[Digriz29]

I attached the mini to my Cayin RU6 and the Cayin draws 0.08 amps at 5.2 volts when idle and 0.11 amps when playing with Focal Elegia attached. If the requirement for your DACs is less or equal to that they should work.

 

[Inju]

Yah I wouldn't buy unless they were replaceable. One of the pics of the unit you can find online looks like they are, but who knows.

It's definitely not easy, as you need to disconnect the screen from the board to remove the board. Mine was in tight where I could not slide out the board. You can see in the photo the board is slid in on a small cut out. There seems to be at least one ribbon cables you need to remove and an additional two little interconnects that appeared may be glued in with some red glue (No. 1 & 2 in the photo). It's built very nicely but would seem difficult to take apart. I don't know how long the back cables will give that may be glued in, since you wouldn't need to slide the board out much to access the batteries. The interconnect for the display would definitely need to be disconnected (no. 3 in the photo) and the connection to the side RCA board I believe would not need to be connected (No 4.).

 

[Inju]

I checked the usb out with my usb detector when connected to the Topping and, unsurprisingly, it puts out 5.2 volts.

I meant in terms of what the audio output format is, i.e. if it's USB audio output is 24 bits PCM, then a 16 bit Dac maybe can not have the capability to read the audio output. I don't know what native means for the CD player. I'm assuming SD card music would be what you saved the file as, such as FLAC, WAV or MP3. Weirdly the Astell & Kern SR35 should be able to decode nearly anything, which has me scratching my head why it won't work with it.

 

[cbellevie]

It's definitely not easy, as you need to disconnect the screen from the board to remove the board. Mine was in tight where I could not slide out the board. You can see in the photo the board is slid in on a small cut out. There seems to be at least one ribbon cables you need to remove and an additional two little interconnects that appeared may be glued in with some red glue (No. 1 & 2 in the photo). It's built very nicely but would seem difficult to take apart. I don't know how long the back cables will give that may be glued in, since you wouldn't need to slide the board out much to access the batteries. The interconnect for the display would definitely need to be disconnected (no. 3 in the photo) and the connection to the side RCA board I believe would not need to be connected (No 4.).

Thanks much for this info, that is very disappointing to read, but thought might be the case based on all pictures of units I've seen.

 

[Inju]

Thanks much for this info, that is very disappointing to read, but thought might be the case based on all pictures of units I've seen.

No problem.

To continue helping people use their DACs with this device, and testing the power capabilities of the device. I've drained the battery listening to a CD all day. Wanted to see if the batteries were dead, if I could just plug directly into the charge port to use it. It appears on my unit it will not power on when the batteries are dead. Been charging now for about 10 minutes and still not powering on, which is dissappointing. I'm using a GAN Usb C 35 watt so there is no issues of it not having enough power.

On the plus side, I believe I've figured out the issue with the Quedlix 5K. I had my Quedelix 5K set to decoding 98K at 24 bit. If I had to guess the CD player is likely 48 or 44K at 16 bit. Once I've let the device charge till it turns on, I'll come back and report my findings when I change the Qudelix 5K to a lower bitrate and 44/48K.

<EDIT>
Actually scratch that, it may actually play with the charge cable only. I had believed I had discharged the battery since the unit was not responding to a power on. I had left the cd player playing throughout the day while working and had believed that the battery had died. After charging for half an hour, the unit would not respond. I pressed the reset button and the unit now powers on. Apparently, the unit had just stopped playing when it reached the end of the CD and then became unresponsive. I'll do some further testing.

 

[Shanling]

This looks interesting. It is powered by a pair of 18650 batteries. @Shanling this implies they can be replaced if needed. Is this the case? Can one open the unit and replace the batteries? Maybe those that have units can answer as well?

They can be exchanged, but yes, you will need to take apart quite firmly packed device.
We can do the exchange in our factory if needed.

Well it works with the Topping E50 through USB, so I'm thinking the output has to match the capabilities of the Dac which is causing the issues with the other four Dacs. Thus I'm curious to know what the native output of the player is.

ECMini outputs over USB exactly what you give it. For CDs, it will be 16 bit / 44.1 kHz. For files from microSD, it will be whatever quality the files are in.

 

[Inju]

They can be exchanged, but yes, you will need to take apart quite firmly packed device.
We can do the exchange in our factory if needed.



ECMini outputs over USB exactly what you give it. For CDs, it will be 16 bit / 44.1 kHz. For files from microSD, it will be whatever quality the files are in.

Is it USB Audio 1 or USB Audio 2? Have you seen which DAC's work with this device? I'm assuming it's in PCM format.

According to Cambridge Audio, "What is the difference between USB audio 1 and 2? Class 1 can send up to a maximum of 24- bit/96kHz hi-res files, but if you want to play those studio master quality files you'll need to step up to Class 2. This supports up to 24 bit/192 kHz resolution files, for those seeking absolute audio perfection. You can read more on high-res audio here."

Both the Qudelix and the Astell and Kern SR35 can decode 16 bit/44.1 kHz. The SR35 manual states, "USB DAC Support Specifications Supported Formats: PCM [8~384kHz(8/16/24/32bit)] DSD [2.8MHz/5.6MHz/11.2MHz]" I'm confounded why it won't work with those devices. Maybe there is a handshake requirement between the USB audio and the DAC?

 

[Shanling]

Is it USB Audio 1 or USB Audio 2? Have you seen which DAC's work with this device?

According to Cambridge Audio, "What is the difference between USB audio 1 and 2? Class 1 can send up to a maximum of 24- bit/96kHz hi-res files, but if you want to play those studio master quality files you'll need to step up to Class 2. This supports up to 24 bit/192 kHz resolution files, for those seeking absolute audio perfection. You can read more on high-res audio here."

It runs in class 2, supporting USB output even for DSD256 and PCM 192.

We tested it with a range of USB DACs, anything from small dongles to big desktop DACs. Only limitation might be if you would have desktop DAC that fully relies on USB power, but that can differ from model to model. There are no complicated settings, it should all work just fine.

As yours work with the Topping unit, we can confirm your ECMini is also working correctly.

For you USB-C DACs, have you tried just one USB cable or some alternatives too? Do you simply have no sound with them or they do not detect signal at all?

 

[Inju]

For you USB-C DACs, have you tried just one USB cable or some alternatives too? Do you simply have no sound with them or they do not detect signal at all?

I've tried it with two different USB-C-type cables. The cables should be working fine as the DAC's work fine from my phone to the DAC. I'm using some pretty popular and common DACs, the Qudelix 5K, the Fiio BTR3K, the Astell & Kern SR35 and an inexpensive USBC to headphone DAC. Have you tested with any of the three DAC's I've listed?

 

[Shanling]

I've tried it with two different USB-C-type cables. The cables should be working fine as the DAC's work fine from my phone to the DAC. I'm using some pretty popular and common DACs, the Qudelix 5K, the Fiio BTR3K, the Astell & Kern SR35 and an inexpensive USBC to headphone DAC. Have you tested with any of the three DAC's I've listed?

It would be no testing on these 3 particular models.

 

[Inju]

It would be no testing on these 3 particular models.

If you haven't tried a Qudelix 5k you should take a look at it's insane EQ. They integrated thousands of EQ for nearly every type of headphones and IEM's. If you implemented this on your Daps it would be awesome!

 

[Digriz29]

I meant in terms of what the audio output format is, i.e. if it's USB audio output is 24 bits PCM, then a 16 bit Dac maybe can not have the capability to read the audio output. I don't know what native means for the CD player. I'm assuming SD card music would be what you saved the file as, such as FLAC, WAV or MP3. Weirdly the Astell & Kern SR35 should be able to decode nearly anything, which has me scratching my head why it won't work with it.

Ah. Of course. Like you, though, I assumed most modern dacs can read just about anything, though some are capped at certain sampling frequencies and dsd can also be capped. I did know that some dongle dacs have power requirements which may not be met. Ie I don't think you can use a dongle dac with the M0. Have you asked Shanling ? They take a few days but will get back to you via email.
In any case, if the mini can muster 0.11 amps over usb it should have plenty of power. Also obviously this doesn't apply to DAPs with their own supply like your A&K.

 

[Digriz29]

I've tried it with two different USB-C-type cables. The cables should be working fine as the DAC's work fine from my phone to the DAC. I'm using some pretty popular and common DACs, the Qudelix 5K, the Fiio BTR3K, the Astell & Kern SR35 and an inexpensive USBC to headphone DAC. Have you tested with any of the three DAC's I've listed?

Ah. You already had a reply. Sorry. Hadn't read that yet. Remains a mystery then.

 

[Digriz29]

If you haven't tried a Qudelix 5k you should take a look at it's insane EQ. They integrated thousands of EQ for nearly every type of headphones and IEM's. If you implemented this on your Daps it would be awesome!

Just a thought. Have you tried connecting your dacs then switching them off and on again while connected ? It's a trick I used when having trouble connecting my Aries femto streamer to my Burson DAC which would not recognise it initially.

 

[Inju]

Just a thought. Have you tried connecting your dacs then switching them off and on again while connected ? It's a trick I used when having trouble connecting my Aries femto streamer to my Burson DAC which would not recognise it initially.

I've tried that, turned it off and on in different orders, changed settings in the DAC, reset the ec-mini, reset the Dacs etc. I'm pretty much over it, haha. I love the cd player so i'm keeping it.