Soncoz LA-QXD1 Balanced DAC Review

[Stephen]

I've bought one on July.
Never had a problem.

Bought two of them, they work perfectly.

 

[polestarBoi]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone else hears a loud click coming from the DAC itself when plugging/unplugging from the mains. My unit seems to work perfectly fine but this being my first dac that needs wall power I wasn't sure if its normal

 

[Techno Peasant]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone else hears a loud click coming from the DAC itself when plugging/unplugging from the mains. My unit seems to work perfectly fine but this being my first dac that needs wall power I wasn't sure if its normal

Yup, this happens with mine too. Most likely just a relay switching on.

 

[polestarBoi]

that's good to know then ty

 

[waterguillaume]

I'm hesitating between this dac and the topping d50's.... i think the topping has dual ess chip, is that an improvement versus the qxd1 ?

 

[MechEngVic]

I really want this DAC . Since the one I ordered last week died almost immediately, I'm hesitant to order another one. Is this just a defective part that happens to fail in some percentage of the DACs? Did I just get unlucky? Please let us know! @Ben1987 any insight is appreciated.

I've had two since early June, both have worked without issue.

 

[volkl77n]

@Ben1987
A question and suggestion.
Have you considered a "QXD2" with 4.4mm Pentaconn connector for the balanced out along with, or instead of, the XLR outputs or the Coax out?
There seems to be a move towards that connector showing up in some newer products, and this would future proof your design.

 

[somebodyelse]

I've only seen the Pentaconn used for headphone outputs. Who's using it for balanced line outs?

 

[Krdo]

I've only seen the Pentaconn used for headphone outputs. Who's using it for balanced line outs?

iFi Zen DAC uses it. But I don't know another manufacturer.

 

[foguy_lucky]

Hello, it's my first message, firstly thank you Amir and others for greats reviews.
I would like to talk about a problem on my new dac soncoz la-qxd1.

With coax plugin, when I turn on/off the light or some electrical appliance (like dryer), the sound often cuts half of a second and come back.
I tried with 6 usb alimentations (5v 1a, 5v 3a, 5v 2,4a 55w pa t15 aukey), with 2 CD players, nothing helps. My electrical installation is 3 years old, with earth line and legrand new electrical panel, I'm in France on 220v.

With toslink or usb link, I have no problem ! Is there anyone here who uses it with coax ?

 

[kukocz]

Hello, it's my first message, firstly thank you Amir and others for greats reviews.
I would like to talk about a problem on my new dac soncoz la-qxd1.

With coax plugin, when I turn on/off the light or some electrical appliance (like dryer), the sound often cuts half of a second and come back.
I tried with 6 usb alimentations (5v 1a, 5v 3a, 5v 2,4a 55w pa t15 aukey), with 2 CD players, nothing helps. My electrical installation is 3 years old, with earth line and legrand new electrical panel, I'm in France on 220v.

With toslink or usb link, I have no problem ! Is there anyone here who uses it with coax ?

Are you sure it's a DAC problem not source related? Have you tried with different spdif sources?

 

[foguy_lucky]

Are you sure it's a DAC problem not source related? Have you tried with different spdif sources?

Yes, with 2 CD players. Tonigh I can try these CD players with another dac on spdif in...

 

[Stephen]

Hello, it's my first message, firstly thank you Amir and others for greats reviews.
I would like to talk about a problem on my new dac soncoz la-qxd1.

With coax plugin, when I turn on/off the light or some electrical appliance (like dryer), the sound often cuts half of a second and come back.
I tried with 6 usb alimentations (5v 1a, 5v 3a, 5v 2,4a 55w pa t15 aukey), with 2 CD players, nothing helps. My electrical installation is 3 years old, with earth line and legrand new electrical panel, I'm in France on 220v.

With toslink or usb link, I have no problem ! Is there anyone here who uses it with coax ?

Yes I have the exactly same problem. I have to use optical input...

 

[volkl77n]

I've only seen the Pentaconn used for headphone outputs. Who's using it for balanced line outs?

As @Krdo said, iFi has several products using Pentaconn for balanced in/out and it's likely more companies will follow.

If you think about it, it makes sense.
XLR is 70 year old tech. It's built for hard use and it's great for studio and stage where things are always changing. But for small devices intened for home/desktop use, it's bulky, and somewhat clunky. Just my $0.02.

 

[MattG]

With toslink or usb link, I have no problem ! Is there anyone here who uses it with coax?

If you search up a bit for my posts in this thread, you'll see where I reported a similar problem. When I used coax, the audio would cut in and out, as though it was a bad connection. I tried different cables, no improvement. This was with an iFi 5v 2.5a PSU. I've used the same coax into a Topping D70 and Topping DX30 Pro without issue. The iFi PSU powered other devices without issue.

I thought perhaps there was a marginal solder joint on the coax connector that maybe got worse in shipping. As I purchased mine through Amazon, it was easy to request a replacement. Unfortunately, the replacement unit had the same problem. I let the replacement unit play for a while, just to see if maybe time would make the problem go away. I left the room and came back and hour or two later, and the unit was completely malfunctioning. Even USB wouldn't work correctly. Not sure what was wrong, but I gave up at that point.

 

[foguy_lucky]

If you search up a bit for my posts in this thread, you'll see where I reported a similar problem. When I used coax, the audio would cut in and out, as though it was a bad connection. I tried different cables, no improvement. This was with an iFi 5v 2.5a PSU. I've used the same coax into a Topping D70 and Topping DX30 Pro without issue. The iFi PSU powered other devices without issue.

I thought perhaps there was a marginal solder joint on the coax connector that maybe got worse in shipping. As I purchased mine through Amazon, it was easy to request a replacement. Unfortunately, the replacement unit had the same problem. I let the replacement unit play for a while, just to see if maybe time would make the problem go away. I left the room and came back and hour or two later, and the unit was completely malfunctioning. Even USB wouldn't work correctly. Not sure what was wrong, but I gave up at that point.

ok, I though your problem was related to a solder problem... maybe there are more disturbances on your electrical network, that would explain why your dac almost don't work. Did you try with a powerbank ? I don't have one powerful enough to test...

Maybe we should alert Amir or someone to change the recommandation on this dac...

 

[somebodyelse]

As @Krdo said, iFi has several products using Pentaconn for balanced in/out and it's likely more companies will follow.

If you think about it, it makes sense.
XLR is 70 year old tech. It's built for hard use and it's great for studio and stage where things are always changing. But for small devices intened for home/desktop use, it's bulky, and somewhat clunky. Just my $0.02.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing, just that I've not seen it used that way. TRS is also heavily used for balanced connections in pro audio after all. A single lead giving a balanced stereo interconnect has a lot to commend it. Using it for more than headphones might cause some confusion, but no more than using RCAs for analog audio, spdif and video signals, or the assorted mono/stereo/balanced 1/4" and 1/8" jack uses.

 

[MechEngVic]

Hello, it's my first message, firstly thank you Amir and others for greats reviews.
I would like to talk about a problem on my new dac soncoz la-qxd1.

With coax plugin, when I turn on/off the light or some electrical appliance (like dryer), the sound often cuts half of a second and come back.
I tried with 6 usb alimentations (5v 1a, 5v 3a, 5v 2,4a 55w pa t15 aukey), with 2 CD players, nothing helps. My electrical installation is 3 years old, with earth line and legrand new electrical panel, I'm in France on 220v.

With toslink or usb link, I have no problem ! Is there anyone here who uses it with coax ?

Have you tried using different coax cables?

 

[foguy_lucky]

Have you tried using different coax cables?

yes, two good shielded cables

 

[foguy_lucky]

Hello, it's my first message, firstly thank you Amir and others for greats reviews.
I would like to talk about a problem on my new dac soncoz la-qxd1.

With coax plugin, when I turn on/off the light or some electrical appliance (like dryer), the sound often cuts half of a second and come back.
I tried with 6 usb alimentations (5v 1a, 5v 3a, 5v 2,4a 55w pa t15 aukey), with 2 CD players, nothing helps. My electrical installation is 3 years old, with earth line and legrand new electrical panel, I'm in France on 220v.

With toslink or usb link, I have no problem ! Is there anyone here who uses it with coax ?

Same problem when the dac is plug on a power bank ! :O