[fish1050]

Thanks! What would be best for sound quality? High gain at 50 volume or Low gain at 70 volume?

I actually started on High gain at 50 to 60 then tried low gain at 62 to 72 and I personally find with my headphones at least with low gain that the sound is smoother and has a little less edge. I have stuck with low gain and I prefer it for sure. I guess it depends on the headphones so try it both ways and stick with what you think sounds better. Everyone's experience will be a little different depending on musical preference and headphones.

 

[ColdsnapBry]

Thanks all! Now off to enjoy some music

 

[originalsnuffy]

Traveling now with the M0 and ibasso IT-01. Great sound.

I dropped a 400gb sd card into into the unit. Lots of FLAC, hi res FLAC, and DSD material.

For those who question mp3 vs FLAC, buy a bigger memory card now that they are so reasonably priced and feed it FLAC and above. I bought my most recent Sandisk card for $80 on sale at Amazon but they seem to regularly sell them at $88 now.

 

[salla45]

I am really enjoying this little thing. It's power and capability is so beyond it's price and size expectation it's almost ridiculous.

• File format support---check
• Great sound quality---check
• Usable interface (within limits of the screen, etc)---check
• Fluidity, responsiveness, even with 1000's of tracks---check
• Superlative bluetooth support---check

Latest update to firmware (went from 2.1 to 2.3 today, on mine), is brilliant, especially the triple key press option (now I can pause AND skip to next) and also the enhanced bluetooth functionality allowing screen info and keypress functionality via bluetooth .... just wow! Am running also a 400gb card and slowly filling it with faves.

I will probably buy a 2nd M0 "just in case", hah.

One question; it's not a biggie, but is there any way of scanning to a point within tracks? If not, is it on the cards?

 

[Shanling]

Chinese New Year is approaching and we prepared special limited edition of Shanling M0 for this occasion.

Red body combined with bold golden wheel, available soon in limited supply.

 

[technobear]

A discussion about the differences between MP3 and FLAC can very quickly escalate into a flame war between those who can hear it and those who can't.

The ES9218P is a fantastic DAC that outplays high end DACs of only a few years ago. It is more than capable of showing this difference.

Headphones are another matter but I'm only using Sony EX650 with the M0 and I can hear the difference right away. On the iBasso IT01 it is night and day but I have comfort issues with those and I don't think I like over-ear wiring, certainly not for out-and-about use. Shame as IT01 is a great sounding IEM.

When I first got my Plenue D I tried using MP3 so that I could get all my music onto a 128GB card (as that is the limit for the PD). I very quickly gave up and just loaded it with as many FLACs as I could because it sounded so much better. MP3 is dull and lifeless, a pale facsimile of the real thing.

I think it might be worth stating for those who are new to all this, that there is no point in converting your MP3 files into FLAC files. What has been destroyed cannot be replaced. You actually have to buy some FLACs or convert from WAV files or CDs.

 

[Nolbert0]

Dunno if this is the place to ask but while we're on the subject of lossy formats, can somebody explain to me how AAC works in bluetooth? I've read some conflicting things that makes me more confused. Is the implementation that different between Apple and Android?

If you have an AAC file and play it over bluetooth, what happens? Does it stay in tact until it reached the DAC on the receiver, or does it get re-encoded to a certain bit rate by the transmitter before it gets sent?

 

[Ghost_1]

One question; it's not a biggie, but is there any way of scanning to a point within tracks? If not, is it on the cards?

Yup, well if I understand the question correctly...
While on the actual music track and with the "play/pause, last/next track" buttons on screen swipe from right to left. On the next screen you will see a timeline on the bottom so you can scrub to where ever you want in the track.
On a side note, if you are like me and having to change the equalizer due to being in shuffle mode, you can do so from that screen as well. It is much easier then long pressing and then going through the menus.

 

[salla45]

Yup, well if I understand the question correctly...
While on the actual music track and with the "play/pause, last/next track" buttons on screen swipe from right to left. On the next screen you will see a timeline on the bottom so you can scrub to where ever you want in the track.
On a side note, if you are like me and having to change the equalizer due to being in shuffle mode, you can do so from that screen as well. It is much easier then long pressing and then going through the menus.

good fellow! i guess if i actually read the instructions it would be mentioned there, ahem

thanks for that. My life is now complete

 

[ColdsnapBry]

A discussion about the differences between MP3 and FLAC can very quickly escalate into a flame war between those who can hear it and those who can't.

The ES9218P is a fantastic DAC that outplays high end DACs of only a few years ago. It is more than capable of showing this difference.

Headphones are another matter but I'm only using Sony EX650 with the M0 and I can hear the difference right away. On the iBasso IT01 it is night and day but I have comfort issues with those and I don't think I like over-ear wiring, certainly not for out-and-about use. Shame as IT01 is a great sounding IEM.

When I first got my Plenue D I tried using MP3 so that I could get all my music onto a 128GB card (as that is the limit for the PD). I very quickly gave up and just loaded it with as many FLACs as I could because it sounded so much better. MP3 is dull and lifeless, a pale facsimile of the real thing.

I think it might be worth stating for those who are new to all this, that there is no point in converting your MP3 files into FLAC files. What has been destroyed cannot be replaced. You actually have to buy some FLACs or convert from WAV files or CDs.

Amateur ears here, but I did an AB testing as suggested on last page. Test was on Fiona Apple 'Shadow Boxer' and I could notice a difference. For example the opening of the song I could hear a tad more clarity as the bassline drops a chord and the piano kicks in. I probably wouldn't be able to tell you which ones which in a blind test without being able to quickly switch. But anyways, I will go with FLACS since if I eventually upgrade I'll have a nice FLAC library instead of a MP3 library I'll need to refresh.

 

[salla45]

Amateur ears here, but I did an AB testing as suggested on last page. Test was on Fiona Apple 'Shadow Boxer' and I could notice a difference. For example the opening of the song I could hear a tad more clarity as the bassline drops a chord and the piano kicks in. I probably wouldn't be able to tell you which ones which in a blind test without being able to quickly switch. But anyways, I will go with FLACS since if I eventually upgrade I'll have a nice FLAC library instead of a MP3 library I'll need to refresh.

It's worth doing. I ditched maybe 80k MP3's (and even a load of WMA files which pre-dated MP3's) about 7 years ago, all in anticipation of getting a pair of fine KEF speakers. Great move. It was nice to rerip all my CD's and start my collection with a shiny new FLACs, now I have a collection of a round 100k flacs and HD recordings. Never regretted that move! In fact I'm migrating a copy of it all to an unlimited dropbox account now. That's the next major step!

 

[fish1050]

I don't want to get into a flac mp3 war but all the people who are claiming they can hear a difference. You need to specify the bit rate of the mp3's you are comparing. I have listened to music on systems infinitely better than any portable DAP and can rarely hear a difference between flac and 320 Kbps mp3.

Again it depends on other factors like headphones and type of music. If you listen to classical for example sure you may hear a difference on high quality masters. But for the average quality track you rip from a CD much less likely and I sold some very high end systems. On an $110.00 DAP even less likely.

Also I use my DAP when traveling so given the ambient noise around me no way will I hear a difference between the two. I listen to flac exclusively on my home system because I have a nice system and massive storage available. On a DAP costing $110.00 I don't want to spend much on microsd cards I use a 128 GB card because I had one and don't want to waste it. If I need to compress some tracks to fit more music, not really worried about but I actually use ogg instead of mp3 since it produces better quality compression in smaller file sizes.

 

[endgame4]

I don't want to get into a flac mp3 war but ...

So you start an ogg war instead? If you cannot hear the differences between FLAC and MP3 I would be tempted to argue the same point for OGG and MP3.

The "it's only a $x DAP" thing is getting old fast too. There is for instance no reason why a modern player with relatively cheap hardware could not sound as good as more expensive hardware from a while ago.

 

[salla45]

The "it's only a $x DAP" thing is getting old fast too. There is for instance no reason why a modern player with relatively cheap hardware could not sound as good as more expensive hardware from a while ago.

Hah! I agree completely. It's marvelous how things are marching on these days. I can listen to any of my kit and be pleased with the sound; Chord Mojo, LG V30 phone, Shanling M0 DAP, Fiio X7ii DAP, Fiio M9.

It's more of a case of what's convenient to pick up, what's charged up, and if I'm listening to my 600ohm cans or Iems. SQ is really great on each.

 

[tjl5709]

Dunno if this is the place to ask but while we're on the subject of lossy formats, can somebody explain to me how AAC works in bluetooth? I've read some conflicting things that makes me more confused. Is the implementation that different between Apple and Android?

If you have an AAC file and play it over bluetooth, what happens? Does it stay in tact until it reached the DAC on the receiver, or does it get re-encoded to a certain bit rate by the transmitter before it gets sent?

This is how I understand it. AAC is like MP3. It is a lossy format. FLAC is obviously Lossless, but its capability can be limited by the original file used to create it. To have a lossless file you need to have started from a lossless format like a ripped CD. Can't go from AAC/MP3 back up to FLAC thinking you have a lossless recording. You have a FLAC file but it does not have all the original data as it was lost.

Bluetooth is evolving as a way to get music from a device to a speaker/headphone. Just like music formats (MP3,AAC, FLAC, WAV) , Bluetooth has varying capability in the resolution it sends wirelessly. What it is sending is a radio signal. Your DAP is converting the digital file to analog. It either AMPs it up to feed thru a wire to a speaker or HP, our it feeds it to a bluetooth transmitter that converts it to a radio signal that your bluetooth speaker or HP receives. It converts it back to an analog signal and then AMP's it up to drive the speaker. That conversion (both up and down) has an effect on the quality of the signal being sent in regards to the amount of information it can send. Some of the older bluetooth formats cannot send all the information found in a FLAC. For a lack of better words, it downgrades the music from lossless to lossy. Another analogy is to think of AM radio versus FM radio. I think the newest BT format is APTx HD. It is supposed to handle files upto 24 bit. (I think). If you have a lossless file, and a BT APTx HD transmitter and an APTx HD receiver you are now maintaining upto 24 bit high resolution. Depending on your AAC bit rate, some of the BT formats can even degrade them further. Like going from 320kb down to 128kb. As I stated, it is evolving. Search google. Lots of info and dialog. Right now, if I want to do critical listening, it is via a wire. I couple years from now, it will definitely be different.