[voxxonline]

Yes, you are right, low end got bigger. But overall sound is much smoother and wider.

 

[voxxonline]

Question, do I have change both capacitors, or one goes to LO and one to PO, and changing only on PO side is enough ?

 

[hornzymush]

Question, do I have change both capacitors, or one goes to LO and one to PO, and changing only on PO side is enough ?

Not too sure what you are asking but there are 3 electrolytic capacitors inside;

1000uf 25v (biggest): filter and reservoir for the negative (-13V) portion of the power supply as it is "unregulated".
2x 100uf 16v (nichicon FW): high pass filter for each audio channel (left & right)



if you are intending to change the 100uf caps, you will have to change both.

 

[voxxonline]

Yes, changed the other one too. Thank you

 

[TheoS53]

Hey guys and gals. I just ordered the z2 and already thinking of what upgrades to do. One thing I thought if was that I'd want to change the LED (don't like the blue).. Can those who already have the z2 maybe tell me what the size of led is please... 3mm, 5mm?
Thanks in advance

 

[Merlin-PT]

Hi, It's a 3mm led, I also increased the smd resistor that goes to the led, to lower the light intensity.
I have it very dim to listen at night.

I have 2 type of leds.
These are completely transparent without any color, color only shows when they light on:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32774399726.html

These are always colored and light when on:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32792244682.html

 

[TheoS53]

Hi, It's a 3mm led, I also increased the smd resistor that goes to the led, to lower the light intensity.
I have it very dim to listen at night.

I have 2 type of leds.
These are completely transparent without any color, color only shows when they light on:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32774399726.html

These are always colored and light when on:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32792244682.html

Thanks for the info, much appreciated. I mostly wanted to get the Z2 specifically for night-time listening too, so it seems lowering the brightness is something we both figured would be a good idea. Not sure how confident I am changing an SMD part though.

 

[Merlin-PT]

The resistor value depends on the led you chose (not all leds use the same voltage) and how much light you want.
Too big resistance and the led doesn't light and you'll have to lower it.

I had to experiment with some values to get the very low brightness I wanted.
I have to look at my led to see it's flashing at daylight, this way I can see if it's on, but the light never bothers me.

If you don't want to do SMDs for now, you can cut one LED leg shorter and solder a small resistor in series with that leg.
Be prepared to try some resistor values until you have the light intensity you want.
Sometimes I use a potenciometer temporary and then measure the resistance I dialed, to know the resistor value I need use, but I didn't need that here.

One idea is to remove the led (take note of the led polarity) and maybe do some tests on PCB back were you have lot of space to solder, when you are satisfied with brightness, mount it all in the right place.

 

[TheoS53]

The resistor value depends on the led you chose (not all leds use the same voltage) and how much light you want.
Too big resistance and the led doesn't light and you'll have to lower it.

I had to experiment with some values to get the very low brightness I wanted.
I have to look at my led to see it's flashing at daylight, this way I can see if it's on, but the light never bothers me.

If you don't want to do SMDs for now, you can cut one LED leg shorter and solder a small resistor in series with that leg.
Be prepared to try some resistor values until you have the light intensity you want.
Sometimes I use a potenciometer temporary and then measure the resistance I dialed to know the resistor value I need use, but I didn't need that here.

One idea is to remove the led (take note of the led polarity) and maybe do some tests on PCB back were you have lot of space to solder, when you are satisfied with brightness, mount it all in the right place.

Yeah a resistor in series should work, I'm just not sure if perhaps the change in voltage requirement from either adding a resistor or changing the LED might influence any of the other components. But I think I'm just gonna go for a very low intensity flat-top orange or UV LED

 

[Merlin-PT]

The led is driven by one STM32 pin with a resistor in series, stm32 pins can be configured and stm32 programed to do this, so I don't think there's a problem increasing the resistance that is already there. Decreasing or removing the resistor or using a brighter led that consumes more current is a problem.
Google stm32 (or arduino) led blink if you need/want to know how it works.
random googled: https://www.playembedded.org/blog/leds-stm32/

 

[endia]

Hey guys and gals. I just ordered the z2 and already thinking of what upgrades to do. One thing I thought if was that I'd want to change the LED (don't like the blue).. Can those who already have the z2 maybe tell me what the size of led is please... 3mm, 5mm?
Thanks in advance

or just put a piece of kapton tape inside the case like I did on my z1..

 

[Merlin-PT]

For some time I had a black tape inside, only with a very small hole made with a needle.

 

[LaughMoreDaily]

or just put a piece of kapton tape inside the case like I did on my z1..

Your images don't seem to work about your kapton tape inside the Z1.

 

[endia]

Your images don't seem to work about your kapton tape inside the Z1.

sorry, can't manage to attach from mobile..

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-XOfKnq7HOyge7uKW32wCuU8fknyBfoP/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-UpvUYEP9u2fFl6iHI214MYZ3aH9K8Ab/view?usp=drivesdk

 

[TheoS53]

OK so I finally got the Z2 yesterday afternoon (fastest I've ever received something from AE), and already I think this is one of the coolest little gadgets I've ever used. It's quirky to use, but that's part of the charm I reckon. I did notice that it sounded just a little bit "rough", but luckily I still had a Walnut F1 lying around and so I replaced the stock opamp with the OPA2604AP from the F1 which definitely seems to have smoothed it out. The high output impedance can definitely be an issue, especially with multi-BA IEMs. On my HD58X I noticed a fuller, slightly more bassy sound than what I'm used to, so I did a frequency response measurement and saw that it does indeed have more bass due to that high output impedance (not necessarily a bad thing in the case of the 58X).

I read some posts talking about the Z2 being able to read CUE files (and I think possibly M3U playlists??), but I searched high and low for more info about this but couldn't find anything. Do the CUEs only work with FLAC, is there a specific folder structure required? I also tried updating the Z2 to firmware 0.3, but when I turn on the Z2 the light remains steady (or starts playing a track if I have music on the card). So I'm not sure if it maybe already has firmware 0.3 and so there's no need for it to perform an update, or maybe the card needs to be in a specific format (I did try both exFAT and FAT32) or what.