(FIIO) SkySnow Retro Mini

slinxy

slinxy

slinxy

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I've been looking for a cheapish MP3 player for a while for jogging and going to the gym.. yeah I could use my phone or one of the two ipods but the ipod nano doesn't have BT and the touch is a little too "smashable" to go jogging with.

Anyway, I've not really been loseless music etc... but for the £40 pounds, the retro style of a walkman and watching/reading serveal reviews, I had to order one and it's on a slow boat from china.

I just wanted a cheap mp3 player, but this could open up another rabbit hole...

Has anyone got one? Thoughts?

I wanted the sony NW-A100TPS but the reviews wasn't that great and it's hardly budget...
 
I've receieved it today, impressed with it so far.. I'm not sure how the other person comparing a nokia n95 vs a modern ipod vs this, was saying it was poor.
I stopped using the n95 when I upgraded to the SE w995 which was a beast of a mobile and much better that the n95 in every aspect.
 
slinxy said:
I've receieved it today, impressed with it so far.. I'm not sure how the other person comparing a nokia n95 vs a modern ipod vs this, was saying it was poor.
I stopped using the n95 when I upgraded to the SE w995 which was a beast of a mobile and much better that the n95 in every aspect.
Click to expand...

I find the N95 isn't remarkable until you turn on the bass booster preset, loudness, and especially stereo widening. Unlike other MP3 players and phones I've tried, the N95 can actually cope with those aggressive settings without distortion and crackling. I wouldn't be surprised if many missed those options on their N95s as they're not on by default.

I got a second opinion from someone using their Tozo HT2 headphones over 3.5 mm comparing the FiiO and N95, and they agreed with my assessment, so I'm reassured I'm not going mad.

I've ordered those headphones now and will continue experimenting when they arrive. I'm wondering if it's simply that the N95 slams with its 3.5 mm output, but newer MP3 players and phones rely on things like apps (like the one that will come with the Tozo), hardware on earphones / headphones, etc, and by people using Bluetooth or USB-C etc rather than 3.5 mm.

I've since got myself a VGC N95 non-8GB for £25 :D I've put in a random 64 GB mSD card I had lying around and it recognises it fine, despite wiki saying 32 GB is its max.

JoMgyzy.jpeg


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The N95s clearly win in terms of screen + accessibility and UI control with buttons too, but I'll reserve final judgement until the headphones arrive and I can test them all over Bluetooth and against my Android phone too with Tozo app support.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Vexr said:
I find the N95 isn't remarkable until you turn on the bass booster preset, loudness, and especially stereo widening. Unlike other MP3 players and phones I've tried, the N95 can actually cope with those aggressive settings without distortion and crackling. I wouldn't be surprised if many missed those options on their N95s as they're not on by default.

I got a second opinion from someone using their Tozo HT2 headphones over 3.5 mm comparing the FiiO and N95, and they agreed with my assessment, so I'm reassured I'm not going mad.

I've ordered those headphones now and will continue experimenting when they arrive. I'm wondering if it's simply that the N95 slams with its 3.5 mm output, but newer MP3 players and phones rely on things like apps (like the one that will come with the Tozo), hardware on earphones / headphones, etc, and by people using Bluetooth or USB-C etc rather than 3.5 mm.

I've since got myself a VGC N95 non-8GB for £25 :D I've put in a random 64 GB mSD card I had lying around and it recognises it fine, despite wiki saying 32 GB is its max.

<snipped out the retro porn>

The N95s clearly win in terms of screen + accessibility and UI control with buttons too, but I'll reserve final judgement until the headphones arrive and I can test them all over Bluetooth and against my Android phone too with Tozo app support.
Click to expand...

The n95 uses internal IC and software to generate the sound as it doesn't use a dedicated dac like modern players do, the skysnow has two CS43131 DACs to process the sound. From my experince, you are right, it's all about power delievery... I find that some portable players can't deliver enough power to some headphones, but high end headphones have their own power source now a days.

The BT on the skysnow is pants, it certainly doesn't like my beats but the reviews did say that there was issues with Apple headphones, they won't even connect to my sony studio monitors and took me ages it connected to my soundpeats truengines but it sounded ok once connected. If you think it's going to sound better over BT, you will be disappointed.

Granted everyone's hearing is different along with taste but sound engineers spend hours setting up levels, equalisation etc to get what the artist want's the sound output to like, unless it's an Oasis track then it's just badly produced.. only for some people to mess it all up by adjusting the settings themselves.. lol

The first gen Beats studios headphones I had made anything with bass.. super bassy and sounded pants.

But all the pre-sets on the skysnow are rubblish, so I just have it on "normal"... and yeah the UI is rubblish... but in terms of costs it's way down in the budget range, even compared to some of the players from its parent company.

It's whatever rocks your boat, if you prefer the sound that n95 gives out.. great... people spend £1000s down the audiophile rabbit hole. :)
 
slinxy said:
Granted everyone's hearing is different along with taste but sound engineers spend hours setting up levels, equalisation etc to get what the artist want's the sound output to like, unless it's an Oasis track then it's just badly produced.. only for some people to mess it all up by adjusting the settings themselves.. lol
Click to expand...

Yeah I'm sure I'm getting a 'coloured' sound off the N95s. I think that's the term someone used when I first raised the question of upgrading from the N95 back in the 2010s peak Spotify days. Though I've since heard streaming services have done re-recordings / fiddled levels to boost loudness, etc. I'm no audiophile going by my budget / outdated sound gear, but I assume it's far more forgivable to have 'coloured' sound currently than it once was, especially if it's much more common now.

Something that surprised me is I got my N95 8GB to pair with the Tozo HT2 for music (using Bluetooth 2.0 vs the Tozo's Bluetooth 5.3, and them being 2007 vs 2024) and it sounded pretty mint. Probably better than on 3.5 mm. Though when I turned on / off the stereo widening + loudness etc, it hardly made any difference to the sound quality... perhaps even none... when outputting via Bluetooth. That I have to investigate. Maybe this is the arena where a random Android phone will equal or beat an N95, when they otherwise get trounced on the 3.5 mm output.

I'll not be shedding any tears if the FiiO SkySnow Retro Mini doesn't improve on Bluetooth testing. I assume I can resell it and recoup my losses, and either way I didn't break the bank buying it in the first place thankfully :)
 
I recently picked up a Echo Mini and am enjoying it, although not using bluetooth. They've been steadily pushing new firmware, fixing bugs and adding new features, so I wonder if they can improve BT via firmware?
 
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