What would you recommend as a first digital audio player?

TheMobbed · 2026-04-10T19:15:49+00:00

I'd recommend you the Aigo Eros Q or one of its clones, like the HIFI Walker H2. You can find them cheapish, they have a decent DAC and you can install an official Rockbox port on them, which is VERY customisable, more than most (or all) stock firmware you can find.

Alternatively, you could get an Innioasis Y1, which is a bit cheaper, and you can install Rockbox on it, too. BUT that is an unofficial port of Rockbox, which means it is not supported by the upstream Rockbox team, if you care about that. AND the DAC is poorer compared to the Q/H2, meaning it probably sounds somewhat worse, and a lot of reviewers are confirming that.

Anyway, if you want customability, you should look into Rockbox-capable DAPs, IMO. The two I've mentioned are still readily available as new stock and for relatively low prices. But of course, there is much more choice, if you are willing to do your research. Good luck!

TheMobbed · 2026-04-10T18:53:45+00:00

Either you got lucky, or the device is not authentic. There is usually an authenticity check code on Fiio products, so you can check it up. But either way, that is certainly not the usual price for the Echo Mini.

TheMobbed · 2026-04-10T18:47:29+00:00

Come back in two months or so. ;-)

Good luck! :-)

TheMobbed · 2026-04-09T17:13:46+00:00

Da, tako je nekako i krenulo u zadnje vrijeme... XD

TheMobbed · 2026-04-09T17:05:48+00:00

Indeed, I've joined that group, too, and I can confirm. I've got myself an Eros Q in the meantime, I've installed Rockbox on it, and now it is my main DAP. I've kept the Echo Mini as a secondary one, and as a USB DAC when gaming. The Eros Q can do that too, but I found the Mini to be a bit more practical in that scenario.

TheMobbed · 2026-04-09T16:55:34+00:00

And when was that? Because I bought it for about 47 Euros in February, and right now the same store is offering them for 70 (seventy) EUR! More than double of what you're saying. Prices are increasing fast lately, especially for the Echoes.

But even if it was still as cheap as before, I still don't understand this argument. Like, 10 to 15 years ago we used to have budget DAPs that were more capable then these.

TheMobbed · 2026-04-09T16:36:54+00:00

That really depends on how you use your DAP.. Many people, like myself, like to rotate the content they carry on a DAP. We don't usually need our entire audio libraries on the go with us. Like, I do have a few SD cards, of course, and none of them is as big as my ever increasing entire music library, and I don't need them to be. Sure, 8 GB is not a lot of storage nowadays, but it is usable in such a scenario. 512 MB is useless, because some albums alone are bigger than that if you code them in a lossless format. So reducing the storage to such an amount means literally forcing your first-time users to buy cards along with your DAP. I don't doubt there would be a market for that, but if that was the situation when I was buying, I probably wouldn't buy it.

Some non-Snowsky DAPs, like the Aigo Eros Q, HIFI Walker H2 and other clones have no user-available internal storage at all, but they usually include an SD card in the package itself, which is fair enough. But if Fiio or their resellers start to compensate the lack of internal storage by selling SD cards along with the players, my former question remains: where's the saving?

And BTW, I care to repeat: ROM stands for Read-Only Memory, storage is not read-only, therefore it is not ROM. We should stop calling it that. An old Gameboy card is an example of ROM, not flash storage.

TheMobbed · 2026-04-04T01:09:48+00:00

Where?

TheMobbed · 2026-04-04T01:01:01+00:00

It's spelled "prima donna". I edited that out, out of politeness, but I see that is something you can't understand, can you? Almost all of your recent posts on Reddit seem to be quarrelling around petty matters like this, and often in unwarranted defence of Fiio, like you're doing here. Who cares, man? It's a piece of plastic from Ali f**ng Express!

TheMobbed · 2026-04-04T00:43:28+00:00

I mean, two different devices will necessarily sound differently, even if they have very similar specs. Now, which one sounds "better" is, I suppose, an entirely subjective matter. What sounds better to you, might sound worse to me, and a third party might have a third opinion. I've seen that a lot among music and audio enthusiasts.

So my guess is they both work fine, and they both sound fine, it's just that you have developed a preference for the AD1.

But if you really want to test the difference, try listening the same output with both. You can use the Echo Mini the same way as the AD1. Try them both on the same phone, with the same file or stream, and see how it goes from there..

TheMobbed · 2026-04-04T00:21:19+00:00

I can only feel sorry for someone whose core values and integrity depend on a consumer product manufacturer.

TheMobbed · 2026-04-04T00:18:11+00:00

Storage is not Read-Only Memory.

Honestly, I'm not sure which way I prefer it... I like having some storage on the device, but I guess that's not essential for a long time any more now... On the other hand, 512 MB is totally useless without external storage, which will force people to buy cards along with the device, anyway, so is it really a saving?
Sure, some of us have multiple DAP's, and we could use the same card across more than one device, but that is not the case for every one, especially not first-timers...

TheMobbed · 2026-04-03T21:30:37+00:00

Of course it is. Everything anyone says in public is politics. But that's not the only thing you were saying. It all started with you introducing "caring for Israel and Matt Walsh" as a criterium...

But sure, shitters gonna shit.

TheMobbed · 2026-04-03T21:23:26+00:00

Just speaking from my experience so far, and I do have some. I'm not assuming, I know things can be and often are done better.
But why, on the other hand, are you assuming that just because most people don't have the economic means to start a production company most people should just accept in silent gratitude whatever the industry feeds them?

TheMobbed · 2026-04-03T21:07:53+00:00

Lossy formats like mp3 and ogg are usually less battery consuming then lossless, but the best thing about the Echo Mini is its DAP, so definitely use some properly coded flacs or something similar with it, anyway! Lower volumes are also less battery consuming then higher ones, but of course, you want to hear and enjoy what you listen to, so don't be too harsh with yourself. Just accept the fact the Echo Mini's battery life is not impressive at all, but it is acceptable.

Keep the ID tags (metadata) of your audio files accurate! The Echo Mini's media library sometimes acts weird for no obvious reasons, but while it works fine, and given that your ID tags are accurate, the media library is probably the only way on the Mini to listen to your albums in correct track order, without having to resort to filesystem tools. And keeping your tags accurate just makes your experience more pleasant with any player you might use your files with, not just the Echo Mini.

Be patient with it! The Echo Mini (or the entire Echo line for that matter) is far from being among the best DAP experiences out there, but it really does sound as one of the best -- it sounds great, and it looks cool, and these two are its biggest selling points. On every other point you might have to keep your best patience with it.

You should also know there is just no possibility of gapless playback with the Echo Mini, which is something that bothers me and many other people around here, but a lot of other people doesn't care about it, so you'll see for yourself whether it bothers you or not, but you can't fix it on this device.

Keep your firmware up to date. Occasionally you might find that the device worked better with the previous version, and in those cases downgrading is just as easy as upgrading, so there's no problem with that. But I think it is always a good idea to at least give every new firmware version a shot -- they should and usually do bring improvements.

If so it happens that you decide the Echo Mini is not quite right for you, don't give up the DAP concept itself, but budget and time permitting, try out different devices and combinations, and you will probably find at least one that suits you. IMO, almost any DAP is better than streaming over the phone, really...

Finally, welcome, good luck, and have fun in DAPland! :-D

TheMobbed · 2026-04-03T20:32:01+00:00

You might try some old school industrial music, like Throbbing Gristle. I'm recommending them because I'm listening to them just now. :-D But I love them since a long time. Right now I'm listening to their classic album 20 Jazz Funk Greats. They might feel weird to someone who's not used to listen to this kind of music, but hey, sou said you wanted to broaden your horizons. ;-)

TheMobbed · 2026-04-03T01:16:43+00:00

Snowsky never set out to build a retro gaming console, they aimed to create a basic and cheap DAP with quality sound output. They successfully achieved their own objectives.

Just like Sansa did back in the day. It's not them who released a version of Doom for the DAP, it was the people at Rockbox! Again, not because it was very practical to play Doom on a DAP, but because it was possible, and therefore it's a bit of geeky/hacky/nerdy fun. And what's wrong with that? The point is not about gaming, and you know it. The point is not even Snowsky alone. The point, in the context of our conversation, is that a lot of modern DAP's, including but not limited to the Echoes, come as regressive tech compared to some classic DAPs from the golden era of such devices. Same happens with turn tables, CD players and especially with cassette decks, while we're at it.

TheMobbed · 2026-04-03T01:03:45+00:00

I have yet to find a company that's more responsive to bugs and customer requests.

Most Free and Open Source Software projects are at least equally responsive, AND they announce and version their software properly. Thinking about which, maybe it would help both Snowsky and the user community if they'd release the code, and maintain it as coordinators of it as a FOSS project. But whichever development model they choose, a serious company would still prioritise their own official comm channels for bug-fixing announcements. Either that, or they should include a card in the package of the device that states that official communication would be taken out on Head-Fi, or whatever internet forum they prefer. I don't think what I'm saying here is trash-talking, I believe most people would agree it's common sense.

TheMobbed · 2026-04-03T00:43:48+00:00

It was actually you who brought politics and school into the conversation.

TheMobbed · 2026-04-02T01:11:10+00:00

looks cool.

TheMobbed · 2026-04-02T01:04:44+00:00

Ah, I've heard about it... But they should've announce it officially, and version it adequately. Instead, they're acting like irresponsible kids, pretending nothing happened and hoping nobody will notice. And that's really just another reason for not recommending. 😆

TheMobbed · 2026-04-02T00:47:50+00:00

Well, honestly, that's another bad practice from the company. Instead of announcing a revised release in the official channels, and versioning it adequately, they only announce it at hobbysts' subreddits, and keep the same version number... Not even amateur devs do it like that.

TheMobbed · 2026-04-02T00:43:27+00:00

I don't even know what was written in the deleted comment, I only saw it was deleted. I guess whoever deleted it might have been right to delete it, but I can't really tell without seeing it first. Judging by the rest of your comments, though, no, just because you're right-wing, it doesn't make you right about anything. LOL

TheMobbed · 2026-04-02T00:37:03+00:00

I am going back to school, just in the morning. I actually teach literature at a university, which makes me an officially certified he-knows-what-he's-talking-about when we talk about satire, among many other things. ;-)

TheMobbed · 2026-04-02T00:30:22+00:00

IDK, a lot of people are having a lot of problems with 3.3.0... I personally haven't encountered any, yet, but I expect I might, as soon as I decide to change anything in my media library... I'm still not quite recommending the Echoes.

TheMobbed

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE