[DrSheep]

They are too high, the back canot be closed flash.

Just cut the pins.

 

[audionewbi]

1-Unit arrived just before Christmas, thank the gods of head-fi for not making me wait a week till the next deliver cycle! [24-12-2015]
 
I was not expecting to get the unit this quick but I did. The unit is infact very light, if you find Ak120 easy to carry this should be as easy. First impressions are quiet positive. This is the first DAP venturecraft has produced however I will not use that as a justification for any short coming on their behalf however so far for a first attempt it is a nicely done unit, I give them a pass however there are few things I liked improved:
 

1. The unit uses wheel for navigation:The scroll wheel design when done right can work (shanling M3 for instance) however the one used on Valoq seems loss, I like a bit more resistance.
2. Scroll wheel is easy to spin, we must always lock it: Since it is so easy to spin the wheel which what it does is skip a few second in track (no big deal right) but if you want to FF a song this means you have to take the unit out of your pocket, unlock it and FF it. 
3. Where is my FF button: In order to FF a song it is required to press the scroll wheel hard twice.
4. There is still a slight gap between song: Not truly gapless but the gap as stated in the audio setting is 100ms, still long enough for me to notice
5. Quality check can be better: Sadly my unit has developed a white-line across the TFT screen, I think there is a set of faulty screens that they used on their early batches.
6.  
7.  

But now lets focus on sound: In short it sounds very similar to AK240, very wide, well extended and detailing using stock opamp is adequate however that can easily be fixed. The magic of valoq is in us been able to fine tune the sound using different LPF. I know I cannot wait to figure this part out myself.
 
The balance out just offer excellent dynamic for my T8iE, I will test other IEM later, early days. 
 
I will post pictures later tonight, promise

 

[DrSheep]

Great impression, and mine will be here around the 29th along with my OpAmps.

 

[productred]

  1-Unit arrived just before Christmas, thank the gods of head-fi for not making wait a week till the next cycle! [24-12-2015]
 
I was not expecting to get the unit this quick but I did. The unit is infact very light, if you find Ak120 easy to carry this should be as easy. First impressions are quiet positive. This is the first DAP venturecraft has produced however I will not use that as a justification for any short coming on their behalf however so far for a first attempt it is a nicely done unit, I give them a pass however there are few things I liked improved:
 

1. The unit uses wheel for navigation:The scroll wheel design when done right can work (shanling M3 for instance) however the one used on Valoq seems loss, I like a bit more resistance.
2. Scroll wheel is easy to spin, we must always lock it: Since it is so easy to spin the wheel which what it does is skip a few second in track (no big deal right) but if you want to FF a song this means you have to take the unit out of your pocket, unlock it and FF it. 
3. Where is my FF button: In order to FF a song it is required to press the scroll wheel hard twice.
4. There is still a slight gap between song: Not truly gapless but the gap as stated in the audio setting is 100ms, still long enough for me to notice
5. Quality check can be better: Sadly my unit has developed a white-line across the TFT screen, I think there is a set of faulty screens that they used on their early batches.
6.  
7.  

But now lets focus on sound: In short it sounds very similar to AK240, very wide, well extended and detailing using stock opamp is adequate however that can easily be fixed. The magic of valoq is in us been able to fine tune the sound using different LPF. I know I cannot wait to figure this part out myself.
 
The balance out just offer excellent dynamic for my T8iE, I will test other IEM later, early days. 
 
I will post pictures later tonight, promise

 
Nice 1st impressions.
 
I find myself NOT locking it from my 2nd day of use, and the wheel never once spinned unintentionally inside my pocket. It really isn't THAT loose, but I can understand some may prefer a bit more resistance. But then AK's spinewheels are much looser than this....
 
Talking about wheels, the volume knob, I think, is done just right. Enough resistance to avoid accidental turning, but still smooth enough for fine adjustments.
 
And I can totally live with the rocker scroll wheel design - I'm quite used to this FF click twice / RW click 3 times thing since the days remotes on handfree headsets became popular.
 
Maybe some part of it can use some burn in, as it starts to sing heavenly on my 3rd day of use. Excellent synergy with my 3 go-to iems as of late: Fitear 335DWSR, Compact Monitors Stage 4 and, of cos, the T8iE.

 

[audionewbi]

   
Nice 1st impressions.
 
I find myself NOT locking it from my 2nd day of use, and the wheel never once spinned unintentionally inside my pocket. It really isn't THAT loose, but I can understand some may prefer a bit more resistance. But then AK's spinewheels are much looser than this....
 
Talking about wheels, the volume knob, I think, is done just right. Enough resistance to avoid accidental turning, but still smooth enough for fine adjustments.
 
And I can totally live with the rocker scroll wheel design - I'm quite used to this FF click twice / RW click 3 times thing since the days remotes on handfree headsets became popular.
 
Maybe some part of it can use some burn in, as it starts to sing heavenly on my 3rd day of use. Excellent synergy with my 3 go-to iems as of late: Fitear 335DWSR, Compact Monitors Stage 4 and, of cos, the T8iE.

I do not mind the volume knob, it will never accidentally move however the wheel on the side for me is loose, I think this comes down to product variation. I do not mind the roller wheel however if it is used as the main way of usage it can get annoying. 
I also dislike the fact that whenever I turn the volume knob to adjust volume the screen turns on, it is waste of battery. It isn't like we are getting any reading on the volume level. While it is not a major annoyance it does impact battery life.
 
I cannot critic it on sound, unless not right now, currently to me the sound is well above its price range. I knew that VC can get AKM design right, and so they did.

 

[audionewbi]

  Great impression, and mine will be here around the 29th along with my OpAmps.

Two thumbs up regarding muses01, the sound is no way bright, I was expecting it to be bright. The bass dynamic and control improved alot compared to stock. 

 

[DrSheep]

  Two thumbs up regarding muses01, the sound is no way bright, I was expecting it to be bright. The bass dynamic and control improved alot compared to stock. 

Remember, the MUSES01 is underpower by the Valoq (min 9v, the DAP only gives 7v), so I have no idea how will this affect the chips.  Go to know that you think it sounds good.

 

[audionewbi]

  Remember, the MUSES01 is underpower by the Valoq (min 9v, the DAP only gives 7v), so I have no idea how will this affect the chips.  Go to know that you think it sounds good.

I tried muses01 in another underpowered setup and the final sound was just bright, however it was not used for a LPF but used as the main driving opamp. It seems to not to do anything wrong, unless i havnt picked it. The only difference is shrinkage in soundstage however that is what could be merely a result of different sound tuning. 
 
 
EIDT: just used some of my sensitive IEM and I notice a noticeable increase in background noise when I switch between muses01 and stock opamp. 

 

[Yamada-Tech]

I tryed these opamps.
 
VALOQ has 7V power so I think can not use MUSES01.
but MUSES01 is very funny sound !!!
MUSES02 is lower than 01 (3.5V~16V) it has real good result maybe...
 
JRC opamps is not good lol...
 

 

[DevilofLife]

One question for the owners does it play dsd natively of dsd to pcm cause when I demo it the staff told me its dsd to pcm but the spec from venturecraft translate to english say its native dsd playback so which one is it?

 

[audionewbi]

  One question for the owners does it play dsd natively of dsd to pcm cause when I demo it the staff told me its dsd to pcm but the spec from venturecraft translate to english say its native dsd playback so which one is it?

It can play all files natively, however what it does is it can upsample lower res file and pass through the AKM SRC system to give it a more organic sound of DSD. 
 

 

[Semuapunmau]

I like what I am hearing and definitely an upgrade to my Jr in terms of SQ (clarity, separation, details, and yes organic vs analytical). To my ears this little player punched above its size regardless of $.

Merry Christmas all!

 

[DrSheep]

I like what I am hearing and definitely an upgrade to my Jr in terms of SQ (clarity, separation, details, and yes organic vs analytical). To my ears this little player punched above its size regardless of $.

Merry Christmas all!

Very nice and same to you.

 

[audionewbi]

2-The strength of this dap is in DSD upsampling, for now [24-12-2015]
 
 
I think the strength of this dap is 
a)DSD playback and 
b)DSD upsampling.
 
I notice no improvement when going DSD-DSD however PCM-DSD I notice a positive change. Going from PCM to higher res PCM(354/384) adds brightness which I dislike. That brightness increases as the sample rate increases. Also bit-depth of 24 I find better sounding than 32 bit. I think they still have a bit of work to do when it comes to PCM-PCM algorithm. 
 
DSD128 upsampling is just so easy to listen to, non-fatiguing is the right word to describe it.
 
PS: Happy holidays

 

[qsk78]

 audionewbi, How do you find your MXH-RF550B with VALOQ. Can you describe the sound please?