F20 HiFi MP3 Player with Bluetooth5.2, Lossless DSD High Resolution Digital Audio Music Player, High-Res Portable Audio Player with 64GB Memory Card, Support up to 512GB

This system can take accidental drops but be careful because I would not guarantee that. This system does allow portable beautiful music to be shared on speakers or listened to totally privately alone somewhere like on a train or city bus. There may be better systems out there. It may just need mega base boosting headphones if there is such thing. I found that the way I set the EQ causes sound on head phones lacking the full bass that I wrote into my digital remaster song. I get some fair bass with the LFS speakers. It sounds better with LFS bass boost turned off because my EQ settings is how I want it. I doctored songs with audio editors prior to copying them to USB card. Each song is written to sound perfect. I never have to adjust anything on music players or speakers after rendering a track. I once again have bought better speakers than I had when I first bought this device. The sound is even more rich now than any bluetooth speaker I have had before. They are slightly bigger speakers again and not so easy to carry around my neck the way I was doing with little speakers. I can also use a scarf to wrap and tie the speakers up and attach them to any bicycle handle bar on the left and right. No EQ setting is satisfactory for bass on head phones, but I can use my computer head phone port and Windows Media Player, instead of the Surfans music player, to get the sound I expect on head phones with and without a Soundblaster card. What matters is that I get ok sound on bluetooth speakers. The fact is I have never needed F20 for head phones. I will give it 5 stars because it works well. I have remastered every song I listen to to play as loud as it can without distortion, with creative sound level fades so it is not just like a flood of oversaturated volume through, second by second perfection, and bringing out the sound of instruments, excellent pace flow and frequency balance. I would be nice if people would appreciate all the work I did. It is more real to try to go savage and carry speakers without a car or a motorcycle and I want people to like it because of the beauty in it. The music is not just for me. It is also for people outside to get a drift of what I thought was something good. Much of the songs are just sweet love songs people could tolerate. I have had issues with my computer and the micro-sd card getting corrupted at times but it can be fixed and I can export or copy the songs I wanted over any corrupted file from backups or the source. I've never really lost anything. I am familiar with command prompt on Windows and I like using it. I have various sound mastering programs, that are some free progs and some professional software. The main thing is I like the songs and I am not out there being fake pretending that I like it. I may ask the company if I replace the F20, is there any higher quality Surfans player or are they all the same quality. Ideally I would have a receiver/device and speakers that somebody could confirm for me really does all have max bit rate of at least 24bit sound. Such a thing would be worth paying for, and it should be easy to return something that is not genuine luxury. I believe there are bluetooth systems that really could transmit 24bit sound. All they need is someone who cares about it like me.

If you ask my wife, I've gone through too many MP3 players looking for the best one for my needs. I've had a lot of the unknown brands and some are actually really good..just not exactly what I wanted. The one I've been using since summer goes everywhere with me...but I needed something BETTER. Got it with this. Let me preface this by saying this is not for beginners. If the extent of your music playing comes from apps on your phone, you might be lost in the beginning. If you're looking for a touch screen with big pretty buttons, this isn't it. I read another review saying the user experience is bad. I think that's absurd. If you're serious about music but on a tight budget, this has an experience you will appreciate. The UI is extremely intuitive and there are a lot of options and settings to fiddle with to get this set up exactly the way you want it. DAC - This has a great DAC for the price. It's not the most current generation, but at this price point that is to be expected. It does the job and does it well. My FLAC and MP3 sound fantastic pumped through a solid pair of IEM headphones. Blows away other DACs in the next tier down. TI makes a really great DAC! Sound - Even my lower quality MP3s I've been keeping since the days of Napster sound great. Obviously you can tell the difference in quality when one of the old files pops up on the shuffle, but it doesn't sound grainy or glitchy. My high quality 320kbps files and the few albums I've ripped from CD to FLAC are where this shines. It is absolutely phenomenal to listen to hi res audio on this device. I am really impressed at the sound for the price. Build - Another review says this device is lacking in build quality. This is an aluminum brick. The buttons are plastic but seem completely solid. The scrolling wheel is textured plastic but feels very sturdy. I had no problems navigating the menus with it. The buttons are all perfectly labeled and make navigating the interface that much easier. The screen is of a decent resolution for this type of device as well. EQ - This has a very competent 10 band equalizer with lots of presets. Unlike in low-end hi-res players, the equalizer here makes a difference. I've got it set on Rock and it sounds fantastic. I/O - I've used this device with bluetooth headphones, bluetooth earbuds, a bluetooth stereo, single bluetooth speaker, and my car bluetooth. No connectivity problems at all. I get the best sound out of my wired IEMs, though. Bluetooth is fine, but nothing compares to a decent pair of headphones. You can also connect external devices (I used a generic USB stick connected with a micro-USB OTG cable) and get music from those. I've got a 128GB MicroSD card installed and am listening to this device streaming through an Anker Soundcore about 25 feet away as I type this review. The HiBy Music app works as expected, and streaming from my phone through this is really a simple process IF YOU READ THE INSTRUCTIONS. Haha Interface - Three themes to choose from..Doesn't do much but change the color scheme. What I LOVE about the interface is that you can access important settings from the now playing screen. Turn on and off bluetooth, display lyrics, show album art (looks great), and access the EQ. The back button does what it says, and the menu button does what it says. There is literally no issue with the UI for someone who understands file structure or has ever used a computer. There are two other settings menus accessed from the home screen. You can customize nearly everything. Battery - I fully charged this after receiving. Took about 1.5 hours to fully charge. As of this moment, I've listened to music either through headphones or streaming through bluetooth for about sixteen hours. Mostly streaming to bluetooth. Battery bar shown in the photos is showing about 50%. In real world use, this device might need to be charged once a week, especially if you're mainly listening through wired headphones. Overall impressions: THIS is the MP3 player I've been looking for. It's inexpensive, built like a truck, looks good, and has more settings than I can shake a stick at. I am extremely pleased with my purchase.

First off, this is a product for audiophiles...not people who just want an "mp3 player" or a neat toy to play with. If you don't listen to music in hi-res formats such as 24bit FLAC/ALAC or DSD then you don't need this and may get something more affordable that just plays mp3 files because this really isn't for kids or people who aren't audiophiles. This is no toy but a sophisticated hi-res media player capable of things that iPods only dreamed about. The instructions are also your friend...READ THEM! Some people complain about the navigation wheel but if they just read the manual they would have found that you can very easily navigate using other buttons. So, navigation is no issue for me (but yes, that wheel sucks). There are other things that are very useful to know in the manual, however it references a website that is obsolete - mainly in reference to drivers specific to the unit's USB-DAC functionality (which has to be intentionally activated, and the driver is pre-loaded on the included microSD and must be installed on PCs). I wouldn't recommend this to people to use as a USB-DAC, though (especially if running Win 10 because it's a driver from 2013) - the Monoprice Desktop Amp is much better in terms of a pure USB-DAC without any driver installation required and also costs less. If all you want is a USB-DAC and not a portable media player then don't get this. I got this mainly as an extension to my existing USB-DAC (Monoprice Desktop Headphone Amplifier) because I wanted something that supported DSD files which I could run through the Aux In on the Monoprice - so, I needed it to have a line out jack. Sure, a headphone jack can get the job done but it's not always the best method so I figured I'd do it right from the start. If you only need a headphone jack then perhaps the Fiio M3k might be better suited for you (it also supports more space), but I haven't used that one because it only has a headphone jack. However, for those that need a line out to extend their hi-fi setup then this is the unit for you - though I highly suggest getting a microSD card with more space because that 16GB card that comes with it will fill up rather quick if loading lossless audio onto it. Also, it transfers data faster if you have a card reader on your computer versus connecting via USB. The transfer rate via USB is around 10MB/s or under but when card is inserted as media the transfer rate is around 25MB/s - the only drawback to doing it this way is that you have to manually update the player's content and it won't do it automatically as it does when transferring via USB. It's super easy to manually update it, the instructions tell you how. This player really brings out the quality of the audio and even sounds better running it through the Monoprice's Aux In and through my stereo vs playing the files from my computer and through the Monoprice's USB-DAC into my stereo, I don't have to turn it up as loud. But it's all relative to how good the recording/mastering is to begin with. I definitely prefer playing the media off this instead of my computer though (most likely due to less interference). There are a few things that I would improve upon in terms of design and functionality but all-in-all this is very good lossless media player that I would happily recommend to anyone who is technologically intuitive. However, don't give this as a gift to people who can't navigate their way around a smartphone (or need to have a touch screen for everything). I took one star off because it could be better in terms of functionality and the user interface. Pros: * Audiophile quality sound (and powerful!) * Built-in EQ * Solid construction and sturdy housing * Has both line out and headphone jacks * Plays all formats of lossless audio and all sample rates * Has low/high gain options (keep it low unless you know it needs to be high, especially connecting to external units) * Has Bluetooth (didn't use that so can't review the Bluetooth functionality) * Long battery life * Automatically pauses when headphone/line out is disconnected * Can optimize display and settings to your liking (colors, brightness, screen timeout, etc) * Idle shutoff (so battery doesn't drain) Cons: * No charge light indicator (only power light) and doesn't indicate how much of the battery is charged when it's charging. * Function buttons don't work when screen is black and you have to quickly press the power button so the screen illuminates to "unlock" button functions. Probably great for those who keep it in their pocket or in an arm-band but it should have its own dedicated lock option or the option to disable it. * Navigation wheel is more for show than function, easier to navigate with the << and >> buttons. * microSD slot is a bit too recessed. If you have really short nails you might have issues removing/inserting the card, the tip of your finger won't do it.

DO NOT BUY Absolute worst and most overpriced mp3 on the market. Half the music I attempt to upload doesnt appear when I have the mp3 unplugged from computer. I have tested multiple memory cards and guess they aren’t compatible. Not user friendly. Battery goes out IN JUST A FEW HOURS and doesnt charge while connected to computer unless you turn it on as it is plugged in. Cannot delete songs from the mp3 player you have to painstakingly take the songs off while you are connected. I mistakenly formatted the card as I had to edit my music on my mp3 and I guess this memory card that it came with is no longer functional? I have some albums I have tried over and over again to upload onto this thing and they just refuse to appear. No errors. Just non existent. Takes FOREVER TO TURN ON AND OFF. If you eject it from the computer apparently it is still running and will DELETE FILES even if ypu eject properly. Steaming pile of hot garbage, better to spend your money on a cheap $20 mp3 than this turd of human engineering. DO NOT BUY

I purchased this specifically for the car, and am unable to get rid of the extra noise, it is a high frequency whine, which sounds like digital noise / aliasing from both outputs using a cable to Aux input (yes checked seated completely same with 2 other cables). The noise is present 1. between tracks 2. in pause and 3. while the audio is in playback which is the most annoying. I am thinking filter issue for the DAC chip? Or is it the radio?...need another car radio with Aux. This noise is not present with headphones direct or Bluetooth. So, some kind of incompatibility for the F20 output and My radios Aux input of the car radio. Not having schematics of the F20 player only the Car Radio in which Aux is isolated via caps and ground is raised via 470 ohm resistor. The Ipods, an old Walkman tape player and a Marantz digital recorder/player have no noise and great audio. I will have to move the scope to the car and see if I can diagnose the issue. So far, help from Surfans has been less than helpful...I must give them more time as they currently have no clue, they need an engineer and not a customer service rep for this issue. Or send me the schematics... So I wait....hoping The radio (older Kenwood w/CD) Aux works fine with my other portables (above) especially the ancient iPod Nano and the regular iPod in which battery life is limited, hence looking for replacement other than an expensive Astell&Kerns to leave in the car. As far as a comparison with the iPod, Apple knocked it out of the park as far as function but not great audio, however it is good enough.... The F20 is a little less user-friendly but easily functional and serviceable. I love the fact it does not have a darned touch screen. AMEN! Bluetooth seems good, as are direct headphones (be sure 32 ohm or less). Bluetooth does not always connect. It may be interference?... I don't know, when it connects it is great. Is the audio super high quality - No, but good enough like my iPods especially if in a car/bus/train/plane. No cell phone, so I cannot compare audio, which I am certain is not great. Being I listen to classical and jazz, mostly FLAC and wav files, my Squeezebox touch handles these exceptionally well The really nice thing is it handles just about every file type, even opus which is not listed. Works with Linux - plug it in, and it acts like a thumb drive to transfer files. Hooray!!! Minor annoyances- Having it in hand, I would suggest rounding the 4 corners as they are just a little too sharp. Display - Larger print option like huge would be also welcome. I do not mind scrolling. Speaking of print, what the heck is that manual, one needs a microscope to read it ! Thank goodness for a PDF! More info on using Linux would have been nice, I figured it out where to put the music files...I do not own/use MAC or Windows...( ok, a Win XP laptop for the antique iPods and test equipment). One must get used to the interface, it is "clunky" for lack of a better word. Again serviceable. Scroll wheel works - ok, be nice if not so stiff, it may get better with use. A little coarser stippling may help too. Now, how do I move fwd or back within a playing piece??? The long press >> seems to jump to next or previous...must be me being clumsy.-YES my issue I may send it back If I cannot solve the extraneous noise issue, I have a couple of weeks. Again, I need to do some testing by moving my tools to the car....car is not coming into the house! I will update this later, only had it just over a week....I may be expecting too much especially from Surfrans customer service/help...I will send another email and we shall see. Renée update- 25 May 2024 I found the problem - NO HELP or very little from their Engineering Dept at all. They seem to think cables are the issue, or it is the audio files - WRONG on both!!! I finally had time and made a quick breakout and bring the scope to the car... I put the scope on the lines--it was obvious looks like oscillations- did not go any further as I recognized the issue from RF devices I design and service....the F20 amps appear to be /are oscillating, (it may also be "bleed through" from the DAC). Appears that amps cannot handle the capacitive load /reactance. 10K is not enough load for this device, or impedance mismatch is causing the issue. I put a resistive load of 75 ohms on each channel to ground ( on my fixture) and the problem vanished, tried 91 ohms still ok. So, somewhere 50 to 100 ohms need to be added across the outputs of maybe both headphone and line outs, this is depending on how it is implemented...I could sure use the schematic. btw, 50, 75 and 91 ohms were what was convenient on the bench and all did the job. 100 ohms are in the ugly breakout box now until I get inside and install them. I sure could use help on getting inside and the schematics, especially to understand why. Let us see if the Customer Service will send that info.---i kind of doubt they will....but one never knows... I will update this if they do hope this helps someone else if the problem arises. Renée

I was excited for the Surfans to arrive and it did - overnight and fully intact. The F20 is a solid little unit and feels very robust. My first job was to load my (puny)12 gigs of music on the Micro SD card. I have a card writer, so I removed the card from the F20 and inserted it into my writer. I noticed a .ini file on the card and copied it to my PC (for backup) and proceeded to copy my entire collection (each album has a folder) to the card, completely bypassing the native app. Once complete, I slid the card back into the F20, powered it up and everything was there. The next step was pairing the device to my Anker Soundcore Q30 headphones, and this is where I ran into trouble. The headphones work fine with all my devices, but for the life of me I could not get them to pair with the F20. The headphones simply would not show up as an available device. I then unpaired the headphones from everything, checked and updated the firmware on the headphones and gave it another try. Finally, magically, the headphones showed up as available and they paired. The native app is very intuitive, and it categorized all my music by artist, album, song title making it a very simple task to dig up what I want to hear. And I have to say, the music sounds excellent. I've made a few adjustments and created my own custom equalizer configuration. Overall, I'm really pleased with the F20. The GUI is very intuitive and the unit is solid. I'm looking forward to my music not being interrupted by a phone call or an email notification. Separating my music from my phone/camera/ was my main goal and I'm glad I did. A pair of JBL Charge 6 speakers are on their way, and I'm looking forward to pairing the G20 to them in stereo. Fingers crossed there will be no glitches. If all goes as planned, I'll have a great little portable stereo system to take camping.

I've been searching for the last couple years for a portable music player that suited my needs. I've wanted a player like my old Sansa Clip Plus with rockbox; Very fast and responsive User Interface that is also Easy to navigate through music files by file name alphabetically(NOT file tags), and all buttons with no touch controls. Obviously sound quality is something to consider but the interface issues mentioned above take priority for me personally. I ordered the Surfans F20 a week or so after I had ordered the HiFi Walker H2 as I was curious if it was the same player and I wanted a spare music player to experiment with. Much to my surprise he F20 is Identical to the H2 outside the physical styling. The F20 has an aluminum frame with a plastic back while the H2's entire housing is metal(probably aluminum. The F20 has metal dimpled scroll wheel with light buttons that stick out of the housing noticably while the H2 has a rubber coated scroll wheel and much firmer buttons that are closer to flush. The F20 uses a Micro USB port to charge and transfer data with it's Micro SD slot being recessed while the H2 uses a USB C port and a more flush Micro SD slot. The H2 weighs considerably more than the F20 and has a lanyard loop in the lower right corner where the F20 is noticeably lighter with no lanyard loop. For all practical purposes the F20 is an H2 minus some weight, the lanyard loop, and has Micro USB instead of USB C. That being said, everything that I said about the H2 applies to the the F20; It ticks all the right boxes; * The controls are are buttons and the scroll wheel has indentations in it. In most cases you can use the Back or Skip track buttons on the right side of the player instead of the scroll wheel if you so choose. * The user interface is very intuitively laid out. * The user interface is very responsive and fast. * The player firmware works with 1TB micro SD cards * The player supports multi folder deep file structure * The volume control is very precise giving a scale of 1-100 with increments of 1 * The player sound quality is Noticeably better many older cheap players I've used in the past * When browsing music by folder; the files actually appear in alpha-numeric order. * The screen is reasonably bright. It seems a bit dim in daylight but its usable with brightness set to max. * The battery life seems pretty good(15ish hours give or take) * The player plays MP3, OGG, WMA, M4A, FLAC, and WAV I cannot speak for the people looking for some premium HIFI experience, but I can say from a practical stand point; the player is easy and practical to use if you have a large music collection sorted by folder(no tagging) and sounds great even on my janky old headphones and car speakers. It would be disingenuous not to include any criticism of the player so are are a few niggling issues myself and a friend have noticed; * The player seems to have a cut off point somewhere for displaying song files by file tags. I dont use file tags to sort any of my collection but a friend does and he said the H2 only showed about half of his collection (36K songs) from a 500GB micro SD card. When we switch to folder browsing we found everything showed up. If you have a large collection you want to browse through by file TAG then the H2 is probably not for you. * The font/theme/interface is very limited in it's customization. You get like 2 different themes and 3 options for font size. Other than that you cant really customize how the player looks. * The scroll speed doesn't accelerate when browsing by folder when you scroll the wheel or hold down a navigation button(back or forward). This makes going through a large collection a little slower but its not horrible unless you have like a thousand files or folders to go through in a single directory. * The anti-aliasing on font in the player makes it seem slightly blurry at times. There is no way to turn it off.

So, here's the skinny from a new purchaser. First of all, I am using a SAMSUNG EVO Plus w/ SD Adaptor 512GB Micro SDXC with the unit ($44). Yes...a 512 gig card. It works just fine. A 512 card will give you around 477 gig worth of storage. So far, I have loaded a total of 1,705 tracks onto the card. There are 1,508 FLAC tracks and 197 320 kbps MP3 tracks (and a few of those are variable bit rate tracks). I STILL have 370 gig left to use on the card. Traditionally, loading music into these things can be a slow process. Therefore, I purchased a UGREEN SD Card Reader 4 in 1 Multi USB 3.0 Micro SD Memory Card Adapter ($17) to speed up the process. Saw complaints about the recessed memory card. It's done to protect the card. It Is NOT hard to get the card out...take your thumbnail and slowly press the card down. It is designed to POP UP when you do that. DO NOT remove your thumb during the process or else the card will shoot out like a cannon ball. Good luck finding it if it does that! Next, in answer to using the unit with a car stereo system, YES!...if your car unit has a USB slot, this WILL play via your car stereo! The only drawback to this is that your car stereo looks at the unit as if it were just a USB memory stick. You WILL lose the random play feature. Otherwise, it sounds great (since most of my music is flac). Which brings up the sound quality...ANY type of MP3 file is a LOSSY file. Therefore, it will automatically (even at 320 CBR) NOT sound as good as a FLAC file. FLAC files are LOSSLESS...you don't lose any of the quality of the CD that you ripped it from. If you want the HQ FLAC files, you can buy them online via specialty dealers. Regular FLAC files are 16 bit when you rip them from a CD and HQ tracks are 24 bit. There IS an audible difference...not huge, but you can tell. Cymbals are more precise. So...if you use crappy MP3 files (the lowest kbps that I will even listen to is 256 kbs...and I wouldn't use them on this device)...DON'T expect this unit to audibly make your crappy quality files sound good...or better than they are...period. Not sure why people have such a problem with the controls. So what if you have to hit the start button for the screen to reappear? Are you trying to run your battery life into the ground by having it ON all the time? You CAN set the time length for how long the screen stays visible. I cannot speak about Bluetooth usage. I am old school...I don't use Bluetooth headphones, nor have I tried to hook into my car stereo that way. Speaking of which, get some GOOD earbuds! Don't use crappy ones! If I do attempt to try to hook into the car stereo, I will post my thoughts on it. However, I have serious doubts about doing that. Regarding the volume, I have NO issues with it whatsoever. After being in the music business for 30+ years, you learn to NOT ruin your hearing (or what's left of it) by listening at a deafening volume level. With all of that being said, the unit delivers great audio quality...providing that the source material is high quality and not junk. If my thoughts change about the unit after several months use, I will most certainly provide an addendum to this review. As is...I love what I bought. Let's hope that it stays that way. Recommended buy...if you use good source material and good earbuds/headphones.