VOVOFOX HiFi Lossless Music Player A200 FPGA Decoding

[Lyricman]

I currently have a Yamaha Digital streamer NP-S303 using USB drive for playing my music into SMSL S-6 which is great. However the playing controls of Yamaha are somewhat limited so have started looking round for another digital player at the £200 mark.
I found this on AliExpress and it uses FPGA decoding which is new to me but I am sure you super Techies know all about it and whether this is new technology to go for.

Any advice would be welcome.

VOVOFOX HiFi Lossless Music Player A200 FPGA Decoding Hi-Res Audio Network Player HiFi Streamers Desktop Digital Audio Player
There is also a AP 05S which is £50 more not sure of difference.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009723853334.html

 

[staticV3]

Chord has been doin FPGA decoding for years, you can check Amir's reviews for the results.

It is basically Build-your-own-DAC, so the resulting fidelity depends entirely on the competence of the engineer.

If I don't trust the engineer, and especially if I don't have measurements of the final product, then I'd vastly prefer another product based on established DAC technology from ESS or AKM, as there's a smaller chance to mess things up.

The engineer just has to follow their implementation instructions, perform a few benchmarks to make sure that the DAC performs ok, and that's it. No reverse-engineering decades of advancements in D->A technology.

 

[Lyricman]

Thanks So wait for a a reputable review of the product before buying.

 

[Donuts123]

The DAC in that product is "double 9038Q2M decoding chip", so ESS.

 

[Lyricman]

They also do an upmarket mode; AP05S which is £260.
Utilizing FPGA+ARM co-design, the FPGA specializes in digital audio processing, ensuring ultra-low distortion; the ARM handles system management and network interaction.
Does sound good, I am struggling to find a streamer at this price that has a display capable of showing Album art, VU Meters etc. It also allows for installation of an internal M.2 2280 SSD hard to store all your music files.

 

[voodooless]

Chord has been doin FPGA decoding for years, you can check Amir's reviews for the results.

I think this thing is different in that it actually does the format decompression in FPGA vs on the ARM CPU (so FLAC, MP3, etc..) . Either that, or they use it for some upsampling. The description is vague enough to fit either…

It’s rather pointless, I guess anything goes nowadays to make a product seem unique.

Also: read the reviews on AliExpress: it’s a horrible product!

 

[zeropoint]

I asked Vovofox customer services for a photo of the innards, but weeks later have yet to receive a reply, however found this on the internet:

 

[Lyricman]

It is irrelevant now as I purchased the Wiim Ultra in the Black Friday sale of Amazon.com for £200 !!! + 13 for shipping. Oh and £40 import duty but still a bargain.
What a superb piece of kit and fantastic App to control everything including FF and REV. It connects to all my network devices Laptop, Alexa speakers, Nas drive etc. and plays all my lossless files from an external HD plugged in to the USB. The only slight downside is there are no balanced outputs for my amp so have to use RCA.
Anybody want to buy an SMSL D-6S

 

[Dinthurt]

Vovofox AP-05S Internal images.
Very well made metal enclosure, sounds fantastic, Lots of headphone output,
Had a few lockups after adding 10+ custom Internet Radio Station URLs,
No lockups with file playback and great gapless (flac),
The VU display option don;t seem to be in anyway connected to whats playing.
You can download and install (wifi) 6 or so older firmware versions, they just added a new one also.

 

[zeropoint]

Does this model run the same SYOS (2.0?) as the A200? Any significant new features added in the latest update? Is there somewhere where they log update changes?

The main PCB looks very similar to the A200, except for the toroidal trafo, different SMPS, and populated headphone amp circuitry.