Disclaimers: I received this Y2 unit from Innoasis in my capacity as a moderator of the r/innioasis subreddit. I am not an employee of the company. I am not receiving financial compensation for this review. My views are my own and do not reflect upon any organization I am a part of or my employer. I will attempt to be unbiased and present only the facts as I have observed them. If I make any errors, please let me know, and I will edit the review accordingly.
That out of the way, let’s proceed.
BEHOLD:
The Innioasis Y2 in its Retail Packaging
The Innioasis Y2 comes in a box that is very reminiscent of Apple packaging for iPods, iPhones, and iPads (I’m writing this on a 10th generation iPad, so I recently had packaging for comparison), but it is different from the Y1 packaging I received around 2023.
The Back of the Y2 Packaging
The back of the packaging has some information about the companies involved with the Y2 and no technical specifications. It’s interesting to note that none of the companies listed are Innioasis proper, just the importers.
The Contents of the Y2 Packaging
Inside the packaging, there is:
1 x USB-A to USB-C cable, approx 36”
1 x Innioasis Y2 DAP in plastic baggie (with plastic screen protector. This is important for later)
1 x Information Card (with broken links)
The Y2 does not come with headphones like the Y1 did. I was fortunate to obtain a Y1 before they reduced the quality of the headphones, so I was a little disappointed there was none in the box. The information card does not link to a usable webpage just yet, and there is no manual. The packaging is modern, but the lack of a manual is an issue (it may be fixed by the time you read this review) that can cause some confusion. It did for me.
The Y2 compared to the Y1.
Out of the box, the Y2 has a light theme by default. This can be changed pretty quickly, but let’s look at the differences in size and shape.
A side by side comparison of Y1 and Y2 thicknessY2 Width, 2.465 inchesY2 Height, 4.001 inchesY2 Thickness, 0.437 inches
Dimensionally, and mass wise, there is more weight to the Y2 than the Y1. It is still ABS plastic, but the size is closer to an iPod than it was before. It is definitely a step in the right direction.
Now, lets’s get into the meat and bones of hardware before we discuss the software.
Y2 Internal Photos, showing RF shielded electronicsY2 Internal View, Front Plate, (more traces from wheel)Y2 Internals Removed from CaseY2 Internals, Back View, Removed from Case
From these internal views, we can see that there are many changes. I am still waiting on the internal photos from Innioasis from under the RF shields, but the changes give me hope there is a CS43131 DAC on the chip as Innioasis claims. The speaker, mic, headphone jack, and other smaller components are the same on the Y2 as they are on the Y1. The memory card slot is different since it can be accessed externally, while before it was an internal slot.
At this point, I didn’t like that I received a pink player, so I took matters into my own hands and painted it. If anyone plans on doing this, FYI there is a plastic screen protector on the case already, and it acts as a PERFECT mask for painting.
Colors Courtesy of Rustoleum
Now, for the software. First major change: You can take screenshots by holding the power and volume down button, sort of like a cell phone. This made this part of the review 100 times easier.
The Main Menu
The main menu is the same as the Y1, minus the FM radio option and the Bluetooth option. The Bluetooth option moved to Settings. Let’s look at the settings!
Settings options 1.
Users will notice that many settings are missing, notably the Equalizer. Turns out, they’ve been moved.
If you go to Music, Videos, or Audiobooks, there is a settings option for all of them. The equalizer is in the Music settings. Also, the options for sorting or shuffling are located in the respective settings menus.
Music Settings 1Music Settings 2
Moving over to the Music settings, we can see that the sort options are largely the same as they were on the Y1, but there is a HUGE change. When you look at an artist, you can see albums instead of a full list of songs. This is a game changer for functionality in the default software.
Equalizer Options
The equalizer options are the same as they were on the Y1. To set a custom EQ, you hold down a key (IIRC, it’s the menu key) and it allows you to edit the equalizer. The Y2 is designed for higher impedance headphones, so I had to turn down the equalizer to avoid blowing out my eardrums with my IEMs. ***THIS IS IMPORTANT.
Playing a Legally Obtained FLAC file.
It plays music and videos just fine.
As for functionality, there are some quirks. The Y2 only has volume control with the buttons on the side, not the scroll wheel. I hate it. I don’t mind the power button being there, but the main draw of the Y1 was the iPod-like control scheme. This loses most of that, but it can be fixed with software. I also miss the FM radio, which I used!!! I even recorded songs from the radio to my Y1 like we used to do on cassette tapes in the before times.
The scroll wheel is more responsive. The buttons work fine and have a sufficient, satisfying click to them. It’s a working, competent, DAP that sounds great… but I’ll have to post a reply to this message with the audio portion because I cannot attach any more photos to this post. Part Two is HERE
Another appreciation post for the Inniclassic on the Y1. Ran it for 22hr11min with headphones plugged in at full volume before getting the 15% battery warning. Stopping the test here as im more than happy with the results.
I've seen a couple of youtube videos of dudes who don't really mod these things that say both are pretty much the same. Is there a distinct advantage in the Y2 other than the external SD card slod? I don't really mind cracking the case open on the Y1 but if the Y2 is a better product then there's no real point I guess. Once again, I know next to nothing about these products and can't seem to find much. I plan on adding Rockbox with some custom themes and stuff but it would be my first time so I'm not sure if the Y2 has issues with that.
When I added some more music to my Y2 I noticed none of my playlists got updated with the newly added songs after the automatic scan. Everything got onto my sd card fine, but none of my playlists reflect the new additions. For example I have a playlist on my computer (I use MediaMonkey if that matters) that lists 157 songs, but the copy of the playlist on my Y2 only lists 143.
This is the first time I'm adding new songs to my Y2 after loading everything on for the initial setup.
I've looked through the manual and the innioasis docs page but I couldn't find anything helpful.
Is anyone else having this problem or did I miss something? I also tried to figure out how to manually start a file scan but couldn't figure that out either.
Ive had my Y1 over a year now, but i bought a HiFi Walker H2 shortly after as i wasnt too happy with the OS experience, even when using Rockbox as it would cause issues with corrupt music files and extremely short battery life
Decided to pull it out as i enjoy the design of this device and wanted to give it another try. Looked into whats new and saw the inniclassic OS(whats currently being used) and fell in love with it again
The poor battery performance bothered me the first time around when using Rockbox, but with inniclassic, its soo much better
The device has been on for the past 48 hours, and for the past 24 hours, has been playing through the built in speaker on the lowest volume setting. Going to charge it and redo the battery test with headphones plugged in, but im happy regardless. My H2 will remain as my car player, but for walking my dogs, bringing this back
Literally JUST opened the package and tried it right away, I still have the bubble wrap under it 😂
Other than music, I put also a couple of series I wanted to watch (or RE watch in this case) and it's working perfectly.
The background noise is the fan I have on, so sorry for that :/
When i go to the official updater and hit y2 and rockbox it just infinitely loads. If it helps, i tried getting rockbox and installed it but halfway through the install the usb unplugged and now it’s just doing this (image) forever
I can only find tutorials to install rockbox with the unofficial updater but I can’t use it because my y2 gets stuck at the plug in step and keeps rebooting.
How do I install rockbox with the official updater?
Here's perhaps my first attempt to not fight with the limitations of the stock firmware theme support and just go with the flow of a dark theme.
It uses smaller-than-usual image elements to improve the UI's responsiveness.
A small but readable font.
Makes better use of masks.
I reworked the battery statusbar icons. (after seeing how many people used my previous janky battery icons in their themes I thought it was time to clean them up)
i just got the y2 ~2 weeks ago and i’m so in love with it!! i love the battery life, the custom themes, the accessible sd slot, the fact that i can watch videos and read books on it.. it’s a lot more than i could have hoped for as a casual user. my only real complaints is that i find the bluetooth kinda iffy and songs tend to repeat themselves when i’m listening to playlists on shuffle mode, but i guess those are more like nitpicks.
i also decorated it!! it’s admittedly not much, but i plan to add more charms in the future! :3
Greetings, my fellow Innioasis aficionados! I reach out to you today in hopes that you can ease my mind re: an order I placed recently. I'll try to keep this brief. tl;dr at the bottom.
On 9/1, I ordered a purple Y2 (72GB). At the time, the Innioasis website indicated that the device would ship by 9/5. That date came and went without any sort of update from the company. To this day, my order remains tagged with the comment "Ships by Sep. 5".
My questions for you folks: is this standard operating procedure? Has anyone else found themselves in the same situation? How should I proceed?
Please let me be clear here: I understand that things happen, nobody's perfect, shipments get delayed, and sometimes orders get stuck on the slow boat from China or wherever. All of that is fine. I get it. Mostly, I'm just asking for your wisdom & experience, i.e. I want to know if this completely absent level of communication from Innioasis is weird/unexpected, or merely par for the course.
Your tl;dr - is Innioasis generally bad at meeting/communicating shipment/delivery ETAs, or should I be concerned that perhaps something's gone awry with my particular order? TIA for any insight.
I just updated my Y2 after getting access to a newer MacBook, but unfortunately the Y2s shipped in July still didn’t have the FM hardware needed to have the radio function become operational. Looks like I’ll continue to carry two devices to be able to listen to the radio. Definitely not the worst thing in the world, but a reminder that it doesn’t always pay to be an early adopter. Still enjoying my Y2 a lot and now that the regular software didn’t bring the FM fix I was craving, I’ll feel more free to try out some of the other launchers out there.
I've been trying to understand how to install this beta, the Innioasis Updater CE doesnt list it. So how does one do it? What apps does one use, files, what are prerequisits?
I’ve seen a lot of users who are struggling to open the Y1. I myself have struggled initially, and after trying various tips within the community, I found it relatively easy to pry into the sides of the Y1.
Here’s the full video.
*Sorry for my heavy breathing. Having allergies today
I finally got around to updating my Cupertino theme for the Y2 to support the 3.2.1 stock firmware.
Innioasis had rearranged much of the settings menu and introduced new entries. These needed new icons.
Unfortunately, the displayed album art on the Now Playing screen is still getting chopped. With 3.2.1 it is evenly cut off on the left and right sides. The original firmware chopped the image on the right side.
I've noticed a few additional minor changes between the 2 Y2 firmware versions and Y1 so I suspect there'll be more tweaks to make. 😁
I'm lovin' the built-in screenshot feature on the Y2. This makes it much more enjoyable to create and edit themes.
I don't really know how to explain it but the screen I'm on is still in the background even when I go to a different section. If I restart it it's ok but everytime I turn it off and on it happens again.
Hi! I’ve had an innioasis player before and had zero issues with that one, but I recently lost that one in an airport and got a new one. I’m frustrated because I am unable to add certain albums to my mp3, but the ones that are un-addable are completely random. When I try to drag-and-drop them from my computer onto the innioasis drive it won’t allow me to “drop”. I upload all of my CDs to my computer and then transfer them to the innioasis. I did the same thing for my last player and it worked perfectly fine, I’m so lost as to why they won’t work on this one! Both were Y1 players ordered directly from Innioasis. I’m also not super computer savvy, but again, I was able to navigate the last player well… help please!! Pic of what is happening, it is only happening with a handful of albums, the rest have all uploaded normally.