[Ruben123]

I've tried it with my 3 weeks old Havis, of course there are exceptions, but both my galaxy i9000 with voodoo rom and sansa clip could drive the Havis well/better. So it's not about could the walnut drive some earphones yes or no, but do I have a faulty one since the clip and Samsung phone have more power, even my notebook has much more power. Which clearly they shouldn't.... Or should they?

 

[groucho69]

  Not sure what I did but my audio issues appear okay now.
 
I took it apart and checked the connections on the back of the board with a multimeter to see if the voltage was passing through okay and when I put it back together the volume went up about 90% haha.
 
Perhaps it was just a lose connection or something, although I did take the battery off the board too and put it back on, so it could of been something to do with that?
 
I have no idea to be honest, I got lucky, just glad it is working now, it sounds amazing.
 
 
All I have noticed so far is that if I convert a large flac and the wav it produces is over 100mb, the player won't play it, I get some random noises instead. When I keep the files under 100mb it works flawlessly. Sadly some Pink Floyd songs are a no go unless I split them up into two files 

 
 
I am using https://www.freac.org/

Damn I have tons of Floyd in FLAC and WAV. Guess I won't be able to play them when I get mine. What about Symphonies? 

 

[bigbro]

I am not sure groucho, it could be a combination of my 64gb micro sd card using the exfat file system instead of fat32 (becaue of its size) that is causing the issue - basically any file over 100mb isn't read correctly. Some of the vinyl flac rips are over 300mb, so when converted they definitely wont play.
 
Once my new card reader comes I will do some more testing to see if I can figure out if it is an issue that can be overcome with specific settings/smaller sd card etc.

 

[sfogar]

  I am not sure groucho, it could be a combination of my 64gb micro sd card using the exfat file system instead of fat32 (becaue of its size) that is causing the issue - basically any file over 100mb isn't read correctly. Some of the vinyl flac rips are over 300mb, so when converted they definitely wont play.
 
Once my new card reader comes I will do some more testing to see if I can figure out if it is an issue that can be overcome with specific settings/smaller sd card etc.

 
I remember somebody said the sd card had to be formatted in FAT32...

 

[bigbro]

Yeah, can't use FAT32 with 64gb - not with Windows format any way.
 
Perhaps there is another way to do it.

 

[groucho69]

  I am not sure groucho, it could be a combination of my 64gb micro sd card using the exfat file system instead of fat32 (becaue of its size) that is causing the issue - basically any file over 100mb isn't read correctly. Some of the vinyl flac rips are over 300mb, so when converted they definitely wont play.
 
Once my new card reader comes I will do some more testing to see if I can figure out if it is an issue that can be overcome with specific settings/smaller sd card etc.

Cool. Let me know how it goes. I've got a few 8 GB cards.

 

[flamesofarctica]

Xduoo X3 can play WAV files. Could you do a direct comparison if you haven't already?

Ok here goes after a bit of side by side listening.

Firstly to explain my priorities. I like my rock and metal foremost. Outside of this there are random other artists I love including Suzanne Vega, Tori Amos, Prince, maybe even a bit of Justin Timberlake and Beastie Boys.

I want to hear some details, I don't want to hear anything veiled or muddy, don't like harsh / tinny / sibilant sound, and I'm not into anything outlandishly bass heavy.

I also don't necessarily want something that relies on the perfect master and mix to sound good, which I often read is a feature of high end stuff, although I've never ripped a CD below MP3 320 because I want it to sound as good as it can. A big priority for me is vocals.

I want to to soak up the atmosphere of the decks creaking in Iron Maiden's 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner', to rock out to Airbourne, and to believe sincerely that Justin Timberlake is bringing sexyback. Only one of these was on my playlist for this comparison though, as I just played what I fancied listening to, which I knew well enough, and which I have already converted to WAV (and into single tracks per album using Foobar).

The songs were:
Delain - Send In The Vultures.
Justin Timberlake - Futuresex/Lovesound, Sexyback.
Suzanne Vega - Marlene on the Wall, Blood Makes Noise. (some patience required on the Walnut as these are later on the album than my other choices, and no option to skip or fast forward through)
Marillion - Assassing, Punch and Judy
Blind Guardian - Sacred

All listening was on my Asura v2.

Every track sounded great on both players, and a lot may be down to my personal preferences which is why I've detailed them. Both had nice fast punchy bass through the Asura, and plenty of detail. I couldn't detect anything lacking as such in bass, mids or highs to my ears. But each time the Walnut made me want to keep on listening, as the overall presentation wowed me and yet was never harsh or tiring. Both male and female vocals sounded stunning. I couldn't detect any specific lack of detail compared to the XDUOO as such but I'm no critical listener and YMMV. It wouldn't surprise me if an expert critical listener was to say the XDUOO had more detail, else why would the Walnut sound smoother? Soundstage through the Asura goes hands down to the Walnut in my opinion.

The difference between the two only magnified if I tried increasing the volume.

At what felt like similarly loud volumes, the XDUOO wasnt doing much for me. What had felt like details started to feel like discomfort and tiring to my ears, and I just wanted to turn it right back down again.

Turning the volume up on the Walnut had no such affect. It went from sounding nice to sounding epic.

On the basis of all the above..For me the Walnut wins hands down, and not just based on their relative price points. If I had to give away one of these players and make do without it, I'd give away the XDUOO. If I wanted to show off the lush sounds of my Asura earbuds for someone to try out, I'd plug them into the Walnut.

I love this player. Yes there are compromises. If I use the Walnut, I can't have all my music collection to hand in one place, or access a chosen song quickly anywhere on any of my albums, like I can with my other players. As I've ripped whole albums, I can't remind myself of the name of a song I like, or just go back and play that song again (unless it's track 1). But the Walnut has me thinking 'maybe if I got multiple SD cards, and something to keep them in, and created an index of what albums are on which card...', and that just wasn't supposed to happen!

 

[sfogar]

  Yeah, can't use FAT32 with 64gb - not with Windows format any way.
 
Perhaps there is another way to do it.

 
Try reading this:
 
http://zero1-st.blogspot.it/2012/05/formatting-fat32-volumes-larger-than.html

 

[hakuzen]

  Yeah, can't use FAT32 with 64gb - not with Windows format any way.
 
Perhaps there is another way to do it.

   
Try reading this:
 
http://zero1-st.blogspot.it/2012/05/formatting-fat32-volumes-larger-than.html

Except for films (larger files than 2GB), format always with FAT32, to keep compatibility along most of your devices (phones, daps, etc.).
I'm using MiniTool Partition Wizard Free; it allows you to manage partition, align, and format, and you can get it for free (home users).

 

[flamesofarctica]

Im using a 64gb card having FAT32 formatted it.

I googled how to do it and multiple times saw people posting a link to something like 'ridgecrop consultants...' and it kept getting thumbs up and good feedback from people. Did some googling to make sure it wasn't a well known scam site or anything. I couldn't find anything indicating it was dodgy. They had a lot of info on their site explaining, and it seemed to look legit. It was a free zip file which you unzip, and then run an executable in command prompt to format a named drive (drive letter for the SD card reader you're using). I was a bit worried but enough people seemed to recommend it, I couldn't find any bad press about it, and my laptop is on the way out anyway so thought I'd chance it.

Worked fine. No sign that my laptop is riddled with viruses so touch wood!!

 

[macky112]

Ok here goes after a bit of side by side listening.

Firstly to explain my priorities. I like my rock and metal foremost. Outside of this there are random other artists I love including Suzanne Vega, Tori Amos, Prince, maybe even a bit of Justin Timberlake and Beastie Boys.

I want to hear some details, I don't want to hear anything veiled or muddy, don't like harsh / tinny / sibilant sound, and I'm not into anything outlandishly bass heavy.

I also don't necessarily want something that relies on the perfect master and mix to sound good, which I often read is a feature of high end stuff, although I've never ripped a CD below MP3 320 because I want it to sound as good as it can. A big priority for me is vocals.

I want to to soak up the atmosphere of the decks creaking in Iron Maiden's 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner', to rock out to Airbourne, and to believe sincerely that Justin Timberlake is bringing sexyback. Only one of these was on my playlist for this comparison though, as I just played what I fancied listening to, which I knew well enough, and which I have already converted to WAV (and into single tracks per album using Foobar).

The songs were:
Delain - Send In The Vultures.
Justin Timberlake - Futuresex/Lovesound, Sexyback.
Suzanne Vega - Marlene on the Wall, Blood Makes Noise. (some patience required on the Walnut as these are later on the album than my other choices, and no option to skip or fast forward through)
Marillion - Assassing, Punch and Judy
Blind Guardian - Sacred

All listening was on my Asura v2.

Every track sounded great on both players, and a lot may be down to my personal preferences which is why I've detailed them. Both had nice fast punchy bass through the Asura, and plenty of detail. I couldn't detect anything lacking as such in bass, mids or highs to my ears. But each time the Walnut made me want to keep on listening, as the overall presentation wowed me and yet was never harsh or tiring. Both male and female vocals sounded stunning. I couldn't detect any specific lack of detail compared to the XDUOO as such but I'm no critical listener and YMMV. It wouldn't surprise me if an expert critical listener was to say the XDUOO had more detail, else why would the Walnut sound smoother? Soundstage through the Asura goes hands down to the Walnut in my opinion.

The difference between the two only magnified if I tried increasing the volume.

At what felt like similarly loud volumes, the XDUOO wasnt doing much for me. What had felt like details started to feel like discomfort and tiring to my ears, and I just wanted to turn it right back down again.

Turning the volume up on the Walnut had no such affect. It went from sounding nice to sounding epic.

On the basis of all the above..For me the Walnut wins hands down, and not just based on their relative price points. If I had to give away one of these players and make do without it, I'd give away the XDUOO. If I wanted to show off the lush sounds of my Asura earbuds for someone to try out, I'd plug them into the Walnut.

I love this player. Yes there are compromises. If I use the Walnut, I can't have all my music collection to hand in one place, or access a chosen song quickly anywhere on any of my albums, like I can with my other players. As I've ripped whole albums, I can't remind myself of the name of a song I like, or just go back and play that song again (unless it's track 1). But the Walnut has me thinking 'maybe if I got multiple SD cards, and something to keep them in, and created an index of what albums are on which card...', and that just wasn't supposed to happen!

Thank you for the comparo! This did it. I am sold XD

I'll put up a comparo of WV2 vs FiioX3ii when I get mine (also have benjie S5, but that's just not gonna be fair)

 

[fleasbaby]

Hmmm....so I tried to use it as an amp, and its impossible. Its just too freaking loud. And you can't use the digital gain to try and bring it down. I was using my FiiO X1, with the output switched to Line Out. I tried switching to normal headphone out, but that only helped marginally. Sound quality was diminished by double-amping, and though I could tone it down to listenable levels, I couldn't use the volume knob on the Walnut to control volume...
 
This thing sounds great as a player, but so far its a no-go as an amp for me. Will tinker with it more later, maybe try with an LOD and my iPod Touch.
 
On the plus side, it sounds great with the Zen V1 and V2 earbuds. Other lower impedance ones, not as good...

 

[Ruben123]

  Hmmm....so I tried to use it as an amp, and its impossible. Its just too freaking loud. And you can't use the digital gain to try and bring it down. I was using my FiiO X1, with the output switched to Line Out. I tried switching to normal headphone out, but that only helped marginally. Sound quality was diminished by double-amping, and though I could tone it down to listenable levels, I couldn't use the volume knob on the Walnut to control volume...
 
This thing sounds great as a player, but so far its a no-go as an amp for me. Will tinker with it more later, maybe try with an LOD and my iPod Touch.
 
On the plus side, it sounds great with the Zen V1 and V2 earbuds. Other lower impedance ones, not as good...

If it's too loud as an amp with minimal volume, it is clear that that source (Fiio x1) doesnt need an amp. How nice not to have to carry 2 devices instead of one In EU the music players and phones are capped to a low volume, then you might need an amp for in-ears and some portable headphones.

 

[macky112]

How much of SQ upgrade from Walnut v2 to Zishan dsd?

 

[vapman]

  Hmmm....so I tried to use it as an amp, and its impossible. Its just too freaking loud. And you can't use the digital gain to try and bring it down. I was using my FiiO X1, with the output switched to Line Out. I tried switching to normal headphone out, but that only helped marginally. Sound quality was diminished by double-amping, and though I could tone it down to listenable levels, I couldn't use the volume knob on the Walnut to control volume...
 
This thing sounds great as a player, but so far its a no-go as an amp for me. Will tinker with it more later, maybe try with an LOD and my iPod Touch.
 
On the plus side, it sounds great with the Zen V1 and V2 earbuds. Other lower impedance ones, not as good...

Yeah the amp mode works at FULL power, all the time, every time. so when I am using it as an amp with even halfway sensitive headphones, I turn the source waaaaay down. Thing is crazy how loud it is running it as an amp.
 
@bigbro  You can format cards larger than 32GB with a partitioning tool (not SDFormatter which automatically makes cards larger than 32GB exFAT) for example I use EaseUS Partition Manager. I have made microSD up to 250GB FAT32 with that program and they run 100% in any device I use them in, Walnut included.
 
At this point I am pretty sure @Ruben123  is suffering from user error or somehow or another ended up with a Walnut that is not acting properly. But, he said that in amp mode it was too loud to deal with, which makes me think it's possibly his source files. You're not using Replaygain or something are you Ruben?