JerryLeeds
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Nope … just the remote or front panel .. My M50 is setup to only use a local SSD holding my music library … 95% of the time just in random play mode
Topping M50 digital music player
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simon740
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ok. Thank you. I’m looking some SD/usb player for my own music library.
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And how is the SQ?There doesn't seem to be much discussion about this product; searching on Google leads to one discussion on ASR and another on Reddit, both with not much discourse so I thought I'd put down my initial impressions here for the benefit of those who are looking to use it as DAP.
Starting with the looks, it has roughly the same form factor as Topping's other 50's series devices, but is a little bit taller than the A50S and D50S, but shorter than the P50.
Besides the two SPDIF connectors, it can control a USB DAC via one of its two USB-OTG ports. They'll also take a USB stick or external hard disk drive. The little USB-C port is for you to use the device itself as a DDC.
According to Topping's own specifications, it supports SD cards up to 256GB and external hard drives up to 4TB... which doesn't really make sense (the SD card part). However, I tested with a 512GB card and the device read it just fine... though I don't have 256GB worth of media so maybe there's another soft limit that I have not hit. But then again, it still wouldn't make sense since it can support external drives up to 4TB.
Like most other DAPs, you can let it scan your media in order to maintain a library that you can browse via Album, Artist, and Genre. I didn't take any accurate readings, but by my rough estimate it's reading around 100 tracks every 4-5s. It also has some kind of Playlist and Favourites list, but I haven't explored those features yet. The controls here (both on the faceplate, and the provided remote control) are pretty rudimentary, but I do have one minor complaint - there is an inconsistency with the controls where you use the right button on the faceplate to navigate/activate menu items, whereas on the remote control you use the center "OK" button instead.
Supposedly you can also control the player on a smartphone via a "Hiby Link" app, but I haven't explored that feature.
On another note, the device can run just on a power bank alone, which is nice and makes it a bit semi-portable - especially if you have a portable DAC/amp that you can connect to. Though in this case, a portable DAP or smartphone would probably be more suited for the role as a DAP or smartphone will likely have better screen and easier controls/navigation. The screen on the M50 is tiny, not very bright, and doesn't provide much information.
One oddity that I should mention, is how the M50 sorts album titles. It places titles with Asian (e.g. Chinese, Japanese, etc) characters in between the regular A-Z sorting, which is different from the norm that I'm used to seeing (e.g. on Foobar, USB Audio Player Pro, and Sony's own DAPs). However, I noticed similar sorting on my Fiio M11 Plus, so perhaps this is a Chinese style of sorting.
I suppose one of the target demographic is people with the A50, D50, P50 stack - the M50 visually complements the stack nicely. But looks can be deceiving...
...the front looks neat and clean, but at the back, it's a bit on the messy side. Though I must note that there are shorter/thinner RCA interconnects to make the cable management tidier. Also the USB and power cables that came with the M50 are the long type, unlike the short ones that are bundled with the P50. Sourcing shorter versions of those two cables should also make the rear a bit neater. But regardless, it's still pretty nice to have everything powered from a single power point.
Honestly though, I'm a little bit disappointed by the M50. It was more of an impulse purchase, one part for its matching look with the rest of the stack, and another part because I wanted a desktop player similar to the HDD players back in the day... but honestly for this specific purpose, a DAP, computer or smartphone serves that role much better. But that is just my view for this specific purpose - according to the marketing material it also serves as a USB bridge or DDC, or a network streamer though I've no interest in those use cases.
Yeah, so anyway those are my early impressions of the device.
JerryLeeds
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Just hooked up my new Ares 12th anniversary edition … using M50 via USB works fine and also using the I2S. The M50 was previously set for the I2S to be in ‘reverse’ when using with the SMSL D400ES … this setting works with the default I2S settings on the Ares .. no need to fish around with the Ares custom settings for this
L&R test tones work for both FLAC & DSD files
PS: I also own the SMSL SD-9 … it sounds great also but my library is close to 20k songs and the shuffle mode on the M50 seems to be better vs the SD-9. With the SD-9 I seem to hear more songs repeating… the random function might be limited to only 4 digits? Idk but it seems that way to me …
L&R test tones work for both FLAC & DSD files
PS: I also own the SMSL SD-9 … it sounds great also but my library is close to 20k songs and the shuffle mode on the M50 seems to be better vs the SD-9. With the SD-9 I seem to hear more songs repeating… the random function might be limited to only 4 digits? Idk but it seems that way to me …
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simon740
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Hello,
do you use some LPS with M50? I have Ares II and I'm thinking of trying this M50.
regards,
Simon
JerryLeeds
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Yes .. some old LPS I purchased on eBay from ‘LHY Audio’ .. purchased a few years ago (before eBay started charging NY sales tax on things)… nice to find a re-use for it.
I’m sure there are better but ‘hey’ I spent enough
If you are using a SSD .. the drive’s light will remain lite when the M50 is turned off .. so after the M50 completely powers down I then use the LPS’s power switch
simon740
500+ Head-Fier
Hello,
any more details about the sound of the M50? Are you satisfied?
regards,
Simon
JerryLeeds
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Yes I’m enjoying the sound … I’m not good at ‘Explaining’ what music sounds like … so I’m not even going to attempt it … sometimes I think when other people ‘explain’ how something sounds they just sound crazy ..
simon740
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What about the performance itself? No problems reading music from hdd/ssd? From sd card?
Hibby link works without problems?
regards,
Simom
JerryLeeds
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As I stated before I only use a SSD with about 20k flac files which I ripped from my CD collection… and I only use the shuffle function .. so it works fine for me
kdub
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So which display is larger, brighter and higher resolution between M50 or SD-9? I am hoping to use the M50 or SD-9 to play local audio files stored on my NAS (seems only the SD-9 has ethernet but Wifi on M50 is ok) and have it feed output to my DAC via I2S. Would you be able to comment to help make this decision. Thanks!
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JerryLeeds
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No … I can’t comment about either working with a music library on a NAS because I’ve never tried .. my library is on an external SSD. As for the screen brightness … again I can’t help because I don’t really look at the screen much at all once either begins playing in shuffle mode … I guess the bigger screen would be brighter
TooPoorForHiFi
Previously known as MidNighTempest
Some Questions,
1. Can the M50 detect Music files that are in Sub-Sub Folders? E.g Main Folder > Album Folder > X Folder > Music Files
2. I have a 5TB External HDD that I use to store my Music Files. Does the M50 have any issues detecting the Drive?
3. Does the M50 support LDAC for Spotify Streaming to it?
1. Can the M50 detect Music files that are in Sub-Sub Folders? E.g Main Folder > Album Folder > X Folder > Music Files
2. I have a 5TB External HDD that I use to store my Music Files. Does the M50 have any issues detecting the Drive?
3. Does the M50 support LDAC for Spotify Streaming to it?
pete~
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Do any of you owners of the M50 hear any crosstalk when playing music off SD card or HDD?
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