[groucho69]

   
Has anyone in North America received the Walnut V2 from Taobao?
 
Does anyone know what the below (or above) means? I'm hoping that I don't have to contact the shipping company....
 

MrTao
 
 

Walnut V2 hifi fever MP3 player lossless master level Walkman portable amp diy 其他/other;内存卡加读卡器;

$20.55

x1

Purchasing

 

[waynes world]

  MrTao
 

Walnut V2 hifi fever MP3 player lossless master level Walkman portable amp diy 其他/other;内存卡加读卡器;

$20.55

x1

Purchasing

 
Please explain. Are you suggesting that MrTao (whatever that is) is a better place to purchase it from?

 

[groucho69]

   
Please explain. Are you suggesting that MrTao (whatever that is) is a better place to purchase it from?

So far that is all that I have after purchasing from MrTao. So seeing what you have makes me jealous.

 

[musicday]

CK Lewis on Aliexpress shipped my 3 x Walnut V2 really quickly.I will be surprised if i get them before Christmas.Anyoane know if the Walnut is more powerful,goes louder then Zishan?
Ebay seller still hasn't issued me a refund or replaced my faulty unit.He was full of excuses and now doesn't replay me anymore.
People just be aware.

 

[hakuzen]

measured output impedance of the walnut. 101Ω!
the hiss with sensitive multi-BA iems is not a hiss, it's a horrible noise.
also noticed both premature bass and highs roll-off. not extended sound.
not happy at all with this player.
will try other opamps, but i don't expect any miracle.
my unit might be defective.

 

[hakuzen]

CK Lewis on Aliexpress shipped my 3 x Walnut V2 really quickly.I will be surprised if i get them before Christmas.Anyoane know if the Walnut is more powerful,goes louder then Zishan?
Ebay seller still hasn't issued me a refund or replaced my faulty unit.He was full of excuses and now doesn't replay me anymore.
People just be aware.

Zishan DSD (as a DAP):
phones out:
     output impedance: 0.3Ω
     power: unloaded, turbo (high gain) mode, maximum of 3.76Vrms; no turbo, 0.28Vrms.
line out:
     output impedance: 202Ω
     power: unloaded, turbo mode: max of 1.88Vrms; no turbo, 0.14Vrms.
 
Walnut v2 (as a DAP)
phones out:
     output impedance: 101Ω
     power: unloaded, max volume: 3.33Vrms.
line out:
     output impedance: more than 2KΩ
     power: 0.33Vrms
 
so acting as a DAP, zishan is more powerful, but also suitable for critical IEMs (sensitive multi-BA), due to its low output impedance, and no-turbo mode (which allows wider volume tuning for them).
 
Walnut v2 came from CKLewis, very very fast.
Zishan came from MisterTao, quite fast too. Some items are worth it to get from taobao-MisterTao

 

[vapman]

measured output impedance of the walnut. 101Ω!
the hiss with sensitive multi-BA iems is not a hiss, it's a horrible noise.
also noticed both premature bass and highs roll-off. not extended sound.
not happy at all with this player.
will try other opamps, but i don't expect any miracle.
my unit might be defective.

101 ohms seems way too high but i will try to measure mine. No ba phones though...

As for the taobao guys. I can help those trying to use mistertao but i can't personally help people using other forwarders or taobao themselves...

 

[SuperMAG]

Wait i dont get these readings. If i were to buy lz a4. This wont be a good dap for it since a4 has ba's.

 

[groucho69]

CK Lewis on Aliexpress shipped my 3 x Walnut V2 really quickly.I will be surprised if i get them before Christmas.Anyoane know if the Walnut is more powerful,goes louder then Zishan?
Ebay seller still hasn't issued me a refund or replaced my faulty unit.He was full of excuses and now doesn't replay me anymore.
People just be aware.

Well that sucks.

 

[musicday]

Is there a particular reason why they have the output ohm so high?
A place to get the Zishan cheapest?

 

[vapman]

@hakuzen  How did you measure the Walnut exactly? I'm willing to believe some weirder stuff but a line out impedance of 2 kilohm sounds like that can't be right at all.

 

[hakuzen]

  @hakuzen  How did you measure the Walnut exactly? I'm willing to believe some weirder stuff but a line out impedance of 2 kilohm sounds like that can't be right at all.

i used the same method i'm using with the other DAPs. @Samueru Sama taught me, and i'm getting very approximated impedance for every DAP i'm measuring.
first i measure the Vrms at some volume (i use to choose from 1Vrms to 2Vrms, around 1.5Vrms in this case), with no load, using a tested digital multimeter..
then, at same volume, i add a known resistance, and measure the fallen Vrms, using the multimeter.
this way you can estimate the output impedance being used.
still not 100% accurate because i'm waiting for some electronic gear, but, if I didn't make a big error (which is always possible), the output impedance is around 100Ω.
about line-out output impedance, 2KΩ is the lowest i got..
it is crazy, i know; i must be missing something..
 
anyway, the roll-offs are there, measured directly from walnut to my soundcard line-in; and Pai Audio MR3 (critical sensitive multi-BA iem) sound really horrible with the walnut.

 

[vapman]

 
i used the same method i'm using with the other DAPs. @Samueru Sama taught me, and i'm getting very approximated impedance for every DAP i'm measuring.
first i measure the Vrms at some volume (i use to choose from 1Vrms to 2Vrms, around 1.5Vrms in this case), with no load, using a tested digital multimeter..
then, at same volume, i add a known resistance in parallel (voltage divisor), and measure the fallen Vrms, using the multimeter.
this way you can estimate the output impedance being used.
still not 100% accurate because i'm waiting for some electronic gear, but, if I didn't make a big error (which is always possible), the output impedance is around 100Ω.
about line-out output impedance, 2KΩ is the lowest i got..
it is crazy, i know; i must be missing something..
 
anyway, the roll-offs are there, measured directly from walnut to my soundcard line-in; and Pai Audio MR3 (critical sensitive multi-BA iem) sound really horrible with the walnut.

OK, thanks for showing you methodology. While I would believe the headphone output impedance could be kinda high (again - I don't own any BA IEMs as I got sick of IEMs not much after I decided I hated BA's so I can't go by ear alone) - anyway I don't have a RMS capable multimeter but should have one soon with the holidays coming up 

 
If anyone else wanna measure their walnut, that would be awesome, at least to know if @hakuzen  is in the right ballpark with his numbers, or we are getting differing results.
 
Again sorry I wish I already had the necessary gear to do proper measurements on.

 

[hakuzen]

   Quote:

Is there a particular reason why they have the output ohm so high?
A place to get the Zishan cheapest?

 
in taobao, using misterTao, you have to add domestic shipping costs (cheap) to the price of the taobao's zishan. then, add shipping costs (about 6% for that item, if you use a cheap carrier post, like SingPost) and the agent commission (8%). then, from the resulting amount, add 3%+0.3 due to credit card payment fees, and last, add the currency conversion fees from your bank (about 4.5% from the total in my case). so it's about 20-25% more in total. compare the prices to aliexpress/ebay/other prices and you'll know if it is worth it.
i guess other agents work in a similar way. i'm very happy with misterTao, but it's the only i've tried.
i guess the maker/seller from taobao is the same than the ebay seller, so you should get easier communications with them via ebay.

 

[hakuzen]

  OK, thanks for showing you methodology. While I would believe the headphone output impedance could be kinda high (again - I don't own any BA IEMs as I got sick of IEMs not much after I decided I hated BA's so I can't go by ear alone) - anyway I don't have a RMS capable multimeter but should have one soon with the holidays coming up 

 
If anyone else wanna measure their walnut, that would be awesome, at least to know if @hakuzen  is in the right ballpark with his numbers, or we are getting differing results.
 
Again sorry I wish I already had the necessary gear to do proper measurements on.

i forgot to mention i use a 1KHz sine signal, amplitude 1 (100%).

yes, taking in count these numbers, i'd use the walnut with high impedance headphones, preferably if the headphones show a similar roll-off in both sides, so you are not loosing extra extension from the source.
 
check the direct response to the line-in port of my soundcard (unloaded, no phones added):
 
walnut v2 (as a DAP):

 
walnut v2 (as an amplifier): (used iBasso D14 DAC -ASIO- as source)

 
note the big imbalance between channels. that is because i had to choose a very low volume, not to blow up the line-in.
walnut amplifier max Vrms measured was 6.43Vrms (unloaded). so you better take care of what you connect at the phones out.
the usable part of the volume wheel is very limited in this case, so difficult to fine tune the volume.
 
zishan (as DAP, sharp roll-off, no-turbo):