[MadDane]

Looks like everyone's unloading their explorers! Mariachi, et al.....

 

[VandyMan]

Really? I don't see any in the For Sale area.

 

[dlayman]

Mine is gone thankfully. I didn't need to to rely on this forum to sell and be rid of it. Thankfully I recovered my investment. But this audio "equipment" , using quotes liberally, is a real loss of investment. I was so disgusted with EB, I would have basically given it away anyway.

 

[ElMariachi]

Ya, I tried my best to be optimistic about the explorer. I tried to give Echobox the benefit of the doubt but In the end they failed to keep their promises. The replacement unit works fine but there is what I would call a flaw in the wood body. It has been filled with glue which I guess is a fix but we were promised explorers that had been machined in a way that would avoid the cracking issue all together. To send a unit with a filled crack is not the same thing and in more then one way is disrespectful and undermines those of us who have chosen to support Echobox. I'm not asking for miracles, just what I was promised. So with that I've chosen to walk away from the Explorer and Echobox all together.

Sam, Everyone here knows you read our comments. I'm not going to try to scold you but you're pretentious attitude sucks.

That is all.

 

[Headmusic]

I just thought I'd put my extra two bobs in, my 'user review' after I've been using this for the last fortnight:

• I still get the 'pops/static' sounds when using USB Audio Pro with 192/24 flac
• USB Audio Pro interface is horrible and it's 'shuffle' feature isn't very random
• I'm finding Tidal and Spotify work alright, esp offline but hey, I bought this for 'HiDef' audio!
• Luckily I don't have cracked wood finish!
• The amp seems to click on its own when I leave the unit standing?? I'm not sure if this is the unit going to sleep?
• The unit sometimes goes to sleep on it own??
• The battery life is pretty crap...I'm listening to it in the car on Shuffle with Tidal via Aux cable, and after about 40 minutes it drops about 30%
• Their Android distro just feels hackneyed and clunky, they really haven't thought it out nor beta tested it. It just runs like crap, doesn't respond to the hardware, it's just crap a job, done by a bunch of smart alec rich-kid Californian College students.

At any rate I'm stuck with it..it seems to sound slightly better than my Pono through my PrimaLuna amp, I stupidly wasted $50 on getting a TOSLink converter and cable when I can actually connect via the headphone jack! DOH! I dunno, you'd think for an American 'start up' they could do something with Finesse, I mean what's happened to their Tidal connection?? Seriously the Chinese companies like Fiio are just doing it better and a better price point.

 

[MadDane]

Mine's somewhere in central Turkey, sold it to a HeadFi guy who sent it to his friend. I had it for a total of 2 weeks, sold it for exactly what I paid $254. Wanted to unload it before it became worthless.

 

[MadDane]

Really? I don't see any in the For Sale area.

Many have been sold recently.

 

[dlayman]

My view is that EB just did whatever they had to in order to get the IGG players out the door, including the disgraceful cobbled wood repairs, so they could put the explorer behind them. Ongoing support? Good luck with that. Their actions with this piece have damaged their reputation beyond repair, IMO. As for sound quality, in my experience, my unit was like someone else's who likened it to playback of a vinyl record recorded to a cassette tape. Lack of dynamics and detail and very congested and compressed. I don't know how they managed to make such a poor sounding player based on the specified components, but they did. Both the Finder and the Explorer perform well below par to my ears. USD 600 for the Explorer? Knock a decimal point off and maybe.

 

[MadDane]

On another note, not that I would ever wear it! Did anyone ever get a T-Shirt? You know the ones that, "are being shipped out as we speak"?

 

[VandyMan]

No. Why would you want an Echobox t-shirt though?

 

[dlayman]

No. Why would you want an Echobox t-shirt though?

Just another lie and broken promise from EB.

 

[VandyMan]

Fair enough, but why would you want to wear their t-shirt and give them free advertising? No one should buy this DAP at $600. Maybe for $200.

 

[thefunkygibbon]

Fair enough, but why would you want to wear their t-shirt and give them free advertising? No one should buy this DAP at $600. Maybe for $200.

$200? Are you mad?



Not worth $2....

What I have got is a useless piece of wood...

So here are some impressions.

I will start with the good points first..

1. So no customs charges... yay...


And now to the bad:

1.Fragile screen, seems to be a gap behind it as even the slightest touch and it bends inwards, and I mean a very light touch... I am currently sitting with my Samsung Galaxy 7 and my pioneer to compare to the explorer. both touch screens and both seem very resistant, solid and do not give. Conversely the Explorer bends inwards at the very lightest of touch.

2.Can't connect to any bluetooth device at all, simply doesn't recognise any.

3.USB audio pro just does not work. All i get is a the programme is not responding message. Closing the app doesn't help nor does a reboot.

4.Manual forwarding (or even backwarding a song, yes that is a new word I made up especially for this) gives a clicking sound as it changes songs.

5. Everytime i reboot I have to change the date and time again as it resets..

6. Sound is tinny and lacks depth and substance and it is far worse than my phone...

7.Build quality is very poor. The metal bits dont fit properly either at the top or bottom. Although my wood hasn't split..... yet.

8.Battery. Awful. Left it at 100% at night no apps open woke up to it 7 hours later with less than 30%.

9.Battery when in use I get 4 hours as long as I use their own player and nothing else...

So was it worth the wait...

No it wasn't...

It is buggy, shoddily made and as Dlayman says, and I concur wholly, they just wanted to meet their commitments. So EB cobbled together something, anything from bits of left over wood and metal they found laying around the factory floor and out of desperation sent this piece of junk to it's backers to avoid bad press...

What I have is a very very expensive book end....

 

[thefunkygibbon]

Mine's somewhere in central Turkey, sold it to a HeadFi guy who sent it to his friend. I had it for a total of 2 weeks, sold it for exactly what I paid $254. Wanted to unload it before it became worthless.

Unfortunately it became worthless the minute we all backed it...

Stick it in the dock and it makes a good door stop however...

That's worth a couple of quid..

 

[VandyMan]

$200? Are you mad?

I've already posted the issues I've had, so I won't bore everyone by reposting. I'm using my Echobox right now for offline Tidal. Wifi works for me. Clicking does not happen while songs are playing. Sound quality is pretty good. Sorry the three of you (and probably some others) are having so many issues, but I don't think it is universal. If it is, you may want to think twice about the ethics of selling it to someone else.