Walnut Hi-Fi V2 WAV (& MP3) Player by wt - :ok_hand: screenless budget killer combo DAP/Amp :ok_hand:

[neog007]

 I'm listening to my V5i Walnt too. And is that a Portapro plug I see? Bro we have the exact same setup right now 

 
Would love to know your thoughts on V5i in the nut vs. the stock NE5532.

 
Well the burson has everything you mentioned and the main caracteristics: great soundstage good separation excellent definition better and more controlled bass etc etc but, for some reason I can't say...,  I always go back to the stock oamp. Maybe it's just that for me, this player is not meant to be the most audiophile in sound terms -saying this I don't mean it sounds bad in case that anyone is thinking in that way... Just the contraire- and I find the stock oamp suits very well for that fun sound.
The same happens with the paired headphones , I always return to use the kpp with the walnut. They're a very good match as you mentioned too. I don't know, maybe it's like returning to the energy and personality of the 80's in some way.

 

[iJay]

   
Well the burson has everything you mentioned and the main caracteristics: great soundstage good separation excellent definition better and more controlled bass etc etc but, for some reason I can't say...,  I always go back to the stock oamp. Maybe it's just that for me, this player is not meant to be the most audiophile in sound terms -saying this I don't mean it sounds bad in case that anyone is thinking in that way... Just the contraire- and I find the stock oamp suits very well for that fun sound.
The same happens with the paired headphones , I always return to use the kpp with the walnut. They're a very good match as you mentioned too. I don't know, maybe it's like returning to the energy and personality of the 80's in somel way.

​i'm gonna have to try my stock kpp with the Walnut. I tried that combo some last night but just playing around. I need to mod my kpp some because they are just a little dark sounding for my taste. if I ever get some free time, so it may be a long while!

 

[iJay]

  how it performs compared to your alien?

Walnut vs. Alien...
Alien has less background noise (but Walnut isn't bad at all)
I would like to say Alien has slightly better separation, tighter bass response, wider sound stage and a less HF roll-off. Changing op-amps in the Walnut may narrow the slim margin Alien is winning by. Otherwise they are fairly similar and all the aforementioned is only by a little.
To be fair, Alien has hundreds of hours on it and Walnut is around 20hrs, so not sure if burn-in will effect any of the above. My wife uses Alien for her gym rig so I haven't listened to if for a while, it was nice to hear again.

 

[vapman]

   
Well the burson has everything you mentioned and the main caracteristics: great soundstage good separation excellent definition better and more controlled bass etc etc but, for some reason I can't say...,  I always go back to the stock oamp. Maybe it's just that for me, this player is not meant to be the most audiophile in sound terms -saying this I don't mean it sounds bad in case that anyone is thinking in that way... Just the contraire- and I find the stock oamp suits very well for that fun sound.
The same happens with the paired headphones , I always return to use the kpp with the walnut. They're a very good match as you mentioned too. I don't know, maybe it's like returning to the energy and personality of the 80's in somel way.

I agree with you. I never use the Burson Walnut for too long although it is great to listen to for a while. However with the stock opamp I can listen all day and it is the most honest and neutral sound with the stock opamp. The Burson is fun but most definitely a more tiring listen than with the stock setup.
 
I think you are onto something with the 80's energy & personality. I have a LOT of stereo gear - home and professional - from the 80's and very early 90's.... a lot of it is very similar to the Walnut's sound signature. Clean, honest, powerful, energetic and dynamic. Nothing unnatural, just the true sound given to you really, really loudly.
 
I had not thought to use the Walnut directly from a PC's built in headphone out. When I get back home I will try this on one of my Thinkpad X61 and my PC tower's built in audio (won't use the Creative Titanium HD for this test).

 

[iJay]

It's a Pick Your Poison stack;

C3 + Walnut

 

[groucho69]

It's a Pick Your Poison stack;

C3 + Walnut

Fine looking poison you have there

 

[musicday]

It's a Pick Your Poison stack;

C3 + Walnut

Looking good,what do you think about the sound? What headphones are you using?

 

[nick n]

It's a Pick Your Poison stack;

C3 + Walnut

 

Glad to see you got it.  Interesting combo stack there with the C3. I'll have to try that out.

 
It's been a while since using the stock opamp  but I still recall it's overall sonic aspect as very revealing.
I'ill have to fire up the 2nd unit with the stock one, let it run in a bit then try it again.
 
 
 
 

 

[vapman]

Anyone can give me the detail about the pre filled song? Mine doesnt come with it im curious

All fairly recent Chinese music, not sure how to describe it aside from folk music. It is really good. Some of it I thought sounded a little compressed, even though it was in WAV, so I loaded it up in a spectrogram and found some of the songs cut off exactly at 15kHz, which leads me to believe someone converted MP3 to WAV. Yet when I converted it to FLAC to see if it was truly an MP3 converted to WAV, they all ended up between 650 and 800kbps, so maybe they are full quality but just sound strange anyway. It isn't just the walnut either, I heard the same "not quite lossless" sound when listening to those included songs when I had copied them to my computer.

Here's what I took out with me in the freezing cold today. Something like almost -10c out?

 

[nick n]

Maybe the unintentional cryo treatment you are giving it is what's up.
 
Are those Douglas Fir Trees in the background ?

 

[iJay]

Looking good,what do you think about the sound? What headphones are you using?

I like it. It's forward and fairly balanced. It is definitely powerful but I don't listen very loud unless the songs is awesome! Today I mostly used ATH-M70x. EPH-100 sound good. My stock PortaPros sounded slightly dark but that's normal. Still need to mod those things! As an amp it works great too...bonus!

 

[iJay]

I ordered Monk+ and planning to pair those with the Walnut for my throw-around portable rig.

 

[avitron142]

 
Walnut vs. Alien...
Alien has less background noise (but Walnut isn't bad at all)
I would like to say Alien has slightly better separation, tighter bass response, wider sound stage and a less HF roll-off. Changing op-amps in the Walnut may narrow the slim margin Alien is winning by. Otherwise they are fairly similar and all the aforementioned is only by a little.
To be fair, Alien has hundreds of hours on it and Walnut is around 20hrs, so not sure if burn-in will effect any of the above. My wife uses Alien for her gym rig so I haven't listened to if for a while, it was nice to hear again.

 
I always loved the Alien's sound, even though it wasn't as technically good as the other players I've had.
 
I'm hoping the Walnut has that "magical" sound that makes my mouth drool - the first time I heard the Alien, I listened to it for 8 hours straight in bed, until the battery drained (to the same six songs on a loop...) 

 

[Raketen]

I like it. It's forward and fairly balanced. It is definitely powerful but I don't listen very loud unless the songs is awesome! Today I mostly used ATH-M70x. EPH-100 sound good. My stock PortaPros sounded slightly dark but that's normal. Still need to mod those things! As an amp it works great too...bonus!

I think just about every headphone on earth sounds dark next to m70x lol

 

[iJay]

I think just about every headphone on earth sounds dark next to m70x lol

Hmm...I would agree concerning m50x but m70x are more flat. That may be true though as I have ear damage and sensitive to high freqs. thus I'm not a fan of brighter sounding phones.