Walnut V2 WAV Player by wt

Greetings Head-fi!

Today we're going to be taking a look at a basic DAP/AMP, taking form in the Walnut V2s.

Sometimes all you want is a straightforward, simple to use player. One that's low on features and frills, doesn't take a massive chunk out of your wallet, and doesn't skimp on sound quality. The Walnut V2s does all of this quite well.

Let's check out why, shall we?

Disclaimer:

The Walnut V2s was purchased from Penon Audio at a discounted rate for the purposes of review. There is no financial incentive for writing this review, and all thoughts and opinions within are my own. They do not represent Penon Audio, Walnut (?), or any other entity.

At the time of this review the V2s retailed through Penon Audio for 33.90 USD: https://penonaudio.com/Walnut-V2s?search=walnut


Specifications:

Supported Formats: FLAC, APE, WAV, MP3

Battery: 1,500 mAh lithium

Battery Life: 15 hrs

Amp Power Supply: 16v

Drive Capacity: 15-300Ω

More Stuff: Output Uses Elna SILMICII silk capacitor; Input uses EIna Black-neg; Can act as standalone amp if you want

Packaging and Accessories:

A simple device needs a simple package and accessory kit to back it up. In the case of the V2s, you get a plain cardboard box free of any designs or branding and a Micro USB cable. That's it. No manual, but rubber straps, no case. It's all business here.

Build and Design:

My first thought upon seeing the V2s was that it looked old. Cool, but old. I love the black and while color scheme with cursive writing explaining the function of the five buttons on the face and input/outputs peppered across the unit.

In hand the aluminum shell feels very solid and durable, able to take a kicking from even the most careless of owners. The front and rear plates look to be made of the same PCB material used to make circuit boards. While it doesn't look impressive from a fit and finish perspective, it's a functional and tough as nails material. The only part that feels even remotely fragile is the long, slender power switch out back.

While the V2s is a little thick and weighs about as much as my LG G5, it's still small enough to be pocketable. Unless you wear skin tight skinny jeans. That's probably not going to work.

Overall the build and design is more about function over form. The unit feels good in hand with controls that are easy enough to access and understand, so much so it doesn't take long to learn to control it without looking at what you're doing.

Ease of Use, Controls, and EQ:

Once you figure out the V2s' intricacies, it's a very easy to navigate player. However, figuring out it's functions is learned either through trial and error, or online in the forums. Here is what I can share about the controls based on information found on Head-fi, and my own experiences.

Prev: Press once to return to the start of the track. Press twice to skip to the previous track. Hold to prompt the "Last Folder" queue, and hold again to actually skip to the last folder.

Stop: Press once to stop music from playing. Hold to delete the current track.

Next: Press once to skip to the next track. Press and hold to prompt the "Next Folder" queue, and hold again to actually skip to the next folder.

Mode: Press once to let the player run through a single cycle of everything on the memory card. A second press plays everything on random. A third press turns all that off and just plays your tunes in the order loaded on the memory card. Hold down the button to lower the volume digitally.

EQ: Press once for the "Rock" setting. Press twice for "Pop". Press three times for "Classical". Press a fourth time for "Jazz". Hold down to increase the volume digitally.

I found the EQ settings to make a pretty noticeable difference in the presentation.

Rock - increases treble and mid-presence, thins out the sound and improves separation, reduces overall bass quantity; overall a nicely balanced setting that works well with most music

Pop - significantly reduces treble presence and pulls back the mid-range while boosting mid-bass quantity; not a fan of this with anything but extremely bright earphones or headphones as it makes the V2s sound veiled and muddy

Classical - thins out the sound even more than on the 'Rock' setting, adds even more treble, and reduced bass presence even more; not a fan as it is too clinical, sucking out any emotion and impact a track may have had

Jazz - Much like the 'Rock' setting but with a more forward mid-range, more impactful bass, and further improved clarity nearing what the "Classical" setting outputs; my favorite EQ of the bunch and what I left the player on the majority of the time

Sound:

I find the V2s' default signature to be bright, somewhat edgy and aggressive, and with a touch of grain in the upper mids and treble. This was particularly noticeable when compared to my other, significantly pricier, players; Shanling M1, Hifi E.T. MA8, and the HiFiMan Megamini. It's actually quite similar in signature to the first gen Motorola Moto G I used to use. It's soundstage is quite large and open with good separation and layering. Detail and clarity are also stellar, minus the aforementioned grain. It has a nice black background and when paired with one of the easiest to drive, most sensitive and hiss-prone iems in my collection, that being the ClarityOne EB110, avoided producing any background hissing or static.

Paired with headphones that had a more treble-heavy presence or focus (like the new TFZ Exclusive Series or pretty much anything from JVC) was fun at first. After the first week the wow factor wore off and my ears found such parings to be very fatiguing. I resorted to using the built in Pop EQ setting which drastically reduces treble and mid-range but also makes the sound a bit hollow and dull; a necessary sacrifice unfortunately.

Pairing the V2s with more neutral or warmer, smoother, bassier earphones was a much more pleasant experience and in my opinion the most suitable way to use and enjoy this player. Depending on the earphone, I still got to enjoy the V2s' excellent clarity and open sound stage, but without the tiring treble. For some very dark earphones, like the Brainwavz M100, it gave them some treble energy and clarity that I could only attain previously through heavy EQ.

Overall I find the Walnut V2s to offer an energetic and engaging signature. Without applying one of the built in EQ settings I found it too treble heavy to pair with bright earphones. On the other end of the spectrum, the default signature paired amazingly well with darker, more bassy earphones. The Jazz setting EQ offered the most balanced and cleanest sound. This could easily have been the default signature.

Living with the Walnut V2s:

It's been a while since a media player that lacked a screen was my daily driver; at least 10 years. Given I've been using something with a visual interface for over a decade, be it something basic like the Samsung YP-K5 or more in depth like a smartphone, it was surprisingly easy to go back to a clutter-free player like the Walnut V2s.

I'm the kind of person that picks an album and listens to it front to back, or pulls up my entire library of tunes, sets it to random then hits play, only skipping tracks when I'm not feeling them. Custom playlists are not my jam. The V2s suited my listening styles perfectly. As I was heading out I would simply grab the player, snag a set of earphones, plug them in and flip on the V2s. Since it starts playing immediately upon start up, all I needed to do was set the volume and chuck it in my pocket. There's no boot time, no searching through menus to find what you want to listen to, etc. Initially I was running with a packed 16 gig card but I ended up paring this down to an 8 gig card with select material. This was just the right amount of music to permit scanning through albums were I in the mood for a specific track, but still enough material to avoid repetition when playing on random.

In terms of powering my gear, I actually found the V2s's standard volume too loud for most of my headphones. This issue was exacerbated because the player suffers from a mild channel imbalance at low volumes. I thought this was going to be a fatal flaw for me and completely ruin my ability to use the player as anything but a standalone amp, but then I figured out the digital volume controls. Such a handy feature.

In terms of powering more demanding gear, because the V2s gets LOUD, just for fun I tried them with the HiFiMan Susvara. If you're not familiar with it, use the search feature above, read up, then come back. Yeah, I gave the sub-40 USD V2s a go at the 6,000 USD Susvara. I already said it was just for fun, so stop rolling your eyes. To my surprise the V2s was easily capable of driving the Susvara to volumes that exceeded what I can comfortably listen at, and way louder than the players mentione din the "Sound" section. You could tell it wasn't enough though, evident by the clipping any time there was a deep bass hit. The Susvara is a ridiculously demanding headphone. What I gathered from this little venture is that the V2s should have more than enough power to run the vast majority of headphones and earphone.

Another negative, and one that only became apparent when not using the V2s for a length of time, is that the standby battery life is pretty mediocre. After only a couple days of being out of use, I went to use the V2s and found it dead. Over the last few weeks this has happened a couple times. Not a major issue, but notable for someone that is planning to use this infrequently or as a secondary player.

Overall the V2s proved to be a very convenient player. It wasn't perfect for every situation, but if I just needed something for a grab-n-go type scenario, the V2s was my go to.

Final Thoughts:

If you're looking for a player with a very crisp sound that exceeds it's price tag and are willing to give up basic features like a screen for menu navigation, the V2s is worth consideration. It's easy to use, it plays hi-res files, it has a decent and achievable 15 hour battery life, and best of all, it's really inexpensive and capable of powering some thirsty headphones. You can even use it as an amp for another device should you not want to bother messing around with the DAP. If it were only an amp, the price would still be quite reasonable for the power this thing outputs.

It's probably not going to be the right player for you if you enjoy carrying around thousands of songs, or want a sleek, modern device packed to the gills with features. For that you'll probably want to research something like the well-received Benjie X5, the slightly more expensive XDuoo X2, or one of a ton of other low cost DAPs that have cropped up.

What I'm saying is that while the Walnut V2s isn't perfect, it does exactly what it needs to do; it plays music and sounds good doing it.

Thanks for reading!

- B9Scrambler

Walnut V2s – this little screenless player got my attention some time ago. I resist buy first version because of no support for FLAC. As soon, as I find that new version V2s is fully supporting HiRes formats I placed order to PenonAudio.com and thanks to their generosity I got nice discount for my whole order in exchange of my honest opinion and impressions.

I received package with player this week. Package it self is very modest. In paper box is only player and cable for battery charge. No fancy case, no screen protector, nothing. Player itself is size of credit card. Shape is cuboidal. On the bottom are two slots – one for memory card ( Micro SDHC up to 32GB, but I tried 64GB not fully loaded and it work ok ) and one for charging. Between them is On/OFF switch. On the top of player is Line out, Headphone socket and volume knob. On front panel, where is obviously screen are five buttons and indication LED. Top three buttons are for Play/Stop, Prev, Next. Two buttons below are for EQ and play mode switching. If you are interested how can be changed EQ or play mode with out any indication, so be aware, that lady will tell you what you are changing and it will tell you in English. EQ change is not easy to fully understand, but in the end is sound what is important, so you can easily choose sound you like and who cars what setting it is, right? EQ can be set on rock, pop, electronic, jazz, classical. Play mode can be set on order play, repeat once, shuttle play. V2s is supporting following formats:

FLAC , APE ，WAV，MP3

Battery should last up to 15 hours, which is nice. Bode of player is painted in matt black with antique description on front panel.

Player is ready to play in 2 seconds from start up. Player has no capability to remember last track or position - correction! player do remember last song. So after start up you have to find where you like to start listen. Short press on NEXT button will move forward one track, long press will move to next folder. I made only one folder on my card and I put in to that as much songs as I could until card was full, which is probably best thing to do on screen less player.


Sound is very impressive on player, which cost 33,90USD. Soundstage is very wide and deep. Instrument separation is precise as is location of instruments on scene. Sound is slightly midforward with decent and impactful bass and trebles do not miss sparkle. If there will be a bit more clarity in sound, than V2s can be very serious competitor for many much more expensive players. In fact it can daringly compete even now. Good thing is that hiss is on very low level and is noticeable only for very short moment between tracks ( yes there is no gapless play ). Generally sound is big, much bigger, than you can expect from small screenless player in price of cheap sneakers. Not so long time ago I tested Lotoo PAW Pico, which have same philosophy, but I really like V2s way over Pico in all aspects. I listen to V2s on my Custom Art Ei.3 CIEMs and they are made for each other. I do enjoy Walnut sound very much and it will be now my companion on the go. Walnut is perfect candidate for those, who have tight budget, but who like to enjoy listening their music in best possible sound quality. If you can miss display and you are going only after offline listening form your own music library, I can’t honestly find better choice than Walnut V2s. Do not get me wrong, Walnut is for sure not best player on the market, but for 34bucks …?

 
Its introduction brought with it a storm of attention. Seemingly too-good-to-be-true, impressive specs regardless of price, ugly and attractive at the same time, completely and truly minimalistic - but hitting far, far above its price point. Even sporting some features high end DAPs can not even claim. I loved the design from the first time I saw it and was impressed from my first moment using it. It is no secret that I love the Walnut and am biased towards preferring it. After all, for those who are not already aware, I started the thread for the Walnut V2 on Head-Fi. I've put together an intro for new users and a fairly substantial FAQ, so I'll be able to keep this review free of too much technical talk or how-to-use instructions. 
 
I never owned a Walnut V1. They were an odd design - dual volume knobs for each channel separate from the other and onboard flash memory. It was no surprise that it was clunky, lacked expandability, and was not yet an adequate device. However, the second version has shown the designer has learned much since the V1 and has made this a much more polished and enjoyable device. I've always been interested in devices like the Shozy Alien, but could never bring myself to spend their high price points relative to the features you get. Same with the Tera Player, which I knew I would never own or be able to afford in my life.
 
 
So what does $18 USD get you? WAV and MP3 playback, 16-24 bit, up to 48khz; a headphone amp, a 16 volt power supply, microSD storage, socketed opamp, digital and analog volume control, and only high-end caps such as ELNA and Nichicon Gold... So now you know why it seemed, to me, to be too good to be true. And, one thing which I was truly shocked by - the eBay/Aliexpress descriptions had led me to believe it had a battery time of 15 hours, so I figured it would only be less than that. I have, and other members in the Walnut thread have reported, getting over 40 hours on a charge. In fact, an exact number is not really known because anyone who has tried has forgotten to keep track of how much longer it runs after around 2 full days...
 
I paid $26.06 for mine on the CKLewis Audio Store on Aliexpress. It arrived to me in a small box sent via Singapore Post about a week and a half after ordering it. One of the main selling points for me, I'm not afraid to admit, was the rumor that some sellers included a microSD card loaded up with WAVs of eclectic Chinese music (I later learned that if you order from the official Taobao store, you get an option of the player without any memory card for about $17 USD, or with a 8GB microSD with the music on it for $21). This was right up my alley, and to be honest even if I didn't like the player, I wanted the music. I also had a microSD full of WAVs I had gotten prepared already in all my anticipation for it to arrive. I put it on the charger and went to go do some errands. By the time I got back home, less than two hours later, it was full according to the battery LED, so I unplugged it, popped in my SD card, and threw on my Red De'mun earbuds. 
 
 
I was blown away immediately. The clarity, the energy of the sound - balanced, neutral, slightly warm, but very engaging. And stunningly transparent. It was a sound I only knew from my very best E-MU gear which was too clunky to use for listening, and as such only really saw use when I was recording in the studio. The sound is beautiful and truly transparent. Some of the first songs on my testing microSD were some tracks I had recorded and mastered myself, and as such I knew how they sounded on all kinds of equipment better than anyone else. The Walnut always could hang with the best of them. On a few tracks I heard an unpleasant burst of white noise at the very end - I learned this was because I had left IDv3 tags and album art on many of my WAVs. The Walnut is extremely simplistic and only expects to see PCM (waveform) data, and tries to interpret it as PCM data. Putting the microSD back in my computer and using foobar2000 to quickly remove all tags from the file solved this issue. I was a little annoyed by it at first, but then learned expensive screenless players such as Tera and Alien also suffer from this. So I did not feel as bad after knowing that even the "big boys" can't deal with tags properly either. Not that you need them without a screen...
 
While MP3 sounds great on this device, WAV is truly stunning. You hear only the music. No background noise, no distractions, just nonstop music. There is a sublime sweetness and clarity to any lossless recordings you listen to on this. And all this for under $30? Anyone who would hear this without knowing what it was would probably guess it is in the $300 or up range. During this review, I listened to Death In June - DISCriminate, Mad on Acid Vol.1, Philosophers Propeller by Susumu Hirasawa, No Human Rights For Arabs In Israel by Muslimgauze, and the music from the C64 game "The Last Ninja" on the TY Hi-Z 650, JVC SZ1000 (this combo has unreal bass) and my recabled Koss KTXPRO1. Never once did I hear a sound I considered unpleasant or notably better on other gear. Nor have I heard a headphone that sounds like a bad match with this player.
 
 
What I can not express enough is how natural, clean, clear everything sounds through this player. Even when I owned the Chord Mojo, I could not bring myself to rip my CD's or buy new ones to rip lossless copies of, even though lossless sounded infinitely better than MP3 on the Mojo. I now find myself trying to scrounge up real copies of everything I like to make rips of the disc just to hear it on my Walnut. But you do not have to have one or the other. This player is capable of making MP3's sound as sweet as the most forgiving MP3 players I have heard. It's just that WAV is that much nicer on it. Not only am I hearing as much detail as I only know I can expect from my top end gear - once again, reminder that this was $26.06 shipped for me - but I'm finding it to be perfectly suitable for crucial reference listening. As a professional recording musician, this is a huge thing for me.
 
And what about the amp mode? It's not just a side gimmick implemented just because. The 16 volt power supply possibly proves its worth best here. Using it side by side with any portable amp I've known or tried under $350 simply does not have much more going for it than this does. Some have greater output power or built in bass boost switches, but if that's the worst I can say about it, how could this be a bad choice at its price point? The sound, with the stock TI NE5532 opamp, is beautiful with exceptional soundstage and channel separation. Strangely enough, I found it to have superior channel separation to a number of my other amps: Bengkel Macro bMac (Burson V5i opamp), Parasound Zamp v3. I have a second Walnut on the way and will not be surprised if it lives at my desk as an amp.
 
 
Of course, when using it as a DAP, you get the same huge output power. However, in DAP mode, you also get the benefit of digital volume control as well as the analog volume control. I like to turn the volume up or down by holding the previous/next buttons to adjust to a comfortable level so that I can use the full range of the volume knob to get to a more precise volume. My headphones are never too loud or too quiet or plagued by having the whole usable volume range within the touch of a feather on sensitive headphones. Be it 16 ohm JVC SZ2000, or 650 ohm TY Hi-Z (which are not at all sensitive), all can be driven to seriously uncomfortable levels while still retaining full clarity and quality.
 
Use during playback is extremely simple, as would be expected from such a minimalistic DAP. As one who spent many years before DAPs using cassette and CD players, I have no issue with the lack of a screen. In fact, I prefer to have no screen because I am forced to focus on the music. I have a terrible habit of browsing the artists list endlessly trying to figure out what to put on next. Having a screenless DAP helps with this a bit. I have several microSD cards full of FLAC albums converted to WAV, one album per file, and am perfectly happy listening to it all day. It is slightly digital sounding, but it is very musical, energetic and engaging. It is not tiring, either. I've happily been able to listen to this player all day long with no complaints about sound. During playback, you know music is playing when the "Instruction" light is blinking. By hitting the "stop" button, you will pause it, and notice the light goes solid. Aside from the battery light, which is only illumuinated while plugged in, this is the only status indicator on the whole player. The bottom side features the battery light, a microUSB port for charging or flashing firmware updates, a hold switch, and the microSD card slot.
I have not played with the opamps yet because I already knew the NE5532 was one of my favorite opamps for its superior neutral and natural sound. When my second gets here I will start rolling opamps, but I both wanted to review it and get to know it with its stock opamp, as there are many other suitable choices the designer could have made.
 
 
 
Do I recommend it for its price? Even if all you want is an amp... yes, it's absolutely and entirely worth it. Maybe you'll realize you like to use it as a player after using it as an amp. The designer said himself on the official store's page that his dream has been to have a truly hi-fi player with nothing but the most necessary features, done as well as possible, for a truly affordable price. And that is what this is. The Walnut did for the DAP market what KZ's did for the IEM market and arguably what Koss did for the headphone market back when the KSC75 were new. I know this is a weighty statement. I would not make it if I did not truly believe it. 
 
The only thing I would change about it if I could is add an equalizer. But that is not a huge complaint of mine. I can amp it or EQ after the fact in other ways, not that I've really needed to. The high treble is never sharp or sibilant, the bass is present and energetic, and all frequency ranges are beautifully clear and articulate.
 
 
I can't help but feel like this player deserves to have more spoken about it. But is there really that much to say about it? It does everything it should do nearly perfectly. And it sounds beautiful doing it, and will drive whatever you have. If it can treat my 650 ohm, low sensitivity headphones like they're nothing - which no other DAP I know of could have said about it - then it'll drive whatever you have with easy. Cons? Doesn't play FLAC, I guess. A complaint I often see, but the processor does everything in real-time, including reading from the microSD card. I can't help but feel that adding FLAC decoding would only slow down the real-time play.
 
Its rock solid reliablity and gorgeous, natural, and organic sound will mean that all my Walnuts will be probably the new most prized audio possessions I can call my own. I have no issue with that, especially if they are dirt cheap. This is THE player I have been longing for.
 

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Added 1/6/2017
 
Self explanatory. (Walnut V2 in amp mode pushing PURE SUB BASS air)