[nesty]

DAP party Benjie-QNGEE-ZiShan-Shanling a congregation of chifi cousins
The QNGEE is a nice looking well built device still to test it. The M0 is an amazing feat of tech where size doesn't matter.
they all need some burn in retesting

Hi @oneula , what is your impression on QNGEE? thanks

 

[jithu215]

x5 II for 110usd is a bargain, I would buy this. About others, fa1 is out of budget (240 usd on Penon)
xs01 is 100usd and sounds great (I have it) but is ok for pop rock, trance or any genre with rhytmic patterns, with ambient electronic with lot of bass sound it produces a weird ticking very annoying, same as ivan tt told about fa1, so avoid if you like ambient or any rhytm-less genre.
xs02 is 145usd, is evolution of xs01 and I guess (or hope!) they solved the ticking issue.
I don't know Zishan dsd.
I may suggest Aigo Moonlight Z6pro, 112usd on Joybuy or 160 usd, with discount coupon, on Aliex where I bought it (at the time I didn't know about Joybuy...) Sounds great with beautiful mids, crisp highs and powerful bass, and has plenty of power to drive almost everything. Or the Z6, 112usd on Aliex or 90 on Joybuy. Compared to the Z6pro, it has not Line out, cannot read dsd256 and has a different DAC (Cirrus Logic instead ESS Sabre of the z6Pro)
But, as told before, I would get the Fiio...

Thanks for the detailed information..i will also check z6

 

[lior777]

what about the hiby r3 compare Z6pro and Shanling mo ?

 

[daid1]

a sort of Z6pro with streaming capability exist?

 

[oneula]

Hi @oneula , what is your impression on QNGEE? thanks

I really like it
it's a solidly made device all metal
heavy though with sharp corners that don't help the stubby wide design when in hand
I think the should have at least rounded the top or bottom edges like the Z3
I finally got one of my SD cards to work (a sandisk 128 versus a samsung 128)

soundwise it is on par with the Shanling M0

the UI is better that the M0 since it doesn't use a touch screen but of the four I think the Benjie UI is the best/fastest
I like the dial Pot volume versus buttons or touchscreen
tried it with all my IEMs but haven't tried my over ear headphones yet.
That will be the real test.

Wow weird,
I just turned it on and it has suddenly switched to chinese and I forgot which menu item it was to flip it back
oh well I'll figure it out.

BTW I have been having lots of issues lately with the ZiShan Z3 locking up its becoming the least favorite of the four

 

[jithu215]

Anyone using f.audio xs02.how is the sound quality?i am confused with this one and fiio x5ii.tempted by the customisation options of xs02.

 

[nesty]

I really like it
it's a solidly made device all metal
heavy though with sharp corners that don't help the stubby wide design when in hand
I think the should have at least rounded the top or bottom edges like the Z3
I finally got one of my SD cards to work (a sandisk 128 versus a samsung 128)

soundwise it is on par with the Shanling M0

the UI is better that the M0 since it doesn't use a touch screen but of the four I think the Benjie UI is the best/fastest
I like the dial Pot volume versus buttons or touchscreen
tried it with all my IEMs but haven't tried my over ear headphones yet.
That will be the real test.

Wow weird,
I just turned it on and it has suddenly switched to chinese and I forgot which menu item it was to flip it back
oh well I'll figure it out.

BTW I have been having lots of issues lately with the ZiShan Z3 locking up its becoming the least favorite of the four

Hello @oneula, soundwise how does QNGEE compare to your Faudio and Z3?

 

[LaughMoreDaily]

Anyone using f.audio xs02.how is the sound quality?i am confused with this one and fiio x5ii.tempted by the customisation options of xs02.

Customizable is better than not.

 

[LaughMoreDaily]

I really like it
BTW I have been having lots of issues lately with the ZiShan Z3 locking up its becoming the least favorite of the four

Are you using it on a trampoline? I've never had that problem.

 

[endia]

I have Zishan DSD AK4497, F.Audio FA1 and YinLvMei m200+ (AK4497 based USB DAC-amp).

Of those 3 I like the sound of FA1 most (using Trinity Icarus III with custom made 7n mmcx cable), although FA1 suffers from rather annoying regular clicks/ticking noise issue F.Audio is aware of but did not manage to resolve (yet).

Zishan DSD is not bad, but is let down by ELNA output caps (which I removed to a great benefit sound-wise), OP275 of dubious origin in LPF (will be replaced soon), same for voltage gain LM4562 opamp (currently replaced by OPA1652, correction: already AD8620), compared to reportedly 4xAD797 and 2xAD8610 in FA1.

Output buffer of DSD AK4497 is SMD-transistor based, similar design to m200+, but m200+ has a different LPF filter topology compared to FA1 and DSD AK4497 which does not sound as good to my ears.

Both FA1 and DSD AK4497 have 22ohm output resistors, DSD AK4497 has them on 2.5mm balanced out as well.

hi Ivan,
i did replace those elna output caps with audio note on my zishan dsd (4495seq) but willing to try your mod too..
did you just bridge the pins? and how do you describe differences with no caps? thanks in advance..

 

[Ivan TT]

Hi!
Nice caps, are they better than muse bp?
Just bridging, but watch for DC before plugging headphones in (actually, you can check for it on the caps input pins), not sure what maximum acceptable value would be, but I had around 5-8mV
Difference is in clarity (reduced veil) and better coherency of soundstage and balance overall, maybe reduced distortion, only a bit, nothing drastic, but enough to make it worthwhile for me personally.
Accidentally from all AK4497 based chi-fi DAPs only Zishan has those output decoupling caps, other 3-4 don't have them (but have them elsewhere).

 

[endia]

Hi!
Nice caps, are they better than muse bp?
Just bridging, but watch for DC before plugging headphones in (actually, you can check for it on the caps input pins), not sure what maximum acceptable value would be, but I had around 5-8mV
Difference is in clarity (reduced veil) and better coherency of soundstage and balance overall, maybe reduced distortion, only a bit, nothing drastic, but enough to make it worthwhile for me personally.
Accidentally from all AK4497 based chi-fi DAPs only Zishan has those output decoupling caps, other 3-4 don't have them (but have them elsewhere).

thanks, but didn't try muse bps unfortunately..
will try and report back soon hopefully.. thanks a lot for the impressions!

 

[nesty]

Hi!
Nice caps, are they better than muse bp?
Just bridging, but watch for DC before plugging headphones in (actually, you can check for it on the caps input pins), not sure what maximum acceptable value would be, but I had around 5-8mV
Difference is in clarity (reduced veil) and better coherency of soundstage and balance overall, maybe reduced distortion, only a bit, nothing drastic, but enough to make it worthwhile for me personally.
Accidentally from all AK4497 based chi-fi DAPs only Zishan has those output decoupling caps, other 3-4 don't have them (but have them elsewhere).

thanks, but didn't try muse bps unfortunately..
will try and report back soon hopefully.. thanks a lot for the impressions!

careful removing those decoupler exposes your headphones to offset dcv it might hurt them. anyway I think ivantt did it without hassles.

 

[endia]

careful removing those decoupler exposes your headphones to offset dcv it might hurt them. anyway I think ivantt did it without hassles.

sure it has potential risks but i'm familiar with dc offset thing, measurements etc.. thanks for the attention anyway..

 

[noknok23]

https://revampacoustics.com/product/nuansa-p1/

For those interested, a new batch of nuansa P1 has been released.
it's similar to zishan z2 in terms of functionality but with high end sound