Life is hectic… but thankfully technology is keeping up with it pretty bloody well. Case and point: the latest in a line of high-end portable dedicated music players – which we’ll go into a little later on. We’ve seen some pretty spectacular things in this genre asofar, but the Acoustic Research AR M2 may well be the very best of the bunch.
See, the thing is, things need to be convenient these days. We all like to have our big, powerful systems at home, but the demand for true hi-fi quality music at all times has increased beyond measure. If you love your music, and you love it at the best standard possible, then you want it wherever you are, whatever you’re doing. Yes smart phones are getting better with the handling of hi-res. But without the addition of a separate portable headphone amp, it’s something of a pointless endeavour to expect your music to sound anywhere near as good as it would via your normal system. And frankly, you should demand nothing less.
Thankfully, there’s a solution. Well, there’s actually a few… but this one is pretty much the best that currently exists.
This is a portable player with an inbuilt headphone amplifier. Okay, we’ve seen a few of those kicking around already (the FiiO X7 and Colorfly C4, for example) and while those guys were indeed awesome in their own right, this is a player that blows both of those out of the water. It also costs a fair bit more than both of them, which makes it a whole league ahead. But the thing is, you can actually hear the difference.
Everything about this player works. It’s a complete hi-res dedicated player which handles every sound from every conceivable genre gorgeously. Seriously, the sound is unrivalled. But what makes it even better is just how easily it is used! It’s the same size, shape and weight as a smartphone, with similar versatile features and handling that makes selecting, listening and changing you music easier than it has ever been before. And that’s something that has been lacking in the high-end portables up until this point! It’s serious money, but it’s a serious player, dedicated to playing hi-res music and playing it very very well.
It’s beautifully made, it’s beautiful to use and it sounds beautiful too. We couldn’t be bigger fans, and the rest of the hi-fi world agrees. The only thing that may hold its own against it is the Hifi Man HM901S which does sound and look amazing, but also has a much chunkier exterior, which makes it difficult for the every day (especially the likes of public transport and the gym!) and more suitable for home, or less casual use. The AR M2 has portable written all over it, and was designed exclusively with hi-res for the hectic, modern life in mind.
Want to give it a go? Give us a shout! We’ll hook you up with a demo. Click here to take a closer look at the full specs (plus a few cheeky reviews!).
A bit rich? Check out the rest of our portable players here!