never seen so much fanboysm on head-fi .

I'm hooked though :D and close to ordering one chinese dac

If you think of it , the Aria is a quite nice ( not over the top ) dac+amp combo , and it doesn't cost the hell out of your pocket..

it's likely that next month the 2.0 dac ,at 300$, will be the big deal for Zhaolu & C. and also possible it can start competing nicely ( without burning up headphones ) with the 1000$ brothers.

Except that people who have looked at the 2.0 design have suggested that it probably won't sound better than the current one...

never seen so much fanboysm on head-fi .

I'm hooked though :D and close to ordering one chinese dac

They're so cheap that you can just try out all of them and keep the best one.

I have Zhaolu 1.3 coming and I'll try Storm Digital D02/Baby D02 also.

My Zhaolu 1.3 arrived today. \o/

Where's the impressions? Pics? What do you have to compare to it?

Where's the impressions? Pics? What do you have to compare to it?

I don't even have my amp here now so it's hard to give any impressions.

I can say that this thing has caused me a lot of troubles already.

Waiting for D02...

my poor DAC-ah doesn't get any love. c'mon, it's a chinese DAC too you know! but it has no hype machine to push it, oh well. i got my lan-modded box back and it's sounding really great, i have no complaints. i prefer it to the zhaolu's OS-sounding signature - something about that sparkly highs thing doesn't appeal to me, it sounds a bit artificial. oh well, we'll have a DAC shootout in NYC after the nat meet and settle this once and for all!

BTW my fully-burned in DAC-ah came to the Nat Meet, and let's just say the oohing and aahing going on about the GS-1000's bass with flats was with using the DAC-ah as a source. I'd say it's been modded up to a point where I'm completely happy to be done with DACs now, and concentrate on other parts of my system. Maybe my transport - the 0404, even modded, might need a little help since it's living in the deathbox that is my ancient Dell!

But yeah, NOS DACs bring the Bass. Nice and natural!

I used to be really interested in the Dialogue II and DAC-ah. So Jahn, what is an estimate how much the whole thing, upgrades and all, costs?

I used to be really interested in the Dialogue II and DAC-ah. So Jahn, what is an estimate how much the whole thing, upgrades and all, costs?

i can tell you the exactomundo price - 150 for the unit, 250 for the mods! but that might not be reflective of prices for mods elsewhere - it seems everyone does a little something different to their units and costs for parts and labor fluctuate based on that of course. again, i'm not a diy guy, but i think mine had the opamp output stage bypassed, and it's passive now with just caps in the chain - i think that's the big thing. the rest are parts upgrades and such to clean up the power, among other things.

i can tell you the exactomundo price - 150 for the unit, 250 for the mods! but that might not be reflective of prices for mods elsewhere - it seems everyone does a little something different to their units and costs for parts and labor fluctuate based on that of course. again, i'm not a diy guy, but i think mine had the opamp output stage bypassed, and it's passive now with just caps in the chain - i think that's the big thing. the rest are parts upgrades and such to clean up the power, among other things.

I wonder if there will be any comparisons of the DAC-ah with the Storm Digital D02? The D02 has a similar design, 8 TDA1543's in parallel but seemingly uses higher quality parts, has a passive I/V (no opamps simply a resistor much like the mods that are done to the DAC-ah to bypass it's opamp stage) chassis is absolutely to die for and it uses battery or AC power. All this for approx. $412 + shipping (weighs in at 11kg so shipping from China to the US is going to run upwards of $100).

I wonder if there will be any comparisons of the DAC-ah with the Storm Digital D02? The D02 has a similar design, 8 TDA1543's in parallel but seemingly uses higher quality parts, has a passive I/V (no opamps simply a resistor much like the mods that are done to the DAC-ah to bypass it's opamp stage) chassis is absolutely to die for and it uses battery or AC power. All this for approx. $412 + shipping (weighs in at 11kg so shipping from China to the US is going to run upwards of $100).

if one makes its way to NYC someday we'll have a deathmatch!

The Zhaolu 2 is better than the G08. http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2105324&postcount=1

This brings up a question I've had. Yeah, yeah. We all know about the fanboyism. But fanboyism sometimes has its limits. Some of these people actually do think the Zhaolu is the best thing ever. Some of them don't seem to be actual advertisers either. So how did it happen? So strange. Is it actually that good?

Is it possible? Team "source first" is wrong? Perhaps their downstream components are masking any differences?

The Zhaolu 2 is better than the G08. http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2105324&postcount=1

This brings up a question I've had. Yeah, yeah. We all know about the fanboyism. But fanboyism sometimes has its limits. Some of these people actually do think the Zhaolu is the best thing ever. Some of them don't seem to be actual advertisers either. So how did it happen? So strange. Is it actually that good?

There is no free lunch, unless you're a hobo.

The new zhalou appears to be a pretty decent piece of gear from what I can see so far. I do wonder if they bothered to fix the dc offset issues though?

The Zhaolu 2 is better than the G08. http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2105324&postcount=1

This brings up a question I've had. Yeah, yeah. We all know about the fanboyism. But fanboyism sometimes has its limits. Some of these people actually do think the Zhaolu is the best thing ever. Some of them don't seem to be actual advertisers either. So how did it happen? So strange. Is it actually that good?

The question is how much overprice can reach a gear that has a name-brand stamped on , a nice chassis , and sounds decently good .

team chinese gears ( still not have ordered my 2.0 , I'm waiting for the full release )

Well I agree in principle that alot of audio gear is overpriced one of things you do have to keep in mind with someone like Meridian who has a large dealer network is that if they sold direct to consumers you can hack 50% off the price as thats the typical dealer markup. So don't put all the blame on the manufacturer...

it's true .

but -sorry to repaet it ..- that doesn't justify the ourageous xk $ prices of some gears