[glassmonkey]

  That is surprising, and worrisome, happening on multiple units.  Maybe its the lighting, but the finishing of the woodwork looks pretty rough in general around the edges of the screen, particularly the upper part. @glassmonkey, I really think and hope you get a replacement unit.   After all the QC input you've given EB and all the problems you're having, as well as being a good-will ambassador for them, I think they owe you that much.

I'm just one opinionated customer talking to other opinionated customers. Echobox owes me nothing but the service that any customer should expect. It does feel a little like we're the beta testers a bit. Ah, crowdfunding!

 

[dlayman]

  I'm just one opinionated customer talking to other opinionated customers. Echobox owes me nothing but the service that any customer should expect. It does feel a little like we're the beta testers a bit. Ah, crowdfunding!

 
Perhaps, but it sure seems you have a defective unit that can only be fixed by replacement.  True, technically they don't "owe" you anything legally other than a properly functioning unit, but you've gone above and beyond for them and its good business, and the right thing IMO,  to reciprocate.  From either viewpoint, it may well be that replacement is the only way you're going to get a proper unit.
 
Some of these things make it sound like alpha-testers might be more accurate.  I personally hope I don't see my unit for a good long time and that hopefully they fix the quality problems by then, although it certainly seems like hardware limitations will remain.

 

[silverstare11]

   
I'm going to give Sam a couple days, but I've made a copy of my email with some further explanation and put it into post ready html. I'll definitely share if I don't hear anything. When problems occur with stuff I receive my general approach is to give the manufacturer fair opportunity to make it right before bringing my troubles, which may be outliers, into the full light of day. It's fully possible that I'm not alone in my troubles, but there is a pretty small sample size of people with the units so there should be time to remedy.

One of my 'troubles' is in my audioprimate instagram. See if you can spot it.

Ouch!  It arrived that way?  Not cool.  EB's QC needs to spend more time with each unit and/or be more selective about which units are considered shippable.  Yours never should have left the factory.  I get that each piece of wood is unique, but c'mon...

 

[Psymon]

I've gotten to use my unit a bit more over the past week or so, and i'm still very much enjoying the sound. My Zen 2.0 sounds absolutely amazing out of it!
 
That aside, it's 100% useless with wifi enabled, the pops and crackle are very audible, even on high Ohm headphones. So no streaming, it's all local music.
 
The software is buggy, but i can live with that, because that can be fixed, and i have faith that Echobox will do that.
 
Two issues besides the crackle/pop, are heat, and i don't mean the nice handwarmer part, i mean the bottom metal place getting almost burning hot, and battery is simply so unstable, i don't trust that the player will actually have battery after i put it away without plugging it in for charging
 
Both those issues could technically be software related, but i honestly don't know.

 

[glassmonkey]

  I've gotten to use my unit a bit more over the past week or so, and i'm still very much enjoying the sound. My Zen 2.0 sounds absolutely amazing out of it!
 
That aside, it's 100% useless with wifi enabled, the pops and crackle are very audible, even on high Ohm headphones. So no streaming, it's all local music.
 
The software is buggy, but i can live with that, because that can be fixed, and i have faith that Echobox will do that.
 
Two issues besides the crackle/pop, are heat, and i don't mean the nice handwarmer part, i mean the bottom metal place getting almost burning hot, and battery is simply so unstable, i don't trust that the player will actually have battery after i put it away without plugging it in for charging
 
Both those issues could technically be software related, but i honestly don't know.

It's a bit ironic that they screwed up the WiFi as initially the player wasn't supposed to have expandable storage. It was supposed to be the streamers high res high style iPod. I agree though on the WiFi though, with WiFi on, listening to music is pretty much a bag of nope.

 

[dlayman]

  I've gotten to use my unit a bit more over the past week or so, and i'm still very much enjoying the sound. My Zen 2.0 sounds absolutely amazing out of it!
 
That aside, it's 100% useless with wifi enabled, the pops and crackle are very audible, even on high Ohm headphones. So no streaming, it's all local music.
 
The software is buggy, but i can live with that, because that can be fixed, and i have faith that Echobox will do that.
 
Two issues besides the crackle/pop, are heat, and i don't mean the nice handwarmer part, i mean the bottom metal place getting almost burning hot, and battery is simply so unstable, i don't trust that the player will actually have battery after i put it away without plugging it in for charging
 
Both those issues could technically be software related, but i honestly don't know.

 
So with the battery, are you finding you power it down with life still in the battery and then finding it with no battery life when you go to power up again?  Could this be due to the inaccuracy and instability of the battery meter, leading you to believe you have life left when you don't?  A third party battery app might help if its due to the faulty meter, if you're willing to sideload.

 

[glassmonkey]

...

I think (could just be deep wood grain) I see four cracks in the wood along the bottom of ElMariachi's player (two dead center, two right corner). My player has two cracks--one appeared after I got the player, one was there when I got it. Trager's player has a crack in the same spot as mine, apparently. I don't think June is happening folks. The front fascia is too thin--these kind of cracks aren't due to the device being wood, they are due to the wood not being strong enough to absorb structural stress. ElMariachi's player, if my eyes are right, has two cracks in the right corner of the screen. My player developed a crack in the top right above the screen.
 
When I initially emailed Sam about this (I had one crack at the time) he noted that all the players that had cracks had them in the same location as mine, but now we are seeing cracks in the corners of the screen too. I think they may end up needing to recall these, as cracks can develop, and there is no telling whether they will widen over time. If @ElMariachi has even two of his (potential) cracks worsen a chunk of the front fascia could just fall off. This isn't wood as a craftsman's material, a material with character, this is an engineering flaw. The bridge below is not sound, neither is the Explorer front fascia design. Let's hope it takes less time for Echobox to fix it. The problem is that in order to fix it the top and bottom plates also likely need to be be made larger, which makes the cases need to be larger, and the docks need to be larger and whatever wood they have already machined need to be tossed and redone. This looks like a pretty darn costly mistake. Luckily, they haven't done a big production run yet, so this can be fixed at a lower cost than if they had just sent out all pre-orders.


 
Feel free to contradict me if my eyes are wrong, @ElMariachi. There really shouldn't be any cracks--I don't care if it is an artisan material. If I got a Meze 99 Classic with a crack like I have below my screen, I'd have a replacement in hand already.
 
My pic, is in the link here. This is one of two cracks.

 

[dlayman]

Wow, if what @glassmonkey is hypothesizing is correct, the Explorer has MAJOR problems, and is going to need a lot of redesigning and rebuilding.  With how long there were prototypes being shown and handled, how was this not picked up?  Difference in construction?  Cracking screens and even cracks in the wood surely can't be considered acceptable.  I agree with @glassmonkey, June ain't happening, or at least it certainly shouldn't, and neither should any more IGG players be shipped prior to then.

 

[glassmonkey]

  Wow, if what @glassmonkey is hypothesizing is correct, the Explorer has MAJOR problems, and is going to need a lot of redesigning and rebuilding.  With how long there were prototypes being shown and handled, how was this not picked up?  Difference in construction?  Cracking screens and even cracks in the wood surely can't be considered acceptable.  I agree with @glassmonkey, June ain't happening, or at least it certainly shouldn't, and neither should any more IGG players be shipped prior to then.

My eyes could easily be deceiving me on ElMariachi's player as the resolution of the picture isn't terribly high, but Sam has acknowledged that this is a known thing. I'm just not going to let him tell anyone that it's wood 'character.' That is a misinterpretation of the evidence.

 

[dlayman]

If you go by the picture in the thread. I'm #1.

My eyes could easily be deceiving me on ElMariachi's player as the resolution of the picture isn't terribly high, but Sam has acknowledged that this is a known thing. I'm just not going to let him tell anyone that it's wood 'character.' That is a misinterpretation of the evidence.

From as best as I can tell, I think you're correct about his player and the cracks. The ones on the right look more ominous. If players are having the chassis cracking during production or early in life in the users' hands, this is serious. In fact it's crisis time. I'm glad you're going to hold Sam's feet to the fire, so to speak, about this not being a "natural characteristic of the wood". There would definitely be a large incentive to take that position, as EB would (again) be facing a huge technical and financial hurdle at the last minute after lots of expense has already been incurred and would have to be repeated. I really can't understand how major, basic, fundamental things can be missed for so long. Having worked in technical manufacturing and quality control for my whole career, I find EB's lapses in these areas mystifying. Maybe there is some simple fix for reinforcing the chassis to prevent the structural integrity problem. That would seem to be the only hope for avoiding a major rework of the product and all its accessories. Unless Sam insists this is normal, as you mentioned. That wouldn't fly for long in any event. Even I, who have been one of the more pessimistic and critical backers, never expected this magnitude of problems with the quality of the Explorer when finally released.

I have another theory about why the Explorer was developed and what will be it's ultimate fate, but it's not a good scenario and at this time I have no evidence or proof, so I won't state it here. The one thing I will say is that it isn't good for anyone who spent money on this thing.

 

[makethemusic]

We are aware of the cracks, just not aware of how much of an issue they were up until now. The units we have been using for shows were generally crack free, and the rare unit that did crack was usually the odd one out. After confirming with our engineering team, however, it is clear that the cracking is a problem with the wood, and will end up being much more common than we originally thought. Luckily, our team has already found a solution to this, which will be used in the next round of units once they are ready to go out.

Also, for anyone who is experiencing cracking on their wood, we will be happy to replace your unit, 100% free of charge. We stand behind our products, and want you all to know that we will not just abandon you with defective units. We have your back

I will be updating everyone on the progress of the Explorer during the panel we are holding at CanJam SoCal. If you are not able to attend, we will be broadcasting it live on Facebook (assuming there is decent enough service), and will be posting it to our YouTube channel as well. I will make sure the link ends up here.

To give everyone a general update real quick, we have already identified and worked out solutions for most of the known issues with the Explorer, so things are progressing very well, and very quickly. We are still looking forward to a June 19 global launch with IGG units delivered in advance of that date. If these dates change, you will all be alerted to the updated schedule, but I do not anticipate that this will happen.

Thanks to everyone for your continued patience, stay tuned for more updates this weekend.

 

[swannie007]

Thanks for the update Sam, much appreciated. I, for one, appreciate you keeping us informed of updates and not hiding behind a veil of internet silence as some other companies do when things don't go according to plan. I trust that the problems will be sorted out and eventually MOST people will be happy with the outcome. Cheers.  

 

[Psymon]

   
So with the battery, are you finding you power it down with life still in the battery and then finding it with no battery life when you go to power up again?  Could this be due to the inaccuracy and instability of the battery meter, leading you to believe you have life left when you don't?  A third party battery app might help if its due to the faulty meter, if you're willing to sideload.

 
Don't think it's faulty battery meter, this has happened on several occasions, where i've removed it from the charger, used it for roughly 1-2 hours, turned off music, left whatever player so it wasn't running, and then clicked the volume know for sleep. Not powered it off, because, well if that's required... damn....
 
Then taking it out to use anywhere between 30min and 8 hours later, and it would be completely drained.

 

[maxmania]

I have checked the pictures and I can only agree with dlayman, this is very worrying. Echobox are being very optimistic in timelines and I am sure we are heading for further delays.
2 months ahead of a general release and cracking and quality control issues

. As a backer and seeing the wood already created for my unit I am far from happy at this moment in time.

 

[Q Mass]

One fix that could be considered for the cracking wood is 'stabilisation':
http://csmods.co.uk/stabilized-timber/

I've never done any stabilisation myself, but I suspect that it's usually carried out on blanks prior to machining/finishing.
However it may be possible to treat the finished wood components of the Explorer this way too.
This might avoid the need to have the wood components re-made.
Stabilisation would also mitigate cracking caused by the device getting hot and further drying out the wood (and local humidity differences).

My assumption is that stabilisation would be a fairly quick process, and probably much cheaper than re-designing, and re-manufacturing the bodies, but it is just that, an assumption.
Who knows if it's a process available in China though?

Echobox are probably aware of this treatment already, but in case you aren't @makethemusic , it might be worth investigating?

I am glad that IGG backer will still be getting our units "in advance" of June 19th, as there have already been more than enough delays, and I look forward to the updates coming at the weekend.

I am not content to simply wait for hell to freeze over for my Explorer, so all my fingers are well and truly crossed.