Tiny speakers for your head.
A community for audio enthusiasts, discussing news, reviews, and DIY projects involving headphones, amplifiers, and DACs.
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Just recently got this Hifi Walker H2 and so far I like it. Stock UI was trash but Rockbox solved that issue. At first I was skeptical of needing a dap with how good phones are these days but I'm satisfied. This thing sounds so good and is powerful enough to make my 6XX sing. Plus the customization of rockbox really appeals to my tinkering side.
So what do you guys think about DAPs? Do you prefer one to other music solutions or do you not see the appeal?
Android 14 promises native lossless audio support. If that happens, daps will definitely lose some perks. Good cheap android phones will be much better in performance than a mid priced or even premium daps. Most daps are still stuck with android 10 and sd 660. A good dongle dac with a cheap phone should be the go-to.
I agree with this. If/when this happens, I am getting either a 1tb s23 ultra or an Xperia with removable storage.
I like having my music be on a device with separate storage and a separate battery from my phone, it's nice.
I recently bought a used Sony WM1A to use with my CA Andromeda 2019. The ability to have all my music (over 1100 CDs worth) in full lossless that is at my fingertips without having text messages and notifications interrupt me was worth every single penny.
This was my primary driver as well. I just want all my music easily accessible.
I genuinely am not fussed enough about audio quality when I'm on the go for it to be worth it for me. If I'm listening to music on a portable device I'm probably someplace super noisy (in a car, on the bus, in a cafe, on a plane, whatever) so the increased audio quality over streaming on my phone doesn't really matter. Also my really good headphones are mostly big and/or heavy so they generally don't leave my house. I tend to have plenty of storage on my phone, so if I'm going to be away from wifi for a while I download a bunch of music in advance.
I used to have an old ipod nano that I used for long trips to save my phone battery, but then battery packs got super cheap.
I use an app that supports a good quality BT / wired portable dac amp. I'm not a fan of DAPs. My phone and a good app have provided many years of quality FLAC source. No need for a static player that I also need to carry around when a tiny BT amp does the heavy lifting. I have a BTR7 that will run most of my cans with good power and clarity.
Same here. Personally not a fan of DAPs but to each his own. Also not a fan of using external dac/amps so I have an LG phone with the Quad DAC (they can drive even my he-x4). Imo, DAPs are unnecessary expenses in an already expensive hobby.
Edit: if you like DAPs, there's no way I'd criticize you or anything. They're just not for me.
I have a BTR5 and it is indeed good at what it does. I just don't get the same satisfaction from it as plugging into a headphone jack. The DAP is still fairly new so I'll see if it still appeals to me down the line.
Most DAPs are just so, so garbage.
Slow, crashy, dim screen, only support for outdated standards, no latest Bluetooth, no support for big SD cards, low output power, mediocre battery life, high noise floor, the list goes on.
Even the ones that cost hundreds are super slow and come with like Android 7. Maybe Android 10. I whish I was joking. And many don't have all the features any basic $150 phone would have. And they feel worse to use than a $150 phone.
A lot don't really have the power to drive beefier headphones. And a lot have a high noise floor. So basically, they only work with high impedance high sensitivity headphones. Just pure trash.
A DAP should be a useful replacement for my phone and not require a dongle. Sadly, that seems to be a very high bar to meet.
This is where the iPod was so good. Shame the big one never got released again with modern hardware.
I hate apple stuff usually but this is what I really want. No touch screen, no apps, no wifi, just a little brick with storage and a small useable screen with the clickwheel to navigate. With flash memory we can fill the space the hdd used for a bigger battery and a 2nd balanced connection or something. Maybe I'm just nostalgic for my old 5th gen ipod.
I mainly use my phone with a cheap DAC dongle along with a Walkman DAP that I got a great deal on used. There is not a lot of differences from the sound between them, but I use the walkman DAP when I 1) Don't want to get distracted by anything other than music, 2) Want to use a bluetooth earbud/headphone that supports aptX/LDAC codec, 3) Want a built in EQ that applies to all music apps (the Sony Clearaudio+ feature is also nice in some situations), 4) I admit I love seeing the tape player screen saver when using the Sony music player, 5) the expanded audio options when using my Sony Linkbud S. 6) When I want to save battery life on my phone.
So having a DAP is not a must have, but I do sure enjoy having it available as an option.
Personally I've never really felt a need for it, especially since I've refused to lose the headphones jack on my smartphone. I do want one cause I like having specialized tools but I really can't justify the cost for such a marginal benefit.
If they were cheaper it would be a different story but most of the good ones are several hundred dollars which is mid grade smartphone territory.