Zune Players - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio

KB · #1 (**permalink**) 05-28-2008, 07:00 AM

I nabbed a arm full of 30 Gig brown refurbished Zunes. Pretty good SQ right out of the headphone out. Comes with box and everything you would get if you bought it new. They are "A" stock so are in pretty cherry condition, $98 plus SH not bad.

HERE

KB @ ALo

oicdn · #2 (**permalink**) 05-28-2008, 07:38 AM

Any plans on modding the Zune???

KB · #3 (**permalink**) 05-29-2008, 02:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oicdn

Any plans on modding the Zune???

The problem with the Zune is that there is a IO protocol that is in place integrated with in the device that allows or prevents the signal to be accessed via the dock. The modding part is easy but overcoming the access to the lineout is only going to be accomplished with help from Microsoft. I cornered the person in charge of 3rd party accessory products for the Zune at the CES show, his name was Ivan actually. I gave him my pitch, I wanted to make a line out cable for the Zune. They pretty much blew me off.

Ken

kg21 · #4 (**permalink**) 05-29-2008, 02:59 AM

solid price on the zunes, sucks to hear that microsoft blew you off I think something similiar happened when someone wanted to mod another player but I don't remember exactly (might be cowon or iriver). Hopefully someday head-fi will be so big they will regret that.

oicdn · #5 (**permalink**) 05-29-2008, 03:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KB

The problem with the Zune is that there is a IO protocol that is in place integrated with in the device that allows or prevents the signal to be accessed via the dock. The modding part is easy but overcoming the access to the lineout is only going to be accomplished with help from Microsoft. I cornered the person in charge of 3rd party accessory products for the Zune at the CES show, his name was Ivan actually. I gave him my pitch, I wanted to make a line out cable for the Zune. They pretty much blew me off.

Ken

That's such garbage on microsoft's (or whoever the guy was) part. Way for them to show support for companies wanting to push the industry forward.

I take it it's pretty hard to do any reverse engineering....

KB · #6 (**permalink**) 05-29-2008, 03:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oicdn

That's such garbage on microsoft's (or whoever the guy was) part. Way for them to show support for companies wanting to push the industry forward.

I take it it's pretty hard to do any reverse engineering....

Hey Nate,

Yeah I was also pretty disappointed as well. I thought I made a pretty compelling case to the gent from Microsoft. I in a nut shell said that the product I wanted to produce (a line out cable) would not infringe on any other companies product, would be used by uber audiophiles and would only create positive product buzz for MS. The cable needed access to the audio L, R and ground ONLY. Imagine all the people here at Head-fi able to power their Zune with any number of portable amps, how cool that would have been. Not to mention the fact that the "Zmod" was by all intensive purposes a total success. So much for the "social", eh?

Ken

Reverse engineering would not work, pretty much a authentication chip is needed, or some kind of software alteration to the zunes code. Its not as easy as a resistor across a few pins on the dock.

oicdn · #7 (**permalink**) 05-29-2008, 05:58 AM

Such garbage...and MS wonders why the Zune is always falling short of the iPod when they're not even in any sort of way open to pushing something as simple as after market accessories or cables. WTF is wrong with them?

What about taking the hardware from the MS docks and cables like:
Zune.net | Product Detail - Zune Cable Pack

What makes those cables different from being able to make your own? There doesn't "appear" to be anything different aside from a dock connector. I'm sure somebody here could replicate a chip if there is infact one inside the dock connector.

TheMarchingMule · #8 (**permalink**) 05-29-2008, 06:59 AM

Maybe the rockbox.org team will be able to reverse engineer the Zune...even though the 2nd gen Zune is already out.

KB · #9 (**permalink**) 05-29-2008, 05:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oicdn

Such garbage...and MS wonders why the Zune is always falling short of the iPod when they're not even in any sort of way open to pushing something as simple as after market accessories or cables. WTF is wrong with them?

What about taking the hardware from the MS docks and cables like:
Zune.net | Product Detail - Zune Cable Pack

What makes those cables different from being able to make your own? There doesn't "appear" to be anything different aside from a dock connector. I'm sure somebody here could replicate a chip if there is infact one inside the dock connector.

I am pretty sure that if we are not talking about a huge mass market target (not like head-fiers and even all audiophile types) then Microsoft does not give a rats rear, if ya know what I mean.

If you look at the AV pack in that link, this is what you need in order for the line out audio to be activated to the dock pins. The actual Zune docking station base powered up, AND the Zune remote. If you do not have the remote it will not allow the signal to be released. The dock I had also has a recessed mini jack for the Zune mini to RCA so they forced you to buy a Zune mini to RCA cable. Amazing. I know there are a lot of Apple bashers but at least Apple does not do crap like this. Eh? My worst fear is for Apple to follow this non sense on some future generation.

I am sure some day one company will wake up and make a portable device dedicated for use with a external headphone amplifier (no headphone output stage) that will also have a digital as well as analog outputs (500Gig or more!!)

. A portable geared for pure signal cleanliness. I wish I could do that! All my pals in the biz tell me it would cost a pretty penny to make a true portable audiophile device, but I am sure some day it will come.

Ken

Nihility · #10 (**permalink**) 05-29-2008, 07:06 PM

ya, they could call it the PortaPhile or something

mrdeadfolx · #11 (**permalink**) 05-29-2008, 08:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nihility

ya, they could call it the PortaPhile or something

Lol theyd have to be more creative than that, the Portaphile is taken.

Drag0n · #12 (**permalink**) 06-01-2008, 06:34 AM

They can call it Ipod 160gb Classic :O

lol

mrdeadfolx is jumping for joy right now...lol :P

oicdn · #13 (**permalink**) 06-01-2008, 09:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KB

I am pretty sure that if we are not talking about a huge mass market target (not like head-fiers and even all audiophile types) then Microsoft does not give a rats rear, if ya know what I mean.

If you look at the AV pack in that link, this is what you need in order for the line out audio to be activated to the dock pins. The actual Zune docking station base powered up, AND the Zune remote. If you do not have the remote it will not allow the signal to be released. The dock I had also has a recessed mini jack for the Zune mini to RCA so they forced you to buy a Zune mini to RCA cable. Amazing. I know there are a lot of Apple bashers but at least Apple does not do crap like this. Eh? My worst fear is for Apple to follow this non sense on some future generation.

I am sure some day one company will wake up and make a portable device dedicated for use with a external headphone amplifier (no headphone output stage) that will also have a digital as well as analog outputs (500Gig or more!!)

. A portable geared for pure signal cleanliness. I wish I could do that! All my pals in the biz tell me it would cost a pretty penny to make a true portable audiophile device, but I am sure some day it will come.

Ken

Hmm....that's crap. So there really is almost no way around it.

The closest you could get would be like your vCap dock. Even then, you'de have to find a way to get the MS chip/code (or at the very least a carbon copy or scavenge it from an existing one, which probably isn't that hard is it?), and if you wanted to make it portable, it could have a battery pack...I wouldn't think the dock would require that much voltage just for a release signal and could run on like a AAA or something of the like since it doesn't need to also be a charging station...

zeroibis · #14 (**permalink**) 06-02-2008, 06:23 AM

wow, I was really hoping that there would be a break but I guess not. I could get a zune on the cheep but it is not worth it if I still can not go direct to amp.

What some one really needs to do is make like an open source mp3 player. IT just does audio only. Runs maybe some sort of linix os but you can change everything else. The drive the dsp the outputs. It might be a little bulky to make it easy to upgrade but hey let the users choose the drive the chips and the bats and then we can all have our perfect little mp3 player. Maybe little dot could figure it out and build it into a MK1.

Trastan · #15 (**permalink**) 06-02-2008, 07:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KB

The dock I had also has a recessed mini jack for the Zune mini to RCA so they forced you to buy a Zune mini to RCA cable. Amazing. I know there are a lot of Apple bashers but at least Apple does not do crap like this. Eh? My worst fear is for Apple to follow this non sense on some future generation.

A bit off-topic, but I think you're going a bit overboard here. I assume that you're talking about the version 1 dock, as the current dock not only is a perfectly flat back (allowing you to use whatever sized mini cable you'd like) but also full component output, with nothing proprietary in sight. As far as I'm concerned, Microsoft did their (current) dock right.

Too bad about the lack of a line-out, though. I'm a straight-from-the-headphone-jack guy, but I can certainly understand why this would be a disappointment to those who like to use their own amp. Perhaps they'll allow it in some future firmware update; we did just get gapless, after all, and that's a fairly audiophile-centric feature.