The Watercooler -- Impressions, philosophical discussion and general banter. Index on first page. All welcome.

[Joe Bloggs]

I probably misunderstand as I think there's quite some non-Android DAPs on the market. Am I misinterpreting?

drftr

There's probably 50% sarcasm and 50% resignation in that statement. Sure, there are plenty of non-Android DAPs in the market, but they (with few exceptions) end up being glorified 90s mp3 players in terms of functionality. And if you want functionality on a level with a new Android DAP, your only option is pretty much an Android DAP. As for making a new DAP at that level not out of Android, well Windows is discontinued, iOS is proprietary, what else do you propose that would even run a few of the major streaming apps as a high-end DAP (high end in terms of functionality, not SQ) would?

 

[drftr]

There's probably 50% sarcasm and 50% resignation in that statement. Sure, there are plenty of non-Android DAPs in the market, but they (with few exceptions) end up being glorified 90s mp3 players in terms of functionality. And if you want functionality on a level with a new Android DAP, your only option is pretty much an Android DAP. As for making a new DAP at that level not out of Android, well Windows is discontinued, iOS is proprietary, what else do you propose that would even run a few of the major streaming apps as a high-end DAP (high end in terms of functionality, not SQ) would?

What if you don't need streaming though like many of us? And what if you buy a DAP just for - brace yourself - music?

CD players, tape and real-to-reel decks, and record players did just fine for, what, a century. But suddenly we have to play chess and chat and high profile games at the same time we're enjoying our music? LMAO

EDIT: Not meant as an insult! But there's people that are just in it for the music.

drftr

 

[gLer]

What if you don't need streaming though like many of us? And what if you buy a DAP just for - brace yourself - music?

CD players, tape and real-to-reel decks, and record players did just fine for, what, a century. But suddenly we have to play chess and chat and high profile games at the same time we're enjoying our music? LMAO

EDIT: Not meant as an insult! But there's people that are just in it for the music.

drftr

For sure yes, but the market has to go where the buyers are, so like @Joe Bloggs says, options are limited. You have Lotoo, L&P and Hifiman making non-Android, non-streaming DAPs, but they're becoming rare. HiBy made RS2 recently, which is another good option for non streamers, but is fairly limited.

As for non-Android, if there's no market, who's going to make them? And when they do, economies of scale are so low, they'll have to price them unrealistically just to break even.

Even if you don't need streaming though, with most of the development happening on the Android platform, that's where you're going to find the 'best' players going forward.

 

[maegnificant]

I have a question:

If I can match a volume setting on my music player on low gain with one I like on high gain for certain IEMs/Buds, which one consumes less battery?

 

[drftr]

For sure yes, but the market has to go where the buyers are, so like @Joe Bloggs says, options are limited. You have Lotoo, L&P and Hifiman making non-Android, non-streaming DAPs, but they're becoming rare. HiBy made RS2 recently, which is another good option for non streamers, but is fairly limited.

As for non-Android, if there's no market, who's going to make them? And when they do, economies of scale are so low, they'll have to price them unrealistically just to break even.

Even if you don't need streaming though, with most of the development happening on the Android platform, that's where you're going to find the 'best' players going forward.

Not sure. There's so much exotic stuff out there it's unbelievable. While I thought none of them would make it past a decade I'm surprised to see that many of the unicorns from 30 years ago are still going strong.

drftr

 

[warrenpchi]

If you come over to Singapore we're almost complete already!

Haha, nice try! Any such meet would have to include @Rockwell75 or it'd be a non-starter though.

Well here's some free fun for everybody (for keeps for quite a few of whoever ends up participating--for context, however many people ends up going on the tour, I don't expect sharing the same tour package between more than about 7 of them for time constraints, so assuming you get selected for the tour your chances of winning a lightly used set of R6iii and Crystal 6ii are better than 1 in 7):

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/hib...our-units-are-for-keeps.967395/#post-17463111

Aww, that's a nice thing to do! I'm actually on the hunt for a new reference player for some upcoming video reviews, but I don't know much about HiBy DAPs, so I don't have any of them on my shortlist.

Good luck to everybody who makes it onto that tour!

 

[yaps66]

Wait, wut? No, I meant for the CanJam SoCal that will happen six months from now.

Problem is for someone like Joop, because he has been to some places, he will probably have a hard time entering USA.

 

[drftr]

Problem is for someone like Joop, because he has been to some places, he will probably have a hard time entering USA.

I'm having good hopes the Mexicans will get back their lands sooner rather than later!

drftr

 

[drftr]

Haha, nice try! Any such meet would have to include @Rockwell75 or it'd be a non-starter though.

Surely Jeff would come if you would so what are we talking about...

drftr

 

[Leonarfd]

Saturday morning with coffee, finishing some thoughts for a review. I do love the Effect Audio Chamber Case

 

[Blanchot]

Any suggestions to avoid a chin slider doing the one thing it shouldn't do?

I could add Eletech's X Pentaconn slider but 80 bucks seems a bit steep and there's no guarantee it works anyway.

drftr

The Eletech X Pentaconn slider is a product I don't understand. Eletech's own cables are so thin that the slider just slides down all the time. I have only tried it with their standard cables (Socrates, Iliad, Aeneid and Plato), not with the LE 8 wires, so it may work better with those. But I think that for the price they are charging it's not good enough. Eletech has never been a fan of chin sliders, so maybe they didn't put much thought into it.

 

[warrenpchi]

I took most of the week off with the intent of driving down just to nerd out and enjoy good company. Looking forward to the last 2 CanJams of 2023. Going to need CanJam in my life after BlackHat and DEFCON 31.

YASS! Counting on you being there! The Dallas one will be interesting. It's our first time there, but I also have high hopes as Texan Head-Fiers have been asking for a CanJam for years. So .

In all sincerity, a special access preview of new gear sounds amazing and not to be missed!

That was how the very first CanJam Singapore went down! The excitement over the first one was such that a bunch of cool people showed up the night before, on the off chance that something might be going on. There was nothing planned, but a bunch of us serendipitously met up in the Pan Pacific lobby, and proceeded to have an ad hoc meet over food and drinks. And since Jude was able to bring some advance units that were in the preview video, we all had a good time auditioning them before the show even opened, in quieter-than-show conditions. We had a great time!

Problem is for someone like Joop, because he has been to some places, he will probably have a hard time entering USA.

Does he and @drftr have warrants out for them or something?

Surely Jeff would come if you would so what are we talking about...

Man, if only I actually had that kind of power over time and space...

 

[drftr]

Does he and @drftr have warrants out for them or something?

Me and Joop are split personalities one of us thinks while the other doesn't agree!

They don't seem to like some stamps in in my passport so I can't get in. But you know what? If they're not happy with other cultures then I don't even want to get in. For me Americans, Afghans, Sudanese, North Koreans, etcetera are all the same.

drftr

 

[warrenpchi]

They don't seem to like some stamps in in my passport so I can't get in.

 

[Neweymatt]

There's probably 50% sarcasm and 50% resignation in that statement. Sure, there are plenty of non-Android DAPs in the market, but they (with few exceptions) end up being glorified 90s mp3 players in terms of functionality. And if you want functionality on a level with a new Android DAP, your only option is pretty much an Android DAP. As for making a new DAP at that level not out of Android, well Windows is discontinued, iOS is proprietary, what else do you propose that would even run a few of the major streaming apps as a high-end DAP (high end in terms of functionality, not SQ) would?

Hmmm, well I've got a LP P6 Pro on my desk to demo for a few weeks, and I have to say my initial experience of it's UI today has been quite jarring. I was going to be a bit more generous and say that it feels more like 2004. Basic is about the best I can say for it at this point, maybe after a few days I'll get used to it? One thing I d

What if you don't need streaming though like many of us? And what if you buy a DAP just for - brace yourself - music?

CD players, tape and real-to-reel decks, and record players did just fine for, what, a century. But suddenly we have to play chess and chat and high profile games at the same time we're enjoying our music? LMAO

EDIT: Not meant as an insult! But there's people that are just in it for the music.

drftr

I just don't get not using Android on a DAP in this year 2023, even a highly modded, locked-down version like A&K. It's familiar enough for anyone who has ever used a mobile phone, iOS included, and makes the job of delivering a pleasing user experience so much easier. Even you don't stream and only listen to your own library offline, Android makes it so much easier to use existing apps like UAPP to manage your music and listen to it, not to mention how much easier it is for the DAP-maker's devs to make decent playback apps of their for Android.

I suppose in the case of L&P, the selling point is supposed to be the SQ, so I'm looking forward to that. However a quick A/B this evening with the RS6 is not looking good for the P6 Pro.