Author Topic: Digital Audio Player Recommendations  (Read 30565 times)

phred

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An M11 is currently in transit to me, though the Play store can't be used due to Google not wanting to support older versions of Android.

I am not sure what that quote means - my old phones are only running Android 4.1, and they are still completely supported on the Play Store.  SOME of the newer apps say they will not load, or they give a warning because the OS version is too old, but that is an app-specific thing, not related to Google or Play Store support as far as I can tell.
I agree. My Fiio X5 runs Android 5.1 and I was able to get the few apps I wanted directly from the Play Store. And they worked just fine. I attribute the sluggishness not to the apps, but to the OS.
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hiccup

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Quote
An M11 is currently in transit to me, though the Play store can't be used due to Google not wanting to support older versions of Android.

I am not sure what that quote means - my old phones are only running Android 4.1, and they are still completely supported on the Play Store.  SOME of the newer apps say they will not load, or they give a warning because the OS version is too old, but that is an app-specific thing, not related to Google or Play Store support as far as I can tell.

I believe it has something to do with Google revoking/authorizing some android hardware.
I have a (very nice and quite recent) ereader (regrettably) running on android, but store access became problematic at a certain moment in time because Google implemented some restrictions on the product/vendor.

This probably doesn't affect phones, but mp3 players and ereaders may suffer from android support/store access.

phred

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First impressions of Shanling M0 after less than 30 minutes of use...

- It's small! I mean like real tiny. Like teeny tiny. Tiny to the point of perhaps being -too- tiny.

- Not being an audiophile, I'm happy with the sound reproduction, but I need to listen to different types of music before making a valid judgement.

- It's 100% touch-screen. Swipes and taps. Still getting the hang of them, so I'll withhold further comments on this until I figure them out. But I will say this - the device itself may be too small to me to feel comfortable swiping. There is one button which takes care of on/off and volume.

- I took my 512gb from my FiiO and inserted it in the M0 and told it to scan. There were 27,000+ tracks but scanning seemed to stop at around 2,000. My 80+ playlists appear, but tapping any of them result in "file not found." I just started a rescan and it's definitely taking longer than the first scan (and is now at 3,500) so that may solve the playlist issue.

- If I were forced to make a decision right now, I'd return it. But that's not really fair, being as how I've used it for less than half an hour. But I do have thirty days to send it back and would like to use it for a couple of days before deciding.

- Did I say it was tiny? With my next post I'll have a picture of it with a ruler to show the scale.
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phred

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Just heard back from Shanling regarding Album Artist support:
Quote
I added Album artist into our list of "features to add" some time ago, just waiting when our software team will get to it.
If it was added to their wishlist 'some time ago' I wonder how long it will take to actually see it added.
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phred

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Size does matter.

 

Did I mention that this might be too small? Well, it is. I was awake with this thing until after 3am and have given up on it. It's just too small for me to use comfortably. I'm tapping wrong lines, I set it to a non-Latin character language and couldn't find a reset setting since I couldn't recognize the characters, swiping is difficult. So back it goes.

Freddy Barker, hiccup, Mauser69 and perhaps others seem to make a lot of sense with the suggestion of getting a used smartphone and using it as a player. I can find a number of used LG v20s for less than I paid for the M0. This has some major advantages:
- it's an Android OS which means I can use GMMP
- it's an Android OS which means I can use MB's wifi sync
- it's one of the only smart phones I know of that has a user-replaceable battery. Especially good when buying a used, two year old phone
- the fact that not having/using a SIM card (only using WiFi) will give me more life between charges

The M0 is going out the door today.

More updates on this continuing saga when the LG arrives next week.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions everyone.
Last Edit: July 27, 2019, 11:41:47 AM by phred
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Freddy Barker

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Why wait? visit here today, take your headphones and a few quality tracks for an audition ::)

https://www.cellphonerepair.com/boston-downtown-ma/buy-used-devices

Good luck, Freddy
Last Edit: July 26, 2019, 03:21:50 PM by Freddy Barker

phred

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Why wait? visit here today, take your headphones and a few quality tracks for an audition ::)
Thanks. Didn't know about that place since I'm not in downtown Boston all that often these days. The LG was ordered this morning and has already shipped from about 200 miles from me. So it could be here as soon as Saturday or Monday although its arrival is "guaranteed no later than Wednesday."
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Freddy Barker

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Why wait? visit here today, take your headphones and a few quality tracks for an audition ::)
Thanks. Didn't know about that place since I'm not in downtown Boston all that often these days. The LG was ordered this morning and has already shipped from about 200 miles from me. So it could be here as soon as Saturday or Monday although its arrival is "guaranteed no later than Wednesday."

I forgot that the USA was immense in area.
Exciting times waiting for a new boy-toy-gadget huh? I hope it fulfills all of your expectations....
Freddy
Last Edit: July 26, 2019, 07:30:30 PM by Freddy Barker

phred

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Sometimes Amazon works in mysterious ways.

I notified them that I wanted to return the Shanling. They offered me the option of dropping it off at a local store and it would be returned with no shipping charges. I printed out the return label and scanned the tracking number for my records. I dropped it off at the store and it got scanned into their system. By the the I returned home (15 minutes later) an email from Amazon informed me that they have issued a refund to my credit card.
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frankz

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Yeah, Amazon has gotten real proactive on the way they handle their returns. It was the one weak spot in the whole process, and with their Kohl's alliance and Amazon Lockers popping up everywhere they've taken all the hassle out of it.

phred

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I wasn't aware of their alliance with Kohl's. And I have two supermarkets within five miles of me that have the lockers. But for some reason they wanted to charge me $7.95 to return via a locker. I have returned a few things with the lockers and never had a fee before. For free, I took it to the local UPS Store.
Download the latest MusicBee v3.5 or 3.6 patch from here.
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SkyZippr

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Do you need album artist tag support? You never mentioned but I thought it might be important.
FYI Fiio M9 and M11 doesn't support it. And if I remember correctly, none of Shanling's do as well.

That's a good observation and fair warning.
(I was also considering a Shanling)
I would never have guessed one of the most basic and essential tags would not be supported by modern players.


I'm now glad I didn't immediately respond to your post, expressing doubts about your statement.
(damn, I gave my overly suspicious mind away now)

Actually that was why I didn't buy M9 in the first place. I was like 95% sure that I was gonna buy it, but then I went to the store and inserted my micro SD card to do a bit of a test, only to find out my entire library was broken into pieces.
Also I should probably mention that the media scan of Fiio M9 was extremely slow.
So I turned around.

Then I got home and found out that the album artist tag support has been requested since 2017 on Fiio's official forum. The X series supported 3rd party apps, but people seemed to prefer to use the stock Fiio Music Player. The buttons on the DAP never worked for 3rd party apps, I guess?
http://fiio.me/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=42886

A supposedly Fiio guy said in another thread on Jan 2019 that "we will still estimate the feasibility in later firmware update", but so far nothing seems to have happened.
http://fiio.me/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=43855

It's hard to believe but it seems that most of the Chinese manufacturer (Fiio, Shangling, Hiby...) tend to ignore this feature.
But then again, as far as I am concerned, early iPods were missing album artist tag support as well, up until 4th gen of iPod nano or so.

However FYI Fiio whitelisted some of the music player apps, like Poweramp and doubleTwist, on the latest version of firmware for M series just days ago.
See here:  https://www.fiio.com/newsinfo/275335.html
So yes, Fiio M series now kinda support album artist tag.

hiccup

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Size does matter.

I think I could have lived with the small size and precise fingering...

But then I saw a review of the screen estate, and Shanling has done a rather bad job on making the most of it:



As you can see, it breaks text already after some 10 characters.
That's terrible.
I have an old Sansa Clip that is probably half the size, and it displays twice as much characters on it's very minuscule display.
It looks like I'm going to keep that one for a bit longer.

A shame, because the basic design and features seem amazing.

Mauser69

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Quote
Freddy Barker, hiccup, Mauser69 and perhaps others seem to make a lot of sense with the suggestion of getting a used smartphone and using it as a player. I can find a number of used LG v20s for less than I paid for the M0. This has some major advantages:
- it's an Android OS which means I can use GMMP
- it's an Android OS which means I can use MB's wifi sync
- it's one of the only smart phones I know of that has a user-replaceable battery. Especially good when buying a used, two year old phone
- the fact that not having/using a SIM card (only using WiFi) will give me more life between charges

I know you already ordered your "new" phone, but I will add this for anyone else interested who does not have an old one sitting around to use:

The old phone I am using as a music player is an LG Escape p870 from 2012 - that is so old that one should be virtually free if you could find one!  It also has a user-changeable battery that just drops in the back.  As a device, it is quite small and thin when compared to more modern phones, but one potential drawback is the max card size is 32GB.

phred

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The old phone I am using as a music player is an LG Escape p870 from 2012 - that is so old that one should be virtually free if you could find one!  It also has a user-changeable battery that just drops in the back.  As a device, it is quite small and thin when compared to more modern phones, but one potential drawback is the max card size is 32GB.
Thanks. 32gb as a max card size certainly wouldn't cut it for me. And as I may have said earlier (I'm too lazy to go back and look) the ocst of the V20 was less than the m0. I don't plan on getting a case for it, so it will maintain its thinness.

Most of the new OEM batteries for the V20 have a manufactured date of two years ago. If they are indeed brand new, never been used or charged, I would think they would be rechargeable as if they were manufactured yesterday. Can someone tell me if my thinking is flawed. And if it is can someone suggest a decent brand for a non-OEM battery.

The postal service has confirmed that delivery will be Monday. But since this is the -US- postal service, it's really anybody's guess if it will really be here then.
Download the latest MusicBee v3.5 or 3.6 patch from here.
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