[Haoting]

Quote:

Originally Posted by les_garten /img/forum/go_quote.gif You go from thread to thread shilling Chinese Gear.

A shill only represents or promotes one company, so your more of a shill than I am, but I rather call you a fanboy since I'm a nice guy. Anyway, let's keep this thread on topic - Tianyun's ('09 ediition) Zero DAC.

 

[Currawong]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Haoting /img/forum/go_quote.gif I've sent Tianyun a link to this thread, so we'll see if they are interested in defending their company and their product(s) on Head-fi.

I'd be interested to see what they have to say about the one that burned up a pair of headphones, and the one that the transformer blew up in. The problem is not that they need to defend themselves online, it's that they need to make a product that, at the very least, is reliable, if not simply dangerous to own.

 

[les_garten]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Haoting /img/forum/go_quote.gif A shill only represents or promotes one company, so your more of a shill than I am, but I rather call you a fanboy since I'm a nice guy. Anyway, let's keep this thread on topic - Tianyun's ('09 ediition) Zero DAC.

I'll point out a Shill that Shill's lot's of Companies. A guy who works at the Hong Kong Better Business Bureau!

.

 

[laobrasuca]

It will work, it will work, please, please

and for a long while, please, please

 

[les_garten]

Quote:

Originally Posted by laobrasuca /img/forum/go_quote.gif It will work, it will work, please, please and for a long while, please, please

I'm prayin' for ya Bro'!! Me too by the way, I still have a Zero.

Don't pay any attention to the Reality Show that has broken out!

.

 

[ghettocoolie]

I'm mildly interested in the New 2009 Edition Zero as well. I bought an upgraded Zero from Lawrence in September 2008 and mine still works. I do only use the DAC section and perhaps that's helped extend it's longevity. So from my perspective my inexpensive foray into head amps/dac has been quite fun thus far.

Having said that, I'm looking for a good excuse to buy the new Compass and my Zero hasn't given me one yet.

 

[diditmyself]

****, I wish I read this thread before ordering the new Zero. I wasn't aware of the crappy quality, and I hadn't heard of the Compass before. I hope group-praying will help.

 

[ciphercomplete]

I never had a problem with my Zero, although I only used the DAC section when I owned one. Armed with the Earth Discrete opamp it was a phenomenal sound DAC for the price.

I think one of the problems is that there are so many Zero owners. There are bound to be more incidents of issues at least more than reports of issues with say a Bel Canto DAC that retails for more the 1K. That said I have not read the Zero thread in a while so I might be completely wrong about that.

 

[Starky]

I used to own a Zero myself and never had any problems. Good quality unit, if you ask me, and always surprised me whenever I went back to it: I only sold it out of necessity.

I would wager that at least some of the Zero-related problems were down to carelessness in opamp choice or insertion, both by retailers and owners. (Pure speculation of course)

 

[AudioPhewl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trapper32 /img/forum/go_quote.gif We are talking about the 2009 new version aren't we. Seems there's as much negative presupposition about this as there was positive speculation about the compass. People were raving about the compass before the first one rolled off the production line. And now people are commenting on a new version of the zero that no one has even heard. Its fair enough to note the problems with the older version and maybe more importantly with resellers but to comment on this version without first hand listening experience is a waste of time. I realize many who jumped off this bandwagon quickly caught the compass when it went roaring by during pre-production. Think we need a little more objectivity instead of high-fiving enthusiasm.

Sadly, after seeing the pictures of the newer internals, it looks like much the same PCB is in use. This isn't a bad thing IF the trace thickness has been increased along with the build quality. But... I'm thinking it's the same PCB build quality. BUT, if the PCB quality has improved, I'd imagine the failure rate would drop by a large extent, at least I'd hope so.

Yes, the overall picture on here may be skewed, as plenty were modded. But - and it's a big but, I've owned 3, of which one was DOA(and I was jerked by the seller), one was modded and still works perfectly, the other was modded and suffered the sudden Zero death syndrome. So I've one stock dead unit, one modded dead unit, and one modded working unit - that's not a great success ratio. And the mods weren't done badly - I spent 2 years repairing SMT laptops, and I've worked in mobile phone repair too.

My DOA unit either had a faulty DAC IC, or traces to it from the PCB. The unit that failed either had a faulty s/pdif receiver IC, or traces to it from the PCB.

PCB quality was poor IMO.

Maybe the new one is better - it's not the same PCB. It's really quite similar, and the quality may be improved, but I'm not holding my breath having seen the pictures.

Forum members are a vocal lot - a great product and great support will generally result in very vocal, satisfied customers. A product with high failure rates and poor support did result in very vocal, annoyed customers.

It is fair to say that some Zero owners have never had a problem - which is great, because it really was a very decent sounding unit for the money. But some Zero owners were hugely let down, one way or another.

Happy listening, and good luck to everyone who is trying the new model. I do hope things turn out good for you

~Phewl.

 

[MadMan007]

Don't worry man, with the number of Zeroes sold I'd wager the actual rate of bad units is small. That's the one thing always missing in these situations, the true overall failure rate, since we don't know how many were sold. My situation is the exact opposite of Audiophewl's, 4 units that have no problem afaik. Going by that should I judge that all Zeroes are good? No, and same goes vice versa. There was an initial problem that turned out to be bad opamps, an opamp swap fixed it. The main thing is seller support if there is a problem, wsz0304 (or wsz<whatever>) on eBay is very good at after sale support.

Audiophewl - you should try swapping opamps if you have a spare. Opamps can fail too and not just because of what they're plugged in to being bad.

 

[laobrasuca]

Quote:

Originally Posted by les_garten /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm prayin' for ya Bro'!! Me too by the way, I still have a Zero. Don't pay any attention to the Reality Show that has broken out! .

thx bro', very kind from you.

And:

Quote:

Originally Posted by diditmyself /img/forum/go_quote.gif ****, I wish I read this thread before ordering the new Zero. I wasn't aware of the crappy quality, and I hadn't heard of the Compass before. I hope group-praying will help.

yes, let us pray. I trust in my God, no problem. But the mankind may be very ambitious when money comes to the game... Hopefully the "is a prototype has been sent to the European Union CE Certification CE laboratory testing" is there for something good

BTW, I bought mine from wsz0304 as many of you have said he is an honest man.

lao

 

[AudioPhewl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadMan007 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Audiophewl - you should try swapping opamps if you have a spare. Opamps can fail too and not just because of what they're plugged in to being bad.

Certainly not opamps. No doubt at all.

~Phewl.

 

[laobrasuca]

Here's the photos from the company site of the:

new:

and the old:

zero DAC board versions. Besides all changes they have done on the board (say hello to the usb socket, capacitor brand changed, higher heat-sink, long array of "budan" disappeared - one of them "replaced" by an additional voltage regulator with headsink, the two "joysticks" disappeared, etc.) one thing I found interesting is that they added a ground next to the opamp there where we did not have in the old version:

I think those guys are aware of people's wish to replace the 2604 by the HDMA's

Now no more HDMA's ground wire in the air, and this is good coz' I'm planning to buy the moon one.

lao

 

[Currawong]

If a poor PCB is to blame, that would explain much. eBay sellers putting in opamps backwards was indeed part of the problem. The use of the AD1852 was probably its saving grace, along with opamp rolling. It wasn't detailed, but it sounded ok.