I’m looking to slowly adopt more digital minimalist practices in my life and eventually get a dumb phone, and as a part of that want to replace my phone with a dap. It’ll take me a while to build my music library so I’d like to stream from a small DAP for now.

I’ve heard good things about the Hiby M300 but noticed a lot of people complain about sluggishness in past threads. Does anyone have an Android dap they’ve had for longer than a year that they still stream with heavily and isn’t super slow? Which ones would you recommend?

Hi everyone :)

I am looking forward to buy my first DAP. And I am wondering what would be the best deal nowadays in 2026? Of course, depend on your preferences… so this are mine:

- Listening FLAC files
- Be offline, no distractions
- Portable. Easy to carry on pocket
- Good battery duration
- Premium feeling overall
- Avoid buggy UI interface…

(Not attachment with Android, and streaming Apps.)

The problem I am facing: the DAP’s I like, they’re not very portable, like iBasso DX180. The portable one’s, has a problematic UI (like Hiby R1?) and looks like a plastic toy. And the perfect-balanced options, they’re very costly 😅. I know, you can’t have everything for a “best-budget” price. So:

I appreciate if you can share your preferences and experiences with your DAP’s and what would be the most smart investment in 2026?

Thanks a lot!

After a failed USB repair I've sadly had to pronounce my hiby r6 2020 dead. It's a sad day but I need to move on to pastures new

Id be interested in any recommendations for a dap that sounds as good or better than this one. I use akg k702's and Aria iems mostly. I also have a surfans f28 so it would need to be a good upgrade from that. Slight preference for none android but I do like poweamp so either would be fine

edit to add, I would prefer to keep the cost below the price of an r6 if possible

Hi,

I keep debating on a Hiby since reading about swollen batteries and customer service issues but find myself still interested in the (discontinued) Hiby M500 Miku (and sometimes the Hiby M300).

I have considered other brands though hear it's pretty similar? And that it might just be a case where mostly people with complaints posts.

And cmpared to the previous Hiby R4 collab, has the M500 Miku been a better experience?

Has there been any improvements in general build quality/customer service?

Thanks in advance for any replies!

Been looking into getting my first DAP and I basically just want a brick. No Wi-Fi, no apps, ideally don’t even need Bluetooth. Just load up some files and listen.

The HiFi Walker H2 and Mechen M30 keep coming up. Both seem simple enough, but it’s still a decent chunk of money and warranty support is pretty limited where I am, so I’m a bit hesitant.

Anyone who owns either of these, are they actually fine long term or do they turn into a headache? Just looking for honest opinions before I commit.

Download here: https://support.fosiaudio.com/products/dapneo

What’s New

1. Added an option to disable the lock screen under System Settings → Lock Screen Wallpaper.
2. Fixed an issue with repeat playback in folder playback mode.
3. Added a display of the total number of tracks in the current playlist on the playback screen.
4. Fixed display issues on some screens.

Excited to open up and start using both players!

Just got my Hiiiman H10 and I'm loving it!

You can see it's compact, only about the size of the palm of my hand. The build quality feels great. The touchscreen is quick snd responsive. I love the physical buttons! The sound is great and I even liked the packaging

Bonus it comes with a protective case

Overall I'm loving the experience! I was shocked at the quality and very happy.

Recently got the RS2II in the limited brass version. Amazing sound only set back by not so amazing OS, it's not as bad as the one in R3/R1 though in my experience.

If it was in a (slightly) larger chassis (maybe 5") and has the X2000 processor much like other mid-flagship DAPs i.e. M5 Ultra it would be perfect, but the sound that comes out of this little (heavy) DAP was just too good to pass by. Rich yet still quite analytical by R2R standards, much prefer it to say the M33 R2R.

Kind of stuck looking for trying to find something that fits my needs and having so many options is confusing.

-Non-Android OS (preferably)
-Good sound quality
-Touchscreen
-Visually decent UI
-At least 10h battery

Currently looking at the Hibi R1, HiFi Walker H20 Pro, Snowsky Echo Mini, Mechen M30

Im loving the dunus so far, in the future im planning on gettin CIEMs, since i play the drums and want something that just fits like a glove. For now tho this combo is awesome for the price!

Im absolutely loving the feeling of owning a DAP and the dunus sound very very good. Also bought them for like 170€ during my trip to japan. The dap was 79€ as normal though

Sorry for my mediocre at best photography skills.

Spotify is the only streaming service I pay for and I want to stop. Can anyone reccomend a good dap that supports bluetooth. I have alot of playlists/albums that I would want to transfer easily from spotify as well. Thanks.

A Rockbox fork for the HiFi Walker H2, with an iPod-style UI.

Based on upstream Rockbox (forked from commit 212bb63ee4), stripped down to this one player.

here is codebase https://github.com/dismal-ad/h2-rockbox

Features

UI

• iPod-style look with a Dark and a Light theme
• smooth Cover Flow
• Home screen with a slideshow of album covers on right side
• When going through long list, a large letter shown with fast-scrolling
• Boot animation, with a Skip Startup Animation setting.
• iPod-style Now Playing, with an iPod-style volume bar and a seek bar (press Centre twice).
• Power locks the keys and turns the display off, from any screen.

Bluetooth

• Bluetooth audio, ported from Thiago Lugli's h2-rockbox-bt, which builds on Skye's Bluedroid port.
• Unused Bluetooth stack code trimmed, from 202k to 99k lines.

Battery and power

Currently getting 24+ hrs on Bluetooth or Wired playback. Looks like Bluetooth case can go beyond 30+ hrs (as headphone amp is turned off). Will report battery usage stats I find them.

• Battery Usage page (System › View Battery Usage) shows a graphical chart of the battery level against hours since the last charge.
• The Bluetooth chip sleeps between packets.
• The DAC and headphone amp are switched off while playing over Bluetooth.
• A temporary debug switch for the CPU speed (1008 / 252 MHz).

Code reduction

• Stripped to the H2 only.
• The tree went from about 1.6M code lines to about 295k before Bluetooth was added.
• Release zipfile size is less about 2.5Mb

Next

• Reduce number of settings, simplify them
• Convert every setting page to look as iPod styled

I’ve been looking at getting a dap recently but it’ll need more storage for all my songs so I’ve been looking at sd cards and have been wondering if the it matters which one I get. Like does the speed or the brand matter or not.

Got this today and I could immediately tell something was off with the center button/play button. Installed Q2 pod loaded some music and it's like the play button doesn't register unless I press the whole bottom of the wheel down, including the center button. You can hear the button press and the key click separated in the video. Also the center button occasionally clicks in place and doesn't pop up as normal. Should I just return and try another one? I'm open to ideas thanks.

Hello All!

I am hoping I can get some help for an issue I'm having. I had this issue occur with another DAP I had purchased previously and wound up returning.

I am trying to copy music from my downloaded iTunes library to my Hifi Walker Pro H20. I am able to get the files onto the DAP. However, I am getting a playback error message.

When I attempted to upload my entire library, only 21 songs successfully uploaded.

I'm plugging the H20 into my PC directly through USB-C. iTunes does not acknowledge the H20 (which I knew it likely wouldn't, just offering as much info as I can).

I do not plan to return the H20.

Thank you for any help you can offer!

Update: It looks like it might be the microSD card I'm trying to use? It's a sony Ultimate Pro XCII 512 GB microSD. I had tried formatting it a few times to no avail. I'll read the manual tonight and see if it says anything. Is there a particular type of microSD I should be using?

Update 2: looking at the price I paid for the micro SD I got, it would appear I was likely scammed. Disk check through command prompt shows there's 512gb on the microsd but 0 free space despite multiple formatting attempts. Thank you all! I should be ok with the default 128gb card for now

Absolutely love the Q2 Pod! u/SaffronSaviour I hope Shanling are paying you! Really bringing my love for these little devices back. Just have one question, is there a way to have the artist selection have an all songs option for that artist instead of just the albums other than in grid view? e.g. going Library -> Artists -> The Doors -> All Songs (which would then list all songs from The Doors I have on it)

Could you give me tips for my newly bought FiiO M21 please?

Looking for a device I could put an sd card or usb in to play music in a room without having to use Bluetooth or having to swap out cds. Any recommendations?

Hey all, looking for advice from the hive mind. I'm planning to get my 7 1/2 year old some kind of music player for Christmas, since she loves music but doesn't have a way to listen to it on her own right now. I've done a few searches, and the two that have caught my eye so far are an Innioasis or a Yoto player (and I get that these are vastly different things, so that's why I'm trying to figure out which path is going to be best for her).

The main use case for this is going to be at home, so that she can go into her room and chill out with music while she's reading or drawing (and just generally getting space from little brother). So generally using it on her own without constant supervision.

The Innioasis caught my eye because she can stream Pandora on it. I know she already likes a few of the songs I listen to in the car, because she'll sing along to them or hum them at home, so I was thinking of setting her up with those songs "liked" and she can kind of discover what music she likes from there. I know Pandora doesn't have "kids" accounts per se, but I'm pretty sure I've seen an explicit content filter on there. I'm also not sure how locked down Innioasis players are, they seem pretty simple, but I don't want her to be able to download apps beyond the ones I want on there.

Then I kept seeing Yoto pop up in searches. Screen free is appealing given her age (Dad and I are not anti-screen but we try to keep it to a reasonable amount). But I know everything that plays on there has to come from the Yoto ecosystem, a lot of which is buying cards and we're not sure how much of a price commitment that is. I've read they have some free radio stations you can listen to, but I don't know if those have a lot of "real", everyday music, or if it's all just "kid" and nursery rhyme type stuff (which if I was looking for that, I'd rather just listen to Super Simple Songs).

Any input on either player, or even an alternate player that might work better in this situation, is appreciated!

Después de notar un equipo Hifi vintage poco a poco con presupuesto ajustado (Ampli Hitachi HA3500+ Tocadiscos Akai AP-Q310 + Altavoces B&W DM110) y disfrutando de discos quería poder escuchar mucha más música y encontré este DAC Chino que me ha sorprendido mucho , la calidad de la música más actual me deja escucharla con esa calidez de mi amplificador, encantado con el resultado.
A favor: calidad de sonido y conectividad
En contra: interfaz con mezclas en chino y app que no ayuda
Pienso que en calidad precio merece bastante la pena