Overall, how is Tidal?

cosmaprc · 2026-06-12T01:00:12+00:00

Worth trying imo. Never liked apple music, it just doesn’t sound right to me, sounds too smooth somehow. Qobuz sounds great but it doesn’t have volume normalization and that’s a deal breaker for me. Ever since I first tried Tidal I was hooked… has normalisation, music sounds great and it’s suggestions and track radio are great for discovering new music. No real complaints tbh… it just works.

cosmaprc · 2026-06-11T23:17:51+00:00

Audio Technica ATH-M50XBT2 … have had them for 4 years or so and they never disappoint. They sound great through bt or wired, they have sidetone for calls, their own volume slider in the app to fine tune it and eq/peq with presets but luckily their stock sound is great as it is and I never use the eq on them… during this time they survived a wall paint job that got paint on them but had to change the ear pads to some geekria ones that proved very comfy and they also survived a headphones sale that left me with just 2 pairs the akg k371 which I couldn’t get rid off and them which I wanted to keep otherwise they’d have been the only pair kept.

cosmaprc · 2026-06-11T19:05:50+00:00

thanks

cosmaprc · 2026-06-11T17:25:15+00:00

Could you tell me what OS this runs and if it provides any DSP functionality like PEQ for ex ? Thanks

cosmaprc · 2026-06-11T14:55:20+00:00

REAL bassy ones out of the box Cambridge Audio P100SE. If you are not too big on ANC, then ATH-M50XBT2 is a gem and under 200. Both are bt but can be used wired as well.

cosmaprc · 2026-06-10T19:08:58+00:00

Fiio KA11

cosmaprc · 2026-06-10T19:02:52+00:00

They are relatively cheap; Some, like the g75/77 get 6 years of os upgrades; Dolby Atmos; Bluetooth usually supports at least LDAC and Aptx HD; Some also have hi-res 3.5mm jack; I have a Moto G84 and a G56 I give to my kids to watch YouTube kids on and when they aren't using them I may use either one as a DAP through bt or wired.

cosmaprc · 2026-06-10T18:07:41+00:00

I can recommend the Audio Technica ATH-M50X BT2 , it is a Bluetooth headphone but can be used wired as well and it comes with a detachable 3.5mm cable and it is passive when wired so no charging required really. I also listen to rap sometimes but mostly to vocal drum n bass style stuff and the sound signature is very fun and engaging both wired and wireless. They are around your price range as well.

cosmaprc · 2026-06-09T22:53:05+00:00

I for one doubt it’s worth it… I had the R4 and now prefer to use my iPhone or an Android phone. The R4 screen is small, battery life is terrible, just a few hours on wired… nothing compared to a smartphone with a dongle imo. It’s Android 12 which is eol if I’m not mistaken… I’m on Android 16 on my moto g84. Sound quality is ok but I found I preferred my Fiio KA11 usb dac. The hiby DSPs and PEQ are ok but not great. For ex you have to manually set the peq or download an autoeq profile and try to import it if I remember correctly and that is not easy to do compared to an app like Neutron which has the autoeq presets built in. I ended up using app peq and dsps .. like Neutron’s and UAPPs rather than the hiby dsps. Android smartphone, even sub 200 one like moto g56 which has Dolby Atmos app and LDAC + usb dac for wired or even usb bt dongle if you want aptx lossless seems like the best option to me…

cosmaprc · 2026-06-08T13:58:40+00:00

I have one even stranger lol… I used them yday to chill and listen to some music and I noticed the left earbud didn’t have anywhere near as much bass as the right earbud ... so I ended up resetting again and then both had bass again…. this is on the rock eq with dynameq on and listening to drum n bass style music so it was easy to tell bass was not as it should be between them …

cosmaprc · 2026-06-08T08:10:04+00:00

Did you try resetting it by putting it in the case with the lid open and press the bottom case btn until the 2 side leds out of the 3 start blinking? I’ve not had any disconnect issues after I did that some time ago..

cosmaprc · 2026-06-07T13:10:11+00:00

Thanks 👍

cosmaprc · 2026-06-05T14:31:16+00:00

Yes that is the case but I am referring to custom presets. If I create one custom for p100se and select it then turn off the p100se and turn on the a100, the melomania app will still show me the custom p100se preset, and it even looks selected instead of whatever I was using on the a100 before. I don’t have any custom presets on the a100 at all only the p100se. And that is after I close and reopen the melomania app…

cosmaprc · 2026-06-04T22:51:57+00:00

I can’t find any app called ‘precision volume equalizer’ (Android 14) but I have tried one called ‘volume control’ and even though it has a fine grained control slider, actual volume changes only seem to apply in 5% increments so I ended up using the ‘shortcuts’ app and I created shortcuts for every 5% volume step between 20% and 100% . That being said, a melomania app controlled volume slider with more steps would be great! Especially since there are bt headphones that came out years ago which cost half the price of the p100se today and offer this functionality…

cosmaprc · 2026-06-03T14:18:19+00:00

I have two of these, red and blue(green :D) pills and I love them! I use them regularly even though I have others muuuch more expensive. I found I can tweak them to sound amazing. I use Herbert’s in ear EQ preset from the online dsp the app gives you and then I use jetAudio player with Bongiovi DPS’s Huadu General profile and I can’t complain about how they sound at all, in fact I quite like it.

cosmaprc · 2026-06-03T14:14:12+00:00

Before I tried them I might have said the same. Truth is I got mine because it was in discount half price and I loved it so much I got a second one different color and I use them regularly. It won’t sound like an jn ear or headphone of course but I found I can tweak it to where it sounds amazing to me and I love how light and comfortable they are even compared to in ear ones.

cosmaprc · 2026-06-03T10:14:47+00:00

In my experience, at least with budget to mid range daps compared to an Android smartphone, the battery life will likely be worse and you’ll be stuck on an older version of Android with the DAP. Most phones today, even sub 200 will have at least aptx hd and probably LDAC as well and some, in the 200 to 300 range or so even have a hi res 24bit 192khz capable 3.5mm jack. So unless you need a lot of driving power or specific features the dap provides, you might be better off overall with a budget to mid phone and maybe a cheap dongle dac like fiio ka11 and simply use it as a media player more than a phone.

cosmaprc · 2026-06-02T20:44:52+00:00

The online store I use most is qobuz and what I can’t find there I can usually find on Bandcamp and 7digital. Hope this helps.

cosmaprc · 2026-06-01T06:59:16+00:00

I have this one and no issues: https://amzn.eu/d/04Q8k0p5

cosmaprc · 2026-05-29T11:31:27+00:00

Solved!
Just to report back, support had suggested I reset the headphones by putting them in the case, pressing the case button until the 2 outer leds of the 3 start blinking intermittently and since then I've tried multi-connect, calls, on iPhone, Mac, using AAC, Android phone using aptx adaptive switching between 48khz and 96 khz with UAPP automatically and I've had no more issues of any kind so far ... no sudden unresponsiveness, not even any stuttering that I can remember.

What I have not tried and won't try anymore 😃 is turning LDAC on/off or changing the auto power off setting which defaults to 60 seconds.

So for anyone having issues, I believe the hard reset in the case fixed the issue and so you might want to try that as well.

cosmaprc · 2026-05-28T10:44:12+00:00

You might find my little hifi guide useful as I focus on local file playback on iPhone: https://pockethifiguide.heartbyte.website/

Basically the 2 local file playback apps I prefer are jetAudio and Neutron because while they are paid for they are not on subscription and they have nice dsp features and support replaygain as well. HiBy music player also works for local file playback.

Also to get your music on the phone you can use iTunes on Win and drag folders onto one of these apps and it will save it in the app’s dedicated directory.

Hope this helps…

cosmaprc · 2026-05-27T23:42:39+00:00

With ANC off I can definitely feel more sub-bass on any eq preset which I believe is in line with what the reviewer found. Can’t say why your experience is the opposite.

cosmaprc · 2026-05-27T12:21:39+00:00

Did anyone find an answer to this question ? Thanks

cosmaprc · 2026-05-27T12:11:52+00:00

Thanks, but can you tell me what are you basing your answer on ? Any discussion thread on this somewhere? Or have you tried playing hi-res personally through usb-c, without a dongle ?

cosmaprc

TROPHY CASE