SONCOZ SGD1 Audio DAC Review

[CrimeInPartner]

Hi @Ben1987,

I can just connect to the SGD1 over Bluetooth without authorization

I can confirm this to be the case myself and would agree that having a pairing mode would be ideal if at all possible. I know you currently have the challenge of only having the knob/button as the only way to add additional interaction with the user so I guess I would suggest something like.. double pressing the knob would put it into pairing mode for, say, a minute. During that time, you could have the bluetooth input flash to indicate pairing mode is on and when the minute is up, it either stays on if the bluetooth input is active or simply turns off.

For what it's worth, I have been very happy with the SGD1 and am even more glad that ASR is around and Ben is a member. I would never have decided to become an early adopter and purchase it if not for the open communication Ben has with the community here and how transparent he is. Having the opportunity to be able to give direct feedback to make the SGD1 and future models a potentially better product is just icing on the cake.

 

[jmvdv]

Hi @Ben1987 and @CrimeInPartner

This would be great:

1. Select Bluetooth input
2. Press and hold button on SGD1 for 5 seconds
3. Pairing mode -> bluetooth icon flashes
4a. Successfully paired new device
4b. Button press on SGD1 -> cancel operation
4c. After one minute of no input -> cancel operation

Another option could be to approve when a new device asks permission to connect:

1. Select bluetooth input
2. Connect from new device
3. Bluetooth input icon flashes
4. Press button on SGD1 to approve new device

Totally agree with @CrimeInPartner with the icing on the cake! I love my SGD1 and @Ben1987 being so communicative about his devices on this forum!

 

[soundcheck]

One more thing.

The KTB had the problem that it required the USB GND and VCC being connected even
though being powered externally.

How does it look on the SGD1 ?

 

[jmvdv]

smartfly in amazon is a no go for me, unless the postage is fulfilled by amazon itself. smartfly is located in china. therefore this means enormous customs fees... hope amazon can fulfill the postage so that we europeans can avoid customs....

Maybe a little late but I ordered at Audiophonics in France (i’m in the Netherlands) if you want to avoid unexpected taxes and stuff and are in the EU...

 

[CrimeInPartner]

Your situation looks like a foobar setup problem.

Hey Ben, I've been working at this still on and off trying to get DSD mode to show in the control panel when playing a DSD audio file and I have more to report. So if I use the versions of SACD and the ASIO that you included in post #568 of this thread (0.7.3 for SACD and 0.7.1.2 for the ASIO Proxy), I can get DSD mode to be recognized using the Soncoz control panel. However, there have been multiple new releases that have come out since then. In the case of SACD, it removed the requirement entirely for ASIO Proxy back in 0.9.X, and they are already at 1.2.3 as of May 1st. For the ASIO Proxy, the newest version I found was 0.9.4 back in 2016. That one has a totally different UI than the 0.7.1.2 version you posted when double clicking the foo_dsd_asio device. When I try and use the latest and greatest drivers available, I still can't get DSD mode to show up in the control panel. I "think" part of that is because SACD is doing DoP but I don't know if there was anything else in my configuration I could have done it pass it natively.

In any case, I guess I just wanted to give you more information as this may come up again for other people with different audio setups/driver versions as the SGD1 gets in more peoples' hands.

 

[Veri]

Foobar is such a mess when it comes to DSD, you need to follow an exact set-up or things don't work. I only ever had success following diyaudioheaven's guide.

 

[CrimeInPartner]

Foobar is such a mess when it comes to DSD, you need to follow an exact set-up or things don't work. I only ever had success following diyaudioheaven's guide.

Thank you for mentioning diyaudioheaven! A quick google search led me to one of his tutorial guides and it mentioned that the piece I was missing is that in the latest version of SACD, if you want to strip out PCM and play DSD natively, you have to install a DSD Transcoder (https://sourceforge.net/projects/sacddecoder/files/dsd_transcoder/). This looks and functions similarly to the old ASIO proxy install in how you set it up. Once I configured the DSD Transcoder device, set it to use my SGD1 and changed it to use DSD over DoP in the settings, I am now getting DSD Mode in the Soncoz Control Panel.

Thanks again!

 

[Ben1987]

How does it look on the SGD1 ?

SGD1 only use USB VCC power supply for USB identification. XMOS has an independent power supply system, which does not need USB interface power supply like KTB.

 

[soundcheck]

SGD1 only use USB VCC power supply for USB identification. XMOS has an independent power supply system, which does not need USB interface power supply like KTB.

THX for the feedback.

Hmmh. Not nice. It's not actually needed in general and obviously not even needed in particular.
Another leg is just another potential source for ""mess""" making it into the DAC (or chain).

The KTB was meant to be buspowered. That's been a different story.

Perhaps you consider to remove the VCC requirement on the long run. Many DAC manufacturers are doing it.

 

[Ben1987]

Perhaps you consider to remove the VCC requirement on the long run. Many DAC manufacturers are doing it.

My previous version removed Vcc, which will bring some instability of USB recognition. The current situation is that only the Vcc used for recognition has done very strict filtering and isolation processing.

 

[mt196]

THX for the feedback.

Hmmh. Not nice. It's not actually needed in general and obviously not even needed in particular.
Another leg is just another potential source for ""mess""" making it into the DAC (or chain).

The KTB was meant to be buspowered. That's been a different story.

Perhaps you consider to remove the VCC requirement on the long run. Many DAC manufacturers are doing it.

When I will receive mine I will update in here, I have a very crappy source to use as a test, I can hear a really audible hiss from a Topping D50 hooked to that source, so we will see if the two SONCOZ are better isolated.

Anyway I think that if you are afraid of possible noises, it could still be possible to use isolating tape on the other not needed pins of the USB apart from VCC (and maybe GND also)

 

[soundcheck]

My previous version removed Vcc, which will bring some instability of USB recognition. The current situation is that only the Vcc used for recognition has done very strict filtering and isolation processing.

The excellent measurements prove your point of course.

It's just that many of us did spent a huge amount of money and effort (over the last 12 years or so) to cope with
the USB issues originating further upstream. We seen cables, hubs, filters, isolators, USB bridges asf. asf.
changing the situation. Every transport changed the situation.
And getting rid of VCC altogether was a nice shortcut. There was nothing to filter if it's not there.
The basic rule for us users used to be: Rather avoid the mess instead of fighting it later on. Because most DAC devices
failed to do so properly. That might have changed with your DAC.

 

[elchupahueso]

At the moment, what's the best way to get a hold of one of these DACs in the US? Currently there's two sellers on Amazon that claim to have it, youyeetwo and SmartFly info. Not sure if one is better or not. @Ben1987 , do you have any insight into this? Or would ordering straight from Soncoz be the best solution. Thanks in advance for any advice/info.

 

[Ben1987]

@Ben1987 , do you have any insight into this? Or would ordering straight from Soncoz be the best solution. Thanks in advance for any advice/info

Message @Sophia Ann or email [email protected] is the best solution.

 

[CrimeInPartner]

At the moment, what's the best way to get a hold of one of these DACs in the US? Currently there's two sellers on Amazon that claim to have it, youyeetwo and SmartFly info. Not sure if one is better or not. @Ben1987 , do you have any insight into this? Or would ordering straight from Soncoz be the best solution. Thanks in advance for any advice/info.

Yooyeetoo was who I ordered the SGD1 and had been in contact with when they accidentally sent me the gray version instead of the black one. In trying to get the gray one replaced, he told me that they were going to be sending some of their black inventory to Amazon's warehouses by around the end of May, so I am assuming by then it may actually be a 'Fulfilled by Amazon' type of product. They also provided their Skype info, fuxiang_12, if you wanted to try and reach out to them directly with any questions.

 

[Ro808]

Again @WolfX-700 ,I have huge admiration for the selfless, open and egoless way you have conducted yourself here and thank you for the great work you doing.

Just don't get more likes than Amirm , else I will have to listen to all the crying behind the scenes. He's already jealous of your wolf's , clearly they would eat the pink panthers for breakfast.

This is a self-cleaning ability that even my terror cats cannot match.
I toast to that! (unless it's all staged ;- )

 

[CrimeInPartner]

Okay so I have a new problem. Shocking, I know. I've been having some cracking noises for probably the past week. Foobar in ASIO mode sounds great, but the problem is specific to audio going through Windows' resampler. After much fighting, I ended up uninstalling the Thesycon driver and then went into device manager and making sure there were no other SGD1 driver remnants. I powered off the DAC, rebooted and powered the DAC back on, so the native Windows driver would be reinstalled, with no Thesycon driver. All of a sudden, the Windows resampling works now with no cracking noise. I checked the sampling rate at this point and saw it was 32 bit 48000 Hz. I left it this way for a few hours while I continued working on my PC with no problems at all. I went ahead and reinstalled the Thesycon driver, and the Windows resampling issues with the cracking came back. I went ahead and made sure the sampling rate was 32 bit 48000 Hz also since that worked with the native driver. Didn't matter, still cracking. Just a while ago, I uninstalled everything all over again, rebooted and reinstalled the native Windows driver, and the cracking is gone all over again, so the issue is repeatable for me.

Has anyone had any similar issues between using the native Windows driver compared to the Thesycon driver? Does anyone have any other suggestions I can try? If it matters, I am running Windows 10 Pro, version 1909. The Thesycon driver was the original one Ben released, v4.82. I realize I may be doing something dumb so please bare with me as I continue to try and work through these issues I keep running into.

Also, probably unrelated but I will mention anyway. With only the native Windows driver installed, I see in Device Manager a "SONCOZ DFU" device. There's no driver installed for it nor can I find one to install. Should I just ignore this or is there something I should be doing to get it installed?

Thank you!

 

[Veri]

Also, probably unrelated but I will mention anyway. With only the native Windows driver installed, I see in Device Manager a "SONCOZ DFU" device. There's no driver installed for it nor can I find one to install. Should I just ignore this or is there something I should be doing to get it installed?

Thank you!

DFU is for firmware update so you can ignore this, yes.

 

[nspp]

Okay so I have a new problem. Shocking, I know. I've been having some cracking noises for probably the past week. Foobar in ASIO mode sounds great, but the problem is specific to audio going through Windows' resampler. After much fighting, I ended up uninstalling the Thesycon driver and then went into device manager and making sure there were no other SGD1 driver remnants. I powered off the DAC, rebooted and powered the DAC back on, so the native Windows driver would be reinstalled, with no Thesycon driver. All of a sudden, the Windows resampling works now with no cracking noise. I checked the sampling rate at this point and saw it was 32 bit 48000 Hz. I left it this way for a few hours while I continued working on my PC with no problems at all. I went ahead and reinstalled the Thesycon driver, and the Windows resampling issues with the cracking came back. I went ahead and made sure the sampling rate was 32 bit 48000 Hz also since that worked with the native driver. Didn't matter, still cracking. Just a while ago, I uninstalled everything all over again, rebooted and reinstalled the native Windows driver, and the cracking is gone all over again, so the issue is repeatable for me.

Has anyone had any similar issues between using the native Windows driver compared to the Thesycon driver? Does anyone have any other suggestions I can try? If it matters, I am running Windows 10 Pro, version 1909. The Thesycon driver was the original one Ben released, v4.82. I realize I may be doing something dumb so please bare with me as I continue to try and work through these issues I keep running into.

Also, probably unrelated but I will mention anyway. With only the native Windows driver installed, I see in Device Manager a "SONCOZ DFU" device. There's no driver installed for it nor can I find one to install. Should I just ignore this or is there something I should be doing to get it installed?

Thank you!

Do you use SGD1 also for windows playback sound ?
If yes you will have some issue as you will share ASIO in some sample rate and other driver mode wdm using resampling to 48Khz could lock and cause wrong sample rate setting in the device.

When i was using non dedicated computer for music i used asio driver only with music player and never used it as default playback driver even with other driver type.

 

[Reyer]

Not sure if it's related but the most recent windows 10 update broke audio devices drivers for many users by installing bugged "Nahimic mirroring device" driver.