Rank the best sounding daps that you heard

[magicguy]

Daps I own/owned
Iems : Fourté Noir / VE Erlkonig LE / VE Elysium / Sony Ier Z1r
Mucic : metal / rock

AK SP1000 (copper) / Amp (copper) : great versality with the AMP, full sound, great definition/resolution, not so transportable thought
AK SP2000 : technically supetior than SP1000 / Amp, but too lush... Lack of personnality
Hiby R8 : great power reserve, soundstage not so huge, hiss with Erlkonig, not so transportable thought
AK SA700 : technically inferior than the 3 before, but great musicallity, lacks of battery life
LOTOO PAW 6000 : exceptionnal with Fourté Noir, good size, good battery life, lacks of streaming
Sony WM1A : not so bad with CFW, but lacks of power and streaming...
AK 120 Titan : my 1rst DAP high end, I love the form factor and the Wolfson sound
AK SE200 : not impressed at all... By far...

I forgot one I owned for a long time : RWAK240+ !
I loved this one for several years.
Sound, form factor exceptional.
He is outdated now, for sure but I spent good times with it !

 

[Tristy]

Daps I own/owned
Iems : Fourté Noir / VE Erlkonig LE / VE Elysium / Sony Ier Z1r
Mucic : metal / rock

AK SP1000 (copper) / Amp (copper) : great versality with the AMP, full sound, great definition/resolution, not so transportable thought
AK SP2000 : technically supetior than SP1000 / Amp, but too lush... Lack of personnality
Hiby R8 : great power reserve, soundstage not so huge, hiss with Erlkonig, not so transportable thought
AK SA700 : technically inferior than the 3 before, but great musicallity, lacks of battery life
LOTOO PAW 6000 : exceptionnal with Fourté Noir, good size, good battery life, lacks of streaming
Sony WM1A : not so bad with CFW, but lacks of power and streaming...
AK 120 Titan : my 1rst DAP high end, I love the form factor and the Wolfson sound
AK SE200 : not impressed at all... By far...

Do you mind elaborating on what you don’t like about the SE200? I quite like it… not quite a pro on DAPs but heard a few of AKs.

 

[magicguy]

AKM is not so bad, clarity, soundstage, dynamics, it’s ok.
ESS is lacking power, soundstage and relief. it’s also too warm sounding for me.
I prefer AKM rather than ESS usually, it’s true here.
The concept was clever, but It was not for me.
With that price, I was not impressed as I told, with my expectations of course, and with my gear.
Moreover, I don’t like the design…
I would choose the SA700 with no hesitations.

The gear which impressed me the most since past few years : Cayin C9
I had the opportunity to put an ear on this + Hiby R8 half an hour on a meeting.
Really impressed by both together.
Give me that with a black black background and no hissing, in the shell of the AK Kann Max for example, I’ll buy it right now.

 

[Tristy]

AKM is not so bad, clarity, soundstage, dynamics, it’s ok.
ESS is lacking power, soundstage and relief. it’s also too warm sounding for me.
I prefer AKM rather than ESS usually, it’s true here.
The concept was clever, but It was not for me.
With that price, I was not impressed as I told, with my expectations of course, and with my gear.
Moreover, I don’t like the design…
I would choose the SA700 with no hesitations.

The gear which impressed me the most since past few years : Cayin C9
I had the opportunity to put an ear on this + Hiby R8 half an hour on a meeting.
Really impressed by both together.
Give me that with a black black background and no hissing, in the shell of the AK Kann Max for example, I’ll buy it right now.

Fair enough! Thanks for elaborating.

 

[Elegiac]

AKM is not so bad, clarity, soundstage, dynamics, it’s ok.
ESS is lacking power, soundstage and relief. it’s also too warm sounding for me.
I prefer AKM rather than ESS usually, it’s true here.

I'm not sure that ESS is naturally warm, but a warm ESS dac is a fine thing.

My Acmee MF02s has all the cold detail of an ESS dac, but they've given it a warm tilt.
And I run my KPH30i's off an ESS dac/amp, so it's a blend of that cold detail getting made warm in the headphone.
I enjoy the rasp and snarl of electric guitars... feeling those sandpaper textures. My preferred DAC for it is a Texas Instruments/Burr Brown PCM, but Sabre is comparable for detail, just less musical.

 

[immortalsoul]

I also like Texas Instruments/Burr Brown the most but I never tried the new Rohm that are in the Ibasso DX320 and Cayin N8II. I am really curious to try one at some point

 

[Elegiac]

I also like Texas Instruments/Burr Brown the most but I never tried the new Rohm that are in the Ibasso DX320 and Cayin N8II. I am really curious to try one at some point

Mm. I blanch at paying that much for a DAP. But I was eyeing up the SMSL D300... because, yeah, the ROHM is intriguing.

 

[raps1514]

Cayin N8ii
Ibasso DX320
AK SE200
Ibasso DX240
AK SE180
AK SA700
AK KANN Max
AK SR25 mk ii
Sony ZX-507

Need to try some Shanling DAPs!

Edited to add Kann Max (woefully disappointing ability to drive low impedance/sensitivity planars like DCA TOTLs).

 

[WDitters]

"This is a journey into sound" (Eric B. & Rakim / Geoffrey Sumner)

By quoting this famous HipHop sample I guess I want to illustrate that for me this is a hybrid list influenced by what DAPs I have used chronologically, which headphones I chronologically had in my possession and how my musical taste has developed over the years, only recently discovering R-2R for instance. This discovery led me to start favoring a less neutral and warmer type of delivery in my DAPs

1. Cayin N8ii
2. Shanling M9
3. Hiby R8 Stainless Steel
4. Hiby RS6
5. Cayin N6ii-R01
6. Cayin N6ii-E02
7. Shanling M8
8. AK Kann alpha
9. FiiO M15
10. AK SR15
11. FiiO M11 PRO

And to give an update of my "Journey into Sound"

1. Cayin N8ii
2. Astell & Kern SP2000
3. Astell & Kern SP2000T
4. Shanling M9
5. Hiby R8 Stainless Steel
6. Hiby RS6
7. Cayin N6ii-R01
8. Cayin N6ii-E02
9. Shanling M8
10. Astell & Kern Kann Alpha
11. FiiO M15
12. Astell & Kern SR15
13. FiiO M11 PRO

 

[Tristy]

And to give an update of my "Journey into Sound"

1. Cayin N8ii
2. Astell & Kern SP2000
3. Astell & Kern SP2000T
4. Shanling M9
5. Hiby R8 Stainless Steel
6. Hiby RS6
7. Cayin N6ii-R01
8. Cayin N6ii-E02
9. Shanling M8
10. Astell & Kern Kann Alpha
11. FiiO M15
12. Astell & Kern SR15
13. FiiO M11 PRO

How does the shanling M9 compare to the SP2000? What made you prefer the SP2000?

 

[magicguy]

Need to try some Shanling DAPs!

Same here.

 

[jbbanks]

anyone have a best bang for your buck in 2022 for daps?

 

[jprenaud78]

Best Bang don’t exist

 

[Feischmaker]

This is a nice thread! Just read it all from the start lol.

These are my list, criteria is sound only, pairing with following IEM: 64audio Tia Trio, qdc Anole VX, JVC FDX-1, and the Sony family (IER-Z1R, IER-M9, EX1000). Mostly listen to pop, rock, edm and classics

I like DAP with neutral tonality with good microdetails and imaging. As for resolution and macrodetails as long as they are "good enough", i dont usually complain.


1. AK SP1000Cu, my favorite AK DAP, I like the tonality of this DAP better than SP2000

2. DTR1, imaging is amazing on this one.

3. AK Kann Cube: specific usage case only, connect your IEM to its MiniXLR ports. You will hear this DAP true capabilities. Otherwise this DAP will not be in this rank.

4. WM1A with MrWalkman FW. The FW bring its technical capabilities closer to WM1Z. And the tonal of Wm1a suits me better than wm1z

5. Wm1z, technically better than wm1a, but too colored for my taste

6. Lp6k, this sounds very neutral to me, my go to reference when comparing to other DAP

7. Shanling M5s, IMO this is better than M6 non pro

8. Dx160, SQ wise is on par with M5s. Wifi and battery is a mess, so ranked below.

9. Shanling M6 non pro (the AKM one, not 2021), it's picky with the pairing, sounds good with "fun/musical" IEM, not so good with everything else

10. ZX507, I bought this because i want sony that can stream, bit disappointed because it's closer to Zx300 rather than WM1A

Stuff i want to try: Calyx M, DX300

Updating this:

1. ibasso DX320 with AMP12/Cayin N8ii - I think they are same level

2. Fiio M17 desktop mode with ifi iPower Elite - the only Fiio DAP that I ever like happen to be a very good DAP. Is actually #1 If paired with Headphone

3. ibasso DX300 with AMP11mk2 / Hiby RS6 / AK SP1k Cu - I used to have SP1k Cu, now I use DX300. RS6 is what I plan to buy in the future.

4. LP6K, WM1A (Mr. Walkman), WM1Z
5. AK Kann Max, DTR-1+, Calyx M

Stuff I want to try:
1. RS8 (because of the hype lol)
2. SP3000 (will this be another disappointment like SP2K series?)
3. WM1ZM2 (hopefully this is good, because the WM1AM2 is a bit disappointing, sounds like a toned down WM1Z to my ears)

 

[Barndoor]

anyone have a best bang for your buck in 2022 for daps?

A few that spring to mind that you might want to investigate more:
Hidizs AP80 Pro-X (haven't heard)
Sony NW-A55 with firmware upgrade (Haven't heard)
Hiby RS2 (R2R - Own and love it)
Tempotec V6 (Android on a budget. Haven't heard - have on order. Early reviews are positive on sound quality).

Real bang for buck is using a phone you already own with a $10 dongle.