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So basically all daps are worthless shit?

Astrozombie

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^^^^^ I just ordered a pair of those HA!
Owner of a Fiio X1 I here and X2 II, was looking at a X5 Mk II for $200 but decided against it. Already have the Q5, think later I'll check out one of those Hiby players, have wondered if it would be worth it for an old HDD based Ipod?
The thing I hate about using an old phone is the volume isn't that precise so you end up with either too low or too high at times.
 

raif71

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I see here, some people use smartphones as player and some use actual DAP as player. I say both are fine as long as the person using it, feels comfortable. However, sometimes I see people try to persuade other people to use smartphones or DAPs as music player and downplay what the other person is using which I think is inappropriate. Each have their own usecases and please just ♫ let it be, let it be, let it be ♫ :)
 

Jmudrick

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I see here, some people use smartphones as player and some use actual DAP as player. I say both are fine as long as the person using it, feels comfortable. However, sometimes I see people try to persuade other people to use smartphones or DAPs as music player and downplay what the other person is using which I think is inappropriate. Each have their own usecases and please just ♫ let it be, let it be, let it be ♫ :)

The whole point of the thread per the OP is "are DAPs worth buying" . This involves arguing and defending subjective opinions. It's the way the internet works. Pointing out where others may have missed a trick is not personal.
 

raif71

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The whole point of the thread per the OP is "are DAPs worth buying" . This involves arguing and defending subjective opinions. It's the way the internet works. Pointing out where others may have missed a trick is not personal.
good argument
 

majingotan

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The whole point of the thread per the OP is "are DAPs worth buying" . This involves arguing and defending subjective opinions. It's the way the internet works. Pointing out where others may have missed a trick is not personal.

Straight up answer: you NEVER need a DAP since a second smartphone or your primary smartphone can be your DAP as well. Only reason to buy a dedicated DAP is to because you want a fancy DAC chip that you can carry anywhere you go, not that it will have an audible difference (at least on the DAC side of things. I like that I can carry a dual AK4499 DAC chip on a DAP anywhere I go, and there's no smartphone in the market that has a dual AK4499 DAC chip inside. Bottom-line, getting a dedicated DAP other than a smartphone or a dongle is 100% personal subjective preference and has ZERO objective benefits (a typical DAP's SINAD is a lot worse than LG Quad DACs). The only answer to OP's question would be that yes DAPs are "worthless schiit" only in objective sense.

Subjectively, I like how I'm never distracted while listening to music at my work office, and I get to see notifications from my phone separately, and yes the dual AK4499 DAC chip and the amplifier stage from my DAP gives me the psychoacoustic bias that I'm hearing the best out of my IEM (cable is just for luxurious looks of course)

IMG_2344.JPG
 

raif71

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Straight up answer: you NEVER need a DAP since a second smartphone or your primary smartphone can be your DAP as well. Only reason to buy a dedicated DAP is to because you want a fancy DAC chip that you can carry anywhere you go, not that it will have an audible difference (at least on the DAC side of things. I like that I can carry a dual AK4499 DAC chip on a DAP anywhere I go, and there's no smartphone in the market that has a dual AK4499 DAC chip inside. Bottom-line, getting a dedicated DAP other than a smartphone or a dongle is 100% personal subjective preference and has ZERO objective benefits (a typical DAP's SINAD is a lot worse than LG Quad DACs). The only answer to OP's question would be that yes DAPs are "worthless schiit" only in objective sense.

Subjectively, I like how I'm never distracted while listening to music at my work office, and I get to see notifications from my phone separately, and yes the dual AK4499 DAC chip and the amplifier stage from my DAP gives me the psychoacoustic bias that I'm hearing the best out of my IEM (cable is just for luxurious looks of course)

View attachment 85797
My straight up answer is yes I need a dap even if I have a 2nd or spare handphone coz I just like a dedicated music player :)
 

bobbooo

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Bottom-line, getting a dedicated DAP other than a smartphone or a dongle is 100% personal subjective preference and has ZERO objective benefits (a typical DAP's SINAD is a lot worse than LG Quad DACs).

And about the same or worse than a 'normal' smartphone's SINAD e.g. a Qualcomm chipset phone like one of the Samsung Galaxy S8, S9, S10, Note8 or Note9 series with the excellent WCD9341 DAC, which are already likely audibly transparent.
 
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raif71

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And about the same or worse than a 'normal' smartphone's SINAD e.g. a Qualcomm chipset phone like one of the Samsung Galaxy S8, S9, S10, Note8 or Note9 series with the excellent WCD9340 DAC, which are already likely audibly transparent.
I just took a look at the specs. Doesn't have dsd support. I have tons of dsd files :)
 

stevenswall

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OnePlus and I think anything that runs LineageOS lets you disable any icons you don't want to see in the status bar... Unfortunately almost all phone makers purposefully choose to not use this freely available feature and instead spend developer time throwing skins on Android and trying to make it worse better.
 

mkarikom

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I don't even both with dongles these days, given wireless headphone improvements.
Yeah, I'm blown away by how good a pair of buds sound these days.

However, since I already had a pair of custom IEMs, buying a clip-on bluetooth dongle and a little 1' 2-pin cable provided a really economic solution for passive noise cancellation with most of the benefits of a full-wireless setup.

But if I was buying new right now, I would probably forgo the IEMs in favor of a good pair of truly wireless buds.
 

3125b

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Qualcomm chipset phone
But not only those have decent DACs. Here is my rather cheap realme 7 (belongs to Oppo/OnePlus) with a Mediatek Helio G95 SoC:
realme 7-min.jpg
Even that is transparent with close to 97dB SINAD.

However 50mV performance is not great:
realme 750mv-min.jpg
The European Apple Dongle scores a lot better there with 87.5dB SINAD.

And it seems to either have 22Z output impedance or limit its output electronically (I don't know, these devices sometimes seem too smart for their own good, they definitely have load impedance sensing).

Mixed bag for sure, but a decent DAC is not hard to come by these days.
 

Robin L

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I don't see any DAPs in the Apple store.

Do they still exist in 2021?
Plenty. The Fiio M3K got upgraded to the M3 Pro, Astell & Kern still is rolling out new models. I'm really happy with my M3K, use it all the time. I don't use my smartphone for music. The Moto is too big for my pocket, the M3K is tiny. Holds 1600 CDs as Apple Lossless files. What's not to like?
[I'm thinkin' "don't see any DAPs in the Apple store" must be some kind of jive, seein' as Apple would want you to stream from their website on their phone.]
 

watchnerd

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Plenty. The Fiio M3K got upgraded to the M3 Pro, Astell & Kern still is rolling out new models. I'm really happy with my M3K, use it all the time. I don't use my smartphone for music. The Moto is too big for my pocket, the M3K is tiny. Holds 1600 CDs as Apple Lossless files. What's not to like?
[I'm thinkin' "don't see any DAPs in the Apple store" must be some kind of jive, seein' as Apple would want you to stream from their website on their phone.]

None of the Gen Z kids I work with have Fiio or A&K.

A&K Instagram page only has 14k followers:

https://www.instagram.com/astellnkern/?hl=en

I have never seen one in the wild.

Maybe it's an endangered species?
 

Robin L

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rccarguy

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^^^^^ I just ordered a pair of those HA!
Owner of a Fiio X1 I here and X2 II, was looking at a X5 Mk II for $200 but decided against it. Already have the Q5, think later I'll check out one of those Hiby players, have wondered if it would be worth it for an old HDD based Ipod?
The thing I hate about using an old phone is the volume isn't that precise so you end up with either too low or too high at times.


Happy with my sansa clip+ and river h140 with SD card mod.

Seen those stupid expensive daps £2000 like wtf
 

Sal1950

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Happy with my sansa clip+ and river h140 with SD card mod.

Seen those stupid expensive daps £2000 like wtf
+1, I've been running my little Sansa Clip+ for years now.
After ripping a lot of music into some high quality OGG's it still sounds just great now driving my Grado headphones or my trucks stereo system. I really don't get the need for the $1k + players. If your living/working on the road you probably already have a laptop or even an expensive smart phone with you.

Idont.jpg
 
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