Fiio Snowsky Echo: Trading convenience for nostalgia

The Fiio Snowsky Echo is a digital music player (DAP) that I got recently. I read every review about its quirks, but somehow it reminded me of the nostalgia of using posts/old tech, so I just had to get it. Consumerism at its finest.

I documented the hassles I ran into and how I fixed them, so if you’re dealing with the same problems, the solutions are easy to find.

Quirks

Playlists aren’t supported

What a bummer as I put a lot of thought when I curate my playlists. There’s only one Favorite playlist on this device.

There are workarounds though, if you really want those playlists:

• Create separate folders for each playlist. This will create duplicates if one song is in multiple playlists. You’ll need to navigate the Folder View instead of the Library View, which is much clunkier.

• Edit genres or albums to the playlist name that you want. I really hate this method because I want to keep the accuracy of metadata. However, I find this makes grouping and browsing music much easier.

Music organization is out of the window

• If you listen to audiobooks, they will be included in All Songs. You can put them in different folders, like one for Music and one for Audiobooks. But navigating folders is tiring, and I like to browse All Songs. I think it’s just better to listen to audibooks on your phone.

• I have this lofi study playlist that I really want for focus work, but I don’t want to mix them with my songs with lyrics. So I have to refrain from putting the playlist on the DAP.

Album art doesn’t show if it’s not in the right size

Album art will not show if it’s in very high resolution. Use software like Mp3tag to resize the covers to 500x500.

Using 2 buttons for volumes, fast forward/rewind, and skips

• One press (then multiple presses or long press): volume
• Double presses: skip/go back
• Long press: fast forward/rewind

Lyrics don’t show

Lyrics don’t show unless you get .lrc files with the same name as the song files. Embedded lyrics using tags won’t show.

I pulled lyrics using LRCGET and Lyricsify.

Loud buttons

I really hate the noise from the clicky buttons. When using in a quiet environment, the noise is very noticeable and attention-grabbing.

How I set up

1. I get a 64GB SD card as my library is only around 30GB. Put it in the Echo and format it from the Echo.
2. I use a SD converter to connect the card to my Mac. Luckily, I got the converter when buying my camera, if you don’t have a converter, you’ll need to buy one too.
3. I copy the folders to the card, and choose the option Clean up by name.
4. Plug the card back in the Echo, do a Library Refresh.

How I organize my music for the Echo

I tweak a bit to ensure music displays perfectly on the Echo.

1. I make sure every song has a corresponding .lrc file, so the lyrics show.
2. I convert cover size to 500x500, so the album art shows.
3. I edit tags, making sure Title, Artist, Album, Album Artist, Genre are filled and correct. Album Artist and Genre will be used for the Artist and Genre folders on the Echo.
4. I rename the songs to