[Ichos]

Here you are
https://www.fiio.com/newsinfo/91534.html

 

[Martinstraka8282]

M9 is still not usable as USB DAC due really annoying delay... Still no solution?
Actually M9 is not usable at all if you are used to have snappy and responsive devices. Sound is good tho.

I don't think anything has given me buyers remorse this much in a while. Slow, sluggish, freezes and just disappointing overall.

My advice to anyone considering an M9 is to spend the extra on an M11 or sit on the sidelines until you can. That one appears to be much much more capable and fluid like a smartphone.

Its hard to describe just whats wrong with the M9 until its in your hands. Going from my smartphone to the M9 feels like going back about 10-15 years.

 

[fish1050]

I don't think anything has given me buyers remorse this much in a while. Slow, sluggish, freezes and just disappointing overall.

My advice to anyone considering an M9 is to spend the extra on an M11 or sit on the sidelines until you can. That one appears to be much much more capable and fluid like a smartphone.

Its hard to describe just whats wrong with the M9 until its in your hands. Going from my smartphone to the M9 feels like going back about 10-15 years.

I have had the M9 for 6 months now and have no such issues. I did uninstall any unused apps, disabled the google asian services and turned off the 3 animation settings in the developers mode. Had the M7 for awhile and that fits your description of the M9 but not my M9 itself. I don't think it is fair for you to try to discourage others from trying it. Their experience may be different than yours and it may fit their needs better. I have demoed the M11 and it is a very nice DAP but I would not pay an additional $350 ($629 CDN) (paid $279 for the M9) for it over the M9. Not to mention the size of the M11 makes it decidedly un-portable especially if you are also carrying a smartphone.

 

[Ichos]

Me too no major problems.
Sometimes qobuz runs a little slow.

 

[Martinstraka8282]

I have had the M9 for 6 months now and have no such issues. I did uninstall any unused apps, disabled the google asian services and turned off the 3 animation settings in the developers mode. Had the M7 for awhile and that fits your description of the M9 but not my M9 itself. I don't think it is fair for you to try to discourage others from trying it. Their experience may be different than yours and it may fit their needs better. I have demoed the M11 and it is a very nice DAP but I would not pay an additional $350 ($629 CDN) (paid $279 for the M9) for it over the M9. Not to mention the size of the M11 makes it decidedly un-portable especially if you are also carrying a smartphone.

I have done all of those things as well and appreciated those suggestions as they did help. Keeping only one app active at a time helps a lot in particular. I have gotten it to a state where it works well enough to get by using the Onkyo App over the Fiio App, but compared to modern android devices, it is absolutely slow and sluggish and prone to the odd hanging or delay or apps malfuntioning imo. Slow and sluggish could be perceived in a lot of ways and I'm thinking in comparison to the smartphone experience we're all used to. I think its important people know not to expect a smartphone resembling experience. You will also read of various issues others have had, particularly with popular streaming apps like Amazon, Tidal and Spotify due to the low specs but ambitious intentions by fiio and the moving target that streaming apps can be.

I am not trying to just slag the device even though it comes off that way, just giving experience from my perspective and I wish I had read posts like mine prior to buying it as I would have made a different choice. Reading through these Fiio threads entirely tells me I'm not at all alone on that. I got it, used it for a week and tried to exchange for an M11 but was denied since including shipping it had been over 14 days. People trying it would be fine, but so many online retailers have crappy return policies like the place I bought it that "trying" it isn't really much of an option unless you want to potentially pay a bunch in shipping/restocking or be stuck with the device entirely like I was. I am not trying to say this thing has no place, but I felt burned after only really reading rosy pr and happy users and would like to at least offer my experience to others to ensure their expectations are in line with what this thing offers, which mine obviously weren't.

If you want a smooth smartphone like experience we've all become used to, you need the M11. If you want something that just plays your music competently and sounds great doing it, the M9 is good for that. I think that's a fair statement. You are right about the sheer size of it, I do appreciate that factor, but it's the only bullet point I consider an advantage to the M11.

$279 is an incredible price for an M9, I had no such luck finding prices near that when I bought mine and I scoured the web. I would feel better then. Ime, I paid $400 after GST and after using it, I would happily fork over the ~$200 difference for the M11 I found available online at $589.

 

[fish1050]

I have done all of those things as well and appreciated those suggestions as they did help. Keeping only one app active at a time helps a lot in particular. I have gotten it to a state where it works well enough to get by using the Onkyo App over the Fiio App, but compared to modern android devices, it is absolutely slow and sluggish and prone to the odd hanging or delay or apps malfuntioning imo. Slow and sluggish could be perceived in a lot of ways and I'm thinking in comparison to the smartphone experience we're all used to. I think its important people know not to expect a smartphone resembling experience. You will also read of various issues others have had, particularly with popular streaming apps like Amazon, Tidal and Spotify due to the low specs but ambitious intentions by fiio and the moving target that streaming apps can be.

I am not trying to just slag the device even though it comes off that way, just giving experience from my perspective and I wish I had read posts like mine prior to buying it as I would have made a different choice. Reading through these Fiio threads entirely tells me I'm not at all alone on that. I got it, used it for a week and tried to exchange for an M11 but was denied since including shipping it had been over 14 days. People trying it would be fine, but so many online retailers have crappy return policies like the place I bought it that "trying" it isn't really much of an option unless you want to potentially pay a bunch in shipping/restocking or be stuck with the device entirely like I was. I am not trying to say this thing has no place, but I felt burned after only really reading rosy pr and happy users and would like to at least offer my experience to others to ensure their expectations are in line with what this thing offers, which mine obviously weren't.

If you want a smooth smartphone like experience we've all become used to, you need the M11. If you want something that just plays your music competently and sounds great doing it, the M9 is good for that. I think that's a fair statement. You are right about the sheer size of it, I do appreciate that factor, but it's the only bullet point I consider an advantage to the M11.

$279 is an incredible price for an M9, I had no such luck finding prices near that when I bought mine and I scoured the web. I would feel better then. Ime, I paid $400 after GST and after using it, I would happily fork over the ~$200 difference for the M11 I found available online at $589.

I think it is to much to expect a smartphone experience for a music only device. If ultimate experience was important to me I would stick with a smartphone and I have yet to find a DAP in my price range with that kind of performance. But the M9 for me has a fluid user experience and it has never crashed on me. For me I buy a DAP to be small and portable and sound better than a smartphone and the M9 fits the bill, the M11 sounds great but definitely not small and portable. I simply wouldn't pay over $300 for a battery powered music only device. I wouldn't have paid full retail price for the M9 but when I came across the M9 on Black Friday last year for about the same price as the M7 I couldn't pass on the deal. If not for the sale I would still be listening to my M7.

Not to say I wouldn't appreciate the next M9 version having a faster processor and it should since the Exynos chip it has now has been discontinued and the replacement for it should be noticeably faster and more capable.

 

[Martinstraka8282]

I think it is to much to expect a smartphone experience for a music only device. If ultimate experience was important to me I would stick with a smartphone and I have yet to find a DAP in my price range with that kind of performance. But the M9 for me has a fluid user experience and it has never crashed on me. For me I buy a DAP to be small and portable and sound better than a smartphone and the M9 fits the bill, the M11 sounds great but definitely not small and portable. I simply wouldn't pay over $300 for a battery powered music only device. I wouldn't have paid full retail price for the M9 but when I came across the M9 on Black Friday last year for about the same price as the M7 I couldn't pass on the deal. If not for the sale I would still be listening to my M7.

Not to say I wouldn't appreciate the next M9 version having a faster processor and it should since the Exynos chip it has now has been discontinued and the replacement for it should be noticeably faster and more capable.

Ya that's fair, I'm probably projecting a little bit on what I thought was a poor retailer experience and paying essentially full price while seeing the M11 being the one available on a discount shortly after. $280 to $630 in your case is a lot less appealing than the $400 to $590+GST I thought I was looking at until the retailer said no.

Size is something I never really considered much based on my use case, but that is a great point that can't be ignored. If that is a priority for you, the M11 is much more smart phone size while the M9 is more traditional DAP size.

From watching videos and reading forums, I gather that the M11 is a smartphone like snappy experience, but never having tried or seen one in person, I can't truly say, but that's my impression of it.

A snappier M9 with a screen that fills the borders and a 2nd SD card slot would be a product I'd like to see.

 

[Gagapa]

Guys which one is better, the m9 or ibasso dx90 :O?

 

[fish1050]

Ya that's fair, I'm probably projecting a little bit on what I thought was a poor retailer experience and paying essentially full price while seeing the M11 being the one available on a discount shortly after. $280 to $630 in your case is a lot less appealing than the $400 to $590+GST I thought I was looking at until the retailer said no.

Size is something I never really considered much based on my use case, but that is a great point that can't be ignored. If that is a priority for you, the M11 is much more smart phone size while the M9 is more traditional DAP size.

From watching videos and reading forums, I gather that the M11 is a smartphone like snappy experience, but never having tried or seen one in person, I can't truly say, but that's my impression of it.

A snappier M9 with a screen that fills the borders and a 2nd SD card slot would be a product I'd like to see.

As far as a 2nd card slot it is my understanding the 2nd card slot on the M11 was going to be or was disabled due to issues having two slots. Given the cost of microsd cards dropping I doubt we will be seeing dual card slots going forward. Perhaps we will see Fiio add additional internal memory on future DAP's, fingers crossed.

 

[Martinstraka8282]

As far as a 2nd card slot it is my understanding the 2nd card slot on the M11 was going to be or was disabled due to issues having two slots. Given the cost of microsd cards dropping I doubt we will be seeing dual card slots going forward. Perhaps we will see Fiio add additional internal memory on future DAP's, fingers crossed.

That's interesting, I had not read about that with the M11. That's very unfortunate if true.

I found that aspect one of the most appealing about the M11 as while it's not really necessary, it would make it much easier to not have to micro manage my DAP and just copy my whole library on a player and be done with it. I'm definitely not in to the idea of swapping cards and I'm not sure that even works with apps needing to scan libraries?

Biggest card I could find for a reasonable cost is 500gb, so that appears to be the ceiling atm, but nice to know bigger cards may be available and work with the M9 a little down the road.

 

[fish1050]

That's interesting, I had not read about that with the M11. That's very unfortunate if true.

I found that aspect one of the most appealing about the M11 as while it's not really necessary, it would make it much easier to not have to micro manage my DAP and just copy my whole library on a player and be done with it. I'm definitely not in to the idea of swapping cards and I'm not sure that even works with apps needing to scan libraries?

Biggest card I could find for a reasonable cost is 500gb, so that appears to be the ceiling atm, but nice to know bigger cards may be available and work with the M9 a little down the road.

Unfortunately one area where the M6/M7/M9 aren't great is library scanning speed. For me it seems even slower with the latest firmware update. Before the update it took about 20 minutes to scan my 9100+ tracks on 256 GB card (flac and mp3). The library scan I did after the 1.0.7 firmware update was closer to 30 minutes. Not that I do a full scan that often but once you move to 400 GB or larger cards scanning speed becomes a bigger issue. I am sure the M11 scans much faster given the higher end Exynos chip and a ton extra ram. I watched a library scan on youtube for the Shanling Q1 for example and it is was super fast by comparison. One of the benefits of going with a Linux based OS vs android.

 

[Martinstraka8282]

Unfortunately one area where the M6/M7/M9 aren't great is library scanning speed. For me it seems even slower with the latest firmware update. Before the update it took about 20 minutes to scan my 9100+ tracks on 256 GB card (flac and mp3). The library scan I did after the 1.0.7 firmware update was closer to 30 minutes. Not that I do a full scan that often but once you move to 400 GB or larger cards scanning speed becomes a bigger issue. I am sure the M11 scans much faster given the higher end Exynos chip and a ton extra ram. I watched a library scan on youtube for the Shanling Q1 for example and it is was super fast by comparison. One of the benefits of going with a Linux based OS vs android.

Yes my experience has been long scanning times too, so swapping cards on the fly is not an option with these.

I like the android DAP over Linux just for the option of using different music apps. I assume with a Linux DAP youre stuck with the only preloaded one. I tried about 15-20 apps on my M9 before I settled on the Onkyo one I liked the most. Not a big fan of the fiio app, so would be pretty disappointed to have that as the only option. I tried HiBy's as well and would not want that as the only option either.

 

[golferbrad6664]

The 1.7 firmware messed up not only the tidal login but the equalizer no longer works. None of the eq bands do a thing however the volume decreases. I hope fiio gets a new firmware update soon to fix these issues. I am not going to buy a m11 or m15 just cause fiio broke the m9 with a new firmware update. Lets hope fiio does the right thing. Anyway to roll back the firmware

 

[morndewey]

Could use some feedback on this:
Downloaded/copied albums from Qobuz onto sd card. Getting a dropout at the beginning of each song on album, about 5-7 secs in. FiiO music player. AIF file format. 16/44. Ideas? Similar experiences? Thanks

 

[fish1050]

Yes my experience has been long scanning times too, so swapping cards on the fly is not an option with these.

I like the android DAP over Linux just for the option of using different music apps. I assume with a Linux DAP youre stuck with the only preloaded one. I tried about 15-20 apps on my M9 before I settled on the Onkyo one I liked the most. Not a big fan of the fiio app, so would be pretty disappointed to have that as the only option. I tried HiBy's as well and would not want that as the only option either.

The Fiio M7 and M9 were my first experience with and android DAP. My Sony A17 and Shanling M0 were both Linux based. Obviously plus and minuses for both as I found the Linux based DAP's are slightly more responsive. Linux based DAP's don't need as powerful hardware for fluid operation and scanning speeds are much better. I am fine with the Fiio Music App as it fits my needs just fine. I tried Pulsar and I like it for features and usability but it was very bad at indexing my track library missing many tracks. The Fiio app seems to handle my really old tracks with old metadata tags while some other apps have some trouble reading these tags.