We know how important it is to find the right player; whether it is for your mp3 collection, hi-res music or streaming apps such as Tidal or Spotify.

Whether you call them DAPs, players, music players, portable players, mp3 players or anything else, this is the post for you. We’ve gathered our picks for the best digital audio players that you can buy!

BEST DAP UNDER £100

1. Shanling M0 – £99

If you fancy getting better sound on the move, but don’t want to add a large device to your setup – the Shanling M0 could be just what you’re looking for. This tiny player delivers top quality Hi-Res audio and can be used in two different ways. The SD card slot allows you to store your own library of tunes, from mp3 to DSD – it can handle it all. The M0 can also act as a Bluetooth amp and DAC for your headphones. So, if you prefer using Spotify or Tidal on your phone, then wirelessly connect to the M0 to boost the audio quality while using an interface you are comfortable with.

READ MORE: Shanling M0 Portable Digital Audio Player Review

BEST DAP UNDER £200

2. Shanling M2X – £199.99

Shanling’s impressive M2x is our choice for under £200. The impressive build quality and easy to use software makes the M2x an enjoyable experience. Sound quality is well balanced and clean, with superb detail retrieval. Then the addition of Tidal streaming via the app, opens up the listening possibilities.

READ MORE: Shanling M2X Portable Digital Audio Player Review

BEST DAP UNDER £500

3. Cowon Plenue D2 – £259

The Cowon Plenue D2 may seem simple to look at, this is certainly not the case though. Cowon are very well known and admired for the sound quality of their players. Bringing life and energy to music, as well as impressive customisation with their well developed EQs. The Plenue D2 is solid and very easy to use, with impressive battery life giving up to 30 hours of HD audio playback.

MORE INFO: Cowon Plenue D2 Portable Digital Audio Player

4. iBasso DX160 – £349

A new addition to the iBasso family, the DX160 sports an updated design to previous models and the addition of a 4.4mm balanced headphone output. The large touch screen is very clear, with vibrant colours and responsive touch control. As for sound, the DX160 provides a well balanced and organic sound with an emotional quality to it.

5. FiiO M11 – £449.99

FiiO have really upped their game with the release of the M11. The impressively designed and built player houses some impressive technology. Dual AKM DAC chips and their custom made op-amp helps make the most of the aptX HD, LDAC and LHDC compatibility. Then the flexible headphone connectivity brings 2.5, 4.4 and 3.5mm ports to accommodate all popular jack sizes.

MORE INFO: FiiO M11 Portable Digital Audio Player and DAC

6. Shanling M6 – £499

Shanling has long flexed its muscles in the portable audio player scene, and M6, the latest digital audio player offering takes its place at the top of Shanling’s Hi-Res audio player line-up. M6 is the first Shanling audio player to run Android OS and is armed with Hi-Res Audio and Hi-Res Wireless Audio certification taking your audio to the next level.

MORE INFO: Shanling M6 Digital Audio Player & DAC

BEST DAP UNDER £1000

7. iBasso DX220 – £799

We feel that the iBasso DX220 hits the ultimate price and performance point in the higher end of the digital audio player market. The DX220 is superbly built, with solid software and an easy to use design. The dual Sabre DAC chips help to achieve a clean and neutral sound, and the replaceable amp modules provide a level of customisation that is not common at this level.

MORE INFO: iBasso DX220 Portable Digital Audio Player and DAC

BEST DAP OVER £1000

8. Astell & Kern A&ultima SP1000M – £1999

Astell & Kern were not sure whether it was possible to come up with a product that is different from the SP1000 while delivering the same sound quality, but they decided to take up the challenge so that more people could experience their products’ fidelity. There were many trials and tribulations in making the SP1000, A&K’s best product, smaller. They were determined to not compromise sound quality in the process, and ultimately developed the second A&ultima product, the SP1000M.

MORE INFO: Astell & Kern A&ultima SP1000M Digital Audio Player

Have We Missed Anything Out?

Please feel free to leave a comment below and let us know…

The post Best DAP 2020: Hi-Res, Audiophile, Budget, Portable appeared first on HiFiheadphones.

Hi-Res audio has now become a standard feature when looking for a new audio device, whether that’s headphones, earphones or portable players. It has also become a rating for high quality music files. That little gold logo has become very important… but what does it mean?

Audio Formats

To understand what hi-res audio is, it’s worth having a basic understanding of digital audio and how it’s recorded. The majority of music we listen to these days, at some point during the recording and mastering process, has been made into digital audio. Once upon a time, audio was recorded onto tape and then cut straight onto vinyl, a completely analogue process.

Nowadays music is mainly recorded onto computer drives using software like Protools, Ableton or Logic. Tapes are still sometimes used to record onto, but they tend to be transferred onto the drive as well. The recorded audio is converted into digital audio and then stored on the drive to be edited in the software.

Historically, digital audio has been available in a number of different file types. MP3 and AAC are not hi-res formats. They are early developed file types that compresses audio data in order to achieve small file sizes: convenient for storing on devices with minimal storage, while compromising on sound quality. Nowadays this compression is used on streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music, so it’s worth knowing that however convenient they are, the sound quality will be compromised.

There are four main file types which are capable of storing hi-res audio. They are WAV, AIFF, FLAC and ALAC. The quality of these file types can range from 16bit CD quality audio up to the highest hi-res audio quality. WAV and AIFF are raw, uncompressed formats which are not commonly used for general listening due to the very large file sizes. FLAC and ALAC are the most common formats for hi-res audio. They are both lossless compression formats, which means the file sizes are much smaller and they can store metadata, which is all the information about the piece of music.

Bit Depth and Sample Rate

Now the complicated part. Before hi-res audio became mainstream, music was typically recorded with a bit depth of 24bits and a sample rate of 44.1khz or 48khz. The bit depth determines the number of bits of information in each sample and the signal to noise ratio, while the sample rate determines the number of samples of audio taken per second. If you want to know more about bit depth and sample rates, I would suggest you do some research online, as there are a lot of articles on this. Alternatively, you can ask us down below and we’ll do our best to answer.

The digital audio on a CD is always 16bits and 44.1khz.  This is a standard process for CD, and was calculated by very smart people to get the best from this format. Before hi-res audio was a format we could easily listen to, CD’s gave us the best digital audio quality, with Super Audio CD’s providing the hi-res audio of its time and an early glimpse of DSD audio.  We’ll save that for another video. Now thanks to portable audio players having high quality DAC chips and also very large, expandable storage, hi-res audio is something we can all experience wherever we want.

Unlike CD quality, hi-res audio has a minimum bit depth of 24bits and a sample rate of up to 192khz. To achieve this, the audio has to be recorded at a much higher sample rate than was done before. This requires a lot more storage, as the data is much larger.

The upside to this is that the higher bit rate provides more dB of dynamic range, meaning the 24bit recording has a dynamic range of 144dB compared to the 96dB provided by the 16bit CD recording. The result is more headroom for peaks at the recording stage, avoiding the risk of clipping. It also gives a greater separation between the recorded audio and the noise floor.

Using a larger sample rate will increase the amount of samples taken of the audio per second, and this is where it gets tricky. The higher the sample rate, the higher frequencies a system can record. So a sample rate of 44.1khz reproduces frequencies of up to roughly 20khz, and increasing the sample rate will increase the frequencies that can be produced. Technically this seems like a no-brainer as more information can be captured during the recording process, making sure to grab all the detail possible.

Conclusion

The argument to this is that we can only hear frequencies up to 20khz, and that’s pushing it. So why would we need more? Well that seems to be a subject where no definite answer has been determined. Please feel free to give your opinions to this below.

Right, here we are. Is hi-res audio worth all the fuss? If you have a very good set of headphones or earphones, and you use them with a very nice portable player or plug them into a high end home system, then I’d say that you will notice the difference between CD and hi-res audio. On the other hand, if you listen to music on your phone using the earphones supplied with it, or you listen to your music wirelessly, CD quality will probably be as good as you need. Saying that, most people still listen to Spotify and seem very happy with it, so what do I know? And don’t even get me started on vinyl or we’ll be here all week.

The post Hi Res Audio Explanation & Video appeared first on HiFiheadphones.

Cowon is known as one of the first companies to produce portable digital audio players (predating the iPod by a year with their CW100 model from 2000) and so they have quite a heritage in this area. Is the Plenue D player able to pick up the mantle of its forebears, and does the ‘D’ stand for ‘Dazzling’ or ‘Dunce’? We take a listen…

Pros:

• Good, customisable sound
• Small size is good for hands and pockets
• Attractive look

Cons:

• Short delay at power on (music database check)
• No case included

Design and Appearance

The Plenue D is a very small player at 2″ x 3″ (52mm x 75mm) and is all black, apart from its silver top and power button, all of which gives an impression of stylish utilitarianism. Edges are slightly bevelled making it comfortable in the hand, and it’s quite easy to operate whether you’re left or right-handed.

Being a touchscreen operated player, the power button can be pushed with music playing which disables the screen. On the right side there are buttons for volume and track skipping with an extra play/pause button. Just remember to disable the ‘button lock’ option within the player so all these buttons function when the player is in use and the screen is disabled.

There is only one slot for a Micro SD card and the Cowon Plenue D can only accept up to a 128Gb capacity at this time, but larger cards may work with future firmware updates. Just now, a 128Gb card is recommended as the Plenue D will hold, but will not allow you to access music which is outside of this 128Gb capacity. However there is also an internal memory of 32Gb on the Plenue D, if you need a reserve.

The Plenue D is a basic player which forgoes Bluetooth, wifi and the installation of apps such as Spotify; it’s a good choice for anyone who just wants a decent player for their own music collection. Why pay for features you’ll not use?

One issue is that the player checks for any new music whenever it’s turned on. This is typically finished after about 10 seconds, but can be a pain if you just want to start the player up and get on with things. Also when scrolling through tracks, the display can lag a little but it’s not a serious problem.

Durability and Build Quality

The Cowon Plenue D is a solid little device; the side buttons have a good ‘clicky’ feel about them and there’s nothing much else to say about build quality. It’s perfect. Perhaps it’s just as well, as there is no protective case included; it would have been nice to see one.

Sound

The Plenue D has a fairly neutral sound, but with a touch of warmth about it. It can help tame models such as the Shure SE846 which can be a bit lively with the bright filters, for example. Extensive EQ settings are available as well, including an almost paragraphic-level EQ section within the settings so you should be able to get the sound you’re after without too much bother.

Being a portable player, the Plenue D is designed for low-impedance earphones and headphones; a separate amp will be required for use with models over about 80 ohms impedance, depending on sensitivity.

Summary

For a basic low-cost player, the Cowon Plenue D is a good choice. It does all that’s needed, and it’s clear that the Plenue D comes from a company which knows its stuff!

The post Cowon Plenue D DAP Review – Cowon and Treat Yourself appeared first on HiFiheadphones.

This is not your ordinary music player. With impressive processing power the portable FiiO X5 digital audio player supports DSD, APE, FLAC, ALAC, WMA and WAV lossless music formats up to 192kHz/24-bit. This is the most complete set of supported formats to date among Hi-Fi DAPs. With the X5, music lovers need not worry about lack of format support or format conversion.

As well as being a high resolution portable music player, FiiO X5 also doubles up as a dedicated digital-to-analogue converter with line or digital output from PC or MAC. The asynchronous USB DAC also supports 192kHz/24bit. Users can adjust the X5’s equalizer according to their preferences, tailoring the X5’s sound output to different headphones and music genres to produce their ideal sound.

Inside the casing the X5 is packing a lot of punch with four Texas Instruments opamps and Burr Brown DAC as well as dual TI Flagship DAC Chip for headphone output. The X5 comes with three output ports: headphone out, line out and coaxial digital output. Apart from connecting directly to headphones, you can also connect it to other DACs and amps. Dual TF card slots offer a storage capacity up to 128GB, with future firmware upgrades supporting up to 1024GB.

TI Flagship DAC Chip
High resolution music playback
WAV, APE, AAC, WMA, ALAC, FLAC lossless music format supported
DSD playback (DSD playback function will be added and optimised in pending firmware upgrade)
USB OTG support (OTG support will be added and optimised in pending firmware upgrade)
Dual TF card slots (up to 1024GB storage capacity with future firmware upgrades)
Asynchronous DAC
Aviation aluminium CNC unibody technology
Headphone out, Line out, coaxial output socket
Japan original imported high resolution IPS screen
3700mAh lithium polymer battery with 12 hours playtime

To purchase the unit, please visit our website:

Buy FiiO X5 Portable High Resolution Digital Audio Player

The post FiiO X5 Portable High Resolution Digital Audio Player – Announcement appeared first on HiFiheadphones.

Uncompromising high-fidelity music playback at your fingertips: the Astell and Kern AK100 is the pinnacle of modern portable audio playback. Capable of Studio Mastering Quality sound, this portable player offers high-definition lossless music playback well beyond the realms of standard CD quality.

With the Astell&Kern AK100 listeners can enjoy music as it was intended to be heard with all it’s details and subtleties. Equipped with high-quality Wolfson DAC chip, the AK100 offers the highest levels of signal-to-noise ratio and lowest level of harmonic distortion for a highly detailed and realistic sound experience. The Astell&Kern AK100 can also be used as an external DAC via the Optical In/Out function.

The Astell&Kern AK100 is capable of playing all lossless music files offering high-definition music playback. Lossless music files are larger than standard music files and require more storage space. Astell&Kern AK100 carries an on-board memory of 32GB with additional dual micro SD card slots, making the internal memory expandable to 96GB.

An intuitive and responsive touch screen interface combined with traditional control buttons makes using the AK100 fast and easy. The user interface of the Astell&Kern focuses on quickly searching for and listening to songs. Housed in a robust case of black-anodized aluminium with a hairline finish, the AK100 represents a deep and defined craftsmanship

Features

Portable high-fidelity audio system with Mastering Quality Sound (MQS) playback
Up to 24bit/192kHz playback of high resolution audio files
Lossless playback for  WAV, AIFF, FLAC, ALAC, APE, MP3, AAC, WMA and OGG music formats
Meets 100% of Hi-Fi audio specifications
Equipped with high-performance WOLFSON DAC chip
Optical DAC function for PC and MAC
Dual Micro SD card slot supports up to 96GB of total memory
User Interface with intuitive touch screen and control buttons
Digital volume control wheel with traditional analogue feel
Solid machined aluminium casing

To purchase the unit, please visit our website:

Buy Astell&Kern AK100 Portable Digital Audio Player & DAC

The post Astell and Kern AK100 Portable Digital Audio Player & DAC – Announcement appeared first on HiFiheadphones.

The Astell and Kern AK120 plays any music format with high-fidelity Mastering Quality Sound (MQS). Lossless music files no longer need to be confined to big set-ups with this portable audio system. Feel the phenomenal realism of high-definition lossless music through 24bit/192kHz sound processing that cannot be heard through a standard CD.

The incorporated Wolfson WM8740 digital-to-analogue converter chip is the world’s best performing high resolution DAC chip. Equipped with two DAC chips the AK120 independently separates the left and right channels and offer true dual-monaural audio with wide soundstage and full-bodied audio. Astell&Kern AK120 can also be used as an external DAC via USB or Optical In function.

To playback 24bit/192kHz files, it is essential for the Astell&Kern to have high-capacity memory. Astell&Kern AK120 carries an on-board memory of 64GB with additional dual micro SD card slots supporting up to 64GB of memory in each slot , making the internal memory expandable to 192GB.

Intuitive and responsive, the touch screen interface combined with integrated hardware control buttons makes using the AK120 fast and easy. The user interface of the Astell&Kern focuses on quickly searching for and listening to songs. The curved design of the volume wheel guard provides additional protection to the volume wheel.

Features

• Portable high-fidelity audio system with Mastering Quality Sound (MQS) playback
• Up to 24bit/192kHz playback of high resolution audio files
• Lossless playback for WAV, AIFF, FLAC, ALAC, APE, MP3, AAC, WMA, OGG and DSD music formats
• Meets 100% of Hi-Fi audio specifications
• Equipped two high-performance Wolfson WM8740 24bit 192kHz DACs in a dual-mono configuration
• USB / Optical DAC function for PC and MAC
• Dual Micro SD card slot supports up to 192GB of total memory
• User Interface with intuitive touch screen and control buttons
• Digital volume control wheel with traditional analogue feel
• Volume wheel guard provides protection
• Elegant design and sturdy build, housed in a brushed aluminium case

To purchase the unit, please visit our website:

Buy Astell&Kern AK120 Portable Digital Audio Player & DAC

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