Computer Audio Blasphemy, nige tries Another SD Card Player

[randytsuch]

I am curious to see what Greg says about a pi3 with ian's dac and the new allo dac, but not sure how they would compete against this sdp project.
Using the same clock for everything really brings a benefit without much effort or cost.

I'm not in love with the UI, but I can live with it.

[gstew]

Sorry I haven't been around much for awhile... working on other audio projects and non-audio stuff. But I think it's time to get back here and get some work done on the cheapie Chinese SD card players that are becoming the rage here!

First, I want to be clear... my linear-reg modified RPi's IMHO get into the same strata as my SDTrans384, roughly at the level it was at with a pretty good, but not great linear supply. The RPi stack was compared using a modified Soekris DAM1021 being fed I2S from the RPi, with the linear-modified RPi->IsolatorPi->Allo.com Kali stack with the linear-modified RPi being fed from 2 Uptone Audio LPS-1.2's into a Stammheim dual 3||LT3045 and each of the other two boards being fed by another LPS-1.2 each, for 4 LPS-1.2's total. This stack was still behind my current digital source reference, my now-modified SDTrans384 (LT3045 reg boards replacing the 5 on-board regulators) and powered from another dual-LPS-1.2 into dual Stammheimm board. I suspect a clock upgrade will lift the linear-modified RPi to another level, I DON'T believe it will get to my current top SD card player level. It is now an acceptable alternative for me AND provides the benefit of easy GUI access to a larger portion of my recordings, but not an equivalent-quality replacement.

I should also say I'm using the older RPi 2B as I both want to stay away from the on-board WiFi on the RPi 3 AND that the 3 also needs another rail to run it linearly.

So it is time to get back to SD card players. First, MANY THANKS to Nigel for discovering this card was the one with the magic and Randy for your great Chinese SD card reclocker modification blog. I have all the parts here to do that including some of the higher-test NDK SA clocks. I'm really curious on how it will compare to an equivalently-powered SDTrans384... hopefully in the same class, it'd be really nice if it was at or above that level, give the cost difference.

My plan is to modify one over the next few months. I plan to bring the I2S out to an RPi equivalent header, so I can use it to feed my 4 best RPi-fed DAC setups... my modified Soekris (I( have 2... one connected to my SDTrans, the other setup for RPi I2S connection... see my post here for more details: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3232&p=87997#p87997 ), my 2 Twisted Pear Buffalo-IIIPro setups, and the Ian Canada prototype ES9028Q2M RPi DAC. Since this Soekris is a twin of the one I already have connected to my SDTrans, that should give me a good point of comparison (allowing that the additional header connection should cause a small, but likely noticeable drop in SQ.

I'm still pretty active with another audio project with an ASAP deadline, so I'll be able to start on this in a few weeks.

I AM ALSO VERY interested in the effort to provide additional UI improvements to the SD card world. I do have my SDTrans setup with a cheapie 4-relay remote board from China to provide a low-cost and sonically transparent remote control capability. The functionality of the Chinese SD card players seems a bit more extensive and mine did come with remotes. BUT having the functionality to load music via Wifi transfer would be very nice and I'm willing to contribute financially to that effort if it is needed.

Anyway, I'll provide updates as I have them.

Greg in Mississippi

[adolfo.a.aguiar]

Has anyone tried Digital Audio Player solutions from Cayin or Astell&Kern? These players support SD cards.
I'd be interested to know if they are in the same league sound quality wise as a SD card player board + DAC.

[Beresford]

I got a boxed version of this SD player to fiddle with a month ago, but ear problems stopped me listening properly until now.

Mine seems to work fine on 44.1, 48, 96/24, and 176/24, but not 88.2/24 sample rates.
DSD64 works fine, but not DSD128 or DSD256.
A Sandisk SDHC 4Gb card works well, and some smaller ones.

Using the inbuilt AKM dac, I find the image very large and stable, but the presentation is a little brash compared to my Burr-Brown JKDAC and Metrum dac. I don't have enough experience to know if the slight harshness is the player hardware or software, the dac implementation, the opamps, or the power supply. It would be nice to think I could make it sound brilliant by changing one or more of these.

(Thread seems to have gone very quiet recently. Am I missing something?)

[Beresford]

I messed a bit with the Op amps after letting the unit burn in for a lot of hours playing tracks which helps.
Taking out the back single Op amps drops volume but I think it sounded better when volume corrected but not sure, it did however add a loud pop between tracks so stuck them back in.

Could you point me to the back Op amp, bearing in mind that I don't know what an Op amp looks like? Thanks.

[adolfo.a.aguiar]

Selling a SD Player STM32F407ZET6 AK4495SEQ DAC with enclosure in the classifieds.

[jp2018]

Does anyone know, if this player could use flash storage instead of sd-card? It wouldn't be so convenient, if it would sound better, then it might be worth it. Hard kernel sells sd to emmc adapter and up to 64gb emmc modules. If I decide to buy one of those for my odroid c1+, I'll test if it works

[nige2000]

Does anyone know, if this player could use flash storage instead of sd-card? It wouldn't be so convenient, if it would sound better, then it might be worth it. Hard kernel sells sd to emmc adapter and up to 64gb emmc modules. If I decide to buy one of those for my odroid c1+, I'll test if it works

i dont think anyones tried that yet, id say yould need an adapter chip or reprogram the sd card

[seeteeyou]

Happy New Year, here's one more from China with I2S output

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=585468095115
http://www.headphoneclub.com/thread-723626-1-1.html

[abraxalito]

Here's another Taobao offering which is considerably cheaper : https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a2 ... t=6#detail.

This has no screen but does have a downloadable APP (Android/iPhone) which gives access to the music on the SDcard and also on your phone. Uses Bluetooth - and has in-built digital volume from the wired 'remote'. The APP includes a simple graphic EQ. Can't be beat for the price. Only downside I've found so far is it only supports up to 32G cards - I tried a 64G but that didn't work.

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