Surfans F20 HiFi MP3 Player with Bluetooth, Lossless DSD High Resolution Digital Audio Music Player, High-Res Portable Audio Player with 32GB Memory Card, Support up to 256GB

"The F20 reminds me of those old mix tapes I used to guard with my life. It is a small, dense block of metal, fashioned from zinc alloy, and it sits in the palm with a satisfying heft. Beneath its modest two-inch display lurks a PCM510xA DAC that merrily devours FLAC, ALAC and even DSD128, then serves up treble as clear as morning birdsong and mids with a proper thump, the sort of sound my mobile can only fantasise about.The included 32 GB card swallowed around eight hundred lossless tracks without complaint, and a spare slot stands ready for a 256 GB card when the collecting habit gets out of hand.Plugged into a pair of wired headphones the player really stretches its legs, Bluetooth, however, is more temperamental. It establishes a link quickly and recognises aptX, yet the signal begins to stutter if I stray further than the next room, and the maximum volume feels a touch polite.The scroll wheel clicks like an old cassette deck and was slightly stiff for the first day or two, though it has loosened up with use. Bright sunlight still outguns the screen, so I sometimes cup the display in my hand as though I am shielding a secret note.For the money, the F20’s sound, construction and broad file support are hard to fault. Anyone willing to overlook the occasional firmware oddity will be rewarded with a grin from ear to ear.

I have been using this device for a few days as an audio player (not a USB DAC) and I can tell you the following:The Bad:1. The software is very simple, you won't be changing any wallpapers or any fun stuff like that, it's designed to simply play audio, kinda like the old MP3 players.2. The bluetooth on the device isn't great, I had a pair of bluetooth headphones connected to it and it would have this issue where the audio would rhythmically cut out, it is fixed after restarting both devices, and it shouldn't happen, but it does and it is fixable with a restart of both devices. (In my experience)3. The software in "Category" (Music symbol in menu) reads the files to determine which folder the audio should be in, so if you are trying to organise your music via folders etc on your computer, it isn't going to work unless you are using the "explorer" function instead. (Folder symbol) However, this works fine but was a little confusing at the start.4. The scroll wheel does take some getting used to, it's not haptic like the old Ipods, it's a physical wheel you have to turn.The Good:1. It can play almost any audio file you put in it.2. It does support lossless audio files such as wav and it does play them pretty well.3. It does have memory play, so if you pause the music due to being busy, it will pick up the last song you played and you can even change it to remember the exact position of the song you were listening to at the time. (Can be changed in settings)4. The "M" button on the device is a multifunction button, while in a song you can add / remove a song from favourites, edit the EQ, edit the play mode etc. In the "explorer" and "Category" menus it allows you to delete files and add the song to a playlist.Overall it's a simple device that has the ability to play high quality audio. This obviously depends on the headphones you're using and the audio format you're trying to use. If you're using a basic MP3 file with £20 bluetooth earbuds from an unknown manufacturer, the audio isn't going to sound very great and you're not going to have a fulfilling experience.On the other hand, if you're playing Wav files which are uncompressed and have some good quality wired headphones, you're going to have a much better listening experience.I do recommend going through both the "settings" and "system settings" for the device and playing around to see what suits you.P.S If you're having issues with the music not syncing from the card, make sure "Music Sync" is set to automatic in settings, then remove the card and put it back in.

I've had this for about a month now, and have had enough time to get to know it. It's a very simple and straightforward player. You put music in, and it plays it back to you. There's no touch screen, radio, clock, or motion tracker or any of that. It just plays music, and it does that very well.Until now, I was using a 16gb Ipod loaded with MP3 files for space and convenience, but I knew that I wasn't getting the most from the music. It sounded OK, especially when paired with my Beoplay H6 2nd gen earphones, but it was still compressed and a little flat. The F20 can play pretty much any format you load on to the SD card with no issues at all. It can drive my over ear cans no problem, and it can easily drive my IEMs, although I would recommend that you use something with significantly higher impedance than the minimum recommendation of 8ohms. My cans are 32 and the IEMs are 30. Anything lower than that and you might find that there's a bit of noise, especially if they're particularly sensitive.Loading and playing music is very straightforward, although annoyingly the player doesn't offer folder support, or allow you to Play All Songs by an artist the way the Ipod does. That's something I would like Surfans to address when they next update the firmware. Making playlists is easy too. I use M3u Dropper, and have made about 20 lists with very little effort.It is important that you put the lists into the main folder, and don't nest them. The software will only look in the folder the M3u is in to find the songs. If you delete a song, or move it, the player will not load your playlist, and you will need to make a new one.Battery life is very good. I've had mine play continuously for 3 hours with only 25% loss. It's not as good if you use bluetooth, but that's to be expected. If you have bought this, then I would assume that you're not using BT anyway. There's little point in buying a lossless player and then not using wired earphones.So, it's a basic but very competent player that lacks few features that could easily be added. It's not going to give you the full audiophile experience, especially if you're not using good 'phones, but the cost of the high end stuff is getting harder to justify when you can buy this for around £100.