[ozkan]

Sorry for the bump. Do you know if I can use LiFePO4 3.2v battery with my Sony m10? Is there anyone who tried it? 

 

[zilch0md]

Quote:

Sorry for the bump. Do you know if I can use LiFePO4 3.2v battery with my Sony m10? Is there anyone who tried it? 

 
Don't try it.  
 
All LiFePO4 battery packs are rated at a so-called "nominal" voltage.  When fully charged, a LiFePO4 will deliver 4.2V per cell, so even it is a 1-cell battery, the voltage will be too high for the Sony PCM-M10.  
 
Given the incredibly long play time offered when using rechargeable AA batteries, internally, I've never felt a need to create an external battery pack for the PCM-M10.
 
Good for you to ask first - you may have damaged something, otherwise.
 

 
Mike

 

[ozkan]

Thank you very much Mike.

 

[otakuflick]

I can guarantee that its fine to use a single lifepo4 with a dummy cell since i have being using it for over 1 year.Power supply definitely affecting PO of M10 but no on LO.
 
 Cell voltage for lifepo4 batteries :

1. Min. discharge voltage = 2.8 V
2. Working voltage = 3.0 ~ 3.3 V
3. Max. charge voltage = 3.6 V

 

 

 

lifepo4 batteries provide constant voltage all the time while aa battery drop in voltage as u use.M10 don't regular voltage that well .You can heart when ur aa battery is going flat.

 

[zilch0md]

Hi otakuflick!
 
 
Quote:

I can guarantee that its fine to use a single lifepo4 with a dummy cell since i have being using it for over 1 year.Power supply definitely affecting PO of M10 but no on LO.
 
 Cell voltage for lifepo4 batteries :

1. Min. discharge voltage = 2.8 V
2. Working voltage = 3.0 ~ 3.3 V
3. Max. charge voltage = 3.6 V

 

lifepo4 batteries provide constant voltage all the time while aa battery drop in voltage as u use.M10 don't regular voltage that well .You can heart when ur aa battery is going flat.

 
I must apologize to ozkan for posting incorrect information about the voltage range of LiFePO₄ batteries.  Your post, quoted here, prompted me to research them and I found that you are correct regarding the voltages, per this Wikipedia article.
 
The voltages I had given are only appropriate for LiPo batteries, as described in this article.
 
Your having suffered no negative consequences from supplying the PCM-M10 with up to 3.6V (20% greater than the spec voltage of 3.0V), suggests that it is indeed safe to do so.  And I can imagine that you would indeed hear an improvement in sound quality with at the headphone out (as the amp section's op-amps are probably operating at a proportionately higher swing voltage).
]
I do, however have a slight problem with your suggestion that LiFePO₄ batteries provide a "constant voltage" until they are discharged.  It's very flat relative to alkaline batteries, but this chart shows that the voltage is not truly constant.  After all, the useful range of voltages covers a drop from 3.6V to 2.8V.
 
 

 
Source:  http://blog.evtv.me/
 
The good news, if the battery you are using is anything like the ones tested in the chart, is that the voltage drops rapidly in the first 2.5% of the discharge cycle, then plateaus very closely to 3.0V for the rest of the discharge cycle - making me all the more comfortable with the idea of using a LiFePO₄ with the PCM-M10.
 
Thanks again for correcting my error,
 
Mike
 
 

 

[ozkan]

Thanks for the clarification Mike and otakuflick. One more question, does m10 need burn in to sound best? If so, how many hours does the built in amp needs to burn in? I assume 200 hours or so? Am I right?

 

[zilch0md]

I don't know - I've probably spent all of five minutes, total, listening to the headphone out. 

 

[ozkan]

Quote:

I can guarantee that its fine to use a single lifepo4 with a dummy cell since i have being using it for over 1 year.Power supply definitely affecting PO of M10 but no on LO.
 
 

 

How does it effect the headphone out of M10? 

 

[OK-Guy]

subbed... think I'll like this thread.

 

[ozkan]

I can confirm that it works. It has been three weeks since I use the batteries. There is a significant change through headphone out with LiFePO4 batteries. Bass seems more powerful and it also affected the soundstage a little bit. Just what I wished for. Thanks otakuflick 

 

[Artstar]

What about effects on recording with this type of battery? Does it affect the line and/or mic (without phantom power, of course) inputs in any way?
 
I've had my M10 since 2009 but never used it with anything aside from NiMH and non-rechargeable lithium AA's.

 

[ozkan]

 
Sorry but I did not test it on mic. I don't think it is going to change the sound through LO though. I can say it improves the headphone out for sure. Maybe you should try and see for yourself. With LiFePO4 batteries, it weighs less than before. That was a big plus for me. Very happy with my decision so far 

.

 

[AVFever168]

Am I late to the party, is this thread dead? Well, I just got my M10 and I just want to share my experiences, and may be learn something from the pros.
After reading this thread, I was tempted by the M10 deal. After getting it, I tested the M10 against my Sound Blaster Titanium HD sound card. For the comparison, I used the same 44k 16bit and mp3 audio files in M10 and the Ti HD, output directly to the headphone and then through a Little Dot IV SE headphone amp, output to Denon D5000 full size headphones. While both sounded very good, the Ti HD offered more clarity, a bit more detail and 3Dness; I’m not good with audiophile terms, may be this is called soundstage. I can hear the space between the sounds. This became more apparent when I tried each one with the LD IV SE. The IV SE made the Ti HD sound bigger and more organic.
On a side note, I had the IV SE for a while now, and after listening to the IVSE, it is hard to listen to the Ti HD by itself because the IV SE just makes the sound alive.
While the M10 got beat by the Ti HD, it is best portable battery operated player I heard. A lot of folks here used it with an amp. I don’t think that is necessary for me, since its internal amp performed very well with the D5000. Outside of an A/V receiver amp or the IV SE, I have never heard of a portable player drove the D5000 to that level. I planned to use the M10 with the more portable in-ear headphones, may be the XBA 40. I tried the Lint Out, by itself and with the IV SE. By itself, it just sounds like max out the volume in the headphone (you cannot control the volume level in line out). Even using it with the IV SE, I did not find it performed any better than with the headphone out. Of course the bonuses are that the M10 is also a cool 96/24 reorder and it came with a very powerful but little mentioned sound studio software that can play ASIO in the Ti HD. On the negative side the M10’s play controls and option are too basic and the recorder doesn’t even have the basic feature of voice activation recording. For 200 bucks, the M10 is a very good deal. 
I am curious to hear anyone out here that is very experienced with DACs. Please post if you think the Bitfost Uber, with its good reviews, will have a drastic improvement over the Ti HD. Because comparing the Ti HD with the Yamaha A1000 and Onkyo 806 via HDMI with 96/24 flac as source, there are no real noticeable differences. May be the HDMI offered more “air” due to the increased bandwidth. But sound quality wise it is very hard to tell. 

 

[zilch0md]

I find the headphone out to be OK with efficient headphones and IEMs, but it's nothing special. The Line Out, however, is very detailed, albeit a little bright (great with warm amps and phones).

 

[aamefford]

Hah! Still alive! My M10 is exclusively for recording now. I use it for lectures and kids school stuff mostly. If you get curious about serious music recording with external mics, taperssection.com has a lot of content regarding this recorder.