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@Shanling & fellow M0 fans - here are some comparative measurement results you might find interesting:
http://soundexpert.org/articles/-/blogs/audio-quality-of-high-end-portable-players
Some comments:
1) For sure, other devices do offer more power than the M0, so the rankings above wouldn't necessarily hold when driving power-hungry, high-impedance, full-sized cans. The above results are all driving 150 mV into a 32-Ohm resistive load (this was chosen because it's the maximum limit allowed in the EU and a more conservative level for real-life listening with IEMs).
2) These measurements were made with the custom Vortex 2.3 firmware. We've not yet tested with any stock M0 firmware.
I'll admit these results were a bit of a surprise - so much so that we initially held off publishing them. But we double-checked, and this is what we get with the M0. It seems the harmonic compensation in the ESS 9218P DAC really does a phenomenal job. Under these test conditions, the M0's SQ is surprisingly close to that of a Hugo 2. There are probably some more-expensive-DAP owners out there that are going to be in denial about all this, and will swear they can hear the improvement with their particular DAP. In anticipation of that, I'll just add 1) It's possible. There may be some aspect of the sound that has overwhelming importance for you. A single metric (i.e., diffrogram median) might not be the most relevant parameter for everybody in all situations. This is still research. However... 2) Are you sure? Are you sure you're sure? I've experienced placebo effects myself. Placebo can be very powerful and very convincing. While some of the DAPs listed have certain idiosyncrasies that I can easily identify (noise floor, pitch/intonation, etc.,), for the most part, discriminating between some of these modern DAPs can get pretty difficult once you properly match SPL (not always easy to do on account of the discrete digital volume steps) and then listen blind. Don't assume you can hear a difference unless you've done a proper SPL-matched blind A/B comparison. Your years of experience with audio and your electrical engineering degree are irrelevant here. Nobody is immune to the effects of placebo in sighted comparison tests.
Corollary: If you're going to buy one of those Astell & Kern players, find the right reason to do so, i.e., because you need more power for full-sized cans and/or because you want a larger touch screen
http://soundexpert.org/articles/-/blogs/audio-quality-of-high-end-portable-players
Some comments:
1) For sure, other devices do offer more power than the M0, so the rankings above wouldn't necessarily hold when driving power-hungry, high-impedance, full-sized cans. The above results are all driving 150 mV into a 32-Ohm resistive load (this was chosen because it's the maximum limit allowed in the EU and a more conservative level for real-life listening with IEMs).
2) These measurements were made with the custom Vortex 2.3 firmware. We've not yet tested with any stock M0 firmware.
I'll admit these results were a bit of a surprise - so much so that we initially held off publishing them. But we double-checked, and this is what we get with the M0. It seems the harmonic compensation in the ESS 9218P DAC really does a phenomenal job. Under these test conditions, the M0's SQ is surprisingly close to that of a Hugo 2. There are probably some more-expensive-DAP owners out there that are going to be in denial about all this, and will swear they can hear the improvement with their particular DAP. In anticipation of that, I'll just add 1) It's possible. There may be some aspect of the sound that has overwhelming importance for you. A single metric (i.e., diffrogram median) might not be the most relevant parameter for everybody in all situations. This is still research. However... 2) Are you sure? Are you sure you're sure? I've experienced placebo effects myself. Placebo can be very powerful and very convincing. While some of the DAPs listed have certain idiosyncrasies that I can easily identify (noise floor, pitch/intonation, etc.,), for the most part, discriminating between some of these modern DAPs can get pretty difficult once you properly match SPL (not always easy to do on account of the discrete digital volume steps) and then listen blind. Don't assume you can hear a difference unless you've done a proper SPL-matched blind A/B comparison. Your years of experience with audio and your electrical engineering degree are irrelevant here. Nobody is immune to the effects of placebo in sighted comparison tests.
Corollary: If you're going to buy one of those Astell & Kern players, find the right reason to do so, i.e., because you need more power for full-sized cans and/or because you want a larger touch screen