So, I was looking into the differences between Zendac v1 and v2 and noticed something fishy.
The newer versions of the v1 (53040 s/n range) appear to have an identical PCB to the v2. Here's my 53040 purchased before the v2 was ever announced:
Here is the official pic from ifi's site for the v2 (s/n range 53070):
The difference on the v2 is supposed to be a new XMOS controller. Here is a close up of mine:
and the ifi image for the v2:
I've confirmed that my unit does *not* do full MQA decode when flashed with the latest 7.2 firmware, and also that the 7.2 firmware file for v2 is identical to v1.
It is blurred out on the ifi picture, but we can see that both are 60-pin surface-mount chips, and you can faintly make out the "GT203401" and "PV9V59.00" string on the v2. The top string appears to not be present or is crossed out on v2.
The XMOS product catalog does not appear to contain any 60-pin XU208 *or* XU216 chips which indicates this is a custom SKU.
It's possible ifi has custom versions of both XU208 and XU216 with only the I/O options they need. It's also possible that v2 is same chip as v1 53040 and that both of these are xu216 (the filename on the firmware for both is xu216 as well so...)
The claim of having a new chip can still be "true" in that case though, because the older 53010 series of Zendac V1 use an entirely different PCB design with what appears to be a BGA mount 8-core XMOS chip according to teardowns I have seen.
Now, my concern here is that the v2 costs $30 more than the v1. What are we *actually* paying for here? Are we getting a new piece of hardware, or are we simply paying for MQA full decode license to have a bit flipped in the ROM to enable it? If it's the latter, that price increase would be kind of disappointing for those who don't need or want MQA functionality in general.
Perhaps 53040 units were sold "at a loss" and ifi wanted to have an excuse to alter the pricing?
If someone can open up a v2 and provide a more detailed pic of the XMOS controller in it, that would be helpful as well.
The newer versions of the v1 (53040 s/n range) appear to have an identical PCB to the v2. Here's my 53040 purchased before the v2 was ever announced:
Here is the official pic from ifi's site for the v2 (s/n range 53070):
The difference on the v2 is supposed to be a new XMOS controller. Here is a close up of mine:
and the ifi image for the v2:
I've confirmed that my unit does *not* do full MQA decode when flashed with the latest 7.2 firmware, and also that the 7.2 firmware file for v2 is identical to v1.
It is blurred out on the ifi picture, but we can see that both are 60-pin surface-mount chips, and you can faintly make out the "GT203401" and "PV9V59.00" string on the v2. The top string appears to not be present or is crossed out on v2.
The XMOS product catalog does not appear to contain any 60-pin XU208 *or* XU216 chips which indicates this is a custom SKU.
It's possible ifi has custom versions of both XU208 and XU216 with only the I/O options they need. It's also possible that v2 is same chip as v1 53040 and that both of these are xu216 (the filename on the firmware for both is xu216 as well so...)
The claim of having a new chip can still be "true" in that case though, because the older 53010 series of Zendac V1 use an entirely different PCB design with what appears to be a BGA mount 8-core XMOS chip according to teardowns I have seen.
Now, my concern here is that the v2 costs $30 more than the v1. What are we *actually* paying for here? Are we getting a new piece of hardware, or are we simply paying for MQA full decode license to have a bit flipped in the ROM to enable it? If it's the latter, that price increase would be kind of disappointing for those who don't need or want MQA functionality in general.
Perhaps 53040 units were sold "at a loss" and ifi wanted to have an excuse to alter the pricing?
If someone can open up a v2 and provide a more detailed pic of the XMOS controller in it, that would be helpful as well.
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