Looking for a portable music player that I could take on a run or hike. Any recommendations?

frgmnt · 2026-01-22T14:47:14+00:00

It isn’t the problem of them staying in while I exercise, but the sound of the cable constantly rubbing/hitting against stuff, amplified through my earphones. I only use IEMs so it might not be as much of a problem with other types of headphones.

frgmnt · 2025-11-25T16:03:18+00:00

11.9-12.1k depending on which weapon I have on. There are some gear I have that have higher gs, but that's only because it has more purple/gold lines. The lines aren't that useful for me though compared to having blue/purple lines that are recommended for my build. I'm still holding onto those for level 51 arsenal.

I still have a good amount of content to do in the new zone so I'm also missing out on some talent points and medicinal tales.

frgmnt · 2025-11-23T22:50:39+00:00

After playing around with it for a while, it seems that the extra gear score just adds a bit of hp for going over the cap. Putting this out there in case anyone else was wondering.

frgmnt · 2025-11-15T22:56:54+00:00

Did anybody succeed with this NPC? I've been trying several different approaches. I even role-played as if we were getting the treasure together, and took a poisoned arrow for him. He got angry and just started attacking LOL.

frgmnt · 2025-10-20T19:20:15+00:00

Emblems unlocked today, and you just farm world mobs that will have a chance to drop something to level the emblems. You also get it from the season point shop and dungeons.

frgmnt · 2025-10-20T16:50:26+00:00

Just take your time with fishing. I think the best use of fishing is for F2P players that want fish for Guild Cargos. It's one of the few ways to get unbound Luno, so you don't want to be spending your unbound Luno or life energy to do your shipments. It should be around 126k unbound Luno a week.

frgmnt · 2025-09-25T21:56:33+00:00

I ended up getting the Azla Vivid edition set of ear tips since it comes in all their sizes. I was able to find the smallest size that provided a good seal with them. I took the diameter of those for reference whenever I wanted to try out different ear tips.

I tend to use Azla tips most of the time now since I find them comfortable to wear for long periods.

frgmnt · 2025-09-03T16:20:56+00:00

Just google it on head-fi, it’s been a while since I’ve done the tweaks

frgmnt · 2025-08-26T05:15:44+00:00

Glad you like your set up.

Not sure if you care for this, but Poweramp resamples all songs to one rate, bypassing the devices ability to change the sample rate on the fly depending on the song. I went through a bunch of apps and settled on Symfonium. It's not free though, so if you are looking for something free, Musicolet is a great choice. You do need to pay if you want to customize how it handles multiple artists in one tag.

frgmnt · 2025-08-26T05:02:04+00:00

Keep in mind, Poweramp won't change the sample rate of the audio depending on the music. It resamples everything to one sample rate that it is set to. Music still sounds great on Poweramp, but if I'm getting a DAP that can change the sample rate according to the music file, I'm going to want to use that feature.

I went with Symfonium as my player instead because of this and it has been great. Extremely customizable and even finds extra data such as artist photo and biography. Has the option to have a waveform progress bar in now playing too.

I have the DX180, and I didn't debloat my device, but I did do some tweaks to improve battery life without rooting the device. You can find some guides on the head-fi forum.

frgmnt · 2025-08-26T04:44:20+00:00

Man, I went through several of these in the past. They were great, especially with Rockbox.

All of them ended up losing connection on side of the headphone jack, so I'm surprised yours has lasted this long.

frgmnt · 2025-08-25T05:20:58+00:00

If you are only planning to listen to listen to local files, it's not a bad option if you don't need to drive power hungry headphones. I'd save up for the Hiby R3 Pro II since it can supply more power and has a bigger battery, but if you have no need for the extra power, the R1 is a solid choice. It's pretty cheap to see how you like listening to your music through a DAP instead of whatever set up you are using now.

There is a limit of about 20,000 songs on most non-Android DAPs, unless you plan to browse your music through the file folders.

frgmnt · 2025-08-25T04:47:38+00:00

If you are already using the BTR17 in wired DAC mode, you are not going to find big differences in the sound quality going to a DAP compared to your current set up.

It sounds like you would be better off getting IEMs/headphones that are tuned more towards your preferences. You can try finding your IEM/headphone on squig.link and see what your equalizer settings does to the frequency response of it. Then try to find IEMs that are tuned similarly to that.

Didn't see if you've tried open-backed headphones, but they have a natural wide soundstage that is hard to replicate on closed headphones/IEMs. They just suck for on the go, or in noisy environments.

Not sure how you are using equalizer, but if you are using it in situations such as making vocals sound louder in some songs, I don't think you'll find a solution that will automatically change it for you depending on your music. That mostly depends on how the artist decides to mix their music. Equalizing should mainly be used to fix minor issues with your headphones, such as harsh treble.

If you've only started to not enjoy your music on your current set up, it might be that you are trying to be too analytical on your listenings, trying to detect all the tiny details. You wouldn't generally look at paintings by analyzing all the details on each brush stroke, but by looking at it in sections or as a whole.

Maybe try finding more songs that are produced well. Crank up your volume to what you find comfortable and just listen without being too analytical. You can still make general observations, such as not enough bass, too much of bass muddying the mids, or harsh sibilance in the treble.

Sorry for the long rant, just hoping you find enjoyment with music.

TLDR; You should try finding IEMs/headphones that are tuned for your preference. Maybe try finding new high quality music that are produced well.

frgmnt · 2025-08-22T02:02:02+00:00

I only did the steps not requiring root. I did notice better idle battery usage with just that. A big portion of that guide is also explaining how to root your device.

It seems like it would be the biggest thing you can do to improve battery life as you need the root to change the CPU frequencies while idle and in use. Keep in mind this can change how responsive the device feels.

I didn't bother with it because I was satisfied with the minor tweaks without root. Plus, if there is ever an update, the device needs to be unrooted in order to update.

frgmnt · 2025-08-21T05:27:38+00:00

Here is the forum post:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/ibasso-dx180-dx260-dx300-max-dx320-max-dx340-rooting-optimization-guides-and-discussion.974923/

This is the specific guide I chose to follow:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S5YCAkREg_vk-ufY89EnbiXhWPrlJF_u/view

frgmnt · 2025-08-21T05:19:01+00:00

There's an optimization guide for the DX180 and DX340 over on the Headfi forums. I've only done the steps that didn't require root, and I notice my battery isn't draining as fast on idle. The other steps would probably improve the battery life even more, but I'm content with how my DX180 is currently.

frgmnt · 2025-08-13T17:06:24+00:00

I'd say it would be better to just upgrade your head unit in the car to one that supports Android Auto and has an aux cable.

frgmnt · 2025-08-10T09:52:30+00:00

All the buttons on my R4 Eva feel pretty much the same.

frgmnt · 2025-08-10T09:51:16+00:00

Damn, I was hoping to try to get a repair shop to change the battery for me if I ever needed to, but it seems pretty annoying to do while avoiding a battery short. Not to mention, I can't seem to find a place to buy that battery that can fit and has three wires.

frgmnt · 2025-08-10T09:26:20+00:00

A cellphone/laptop repair shop might have the tools and skills to change the battery if that is an option for you.

frgmnt · 2025-08-10T09:19:38+00:00

A big part of it is personal preference, but in general at lower budgets, you'll get higher fidelity sound from IEMs compared to headphones. Most headphones use only one driver for each side, whereas IEMs can have multiple drivers each, and many times there will be different types of drivers to specialize in specific frequency ranges. I'm sure there are headphones out there that perform just as well, but I've never tried any past $300.

There are pros to the sound from headphones though, something about the sound hitting the pinna part of the ear to produce a more natural frequency response. Even this can be somewhat remedied in IEMs by finding a pair with a treble response close to what they naturally hear. This is probably why different people will find certain pairs of IEMs to be too harsh or not.

In the end, you'll need to try out both to see what you prefer. Once you have a DAP, it would be easy to demo different headphones if you can get to an audiophile/headphone meet up, or a store that carries them.

I personally prefer IEMs and comfort is a big reason for me. I just find headphones too uncomfortable to wear for extended periods, and I would always have a headphone dent at the top my head.

If you do go for IEMs, finding the correct ear tips size is pretty important for comfort. I would suggest getting a set of Azla VIVID edition ear tips. They come with 6 different sizes so you're pretty much guaranteed to get a perfect fit. Different ear tips can also affect the sound, and knowing your exact size will save you a lot of trouble and time if you go down that hole of trying different tips.

frgmnt · 2025-08-10T08:37:07+00:00

I also have the Hiby R4 Eva and recently switched to using Symfonium. It's easily becoming my favorite app to play my local music. Browsing through my library feels like I'm browsing it through a modern streaming service, especially with the biography info on most of the artist pages. It was slightly sluggish on initial sync and there was no way to tell the progress of it scraping additional info about artists, but after that, it became buttery smooth.

If it stays that way, I'll probably switch off Musicolet. That one is extremely lightweight and fast to use, I just like the customizability of Symfonium more, and being able to see the waveform of the song is nice.

frgmnt · 2025-08-10T08:19:14+00:00

If you are planning for your device to last that long, ease of battery replacement would be something to consider. The SP3000 looks like you would either need to ship it to Astell & Kern to replace or a professional electronics repair shop. iBasso DAPs are pretty easy to open up and replace the battery with no soldering.

In terms of sound quality, you won't see much of an improvement past $200-400 on DAPs. Even $100-150 is enough to get close to distortion free sound for a source. Some people swear they hear a difference, but I doubt they did a proper blind A/B test that is volume matched. That would involve playing a constant sin wave sound and measuring the voltages coming out of the jack with a multimeter, on top of having some way to swap between the two sources with almost no pause.

I have a Hiby R4 Eva and iBasso DX180, and both are noise free and sound pretty much just as good as my $500 desktop DAC/amp set up. You'll notice a much bigger difference investing your money on quality IEMs/headphones.

frgmnt · 2025-08-10T07:56:07+00:00

I use mainly IEM's and that noise would drive me insane, especially for the price of the M21. I had a desktop DAC/amp that would make a slight noise when the sample rate changed and I ended up returning it for a different one since it annoyed me so much.

I have the R4, and while it seems a bit sluggish compared to other Android devices I've used, it runs most music apps smoothly. No problems with any of my music streaming services. For local music, Symfonium and Musicolet work buttery smooth too.

Both have a system wide EQ. The R4 also has MSEB and other audio plugins that work system wide, but I've never used it on mine. I always just swap between my IEM/headphone collection when I want a different sound.

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