[raabje]

update, I ordered from Mouser Muses 01, 02, 8920.

The Muses 02 in the Z1, I am not convinced yet. The sound is a bit distant, less direct, vocals or midrange are less pronounced. As a result I have to turn up volume a bit to compensate, and then because of the sound pressure of the bass my ears get tired after a few tracks. Could be my first impression, will listen to it longer.

* edit, changed to Muses 01 in the Z1 and this one is just perfect, listening to Nirvana - Nevermind album. Clear vocals, still plenty of clear bass, not wooly, less sound pressure.

 

[matula]

did any of you convert your single ended Z1 into balanced? What would that entail? Is it as easy as changing the sockets for a 2.5mm 4 pole one, or is it much more involved?

 

[Merlin-PT]

did any of you convert your single ended Z1 into balanced? What would that entail? Is it as easy as changing the sockets for a 2.5mm 4 pole one, or is it much more involved?

I don't think so, ES9023 doesn't have differential outputs like ak4490, ak4493, ak4497 have.

There's walnut F1 and F2, I think they use drv134 to convert single ended to balanced, I don't have one.
Not related to F1/F2 neither to balanced, there are other single ended amps, that I read that sound very good.

IMO a good upgrade to Z1 is Z2 ak4490 (with replaced caps and opamps) and an upgrade from that is Z3 ak4493 (with replaced caps and opamps), but they are out of stock for now.

 

[raabje]

pics or it didn't happen...



I pulled out the Muses 01, now the Z1 has a Burson opamp. It just sounds very good, natural and fluid. Better than Muses 01, I cannot judge about that, then I have to buy a second Z1 and compare them side by side. The Muses 01 will move to a DSDs with ES chip. Then I have 4 Zishans with premium opamps and that's more than enough

 

[raabje]

I have compared my Zishan players with a Mojo Chord and Fiio BTR3K. I could add a Qudelix 5K but that one is in my car at the moment.

I played a 24bit/96khz file with Foobar, "SRV - Texas Flood", from a computer, and the Zishans played the same file from a memory card. Headphone is Sennheiser HD560S. I played the song a lot of times, long passages to get the feeling, and short passages with a lot of headphone switching. I tried to maintain the same volume on all devices.

- The Chord sounds very clean and precise, bass is well defined. The soundstage or recording space is quite big
- The DSDs with dual CS43198 and Muses02 has the same character,
- The BTR3K with dual AK4377A has also the same character, I guess this one sounds a little bit flatter than the other two.

- The Z1 with ES9023 with Burson V5i-D has more bass, or more wooly bass, and the lead guitar is a bit fatter. Space is a bit smaller.
- The Z3 with ES9038Q2M with Burson V5i-D has the same character as Z1

So the result (as I can hear with this single blues song) is a division in two groups, one more clean, precise/analytical, a bit bigger space, and the Burson group is a a bit more wooly, fatter/warmer, smaller. Are they more musical? I cannot judge about that yet. And you have to know, the differences are actually very small, and I like them all. The Zishans and opamps are all new too and if burn-in is an important factor, the result could change after time.

A conclusion of this test can also be that the HD560 is not revealing enough. I tried my AKG 271mk2 too, but that one has less bass and more mid frequency, the HD560 is neutral sounding.

One last thing, i played, just to to be sure, on Z1 and Z3 a 44K 16 bit wave song, Maurizio - M-series, "M04A". That's dub-techno, and they sound the same with this song. Z1 has just a tiny bit more bass (of more bass resonance) if you listen very carefully, and I don't miss this aspect in the Z3 sound. It's too deep and far away to recognize.

 

[grentchello]

is there any way to change out the buttons to less cheap sounding nicer ones? mine and im assuming everyone elses z1 is really clicky and anoying and i was wandering if any of you could recomend something?

 

[DBaldock9]

is there any way to change out the buttons to less cheap sounding nicer ones? mine and im assuming everyone elses z1 is really clicky and anoying and i was wandering if any of you could recomend something?

Any normally open push-button switch should work.
I haven't actually traced out the schematic, but I think the 3 switches are connected to GND on one side - so when pressed, they pull down the control lines that are connected to the other side of each switch (there are probably pull-up resistors on that side of the switches).

 

[numon]

hi
as i remember zishan z1 can be use as only amp mode?can someone confirm please?espeacially for new z1 units on aliexpress
and what is the max volt to opmap given by z1?i ordered sonic imagery 994 discrete opamp and opamp need at least 7.5 v.

 

[Setmagic]

I have compared my Zishan players with a Mojo Chord and Fiio BTR3K. I could add a Qudelix 5K but that one is in my car at the moment.

I played a 24bit/96khz file with Foobar, "SRV - Texas Flood", from a computer, and the Zishans played the same file from a memory card. Headphone is Sennheiser HD560S. I played the song a lot of times, long passages to get the feeling, and short passages with a lot of headphone switching. I tried to maintain the same volume on all devices.

- The Chord sounds very clean and precise, bass is well defined. The soundstage or recording space is quite big
- The DSDs with dual CS43198 and Muses02 has the same character,
- The BTR3K with dual AK4377A has also the same character, I guess this one sounds a little bit flatter than the other two.

- The Z1 with ES9023 with Burson V5i-D has more bass, or more wooly bass, and the lead guitar is a bit fatter. Space is a bit smaller.
- The Z3 with ES9038Q2M with Burson V5i-D has the same character as Z1

So the result (as I can hear with this single blues song) is a division in two groups, one more clean, precise/analytical, a bit bigger space, and the Burson group is a a bit more wooly, fatter/warmer, smaller. Are they more musical? I cannot judge about that yet. And you have to know, the differences are actually very small, and I like them all. The Zishans and opamps are all new too and if burn-in is an important factor, the result could change after time.

A conclusion of this test can also be that the HD560 is not revealing enough. I tried my AKG 271mk2 too, but that one has less bass and more mid frequency, the HD560 is neutral sounding.

One last thing, i played, just to to be sure, on Z1 and Z3 a 44K 16 bit wave song, Maurizio - M-series, "M04A". That's dub-techno, and they sound the same with this song. Z1 has just a tiny bit more bass (of more bass resonance) if you listen very carefully, and I don't miss this aspect in the Z3 sound. It's too deep and far away to recognize.

We really need Zishan devices official thread, because it's too many of them right now
So how about Z1 vs DSDs with same chip?
I think OPA1622 would be better companion than V5i in smallest Zishans.
I burnt my 1622 by accident when I rolled resistors but I remember this little beast can easy goes side by side with V5i and it's more stable than Bursons family.

New Zishan Z4 thread

 

[Gabbbbbbbbbbbb]

If I cut off one of the legs of the bright blue led, will the player remain functional, did anyone try this?
edit: Never mind, with some tape & black paper I successfully covered up the led, completely eliminating the blinking blue light.

 

[DBaldock9]

If I cut off one of the legs of the bright blue led, will the player remain functional, did anyone try this?
edit: Never mind, with some tape & black paper I successfully covered up the led, completely eliminating the blinking blue light.

The option I took was to replace the series resistor with one that's ~2x the original value, to dim the LED. To turn it completely off, just unsolder the series resistor.

 

[Gabbbbbbbbbbbb]

The thing is that I have far better DAPs than the Z1, so despite having this thing for over 3 years, I have only used it to burn in IEMs and headphones, but recently I have bought a pair of hd600s, I have taken the Z1 out to burn them in and imagine my surprise, when I realized how easily the Z1 can drive them. (not surprisingly my other DAPs are severely lacking in this regard)

After having read various opamp rolling experiences in this thread I'm wondering how much power would I lose with opamp replacements. If I want to retain the power, are the Burson V5i, LME49720NA or the LME49720HA viable options?
I'm not really looking for more fidelity, but the player with the stock opamp sounds a bit weird. I guess It's artificially airy due to some harmonic distortions & the bass is a bit boomy..

edit: I'm answering my own question now, Yes the LME49720HA can easily drive the HD600 in the Z1.

 

[Gabbbbbbbbbbbb]

Well, I went ahead and I've done it, bought a LME49720HA from a local electronic store.
I admire you all for getting this done without solder & an additional dip8 socket. I tried fitting it "raw", but it just kept falling out. So I had to solder it into a dip8 socket myself. On the upside it's a perfect fit in the sense that the aluminum top cover is pushing onto the Opamp, so heat dissipation ought to not be a problem.

With the HD600 the improvement is way beyond my expectations. :-O (I have tried opamp rolling on other gear before, but I had always gotten lukewarm results)
In fact the difference is so dramatic, that it makes me question if the original opamp was a dud. (It's still not an AMAZING player or anything, but it's very pleasant now)

edit: I've spent hundreds of hours listening to this setup. (hd600s+z1-49720HA) I'd like to revise my earlier statement on the player not being "AMAZING or anything". It's actually quite incredible. The technicalities may not be off the charts, but the sound is very lively, dynamic and analog like, I've heard far more expensive tube based amps sound far worse from incredible DACs, so I don't know what to say anymore. Money well spent I suppose ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

 

[Gabbbbbbbbbbbb]

If I only want to use the player in shuffle mode, would downgrading the firmware be useful?

edit: nope, it's not.

 

[labeelen]

Well, I went ahead and I've done it, bought a LME49720HA from a local electronic store.
I admire you all for getting this done without solder & an additional dip8 socket. I tried fitting it "raw", but it just kept falling out. So I had to solder it into a dip8 socket myself. On the upside it's a perfect fit in the sense that the aluminum top cover is pushing onto the Opamp, so heat dissipation ought to not be a problem.

With the HD600 the improvement is way beyond my expectations. :-O (I have tried opamp rolling on other gear before, but I had always gotten lukewarm results)
In fact the difference is so dramatic, that it makes me question if the original opamp was a dud. (It's still not an AMAZING player or anything, but it's very pleasant now)

edit: I've spent hundreds of hours listening to this setup. (hd600s+z1-49720HA) I'd like to revise my earlier statement on the player not being "AMAZING or anything". It's actually quite incredible. The technicalities may not be off the charts, but the sound is very lively, dynamic and analog like, I've heard far more expensive tube based amps sound far worse from incredible DACs, so I don't know what to say anymore. Money well spent I suppose ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Recently I blew the dust of my ‘old’ Z1 and wanted to see what an upgrade to a fully discrete Opamp could bring.
I made a short review of my findings:
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/zishan-family-z1-z2.22550/reviews