SONCOZ SGD1 Audio DAC Review

[Rrobot]

Fuse?
I have a 220v unit and I’m from the UK. I had a friend drop by who measured my supply @ 243v last week which means it can run hot or worse depending upon your geographical location in the UK.
If it had 230v transformers it simply wouldn’t be a problem would it?

They have a responsibility to supply goods that are safe in the country they export them to, to hint otherwise is dangerous and seriously misguided.

Are they really hinting that it's fine? It's a 220v unit and clearly labelled as such at the end of the day. I think we can conclude that it's marginal in the UK and probably not ok where I live.

What impressed me tho was that they readily offered info about the unit's transformers to a user. Most companies wouldn't.

 

[Anthony T]

Are they really hinting that it's fine? It's a 220v unit and clearly labelled as such at the end of the day. I think we can conclude that it's marginal in the UK and probably not ok where I live.

What impressed me tho was that they readily offered info about the unit's transformers to a user. Most companies wouldn't.

The comment re: hinting was towards members replies, I have not contacted Soncoz as my unit has not misbehaved.
My unit has run warm to hot so I will no longer use it as it runs at the borderline of what is considered safe in UK.

It's a 220v unit and clearly labelled as such at the end of the day.

Which begs the question, why were they sent to 230v region at all?
This is back to the days of cheap 220v amplifiers exported from China 15-20years ago when you purchased full well knowing that extra endeavour would be required to make safe the units as they tended to, believe it or not explode and burst into flames. That was a long time ago but here we are

 

[hyperknot]

I guess all of Europe is at 240V these days, yet we haven't heard a single report of anything going wrong. Also think about, 30 year old audio equipments are used every day in many homes, all of them running on 240V since a few years and nothing happened to them.

 

[RandomEar]

I guess all of Europe is at 240V these days, yet we haven't heard a single report of anything going wrong. Also think about, 30 year old audio equipments are used every day in many homes, all of them running on 240V since a few years and nothing happened to them.

All of Europe, Russia, Australia and most of asia are on 230 V. Tolerance is 10% pretty much everywhere. Technically, running a 220 V device in a 240 V country with a stable, well regulated grid should be fine, because the device has to be designed to handle up to 244 V anyway. It may be running hotter than "normal", though and voltage spikes can become problematic.

 

[hyperknot]

Are you in Europe? Did you measure the your voltage recently? They are 240V where I live (Hungary), they've increased the voltage slowly from 230V to 240V over the last 10 years. Wikipedia specifies 230V for the UK even though it's 240V as we see in this topic.

 

[RandomEar]

Are you in Europe? Did you measure the your voltage recently? They are 240V where I live (Hungary), they've increased the voltage slowly from 230V to 240V over the last 10 years. Wikipedia specifies 230V for the UK even though it's 240V as we see in this topic.

Yes. The no-load voltage is typically 230-235 V, where I live. Your 240 V are within spec, too.

 

[Labjr]

IMO, shouldn't need to discuss line voltage and swapping transformers. It's not a DIY product or kit.

 

[Tim F]

Hey all, I’ve replaced the transformers in my Soncoz. I bought second hand (no support) so did this myself. I live in the UK. My Dac out of the blue started smoking badly and I immediately turned it off. I believe this is a fire risk. If you are in the Uk I don’t recommend leaving it on unattended.

Cheers Tim

 

[Purité Audio]

Shame you never sent this ( supposedly faulty ) unit to me despite numerous requests,
Keith

 

[Tim F]

I did contact you but didn‘t hear back Keith, so I sorted it myself.

 

[Purité Audio]

I wrote several times and you replied, I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t have taken up my offer even though you didn’t purchase the unit from me.
If the unit was faulty, which I sincerely doubt the manufacturers would need to look at it.
There have been zero issues with any of the Soncoz units we retailed.
Keith

 

[Tim F]

Because I sent you a message where people were being rude to you saying I didn’t expect you to fix it due to pressure from others and didn’t hear back. I then replaced the transformers myself. Simple misunderstanding.

 

[Anthony T]

Because I sent you a message where people were being rude to you saying I didn’t expect you to fix it due to pressure from others and didn’t hear back. I then replaced the transformers myself. Simple misunderstanding.

Do you have a picture of the replacement transformers in situ or a picture of the damaged transformers (if there’s visual damage) that occurred to your unit?
It seems both units that have been damaged are due to transformers and both have been secondhand units? Could leaving it on continuously for 1-2 years result in damaged transformers?

I’m still using a SGD1 because I literally tried to stress it to death with extended use and lack of ventilation and couldn’t trip it up, it does get warm to mildly hot without ventilation but that’s to be expected from most components in restricted areas ime.

My annoyance with the 220v issue has subsided tbh, the performance of the DAC and the choice of inputs and outputs is really quite outstanding for the price so when I was considering upgrading from the Soncoz the only DAC that was worth considering for my use case was the Gustard X16 or for a premium the X18 (I don’t use Topping) and they’re both 220v units and I haven’t heard of issues with those similar to the reported issues with Soncoz SGD1.

 

[kawaiipootaeto]

Hey all! My SGD1 has been running fine since I bought it in August 2020 from AliExpress. Unfortunately, I'm unable to turn it on as of today. I've tried swapping cables and power points. I live in Singapore - 230v power. Would love to hear any recommendations on what to try next before I have to resort to sending it in for warranty.

 

[exarva1]

Hello guys. My SGD-1 finally arriving back after service. Fully warranty covered, good customer service, good dealers. Just have some issue with tax & customs (that's on china & indonesia gov).

Still sounding great, just update the firmware when it arrived.
But the ASIO driver wont recognize the device, the WASAPI did just fine.
Tried using ASIO4ALL, there's jitter and all kind of distortion.

Tried to update my pc driver but nothing changes
Any of u guys having the same problem?

EDIT : I do the power cycle and it's updating again. I guess the last update haven't completed yet.
SO i reset the device (6 sec button hold) and update the device again.
Now it's my 4th update (yet when its turn on its always go to APOD filter, not a good sign of latest firmware as discussed in this thread before)

is it normal for SGD1 to updating multiple times (like up one version every update cycle) instead of once to the latest version?

 

[EMMA]

Hello guys. My SGD-1 finally arriving back after service. Fully warranty covered, good customer service, good dealers. Just have some issue with tax & customs (that's on china & indonesia gov).

Still sounding great, just update the firmware when it arrived.
But the ASIO driver wont recognize the device, the WASAPI did just fine.
Tried using ASIO4ALL, there's jitter and all kind of distortion.

Tried to update my pc driver but nothing changes
Any of u guys having the same problem?

EDIT : I do the power cycle and it's updating again. I guess the last update haven't completed yet.
SO i reset the device (6 sec button hold) and update the device again.
Now it's my 4th update (yet when its turn on its always go to APOD filter, not a good sign of latest firmware as discussed in this thread before)

is it normal for SGD1 to updating multiple times (like up one version every update cycle) instead of once to the latest version?

Our driver panel doesn't seem to be the same. Is there a conflict with other drivers?
By the way, SGD1's system is not updated long time, so your unit won't be updated again.

 

[exarva1]

View attachment 242336
Our driver panel doesn't seem to be the same. Is there a conflict with other drivers?
By the way, SGD1's system is not updated long time, so your unit won't be updated again.

The driver panel is the same; it just don't detect any soncoz device, so there are fewer tabs there. The bottom black bar is the window's volume control.

After searching furthermore on windows device manager, I see the driver installed are generic windows drivers. I already tried manually installing the "SONCOZUsbAudio.sys" and "SONCOZUsbAudioks.sys". But windows said "The driver stopped working"

About the firmware. As ben said, it's supposed to remember the last filter used. Mine doesn't. So i guess my firmware is not the lastest 1.0.1.9
And yes, I already tried every updating way as on the website (OTA, personal hotspot, the ESPTouch)

 

[loprent1]

Thank you for selecting the SONCOZ DAC product.


This is very good advice, and we will make plans to test this remote.

Hey Ben1987, hope you're well I've been holding out hope for Apple Remote support to control the volume. Any word on how testing went with it? Or how would someone even add this support? If you could explain how someone could build it I might be able to ask a friend to help

 

[loprent1]

Hey Ben1987, hope you're well I've been holding out hope for Apple Remote support to control the volume. Any word on how testing went with it? Or how would someone even add this support? If you could explain how someone could build it I might be able to ask a friend to help

Ok, so major breakthrough. This ALREADY works. Simply get an Apple TV, go to Remotes and Devices, Volume Control and then Learn New Device Use your Soncoz remote to tune it and then you can through it away!

 

[MichaelStipe]

The driver panel is the same; it just don't detect any soncoz device, so there are fewer tabs there. The bottom black bar is the window's volume control.

After searching furthermore on windows device manager, I see the driver installed are generic windows drivers. I already tried manually installing the "SONCOZUsbAudio.sys" and "SONCOZUsbAudioks.sys". But windows said "The driver stopped working"

About the firmware. As ben said, it's supposed to remember the last filter used. Mine doesn't. So i guess my firmware is not the lastest 1.0.1.9
And yes, I already tried every updating way as on the website (OTA, personal hotspot, the ESPTouch)

Probably, by now , you will have already solved it, anyway : have you tried to install the Thesycon drivers ?
They are those recommended by the manufacturer; you can find them on this page : https://www.soncoz.com/product-item-2.html (clicking on the tab "Material" , after the pdf files of the manuals).