I can't remember the time walnut wasn't problematic. The v3 looks very exciting but at the same time, this increase in complexity made me wonder what kind of bugs and troubles are we expecting this time... V2 has lot of quality control issues following it's hype. V2s has a clipping dac for some, non upgradable firmware and Chinese voiceover was hit and miss.
However I am very happy to see that zishan and walnut are going towards different paths. It makes the choices easier.
I caught on the Walnut V2 hype train, but never liked its sound... tho opamp and caps rolling was definitely new and exciting to me.
then I broke my original V2 due to my uber leet soldering skillz, so I ordered another Walnut V2 without knowing they switched to a soldered on opamp, and that rubbed me the wrong way. what's worse, soon after I ordered my V2.2 while it is still in transit, the news of Z1 broke out. G to the f'n G, #feelsbadman.
reading all of the V2s issues makes me glad I didn't order one, and I have similar feeling as
@noknok23 in regards to V3 and the Walnut balanced amp, more complexity? hmm... i donno!
to me, Z1 is better than V2.2 in every way simply because it has a dedicated DAC, Z2 has awesome spec for it's price point ($35 on Taobao without shipping).
thinking further, could the Walnut creator taking another direction because he can't compete in the simple screenless budget DAP market that he originally created?