I love the look except for the tiny screen I will never be able to read. Looks like a cool spin on the Questyle QP1R somewhat to me. Way out of my budget and I couldn't read the screen.
Finally, my review is up! Took me a while due to switching jobs and readjusting from working the graveyard shift. Kind of bummed though. All my good pictures, complete with edits, vanished into the cloud, so what you see are my rejects. And I have no clue why the stacking of the screenshots are like they are. Bleh...
I sat on my tour impressions for a while, and when contacted by Mary (SoundAware) I said that I did not actually like the M1 and M1 pro very much so decided it might be better to just not say anything at all rather than say something negative. Mary however suggested I should post my thoughts nonetheless, as in her words: "It is welcome if you would post your honest thoughts mentioned above, that will be useful for some guys who want to learn more about M1Pro. "
So kudos to her for not being afraid. Here is my brief synopsis from my messages with her:
To be honest I wasn't completely thrilled with the M1pro. Sonically, I actually preferred the sound of the M1 over the M1pro when driving headphones directly. The M1 was more relaxed and a bit hazier/lazier in definition, but an easier listen. The M1pro seemed edgier/pushier at times to me, yet a bit flat at the same time. I couldn't quite put a finger on it, though I wonder if it was a filter setting or something else, which resulted in fatigue setting in. Overall I felt it handled a planar load better than dynamics or iems. The multi-driver Nuforce HEM8 did not sound right at all. The Sennheiser HD598 was somewhat muddy. Granted, both of those are very difficult loads with heavily swinging impedance curves, which do not play nice with any players which have high output impedance which I suspect the M1 has. I did find high gain to sound better than low gain however.
Feeding lineout to my my rig was good, and I did think the best performance was when it was acting as a digital transport feeding spdif coax to my other systems.
The M1/M1pro were much better than the Aune and Shanling players that I had, but I really did not like those two at all. Against the Questyle QP1R, the M1 had better UI and construction but the QP1R had better sound with the few headphones I tried.
edit: ok added a bit more with some choice selections from my scrawled notes... (very point form and not terribly organized)
Soundaware M1Pro
build is nice and solid
button layout is fine
UI is intuitive for me; no issues here
loads up new microsd cards without a hitch, actually quite fast which is nice
seek and track switch could be faster though
auto pause when unplugged
digital coax mode... it's actually always "on", but when you turn it on in the setting it disables the analog outdoors
lineout volume control doesn't really make sense, but whatever
using NuForce HEM8
first impression is that it is reasonably articulate, some decent impact
but flat sounding (in terms of energy), no air, feels off
aggressive is the wrong word, but there's something pushy
fatigue sets in
lineout to other amps and HE-6
better but not amazing
my uDSD is better, less haze
digital/coax out
actually I quite like it... but then I'm taking most of the pieces out of the equation and now it's just a really expensive transport
seems to be a bit better than my Wyrd/uDSD coax output
hits the transients cleaner
using Sennheiser HD598
much better than iem Nuforce HEM8
not the cleanest, a bit stuffy
bloom in the midbass, I highly suspect high output impedance
- when switching amps (fed from the LO simultaneously), I have to fight the urge to turn up the other amp to match the bloom I'm getting
staging ok
harsh when driven loud, distorting
power is relatively low??
low gain is really really low, just barely enough with HEM8
needs at least medium with HD598
well it's not a craptastic piece like the Aune daps, but at $750... eh, I would pass on this
on high gain
ok it's better
textures more defined and tactile, not as flat
overall issues remain, but are diminished
they're there, but at least now the music has more life and I don't mind as much
M1 not pro version
- a smidge thinner in the bass?
- less forward
- seems lazier, which ironically makes for easier listening
- overall very similar
- I think I like this one more
I might dig through my notes and post others, but the above contains a good brief summary of my impressions.\
I sat on my tour impressions for a while, and when contacted by Mary (SoundAware) I said that I did not actually like the M1 and M1 pro very much so decided it might be better to just not say anything at all rather than say something negative. Mary however suggested I should post my thoughts nonetheless, as in her words: "It is welcome if you would post your honest thoughts mentioned above, that will be useful for some guys who want to learn more about M1Pro. "
So kudos to her for not being afraid. Here is my brief synopsis from my messages with her:
To be honest I wasn't completely thrilled with the M1pro. Sonically, I actually preferred the sound of the M1 over the M1pro when driving headphones directly. The M1 was more relaxed and a bit hazier/lazier in definition, but an easier listen. The M1pro seemed edgier/pushier at times to me, yet a bit flat at the same time. I couldn't quite put a finger on it, though I wonder if it was a filter setting or something else, which resulted in fatigue setting in. Overall I felt it handled a planar load better than dynamics or iems. The multi-driver Nuforce HEM8 did not sound right at all. The Sennheiser HD598 was somewhat muddy. Granted, both of those are very difficult loads with heavily swinging impedance curves, which do not play nice with any players which have high output impedance which I suspect the M1 has. I did find high gain to sound better than low gain however.
Feeding lineout to my my rig was good, and I did think the best performance was when it was acting as a digital transport feeding spdif coax to my other systems.
The M1/M1pro were much better than the Aune and Shanling players that I had, but I really did not like those two at all. Against the Questyle QP1R, the M1 had better UI and construction but the QP1R had better sound with the few headphones I tried.
edit: ok added a bit more with some choice selections from my scrawled notes... (very point form and not terribly organized)
Soundaware M1Pro
build is nice and solid
button layout is fine
UI is intuitive for me; no issues here
loads up new microsd cards without a hitch, actually quite fast which is nice
seek and track switch could be faster though
auto pause when unplugged
digital coax mode... it's actually always "on", but when you turn it on in the setting it disables the analog outdoors
lineout volume control doesn't really make sense, but whatever
using NuForce HEM8
first impression is that it is reasonably articulate, some decent impact
but flat sounding (in terms of energy), no air, feels off
aggressive is the wrong word, but there's something pushy
fatigue sets in
lineout to other amps and HE-6
better but not amazing
my uDSD is better, less haze
digital/coax out
actually I quite like it... but then I'm taking most of the pieces out of the equation and now it's just a really expensive transport
seems to be a bit better than my Wyrd/uDSD coax output
hits the transients cleaner
using Sennheiser HD598
much better than iem Nuforce HEM8
not the cleanest, a bit stuffy
bloom in the midbass, I highly suspect high output impedance
- when switching amps (fed from the LO simultaneously), I have to fight the urge to turn up the other amp to match the bloom I'm getting
staging ok
harsh when driven loud, distorting
power is relatively low??
low gain is really really low, just barely enough with HEM8
needs at least medium with HD598
well it's not a craptastic piece like the Aune daps, but at $750... eh, I would pass on this
on high gain
ok it's better
textures more defined and tactile, not as flat
overall issues remain, but are diminished
they're there, but at least now the music has more life and I don't mind as much
M1 not pro version
- a smidge thinner in the bass?
- less forward
- seems lazier, which ironically makes for easier listening
- overall very similar
- I think I like this one more
I might dig through my notes and post others, but the above contains a good brief summary of my impressions.\
Although I really love the esthers, the one issue i really have with them is the high output impedance. With multi BAs you really start to hear it. However, as you have rightly noted, the digital output to dacs is really really clean and sounds better as a digital transport than any other DAP I've heard on the market.
Although I really love the esthers, the one issue i really have with them is the high output impedance. With multi BAs you really start to hear it. However, as you have rightly noted, the digital output to dacs is really really clean and sounds better as a digital transport than any other DAP I've heard on the market.
Well in my case I like the amp of my M1 Pro compared to my Mojo with my U10. With the Mojo, I had to use an impedance adapter to bring out more clarity. Maybe this is not a usual case...
Compared with M1Pro, M1 Analogue version is much warmer analogue. But the playback sound performance of M1Pro is much better, like the details, accuracy and so forth.
Well, I've extensively auditioned M1 Pro and loved it, whereas I've used briefly auditioned QP1R and thought it was OK. I might grow enamored with QP1R with more time, but I haven't had the chance yet. And our tastes might differ. So many reasons why one prefers one piece of kit over another...
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