Soncoz LA-QXD1 Balanced DAC Review

[MechEngVic]

my preferences menu is quite different... do you have an older version? no dsd audio device menu for me...

I have V1.6, not that old. If you don't have the SACD menu item in your preferences, you need to install the SACD decoder. Use V0.9.3

 

[MechEngVic]

Now i switched the volume to max. I can hear some music now. And bingo: The old sacd-plugin did it.
Any way to get the volume down? It's far to loud at maximum volumen.

Good to hear! The volume has to stay at 0 for this decoder to work.

 

[MechEngVic]

Can somebody explain, what the "output mode" "PCM" really does? Is it true, that the quality would be the same in result (because my soncoz does the conversion?) but would be Volume-controllable?

PCM and DSD are two different digital storage formats, PCM was first developed to convert analog signals to digital. DSD was first developed to store large digital files efficiently, and is often used to store PCM files. All of your song files, except DSD files, are played back using PCM mode natively. DSD files need the decoder to play them back in their native format. PCM can convert DSD files with very little to no loss in sound quality.

 

[porotikos]

I have V1.6, not that old. If you don't have the SACD menu item in your preferences, you need to install the SACD decoder. Use V0.9.3View attachment 89917View attachment 89919

 

[porotikos]

mine is version 1.1.0. obviously it is newer. here is what the menu looks like. in the dsd processor menu, there is nothing to choose from. any ideas why is that?

 

[obwohl]

PCM and DSD are two different digital storage formats, PCM was first developed to convert analog signals to digital. DSD was first developed to store large digital files efficiently, and is often used to store PCM files. All of your song files, except DSD files, are played back using PCM mode natively. DSD files need the decoder to play them back in their native format. PCM can convert DSD files with very little to no loss in sound quality.

Thanks. Any scientific data to see how much I really loose in quality? And which kind of PCM (samplerate for example) conversion is recommended?

 

[MechEngVic]

mine is version 1.1.0. obviously it is newer. here is what the menu looks like. in the dsd processor menu, there is nothing to choose from. any ideas why is that?

What is V1.1.0? Foobar or your SACD decoder? The latest version of Foobar is V1.6.1. If you're talking about the decoder, using the older version of the decoder has helped me and others get Foobar working for DSD files (V0.9.3).

 

[MechEngVic]

Thanks. Any scientific data to see how much I really loose in quality? And which kind of PCM (samplerate for example) conversion is recommended?

There are several comparisons online where most conclude that there is little to no difference. As far as sample rates, I read the two formats should convert to about the same rates. I honestly am new to the whole digital thing myself, and because of how little I know, I decided to try to play files in their native format, just to avoid these exact issues.
If you're using your computer to control volume, you're gonna get way more loss in sound quality doing that than converting files. You'd be better off having an external component control volume. The LA-QXD can control the volume with less loss in SQ than your computer.

 

[porotikos]

What is V1.1.0? Foobar or your SACD decoder? The latest version of Foobar is V1.6.1. If you're talking about the decoder, using the older version of the decoder has helped me and others get Foobar working for DSD files (V0.9.3).

sacd decoder. ill search for 0.93 thanks
argggh i cant find it... any help would be appreciated. cheers

 

[Zek]

argggh i cant find it...

https://sourceforge.net/projects/sacddecoder/files/foo_input_sacd/

 

[porotikos]

Thank you so much my friend

 

[porotikos]

now i am game. all is good. cheers to all

 

[obwohl]

There are several comparisons online where most conclude that there is little to no difference. As far as sample rates, I read the two formats should convert to about the same rates. I honestly am new to the whole digital thing myself, and because of how little I know, I decided to try to play files in their native format, just to avoid these exact issues.
If you're using your computer to control volume, you're gonna get way more loss in sound quality doing that than converting files. You'd be better off having an external component control volume. The LA-QXD can control the volume with less loss in SQ than your computer.

That's exactly what I cannot do. The LA-QXD can not controll the volume when playing a DSD-file.

 

[MechEngVic]

That's exactly what I cannot do. The LA-QXD can not controll the volume when playing a DSD-file.

OK, so you can't control the DAC's volume through the Soncoz Thesycon driver on your computer (that needs to be set to 0), but you should be able to control the volume on the DAC physically. If not, there is more adjustments to be made. Check the output on Foobar as well as the output on windows.

If you have these settings, the master volume position won't matter and you should have physical control at the DAC itself.

 

[obwohl]

OK, so you can't control the DAC's volume through the Soncoz Thesycon driver on your computer (that needs to be set to 0), but you should be able to control the volume on the DAC physically. If not, there is more adjustments to be made. Check the output on Foobar as well as the output on windows.
View attachment 90102View attachment 90103

If you have these settings, the master volume position won't matter and you should have physical control at the DAC itself.

Unfortunately pressing the volume-keys on my DAC does not change anything.

 

[0xgrm]

Hello all,

I have the LA-QXD1 for about 2 weeks now and I must say I'm very impressed by the sound, coming from a Hifiberry DAC+ Pro. Regarding the specs, the measurements and the sound, I think it will be my DAC endgame for a long time.

I unfortunately have one annoying bug with DSD. I have it hooked up by USB on a Raspberry Pi 3 running RopieeeXL as a Roon Bridge. Every is working so far except that the DSD playback reverses the channels.

All software and the DAC firmware are up to date. I also created a topic on the Roon forum as it's perhaps not a hardware issue.

Do you have the same problem? Could you please take a look at it @Ben1987 ?

 

[porotikos]

Strange bug is happening to me in the past week.
notvtgat serious but still annoying. I have a big list in foobar, of flac music to play. I startt listening and after some time (around 45 minutes) the track geta stuck. An error apears that states that the file analysis isn't supported. I press stop, then play, and track plays just fine. Anyone faced something similar?
Any ideas how to solve this?

 

[MechEngVic]

Unfortunately pressing the volume-keys on my DAC does not change anything.

Wow, you're having a lot of issues. I haven't had that happen at all in any setting or setup I've used. I'd try reinstalling everything. Make sure you're using the correct firmware.

 

[svenz]

A DAC with a digital output?! I thought these didn't exist except for the £1700 RME ADI-2 Pro. I hope this is a trend we see more on DACs. Many of us have speakers with digital inputs and want to drive it with a single USB interface. This DAC seems perfect for my use case, replacing a whopping 3 separate units I'm currently using (Topping D10 for USB->Coax, Optical->Coax converter for Tele, and my headphone DAC).

 

[svenz]

Now how do I buy this?