[Hi-Res Lossless Audio Player] Delivers in-depth detailed high resolution audio. Supports distortion-free hifi music with all popular file format of Flac, Wav, WMA, MP3 and Native DSD (up to 128 bit/5.6 MHz) using the famous Texas Instruments Burr Brown PCM5102 DAC.
[MP3 Player with Bluetooth] 2-way Bluetooth 4.0 supporting high-definition wireless audio (Qualcomm aptX). Either work as a sender delivers signal or as a receiver to amplify music wirelessly.
MicroSD slot supports up to 256GB and USB OTG provided for enormous storage expansion. System can handle up to 14,999 music files. Small size slides easily into and out of any pocket. Perfect to carry.
Easily navigate through the scroll wheel. Intuitively controls Play/Pause and Next/Previous with 1 finger. Line out and earphone out ports for flexible usage including in car auxiliary cable or a home audio system
High-grade zinc alloy chassis lends the player its high quality, sturdy protection. 16GB MicroSD card and a pair of random earphone included. 30 days return policy without giving reason. 1 year replacement service.
9 reviews for Bluetooth MP3 Player Portable Digital Audio Music Player
Rated 4 out of 5
Matt P –
I’ve got quite a few Chinese audio players and this is another, as a rebranded version of the Aigo Eros Q. UI – 4/5 the v1.2 firmware locks all buttons when the screen is off, including volume control which is a shame, general navigation is OK but the scroll wheel can’t be described as smooth, getting back to the main menu from the play screen requires multiple clicks of the back button, it’s not terrible but not much better than most Chinese players. The player screen has been updated so album art fills it, it’s not great in the way it presents track information but does the job. The screen itself is a basic LCD display with poor viewing angles. Navigation is quick, with no noticeable slowdown even when accessing a full 128gb card. Sound 5/5 – it’s not audiophile quality but is great for a portable DAP, it’s on the warm side of neutral, instrument separation and depth are good, vocals are excellent, there’s no real sparkle at the high end. It will easily drive efficient IEMs/earbuds. Battery 3/5 – battery life is solid, but nowhere near the amount claimed, I tested using 16bit FLAC and 320kbps mp3s, it lasted 13.5hrs before it shut down, that was with both gapless and Bluetooth off, volume 30-40 on low gain. Most devices around the same price mark with dedicated DAC and amp advertise 8-15hrs so this isn’t bad, just nowhere near what Hifi Walker claim. Connectivity 4/5 – Bluetooth range is very good, was unable to get it to receive an aptx stream though, line out works fine, although it does distort badly on my car stereo which hasn’t happened with other players, have ordered an in line resistor to see if this resolves it as it sounds fine on other equipment. Overall 4/5 – it does what it says, it plays music and does it well, it’s got the same quirks a lot of Chinese players do, so it will infuriate some expecting a polished experience.
I paid £79 for the player from Amazon.co.uk which I would say is a pretty fair price for what you’re getting (it costs more than this for the Eros Q direct from China). I had the Agptek H3 previously but had to return it as what they did to the firmware was truly awful, but it did have Hiby link support which is great, the Aigo Q supports this so perhaps Hifi Walker will include it in a firmware update, although it would reduce battery life even further.
Additional Information: I installed the Aigo Q firmware to see what difference it made, v1.7 removes the full screen album art and prevents button lock when the screen is off, similar to v1.1 of Hifi Walker’s firmware. In addition to this there is one significant change, Hiby Link is supported so you can control the device via Bluetooth from an Android phone, this is hugely beneficial if you use the device wired into speakers and want to control it from the other side of the room. You can return to HW’s 1.2 firmware if preferred, although using the Aigo firmware would be at user’s own risk I’d imagine. I actually prefer v1.7 as being able to control the locked device in my pocket is good and the buttons don’t get pressed too easily by accident and Hiby Link is a fantastic feature for me.
Rated 4 out of 5
Cactus33 –
Comparaison faite avec le redoutable lecteur MP3 SANSA FUZE (accusant 10 ans de bons et loyaux services), voici mes impressions sur ce HW- H2 :
*Une bien grosse tartine épaisse et lourde, certes (alliage zinc), mais solide : 90*55*15mm pour 150g. *Mise en route en 8 secondes après l’allumage. Petite Led bleue de fonctionnement. *Molette uniquement rotative crantée pour dérouler les menus, dépourvus des touches directionnelles, manquant de fluidité aux toutes premières manipulations (légère sensation grippée)… avec le temps, elle me semble plus souple/précise après rodage. *Ecran 2pcs 320×240 de moindre qualité que mon Fuze, en raison d’une visibilité contenue dans un axe restreint avec des angles qui se bouchent légèrement (écran TFT oblige) mais le piqué reste bon et contrasté. En lecture, il fait la part belle à la pochette de l’album placée en fond, au détriment des informations qui défilent en minuscules, mal optimisé (photo2). Lisibilité améliorée en désactivant cette affichage de l’album et privilégiant un affichage neutre thème A, dommage, mais au bon vouloir de chacun (Photo3). Possibilité de créer son propre fond d’écran au format 260*160 selon consignes du manuel d’utilisation (pas testé). *Haut volume (y’en a sous la pédale, en-deça de 30/100 ça me suffit). *2 niveaux de gain : certainement pour s’adapter aux impédances de vos écouteurs, sinon « Haut » en milieu urbain, « Faible » pour des écoutes nocturnes/calmes permettant un réglage plus précis à bas volume : Sur ce dernier point, j’aurais préféré un réglage plus fin et progressif sur les tous premiers paliers de 2 à 5 (1/100 coupe le son, donc inutile) particulièrement utilisé pour mes écoutes nocturnes. *Volume à l’allumage mémorisable, plutôt pratique ! *Possibilité à l’allumage de reprendre l’écoute à l’endroit où vous en étiez… ou pas. *L’équaliseur s/OFF offre un son optimal, assez équilibré, aéré et puissant. (plus de relief, plus percutant et détaillé que mon Fuze, et avec des basses profondes) *L’équaliseur activé (perso, jazz, rock, …) n’améliore rien, sensation inédite ! Le traitement-son est destructeur, rendant les réajustements compliqués. Le gain sur une bande se fait au détriment d’une autre, en atrophiant les bandes voisines. Le son n’est plus naturel et perd en relief, sensation bizarre en rien comparable avec celui du SANSA FUZE qui me permettait de rattraper la signature sonore des écouteurs utilisés. Peut-être une question d’habitude à l’oreille. Au final, le réglage par défaut est le meilleur qui soit. * Parfois quelques micros-parasites-électronique au passage entre morceaux, indépendant du volume, reste quasi imperceptibles et certains ne le percevront pas (comme mon père, et cf retours d’autres utilisateurs n’en faisant pas état). Mais il est vrai que mon type d’écoute à très bas-volume trahit ce « tchac » d’un quart de seconde de type pose de diamant sur vinyle, ce qui engendre des transitions pas très propres, quelle que soit la qualité de la source (MP3/320kps ou FLAC). Mais ce n’est pas systématique, ni rédhibitoire. *Fonction Bluetooth AptX 4.0 : Ok si l’appareil appairé est compatible. *Bonne ergonomie générale. Traduction française parfois hasardeuse 🙂 *Recherche simplifiée en sélectionnant une initiale seulement : peut faciliter la recherche mais limité si on a des milliers de fichiers. *Plug&Play sur windows10, transfert rapide des dossiers par copié-glissé, sans problème. *Aucun souci de compatibilité avec ma carte Samsung EVO-Plus C10 U3 de 64Gb. *Batterie 1300mAh (20 à 24h d’écoute) – Recharge complète en un peu plus de 3h (à 5V et 1A) *CHARGEUR NON FOURNI : respectez les caractéristiques recommandées de 5V/1A pour une charge lente qui préservera la longévité de la batterie. *Fourni avec films de protection collés sur l’écran et face arrière (utilisable en l’état mais provisoire).
Dans la boite : -1 câble 50 cm USB-A vers micro-USB (format téléphone très universel) -1 carte SDHC 16Gb (introduite dans le H2) et sur laquelle sont enregistrés les manuels d’utilisation multi-langues dont français + logiciel initial -1 casque symétrique en Y, modèle HIFI-WALKER A2 (dépourvu de micro/commande…contrairement au A1 qui en est équipé) de bonne facture, délivrant de beaux haut-mediums : 16 Ohms, sensibilité 110dB, puissance nominale 2mW, bornier Or. Fournis avec 3 tailles d’embouts, manque une taille XS pour ma part, mais la forme des embouts est standard donc échangeables. Câble de 1,20m renforcés mais sensible aux frottements, peu adaptés en usage nomade ou sportif. Nécessite un petit rodage pour des basses plus présentes, sinon courbe modifiable en faisant quelques modif dessus pour calmer les aigus (voir internet sur cette petite astuce ! — > “HIFI WALKER A1 (modded)”). J’aurais préféré en outre une fiche jack en L, et pas droite qui accentue l’encombrement, mais rien de grave.
Lecteur livré avec le dernier firmware à jour V1.2 (2018) offrant les améliorations suivantes : 1) RECHERCHE RAPIDE en choisissant la première lettre d’une chanson, d’un artiste, etc. Si aucune étiquette d’identification n’est disponible, le H2 utilisera la première lettre du nom de fichier. Allez dans [Catégorie] – [Chansons] puis dans le liste MAINTENEZ APPUYÉ LA TOUCHE « MENU » pour choisir une lettre/initiale. 2) MODE VERROUILLAGE enfin disponible : Automatique après quelques secondes (paramétrable) sinon en appuyant sur le bouton d’alimentation pour éteindre l’écran. Tous les autres boutons sont maintenant verrouillés, y compris le bouton de volume. Appuyez de nouveau sur le bouton d’alimentation pour réactiver l’appareil et allumer l’écran. 3) 3 TAILLES DE POLICES différentes pour le menu est maintenant disponible. Allez dans [Réglage Système] – [Taille de la police]. [Petite] ou [Moyenne] ou [Grande] 4) Taille de la couverture de l’album re-conçu. Maintenant, il est presque en plein écran. 5) Mode de jeu unique est maintenant disponible. La musique s’arrête et revient à la page de menu précédente après avoir joué une chanson. La traduction française des libellés parfois approximative !
Acheté en promo, une belle affaire depuis les correctifs du firmware V1.2 révélateur du sérieux de la firme HifiWalker, et notamment à travers sa correspondance et sa réactivité suite à un échange pour défaut. Garantie couverte et SAV exemplaire.
Le H2 aurait été abouti si… dépourvu de son traitement-son perfectible de l’équaliseur en mode personnalisable, l’absence de la radio FM, la recherche simplifiée par une simple,et unique initiale, et sans ces crépitements-parasites entre les morceaux auxquels je suis SEUL sensible … ce qu’il lui coûte son ultime étoile pour un excellent rapport Q/P ;-p
Rated 5 out of 5
Sheepdog –
I got tired of dealing with Apple and Zune products over the years, I prefer the simplicity of just adding music to a micro sd card, no software interface, no registering account… just music. I don’t have much of any flac files yet but this audio player plays just about any music file. I love the industrial feel and look and the simplicity that it is just made for music. Happy with this music player so far!
Rated 5 out of 5
W Reveals –
*** Updates 02/09/2017 ***
I have experienced once where my bluetooth connection was choppy while I was holding it while taking a nap. I found it weird because the player is closed to me. So after some thinkering and research on the internet, I suspected my holding position might have blocked the bluetooth antenna. Because of the size of the player, I was gripping it tightly on my right hand, like how we will when we hold a baseball bat.
I then reached out to HIFI Walker and clarified the issue.
I was told that because of the bluetooth antenna was built at the back of the player, thus if I hold it like a grenade or cover the back with super thick materials, it will affect the transmission. So my suspicion was right, so i tried again, however this time when I gripped it tight, the connection did not get choppy.
You might want to take note of this before your purchase, however it is not a deal breaker to me. As of all bluetooth devices, blocking their antenna will naturally result in a choppy connection. So friends if you are encountering such issue, fear not, you might have just blocked the antenna =))
*** For verdict, scroll to the end to skip the details! ***
Review Score: 9/10
Pros 1. Scroll wheel control 2. Quality material used – Zinc Alloy 3. Micro SD card up to 128gb 4. USB-OTG (Something I don’t see in other players) 5. Easy drag and drop file transfer 6. Ideal size, easy to carry 7. Strong battery life 8. 16gb micro SD card included 9. Bluetooth connection for headphones and IEMs 10. DSD support
Cons 1. No inbuilt storage
HIFI Walker, a brand not known to me before. I was using Fiio, Cowon, Sony, Apple and Creative before this. I was shopping for a new music player as I wanted to separate music playing function from my smart phone to reduce the battery drain and improve the audio quality of it.
I went back to look at Sony and Fiio initially and found that for the same price, there are a lot more alternatives. I am looking for the following qualities in a music player
1. Price below $150 2. Battery life above 25 hours 3. Able to support Bluetooth transmission 4. Lossless file support including WAV, FLAC 5. Easy and intuitive to use 6. Good Design
The reason why I decided to give HFI Walker H2 a go is because of the design, promised playback support, battery life and Bluetooth connection. The essentials are all here and its within my budget with one additional USB-OTG which I quite like as it will give me added convenience.
Looking at the specs and description of the item on Amazon, it completely captured my heart, thus I give the HIFI Walker H2 a go.
First Impression – [Excellent] It came in a black box, very minimal packaging. I like things this way. From the photos taken, you will be able to see the beautiful player surrounded by sponge to make sure that it had enough cushion against impact. It is a very thoughtful addition. The player sits nicely in the box and it is a little hard to take it out from the cushion as it is tight, I fell in love with the player at first sight, it looked gorgeous, the cut and design is so ideal.
Take away the HIFI Walker H2, and it will reveal a finger hole, you can reach in and take out the base cover, inside you will find
1x instruction manual 1x IEM with ear tips 1x micro usb cable
Weight (10/10) I like the weight of the HIFI Walker H2, the weight can be felt and it’s not too light. I felt a slight reduction of the weight will feel optimal here. It is easy to carry, in my pockets or in my bag. There is no issue at all.
Comfort / Size (9/10) The size is good, it felt natural on my hands. I like the size. Fortunately it fits nicely in my hands, the size is one of the reason why I purchase the HFI Walker H2. One thing, I find that the thickness a little too thick, just maybe 10% thinner will be good I feel. It is comfortable holding on to the HIFI Walker H2.
Built Quality (10/10) I am not too sure if there are better materials available out there to construct music player, but it gives a very assuring impression. Looking at it, there is nothing to suggest the built was of low quality. The whole player was sealed nicely. There is a tempered glass finish at the back, I was surprised to see that, I was expecting a full alloy construction. The tempered glass is a nice addition, the HIFI Walker H2 felt premium with that.
If I take care of it, it will definitely still look as good in the many years to come. Like all alloy, it cannot escape the fate of scratches and dents if we are careless. There is also a very thoughtful addition, the cut out on the bottom right of the player, it is for you to tie any strap or strings you want that can help you to carry it around.
Design (9.5/10) I love the wheel scroll featured here, even though it is not new and we can see that the old ipod actually influenced the use of clicker wheel till date. The wheel scroll, unlike those we seen on ipod, it cannot be pressed. The wheel scroll is only for us to navigate through the menu and to adjust volume and brightness etc..
Power button on the top right corner, volume rocker on the right top corner, aux output with micro usb and audio jack input on the bottom and left side has got nothing on it. The micro SD card insert is also on the right side below the volume rocker.
The screen is 2 inch with no fancy screen technology, it is good enough to display all the information and lyrics. It cannot play video and I doubt we will enjoy video playback even if it possible given all our screen technology on our smart gadgets.
There is also two dedicated button below the screen, one for forward track, one for backward track, they are not placed side by side, but rather top and below, this makes it easier to press, and you will not second guess the function of the button.
On the front, below the screen, bottom left corner will be a Menu button, and bottom right will be a back button. It is self-explanatory and it is useful as this is a dedicated music player so it make sense for buttons with specific functions.
I did not give a full 10 mark here because there can be an improvement on the screen and maybe the wheel scroll can be clicked (if it does not infringe any copy right =)). However these are really minor thing.
Bluetooth Quality (10/10) Surprise here! The HIFI Walker H2 actually allow user to have a high/low Bluetooth quality, it can connect smoothly to my Bluetooth headphone, nothing special here, since video cannot be watched, low latency will not be much of an issue here.
One thing I realised is thats a discerning audio quality between my Samsung S7 Edge and the HIFI Walker H2. With the same Mixcder Premium MS301, the Mixcder Premium MS301 sounded so much better when paired to the HIFI Walker H2. (Read my review on Mixcder Premium MS301 to know more about the headphone)
The little flaw that I thought the Mixcder Premium H2 can improve on disappeared when paired with the HIFI Walker H2. The audio quality is really amazing. That’s just for the Bluetooth quality, I have not even touch on the connected earphone and headphone.
Audio Quality (9.5/10) The Bluetooth quality of the HIFI Walker H2 is good and boosted the audio quality of my Bluetooth headphone, but the question now will be if the HIFI Walker H2 can do the same in wired mode? Let’s find out!
I am using Mixcder Premium MS301, with the same audio jack provided by Mixcder with the headphone. For my devices, it will be the HIFI Walker H2 (Of course) and a smartphone, Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. I chose a smartphone because majority of us actually uses them to listen to music, so at least it can set more common benchmarking.
The low produced by the HIFI Walker H2 has big difference under comparison here. When tested on the Track – Groovy Samba by Nicola Conte Jazz Combo, it is clear that the bass packs punch here even though the bass drum during the intro of the sound is not the focus and is slightly softer. The HIFI Walker H2 brings out the flavour of the bass, giving it punchy and a fuller bodied sound. The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge on the other hand cannot bring out the taste of the bass resulting it sounded thinner and not able to bring out the feel of the bass drum.
The mid here in HIFI Walker H2 sounds flat and balanced with the other two main frequencies, I felt that the reproduction is very much uncoloured and mid is clear, uncompressed. It’s good. It helps the sound stage of the headphone I am using, give it more space. On the other hand, the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge sort of bring out the mid more, giving it a more lively presence. HIFI Walker H2
The high has a subtle differences when I put it under comparison with my Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. The HIFI Walker H2 gives a cleaner and crisper high, it also sounded thinner and have a better decay. I am not too sure if the thinner effect is caused by it being cleaner, but I like it better on the HIFI Walker H2, because it sounded more uncompressed.
The difference in the audio delivered is obvious here, you are not paying for any other normal quality music player, but something which can deliver a superior listening experience. From my experience, for bigger brands to have the music sound better, you need to cross the $300 mark to really get that audible difference.
Battery Life (9/10) The solid battery life in the HIFI Walker H2 can give you enough mileage for your weekly usage. It stands about 30 hours. I believe you will be able to get more with lower screen brightness, since screens are always the top battery drainer.
I have no EQ on, but I set the output gain to “High”, so I can leave my volume at about 20 to 30 usually. Screen brightness at 50%
I am giving a 9 because I am leaving room for the battery life to improve! It should be noted that the longest battery life Bluetooth IEM I ever came across only lasted 9 hours, and for Bluetooth headphone, it is 40 hours on single charge. So the HIFI Walker H2 is more than sufficient in this case.
User Experience (9.5/10) I have been using for my daily commuting. It has replaced my Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge as my daily audio driver. I find the controls very intuitive, it boost the audio quality from my headphones and IEMs, it’s like putting them on steroid and having them perform to their limits. The audio improvement is clearly discernable, self-explanatory users’ navigation, you do not need the manual at all. There is no fanciful option like dual OS or internet access, and I thought it is good this way because all the components and space inside the player can be used to deliver a superior listening experience. The weight is good and size is almost perfect with all the easy to access buttons; none of the buttons are too close to each other.
One thing I hope that it was included is the “lock button” button, so I will not press on to it and have my tracks skipped by accident. I will also think that unique button that shows their function is better than generic ones. On the HIFI Walker H2, the button for forward track and backward track have the same shape, perhaps the forward track button can be one with a pointed right edge and the backward track button can be one with pointed left edge etc. However these two are very minor adjustments are not enough to be a deal breaker or affect the listening pleasure of the HIFI Walker H2.
Micro SD – Yes Micro SD card input available, up to 128gb with a limit of 14,999 audio files
Audio Jack Input – Yes It can be used with your wired headphone via the audio jack input.
Water Resistance – Not that I know of
This is for you if you are looking for the following qualities 1. One device to deliver superior audio pleasure to your headphones, IEMs, or external speaker 2. A comfortable and optimal size and weight music player 3. A music player that supports both wired and wireless connection 4. A better than average battery life 5. A device to replace the audio experience from your smart devices
*** Verdict ***
The HIFI Walker H2 deserve more attention than its current status, non-audiophile will benefit from its superior audio performance with an obvious improvement in IEMs and Headphones. Audiophiles might find the device having one issue which is the storage space limit of 128 gb. A storage limit can be overcome if we carry multiple SD card with us, but it hasn’t been an issue for me because I usually update my music list.
The HIFI Walker H2 address the four top concerns of a portable music player 1. Battery Life 2. Design 3. Audio Performance 4. Price
For my audiophile folks who are looking for gold plated internal circuits so there will be minimal noise, I am afraid the HIFI Walker H2 is not at that level currently. HIFI Walker H2 got a score of 9 in the end as I find that there can be improvement on the following
1. Maximum storage space / audio files limit
That is the only reason why it gets a 9.5 score. The remaining 0.5 is to encourage future improvements like inclusion of lock button, a more define button shape etc.. For their inclusion of being able to support both wireless and wired connection, DSD files, USB-OTG, strong battery life and their audio performance, they deserve a minimum of 9.
In conclusion, the HIFI Walker H2 is a very powerful device, the quality you get from here far exceed what other big brands with similar products and pricing can deliver. With its optimal size and weight, it is easy to carry around and store.
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Rated 5 out of 5
Mario –
Parto con una premessa. Sono un amante della musica, ho sempre avuto lettori Sony, da quello a cassette, ma da quando sono usciti questi smartphone ho abbandonato il classico lettore. Sono passato pima per un Sony xperia Z3 che non sfigurava essendo anche Hi-res audio e non mi potevo lamentare, ora ho un LG v30 e vi posso assicurare che va bene con le sue B&O. Ma sentivo l’esigenza di trovare provare qualcosa in più. Mi metto alla ricerca, spulcio vari forum e noto questo H2 che trovo in offerta. Mi dico basta, e lo prendo. La confezione è molto curata e comprende lettore, cavetto USB/Micro USB, manuale anche in italiano, gli auricolari in ear e una Sd da 16gb della Sandisk. Il lettore si presenta molto compatto,con uno schermo ampio e luminoso, vetro anche dietro. legge di tutto,io uso prevalentemente file .flac. Comodo il fatto che riprende la canzone da dove la si è interrotta, oppure si può impostare di farla ripartire dall’inizio. Ci sono 7 livelli di equalizzatori, 3 tipi di sfondi/colori del menù. La batteria è infinita, sono arrivato a 10gg usandolo 3/4 ore al giorno.Lato negativo, è un po pesante, sotto la luce del sole lo schermo non si riesce a vedere bene e avendo vetro anche dietro certe volte risulta scivoloso. Gli auricolari che sono usciti nella confezione fanno il loro dovere, sono ben bilanciati, suonano forte e non hanno sfigurato con delle Bose soundsport che hanno più bassi.Ho provato delle HIFIman He400 e capisci che le cuffie ti aprono un mondo di suoni unico. Concludo dicendo che mi sto trovando bene, un ottimo lettore audio ad alta definizione, lo uso anche col bluetooth e va benissimo,lo consiglio, però abbinato ad un paio di cuffie di alto livello per apprezzare a pieno la qualità audio.
Rated 1 out of 5
Habshacklenacker –
I’m one of those weirdos who still uses a dedicated player for listening to music as opposed to using my phone. I recently laid my Zune HD to rest, and was in the market for a new player. I had a short list of what I was looking for: expandable storage, ease of use, sound quality, EQ options, and battery life. After much research I decided to go with the HIFI WALKER H2. It met all my needs, and from what I could gather on the internet people seemed to be happy with it, as well as other players made by the same company. Plus it was on sale, so I pulled the trigger. The player worked as advertised. I liked the sound quality, battery could do 20+ hours on a charge, and putting music on/taking it off was a snap. The only thing that bugged me was the UI: text is quite small, often too difficult to read with album art behind it. Annoying, but not exactly a deal breaker. I was still enjoying the sounds. For nine days, I thought i had found my new DAP. Then, suddenly, the power button completely stopped working. I tried a hard reset in the hopes that could fix the problem, but was unable to due to the power button not functioning. The H2 had become a small, expensive brick. I reached out to the company immediately, telling them about my problem and asking for a replacement unit. That was almost a week ago, and they have yet to respond. I returned the H2 and went with a more expensive, but hopefully better working device.
Rated 3 out of 5
Martin @ UK –
The device is solidly build with a robust aluminium case. Not flimsy as some other devices on the market. It has good audio quality (as far as I can tell without perfect hearing). It has better dynamic range than a device I previously owned (in the same price range, from a big manufacturer of consumer electronics). It has line and volume controlled outputs. (A feature the other device lacked.) I does not have any annoying volume limiter (which is completely pointless if you use an external amplifier or high impedance headphones such as Sennheiser’s). The device supports up to 256 Gigabytes of SD card which is plenty. But then the indexing system limits itself to 15 thousand songs. With MP3s of an average of 5 Megabytes, an SD card of that size allows 50 thousand songs. Only to be capped to 15 thousand by a firmware limitation. Firmware is really what hampers an otherwise great piece of hardware. When I first started the device with MP3s on SD card present, it would not show any titles in the Category menue. A toggling of the “Music-Scan” option (from automatic to manual and back) did not do a thing. This feature, by the way, is not even explained in the English language manual. It is mentioned in the German one, but not explained. Following suggestions on this site, I removed and re-inserted the SD card – which did the trick. It found the expected number of titles (my library still contains less than 15 thousand, thank you very much). Having to remove and re-insert the SD on a life device is counter intuitive. Anyone who knows a little about transactions and filesystems would instinctively avoid doing such a thing. At this point I was able to browse by category as most of my MP3 files contain IDv3 tags. Selecting the Artist item, one is able to select one of the albums of said artists. Selecting Album gives a flat list of all albums on the device. It would be marvelous to be able to jump by character of alphabet, as scrolling hundreds of items is tiresome. But still this feature is useable. Then we get to Genre. A per genre flat list of files. Are you kidding? Maybe here we got the reason for the limit of 15 thousand titles. The batterie would run out before scrolling to the end …. Clearly not a well thought out feature. There is no category “Release Year” which I greatly miss. All this could be solved by well designed firmware. The user manual does not really deserve that term. It is very brief and does not touch key points like “Music-Scan”. It is fair, paper copies being kept brief. The 16 GByte SD card which was kindly included in the kit, contains PDFs for various language manuals. One had hoped these were more detailed. Not so. The published did not even have the decency to create proper books. The PDFs are a single page – like for a flyer. One has to zoom to individual topics to be able to read – what is a identical copy of the paper booklet supplied in the first place.
Summary: great device let down by badly thought out firmware and insufficient documentation.
Rated 1 out of 5
Korknadel –
Aufgrund der vielen positiven Meinungen hier habe ich mir das Gerät bestellt. Nach dem ersten Probehören war ich auch sehr zufrieden und habe mich darauf gefreut, den Player mit in den Urlaub zu nehmen.
Dann musste ich allerdings feststellen, dass der Player sich von alleine immer wieder eingeschaltet hat. So alle 15-30 Minuten. Zurücksetzen mithilfe der Start-Taste, die man laut Bedienungsanleitung 8 Sekunden lang drücken soll, hat nichts gebracht. Habe den Support angerufen, denen war das auch ein Rätsel, und sie meinten, ich solle den Player zurückschicken.
Habe mir dann den Player noch mal bestellt, weil ich dachte, das muss ja ein äußerst seltener Bug sein, weil ich kein Kommentar gefunden habe, wo jemand dieses Problem schildert. Die allermeisten Meinungen sind ja super positiv. Also, das zweite Gerät: SD-Karte rein, Kopfhörer einstöpseln, Probe hören, alles super. Bloß dass plötzlich das Display schwarz wird. Okay, sollte kein Problem sein, mithilfe der Start-Taste kann man das ja wieder aktivieren, sollte man meinen. Aber es funktioniert nicht. Starttaste reagiert nicht. Display springt zwar wieder an, wenn man den Kopfhörer ausstöpselt, aber ich kann das Gerät nicht mehr ausschalten. Außer ich setze es auf die Wekteinstellungen zurück, aber dann macht es einen automatischen Neustart, und dann ist es wieder dasselbe. Die Start-Taste reagiert nicht, egal, wie lange ich drücke …
Echt ein toller Player, wenn er funktionieren würde …. vielleicht?
Bin ich echt sauer, zweimal in Folge so eine Krücke, ich glaub, das war der letzte Versuch.
Nachtrag: Nachdem ich das oben geschildert hatte — also vielleicht so zehn bis fünfzehn Minuten später, sah ich, dass der Player sich dann offenbar doch von alleine ausgeschaltet hat! Allerdings konnte ich ihn dann nicht mehr einschalten, weil eben die Starttaste nicht reagiert. Nur wenn ich ihn an den Strom anschloss, ging er wieder an, zeigte dann allerdings nur das Ladesymbol und reagierte auf keinerlei Tasten. (Übrigens war der Player voll geladen, dass er sich nicht wieder einschalten lässt, liegt garantiert nicht an leerem Akku, und anfänglich ließ er sich ja auch nicht ausschalten, was ebenfalls nicht an leerem Akku lag.)
Doch, das war’s definitiv mit dem Wakler H2, sollen andere ihren Spaß damit haben.
Rated 5 out of 5
Ken –
I have decades of music listening experience and have been an Audiophile of sorts since my teens. I listen to music thru my HiFi setup using a variety of media including: Vinyl Records, CD’s, Mp3 Music Players as well as sometimes streaming. I also listen thru my Harmon Kardon system in my car quite often. I frankly love listening to CD’s as they represent some of the clearest and distortion free audio available. They are not, however, terribly portable:) I wanted to re-burn my 600 + Cd Collection to FLAC and enjoy the advancements in DAC technology over the past decade or so. The DAC in this HIFI Walker Player is likely equal to my current CD Player, though my Onkyo CD Player uses a Wolfson DAC and this Player uses a Burr Brown DAC. Either way, both are better than the DAC’s of the 1980’s that I first listened to my Cd’s with.
Prior to purchasing this, I purchased the Pyle branded Lossless Mp3 Player, as well as the AGPTek Hi Lossless Mp3 Player. Both of those were returned for the following reasons:
Pyle Player – Seemed poorly built and cheap. It was very lightweight plastic and did not appear that it would hold up to heavy use. Also of note was the flimsy and “coarse” thumb wheel that felt simply terrible and UN-precise. To be fair, I did not even listen to it, just sent it back.
AGPTek H01 Player. I wanted to like this Player. I loved the way it felt in the hand, the weight of the Player and the case materials seemed to be of high quality. I also liked the rather precise, machined volume knob on the unit. The whole thing had a high quality, industrial/precise feel to it. From a build standpoint, I loved it. I loaded some FLAC files onto Micro SD Card and had a listen. It sounded fantastic until I noticed the balance appeared skewed to the right channel. I double checked everything and sure enough, the output on the left channel was about half the volume of the right channel. Very disappointing. I simply did not want to deal with an exchange etc., so I simply returned it. Mine may have simply been a fluke that got past quality control, but I simply did not want to deal with a faulty second unit, so I opted for the HIFI Walker H2. (Which I suspect is the next newest version of the AGPTek branded H01?
When I received the HiFI Walker and opened the box, I was again struck by the weight, feel and quality of the build. After loading a few FLAC files and turning it on, I noticed that the software/interface looked VERY similar to the AGPTek H01. The build quality of both were outstanding.
The thumb wheel is not as smooth and fluid as the one on my much older Sandisk Sansa Fuze, but it works fine. The file system and interface takes a few minutes to get used to if you are coming from another Player, but…no big deal. It is easily understood and easy to navigate, in my opinion.
How does it sound?! Perhaps the most important question I suppose…. It sounds FANTASTIC! Some people say that they cannot hear a difference between 320 kbps Mp3 and FLAC. I understand that and do not intend on trying to convince anyone otherwise. For me however, the difference between the Mp3 files I have listened to for some 10 years on my very good sounding Sansa Fuze Player, and the FLAC files I listened to on the HIFI Walker Player were dramatically different. Now, I understand that I threw into the mix….two completely different Players, but rest assured…I also listened to the FLAC files thru the Sansa Fuze and the difference in sound quality…especially the low bass clarity and “cleanness” was easily heard. The HIFI Walker simply sounded “more like a CD” than the Sansa Fuze. Keep in mind that the Sansa Fuze is 10 years older, but it has always been noted for very good, neutral sound. The HIFI Walker provides the same neutral, very clean sound…there just seems to be “more of it”. I am quite amazed at the sound stage depth as well as the dynamic range of this Player. I am NOT easily amazed.
I have only had the Player for about a week, so I cannot attest to its durability. I will be putting it in a case and treating it gently I suppose, as I do not want anything to happen to it lol. Battery life? Seems fine at the moment but I have not run it for several hours to determine the accuracy of the manufacturers claim of 25+ hours.
I am a very critical listener and person in general. I spent a week pouring over reviews…many of which appeared suspiciously worded…(bad sentence syntax, word usage etc) I checked the DAC specs on everything that was 300.00 dollars or less. I did not want to spend 1000.00 dollars on essentially an Mp3 Player, heck, I could buy new speakers for that! Some of these new Chinese Players are to be avoided I suppose…some are likely just fine. Determining which is which is the hard part…which is why I originally bought two…then a third via Amazon, because there was simply not enough information out there to assure me I was getting the right Player. So I got them in my hands, tried them out and sent back what I couldn’t live with.
If you are looking for great sound from Lossless Music files, regardless of type, I heartily recommend giving the HIFI Walker H2 a try.
Ken
UPDATE: After using this for a few weeks, I have continued to enjoy this little Player. I did want to note, that the very low bass on High Dynamic Range songs really punches with authority. It is neither boomy, nor exaggerated, rather it is prominent and clean. It has just a bit more solid punch in the very low end than my Onkyo CD Player, which uses a Wolfson DAC vs the Burr Brown DAC in this Player. I suspect the DAC is the difference here. My opinion remains the same, a VERY nice sounding Player!
Update #2: I tried this on a new JVC car stereo I just purchased for our second car. Middle of the road stereo “quality wise”….but has USB and AUX inputs. I wanted to note that I am unable to use the “line out” with this JVC Stereo because it distorts as if the gain is too high on the player. The line out is simply too “hot” for this stereo’s AUX input. When I switch to the “headphone out” it works just fine with the AUX input…nice, clear sound. However…I noticed the annoying “loud click” between tracks that a couple others have mentioned. It is very distracting and could prove harmful to one,s speakers if listening at high volume. This issue DOES NOT OCCUR if using the H2’s Line Out. Can’t explain it…but that’s the way it is. My solution, unfortunately, was to buy a 256 gb SD Card, load the same FLAC music, and simply leave it inserted in the JVC car stereo USB input. I use the H2’s Line Out in the other car….a BMW with the stock stereo/Harmon Kardon setup. Just be aware of these quirks. I still love the sound and playbCk of the H2.
Matt P –
I’ve got quite a few Chinese audio players and this is another, as a rebranded version of the Aigo Eros Q.
UI – 4/5 the v1.2 firmware locks all buttons when the screen is off, including volume control which is a shame, general navigation is OK but the scroll wheel can’t be described as smooth, getting back to the main menu from the play screen requires multiple clicks of the back button, it’s not terrible but not much better than most Chinese players. The player screen has been updated so album art fills it, it’s not great in the way it presents track information but does the job. The screen itself is a basic LCD display with poor viewing angles. Navigation is quick, with no noticeable slowdown even when accessing a full 128gb card.
Sound 5/5 – it’s not audiophile quality but is great for a portable DAP, it’s on the warm side of neutral, instrument separation and depth are good, vocals are excellent, there’s no real sparkle at the high end. It will easily drive efficient IEMs/earbuds.
Battery 3/5 – battery life is solid, but nowhere near the amount claimed, I tested using 16bit FLAC and 320kbps mp3s, it lasted 13.5hrs before it shut down, that was with both gapless and Bluetooth off, volume 30-40 on low gain. Most devices around the same price mark with dedicated DAC and amp advertise 8-15hrs so this isn’t bad, just nowhere near what Hifi Walker claim.
Connectivity 4/5 – Bluetooth range is very good, was unable to get it to receive an aptx stream though, line out works fine, although it does distort badly on my car stereo which hasn’t happened with other players, have ordered an in line resistor to see if this resolves it as it sounds fine on other equipment.
Overall 4/5 – it does what it says, it plays music and does it well, it’s got the same quirks a lot of Chinese players do, so it will infuriate some expecting a polished experience.
I paid £79 for the player from Amazon.co.uk which I would say is a pretty fair price for what you’re getting (it costs more than this for the Eros Q direct from China). I had the Agptek H3 previously but had to return it as what they did to the firmware was truly awful, but it did have Hiby link support which is great, the Aigo Q supports this so perhaps Hifi Walker will include it in a firmware update, although it would reduce battery life even further.
Additional Information: I installed the Aigo Q firmware to see what difference it made, v1.7 removes the full screen album art and prevents button lock when the screen is off, similar to v1.1 of Hifi Walker’s firmware. In addition to this there is one significant change, Hiby Link is supported so you can control the device via Bluetooth from an Android phone, this is hugely beneficial if you use the device wired into speakers and want to control it from the other side of the room. You can return to HW’s 1.2 firmware if preferred, although using the Aigo firmware would be at user’s own risk I’d imagine. I actually prefer v1.7 as being able to control the locked device in my pocket is good and the buttons don’t get pressed too easily by accident and Hiby Link is a fantastic feature for me.
Cactus33 –
Comparaison faite avec le redoutable lecteur MP3 SANSA FUZE (accusant 10 ans de bons et loyaux services), voici mes impressions sur ce HW- H2 :
*Une bien grosse tartine épaisse et lourde, certes (alliage zinc), mais solide : 90*55*15mm pour 150g.
*Mise en route en 8 secondes après l’allumage. Petite Led bleue de fonctionnement.
*Molette uniquement rotative crantée pour dérouler les menus, dépourvus des touches directionnelles, manquant de fluidité aux toutes premières manipulations (légère sensation grippée)… avec le temps, elle me semble plus souple/précise après rodage.
*Ecran 2pcs 320×240 de moindre qualité que mon Fuze, en raison d’une visibilité contenue dans un axe restreint avec des angles qui se bouchent légèrement (écran TFT oblige) mais le piqué reste bon et contrasté. En lecture, il fait la part belle à la pochette de l’album placée en fond, au détriment des informations qui défilent en minuscules, mal optimisé (photo2).
Lisibilité améliorée en désactivant cette affichage de l’album et privilégiant un affichage neutre thème A, dommage, mais au bon vouloir de chacun (Photo3). Possibilité de créer son propre fond d’écran au format 260*160 selon consignes du manuel d’utilisation (pas testé).
*Haut volume (y’en a sous la pédale, en-deça de 30/100 ça me suffit).
*2 niveaux de gain : certainement pour s’adapter aux impédances de vos écouteurs, sinon « Haut » en milieu urbain, « Faible » pour des écoutes nocturnes/calmes permettant un réglage plus précis à bas volume : Sur ce dernier point, j’aurais préféré un réglage plus fin et progressif sur les tous premiers paliers de 2 à 5 (1/100 coupe le son, donc inutile) particulièrement utilisé pour mes écoutes nocturnes.
*Volume à l’allumage mémorisable, plutôt pratique !
*Possibilité à l’allumage de reprendre l’écoute à l’endroit où vous en étiez… ou pas.
*L’équaliseur s/OFF offre un son optimal, assez équilibré, aéré et puissant. (plus de relief, plus percutant et détaillé que mon Fuze, et avec des basses profondes)
*L’équaliseur activé (perso, jazz, rock, …) n’améliore rien, sensation inédite ! Le traitement-son est destructeur, rendant les réajustements compliqués. Le gain sur une bande se fait au détriment d’une autre, en atrophiant les bandes voisines. Le son n’est plus naturel et perd en relief, sensation bizarre en rien comparable avec celui du SANSA FUZE qui me permettait de rattraper la signature sonore des écouteurs utilisés. Peut-être une question d’habitude à l’oreille. Au final, le réglage par défaut est le meilleur qui soit.
* Parfois quelques micros-parasites-électronique au passage entre morceaux, indépendant du volume, reste quasi imperceptibles et certains ne le percevront pas (comme mon père, et cf retours d’autres utilisateurs n’en faisant pas état). Mais il est vrai que mon type d’écoute à très bas-volume trahit ce « tchac » d’un quart de seconde de type pose de diamant sur vinyle, ce qui engendre des transitions pas très propres, quelle que soit la qualité de la source (MP3/320kps ou FLAC). Mais ce n’est pas systématique, ni rédhibitoire.
*Fonction Bluetooth AptX 4.0 : Ok si l’appareil appairé est compatible.
*Bonne ergonomie générale. Traduction française parfois hasardeuse 🙂
*Recherche simplifiée en sélectionnant une initiale seulement : peut faciliter la recherche mais limité si on a des milliers de fichiers.
*Plug&Play sur windows10, transfert rapide des dossiers par copié-glissé, sans problème.
*Aucun souci de compatibilité avec ma carte Samsung EVO-Plus C10 U3 de 64Gb.
*Batterie 1300mAh (20 à 24h d’écoute) – Recharge complète en un peu plus de 3h (à 5V et 1A)
*CHARGEUR NON FOURNI : respectez les caractéristiques recommandées de 5V/1A pour une charge lente qui préservera la longévité de la batterie.
*Fourni avec films de protection collés sur l’écran et face arrière (utilisable en l’état mais provisoire).
Dans la boite :
-1 câble 50 cm USB-A vers micro-USB (format téléphone très universel)
-1 carte SDHC 16Gb (introduite dans le H2) et sur laquelle sont enregistrés les manuels d’utilisation multi-langues dont français + logiciel initial
-1 casque symétrique en Y, modèle HIFI-WALKER A2 (dépourvu de micro/commande…contrairement au A1 qui en est équipé) de bonne facture, délivrant de beaux haut-mediums : 16 Ohms, sensibilité 110dB, puissance nominale 2mW, bornier Or. Fournis avec 3 tailles d’embouts, manque une taille XS pour ma part, mais la forme des embouts est standard donc échangeables. Câble de 1,20m renforcés mais sensible aux frottements, peu adaptés en usage nomade ou sportif. Nécessite un petit rodage pour des basses plus présentes, sinon courbe modifiable en faisant quelques modif dessus pour calmer les aigus (voir internet sur cette petite astuce ! — > “HIFI WALKER A1 (modded)”).
J’aurais préféré en outre une fiche jack en L, et pas droite qui accentue l’encombrement, mais rien de grave.
Lecteur livré avec le dernier firmware à jour V1.2 (2018) offrant les améliorations suivantes :
1) RECHERCHE RAPIDE en choisissant la première lettre d’une chanson, d’un artiste, etc. Si aucune étiquette d’identification n’est disponible, le H2 utilisera la première lettre du nom de fichier. Allez dans [Catégorie] – [Chansons] puis dans le liste MAINTENEZ APPUYÉ LA TOUCHE « MENU » pour choisir une lettre/initiale.
2) MODE VERROUILLAGE enfin disponible : Automatique après quelques secondes (paramétrable) sinon en appuyant sur le bouton d’alimentation pour éteindre l’écran. Tous les autres boutons sont maintenant verrouillés, y compris le bouton de volume. Appuyez de nouveau sur le bouton d’alimentation pour réactiver l’appareil et allumer l’écran.
3) 3 TAILLES DE POLICES différentes pour le menu est maintenant disponible.
Allez dans [Réglage Système] – [Taille de la police]. [Petite] ou [Moyenne] ou [Grande]
4) Taille de la couverture de l’album re-conçu. Maintenant, il est presque en plein écran.
5) Mode de jeu unique est maintenant disponible. La musique s’arrête et revient à la page de menu précédente après avoir joué une chanson.
La traduction française des libellés parfois approximative !
Acheté en promo, une belle affaire depuis les correctifs du firmware V1.2 révélateur du sérieux de la firme HifiWalker, et notamment à travers sa correspondance et sa réactivité suite à un échange pour défaut. Garantie couverte et SAV exemplaire.
Le H2 aurait été abouti si… dépourvu de son traitement-son perfectible de l’équaliseur en mode personnalisable, l’absence de la radio FM, la recherche simplifiée par une simple,et unique initiale, et sans ces crépitements-parasites entre les morceaux auxquels je suis SEUL sensible … ce qu’il lui coûte son ultime étoile pour un excellent rapport Q/P ;-p
Sheepdog –
I got tired of dealing with Apple and Zune products over the years, I prefer the simplicity of just adding music to a micro sd card, no software interface, no registering account… just music. I don’t have much of any flac files yet but this audio player plays just about any music file. I love the industrial feel and look and the simplicity that it is just made for music. Happy with this music player so far!
W Reveals –
*** Updates 02/09/2017 ***
I have experienced once where my bluetooth connection was choppy while I was holding it while taking a nap. I found it weird because the player is closed to me. So after some thinkering and research on the internet, I suspected my holding position might have blocked the bluetooth antenna. Because of the size of the player, I was gripping it tightly on my right hand, like how we will when we hold a baseball bat.
I then reached out to HIFI Walker and clarified the issue.
I was told that because of the bluetooth antenna was built at the back of the player, thus if I hold it like a grenade or cover the back with super thick materials, it will affect the transmission. So my suspicion was right, so i tried again, however this time when I gripped it tight, the connection did not get choppy.
You might want to take note of this before your purchase, however it is not a deal breaker to me. As of all bluetooth devices, blocking their antenna will naturally result in a choppy connection. So friends if you are encountering such issue, fear not, you might have just blocked the antenna =))
*** For verdict, scroll to the end to skip the details! ***
Review Score: 9/10
Pros
1. Scroll wheel control
2. Quality material used – Zinc Alloy
3. Micro SD card up to 128gb
4. USB-OTG (Something I don’t see in other players)
5. Easy drag and drop file transfer
6. Ideal size, easy to carry
7. Strong battery life
8. 16gb micro SD card included
9. Bluetooth connection for headphones and IEMs
10. DSD support
Cons
1. No inbuilt storage
HIFI Walker, a brand not known to me before. I was using Fiio, Cowon, Sony, Apple and Creative before this. I was shopping for a new music player as I wanted to separate music playing function from my smart phone to reduce the battery drain and improve the audio quality of it.
I went back to look at Sony and Fiio initially and found that for the same price, there are a lot more alternatives. I am looking for the following qualities in a music player
1. Price below $150
2. Battery life above 25 hours
3. Able to support Bluetooth transmission
4. Lossless file support including WAV, FLAC
5. Easy and intuitive to use
6. Good Design
The reason why I decided to give HFI Walker H2 a go is because of the design, promised playback support, battery life and Bluetooth connection. The essentials are all here and its within my budget with one additional USB-OTG which I quite like as it will give me added convenience.
Looking at the specs and description of the item on Amazon, it completely captured my heart, thus I give the HIFI Walker H2 a go.
First Impression – [Excellent]
It came in a black box, very minimal packaging. I like things this way. From the photos taken, you will be able to see the beautiful player surrounded by sponge to make sure that it had enough cushion against impact. It is a very thoughtful addition.
The player sits nicely in the box and it is a little hard to take it out from the cushion as it is tight, I fell in love with the player at first sight, it looked gorgeous, the cut and design is so ideal.
Take away the HIFI Walker H2, and it will reveal a finger hole, you can reach in and take out the base cover, inside you will find
1x instruction manual
1x IEM with ear tips
1x micro usb cable
Weight (10/10)
I like the weight of the HIFI Walker H2, the weight can be felt and it’s not too light. I felt a slight reduction of the weight will feel optimal here. It is easy to carry, in my pockets or in my bag. There is no issue at all.
Comfort / Size (9/10)
The size is good, it felt natural on my hands. I like the size. Fortunately it fits nicely in my hands, the size is one of the reason why I purchase the HFI Walker H2. One thing, I find that the thickness a little too thick, just maybe 10% thinner will be good I feel.
It is comfortable holding on to the HIFI Walker H2.
Built Quality (10/10)
I am not too sure if there are better materials available out there to construct music player, but it gives a very assuring impression. Looking at it, there is nothing to suggest the built was of low quality. The whole player was sealed nicely.
There is a tempered glass finish at the back, I was surprised to see that, I was expecting a full alloy construction. The tempered glass is a nice addition, the HIFI Walker H2 felt premium with that.
If I take care of it, it will definitely still look as good in the many years to come. Like all alloy, it cannot escape the fate of scratches and dents if we are careless. There is also a very thoughtful addition, the cut out on the bottom right of the player, it is for you to tie any strap or strings you want that can help you to carry it around.
Design (9.5/10)
I love the wheel scroll featured here, even though it is not new and we can see that the old ipod actually influenced the use of clicker wheel till date. The wheel scroll, unlike those we seen on ipod, it cannot be pressed. The wheel scroll is only for us to navigate through the menu and to adjust volume and brightness etc..
Power button on the top right corner, volume rocker on the right top corner, aux output with micro usb and audio jack input on the bottom and left side has got nothing on it. The micro SD card insert is also on the right side below the volume rocker.
The screen is 2 inch with no fancy screen technology, it is good enough to display all the information and lyrics. It cannot play video and I doubt we will enjoy video playback even if it possible given all our screen technology on our smart gadgets.
There is also two dedicated button below the screen, one for forward track, one for backward track, they are not placed side by side, but rather top and below, this makes it easier to press, and you will not second guess the function of the button.
On the front, below the screen, bottom left corner will be a Menu button, and bottom right will be a back button. It is self-explanatory and it is useful as this is a dedicated music player so it make sense for buttons with specific functions.
I did not give a full 10 mark here because there can be an improvement on the screen and maybe the wheel scroll can be clicked (if it does not infringe any copy right =)). However these are really minor thing.
Bluetooth Quality (10/10)
Surprise here! The HIFI Walker H2 actually allow user to have a high/low Bluetooth quality, it can connect smoothly to my Bluetooth headphone, nothing special here, since video cannot be watched, low latency will not be much of an issue here.
One thing I realised is thats a discerning audio quality between my Samsung S7 Edge and the HIFI Walker H2. With the same Mixcder Premium MS301, the Mixcder Premium MS301 sounded so much better when paired to the HIFI Walker H2. (Read my review on Mixcder Premium MS301 to know more about the headphone)
The little flaw that I thought the Mixcder Premium H2 can improve on disappeared when paired with the HIFI Walker H2. The audio quality is really amazing. That’s just for the Bluetooth quality, I have not even touch on the connected earphone and headphone.
Audio Quality (9.5/10)
The Bluetooth quality of the HIFI Walker H2 is good and boosted the audio quality of my Bluetooth headphone, but the question now will be if the HIFI Walker H2 can do the same in wired mode? Let’s find out!
I am using Mixcder Premium MS301, with the same audio jack provided by Mixcder with the headphone. For my devices, it will be the HIFI Walker H2 (Of course) and a smartphone, Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. I chose a smartphone because majority of us actually uses them to listen to music, so at least it can set more common benchmarking.
The low produced by the HIFI Walker H2 has big difference under comparison here. When tested on the Track – Groovy Samba by Nicola Conte Jazz Combo, it is clear that the bass packs punch here even though the bass drum during the intro of the sound is not the focus and is slightly softer. The HIFI Walker H2 brings out the flavour of the bass, giving it punchy and a fuller bodied sound. The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge on the other hand cannot bring out the taste of the bass resulting it sounded thinner and not able to bring out the feel of the bass drum.
The mid here in HIFI Walker H2 sounds flat and balanced with the other two main frequencies, I felt that the reproduction is very much uncoloured and mid is clear, uncompressed. It’s good. It helps the sound stage of the headphone I am using, give it more space. On the other hand, the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge sort of bring out the mid more, giving it a more lively presence. HIFI Walker H2
The high has a subtle differences when I put it under comparison with my Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. The HIFI Walker H2 gives a cleaner and crisper high, it also sounded thinner and have a better decay. I am not too sure if the thinner effect is caused by it being cleaner, but I like it better on the HIFI Walker H2, because it sounded more uncompressed.
The difference in the audio delivered is obvious here, you are not paying for any other normal quality music player, but something which can deliver a superior listening experience. From my experience, for bigger brands to have the music sound better, you need to cross the $300 mark to really get that audible difference.
Battery Life (9/10)
The solid battery life in the HIFI Walker H2 can give you enough mileage for your weekly usage. It stands about 30 hours. I believe you will be able to get more with lower screen brightness, since screens are always the top battery drainer.
I have no EQ on, but I set the output gain to “High”, so I can leave my volume at about 20 to 30 usually. Screen brightness at 50%
I am giving a 9 because I am leaving room for the battery life to improve! It should be noted that the longest battery life Bluetooth IEM I ever came across only lasted 9 hours, and for Bluetooth headphone, it is 40 hours on single charge. So the HIFI Walker H2 is more than sufficient in this case.
User Experience (9.5/10)
I have been using for my daily commuting. It has replaced my Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge as my daily audio driver. I find the controls very intuitive, it boost the audio quality from my headphones and IEMs, it’s like putting them on steroid and having them perform to their limits.
The audio improvement is clearly discernable, self-explanatory users’ navigation, you do not need the manual at all.
There is no fanciful option like dual OS or internet access, and I thought it is good this way because all the components and space inside the player can be used to deliver a superior listening experience.
The weight is good and size is almost perfect with all the easy to access buttons; none of the buttons are too close to each other.
One thing I hope that it was included is the “lock button” button, so I will not press on to it and have my tracks skipped by accident. I will also think that unique button that shows their function is better than generic ones. On the HIFI Walker H2, the button for forward track and backward track have the same shape, perhaps the forward track button can be one with a pointed right edge and the backward track button can be one with pointed left edge etc. However these two are very minor adjustments are not enough to be a deal breaker or affect the listening pleasure of the HIFI Walker H2.
Micro SD – Yes
Micro SD card input available, up to 128gb with a limit of 14,999 audio files
Audio Jack Input – Yes
It can be used with your wired headphone via the audio jack input.
Water Resistance – Not that I know of
This is for you if you are looking for the following qualities
1. One device to deliver superior audio pleasure to your headphones, IEMs, or external speaker
2. A comfortable and optimal size and weight music player
3. A music player that supports both wired and wireless connection
4. A better than average battery life
5. A device to replace the audio experience from your smart devices
*** Verdict ***
The HIFI Walker H2 deserve more attention than its current status, non-audiophile will benefit from its superior audio performance with an obvious improvement in IEMs and Headphones. Audiophiles might find the device having one issue which is the storage space limit of 128 gb. A storage limit can be overcome if we carry multiple SD card with us, but it hasn’t been an issue for me because I usually update my music list.
The HIFI Walker H2 address the four top concerns of a portable music player
1. Battery Life
2. Design
3. Audio Performance
4. Price
For my audiophile folks who are looking for gold plated internal circuits so there will be minimal noise, I am afraid the HIFI Walker H2 is not at that level currently. HIFI Walker H2 got a score of 9 in the end as I find that there can be improvement on the following
1. Maximum storage space / audio files limit
That is the only reason why it gets a 9.5 score. The remaining 0.5 is to encourage future improvements like inclusion of lock button, a more define button shape etc.. For their inclusion of being able to support both wireless and wired connection, DSD files, USB-OTG, strong battery life and their audio performance, they deserve a minimum of 9.
In conclusion, the HIFI Walker H2 is a very powerful device, the quality you get from here far exceed what other big brands with similar products and pricing can deliver. With its optimal size and weight, it is easy to carry around and store.
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Mario –
Parto con una premessa. Sono un amante della musica, ho sempre avuto lettori Sony, da quello a cassette, ma da quando sono usciti questi smartphone ho abbandonato il classico lettore. Sono passato pima per un Sony xperia Z3 che non sfigurava essendo anche Hi-res audio e non mi potevo lamentare, ora ho un LG v30 e vi posso assicurare che va bene con le sue B&O. Ma sentivo l’esigenza di trovare provare qualcosa in più. Mi metto alla ricerca, spulcio vari forum e noto questo H2 che trovo in offerta. Mi dico basta, e lo prendo. La confezione è molto curata e comprende lettore, cavetto USB/Micro USB, manuale anche in italiano, gli auricolari in ear e una Sd da 16gb della Sandisk. Il lettore si presenta molto compatto,con uno schermo ampio e luminoso, vetro anche dietro. legge di tutto,io uso prevalentemente file .flac. Comodo il fatto che riprende la canzone da dove la si è interrotta, oppure si può impostare di farla ripartire dall’inizio. Ci sono 7 livelli di equalizzatori, 3 tipi di sfondi/colori del menù. La batteria è infinita, sono arrivato a 10gg usandolo 3/4 ore al giorno.Lato negativo, è un po pesante, sotto la luce del sole lo schermo non si riesce a vedere bene e avendo vetro anche dietro certe volte risulta scivoloso. Gli auricolari che sono usciti nella confezione fanno il loro dovere, sono ben bilanciati, suonano forte e non hanno sfigurato con delle Bose soundsport che hanno più bassi.Ho provato delle HIFIman He400 e capisci che le cuffie ti aprono un mondo di suoni unico. Concludo dicendo che mi sto trovando bene, un ottimo lettore audio ad alta definizione, lo uso anche col bluetooth e va benissimo,lo consiglio, però abbinato ad un paio di cuffie di alto livello per apprezzare a pieno la qualità audio.
Habshacklenacker –
I’m one of those weirdos who still uses a dedicated player for listening to music as opposed to using my phone. I recently laid my Zune HD to rest, and was in the market for a new player. I had a short list of what I was looking for: expandable storage, ease of use, sound quality, EQ options, and battery life. After much research I decided to go with the HIFI WALKER H2. It met all my needs, and from what I could gather on the internet people seemed to be happy with it, as well as other players made by the same company. Plus it was on sale, so I pulled the trigger.
The player worked as advertised. I liked the sound quality, battery could do 20+ hours on a charge, and putting music on/taking it off was a snap. The only thing that bugged me was the UI: text is quite small, often too difficult to read with album art behind it. Annoying, but not exactly a deal breaker. I was still enjoying the sounds.
For nine days, I thought i had found my new DAP. Then, suddenly, the power button completely stopped working. I tried a hard reset in the hopes that could fix the problem, but was unable to due to the power button not functioning. The H2 had become a small, expensive brick. I reached out to the company immediately, telling them about my problem and asking for a replacement unit. That was almost a week ago, and they have yet to respond. I returned the H2 and went with a more expensive, but hopefully better working device.
Martin @ UK –
The device is solidly build with a robust aluminium case. Not flimsy as some other devices on the market. It has good audio quality (as far as I can tell without perfect hearing). It has better dynamic range than a device I previously owned (in the same price range, from a big manufacturer of consumer electronics). It has line and volume controlled outputs. (A feature the other device lacked.) I does not have any annoying volume limiter (which is completely pointless if you use an external amplifier or high impedance headphones such as Sennheiser’s).
The device supports up to 256 Gigabytes of SD card which is plenty. But then the indexing system limits itself to 15 thousand songs. With MP3s of an average of 5 Megabytes, an SD card of that size allows 50 thousand songs. Only to be capped to 15 thousand by a firmware limitation.
Firmware is really what hampers an otherwise great piece of hardware. When I first started the device with MP3s on SD card present, it would not show any titles in the Category menue. A toggling of the “Music-Scan” option (from automatic to manual and back) did not do a thing. This feature, by the way, is not even explained in the English language manual. It is mentioned in the German one, but not explained. Following suggestions on this site, I removed and re-inserted the SD card – which did the trick. It found the expected number of titles (my library still contains less than 15 thousand, thank you very much). Having to remove and re-insert the SD on a life device is counter intuitive. Anyone who knows a little about transactions and filesystems would instinctively avoid doing such a thing.
At this point I was able to browse by category as most of my MP3 files contain IDv3 tags. Selecting the Artist item, one is able to select one of the albums of said artists. Selecting Album gives a flat list of all albums on the device. It would be marvelous to be able to jump by character of alphabet, as scrolling hundreds of items is tiresome. But still this feature is useable. Then we get to Genre. A per genre flat list of files. Are you kidding? Maybe here we got the reason for the limit of 15 thousand titles. The batterie would run out before scrolling to the end …. Clearly not a well thought out feature. There is no category “Release Year” which I greatly miss.
All this could be solved by well designed firmware.
The user manual does not really deserve that term. It is very brief and does not touch key points like “Music-Scan”. It is fair, paper copies being kept brief. The 16 GByte SD card which was kindly included in the kit, contains PDFs for various language manuals. One had hoped these were more detailed. Not so. The published did not even have the decency to create proper books. The PDFs are a single page – like for a flyer. One has to zoom to individual topics to be able to read – what is a identical copy of the paper booklet supplied in the first place.
Summary: great device let down by badly thought out firmware and insufficient documentation.
Korknadel –
Aufgrund der vielen positiven Meinungen hier habe ich mir das Gerät bestellt. Nach dem ersten Probehören war ich auch sehr zufrieden und habe mich darauf gefreut, den Player mit in den Urlaub zu nehmen.
Dann musste ich allerdings feststellen, dass der Player sich von alleine immer wieder eingeschaltet hat. So alle 15-30 Minuten. Zurücksetzen mithilfe der Start-Taste, die man laut Bedienungsanleitung 8 Sekunden lang drücken soll, hat nichts gebracht. Habe den Support angerufen, denen war das auch ein Rätsel, und sie meinten, ich solle den Player zurückschicken.
Habe mir dann den Player noch mal bestellt, weil ich dachte, das muss ja ein äußerst seltener Bug sein, weil ich kein Kommentar gefunden habe, wo jemand dieses Problem schildert. Die allermeisten Meinungen sind ja super positiv. Also, das zweite Gerät: SD-Karte rein, Kopfhörer einstöpseln, Probe hören, alles super. Bloß dass plötzlich das Display schwarz wird. Okay, sollte kein Problem sein, mithilfe der Start-Taste kann man das ja wieder aktivieren, sollte man meinen. Aber es funktioniert nicht. Starttaste reagiert nicht. Display springt zwar wieder an, wenn man den Kopfhörer ausstöpselt, aber ich kann das Gerät nicht mehr ausschalten. Außer ich setze es auf die Wekteinstellungen zurück, aber dann macht es einen automatischen Neustart, und dann ist es wieder dasselbe. Die Start-Taste reagiert nicht, egal, wie lange ich drücke …
Echt ein toller Player, wenn er funktionieren würde …. vielleicht?
Bin ich echt sauer, zweimal in Folge so eine Krücke, ich glaub, das war der letzte Versuch.
Nachtrag: Nachdem ich das oben geschildert hatte — also vielleicht so zehn bis fünfzehn Minuten später, sah ich, dass der Player sich dann offenbar doch von alleine ausgeschaltet hat! Allerdings konnte ich ihn dann nicht mehr einschalten, weil eben die Starttaste nicht reagiert. Nur wenn ich ihn an den Strom anschloss, ging er wieder an, zeigte dann allerdings nur das Ladesymbol und reagierte auf keinerlei Tasten. (Übrigens war der Player voll geladen, dass er sich nicht wieder einschalten lässt, liegt garantiert nicht an leerem Akku, und anfänglich ließ er sich ja auch nicht ausschalten, was ebenfalls nicht an leerem Akku lag.)
Doch, das war’s definitiv mit dem Wakler H2, sollen andere ihren Spaß damit haben.
Ken –
I have decades of music listening experience and have been an Audiophile of sorts since my teens. I listen to music thru my HiFi setup using a variety of media including: Vinyl Records, CD’s, Mp3 Music Players as well as sometimes streaming. I also listen thru my Harmon Kardon system in my car quite often. I frankly love listening to CD’s as they represent some of the clearest and distortion free audio available. They are not, however, terribly portable:) I wanted to re-burn my 600 + Cd Collection to FLAC and enjoy the advancements in DAC technology over the past decade or so. The DAC in this HIFI Walker Player is likely equal to my current CD Player, though my Onkyo CD Player uses a Wolfson DAC and this Player uses a Burr Brown DAC. Either way, both are better than the DAC’s of the 1980’s that I first listened to my Cd’s with.
Prior to purchasing this, I purchased the Pyle branded Lossless Mp3 Player, as well as the AGPTek Hi Lossless Mp3 Player. Both of those were returned for the following reasons:
Pyle Player – Seemed poorly built and cheap. It was very lightweight plastic and did not appear that it would hold up to heavy use. Also of note was the flimsy and “coarse” thumb wheel that felt simply terrible and UN-precise. To be fair, I did not even listen to it, just sent it back.
AGPTek H01 Player. I wanted to like this Player. I loved the way it felt in the hand, the weight of the Player and the case materials seemed to be of high quality. I also liked the rather precise, machined volume knob on the unit. The whole thing had a high quality, industrial/precise feel to it. From a build standpoint, I loved it. I loaded some FLAC files onto Micro SD Card and had a listen. It sounded fantastic until I noticed the balance appeared skewed to the right channel. I double checked everything and sure enough, the output on the left channel was about half the volume of the right channel. Very disappointing. I simply did not want to deal with an exchange etc., so I simply returned it. Mine may have simply been a fluke that got past quality control, but I simply did not want to deal with a faulty second unit, so I opted for the HIFI Walker H2. (Which I suspect is the next newest version of the AGPTek branded H01?
When I received the HiFI Walker and opened the box, I was again struck by the weight, feel and quality of the build. After loading a few FLAC files and turning it on, I noticed that the software/interface looked VERY similar to the AGPTek H01. The build quality of both were outstanding.
The thumb wheel is not as smooth and fluid as the one on my much older Sandisk Sansa Fuze, but it works fine. The file system and interface takes a few minutes to get used to if you are coming from another Player, but…no big deal. It is easily understood and easy to navigate, in my opinion.
How does it sound?! Perhaps the most important question I suppose…. It sounds FANTASTIC! Some people say that they cannot hear a difference between 320 kbps Mp3 and FLAC. I understand that and do not intend on trying to convince anyone otherwise. For me however, the difference between the Mp3 files I have listened to for some 10 years on my very good sounding Sansa Fuze Player, and the FLAC files I listened to on the HIFI Walker Player were dramatically different. Now, I understand that I threw into the mix….two completely different Players, but rest assured…I also listened to the FLAC files thru the Sansa Fuze and the difference in sound quality…especially the low bass clarity and “cleanness” was easily heard. The HIFI Walker simply sounded “more like a CD” than the Sansa Fuze. Keep in mind that the Sansa Fuze is 10 years older, but it has always been noted for very good, neutral sound. The HIFI Walker provides the same neutral, very clean sound…there just seems to be “more of it”. I am quite amazed at the sound stage depth as well as the dynamic range of this Player. I am NOT easily amazed.
I have only had the Player for about a week, so I cannot attest to its durability. I will be putting it in a case and treating it gently I suppose, as I do not want anything to happen to it lol. Battery life? Seems fine at the moment but I have not run it for several hours to determine the accuracy of the manufacturers claim of 25+ hours.
I am a very critical listener and person in general. I spent a week pouring over reviews…many of which appeared suspiciously worded…(bad sentence syntax, word usage etc) I checked the DAC specs on everything that was 300.00 dollars or less. I did not want to spend 1000.00 dollars on essentially an Mp3 Player, heck, I could buy new speakers for that! Some of these new Chinese Players are to be avoided I suppose…some are likely just fine. Determining which is which is the hard part…which is why I originally bought two…then a third via Amazon, because there was simply not enough information out there to assure me I was getting the right Player. So I got them in my hands, tried them out and sent back what I couldn’t live with.
If you are looking for great sound from Lossless Music files, regardless of type, I heartily recommend giving the HIFI Walker H2 a try.
Ken
UPDATE:
After using this for a few weeks, I have continued to enjoy this little Player. I did want to note, that the very low bass on High Dynamic Range songs really punches with authority. It is neither boomy, nor exaggerated, rather it is prominent and clean. It has just a bit more solid punch in the very low end than my Onkyo CD Player, which uses a Wolfson DAC vs the Burr Brown DAC in this Player. I suspect the DAC is the difference here. My opinion remains the same, a VERY nice sounding Player!
Update #2:
I tried this on a new JVC car stereo I just purchased for our second car. Middle of the road stereo “quality wise”….but has USB and AUX inputs. I wanted to note that I am unable to use the “line out” with this JVC Stereo because it distorts as if the gain is too high on the player. The line out is simply too “hot” for this stereo’s AUX input. When I switch to the “headphone out” it works just fine with the AUX input…nice, clear sound. However…I noticed the annoying “loud click” between tracks that a couple others have mentioned. It is very distracting and could prove harmful to one,s speakers if listening at high volume. This issue DOES NOT OCCUR if using the H2’s Line Out. Can’t explain it…but that’s the way it is. My solution, unfortunately, was to buy a 256 gb SD Card, load the same FLAC music, and simply leave it inserted in the JVC car stereo USB input. I use the H2’s Line Out in the other car….a BMW with the stock stereo/Harmon Kardon setup. Just be aware of these quirks. I still love the sound and playbCk of the H2.