[FiiO M6] Portable High-Resolution Lossless Music Player,Embracing A Wireless Future
Apr 28, 2019 at 12:27 AM Post #2,281 of 3,610
Oh yeah I get what you say. I'm very interested in local network (NAS) playback too. I store all my files there and I use the player mostly at home (on the road, yeah mostly spotify).
Neutron seems great for that, UAPP too if I recall correctly. I do prefer SMB (samba) over DLNA though. I had some issues with DLNA (maybe it's just me) but SMB is great. SambaPlayer is a good one there. VLC may do the job too.

Yes, I found that Neutron definitely works better with SMB, than DLNA. But both work fairly well. The problem with most things like VLC or Fiio Music Player is that they really hit a wall when you have enormous network music libraries. I've moved virtually everything to the server and hitting 50,000 songs/5,000 albums, mostly 96/24 and DSD, and things really start to fall apart for most of the software/hardware out there. If there isn't any substantial improvement in the next firmware, then I'll definitely sell my M6 and maybe try the Hiby R3, or maybe a better Android phone that supports LDAC (to use with my BTR3, or even my Alpen or Andes). I'll look into SambaPlayer. I don't remember trying that one.
 
Apr 28, 2019 at 12:40 AM Post #2,282 of 3,610
Yeah your setup is quite demanding probably. The wifi may get bogged down. Even a good phone may struggle. I use a Raspberry PI for such things but I toy with the M6 too. Samba Player is a very simple but also very light program. Try it and let me know; I don't have that many songs in my NAS.
 
Apr 28, 2019 at 3:24 AM Post #2,283 of 3,610
Just to add i feel the sound from playing on pulsar seems a bit grainy to me? anyone else?

I enjoyed the sound. Granted that my local files are in the main not high res. I listened to the FiiO music app and Pulsar one after the other with two tracks (small, small sample) and they sounded the same from pulsar and the fiiO music app. I then listened to a few from pulsar. Pulsar has a similar layout to other music apps I used on my phone and I am used to that setup. My local files are mostly mp3 and Ogg at 180 kbps to 320 kbps with a few flacs from Linn masters. I can't tell the difference between 320 kbps OGGs and MP3s compared to high res Flacs that are taken from Linn Masters. My hearing is not sensitive enough in that particular direction.
 
Apr 28, 2019 at 5:52 AM Post #2,284 of 3,610
Dammit I feel like a rockstar! (two minutes of fame you know :wink: )
Ok, @mono-type convinced me with the "for science" bit. Smart :D

Here's the link at the bottom - let me know if/how it works.
INSTRUCTIONS:

(Note: Basically Pulsar will "impersonate" NetEase (one of them whitelisted apps) so it will be allowed to install. Both cannot coexist)

1 - Ensure NetEase Music is not installed in your M6 (anyway it should not install over it as it's a different thing)
2 - Upload the downloaded APK to your M6 SD Card, install from there.
3 - It will appear in your settings as Pulsar (so you can uninstall if needed) BUT it will appear with the NetEase icon (red and white iirc) in your M6 launcher
4- That's all!

Do I need to make a disclaimer about how this is offered with no guarantees etc? Oh, just did! :D
Well it shouldn't bust anything (we installed it at least in 3 different M6s and the app is lovely and light) but still, Godspeed!

LINK (they'll erase it in two weeks!)
http://www.mediafire.com/file/fa5dmm0nqlyw1v7/netease-pulsar[1].apk
Nice, thanks for providing the modded apk, @greenflash! :joy: ! Indeed I want to try it "for science" since I'm kinda willing to take the risk in installing a spoofed app (although there's no much risk involved, actually, as long you know what you're doing). Good thing NetEase Music is one of the apps that I uninstalled out of the box (it's meant for Chinese consumers, anyway, like the other pre-installed apps that are not Spotify or Tidal).

Anyway, installed your modded Pulsar apk, and no issues so far. Everything plays smoothly. Plays gapless without issues as well. In fact, I kinda enjoyed using this player more than FiiO's own. Using Pulsar on the M6 feels liberating, since it can display folders sorted by alphabet on its own (my pet peeve on the FiiO player), and it has none of the character encoding issues (special characters/symbols being displayed as Chinese characters) the FiiO Music Player has. It even has a built-in tag editor kinda similar to foobar2000's. The interface is quite simple, but great looking, nonetheless. Oh, and not being Pulsar Pro isn't an issue for me, since I don't use EQ at all (though the theme customization is cool, since you're limited to 4 themes on Pulsar Free version). Can't vouch on Hi-Res and DSD playback/sound quality, though, since most that I have in my collection are 16/44.1k FLACs. Sound quality of Pulsar is fine in my case.

Here's hoping that they include Pulsar in the whitelist, since it's a fairly lightweight app (the apk size is around 4MB compared to HibyMusic's 27MB), a simple but nice-looking interface, and is packed with features even for a free non-Pro version. I'll be definitely laughing if FiiO would say "Pulsar app is too big for M6" as an excuse. :joy: I still kinda wishing for HibyMusic to be considered in the whitelist, but if greenflash's tests are anything to go by (according to his tests, it didn't run at all on M6), and FiiO stating that it's "too big" for the M6 (whether it's a lame excuse or not), then it's quite unlikely.
 
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Apr 28, 2019 at 12:00 PM Post #2,285 of 3,610
Nice, thanks for providing the modded apk, @greenflash! :joy: ! Indeed I want to try it "for science" since I'm kinda willing to take the risk in installing a spoofed app (although there's no much risk involved, actually, as long you know what you're doing). Good thing NetEase Music is one of the apps that I uninstalled out of the box (it's meant for Chinese consumers, anyway, like the other pre-installed apps that are not Spotify or Tidal).

Pulsar seems really nice on the M6.
Do you know where Pulsar stores its playlists on the file system ?
regards
Lepre
 
Apr 28, 2019 at 12:18 PM Post #2,286 of 3,610
Pulsar seems really nice on the M6.
Do you know where Pulsar stores its playlists on the file system ?
regards
Lepre
No idea, since I don't use playlists that much, and I've just began exploring on using this app.

I have to agree that the Pulsar is really great on M6, and FiiO should seriously consider adding this app on the whitelist so we could install it "legally" and don't have to go to many hoops like modifying the apk to spoof an existing whitelisted app.
 
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Apr 29, 2019 at 12:36 AM Post #2,290 of 3,610
That's odd.. Yesterday I got the notification, and on the firmware update app I downloaded it. Once it was done the device rebooted but ended up having that broken Android figure. I just did a hard reset then everything was back to normal...

I just checked the update, and it's no longer there..

*X-Files theme plays
 
Apr 29, 2019 at 12:56 AM Post #2,291 of 3,610
That's odd.. Yesterday I got the notification, and on the firmware update app I downloaded it. Once it was done the device rebooted but ended up having that broken Android figure. I just did a hard reset then everything was back to normal...

I just checked the update, and it's no longer there..

*X-Files theme plays
so the update must be around the corner.,..
 
Apr 29, 2019 at 8:37 AM Post #2,293 of 3,610
Didn't received any OTA update here either. From what @Lespectraal had described, it looks like FiiO uploaded a corrupt/incomplete firmware update from their servers, hence why they pulled it out.

Hopefully FW 1.0.2 has the updated FiiO Music Player app from X7ii already, and more whitelisted apps *crosses fingers for Pulsar and (though quite unlikely) HibyMusic*.
 
Apr 29, 2019 at 8:48 AM Post #2,294 of 3,610
Guys I dont know if it's only me, but I'd say I am getting better battery life with Pulsar using mp3 320kbps at 50+- volumen with 64 omhs Monk ve plus.

Could anyone else do a more detailed comparision or taste it and give us more data?
 

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