M17 Portable Desktop-Class Music Player

I have other high end audio devices that are heavy and bulky. While M17 is heavy, it is not bulky. I use cargo pants and have no trouble sliding it into a pocket. I have a Sony that needs to phone to get music, and it is bulky, even if it half the size of the M17. No other portable or transportable will beat this sound, to the best of my knowledge. Of course I have not tried them all but have quite a few that go over a grand and this beats them hands down. I have a number of desktop audio setups, with separate DAC and Amp driving a headphone. They are outstanding but this beats them. You can use headphones on many DAP's today, but it will not sound right They just do not have the power. If you think they are the same, you need to do some A/B testing. I have a really nice ibasso 240 and cannot use them with any headphone that is a power hog. The M17 is the only exception to this rule. I really want to use my HD800s with this but I need a 700 dollar cable. As my best desktop audio system is using the HD800s, there is no really need to buy that cable. I'm going to test it with my HD600 soon. This one the best mid costly cans, but a known power hog. I'm positive it will only sound right if I get the special cable but just being to do it is amazing. The M17 even has a setting for using hard to drive headphones. It requires using the power supply. So it turns into a desktop player at that point. It comes with a stand that has fans, so you can keep it cool when using it is desktop mode. It does get warm but it has not been hot to me. Perhaps I'm more careful to get the DAP bit of wind than most people do. Put someplace with no air flow, and it can get very, very hot. The sound is just the best. I'm use to quality music. I'm not an expert but have changed music when the quality of the player is bad or the DAP cannot lift the load. I use Tidal and Amazon music, at the highest setting. I had no idea that the Tidal compression could sound that good. All my systems have older Tidal versions and devices. I'm not sure what x 20 does but it sounds outstanding. I now have stopped using the rips of my DC collection and going with the Tidal version instead. I have not done any A/B testing between Amazon and Tidal yet. I had some trouble with Tidal, since fixed, so I got Amazon music. It is cheap and a good backup when I'm using my phone or a non-Tidal device. I had no trouble connecting with Bluetooth. I have had devices that sometimes take some work to get to it to connect. This has connected quickly on every wireless devise I have tried. Admittedly not a lot of testing. I could just be me an my 72 years but I'm not a fan of the interface. I'm often searching for a function and when I finally got it, could not tell you what I did different to get a success after the failure. I'll have to break down and study the manual. The case that came with it is sub par. If I grab it while it is upside down, the M17 tries to slip out. The flap will slide open letting the DAP start to slide out of the case. Not a big problem and yours might be better. I expect and after market case that is better to hit the market if this is the success I believe it will be. Funny, I use a music player when playing on the music on the computer. The developer of the music program was not a Tidal fan. He said it would fail so it was not worth his time to create a Tidal version. Only that was five or six years ago. I'll have to give him a ribbing about that if I ever talk to him. If you are not afraid of carrying a 5lb DAP, or one that costly, I highly recommend this. You could spend more and get less on a desktop system. Only without speakers, of course. I like to listen to my headphones rather than speakers most times. The biggest danger is that with Biden's recession combined with a 2K price, will harm the sales. Speakers can sound the best but it takes time and work to get an even good setup sounding right. If married, you might find it impossible. Some people build a room, just for music. So headphones are the way to go, especially if you live in an apartment. You can get two top of the line headphones headphones for cost of one set of top of the line speakers. set of speakers and put in into the wrong room, and get sub par music. At the top of line, say the 10k range, speakers can cost thee price of two top of the line headphones. Of course, most high end speakers are more hype and sucker bait than quality. I cannot count the number of ways I have seen people put one strange set of Bose speakers in. Far more hype than anything else. There is an old saying. Welcome to Audiophile, sorry about your wallet.

Just as the reviews and YouTube influencers described. Plenty of power to drive your higher ohm IEM’s and Headphones. No DAC required. This thing is a beast. The only problem I had was initially changing the default language. Once YouTube helped me with that I was good to go. This is the perfect DAP for home and for your home stereo. Great job with this FiiO

I actually bought this because I thought it was kind of a joke. It had rgb, a desk fan, and is massively large. Then when I actually used it, I was surprised that it was actually very good. The desk fan is actually nice, the rgb isn’t too ugly. But the thing is gigantic. Sound wise it’s pretty good. Anyone that says the stage is huge you can ignore. It’s average sized stage, maybe less than average. Hugo2’s stage is much larger. Imaging is good. Pairs very well with he-1000v1. It does get Susvara loud enough but is still too underpowered for Susvara…. So you won’t get the full effect that you should. I would have given it 4.3 stars out of 5 for sound quality but 4 seemed unfair.

I don't know where all the rave reviews about sound quality come from, because the only one I agree with is the one that said the soundstage isn't very wide. There is a lack of air and detail up top, the upper mids are strident and shouty. The bass lacks texture and definition. It's just brute force but not very musical. I prefer the sound of my $600 Cayin N3 Pro, even with the Cayin in solid state mode. I used HE1000SE, Arya Organic, and HE560 in my listening tests, with FLAC files ripped straight from CD. I also tried HD660s and found it to be an awful pairing. All of the above tests were in balanced mode. I also tried AKG K712 in single ended mode, and was a better pairing, but that isn't saying too much. DC enhanced mode gave more power and more impact but the tonality was essentially the same. Adjusting the digital filter didn't help too much, but I found that the slow roll-off minimum phase sounded best on most material. I also experimented with the All to DSD function. This tamed the shouty upper mids a bit, but also dampened and deadened the overall sound a bit. I'd also get occasional loud pops and digital noise in All to DSD mode at the beginning of tracks. I also found the Fiio music app to be very laggy and choppy when scrolling through songs. I have a 1TB SD card with over 40000 songs on it, and it is a Sandisk, not a cheap generic card. And my phones don't have this problem with the card, so it's gotta be an issue with the Fiio. I installed USB Audio Player Pro on it (an excellent app I have been using for many years on many devices) and didn't have the lag issues. However, UAPP would often freeze and lock up, requiring a force quit from settings-> apps. I've never had this issue with UAPP on any other device, including galaxy S8, Galaxy Note Ultra, Galaxy S24 Ultra, Motorola Razr 2020, and Sony Xperia 1 V. Lastly, I couldn't get the fiio remote control app to work. As others have said, this thing is a huge, heavy brick. Bigger than the pictures seem to show. And as others have said, it gets very hot very quick. Which worries me about longevity, as heat is the number one killer of electronic devices. All this would've been fine if the sound quality lived up to expectations. But, my $400 Hifiman EF400 sounds substantially better. I know I'm comparing desktop to portable here, but the EF400 is at an entry level price point, and the M17 costs several times more. I expected the M17 to perform at least as well as the EF400, but I didn't expect it to perform as well as my main desktop DAC/AMP stacks. The point is, I didn't have unrealistic expectations, but this device really disappoints me sonically. 3 stars because of massive power and tons of connectivity.

I tried using this product with two great sounding headphones. I tried listening to them on many different tracks of different genres. The sound was poor no matter what codec I used. This product was very expensive. I sent it back.

Completely re-writing the original review, though the rating has not changed. Now that I have had a proper amount of time to thoroughly use the device in all modes, I still think this is a great device. Some notes for prospective buyers though. 1. This device has power to spare for the headphones I have, those being the Meze Empyreans and the 99 Neos. Both sound excellent out of this. Excellent sound out of the Empyreans in my desktop setup, especially in the DC mode. Also excellent sound off battery power, which is how I mainly use this with the 99s. 2. As compared to the FiiO BTR5, there is no noticeable noise or distortion when using these with my IEMs. With the BTR5 I find there is a consistent noise and some distortion at low volumes, no matter the settings. 3. Unless you really wish to use this mainly as a mobile DAP with the option of "docking" at home to use the DC mode, I would spring for a cheaper dedicated DAC/AMP. Try the RME ADI-2 DAC FS, or do your own research and ask around. Visit a brick-and-mortar and listen to some different sources. I am not convinced this is good value as a catch-all solution for having both a DAP and a desktop DAC/AMP in one package. This is a capable, portable device that works great as a desktop DAC in a pinch. It suits my needs, as I travel a lot for extended periods of time for work. Great option if you are looking to have "desktop-grade" audio in a portable package. No complaints at all about the interface. If you use android it will be familiar to you I am sure. As an apple boy myself, it's easy enough to navigate and about as snappy/smooth as I could ask for. If all you do is use the music app, it's a very similar layout to Apple. A few cons: 1. If you plan on using this as a USB DAC with your PC, you might like to know that there is a sort of "idle" mode it goes into if there is more than a few seconds of silence. This manifests as audio cutting in about a second late if following a period of silence. Rather annoying; have not found a work-around or even a mention of this issue online. 2. This thing is a brick. That works for me, as I expected it, but it's worth mentioning. Sure, you COULD pocket this device, but any mobile use scenario for me boils down to bringing it to and fro from my office and using it at desks only. The BTR5 comes out if I want to go for a bike ride or run or basically anything more mobile than commuting to work. 3. The software/drivers to have this working as a USB DAC are a bit fiddly sometimes; I have had them stop working at random on occasion. They work 99% of the time, but it's really frustrating 1% of the time when you start troubleshooting and 15 minutes later it just starts working on its own.

I was using the FIIO M11 before this, this thing is amazing, the battery life isn't the best but it never leaves the house and the sound quality is definitely worth it.

I also have the M11plus. This has much more screen space and heavy. I’m a big man and I still have to hold it with 2 hands at time but don’t let that scare you away. You’ll love it! All the bells and whistles of an MP3 player. Battery time is very good. You’ll definitely be the center of attention anywhere you go for coffee with your headphones. Study places, coffee shops. Has a nice stand for that too. For the price it’s over and above what you would expect.

got this in 3 days and looks like a solid product. tested lofi, pop, ele. and orchestra and all kinds just sound good. a little bit hot while using it but not a big issue

About 2 weeks ago the power module quit; I cant recharge it! What can I do?