I haven't heard mojo or m20 daps but mojo probably would be better than dragonfly red dac. if mojo is better than fiio x7 dap I don't know cause I didn't use mojo but according to reviews in DFR thread mojo is slightly better than oppo ha2 and dragonfly red. and I heard oppo ha2 in shop and I prefer DFR it seemed more clean and better for pop edm sounding.
fiio x7 seemed like a new and much different audio quality category, that one is super clean and super dynamic. as for m20 I don't know I didn't use it.
but it seems like a nice move to put full android phone in those daps, it's not as good as iPhone but android is better than rudimental os like on fiio x3 which also sounds rather bad for a device like this. with android it's not as good as iPhone but at least you can install apps like on iPhone like Spotify, soundcloud, radio apps, upload high res music to it, plus android is good at micro sd card memory expantion rather than iphone. fiio x7 has a bad display though, pixilated, but sound is why it's nice. plus it is an android, apps etc.
I am not familiar with balanced but it would be nice if flare offered one with balanced cable like trinity audio does. with different cables occ, silver, balanced regular, etc. all different variations, would really help expand the company even with existing current microdriver. which is beautiful by the way.
but I am a less believer in balanced than in better dac at regular jack. it's when you get nice dac you may fiddle with balanced and different audio cables. although the audio quality is better with occ with silver cable.
I didn't find occ with silver to be more thinner it is actually more chunky sound more bass more highs a bit too and also more resolving. may be it is because the cable is thicker and takes more space in iem and introduces bass I don't know. but it just a new audio in terms of type of sound and quality of it.
also mojo doesn't have balanced? I don't know what's the mojo two jacks, some people use it as not true balanced? I duno what's that. but apparently fiio x7 has some modules with balanced. lol
the dacs like DFR, probably mojo, and fiio x7 daps make you realise that it's pointless to have expensive headphone if you use it from iPhone, zuperdac or even df red, fiio x7 is better. you essentially listening to your dac through your iems. dacs have to do a lot for audio quality.
many people still use expensive iems with iPhones, it's better to buy a better dac and cheaper headphones than more expensive headphones and use it from iphone.
but I can relate that not many dacs are that good, I had many dacs all are kinda mediocre rubbish compared to fiio x7 offering only little or marginal improvement for money. DFR being the best of them all after fiio x7 of the dacs I had.
fiio e10k, ak10 dac, ak daps, zuperdac, cozoy aegis, oppo ha2
fiio x7 makes you realise what a ******** they all are. but DFR is also less in quality but it's best dac of all except fiio x7 but it's just a matter of money and value for money.
I would skip all above dacs except for zuperdacdac because of its value for money 80 euro, df red and fiio x7, but quality of audio in reverse, it's just what you feel comfortable to spend. but if you get oppo ha2 at good price it still might be good, but I haven't seen it cheaper than 285 euro even used oppo ha2 sell for retail new price, probably because of import issues, customs which would be about 90 euro.
why I prefer DFR to zuperdac is because it's better sound, louder cause deflares need more power to get volume. on zuperdac it stops playing on full volume on iphone unless if you add 5v to it which is not usable cause you need to attach it to usb plug or a battery. battery can also have issues like switch off when it wants to or feels nothing is connected to it. DFR plays louder and doesn't stop playing on full volume. DFR has gradual volume while zuperdac only has steps for volume no gradual volume on zuperdac and you can't get precise volume if you want with zuperdac and with dfr you can adjust volume as you want. on oppo ha2 there is a wheel for gradual volume but oppo ha2 didn't sound any louder than DFR compared to its size and I don't need a wheel to adjust volume ios volume slider is enough for my use. and also I can adjust volume as low as I can compared to cozoy aegis dac which doesn't have gradual volume and lowest volume is just too loud even for deflares not to mention sensitive iems. cozoys solution was to use apps that cost 50 euro each to preamp volume which apparently sound even better than iPhone app. but that's ******* ********, I want to use radio apps, spotify, soundcloud audio apps and there is no gradual volume for that. plus better dac is still better improvement in quality than app with same dac. and dfr is best dac I had after fiio x7 which is a surprise after how bad fiio e10k and fiio x3 dap sounds.
but ye ymmv
plus DFR supports higher bitrates which I probably won't use, higher nitrate is not gonna improve audio if dac is same. and the df red led colour is mostly green which is for both mp3 and cd quality anything under 1k bitrate df red make led green, even 3k seems to be always green. lol
that would be about it