A little Swiss Army Knife of a Digital Audio Player indeed. You can use it to answer calls with its two microphones, plug it to your Hi-Fi and transmit from your phone (I have it connected to an old cellphone with Vanced YouTube and at parties everyone can put their songs and we're all happy about it bewilderingly, they don't like all my songs), or use it with BT speakers / earphones (you can transmit from your phone and it can re-transmit to speakers or earphones). The software designers really took their time, for example from everywhere you can swipe down to song-nav, so you don't have to actually navigate to Now Playing. I've written then and hopefully they'll implement it in a future firmware update, there's items I'll never use, like Browse (it's redundant with Category if your library is in order), Recording, and Step Counter, and it just adds unnecessary swipes. So many that the inability to configure and re-order menu items (in iPods you could chose which menu items to see) seems like a glaring omission. The Fiio M5 has several customizable functions that are actually useful and well thought out in software design, like the ability to enable / disable wake on double tap (disable for sports!), auto-update library on disconnect / manual update, auto-resume song / position / off, auto-power-on at certain volume, screen angle configuration, power button single / double press for wake / play-pause, volume long press for volume / song-nav that can work differently depending on screen state. No need to dwell here, it really sounds terrific. Sound quality is the best I've heard from all my DAPs and cellphones, it's very clear, and with the custom 5-band EQ you can fine tune it (I need no more than 3 steps on certain frequencies, from ☑2 steps posible). Screen refresh and navigating is fast except when playing and swiping to song options (from Now Playing you can swipe to two additional screens with seek bar / delete / info / change EQ, and lyrics), the transition there is slower, but not terribly so. I've found myself skipping track more than adding to favorites. It works, but it's certainly not on the level of your cellphone screen, which is to be expected from its size. The touchscreen is somewhat bothersome, it needs getting used to and still after accustoming yourself you make lots of mistakes, false gestures, etc. For your regular IEMs or earphones this is more than twice power-adequate. I'm guessing said reviews plugged it to full-size cans with much more impedance. I was a bit worried because all reviews say this lacks power (42mW 16Ω), but with my 18Ω NF Audio NA2 I can't even get to 30 on the volume scale, topping at 60! I have it software limited at 35 (and start-up at 10). Maybe the only perk here is that song navigation requires a long click of the volume button instead of the fast single click of a dedicated button (volume and power have a couple of configurable functions). For sports you can remove the clip (I do not trust the clip very much when doing sports, particularly because the player is not as slim as a Shuffle), put it in your pocket and still be able to blindly operate it with cycling gloves through your pocket, which is fantastic. The screen can be reoriented via software so you can always find the perfect position on your clothes. So, this thing is tiny but larger than a Shuffle, and the included clip increments its width about 50%. You can read technical and more audiophile oriented reviews elsewhere, mine is more grounded on my intended real-life use and the experience of it. Of course audio quality is also important, but not at the cost of blind operation, after all my primary use is on the go, not sitting and actively listening.Īfter reading all the reviews, and the obligatory and hated YouTubes, I decided to replace my crappy Wiwoo U2 with the Fiio M5, and I'm very pleased with my choosing. I've long used portable audio players, starting with Sony's cassette Walkmans, then the venerable iPods, and other more obscure brands.Īs a runner and cyclist, what I value most in a portable player is the ability to operate it without looking -the iPod Shuffle was king- and that it can comfortably fit on sport clothing.
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