[kcorfognik]

I have the AK4497EQ version of the Zishan DSD pro. It is indisputably the best value for money player I have ever heard.

However, I did run into a problem which may be an sd card issue (checkdsk gives it a clean bill of health) or the player.

I have a 128 Gb card with about 100 Gb of folders full of FLAC files.

I sorted these with FatSort, but now I find something like 4 Gb of FLAC files, sorted in folders recursively first, refuse to track in alphabetic sequence, and sometimes jump to folders elsewhere in the 4 Gb ‘problem zone’.

Looking at the problem files with Ex Falso reveals no obvious reason (as compared with files that do play in sequence).

I’ve even tried capturing all the files to an external drive, reformatting the sd card and copying the data back. Exactly the same problem persists after this exercise. Mystifying.

I can see that I shall have to rebuild the 4 Gb’s worth again from CD. Horrifying.

Still: ars longa vita brevis...

Are you able to try the card in a different player to see if it behaves similarly?

 

[ctleake]

Yes, I've tried a few other players and they handle the card fine (F.Audio XS-02, ZIKU HD-X10, Yescool S5).

More interestingly, I have another identical Zishan DSD Pro I bought at the same time as the one I'm using - and the card fails in that player in precisely the same way!

Where I'm up to now with this problem is that I've reformatted the card as FAT32 and used FreeFileSync to reload the original data which I copied to an external hard drive in name order.

So unless the data itself has the problem embedded invisibly in it and the Zishan DSD Pro operating system reacts uniquely to that problem, I'm forced to conclude that the Zishan OS cannot handle this 128 Gb sd card's file structure, which no other player finds difficulty handling, nor does any utility expose as corrupted in any way.

I wish to goodness I could find some firmware update to this Zishan DSD Pro, but all my attempts to find any firmware have been frustrated.

 

[Mr.HiAudio]

My zishan dsds sides for es9038 and 2x ak449x :
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4882445

 

[ctleake]

My zishan dsds sides for es9038 and 2x ak449x :
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4882445

Thank you for taking the time to reply. Unfortunately, I get a 404 clicking this link.

 

[Merlin-PT]

@ctleake
Could be the metadata information inside the files (the files tags info and/or album photos).
To test, copy those files to another card, test it, if still have problems then use some software to remove _all_ metadata, test again. I removed all metadata from all my files, if you can live with that do it to all the files.
Also see if the file names have special characters and how many directory/folders levels you have.

See if this applies:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the-zishan-dsds-corner.826185/page-208#post-15979992

 

[ctleake]

@ctleake
Could be the metadata information inside the files (the files tags info and/or album photos).
To test, copy those files to another card, test it, if still have problems then use some software to remove _all_ metadata, test again. I removed all metadata from all my files, if you can live with that do it to all the files.
Also see if the file names have special characters and how many directory/folders levels you have.

See if this applies:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the-zishan-dsds-corner.826185/page-208#post-15979992

Thanks for the advice.

Yes, the way this problem seems to be following the files around as I copy them back and forth from my external hard drive does suggest the issue is embedded in the structure of the files somehow.

I like your idea of copying some of the problem files to another sd card. I will try that.

I was also thinking of examining the problem files in Audacity and comparing the tag info with that of files which do play in the expected sequence.

I notice in all my copying around of all files, that the modification timestamps do not change (from the loop touch & sleep 1 I did on them all a few days ago).

It’s Murphy’s Law that my best sounding DAP is the only one which has this problem!

 

[Mr.HiAudio]

@ctleake
Could be the metadata information inside the files (the files tags info and/or album photos).
To test, copy those files to another card, test it, if still have problems then use some software to remove _all_ metadata, test again. I removed all metadata from all my files, if you can live with that do it to all the files.
Also see if the file names have special characters and how many directory/folders levels you have.

See if this applies:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the-zishan-dsds-corner.826185/page-208#post-15979992

does`t work for me

still one_play/one_not_play/one_play/one_not_play

 

[Merlin-PT]

I don't remember what software I used to deleted the ID3 tags, but I used more than one app.
Problem is that the ID3 standard has several versions and sub-versions and some software I used didn't support all the versions. I ended using at least 3 different apps to delete all the metadata (tags and covers) from my music files.

So you can copy, let's say 6 of those problematic files to the root of a formatted sdcard and you can replicate the issue with only those 6 files on the card?
Are you using cue files? I never tried those.
Are those 6 test files mp3, flacs, ...?

 

[ctleake]

I don't remember what software I used to deleted the ID3 tags, but I used more than one app.
Problem is that the ID3 standard has several versions and sub-versions and some software I used didn't support all the versions. I ended using at least 3 different apps to delete all the metadata (tags and covers) from my music files.

So you can copy, let's say 6 of those problematic files to the root of a formatted sdcard and you can replicate the issue with only those 6 files on the card?
Are you using cue files? I never tried those.
Are those 6 test files mp3, flacs, ...?

Well, I only needed to copy over one folder with 3 FLAC files to a 32 Gb sd card which hitherto didn’t exhibit this problem.

I was amazed to find that the Zishan still had the play sequence problem with those three FLAC files!

I’ve examined the metadata with Audacity, and I can’t see any significant difference between the metadata of these failing FLAC files and metadata of FLAC files the Zishan plays through correctly in sequence.

But it certainly appears that the problem is indeed in the structure of the problem files (the folder I created from scratch).

Both the FLAC files with which the Zishan has no track sequence problem, and the trio of FLAC files with which it does, (I think) were created with abcde on ubuntu (the other candidate being Windows EAC). I am certain though that some abcde produced FLAC files are mis-tracking.

As to cue files, these work beautifully on the Zishan with no sequence problem. I wish to goodness now that I’d gone down that (slightly awkward) production path. But I’m staring at 4 Gb of FLAC files that would need recreating!!!

To all you guys out their enjoying your magnificent Zishans I would say this. I was perfectly happily ripping CDs with abcde and having no trouble with the Zishan, until one day these FLAC files started failing to play sequentially. So think about (topical pun) inoculating your FLAC collection with cue files before you too are exposed to the same incurable malady.

 

[Merlin-PT]

I think I did some of my CDs with EAC and opensource command line FLAC many years ago.
I configured it to created a folder with the album name and the flac files inside are named as <track_number>" - "<track_name>. Then I have all the folders in sd card root.
Maybe too simple for big collections, but it works for now.

 

[ctleake]

I configured it to created a folder with the album name and the flac files inside are named as <track_number>" - "<track_name>. Then I have all the folders in sd card root.

Maybe too simple for big collections, but it works for now.

I think this is the sort of organization the Acmee MF-01 requires.
The Zishan and most every other DAP can have, say, /Composer/Symphonies/No.1/Conductor/01.Movement1.flac etc.
The way my Zishan is going wrong it wouldn’t play the FLAC files in your scheme with one level of folder off the root containing all the files in filename order.
If I had to re-extract the FLAC files I would go for cue files.

 

[Mr.HiAudio]

Thank you for taking the time to reply. Unfortunately, I get a 404 clicking this link.

yes now shoud works
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4882445

 

[ctleake]

Well, continuing my saga. I decided to remove the first four directories (in the alphabetic recursive sort sequence) in which I'd experienced the play order issues (about 4 Gb of FLAC files) and recreated the first folder. Then I started placing the FLAC files back. The play sequence worked for the first folder replacement! So I decided to use Copy In Order to place back all the other offending subfolders.

This has almost worked completely!!! There's one stubborn folder right at the beginning (the one I created manually) which has stopped playing in sequence, but I can live with a few mega bytes kicking up rough, if the rest of the 4 Gb of FLAC files behave, as they in fact now do.

Interestingly, when I added the first folder back manually (I'm keeping all names the same), it went to the first position (I expected it to sort to last since I'd only just created it. But all the folders I replaced using Copy In Order went to the last positions - as expected. Strange.

My current thinking it's down to some rogue software I'd used to resequence all the FLAC files. I think I recollect sdsorter throwing up access violations which I glibly ignored.

Hm, I wonder if that corrupted the sd card's file table in some way that the Zishan can't cope with?

 

[ctleake]

Well, continuing my saga. I decided to remove the first four directories (in the alphabetic recursive sort sequence) in which I'd experienced the play order issues (about 4 Gb of FLAC files) and recreated the first folder. Then I started placing the FLAC files back. The play sequence worked for the first folder replacement! So I decided to use Copy In Order to place back all the other offending subfolders.

This has almost worked completely!!! There's one stubborn folder right at the beginning (the one I created manually) which has stopped playing in sequence, but I can live with a few mega bytes kicking up rough, if the rest of the 4 Gb of FLAC files behave, as they in fact now do.

Interestingly, when I added the first folder back manually (I'm keeping all names the same), it went to the first position (I expected it to sort to last since I'd only just created it. But all the folders I replaced using Copy In Order went to the last positions - as expected. Strange.

My current thinking it's down to some rogue software I'd used to resequence all the FLAC files. I think I recollect sdsorter throwing up access violations which I glibly ignored.

Hm, I wonder if that corrupted the sd card's file table in some way that the Zishan can't cope with?

Oh my. It is the sd card at fault, not the Zishan, VLC Media Player had exactly the same problem stepping to Next, and some of the FLAC files are corrupted, playing sections of other FLAC files. What an unholy mess!!!

it seems to me that it would be better to carry around 8 16 Gb sd cards than stuff one 128 Gb sd card full, only to find your precious collection corrupted in one duff card...

 

[Mr.HiAudio]

Oh my. It is the sd card at fault, not the Zishan, VLC Media Player had exactly the same problem stepping to Next, and some of the FLAC files are corrupted, playing sections of other FLAC files. What an unholy mess!!!

it seems to me that it would be better to carry around 8 16 Gb sd cards than stuff one 128 Gb sd card full, only to find your precious collection corrupted in one duff card...

Very strange, I also have these problems, but I have them on all the cards that I have used.
Moreover, if I insert it into another player, then there will be no such interruptions.

Perhaps, if I take another card, transfer data to it from the PC (not from the old "problem card"), then it is possible that something will change.

It is also interesting that if the file is not played, and you rewind it a little bit, it will start playing, but the next track will not be played either.