[CactusPete23]

My broken F.Audio Xs-03 came back to life in a quite bizarre way... I was thinking to try give it somebody to check if could be repaired cheap, so I listened once more before delivery to ensure it was still broken... OMG it works! I took it up, and no more sound! I noticed it was leaning near a magnet, on the output side. So I tried to put the magnet on that side and the sound returned. Wow... I opened the Xs-03, I only removed the panel on the output side to access inside without pulling out everything I took a small but powerful neodymium magnet found somewhere and I tried to put it on the white "boxes" I evidenced below, near the outputs, while listening (anybody knows what is it? I guess is some kind of relay)
(picture downloaded from Aliexpress)

And then trying to place the magnet the sound gone off and on, and finally remain on without magnet, on both outputs. Could it be that those relays got somehow stuck pushing on them when I opened the player two weeks ago and the magnetic field unlocked them?

Well, now the player works. But may this mess have some influence on the sound? It seem to play normally, no distortion or noises, but I think is better to review the other Xs-03 I ordered already a couple of weeks ago as replacement, it would be too late to cancel the order...

Nice troubleshooting! IF they are relays (photo is out of focus) ... Then you may not be getting the power TO the Relays that allows them to "turn the power on". A relay is just a switch as you know. And the magnet may be moving the relay swtch(s) to ON. That should mean that the relays work. But also means they are not getting powered to turn on in the way designed. A good electronics repair person should be able to repair. My guess is that you likely broke a solder joint on a component when first opening the unit. Though it is possible some part was broken and needs to be replaced. Your troubleshooting so far, points to the circuit that gives power to the relay NOT FIRING/Not Powering up, as it is supposed to. (Slim chance it's a bad relay... but still a chance). (I.e. things like a broken solder joint on the relay's Operating power lead, would do what you say is happening. Main power to the relay is OK, as the relay still switches the unit ON. Assume that Display, and all functions work with the magnet in place?)

 

[deltecdpa]

Nice troubleshooting! IF they are relays (photo is out of focus) ... Then you may not be getting the power TO the Relays that allows them to "turn the power on". A relay is just a switch as you know. And the magnet may be moving the relay swtch(s) to ON. That should mean that the relays work. But also means they are not getting powered to turn on in the way designed. A good electronics repair person should be able to repair. My guess is that you likely broke a solder joint on a component when first opening the unit. Though it is possible some part was broken and needs to be replaced. Your troubleshooting so far, points to the circuit that gives power to the relay NOT FIRING/Not Powering up, as it is supposed to. (Slim chance it's a bad relay... but still a chance). (I.e. things like a broken solder joint on the relay's Operating power lead, would do what you say is happening. Main power to the relay is OK, as the relay still switches the unit ON. Assume that Display, and all functions work with the magnet in place?)

Oh, I call them "relay" but I don't know what they are, just guessing, in fact I asked if anybody knows.
Display and all functions always worked, and no, I did not have to leave the magnet there anymore. To add more mystery, after the "repair" was done I left the magnet close to the player and sound gone, I moved the magnet away and sound returned...!! Now I am listening it, works normally. I tried to shake it, no issues. Will see if lasts...

 

[Merlin-PT]

Yes, those are SMD relays:
https://www.google.com/search?q=smd+relay

Maybe you also had a strong magnet near them when they didn't work or stopped working.

There are 2 separated circuits inside the relay, the coil circuit is electrical separated from the lever circuit.
You apply current to the coil, it creates an electromagnetic field that makes the lever move and the lever acts like a switch.

random google video:

 

[kanett]

I have a noob question guys. I have qngee x2 and kz zsn, trn v90. This DAP has strange sound when the music is quiet. The sound can be described as pitch electone whistling, but not too loud.

Is it just normal DAP behavior or I should return for defect. I have no knowledge of amp or impediance, and I have no other headphone to test it.
And when music plays loud, I cannot hear whistling, does this means that the whistling is really gone or actually it is still there but not loud to hear?

Thx in advance.

 

[CactusPete23]

I have a noob question guys. I have qngee x2 and kz zsn, trn v90. This DAP has strange sound when the music is quiet. The sound can be described as pitch electone whistling, but not too loud.

Is it just normal DAP behavior or I should return for defect. I have no knowledge of amp or impediance, and I have no other headphone to test it.
And when music plays loud, I cannot hear whistling, does this means that the whistling is really gone or actually it is still there but not loud to hear?

Thx in advance.

It sounds like you may be getting interference from some source, Or it could be the DAP producing low volume noise Itself.
1) IF you are plugged into a power supply, that can sometimes give you noise. If you are getting that noise when on internal battery only, then it's not the power supply.
2) Connecting DAP via USB to a computer to either charge or to USB as a DAC/AMP can sometimes give you low level noise. If not connected, this is not the source.
3) If you are near ,within a few feet, of your computer, cell phone, WIFI Router, TV, Microwave oven, etc... You may be getting noise from any of those devices if DAP is not shielded well. IF you go outdoors (in a quiet area), or some place far away from any other devices, Do you still hear the noise? If still Noise, the DAP is either defective, or just built that way. What DAP are you using???
4) Slim chance that your music files were poorly encoded, and have noise... But possible. Play files on your phone or computer and see if the background noise is still there. If not, it's not the files.

EDIT: I see you mentioned the player. Not familiar with it. But would guess that the player may just have that level of noise in it's standard specifications. Did not see S/N on the Aliexpress page I went to...

 

[deltecdpa]

I have a noob question guys. I have qngee x2 and kz zsn, trn v90. This DAP has strange sound when the music is quiet. The sound can be described as pitch electone whistling, but not too loud.

Is it just normal DAP behavior or I should return for defect. I have no knowledge of amp or impediance, and I have no other headphone to test it.
And when music plays loud, I cannot hear whistling, does this means that the whistling is really gone or actually it is still there but not loud to hear?

Thx in advance.

I have a similar issue with Aigo z6pro, even rather than a whistle seem a "frying" pitched noise, getting masked when sound level gets high, but only with MP3 files, at any bitrate. Other file formats are not affected. Although now I am using an F.Audio Xs-03, that no have this issue.
So I think about Aigo z6pro maybe (maybe!) is a hardware bug as several firmware updates never solved this.
Does the Qngee "whistles" regardless file quality and format?

 

[lior777]

hey, search for a new dap (no need online stream) with warm, detailed for musical instruments&voacle male...recommendations until 350$

 

[oneula]

My Ziku HD-X9 showed up today

The UI is problematic for me
it doesn't save my selection to english and reverts back to chinese everytime I turn it on
Doesn't seem to have a folder view and going through album's or artists especially on compiliations is a pain
No way to quickly scroll you have to keep twisting the volume knob

I'll try out some more of my buds, IEMs and phones on it to see how powerful this little guy really is
ran my VE Zens which are 300ohm and had to crack up the volume
I'll try it on something more sensitive and see how it sounds
So far not really clicking many pluses for me
Hey but its the first day

The Tempotec V1A seems to be a more refined device at this point

 

[baskingshark]

My Ziku HD-X9 showed up today

The UI is problematic for me
it doesn't save my selection to english and reverts back to chinese everytime I turn it on
Doesn't seem to have a folder view and going through album's or artists especially on compiliations is a pain
No way to quickly scroll you have to keep twisting the volume knob

I'll try out some more of my buds, IEMs and phones on it to see how powerful this little guy really is
ran my VE Zens which are 300ohm and had to crack up the volume
I'll try it on something more sensitive and see how it sounds
So far not really clicking many pluses for me
Hey but its the first day

The Tempotec V1A seems to be a more refined device at this point

I'm using ziku HD x9 and it does have a folder view. That's how i normally play my music. I labelled my songs in folders on the Micro SD card before putting it in the ziku.

And it does save english settings for me everytime i turn it on. Maybe u got a lemon? The scrolling for songs is a pain, agree. But I'm quite happy with the sturdiness and battery life.

 

[ponyhead]

hey, search for a new dap (no need online stream) with warm, detailed for musical instruments&voacle male...recommendations until 350$

I see a hifiman hm-603 on eBay for 130+20 usd and I doubt you can beat that DAP for the price. I love its sound, which people here have described as warm and "analog".

Not only does it sound great, you might never need an amp! It has a gain switch, and even the low-gain mode can drive my hd6xx with a12:00 volume knob. The high-gain mode doesn't need to lift a finger, so I imagine it would drive 600ohm cans too. Soon I'll get to try with a pair of planars.

 

[citral23]

I see a hifiman hm-603 on eBay for 130+20 usd and I doubt you can beat that DAP for the price. I love its sound, which people here have described as warm and "analog".

Not only does it sound great, you might never need an amp! It has a gain switch, and even the low-gain mode can drive my hd6xx with a12:00 volume knob. The high-gain mode doesn't need to lift a finger, so I imagine it would drive 600ohm cans too. Soon I'll get to try with a pair of planars.

That looks so outdated, no SD card slot as far as I can see, no USB charging? The wall charger looks almost as big as the DAP lol.


What about a Cayin N3, can't really go wrong with those. All the money goes into the build and sound, not in "features" it's pretty solid imo.

 

[ponyhead]

That looks so outdated, no SD card slot as far as I can see, no USB charging? The wall charger looks almost as big as the DAP lol.

There's an SD slot and a usb slot (mini-B I believe). Not much by way of internal storage, so the SD slot is key. Pretty minimalist and not so sleek, its only purpose is to sound good and it does that. Personally I like how the dap looks like it's somehow from 1992

The overall set of features can get dated but the sound can't. All I know is I wouldn't trade my 603 for any DAP (except another hifiman) without hearing it first.

 

[Slater]

The overall set of features can get dated but the sound can't.

Great point.

I see people complain when a perfectly good audio device doesn’t have USB-C charge port, like that singular issue somehow how makes whatever the device is ready for the landfill.

 

[cqtek]

Hi all, for those with the Acmee MF01, is there a limit on the number of files you can put inside the microsd? I'm getting this System Erroe code: 0203-0406 when scanning my 128g microsd, however, when using a smaller sized microsd with fewer files, the player scans it fine. Thanks for taking time on my querry

There seems to be a maximum number of folders.
You should also know that it only reads one level of folders, for now it is not able to read two nested folders. But they are working on it.

I corrected the situation by making folders with only the name of the band... This is my pattern not to get too involved.

\%artist%\%track% - ([%year%]) %album% - %title%

 

[D0Hbert]

Thanks for the tip cqtek, I think I found out the reason for the cause for the failed scanning. i did a full flac verificatiin scan of my entire microsd and no errors were reported. I had to redo the transfer of folders to the microsd by batches and find the "faulty" folder. Unfortunately for me, my player just died with this error message, which I'm guessing is caused by an empty rom. From my limited understanding of chinese characters, it read some thing like "i cannot find the necessary folder?" This error message appears whether the microsd is in the slot or not. A pity, it was a really mature sounding dap.