Ed Selley
Hi-Fi Editor
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2003
- Messages
- 12,046
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- Age
- 43
My wife still uses this phone daily as her alarm, even though she has a personal iPhone X and a company Samsung galaxy. You just don't realise how large phones have become until you see phones like these side by side with modern phonesSony Ericsson K750
Neither would I be remotely interested by the Fiio M6 promoted by @andy1249 even if it were offered to me free of charge precisely because of the features (or lack of). Cheap sabre DAC, no balanced output, no high bit rate Bluetooth codec support.
Just yesterday I chanced on a well constructed review of the differences between Rolex watch at 10K and extremely well constructed Chinese copies at 1K. The website was "Watchfinder .co.uk . " The upshot was that it took an expert, using side by side comparison, to distinguish one from the other. ..both were using movements virtually the same ,and only extremely tiny features of hand buffing screw heads allowed the expert " tells. ".Not recommending the M6 over and above any other player with similar tech , what I am saying , given the tech on offer in both devices , is that in a blind listening test with the same headphones , I,ll bet no one could tell the difference .... and that no personal audio player is worth a price tag of 1800 ...... sometimes niche just means ridiculously overpriced .... definitely the case here , you can get similar/ indistinguishable levels of performance for a tenth of the price , easily.
Sabre DACs of the 9xxx series , long since entered the realms of being indistinguishable from each other.
They are non decimating for DSD which is the only reason I'm interested in them over and above any other DAC.
Balanced output for a couple of feet of wire ? A ridiculous affectation of no practical real world use.
Aptx is lossy regardless of which suffix its bragging , its always lossy , its noticeably better than SBC or AAC but everything has those lesser options and lossy is lossy regardless.
Not recommending the M6 over and above any other player with similar tech , what I am saying , given the tech on offer in both devices , is that in a blind listening test with the same headphones , I,ll bet no one could tell the difference .... and that no personal audio player is worth a price tag of 1800 ...... sometimes niche just means ridiculously overpriced .... definitely the case here , you can get similar/ indistinguishable levels of performance for a tenth of the price , easily.
Sabre DACs of the 9xxx series , long since entered the realms of being indistinguishable from each other.
They are non decimating for DSD which is the only reason I'm interested in them over and above any other DAC.
Balanced output for a couple of feet of wire ? A ridiculous affectation of no practical real world use.
Aptx is lossy regardless of which suffix its bragging , its always lossy , its noticeably better than SBC or AAC but everything has those lesser options and lossy is lossy regardless.
Not recommending the M6 over and above any other player with similar tech , what I am saying , given the tech on offer in both devices , is that in a blind listening test with the same headphones , I,ll bet no one could tell the difference .... and that no personal audio player is worth a price tag of 1800 ...... sometimes niche just means ridiculously overpriced .... definitely the case here , you can get similar/ indistinguishable levels of performance for a tenth of the price , easily.
Sabre DACs of the 9xxx series , long since entered the realms of being indistinguishable from each other.
They are non decimating for DSD which is the only reason I'm interested in them over and above any other DAC.
Balanced output for a couple of feet of wire ? A ridiculous affectation of no practical real world use.
Aptx is lossy regardless of which suffix its bragging , its always lossy , its noticeably better than SBC or AAC but everything has those lesser options and lossy is lossy regardless.
still insistent on not supporting 4.4mm balanced when everyone else in personal audio is
I don’t get the craze for balanced outputs either (although my FiiO has them) especially with battery dependant players.
Audio Myth - Balanced Headphone Amplifiers are Better
This Myth Goes Something Like This: "Balanced headphone amplifiers are better." "If balanced line-level connections work well, balanced headphone outputs should also work well." We disagree! Benchmark does not offer voltage-balanced headphone outputs on any of its products. The reason for this...benchmarkmedia.com
HB
My post was not a comment on the merits of single ended versus balanced ended. Indeed no opinion is or was offered on that subject. My post was a comment on A&K choosing to offer balanced with the 2.5mm connector port, rather than the more physically robust 4.4mm balanced connector port adopted by everyone else in the industryReally what is the point other than some of the cables look cool? We’re forever saying or being told that in the rest of hifi balanced is pointless below quite a lot of meters so why is it great in personal audio? Just because it generates marketing & revenue?
Indeed no opinion is or was offered on that subject