FiiO M7 Hi-Res Lossless Music MP3 Player with aptX HD, LDAC HiFi Bluetooth, FM Radio and Full Touch Screen (Silver)

Let me start by saying that most of my digital audio library consists of 24bit/96kHz albums made from vinyl rips which I have cleaned up. My main reason for acquiring this digital audio player (DAP) was to retire my aging iPod Classic which has no support for FLAC and no provisions for increasing the storage capacity...which meant I was always having to resample and dither my 24bit/96kHz audio files to 16bit/44kHz for use with it. In other words, it’s a bit of a PITA!My journey did not start with the FiiO M7 though. I originally purchased a Sony NW-A45 but returned it because I didn’t really like the sound quality I was getting, and I was having considerable cover art issues with the unit (yes, I converted any progressive images to baseline – didn’t help). So I spent an extra $50 and bought the Fiio M7. To be fair, the first one I received did not power up and/or had graphics/screen issues. I purchased a second unit, and it has worked as expected.About the only thing I liked better with the Sony was the rounded corners and comfort of handling. The FiiO is a chiseled block of serious substance. It has a weight and heft to it that reminds you no cheap plastic has been used to create this thing. Its corners are not sculpted and may not be comfortable in your hand.Sound:Comparing the two players, I found the Sony to have a more bland sound. Do not take this to mean the FiiO isn’t neutral. I find the FiiO to be perhaps a bit more powerful with more texture and organic nature to the sound. The Sony, to my ears, has a somewhat sterile quality to it.I own a number of headphones: AKG K271 MkII, AKG 701, Audio-Technica ATH-M50, Grado SR80 and Sennheiser HD600 which I tried with this DAP. The low impedance of the Grado SR80 and Audio-Technica ATH-M50 means you’ll be using the volume of the unit only at around the 50% mark or less (30 of 60). However, I love the sound of my Sennheiser HD600 cans more than any of my other headphones I own. I was surprised to find that I can get a nice sound from this unit without an external amp using the HD600. Granted, I am at about 75% volume for most recordings…but I am simply thrilled that this combination has worked for me.Functionality:I bought the M7 to play music, so sound quality is very important. But what good is sound quality if you can’t figure out how to operate it? Unfortunately, I am THAT guy who is always critiquing the technology I buy with questions like:“What were they thinking?” and “Whoever designed this thing should be fired – IMMEDIATELY!”Well, I am happy to report that neither of these phrases blurted from my mouth with the M7. To me, the GUI on this unit is the bomb. The engineering team at FiiO did a superb job creating all the menus and screens for this player. The layout is very logical and operating it is so intuitive that you don’t even need a user manual – which is a good thing…because at the time of this writing, FiiO has yet to provide anything other than a Quick Start guide for this unit.To summarize my findings:Likes:* Sound quality is excellent with several sets of headphones used* The GUI is SUPERB on this unit* LOVE the click wheel used to control the volume* The construction is solid and feels like a high-quality player* Very stable operating system – not a single crash yet and I have about 130GB on a 256GB SDXC card inside it right now* Battery life is outstanding* Cover art is correctly found and displayed for ALL albums I have on the storage card* The cable for charging/data transfer is of decent length – I don’t need to have the DAP right next to me when transferring music to the unit from my laptop* As trivial as this sounds, I like the fact that FiiO thought enough to put a clock at the top center of the display screen (shame on you Sony!)Dislikes:* Would have preferred a unit with rounded corners for more comfort when holding* It would be nice if those three little buttons (next track, play/pause, previous track) on the left side of the unit were on the top instead, it would make it easier to hold the unit* Please FiiO, don’t send a product to market until you have time to complete a full user manual – some people want/need that.This has been one of my favorite purchases of the year. Since acquiring the M7, I can now sell my iPod and make my music listening experience even more pleasurable. Now I anxiously await the arrival of affordable 512GB Micro SDXC cards to hit the consumer market so I can store even more music on this player!

The good:* Solid construction throughout, it feels like it has top quality throughout. The unit is metal, has a protective cover, has a good heft, the 3.5mm jack gives a tight snug fit, and the scroll wheel is solid.* The FM player is great.* The song scan feature is also nice, it gives an easy way to organize by album or artist.* It plays music quickly and the equalizer gives us excellent sounding output. This thing doesn't feel or act cheap.Areas in need of polishing:* The setup process, especially installing the Windows driver, is a pain. It should just be a plug and go, but it's not. You have to copy a file to your local computer, then disconnect the device, then reboot, then install, then reboot, then it should work. We found skipping any one of these steps caused problems. The PDF guide incorrectly stated that after install it would just identify and work. On one of our laptops, the Windows 10 User Agent Control simply refused to allow the installer to run, and it took me a half hour to figure out how to disable that.* The UI needs polishing. For example, screens will slide down on an upswipe. The volume screen touch interface works inside its circle, but not outside. Often the song would stop playing if we switched to different menus.* It's not clear how to add music to the device. We ended up just putting songs into a song folder. When I tried to scan that folder, it didn't work. When I had it scan everything, it found them.* The company seems to have significant Chinese language as first priority throughout the setup process, instead of just having a set of processes that are English only.I think once we get past all its setup quirks, we'll really enjoy it. I just wish the first day experience wasn't frustrating.