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Not Impressed By The Zhaolu; Thinking Of Selling It

post #1 of 61
1/10/08 at 12:04pm
Thread Starter 
I received my Zhaolu 2.5A from Eddie about three weeks ago. It only sounds slightly better than the dac in my Pioneer VSX-84 receiver. Switching back and forth between the two is barely noticable. The unit I received even had a few upgrades. The two caps at the psu was replaced with blackgates, the occilator was replaced with TCXO, and the caps were bypassed. I've switched between the stock opamps, the upgraded ones supplied by Eddie, and LM-4562. The LM-4562s did have the best sound to me which made it slighty better than my receiver. The Zhaolu wasn't as good as my receiver with some of the other opamp combinations. So now I'm considering selling it because after everything that I've read, I was expecting it to be superior to the dac in my receiver. That was not the case.
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post #2 of 61
1/10/08 at 1:19pm
Maybe its the preamp and amp section in the receiver that's holding it back. Try the Zhalou through a headphone amp and the preamp out of the receiver through the headphone amp and compare.
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post #3 of 61
1/10/08 at 1:20pm
Sorry to learn of your experience. I have mentioned many times that even a fully modded Zhaolu is no where as good in Musicality and PRaT (Pace, Rhythm and Timing) compared to the bog standard Beresford TC-7510. But unfortunately the lower price of the TC-7510 makes many think it is inferior. The only thing I can fault is the headphone section. It is not loud enough for me. I dumped my Zhaolu with tons of mods about 18 months ago after I 1st heard the TC-7510, and I have never looked back with any regrets.
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post #4 of 61
1/10/08 at 1:27pm
"The digital signal processing of the 84 is provided by a Sharc-EX processor from Analog Devices coupled with a 48-bit Freescale processor. Digital to analogue conversion is performed by 192 kHz / 24-bit DACs and analogue to digital conversion is 96 kHz / 24-bit."

Zhaolu D2.5A employs Analog Devices AD-1852, a complete 24-bit single-chip stereo digital audio playback system, which is considered a famous hi-fi DAC chip.

It could be that the Sharc-EX DAC chip utilizes the fundamental blocks of the AD DAC series. So, it produces similar sonics. This is just my thought.

You may also need to pay attention to quality of interconnection cables which significantly affects the sounds you hear.

If you adjust everything and still hear similar sonics, then you get two quality DACs in your house. :-)
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post #5 of 61
1/10/08 at 2:59pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by recca View Post
Maybe its the preamp and amp section in the receiver that's holding it back. Try the Zhalou through a headphone amp and the preamp out of the receiver through the headphone amp and compare.

I have a nice tube headphone amp that I love. The differences is the same whether I use my headphone amp to drive my headphones or if I use my receiver to power my speakers. I have connected the zhaolu directly to my headphone amp bypassing the receiver altogether with the same results.
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post #6 of 61
1/10/08 at 3:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Herandu View Post
Sorry to learn of your experience. I have mentioned many times that even a fully modded Zhaolu is no where as good in Musicality and PRaT (Pace, Rhythm and Timing) compared to the bog standard Beresford TC-7510. But unfortunately the lower price of the TC-7510 makes many think it is inferior. The only thing I can fault is the headphone section. It is not loud enough for me. I dumped my Zhaolu with tons of mods about 18 months ago after I 1st heard the TC-7510, and I have never looked back with any regrets.

Have you heard a zap filter modded Zhalou? I have two and they are PRaT monsters .... not to mention supremely musical and superb sounding overall. I would agree the stock Zhalou is competent but nothing special.

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f7/zha...4/#post2344471
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post #7 of 61
1/10/08 at 7:58pm
Where did you get the Zhaolu from? and how much? I was thinking of getting the Zero, but was the Zhaolu shipped from the states?
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post #8 of 61
1/10/08 at 11:43pm
One suggestion, too, is to try different opamps. I remember the first D2.0C I bought from Eddie had his "upgraded" opamps in it.

Matter of personal taste, but I liked the sound better with different opamps than he did.

Some folks also like the stock D.25 with the CS DAC, not the AD DAC.

Finally, how long have you had it playing? May just need some time to - dare I say - burn in a bit. I did seem to notice some difference after many (somewhere around 80-100 I'd guess) hours of play....

Good luck!
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post #9 of 61
1/11/08 at 12:26am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by skullguise View Post
One suggestion, too, is to try different opamps. I remember the first D2.0C I bought from Eddie had his "upgraded" opamps in it.

Matter of personal taste, but I liked the sound better with different opamps than he did.

Some folks also like the stock D.25 with the CS DAC, not the AD DAC.

Finally, how long have you had it playing? May just need some time to - dare I say - burn in a bit. I did seem to notice some difference after many (somewhere around 80-100 I'd guess) hours of play....

Good luck!

I've tried three different sets of opamps and prefer the 4562s. With the other opamps I tried, I actually liked the sound out of my 84 better. The sound with the 4562 is better than my 84, but not by much. I have about 40-50 hours of burn in. Eddie told me that he let it run 24 hours with pink noise before he sent it to me.
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post #10 of 61
1/11/08 at 1:48am
i was not impressed with the modded 2.5c that i just sold. i guess for the price it was okay, but it didn't wow me. even with all the mods done on the amp section, it was still somewhat lackluster...i agree about the missing PRaT...but i've not heard an oritek one so can't comment on it.
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post #11 of 61
1/11/08 at 3:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Herandu View Post
Sorry to learn of your experience. I have mentioned many times that even a fully modded Zhaolu is no where as good in Musicality and PRaT (Pace, Rhythm and Timing) compared to the bog standard Beresford TC-7510. But unfortunately the lower price of the TC-7510 makes many think it is inferior. The only thing I can fault is the headphone section. It is not loud enough for me. I dumped my Zhaolu with tons of mods about 18 months ago after I 1st heard the TC-7510, and I have never looked back with any regrets.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sacd lover View Post
Have you heard a zap filter modded Zhalou?
I think the question you should ask is "have you ever heard anything but the 7510..."
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post #12 of 61
1/11/08 at 4:10am
Not sure if any one has mentioned already, but a Zapfiltered Zhaolu is a totally different beast altogether.
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post #13 of 61
1/11/08 at 8:00am
Quote:
Originally Posted by SonicDawg View Post
Not sure if any one has mentioned already, but a Zapfiltered Zhaolu is a totally different beast altogether.
this applies to the Oritek Modded Zhaolu

though the prices of a Zapfiltered Zhaolu and OMZ are also in another ballpark
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post #14 of 61
1/11/08 at 9:15am
Quote:
Originally Posted by d-cee View Post
I think the question you should ask is "have you ever heard anything but the 7510..."
Where do I start? In my repair and servicing trade I get to play with all sorts of stuff, some of which I never even knew existed. DACs are not a new invention. I was fixing some strange ones since the early 90's, and even had for use one DAC made by SONY in the late 80's. It connected up to a betamax VCR recorder so you could turn your betamax tapes into digital stereo. I also did a spell with the BBC soundworks department, where DACs of all sorts litter the floors, including a couple of TC-7510 as it happens! Even saw one in a radio studio in Belfast when on a repair trip to fix a TEAC mixing desk.
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post #15 of 61
1/11/08 at 10:38am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Herandu View Post
Where do I start? In my repair and servicing trade I get to play with all sorts of stuff, some of which I never even knew existed. DACs are not a new invention. I was fixing some strange ones since the early 90's, and even had for use one DAC made by SONY in the late 80's. It connected up to a betamax VCR recorder so you could turn your betamax tapes into digital stereo. I also did a spell with the BBC soundworks department, where DACs of all sorts litter the floors, including a couple of TC-7510 as it happens! Even saw one in a radio studio in Belfast when on a repair trip to fix a TEAC mixing desk.
what about the all the multi thousand (or less) dollar DACs you claim the 7510 beats?

edit: btw you still haven't answered what DACs (and that includes other threads besides this one)
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