them anyway...

I agree, yeah, beyond certain tests, I will in general use (at least when on the go) the 320k quality for Tidal too.

No I have tidal set to hi fi, that’s the subscription I would get and it’s 10 dollars more a month than Spotify. Offline tidal sounds more forward than Spotify, spotify sounds more natural and more spaced out to these ears in general. And when I scrub anywhere in a track on tidal even offline I goes silent but track still runs and I have to hit play again to get sound again.

Oops didn't see that (yet).

Spotify at 320 kbps OGG is extremely good. The OGG format is exceptional. I have listened to Tidal and Deezer and others to compare and to my ears I can't differentiate any improvement in Tidal etc, although I have not heard the masters subscription. Also Spotify has the benefit of Spotify Connect and the ability through the little mobile phone program HiFy to cast Spotify to regular HiFi streaming devices and your main amp and HiFi system.

Yeah I think so, it sounds beautiful. I remember those early MP3-only days when we said "128kbps, please"! I ripped everything to 128kbps and then we moved to 196k, 256k.. and finally 320k. The loss is obviously minimal.
And this is OGG yeah, which is supposed to be better than pure MP3.

Spotify's ubiquity is a plus too - though Tidal is improving there too, now they are Alexa Compatible I think. By the way didn't set it up yet in there!!

Just for my own reference.. each streaming quality detailed:

TIDAL
Normal - 96 kbps (AAC+)
High - 320 kbps (AAC)
Hifi - FLAC 1411K - 44k/16bit (CD)
Masters - FLAC 96K/24bit (only some albums)

vs

SPOTIFY
320kbps OGG Premium

 

[dellafago]

I like m6 so much I purchased an amp to run through it so I can dust off my sennhieser hd600’s.

Could you please share your experience when you try your hd600s with fiio m6. I wonder how m6, alone or along with your portable amp, handles/drives the senns. I have Senn hd 650 and a Topping nx5 portable amp paired with my iphone (streaming spotify) as source. I observe that hd650 is not being adequately driven which in my opinion is due to most probably iphone’s insufficient output level (which is nominally around half of the gain level as required by my portable amp).