Practical-experiences using the UHD3000

Discussion in 'HDD Media player(RTD 1619DR)' started by Nice Monkey, Feb 15, 2021.

  1. Nice Monkey

    Nice Monkey Well-Known Member Beta test group

    This is a practical review of the new UHD3000 comparing it with UHD2000 mainly but also including some other DAC versions.
    Updated for FW 6.3.60 changes

    My use of colors:
    - Action Point (my to do list)
    - Positive market differentiator
    - Inconvenience open for improvement
    - Caveat or serious shortcoming to be fixed

    It may make sense to read my experiences with UHD2000 here first:
    http://forum.zidoo.tv/index.php?thr...ng-the-uhd2000-compared-to-z9s-usb-dac.78722/
    Also reading this will help understanding the many different Audio formats:
    http://forum.zidoo.tv/index.php?thr...ther-knowhow-for-hifi-players-playback.86336/

    Being positioned as a HiFi player focus is given to the audio aspects. These will be practical compared with using my USB External DAC together with my Z9S and UHD2000. All use a Sabre ES9038 chip version plus XMOS as the basis.

    Where to buy?
    Never saw such big European price differences with any Zidoo player at launch but by now it has been harmonized it seems. No nice deals anywhere anymore.
    https://www.sossolutions.nl/zidoo-uhd-3000-media-player
    https://www.futeko.com/products/MP110.php
    https://www.zidoo.de/produkte/zidoo-uhd-3000-4k-android-mediaplayer
    https://dnltrading.com/gb/zidoo/717...etwork-media-player-android-smart-tv-box.html

    The HW-box connectivity and specifications:
    Merely looking at the box it seems to be very close to the previous generation UHD2000 which in fact it is definitely not. Everything is new with UHD3000 apart from the physical looks: It got the new mainboard with the RTD1619DR SOC, a new ES9068 based Audio Panel, a totally new Hybrid PSU, a slightly modified chassis regarding cooling and even has a new front display including a DAC active Icon!

    This is the only current Zidoo model with an additional HDMI Audio Output port. This alone may be a valid reason to purchase this model. The second port is meant to be used connecting an AMP to it bypassing the AMP for Video going straight to the TV using the Main port. This for those having a recent TV and an older AMP not passing the high definition Video signals like 4K, HDR10, DV or HDR10+ as desired. Plenty of those around. Mine e.g. does not pass HDR10+ despite being just a few years old.

    The UHD3000 is a Full-Size HiFi component fitting nicely in a 42cm wide rack with units of other brands. Mine is sitting just on top of an OPPO 203 BD player and obviously will be compared to as well. It is only available in Anthrazit Dark Grey as used by many brands of Audio/Video equipment including that OPPO. There are many reviews available detailed with pictures of it so I am not going to redo that here.
    -It looks and feels like a very solid unit with Dual HDD bays and a central front display also including 2x USB2 ports and a power switch. The total is covered with a flap.
    - The nice display with many icons is of high quality and just big enough to be read at my viewing distance. The new front display got an additional ICON for DAC On/Off indication which is very handy in practice.
    - New is also the inclusion of a USB2 DAC Input port.
    That way UHD3000 can be used similar as a standalone USB DAC. This is a very welcome expansion despite S/PDIF ports for DAC Input not being included.
    - It also has 2x USB3 port on the back, next to Audio RCA/XLR, Dual HDMI OUT, Video and SPDIF connectors. Overall it results in very good connectivity. It is almost all there but I am dearly missing the USB3c port and above all HDMI-IN from UHD2000. See attachment UHD3000 Back.
    - Mainboard specs are high end too with 32 G FLASH, 4G RAM and Dual Band Wi-Fi with detachable antennas.
    - It is fast to boot (25 - 35 sec range) connected either via external SATA or via USB. Add 10 - 20 secs for detection of every additional HDD.
    - HDMI-CEC is supported and works fine with a TV directly connected to it. It also switches my setup to the designated HDMI port when powered on. When putting an AMP in the chain this is not the case anymore as it does nothing for the AMP; worse it may result in (e)ARC not working anymore between the TV and the AMP. It may be necessary to insert a Lindy or equivalent HDMI-CEC blocker to get it going again as simply deactivating CEC may not help.
    - With the box comes no full printed or online manual just a limited Quick Setup leaflet. In fact with complex new features in HT4 and MP6 the need for a good manual is bigger than ever before.
    - It comes with the excellent BT V8 remote. I like BT a lot more than IR and it has also some more programmable IR keys. This remote is really excellent, but would have liked it even more including a real pointer mouse function and not including just a cursor mouse feature. That mouse feature in fact is a bit hidden amongst the other special function keys.
    - There are many other ways to control the media players remotely: Web-interface, Zidoo Controller APP, Control4 and even a RS232 port plus Trigger port for control too.
    - The UHD3000 will also formally support an external ROM Drive via USB. It worked functionally for playing music MP3/FLAC, CD, DVD and BD with a good user interface. Playing DVD/BD works well once going but Menu processing if selected is terribly slow. It again includes the CD-Ripper APP which was not updated!

    The chassis heat/noise and HDD bays
    One of the main features next to the HiFi Audio Panel are the inclusion of Dual HDD bays. Essential for a HiFi unit is that it cools adequately paired with absolute silent running. During low volume passages of music listeners don't want to hear any disturbing sounds made by either the drives or fan. This was a real challenge for the UHD2000 design as it just used a very small fan to extract the air from the unit positioned at the back. My personal experience is the smaller the fan the nastier is the noise they typically make. The UHD2000 and the same fan used for UHD3000 fan are no exception here just as I have seen with many STB's and Media Players. The fan can be used to Auto or any of 3 manual positions Low/Medium High. The noise level at low is almost inaudible, mildly disturbing at medium and loud at high identical to UHD2000. This for the bad news.

    There is good news too though as the big difference between UHD2000 and UHD3000 is that the fan is now placed at a far more efficient place being on the bottom plate centrally mid between the left and right HDD bays (see attachment). As there are cooling vent openings under these HDD bays the air is sucked in via those flowing via the central PSU to be blown out just below it. This improves the airflow in practice directly resulting in lower temperatures resulting in lower fan speeds. In fact using fan speed set to Auto and 2x 3.5 inch HDD"s inserted these only got mildly hot which is a considerable heat improvement over UHD2000. The cooling problems are definitely solved by moving the fan to central bottom . This is also due to a considerable lower heat production using a hybrid PSU as we will see later.

    When the FAN is now on Auto the player mostly runs on low speed with regular changes to medium speed using a 3.5 inch HDD. This must be temperature controlled but disappointing there is no feature to display that inside temperature measured. For listening to music using 3.5 inch HDD's is regarded unusable by me but using a 2.5 inch HDD Internal or a 2.5 inch USB drive for music solves this. It is pretty safe to even turn off the fan using a single 2.5 inch HDD. The second slot may still be kept populated with a 3.5 inch HDD for movies as it can be spun-down automatically using the spin-down parameter set to a small timer value. Playing movies the noise is acceptable even at medium fan speed.

    Tried different things myself with previous players like using Ultra Low Noise fans and rubber mounts resulting in noticeable improvement with some media boxes. Replacement with a Noctua NF-A4x10 5V PWM brought only marginal noise reduction.

    The noise made by the spinning of the HDD's themselves is remarkably low. The sturdy chassis plus front flap seem to help here adequately.
    The HDD bays include Quick Loading Handles which work perfectly in practice. HDD's can also be ejected and swapped next when desired without powering the player off. This is discouraged by Zidoo with a warning but works very well in practice thanks to its dedicated and well sized PSU. Just be sure to do an "Safe Eject/Unmount" always first!

    For my own deployment I put in a 2.5 HDD using a 3.5 => 2.5 adapter (ICY BOX IB-2535) for playing music with the fan kept on Auto. That combination worked out just fine regarding noise. A SSD can be used this way too obviously but that is a lot more expensive per TByte without any real additional advantages.
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Jan 12, 2022
    OlivierQC and gymnos like this.
  2. Nice Monkey

    Nice Monkey Well-Known Member Beta test group

    About the Power Supply Unit (PSU)
    UHD3000 comes with a smart hybrid PSU design. It composes of a small auxiliary standby PSU panel, a 12V 3A switched mode PSU for just powering the internal HDD bays and a Linear PSU for the Audio Panel and the RTD1619DR mainboard.
    A linear PSU uses a traditional transformer with a rectifier, some big capacitors and stabilizer circuits per voltage/section as needed. Here a quality ring type (toroidal) transformer is used which looks like a Talema clone. These transformers are known to produce far less stray-fields and therefore reduces the amount of hum and noise in the output signal as picked up by the analog circuits.

    The hybrid PSU design deals very well with power peaks caused by HDD's spinning up as this is a strength of Switched Mode PSU's. Linear PSU's can't deal with very large voltage ranges (100V-240V) like switched mode PSU's do nicely. So Zidoo also implemented a voltage sensor on the auxiliary standby PSU. Using a second relay this automatically switches the Linear PSU to 110V and 230V voltage ranges.
    The shared transformer could be kept relative small only dealing with the other less power hungry components and exists of 3 independent Linear PSU sections. That transformer itself is located on the Switched PSU board sitting between the HDD bays and that PSU is covered with an essential shield.
    The linear section has 3 independent AC transformer feeds for DAC digital, DAC analog and the mainboard. These 3 stabilizers are all located at the right on the Audio DAC panel (see attachment Audio Panel). The linear PSU's are rated at 2x 12V 1A and 1x 6V 1A for a generous total hybrid peak output of 66W (=36+30).

    Measurements on actual power consumption:
    Standby: 0.5W
    Mainboard: 9W - 12W range no HDD's attached
    With 2x 3.5 inch HDD's: 24W with peak above 40W when inserted 1 via Plug & Play
    With single 2.5 inch HDD: 12W - 14W range
    These values are clearly below UHD2000 and even come close to Z9X. That hybrid PSU is a nice solution also for power consumption even better than expected by me. It also explains the effect on running far cooler without and even more with HDD's inserted.

    RTD1619DR SOC / Android 9 and other changes
    UHD3000 obviously is based on RTD1619DR with by now well known goodies:
    http://forum.zidoo.tv/index.php?thr...w-about-the-new-rtd1619dr-based-models.80434/
    All SOC and FW related changes and above all improvements can be found there and obviously also apply to the new UHD3000. This with the exception of HDMI-IN which is not present on UHD3000 anymore. This in contrary to UHD2000 and other new models.

    There are already so many very detailed views at the video part (which is identical to other models) that I have nothing of value to add there.


    The GUI/Launcher (updated with FW 6.3.0)
    High-End Zidoo models come with a different GUI/Launcher on the home menu. Being really graphical with nice backgrounds it looks very fancy and may appeal to many.

    With the FW update the functionality has now come on par with the standard GUI:
    - The Weather APP is available as an option in Quick Setup
    - Moving cursor down the quick launch bar was added to configure favorite APP's.
    - Pressing on Menu within the APP's menu also here the App version is now displayed.

    Some nuisances introduced with the same FW update:
    1) I can't get access to the Weather APP other than via Quick Setup or using the cursor mouse on the main page. It is not included in APP's neither.
    2) The Weather Widget shows the current day temperature range but not the far more relevant actual temperature.
    This is valid for both GUI's.

    The DAC Audio Panel and its sound
    This DAC panel was redesigned completely once more. Moving from the first generation X20 Pro to the second generation UHD2000 was mainly done by changing the interface from IIS to USB Internal by adding the excellent proven XMOS design. The next steps made by the third generation UHD3000 were further improving the clock circuitry and the new multi section hybrid PSU.

    Some may doubt about the impact of clock circuitry. Just as an illustration: Many including some on this forum claim that some good UHD/BD players produce better sound than a Zidoo or other media player. This using just another HDMI port on the same HT AMP playing the same movie or music album. How can this be possible? Using the same build-in DAC/AMP sound is only influenced by the HDMI Clock for transfer. HDMI uses embedded clocking were the clock is actually derived from the data received. This in effect can influence the sound on a quality audio setup as it will feed the DAC synchronized to the clock of the source. The SOC of media players is not really known to include top design clock circuitry and components so many UHD/BD players may in fact beat them there. So yes that OPPO/PIONEER/SONY etc may in fact sound better via HDMI as strange as it may sound.
    If the AMP itself does the sound decoding feeding its DAC then it can in theory/practice sound better too. Very expensive AMP's like McIntosh use custom HDMI interfaces doing a similar thing as XMOS for USB.


    How does this all compare with very expensive Music Streamers and DAC's? Several owners of very nice (and expensive) brands stated the sound is coming very close to even those. Myself did listening tests on a friends NAIM setup with a very expensive streamer and even more expensive external PSU in A/B listening mode. We both came to the conclusion that only very careful listening revealed differences in the sound produced. Despite both agreeing that the NAIM was the better one we were both surprised by the small marginal difference. We only can confirm it sounds amazing above all looking at its price.

    It is interesting to see on those high end units that its is all about using even better (more precise and stable) components, better designs, extreme and mostly external stable PSU's and analog circuitry. The weakest point of the current UHD3000 design is actually the analog part. The analog AMP section is a simple 3 OP AMP design (1 for RCA and 2 for XLR (left+right) resulting in unbalanced outputs.

    The S/N ratio (and most likely channel separation if measured) could not impress me. My DIY-kit external USB DAC does a lot better job on that point. I can turn up my Onkyo HT AMP to maximum volume and wil still only hear the internal very minor noise of that Receiver. With UHD3000 it will be able to clearly hear noise from 3/4 up on volume already. Obviously the DIY-kit is using the ES9038PRO version with roughly 20 db better S/N ratio as a start. Other problems like the compact design, using an Internal PSU and unbalanced AMP output circuitry will have their influence too. Does it matter? Listening to e.g. classical music at relative high volume levels including very low sound passages you may run into actually hearing this limit directly. It will always have some impact on the total soumd experience.

    Some might be surprised that their DSD128/256 album sounds less that the original DSD64 album using Zidoo. This is after analysis due to the following:
    Sampling rate-control set to: Native output for both HDMI output and USB output:
    DSD 64 outputs as 17624 bit PCM
    DSD 128 outputs as 88/24 bit PCM
    DSD 256 outputs at 44/24 bit PCM
    This has to do with resource usage and their limits.

    Music Player 6 plays MCH SACD ISO's and other formats flawless with DSD DoP/Native to DAC output (The 2CH tracks only obviously). The Zidoo Controller APP works well to control Music Player 6 album selection and playback with the TV turned off.

    Practical playback using MP6 or other music player APP's
    Using FW v6.1.05+
    DAC Analog and HDMI Digital output modes can be changed not only via Quick Setup but also be toggled using Zidoo Navigator and/or mapping the HDMI/DAC toggle to one of the colored keys on the remote control. This works quick and easy in practice.

    The switch is 3 way: HDMI Output, Internal Source DAC Output and External USB Source DAC output.
    Assigned it to a colored button on the remote for ease of operation myself. One needs to use the included Colored Key Mapping APP for that. No need to go to setup then anymore.
    Using that assigned key then will pop-up a message showing the 3 position switch is in. Also an Icon on the Front display will conveniently show "DAC" when internal or external USB DAC is selected.

    To change between Multi Channel Home Theater mode and 2CH Stereo DAC mode one just needs to switch source on the AMP and Toggle the output mode for UHD3000 concurrently. The Zidoo FW is smart enough to switch HDMI output mode from RAW to 2CH when going for DAC output and switch it back again to RAW when going for HDMI once more. This way all MCH audio sources are always being downmixed when using DAC analog regardless if the source is Video or Music.
    Unfortunately this reveals that the SOC HW is used for the downmixing which explains why HDMI output and DAC Output can't be used concurrently like UHD/BD Disc players normally facilitate.
     
    Last edited: Oct 16, 2021
    vadergr, OlivierQC and gymnos like this.
  3. Nice Monkey

    Nice Monkey Well-Known Member Beta test group

    There is modified "Sampling rate control" option with UHD3000! It got a dual function now: Enabling HD tracks passing gapless natively or up-sampling gapless to a specified rate playing any mixed rate tracks in the playlist gapless too. The feature/setting is not really intuitive in my perception.

    The status of HDMI/DAC output is made visible on the Main/Home Page by the display of a DAC ICON. UHD3000 now also added an extra DAC ICON on the front display which is very nice to have in practice. Above all now that the switch became 3 way: HDMI Output, Internal Source DAC Output and External USB Source DAC output. There is a convenient short message pop-up when toggling these modes.
    The DAC Setup has parameters for Source Selection, PCM FIR Filter, Volume and XLR polarity. For an optimal s/n ratio volume is best left at the maximum. XLR ports may be useful straight with some headsets as it gives reasonable power (4V max). What I am missing is a setting for DSD IIR Filter which is a simple low-pass analog filter with various limits as a choice.

    As an alternative the excellent HiByMusic APP can be used as it finds also the (USB based) Internal DAC of UHD2000. The also excellent USB Audio Player Pro APP can be used but will only work via the HQ Android drivers meant for HDMI output (source mode). No DSD via that method.


    MQA using the new ES9068 DAC
    The new UHD3000 supports Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) codec based music titles.
    This new MQA codec is owned by Meridian and was mainly developed by Bob Stuart.

    The Zidoo UHD3000 player is officially certified:
    https://www.mqa.co.uk/partners/zidoo

    What MQA is all about and how it actually works is a not so simple and I leave it up to the readers to look it up themselves.
    https://www.mqa.co.uk/ http://bobtalks.co.uk/blog/mqa-philosophy/mqa-authentication-and-quality/#
    It is also very controversial for many. I limit myself to a condensed description mainly provided to understand my way of testing and comments made.

    The claim is MQA will improve the reproduction quality above CD level using minimal additional bandwidth and provides provenance for the origin/source.

    MQA Provenance
    The MQA 'Studio' (blue light) gives confirmation directly from mastering engineers, producers or artists to their listeners. A second level, 'MQA' (green light) is available to indicate that although the stream is genuine, provenance may be uncertain or that it is not yet the final release. There are also a very few Pink /Magenta albums with a still for me unknown definition.
    MQA Pink/Magenta albums keep MQA decoding kicking in and out during playback. Does not happen with MQA Blue or MQA Green albums.

    MQA has the following characteristics:
    - It uses a FLAC version of the 16-bit CD as the basis for the MQA extensions. This can be played on any FLAC capable player, but obviously without any benefits of MQA. The resulting audio has easily identifiable high-frequency noise occupying 3 LSB bits, thus limiting playback on non-MQA devices effectively to 13 bit. MQA claims that nevertheless the quality is higher than "normal" 48/16, because of the novel sampling and convolution processes
    - The first step is adding corrections to the original mastering. What this exactly is and how it works remains obscured to me. Obviously it would have been better avoiding them in the first place. It may be abused by the industry too by rushing the mastering process as errors can be compensated later via MQA updates!
    - The second step is expansion of samples to 24-bit at the same or higher sample-rates. I call this smart up-sampling. This up-sampling can be as high as to 384 kHz but mostly is 88.2/96 kHz.
    - The third step is provision of the Digital to Analog conversion with DAC specific parameters. This is totally obscure for me and obviously kept in the dark as it seems to be brand specific.

    The first 2 steps can be done by any certified MQA player in software or hardware but the third step can only be done by MQA HW enabled players. UHD3000 is using the SABRE ES9068 chip for that but other players use the upgraded XMOS XU216 for it.

    Regarding 2 claims it is easy to see that an MQA title is far smaller than a 24-bit 88.4 kHz HD FLAC and provenance source identification works on the Zidoo implementation just fine too. So much for the easy part

    I raised myself 3 questions regarding the SQ which I tried to verify by listening:
    - A MQA title sounds the same as the original CD when played on a non-MQA capable player. For the time being I give this one the benefit of the doubt. Did not really do listening tests for it yet.
    - The MQA produces a similar SQ than an HD FLAC at 24-bit with equivalent output sample-rate. In my experience that is not really the case. I do prefer the native HD version in several cases, did not encounter an example with the reverse being the case so far. On the other hand on many albums it is very difficult to hear a difference. So it at least reaches the goal improving SQ with using minimal additional resources.
    - The MQA sounds better that the original CD. Some do really sound nice so the potential is there for sure. Found an MQA demo album with a whopping output at 24-bit 352.8 kHz with classical music on it sounding very well.

    How well UHD3000 performs compared with other MQA enabled players was not tested by me. It just all worked well and no MQA related playback flaws were found. MQA by the way is only enabled when audio output is switched to DAC output.

    MQA Conclusion:
    How useful MQA is for a stationary media player is a good question as bandwidth and file size are not real considerations for these. The goal of reaching a better SQ with minimal additional bandwidth can be confirmed so it is practical for mobile application.
    Maybe MQA will become the next popular standard and MQA streamed albums will get a good price/performance compared with tue HD-FLAC alternatives? I see it more as an industry push than as a real customer goody.
    Never harms to have the MQA capability on board!
     
    Last edited: May 31, 2021
    OlivierQC likes this.
  4. Nice Monkey

    Nice Monkey Well-Known Member Beta test group

    Final Verdict:
    The UHD3000 is even once more better designed making its claim as true HiFi component certainly again true. It has a general high quality build and a superior DAC panel compared with UHD2000 plus a very smart Hybrid PSU included resulting in an incredible price/performance ratio. The playback sound it produces can compete with products in far higher price ranges today with only the S/N ratio as a clear relative week point.
    Unfortunately for Zidoo they did not succeed yet bringing the Music Player on par with the new (or even old) HW. To be honest I just saw the gap between the HW platform and the FW becoming bigger, this despite some advances on the Music Player made e.g. supporting External USB DAC's and Gapless playback. I am sure they are working very hard on it but how long it is going to take?

    When compared with dedicated Music Players plus DAC's from relative expensive brands the HW build is close to a fair match as-is but the software functions, features, friendliness and stability have still a lot of room for improvement. The core functionality of 2CH music playback for both PCM and DSD albums produces an amazing sound for sure. If you use it just for that purpose as I mostly do you may forgive it its weaknesses on presentation and functionality. Simply always use Media Center myself to find an album on my music HDD organized my own way. Simply can't get the Music Library features dealing with my large library setup in any way.

    For those asking themselves now but what about X20 Pro or UHD2000? It very much depends how good your total audio setup is and how critical your ears are but upgrading from X20 PRO will make a real big Audio Quality difference. Upgrading from UHD2000 will be far smaller but definitely also quite audible next to including the RTD1619DR for DV Video. The improved PSU and cooling resulting in far lower heat and fan noises is neither to be ignored. USB-IN will be appreciated by many also I expect. It is just a pity HDMI-IN and USB3c were dropped on this model.

    Comparing with other brand HiFi players should above all be done via active listening tests as quality sound not only comes from the DAC chip being deployed. Using quality components, matching power provisions and topnotch clock circuitry will make or break the sound chain.
    For UHD3000 the total design is all in all well balanced.

    Corrections, comments, reactions and questions are very welcome.
    I am very much surprised receiving hardly any.
     
    Last edited: Dec 21, 2021
    OlivierQC likes this.
  5. rozel

    rozel Well-Known Member

    Thank you for another full analytical Review - quite excellent.

    Given the placement of the Zidoo Z1000 Pro I was hoping for a comparison with that, and although I do understand the logic of comparing with the UHD2000, I'll live in hope as I think all of the 3 latest players are following the same firmwares.
     
  6. gymnos

    gymnos Member

    Thanks a lot for sharing your findings.
     
  7. Tako

    Tako New Member

    Hello Nice Monkey,

    Are you also reviewing the playback of the video part?
    Or only the audio part.
     
  8. Nice Monkey

    Nice Monkey Well-Known Member Beta test group

    There are already so many very detailed views at the video part (which is identical to other models) that I have nothing of value to add there.
    Don't even have a HDR10+ or DV capable TV and it is all about DV and VS10 processing what is new there.

    RTD1619DR related changes are to be found here:
    http://forum.zidoo.tv/index.php?thr...w-about-the-new-rtd1619dr-based-models.80434/
    Link is also included in the post itself.
     
    Last edited: Feb 23, 2021
  9. Nice Monkey

    Nice Monkey Well-Known Member Beta test group

    Finding a substitute fan is not that easy: 40x40x10 mm at 5V using PWM (=4 leads).
    Anybody a hint where to get a silent substitute for it?
     
    Last edited: Feb 20, 2021
  10. Polypenko

    Polypenko Active Member

  11. Nice Monkey

    Nice Monkey Well-Known Member Beta test group

    Last edited: Feb 20, 2021
  12. OlivierQC

    OlivierQC Well-Known Member

    Hello Nice Monkey,

    Thank you for this excellent review.

    It's a good point about the gap between the quality of the HW that Zidoo offers and the software part and not only for the audiophile part,
    as you said in an old message, it would be good for Zidoo to take a step back and fix some features that have been flawed for a very long time and that seem to be left out.
     
  13. MsieurSeb

    MsieurSeb Member

    Hello Nice Monkey, could you tell me what the setting is for: Digital Output = Gapless (48 khz)? Thx
     
  14. Nice Monkey

    Nice Monkey Well-Known Member Beta test group

    The current FW always uses gapless. There is no parameter for it. When it is used and under which conditions was not revealed.
    It looks like a real beta implementation and never was meant in the change log. Just found out by mere listening. :)
     
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2021
  15. rozel

    rozel Well-Known Member

    I was playing a lot of my Hi Def Flacs and DSD files and the Gapless Playback was faultless and a revelation not having heard some of my Albums playing this way in years :)
     
  16. MsieurSeb

    MsieurSeb Member

    This setting is used to have a better sound quality on all the audio files? Thx
     
  17. rozel

    rozel Well-Known Member

    I was playing on my Zidoo 1000Pro using a USB DAC (I shall be doing a post on how I got on either today or tomorrow) but I wasn't aware that there was any setting? Unless I am misunderstanding you. I was playing via Music Player 6. I won't spoil my post but I don't see how playing gapless can improve quality by itself, just a much smoother listening experience
     
  18. Nice Monkey

    Nice Monkey Well-Known Member Beta test group

    Added power measurements being the last task which confirmed the effectiveness of using a smart hybrid PSU. It not only reduces consumed power but above all lowers the heat produced hence needs for forced cooling. ;)
     
    gymnos likes this.
  19. mirror

    mirror Well-Known Member SUPER Administrator Zidoo TECH Supporter

    If two adjacent files in the play list have the same sampling rate, they will gapless playback at any time. Even set to the original sample rate output.

    This is a very stable implementation.

    Uhd3000 also has an advanced function, which can be set as "resample". It supports gapless playback at all sampling rates
     
    gymnos likes this.
  20. steveroberts5019

    steveroberts5019 New Member

Share This Page