HIFI WALKER H2 HiFi MP3 Player with Bluetooth 5.2, Lossless DSD FLAC Player, Digital Audio Player Hi Res Portable Music DAP Player with 64GB Micro SD Card, Support Up to 512GB

I am a music addict. Although I have gotten used to streaming music off my phone, I still like owning my own copies of records, CD's and downloads. I was an early user of iPods and loved my 128GB iPod Classic when it came out. The problem was that I did not like iTunes and preferred flac files over MP3 or other formats. I recently went on a long vacation where I did not expect to be able to stream music easily or cheaply, so I planned to bring by old iPod classic with me. However, when I bought a new portable speaker for the trip, I discovered that most such speakers are blue tooth only. They don't have input jacks at all. On a lark, I searched for "blue tooth MP3 players" and up came a whole host of products I never knew existed. After reading multiple reviews, I bought a HiFi Walker H2. I was impressed with the size and the quality of the build. It is small, but feels like is solidly built. After playing around with it for a bit, the controls became fairly intuitive. At first, I was disappointed that I had to scroll through all of my music alphabetically which took forever to get to groups at the end of the alphabet. Then I discovered that if you looking through your music in the "Category" menu, you can simply hit the "M" button and the alphabet will come up on the bottom of the screen. You can then go from A to Z to narrow your artist or album search to the specific letter in the alphabet. Initially, I downloaded my entire music library in MP3 format so it would all fit on a 256GB micro SD card. However, I really wanted to figure out a way to put all my music in flac format on the player. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, I was not able to narrow my flac library down to fit on a 256GB card. On a lark, I bought a 512GB card and downloaded my flac library on to it (about 384GB total). I then popped the card in the player and let it update the library from the new card. Voila! It worked. I now have my entire flac library on the player with plenty of room to add more music. The sound quality is amazing on good headphones (B&W's), and I was blown away the first time I plugged the player into the jack in my car. Wow. It also sounds great on my Bose blue tooth portable speaker and worked great on my extended trip. It sounded okay on a cheap pair of blue tooth ear buds, but I blame that on the ear buds and the fact that I was listening to my MP3 library, not my flac library. The price can't be beat either. Who would have thought that you could buy a better quality, higher memory capacity and iTunes free music player for this price. Nice job. I am a very happy customer. UPDATE: Since loading the 512 GB micro SD Card, I realized something important. The player will recognize and play all of the music on the card in the "Explorer" mode. However, you cannot quickly scroll through the list of folders in this mode. All of the music cannot be seen or played in the "Category" mode. This is the mode that sorts the music by artist, album, song, etc. The Category mode apparently has a ceiling of 15,000 songs. This is the mode that allows you to quickly scroll through the music by letter if you push and hold the Menu ("M") button. I also discovered that when you disconnect the player form a computer, it re-analyzes the library for the Category mode and doesn't always discover and list the same albums. It seems also random which artists/albums it includes in the Category list. Nevertheless, it is still good to know that it will play an entire 512GB card even if it can't/won't categorize all of that music. In reviewing other players like the HiFi Walker touch and the Surfans, it appears they have the same limitations.

With a few tweaks, this could be the perfect price/performance ratio in a lossless portable audio player. The Good: For a device this inexpensive, it has a much better than average sounding DAC handling the decoding. It is good enough that the quality of the cables you use will actually be a factor in the sound quality. Use high-quality cables if you plan to connect this unit to an amplifier. Also, use a clean amplifier with low distortion levels and a decent reserve of power for transients. This player can push the full dynamic range of your recordings to the amp. If you're looking for a good, yet relatively inexpensive micro-amp, this pairs really well with an SMSL AD18 for driving a good set of speakers. It also successfully connects to that amp using Bluetooth, but I recommend high-quality direct cabling if possible. Even with the advances in Bluetooth recently, I still find the quality of the output superior when directly cabled. It is also nice to have decent navigation controls and a built-in display on such an inexpensive, yet high-quality music player. The built-in lithium-ion battery with a standard USB charger makes it easy to keep this player charged. The standard USB cable means it can be charged by all those high-capacity rechargeable portable battery packs that are commonly used by campers, hikers, or anyone else who hates being tethered to a computer or AC outlet. The Bad: The display is tiny. It is difficult to read the text for anyone with less than perfect vision. They allow you to choose to display album art, but they only display it as a microscopic icon in the upper right corner of the already too tiny playback screen. Despite the album artwork being so small, the rest of the display during playback is mostly wasted by displaying "wallpaper" rather than useful information large enough to actually read. I would have been much happier to have a larger version of the album art or a song list displayed in that huge space. Then again, you won't want the display powered on most of the time anyway, because it drops the battery life significantly. Then there is the Bluetooth. It is extremely flaky to pair with various devices. For example, I own two Denon receivers which were made and purchased within a couple months of one another. One of them will pair with this player. The other will not. I tried everything I could think of to increase the likelihood that it would pair, going so far as to pull out my entertainment furniture and climbing behind it to hold the device 12 inches from the antenna. I also discovered that it would only pair with one of my four micro-amps which have Bluetooth interfaces. That amp was the SMSL AD18 I mentioned earlier. Overall, I really like the high-quality output of this budget-friendly lossless audio player. I also like the compact size and the music library navigation features. If they could improve the display and fix the Bluetooth to work with more devices, this would be the perfect first player to purchase for lossless music playback. As it exists now, it is still a good value with a couple of annoyances which may or may not matter to you. Those annoyances cost this device a star in my review, but many would likely overlook the shortcomings because of the price/performance ratio. The player does sound great, after all. That may well be enough for most people. One Tip: When you add a really high capacity microSD card to this device, it may have trouble using it. I used a 256GB card and what I discovered was that I needed to connect the music player to my PC in "USB mode" not "PC DAC mode." Once connected, I could access the memory card inside the device just like any other thumb drive. I used this configuration to format the memory card while it was inside the device. This was insanely slow, so I suggest running it overnight while you sleep. Once completed, I have had zero problems reading any files copied to the device. I actually used the same method to copy the files, which again, was crazy slow. But since you only do it once, I figured having the same device write the files which was going to be reading the files would be the best way to ensure trouble-free usage. So far, I've been right. UPDATE: I've been using this player a lot since purchasing it. At this point, I have even used it with headphones. (I only sent the output through amps before that) I'm still blown away by the sound quality coming out of this unit. Using the amazing TI PCM5102 Burr-Brown DAC, the sound quality compares favorably to many of the $600+ units those big-name companies are selling, but at a fraction of the cost. Even when listening to music using my admittedly mediocre earbuds, the sound quality remained amazingly good. Also, since my original review, I have found a few more devices which pair with the player, but most still don't. Plus, I discovered the large empty space on the display will display song lyrics if you have copied lyric files into the folders where each individual album is stored. The few annoyances I noted originally remain, so so there is no change in my 4 star rating. If fractional stars were allowed, I might give it a 4.5 just for the amazing sound quality at this price point.

When the walk h2 came in and I open the box and seen it close up wow this is a nice looking well built. Nice size holding it in my hands to me. Hook up to my computer and started down loading songs from window's 10 1600 so far took about 40mins to down load using the 16gb card that came with it through my computer it maybe faster on other systems. It has a nice 10 band eq, and a few eq setting, a built in higher gain volume setting witch helps a lot for playing through my Dos Bluetooth speaker box. And it sound really sweet smooth sounding playing through little 25 watts tube amp. I have a mix of song formats the walker h2 plays them all even the songs that are not so good sounding it plays them better to me a strong plus for me. 1 cool thing about it you can use the usb port and hookup another memory stick and play songs through usb port another strong plus. I have 5 mp3 players pricing cheaper than the Walker h2. I took a chance on this 1 and very please with it so far this is a keeper. Headphones a meanly use jvc cheap I had for 12 years and pioneer se-mj54-r. i will post a few pics. I have 5 mp3 players all together - Agptek rocker v2, Sony nwze 385, Bassplay p3000, Tomameri, Fiio x1 2nd gen. Just me mind you - Walker H2 is my choice over what I bought so far. If you can afford the asking price trying it out you will be super happy with it. I jump on it when they price came to $129.00. Not sure why 3 stars from 1 reviewer 15000 songs is a lot. No problem with my bluetooth connecting. Date 10/8/2017 This mp3 player super bad nice. Man we took with us on a 5 day vacation inside the big whirlpool room and the out rooms 2 level with nice clean music. The room next to us at 11:30 a night, a tap on the door ask me if we could turn up just a little louder they will be in there whirlpool for about 2.5 hours they have no music to play. I said yes thanks to. The Walker H2 has a loud preamp jack 3.5m that plays louder than using the headphone plug. I got a chance to use it man I was just blown away how loud it played clear smooth sweet music. We use it at the water front and a lot people came up to us asking about the mp3 player and the hole setup we lift it there for 5 hours the worker guys ask us to they will watch it. I have now over 2800 songs on it. Mix music blue's jazz's rock soul, oldies mix. When me and my wife came back people was dancing to my little sound system. I had to answer a lot of question about the walker h2 mp3 player. This is really a nice mp3 player. If walker ever lower the price i will a 2nd 1 to keep for spire 1. Up date 2/23/2018 The walker still going strong no complaints I drop it about 8 times 1 time I was riding my bike. Man it's still works like new. 12/13/2018 i been trying sense July the company did respond back to me ask me about head phone shorting out. when i reply back saying i don't use it for head phones I use it for my home stereo and car audio using a 3.5 plug. they will not return massages back after this. I been messing with them for a few mouths they will not warranty it. the problem is the sound comes out a little distorted bass and highs now. I can't find a number on the sight to call them. so people buying this you make sure they will warranty it. I'm trying to get amazon to step in for help.

SO disappointed with this. I like having a MP3 player just for music. No audio books (prefer to read), no pictures, etc. I'm not an audiophile, but I like a clear, crisp sound to my music. I loved my Cowon D2, it had a great sound, but it was very buggy and it's no longer supported. It was pricey, too. So I researched and the H2 Walker sounded like a good, mid-priced choice. Got it yesterday, plugged in my sd card and was BLASTED with volume. Quickly found out the volume control did not work at all. Fiddled with the settings, nothing worked. Did some research on the web, thinking a firmware update might be needed. I found nothing, not even an actual website for it. There is a Facebook page for it (and I don't do Facebook anymore). Left a message, still no response. So I figured I received a defective unit, it happens. I set up an exchange on Amazon to get a new one (cudos to Amazon on their exchange procedures, very quick and easy to do). Dropped off the first one at UPS on the way home and my replacement was waiting for me. I had recovered from my headache from the deafening volume from yesterday. I plugged the card in, kept my fingers crossed and tried again. Same damn thing! The player was set to LOUD and the volume control does nothing (you could see the volume numbers going up and down on the screen, but it had no effect on the earsplitting volume). Now the headache is back, thank you very much. Strike two, and that's enough. Set up a refund and went back to UPS to send it back. Not trying this again, I will try the other MP3 player that was my second choice. It's really too bad, it is a very nice player. Solid construction, an intuitive UI, and the sound was really good, even at FULL BLAST. I was so disappointed. On the second one I returned, I was very tempted to keep the headphones (a very nice pair) and the 32 gb card that was included, just for repayment for two straight days of headaches. Do not want any issues with the refund, so boxed everything back up for the return. Based on my experience, not only do I not recommend this. I also think it's potentially dangerous to get that kind of head blast on first use of the unit. LONG time Amazon customer but do not do many reviews. This one I really felt the need to. P.S. WHY is this listed as an "Amazon Choice"? First time I had an issue with a product that was labeled as such.

I had to replace an Old Walkman NWZA17SLV 64 GB Hi-Res Digital Music Player that I purchased in 2015 that I thoroughly enjoyed. Replacement was due to me losing it (long story in stupidity). I did not want to purchase a unit with a Touchscreen interface. Anyway, after reading several reviews I was a little hesitant in purchasing this Hi Fi Walker H2 unit. This was mostly due to it storing the files somewhat differently and a different interface. Also, there were several comments regarding what type of software interface to use for making playlists. Plus, I was concerned about it being physically larger. The interface is significantly different than what I was used to. However, like most things, once I had used it for several weeks, it became second nature to me. I like the fact that it goes into a “Sleep” type of mode where none of the buttons work unless you wake it up by touching the button on top. This prevents accidental skipping of songs or making some other accidental menu change. I am using the old “Media Go” software for making playlists and downloading songs and playlists to the HI Fi Walker unit. I have not had any issues with it. The songs load in the following folder structure: TF Card > Music > Artist Name > Album Name > Song Name (these are the actual songs and not folders). Artist Name folders are in alphabetical order. The Playlists are loaded into the Music folder at the end of the Artist Name folders. This is all found under the “Explorer” Folder option when you first power on the unit. Actually, you can also select “Category” option instead of Explorer option. In Category you will see the following options: “Songs”, “My favorite”, “Playlist”, Recent played songs”, “Artist”, “Album”, “Genre” and “Clear Record”. The “Playlist” option under “Category” does not work. The manufacturer makes a comment on this in their manual and states: “Your *.m3u playlist file will be displayed from [Explorer], not here. We apologize for the misleading menu title. This will be deleted from the [Category] and moving to [Explorer] in the next firmware release.” It’s because of this quirky menu that I deleted a star, while it may be nice to use the “Category” approach, I have gotten used to using the “Explorer” folder approach. The unit does remember where you left off and how you got there. So, if you were playing a song by an artist and got there by using the Category approach when you turned off the unit, when you turn it back on it will pick up where you left off. If you press the button to go back a step or level, it will take you in reverse order of how you arrived at the song. So, if through Category, it will back you out that way. If through Explorer, it will back you out that way. This is great if you are listening to a book and want to pick up where you left off. The music quality is fantastic! It supports several formats and bit rates. This of course would be set up in your music software on your computer before downloading to the Hi Fi Walker. I have even downloaded some stereo .WAV files that I mixed down on a Zoom L20 digital recorder. Files were originally recorded live on A&H SQ7. Some of these I added some extra compression or gain or effects in Audacity software. Then I just manually added to the appropriate file folder structure on the Hi Fi Walker. I took some CCR recordings that were originally ripped from CDs that were recorded at lower levels than desired; added gain via Audacity; put them back on my computer and used Media Go to download. Having the “Direct Out” in addition to the headphone out is a nice feature. It comes in handy when I am using it to play background music at some of the live events I do. Regarding ruggedness: I have dropped this unit twice where it fell on asphalt. Once while standing still and once while riding my bicycle. It scratched the paint off a little on one corner, but no dents, cracks or other damage. All in all, I am very pleased that I have purchased this unit. I could not see spending hundreds of dollars more for something else. Again, the music quality is fantastic!

I bought a Bluetooth transmitter to set behind my TV so I could watch TV late at night with sound off and Bluetooth headphones so wife can sleep without hearing noise from TV. This goal has been a nightmare of buying and returning blue tooth receivers due to the sound lag between the picture and the delay on hearing the sound from the average Bluetooth receiver. Also in trying to find a good BT receiver with volume adjustment. I found out about APTX capability to make the blue tooth sound arrive quicker so it can be in sync with people talking on the TV, be it the news or a movie. This lead me all the way up the blue tooth ladder to the HIFI Walker H2. I bought it thinking my problems would be over and then I would have this great MP3 player to use when ever I would normally use my phone to listen to music. The 4.0 Bluetooth in this thing positively SUCKS. I will explain what the HIFI walker is doing and how it is pissing me off. I am using a Bluetooth transmitter, CARPURIDE ASIN B098QGXRHF behind my TV. This CARPURIDE transmitter is pretty decent, It has an LCD screen and shows the connection status, that means it shows one of 3 connection types it is capable of, aptx, apts HD and regular connection without any advanced features. I can connect the HIFI walker to this transmitter but never once has it connected using the aptx or aptx HD. So maybe the transmitter is the issue? I don't think so, here is why. I have a Lavales Bluetooth 5.2 Receiver that uses aptx HD and aptx without HD and it can connect with no aptx. It lights up blue for no aptx, white for aptx and green for aptx HD. Aptx or aptx HD gets me lag free TV watching, sound is synced with peoples lips moving while watching TV. All the different connection types aptx etc is confirmed on the CARPURIDE LCD screen. So, what is the issue shouldn't I be happy? No. this Lavales Bluetooth 5.2 Transmitter has no volume control. I have to walk over to the TV and reach around and adjust the volume on the CARPURIDE transmitter. This sucks. But the Lavales Bluetooth 5.2 Transmitter Receiver when in receiver mode using wired headphones is totally ROCK SOLID with its Bluetooth connection. It never drops, NEVER. Enter the HIFI Walker H2. Lot of good things and 2 bad things, the bad things kills it for me. The 4.0 Bluetooth in this thing does not work well, it drops the connection every 3 to 5 minutes. It disconnects for 30 seconds and then automatically reconnects, I watch it, pull it out and look at the screen. it has totally dropped the connection. 2, I can not get a aptx connection at all. Some times it will go for 15 minute before it drops the Bluetooth connection then does it again and all night long until I just give up and go back to the Lavales Bluetooth 5.2 Transmitter Receiver. I was going to just deal with the non aptx and sound lag and keep the HIFI walker but due to the crappy Bluetooth connection I just cant handle it. That is a shame. I really think the manufacturer should upgrade the Bluetooth in the HIFI walker. I doubt it actually has any aptx at all, but admit it might be the old 4.0 Bluetooth that is not compatible with my more up to date 5.0+ Bluetooth devices. Example of incompatibility, I just bought a brand new LG TV a few months ago. It will not pickup the HIFI walker at all, just does not see it, no matter what, and I spend hrs trying, close, far etc and nothing. I attribute that to the HIFI walker's 4.0 Bluetooth. Other issues with the HIFI walker: It is WAY to heavy. I put it in my front shirt pocket and it pulls the pocket down with it's weight a lot. There is simply no reason for this unit to weigh this much unless the manufacturer thinks this will make people think all this weight equals quality. Ok it kinda does until you put it in a shirt pocket and that weight becomes an issue. Now if I was actually walking with it and that weight was making it jiggle in my pocket, OH HELL NO! Bottom headphone jack, why? Who does the manufacture of the HIFI walker think the head phone connection belongs on the bottom? is the HIFI walker meant to go for walks and play music for the user? Then why build it so the headphone jack is on the bottom? this just makes no sense to me and shows the engineers who design this unit don't actually use it. There is a lot of that in the world. So to the manufacturer, I say "please" re-design and update this unit. I like so much about it, just not the weight and not the 4.0 blue tooth performance and top headphone jack. Now what? I am returning the HIFI walker and going to resign myself to buying the best rated MP3 player I can find with 5.0 or better Bluetooth with volume adjustment. Then, I am just going to live with the slight lag in Bluetooth sync, as long as it has a volume button and a solid Bluetooth connection. There seams to be a ton of them, I just have to search and find the right one. Problem, no one seams interested in the Bluetooth performance on these. No one reviews this. Darn. I am sure there are plenty of people happy with the HIFI walker, lots to like, it just did not work for me due to my main use of it as a Bluetooth receiver using wired headphones, expecting solid connection and hoping for actual working aptx feature. I will be watching and hoping for a redesign of the HIFI walker that cures the heavy weight and the old 4.0 Bluetooth. If this happens I will buy the updated version. Bottom line? I do not recommend the HIFI walker if you are going to use the Bluetooth at all. It just sucks and your more up to date 5.0+ Bluetooth devices are not going to like the old 4.0 Bluetooth on this.

Perfect! Works effortlessly with bluetooth headphones, regular headphones, and is awesome! Was on a no phone kick for a while and the sound quality was great. Easy to use once you got the hang of it.

Physicality: Good weight. Sturdy feel. The glass scratches very easily, so slap a screen protector on it immediately! Not sure if HiFi makes one or not; but if not, you can always do a cut-to-fit. The backside is a shiny surface too [not glass], so it also gets easily scratched! The lock button is useless! It literally only locks the screen. The forward and back buttons are still very active, and often change songs if my pocket bumps something at work. I just feel for the raised buttons in my pocket to change songs. Playback/Usage: 2 stars. This is the least-intuitive, most frustrating playback design I have ever come across! I'm a drummer and I like to keep my players on Shuffle mode for variety. If I try to start the song over before it's at least 10 sec in, it'll jump back to the previous song. Skip forward to the one you want to listen to? Nope. New shuffle order. And don't think you can back out to your song list and find that song you wanted. Cause the list has moved down to the currently playing song. Scrolling way through your list, I've begun seeing my scroll wheel stall and drop back the other direction. Audio quality is pretty good. It's hard to make a direct comparison between "flat" [or no] EQ, and a custom one, because any EQ setting drops the audio levels due to no built-in Pre-Amp on the equalizer. And it's a significant audio drop. With no EQ, 25 is a comfortably quiet listening level. With EQ, it's up to at least 40. I think as far as fidelity and sound stage, the FiiO might win out by just a bit. Although FiiO's menu is somehow even worse than this one! The secondary amp output jack is a nice touch; although it bypasses the EQ. I compared it to the headphone jack when plugged in to my car audio, and there's a little increase in quality. But onboard audio adjustment is not possible, as it locks the listening level at what I'm pretty sure is 50%. It's hard to know, because you can still turn the volume up and down - it just won't change through the output. Audio transfer: It has a few different internal folders. If you put any music on the internal storage, then just trust that it's there. Or check your song list. Double check your song list when adding new music to your MicroSD anyway. More than once I've copied a new song to the SD, left to go play my drums, only to have the song not be on there! Copy files to the MicroSD when ejected from the HiFi, then make sure you watch the "Media Updating" on the H2 screen when you pop the card back in. That's the best way to ensure that your music actually copied over. Summary: If you're planning on using this for work music, just get an iPod. If you're looking for something to relax on the couch with while you break out some scotch and Bose Quiet Comforts, then this is your ballpark.