SONCOZ SGD1 Audio DAC Review

[vole-boy]

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....

I don't know if I got lucky, but I only paid £22 for import duty...no other customs charge.

 

[Veri]

I don't know if I got lucky, but I only paid £22 for import duty...no other customs charge.

That's not too bad.

 

[vole-boy]

That's not too bad.

I agree! We'll see if a huge VAT bill arrives next week...

 

[Ben1987]

I'm kind of now more on the fence about keeping the gray if it is something of a collectors item over the black, haha. Would that also mean this is one of the units that was soldered by hand to fix the ESS hump? The serial number on the box said this was 90 if that makes any difference.

There are very few grey machines at present, the number less than 100 will be grey, 100 to 500 will be black, the new batch of grey and silver until the end of July.

 

[porotikos]

I don't know if I got lucky, but I only paid £22 for import duty...no other customs charge.

it depends on each countries rules. in greece we will have to pay at least, 15 euros + 24% of the total cost. and since the item is above 150% also, an 8% more. so 32% of the price. too much....

 

[JasonW]

Ben,

is there a way to disable the WIFI function ?

 

[Ben1987]

Ben,is there a way to disable the WIFI function ?

Every time the system loses power, the WiFi function will turn off automatically within 1 minute after rebooting.

 

[JasonW]

Every time the system loses power, the WiFi function will turn off automatically within 1 minute after rebooting.

When does it get turned on ? During software updates only ?

 

[Ben1987]

When does it get turned on ? During software updates only ?

WiFi will be turned on within one minute after each power failure and when manual Settings enter network configuration mode, and it will be turned off the rest of the time.

 

[vole-boy]

it depends on each countries rules. in greece we will have to pay at least, 15 euros + 24% of the total cost. and since the item is above 150% also, an 8% more. so 32% of the price. too much....

We theoretically get charged 20% on import too in addition to duty the £22 I paid) - which would be a lot...but these rules aren't consistently applied, so you can get lucky.

 

[Veri]

We theoretically get charged 20% on import too in addition to duty the £22 I paid) - which would be a lot...but these rules aren't consistently applied, so you can get lucky.

Here in Belgium i've not had any import duties since Covid too few resources I assume.

 

[vole-boy]

Here in Belgium i've not had any import duties since Covid too few resources

Here in Belgium i've not had any import duties since Covid too few resources I assume.

Ohhh...yes, that's probably it. A fringe Covid benefit for the audio community

 

[hteavnafets]

I received my SGD-1 today. it is powered up but nothing more. Tonight i will make the firmware upgrade and some tests via roon. I will come back to you after my first tests.

I'm really excited. It looks great so hopefully it will also sound so. Actually my DAC is the IFI iMicroiDSD so i will compare it with this one.

 

[hteavnafets]

I have got a question. In roon I see the SONCOZ SGD1 as a ASIO and also as WASAPI, which one should be used? I installed everything like in the SGD1 FIRMWARE UPGRADE manual.

Or are both related to the THESYCON USB Driver?

 

[CrimeInPartner]

@Ben1987 , how do I confirm the firmware what firmware I am running, or if the OTA upgrade succeeded. I ask because I am trying to get the DSD working as one of the previous posters. I already did the XCOM update and installed the Soncoz USB driver and used the Foobar settings you posted. I am still showing that DSD files are running in PCM mode according to the Soncoz control panel. I remember just recently though that I put the SGD1 in my IoT network and my firewall may have been blocking outgoing connections. So I checked the logs and saw failed outgoing connections on port 1883 which I allowed. So now, rebooting the SGD1 I don't see anymore outgoing failures on my firewall, but DSD files are still going into PCM mode. Which takes me back to, how can I confirm that I am running the latest firmware?

This may already exist somewhere and I just don't know where to look, but I think there would be some value in having a changelog somewhere which the newest drivers/firmware are available on the site, what they address, and those firmware revisions should align with the control panel so it can be easy to confirm whether you are on the latest and greatest or not. Even better, if there's a way to check for updates/update the SGD1 from within the Soncoz control panel itself in lieu of using the OTA firmware update option, that would be even better.

 

[nspp]

... DSD files are still going into PCM mode. Which takes me back to, how can I confirm that I am running the latest firmware?

@Ben1987 Same question here how to check
A: We are playing in DSD mode visually
B: Check firmware version/revision on the device and available on soncoz servers.

After some test I'm still very pleased with this DAC, using log on my picoplayer or daphile i'm sending USB Native DSD over u32be it seems that even DSD1024 is going through...
-- Before update i was not able to listen DSD from USB either in DOP or Native. Now something happened as i'm able to send DSD and have sound.

@CrimeInPartner how do you know you are playing DSD in PCM mode ?

 

[CrimeInPartner]

@Ben1987 Same question here how to check
A: We are playing in DSD mode visually
B: Check firmware version/revision on the device and available on soncoz servers.

After some test I'm still very pleased with this DAC, using log on my picoplayer or daphile i'm sending USB Native DSD over u32be it seems that even DSD1024 is going through...
-- Before update i was not able to listen DSD from USB either in DOP or Native. Now something happened as i'm able to send DSD and have sound.

@CrimeInPartner how do you know you are playing DSD in PCM mode ?

In one of the screenshots Ben provided on the XMOS update document a few pages back, the Soncoz USB control panel shows on the buffer tab, the ASIO status will say DSD mode instead of PCM mode. I can't get it to say DSD mode for the life of me. Like I said, I did the XMOS update and have the Soncoz driver installed, so the next thing I need to confirm is I am running the correct firmware revision on the DAC itself. I just don't know how to actually do that.

 

[nspp]

In one of the screenshots Ben provided on the XCOM update, the Soncoz USB control panel shows on the buffer tab, the ASIO status will say DSD mode instead of PCM mode. I can't get it to say DSD mode for the life of me. Like I said, I did the XCOM update and have the Soncoz driver installed, so the next thing I need to confirm is I am running the correct firmware revision on the DAC itself. I just don't know how to actually do that.

If you have SGD1 as device with Thesycon driver normally it is up to your player to send DSD format DOP or Native using ASIO. I do not use windows anymore to play quality music but you have plenty of information on Native DSD for foobar. Another way to go for testing would be to use a live install of linux player like daphile...
If you have no sound that mean that you have previous firmware..

 

[jmvdv]

Hi! New here, bought the SGD1 because of this thread and love this forum!

@Ben1987 i found out that Bluetooth is always enabled, even when another input in chosen. Don’t like the idea that my neighbors can always connect to my SGD1. Is it possible that bluetooth is only enabled when selected?

 

[Ben1987]

Is it possible that bluetooth is only enabled when selected?

This is a bit of an awkward question, but we designed it so that the user can automatically connect to SGD1 when they leave and come back.
SGD1's bluetooth scans the surrounding connected devices at intervals to ensure they are connected automatically.Bluetooth cannot be turned off at present.