timbr2000
New Member
Hi all,
for quite a while, I've been looking for a small player where I can easily put a bunch of (lossless) audio files on to play them back via a true line-out, connected to an amplifier of sorts. Sound quality from the line-out has to be top notch. SPDIF digital out might also be handy, but is not strictly necessary.
The main purpose is to use it as a music or signal source for listening tests (amps, speakers) and measurements. Since this is a rather limited use case, it should not break the bank, which means it should be somewhere in the 100-120$/€ range.
The Surfans F20 (not affiliated) seems to fit the bill. Sometimes it goes by the name "iRULU", but that may have been in the introductory phase only.
I've seen it briefly mentioned on AK, but no in-depth discussion (sorry if I missed something). Serious reviews (measurements, long-term reports) are also missing on the net.
So I'd like to ask for members' experiences and/or opinions about this device.
I've also looked for alternatives, but there don't seem to be many. There are some other Chinese players that seem to be either identical (can't remember the name of that one) or obviously crappy. Other stuff is way too expensive (FiiO, Sony et al.). And of course, there's a lot of headphone-only stuff.
I don't need nor want a headphone player. I own a few older iPods, but the 'easy' part from the first paragraph rules out the whole iPod/iPhone/iTunes ecosystem. Plus, there's Apple's annoying refusal to support FLAC. I mainly use the iPods as a music bank for my car stereo which supports nothing else (no USB).
BTW: I remember having read somewhere that this DAP won't import playlists. I don't know if they fixed that, but I could live with it.
TIA
for quite a while, I've been looking for a small player where I can easily put a bunch of (lossless) audio files on to play them back via a true line-out, connected to an amplifier of sorts. Sound quality from the line-out has to be top notch. SPDIF digital out might also be handy, but is not strictly necessary.
The main purpose is to use it as a music or signal source for listening tests (amps, speakers) and measurements. Since this is a rather limited use case, it should not break the bank, which means it should be somewhere in the 100-120$/€ range.
The Surfans F20 (not affiliated) seems to fit the bill. Sometimes it goes by the name "iRULU", but that may have been in the introductory phase only.
I've seen it briefly mentioned on AK, but no in-depth discussion (sorry if I missed something). Serious reviews (measurements, long-term reports) are also missing on the net.
So I'd like to ask for members' experiences and/or opinions about this device.
I've also looked for alternatives, but there don't seem to be many. There are some other Chinese players that seem to be either identical (can't remember the name of that one) or obviously crappy. Other stuff is way too expensive (FiiO, Sony et al.). And of course, there's a lot of headphone-only stuff.
I don't need nor want a headphone player. I own a few older iPods, but the 'easy' part from the first paragraph rules out the whole iPod/iPhone/iTunes ecosystem. Plus, there's Apple's annoying refusal to support FLAC. I mainly use the iPods as a music bank for my car stereo which supports nothing else (no USB).
BTW: I remember having read somewhere that this DAP won't import playlists. I don't know if they fixed that, but I could live with it.
TIA
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