Recently, I had a hand-held player on my hands, so I took a local machine friend and borrowed a machine to listen to it. This is a very rare domestic Venturecraft SounDroid VALOQ. Venturecraft is from Japan. Like other Japanese brands such as Pioneer, TEAC, etc., portable player products do not seem to formally enter the domestic market. However, there is a Chinese official website. If you want to buy it, you can buy it mainly through purchasing, or some domestic distributors may have agents.
Venturecraft is a brand that has a history of several decades. It's okay in Hong Kong, but its popularity in the mainland is still very low. Before it knew that it had a portable decoding amp, it later came out with a Venturecraft SounDroid VALOQ player. The price was more than RMB 5,000. More retro, no large-size touch screen.
Face thicker, Venturecraft SounDroid VALOQ borrowed over more than a month time, think of online search less than SounDroid VALOQ information, here to share my experience for more than a month.
SounDroid VALOQ's packaging is very simple, it is a black box, light, and it does not look like a 5000 yuan.
The accessory only has one data line and one piece of paper
The first feeling of SounDroid VALOQ in his hand is light and small, and the shape is rather weird, so you don't describe the description. Look at the picture.
Many Hi-Fi players nowadays are all metal shells, and mid- to high-end products are particularly elaborated with a single piece of alloy CNC. The SounDroid VALOQ is in the opposite direction with a plastic case. The advantage of plastic is light, but the feel, forcing, and sturdiness are not as good as for a metal body.
The previously mentioned SounDroid VALOQ's shape is strange, including its key design. The SounDroid VALOQ has very few keys, only one volume knob, one operation wheel, one return key, and one lock key. Another aspect is that the buttons are all focused on the right side of the body. This should be considered for one-handed operation. The right thumb can do all the operations.
The volume knob on the top of the SounDroid VALOQ also serves the purpose of a power switch. There are two headphone jacks, one is a 3.5mm stereo jack and the other is a 2.5mm balanced headphone jack. In addition to the headset can be removed, you can also switch in the settings to become Line Out output, connect the headphone amplifier. Finally, the 3.5mm headphone plug also has a fiber optic digital output that can be connected to the decoder. It should be noted that when playing DSD music, it is converted to PCM before the optical fiber output.
In addition, there is a DSD/PCM indicator on the top, purple when playing DSD music, and red when playing PCM music.
Bottom USB interface
The back of the SounDroid VALOQ is a small cap fixed with 2 screws, which is obviously open. After opening, it is a replaceable operational amplifier chip, the default is 2 MUSES 8820, can be replaced with other op amp chip, change the effect of the op amp, mainly to change the sound style.
The Hi-Fi portable player lags far behind smartphones in terms of system hardware and UI. A few years ago many players were still square-shaped bricks, simple text or rough graphical user interfaces. But these two years have made great progress. In particular, Japanese and Korean brand players have played a leading role. Astel & Kern and Sony have promoted the popularity of Android, large screens, and touch operations. Now many domestic players have begun to adopt them. These designs are no longer silly bricks.
Venturecraf is a Japanese brand, SounDroid VALOQ is also a new machine launched in the past year, it stands to reason that in terms of manipulation should be an advanced machine, but after experiencing the real machine found SounDroid VALOQ is a retro machine, or N player portable N years ago Appearances, simple screens, and textual UIs are easy to use, but they are accustomed to mobile phones and smart system players. The handling experience is obviously not friendly enough.
SounDroid VALOQ uses a 2.4-inch QVGA resolution color screen, poor display quality, color, brightness, viewing angle is not good, but can display the level of content, low-end niche machines, to customize the high-quality The screen costs more.
In addition, you can also see the SounDroid VALOQ system is also very simple, text interface, but you can display the cover picture of the album. Also pay attention to the bottom left and right corners of the screen, SounDroid VALOQ support SRC function, is the original music can be played up.
SounDroid VALOQ supports a wide range of formats, such as mp3, wma, aac, wav, flac, ape and other mainstream lossy and lossless formats can support up to 32bit/384KHz decoding support, DSD is a hard solution support, song classification is Only show DSD music.
However, I would like to quibble about the operation of SounDroid VALOQ, which is not very convenient. Its menu logic is clear, but some details need to be improved, such as returning to the desktop, can not directly return to the list of music played.
In addition, the SounDroid VALOQ's scroll wheel works well, allowing fast forward and backward movements. However, the previous song and the next song are not very respectable, because the number of keys is not enough, so cut songs and earphones with single-button remotes are the same, and the next track is achieved by a quick double-click.
Audio settings are complete, you can set EQ, filter mode, SRC, channel balance, gain and more. The SounDroid VALOQ's EQ is very common. It only provides a few presets and 5 segments of EQ. Compared with the iAudio, specializing in sound effects, the playability is not very high.
In general, although the purchase of such expensive Hi-Fi players is basically enthusiasts, and the most important thing is the sound quality, although the control experience is considered secondary, the control of SounDroid VALOQ should be able to do better.
The DAC chip of the Venturecraft SounDroid VALOQ uses the AKM AK4490. This DAC has been very hot for the last 2 years. The op amp, as shown in the disassembled above, uses two MUSES 8820s. In terms of driving force, the official parameter is that the output power is 120mW+120mW under the condition of 32 ohm impedance load, and the data is a very high index.
To talk about the sound, Venturecraft SounDroid VALOQ gave me the impression that the quality does not seem so high, but the sound sounds warm and soft, it should be a taste-oriented machine. In many cases, the SounDroid VALOQ sounds tepid to me. The timbre is warm, but it is not a low-volume, heavy type. It has a good sound density and a good atmosphere. But to say it sounds soft, it's not right. Because of the heavy bass and symphony, the deep bass dive can also be performed with great momentum, with good transient and dynamic performance as a support. And with the iron triangle MSR7 headphones, Final Audio F7200 earbuds, listen to some Japanese female voice, highlight the violin music, can show the ethereal, bright and without round high frequency. In general, I think that the biggest feature of SounDroid VALOQ is a moderate, natural, dynamic performance, but does not stand out from the personality of the player itself, but varies with the type of music and headphones. If I let a pair of headphones to analogize the sound of SounDroid VALOQ, I think it should be AK T8iE that earplugs.
Many times can not feel SounDroid VALOQ sound quality, or how hard the quality is, but it never makes me feel inadequate, sometimes it is a little flat, sometimes it gives surprises, I think SounDroid VALOQ more It is the appearance of restoring music, although it has a certain degree of softness but it is not excessive.
During the more than a month of cheeky listening, I used SounDroid VALOQ with a lot of earphones and earphones. Here's a brief talk about the listening experience. It also contains my comments on the headphones.
Innovation IE3, compared to the introduction of dual-unit moving iron, fame is very large. Its greatest feature is wearing comfort and sound insulation. However, because the positioning is not high, the sound will not be very comprehensive. With the SounDroid VALOQ, I think the thickness of the voice is slightly increased, the bass is slightly out, and the dynamic iron taste is reduced by one point. Unlike some machines, IE3 will not. It looks a bit thin. With the sound insulation of IE3, it is a good choice to listen to popular songs on the subway bus.
Then it followed me for many years and was the Sennheiser IE80 that I used most. For many years of use I think that IE80 is a bit of a push, and the SounDroid VALOQ has a good driving force. Pushing IE80 is similar to the effect of using an amp for me. The output power of 120mW+120mW is not white, at least for earplugs. Listening to the combination of SounDroid VALOQ and IE80 is also quite good. Listening to the smell of Japanese ACG female voice is unexpectedly good. It is indeed quite late to remove the vocal position.
Final Audio's three very personal earbuds, the tiny unit, and the earbud cavity are very thin, even smaller than the 3.5mm plug. There are three models of F3100, F4100 and F7200.
The F3100 is an introductory model, which is not changeable. At first listening to the SounDroid VALOQ, I feel like a popular weapon. As if I had listened to Final Audio Heaven IV for the first time, although the quality is not so comprehensive, the vocal performance is very beautiful. The F3100 is even worse, and it can be said that it is an enhanced version of the once-bigger Jazz X10.
The F4100 is a mid-range model, with an interchangeable design. The rest of the appearance is similar to that of the F3100. Under the SounDroid VALOQ, it can be clearly felt that the F4100 has improved more than the F3100, mainly because the frequency is more complete and the sound thickness is increased. In terms of style, the F4100 is not quite the same as the F3100 and F7200. It has the strongest underscore, the most sense of low volume, and the closest human voice. It is not particularly obsessed with hard quality and crystal clear female voices. In general, the F4100 should be the best of the three, especially under the polish of SounDroid VALOQ.
The F7200 is the highest of the three models, and the hardest quality is indeed the highest. Under the drive of the SounDroid VALOQ, the dynamic iron taste is still very clear, the definition is very high, there is a crystal clear feeling, and the details are rich. Although the F7200's low frequency does not have F4100 degrees and fullness, it is even stronger.
Unfortunately, the Final Audio F4100 and F7200 are unbalanced versions of the 3.5mm plug, and there is no 2.5mm plug balanced cable, so there is no chance to use the SounDroid VALOQ to experience the effect of balanced headphone output.
The ATH-MSR7, which is also the stranger's wife in the mouth of everyone, has a firm and powerful voice. The high frequency is also very bright. Those who like it will feel that this voice is gorgeous. Those who do not like it will feel that the voice is aggressive, not Very resistant to hearing. Soft SounDroid VALOQ can slightly neutralize some of this feature, so that the MSR7's voice becomes a little softer, with I think it is a very good combination, while retaining the basic characteristics of the MSR7 at the same time, it will not sound so bright, The line will not be so strong, or it will be pretty.
HIFIMAN Edition X is perhaps the most powerful direct-deliverable full-size headset available today, and it was the first headset that SounDroid VALOQ tried after it. SounDroid VALOQ has meticulous gain adjustment, pushing up the volume of Edition X at the highest gain is sufficient, the effect can be said to be unsatisfactory. First of all, SounDroid VALOQ tastes very in line with the earphone's own moist style, so the sound is soft and resistant, but the sense of strength and dynamic performance are slightly Insufficient, that is, although the Edition X hit the main push, but the portable player can not fully play it well.
Although I know that push is not good, but I still like to take HD800 to try it. The thrust of SounDroid VALOQ is smaller than that of some domestic brands, so pushing HD800 sounds relatively weak and the sound is relatively thin. Without the thickness and moistness of SounDroid VALOQ itself, it is impossible to get HD800 this devil.
Use Venturecraft SounDroid VALOQ switch to LO, connect the headphone amplifier to drive HD800 will be much better, SounDroid VALOQ itself sounds good, with HD800 is more suitable for listening to popular songs, but the specific performance also depends on the amp. In terms of level, I think SounDroid VALOQ is better than my antique entry decoder DACMagic Plus, which also proves that SounDroid VALOQ has a certain strength. In fact, the decoding power of the current high-end HiFi players is not only a parameter indicator, but also an entry-level desktop decoder that can exceed the sound quality of N years ago. This is the progress of science and technology.
To a slot, Venturecraft SounDroid VALOQ sound quality and thrust performance is good, but it also consumes power, built-in 3000mAh lithium battery, but life is only about 7 hours, lower than most portable players in the market. In addition, the charging of the SounDroid VALOQ also takes a long time. So sometimes I would like to hear, but found that there is no electricity, to charge for a long time to boot.
In summary, the advantages and disadvantages of Venturecraft SounDroid VALOQ are obvious. It seems to have only one advantage: the sound quality is excellent, very nice, and there are really not many portable players that can make such a gentle tuning. But the shortcomings are also very obvious, such as screen, operation, battery or something, the price of 5K+ is not cheap,
Finally, a concise summary:
1, plastic body, the texture is not as good as metal, but wins lighter, better portability
2, the general screen effect, the system interface is simple, operation and use experience is not good
3, opamp can be replaced, can change the sound style
4. Adopt AK4490 DAC chip, support DSD decoding, support 2.5mm balanced headphone output, support LO and fiber output
5, excellent sound quality, beautiful sound, soft and listenable, strong driving force, with a high degree of collocation with different types of headphones
6, power consumption, battery life is short
7, the price of 5K +, the domestic is relatively easy to buy
Original Topics Call for Papers: The First Rewards of the Sun Rewards - The first time for Ta on the 12.30th update of 2015: Since we first got on the line, we got a lot of support from our valued friends, but because the threshold of the first drying is higher, Less submission friends did not add the first label of the sun, in order to feel... 19210643185 original small value
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