New products Zidoo? - EverSolo DAC Z6/Z8

Frankly no real opinion on this due to lack of experience with either.

 

@Nice Monkey - did you see this and can you offer a solution please? I still haven't sorted this.

 

I don't think Android can deal with 2 concurrently connected USB DAC's. No way to select the output is available neither.

For me it would be very easy as I have a slew of media players. I would connect multiple USB DAC's to individual players and just toggle the matching analog ports on my AMP to compare playing the same source set to a matching volume level.

Make sure somebody else does the A/B switching for you including fake switches to trick you.

 

@Nice Monkey - thanks. Only other media player I possess is my Egreat A11 - any chance this outputs USB audio?

Edit: - No it doesn't I didn't think it did.

 

Fair enough comment! Thanks anyway.

 

My Egreat A10 and Egreat A11 used to work just fine with my previously owned USB DAC you are very familiar with. Also used it in combination with UAPP as the music player without problems.
Warning: I am running Android 7 on those Egreat players (latest Chinese/English FW version).

 

Looking just at the design specifications the Cambridge looks more like a Z6 not like the superior Z8.

 

But there's no USB Audio output from the A11, so how did you connect up? Unless I'm missing something - looking at the back there's 2 USB ports but thought these were purely for external disk connection - see pic: -

https://mega.nz/file/2I1gEBKL#3s0SIzou0dAEB-Hd9Niy_QrvWA_AFV04C-HCrepiy80

I bet you'll say these ports work upon reflection?

 

Both USB ports can be used to connect the USB DAC. These USB ports are for universal USB deployments.

There is not such a thing like an USB port just for a HDD under Android on any device I know of.

 

That's marvellous, thank you!

I never knew that - but when my A11 was being used, it was before I entered the world of DACs. Egreat didn't promote this possibility did they - I shall have some fun recommissioning hihi. My review of the Z8 is back on!

 

I saw the 8 has a better chip, but I thought the rest was all the same as Z6.

 

Have a look carefully at the specs - there are differences and of course, the higher price confirms the Z8 is the higher specced DAC

 

Off topic somewhat but I'd like to take this opportunity to thank @Nice Monkey for these words - I've had a wonderful day in my car connecting my phone to its Audio player via USB. Never done that before, thinking the car's USB ports were to charge and or plug a memorystick in. Well so I connected my phone (previously audio jack connection via a small DAC) and hey presto, Android Audio was installed and remarkably beautiful TIDAL sounds were heard with full control using cars' controls! Bliss! Never thought about doing this until reading the above. Thank you, thank you so much - going to see about a/b test this weekend, promise

 

It's a pleasure helping out.

There are USB ports on adapters and even some USB cables just usable for power supply purposes. Both my E-bikes have such USB ports.

 

Yesterday I ordered the Z6. The 8 is too expensive for me.
Im sure it’ll be a step up from my old MusicalFidelity DAC.
Let’s hope the headphone output will provide me some good signal for my
old B&W P7 wireless (used with a wire) and my future dream cans the Meze 109 Pro.

 

This afternoon it arrived. My Z6. Really happy.

I’m blown away by the quality of the device. It was a gamble since I bought it from a picture and a YouTube review without seeing the actual product in real life.

The Z6 destroys my old musical fidelity. I know the Z8 is even better but too much expensive for me.
The build quality of these devices is excellent. Quite some heft to the device. The screen is wonderful.
And the app on my phone is super easy. I left the original remote in the box.

I’m over the moon with this DAC. Over Xmas plenty of time to do some testing.

I do have two questions:

1
Now I hooked up a USB from my Zidoo Z1000Pro, an optical from my TV, Bluetooth from my iPhone and all work.
I also thought to connect my iPad with a good quality cable from lightning to jack female 3,5 so I could connect a 3,5 male jack to cinch cable and use that in the coax input.
(See pic, the other end is tulip into DAC)
But that doesn’t work. No sound. The input on the DAC works, I tested it with coax from my cd, but the iPad, adapter cable doesn’t.

Does anybody have any idea why not? Do I need another cable and if so which one? Or is it something that can't be done?
And I would be curious to know why not.

2
The player is capable of playing MQA, which is nice. I use the Zidoo Z1000 Pro via USB to play files.
Some files are MQA and say 24bit 48 Khz. But when I play the file then the screen of the Z6 shows: 24/192
How is this possible? Is this a fault in the Z1000 software, or is something else at play here?

Thanks in advance for your input.

 

Hey! Glad you got your Z6 and pleased you like it. I've been promising a review and an a/b test between my Z8 and the Gustard X-16. Have become embroiled with health issues (nothing serious, I hope) and of course Christmas preparations. The a/b test just isn't practical for many reasons and I am not prepared to discuss the differences between my two DACs subjectively as would be necessary with an a/b test. But sometime over the Christmas break, I will make some notes about my five weeks or so experience.

I assume you play your audio files with the Zidoo's Music Player? - I'm done with that to be honest, it just doesn't cut it with this level of Audio listening IMHO. I use USB Audio Player Pro (UAPP), it plays my TIDAL stuff as well as my Hi-Res files stored locally. It also has the ability to play Qobuz too. The USB tweaks are phemnominal and it's very cheap with a couple of in-app purchases available too, eg a Parametric Equaliser and Morphit to tune your headphones to other makes and models. Their support is some of the best I've ever experienced too. I cannot answer your questions I'm afraid as I don't do Apple (I'm totally Android) but the detailed output from UAPP could maybe answer your second question. Maybe @Nice Monkey could help you?

At this stage, I will note that I am absolutely over the moon with my Z8 but as yet, I haven't even tried the inbuilt headphone amp - too many other things to look at

 

Just tried to PM you but I was informed I cannot start a conversation with you for some reason.

If you'd like to discuss a few things Audio, HiFi and DAC-related, then PM me

 

Thank you for your reply.
That’s an app I can install through the play store on the Zidoo1000 Pro? The music player is indeed terrible. I keep getting Chinese characters with my lyrics. Annoying.

I’ll try the PM. Next days I’m out for Xmas with relatives so not much playing around with my new toy.

Happy Holidays!

 

I’ve been looking at the Z8 myself. I’m assuming that if I hook up a raspberry pi as my Roon end point via USB that it should work withou issue?