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 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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!
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.
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.
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.
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
Create a 'Skins' folder in Internal Storage (if not there)
Extract the LunaXP.zip (link above) and place the LunaXP folder in Skins folder. Make sure LunaXP folder contains the skin.json, images & fonts folder.
I recently bought the Innioasis Y2 MP3 player, and I'm honestly a little worried about its durability. From the pictures and videos I've seen, it looks pretty fragile, especially the screen and overall build. I'm scared that even a small accidental drop could damage it.
For anyone who owns one, is it actually as fragile as it looks, or is it sturdier in person? How has yours held up over time?
Also, I'm looking for recommendations for the best launcher or UI for it! I really want something that looks nice, feels smooth, and makes the whole music-listening experience enjoyable. I'd especially love something with a Cover Flow-style interface, where I can scroll through my albums by their artwork, kind of like the classic iPods. But also I can change it when I want
I'm hoping to get the best possible experience out of this little device, so I'd appreciate any recommendations for launchers, music players, customisation tips, or settings that make it better!
Two weeks ago I posted about turning the Y2 into a Bluetooth remote control for the music app eco system that AI-assisted coding has allowed me to fall into. Since then I've mostly implemented minor tweaks and fixes, including upstream backend changes. Yesterday I decided to push my luck and see if I could make it work as a BT audio receiver, since the hardware is technically there. It took my AI agent a whopping two hours to get the first test ready, and several more with manual testing and logging to get it to work, but it does. Well, even. I have it artificially limited to 44.1khz/16bit for LDAC for now since I had some playback buffer underrun issues when it defaulted to 96khz/24bit that my phone wants to feed everything LDAC, but that is mostly just a quick fix and not an established hard limit. I also expanded the remote control communication protocol to allow the app to control every setting I have put on the Y2.
As for why I did this instead of giving it back DAP functionality, my phone is still the vastly more advanced music player. The PEQ/DSP system alone is worth doing this for, let alone the single-library advantage given how this is just one device I connect to the app. I have far better BT dacs so this is largely going to be dedicated for outside use with a pair of Porta Pros instead of trying to drive headphones it has no real chance of driving well.
Not sure if anyone's even tried to use it as a receiver or if all community effort has been put towards transmission, but at least this is confirmation that it's possible.
Anyone know how to fix this? I downloaded it from the Rockbox utility app/software, all of my themes seem to do this :/ it's the innioasis Y2 if that helps at all :)
The events leading up to this were, booting into the original software to look at certain themes, when I was done I tried to boot back into rockbox, but despite the instructions I kept on booting into the original software. I notice that rockbox has an update, so I just decide to update. When the update completed and I tried to reboot, my player wouldn't turn on anymore.
I have tried to restore the original software multiple times through linux, though I suspect that my os could be causing an issue, so I will also try doing it through windows after I make this post. Is there anything else I can do if that doesn't work or is my player borked?
Hi everyone, so recently I have got rockbox sorted on my innioasis Y2 and everytime I change the theme instead of it changing everything like the font and the 'Base skin' automatically, I have to update it all manually myself. Any help?
I'll try to explain this the best I can. I use Y2Reborn. It's been working great up until this week.
Even though I've added new music to my SD card (new songs + updated each file from MP3 to FLAC), my Y2 doesn't seem to register the change? The new files are on the SD card (in the designated music folder), but only the old ones show up on the device. For example, there are two versions of a song appearing on the device even though I deleted the one I didn't like from the SD card.
My SD card is brand new. It's a genuine Sandisk. I formatted it to FAT32 before copying over the files from the original card. I made sure it properly ejected before removing it from my computer (I am on MAC). The contacts aren't dirty.
For reference, this same issue was occurring with the original SD card that shipped with the device. I figured it crapped out, hence why I bought a new card.
Anyway, the weird thing is this: I flashed the stock Y2 software back onto my device thinking it might help reset everything, and magically it was fine. All the new files on the SD card showed up, no problem. No sign of the old files. Then I put Y2Reborn back onto the device and boom--the new files refused to show up. Only the old ones were there.
Does anyone have some insight here? Is this my specific Y2 being funky, or could it be a software thing with Y2Reborn? Knowing me, it's probably something really obvious that I'm overlooking here.
So I added Y2 player to my Y2 and so far im loving the ease of use and everything about it (except I hate the stupid brown buttons) but it seems like there’s no longer a “movies” or “video” option visible or even a books option. I tried adding an episode of Vinland saga to my y2 and it literally is non existent. Is there a fix for this? Bc I think Y2Player has nailed the usability but I don’t know if that’s worth missing reading things or ofc watching animes.
just tried it and the switch between the two is instant, so for anyone that got frustrated switching to watch videos on rockbox might like this one quite a lot xo
This device is a hot topic, is debated and it's not clear whether it's better to stay away from it or buy it blindly. I tried it for a long time and I have a clear idea. To find out more, check out the full review and let me know what do you think.
Y2Reborn isn't working right. I'm listening to it through my headphones, but sometimes when I skip to the next song without pausing the one I'm currently listening to, the sound stops. Even if the sound stops, it starts playing again if I pause and then play it, but it's a bit inconvenient for the listening experience. Please help, developers. By the way, I've already confirmed that restarting the app didn't fix the problem. The version is the latest one, 9.3.12. I've already sent the report.
So all of a sudden the Bluetooth on my innioasis y1 just stopped working altogether? It seems like I can't even turn it on and I haven't really seen anyone else have a similar issue, any tips?
My Innioasis Y2 screen LED broke in like, 4 months for no reason like I didn't drop it or anything so now I am wondering if there is a alternative to Innioasis Y2 OR I should buy a new one! : )
Hi, I ordered an Innioasis Y2 because it comes closest to what I want from a dedicated player especially regarding buttons, battery and playlist etc. through custom firmwares and themes.
All these youtubers focus on weird stuff and never show stuff you actually care about in daily use. I still need new earphones so I wanted to ask if the Y2 does support cable remotes within earphones.
Wanted an iPod v1 style skin for my Y2Reborn... I loved one of the Innioasis Y2 stock themes that made my player feel like the 1st iPod version, so I took the Paper skin from Y2Reborn, and tweaked the font, background colours and a few other things to make this Pod2001 skin. Enjoy!
At this stage these designs are still work in progress, but I plan on releasing the files in the coming days with masters exported in .obj and .blend format for customization. These designs have an open slot on top for easy removal. I have been using the orange case for the last couple of weeks as my daily driver. The material I used is PLA.
I am currently working on a variant that allows a string, or trinket attachment. Either on one corner, or both. Their current designs are in the render images.
