So, I got my M9 a couple of days ago. And I must say, my first impression was not very good. However, read on, as it at least improved
I like the looks, size and weight, and I love the promise that it makes, in terms of high fidelity audio, good DAC, and ability to run Spotify etc.
However I ran into several issues that were quite painful:
- Using LDAC, I had a lot of drop-outs, at first I thought it would be related to my location; too much interference, but no
- I found out that it doesn't support 5ghz wifi
- After downloading most of my collection in Spotify to SD card, on a reboot, the SD card was not found, and Spotify forgot that I had a library on the SD card, even after the card became available again, requiring to completely redownload the collection. Also moving library data from internal to SD was giving me errors about possible permission issues etc.
- I ran into quite a few performance hick-ups, especially when downloading or transfering music
- It wasn't immediately obvious to me if drivers were installed correctly, or how to switch to USB DAC mode, mainly because the Drivers-drive was always coming back (while using 3g/4g usb sticks, normally these drives disappear after the drivers are installed successfully.
- Probably rather an issue with Windows and Spotify, but if I unplug and replug the DAC, and resume playing on Spotify, I will receive very loud static. If I restart Spotify it is gone. I guess it's because of switching between 44khz 16bit internal audio, and 192khz 24bit etc.
In the end, I found out that the LDAC issue was related to having the wifi on and connected, at least during Spotify. As soon as I turn wifi off, everything is golden, perhaps it would work better if the wifi supported 5ghz.
This is quite the downside for me. I mean playing offline music is great, but being forced to do so isn't. I would love my playlists to remain uptodate while listening to music,
but due to the performance issue and wifi issue, it is not feasable.
That said, after 'mastering' the issues, and actually trying it out as an USB DAC, either with 3.5mm or LDAC to my Sony W1000XM3s, I must say I am quite impressed.
Since my iPhone, iPad and Dell XPS each do not support high quality audio other than AAC for the iOS devices, and my previous Galaxy S9+ causing a lot of hick-ups with LDAC, it is amazing to be able to enjoy it again by using the M9!
I also like the prospect of being able to upgrade to high fidelity headphones like the HD800s.
I hope the SD card issue will be resolved or at least limited, and I hope the wifi issue can also be mitigated by firmware/software, although I worry.
I'm looking forward to dig into TIDAL and compare that with Spotify HQ and local FLACs.
Didn't think I would ever be excited for an "mp3 player" again, 10 years later, apparently I am