... And signals and current management on the pcb, what you call isolation/segregation. But is very hard to see it on the photographs and often buried into the internal layers. For I at that game, eyes are way more biased than eyes... and always searching readable reassurance.
I will NEVER use Aliexpress again... They are a rip off.
I bought a WiiM ultra. They had the best price on the Internet. I bought it and paid for it. They said they had shipped it. Then four days later they claimed it was taking long. When I asked them they said the manufacturer had a quality issue and had recalled it.
BS.
So they offered to refund it... but at the same time the item is no longer on sale anywhere.
My take is that they sold me something they didn't have and the price went up in the meantime so they don't want to honor my purchase.
This was my first and only purchase through anyone on Aliexpress.. those people have absolutely no honesty.
I did have a bad feeling about it.... and then their text replies are in some strange format that half the time I can read (it's in Chinese).
What a waste of my time.
The seller is comfortCrestAppliances.
I bought a WiiM ultra. They had the best price on the Internet. I bought it and paid for it. They said they had shipped it. Then four days later they claimed it was taking long. When I asked them they said the manufacturer had a quality issue and had recalled it.
BS.
So they offered to refund it... but at the same time the item is no longer on sale anywhere.
My take is that they sold me something they didn't have and the price went up in the meantime so they don't want to honor my purchase.
This was my first and only purchase through anyone on Aliexpress.. those people have absolutely no honesty.
I did have a bad feeling about it.... and then their text replies are in some strange format that half the time I can read (it's in Chinese).
What a waste of my time.
The seller is comfortCrestAppliances.
They're not sending anything.
It pisses me off to no end, it's not the money, it's their dishonesty.
Honestly, I would sue them in US courts... but they are in some God Forsaken place. NOT WORTH my time.
A terrible experience. And I complained to Paypal as well.
The vendor is ComfortCrest Appliances.
It pisses me off to no end, it's not the money, it's their dishonesty.
Honestly, I would sue them in US courts... but they are in some God Forsaken place. NOT WORTH my time.
A terrible experience. And I complained to Paypal as well.
The vendor is ComfortCrest Appliances.
Last edited:
Yeah, I learned to avoid AliExpress based on comments I read.
But I closed my Amazon account as well. I was not 100% focused during the latest purchase/payment I made on Amazon, and I ended up being enrolled in a Premium (or was it Prime?) account, from which I struggled tremendously to remove the subscription. Not to mention the tricky things they did on top of everything, to enrol me into their music streaming subscription. The most aggressive behaviour, with no consent from the user, I faced in my life. So, no more Amazon - period.
I do believe that you'll manage to soldier on with the unit you already have at home... until they go on sale again. I know they were on sale in Australia a week ago for AU $500 instead of AU $600. But today, they are selling for 600 again.
But I closed my Amazon account as well. I was not 100% focused during the latest purchase/payment I made on Amazon, and I ended up being enrolled in a Premium (or was it Prime?) account, from which I struggled tremendously to remove the subscription. Not to mention the tricky things they did on top of everything, to enrol me into their music streaming subscription. The most aggressive behaviour, with no consent from the user, I faced in my life. So, no more Amazon - period.
I do believe that you'll manage to soldier on with the unit you already have at home... until they go on sale again. I know they were on sale in Australia a week ago for AU $500 instead of AU $600. But today, they are selling for 600 again.
Yes, this Amazon behaviour elsewhere. No choice but to get full price item here from trusted local retailers.
@tonyEE I thought WiiM (Linkplay)is US based company so there may be other US retailers with similar offers. I hope no tariffs coming from China?
For the Ultra and Mini that I opened to have look, the choice of components and layout looks really good. Way better than what was done using Linkplay based modules coming from some Chinese oems before
Surprise surprise, the wifi antenna is curled inside for both Mini and Ultra. Nice and hidden away compared to other streamers… No RF concerns, I suppose?
Last edited:
I came across this digital audio server/streamer the other day. It seems to have all the required ingredients (hardware-wise) to provide pretty solid digital streaming functionality. It runs "HiFi BIOS" & Linux and has a powerful CPU and conventional (silent) cooling. The power supply seems good as well. The segmentation between PCBs seems good; It may even be powerful enough to produce a decent x256 DSD stream.
Of course, the reviews and feedback are scarce, and the software implementation/control/ease of use is still unknown... but hardware-wise, it looks really promising. It might be an option for those who have an eternal DAC of some sort. I believe the price is under $1000 US dollars.
http://www.erji.net/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=2356673&extra=&page=1
Of course, the reviews and feedback are scarce, and the software implementation/control/ease of use is still unknown... but hardware-wise, it looks really promising. It might be an option for those who have an eternal DAC of some sort. I believe the price is under $1000 US dollars.
http://www.erji.net/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=2356673&extra=&page=1
Last edited:
I've had no issues in Amazon and I buy a lot of stuff there.... if someone fails to ship then a refund is done very quickly and the communication is very fast and easy.
I've had Some trouble with two eBay vendors, but again eBay stepped in very quickly and fixed things.
This is the first time I bought through Aliexpress... vendor is in China. WiiM production is in China. Terrible vendor interface and horrendous attitude from vendor. If I've bought it and they got my money they should fullfill the contract... just because their costs change makes no excuse. I don't care about tariffs, that should be included in the price up front.
Worse is that they claimed they had shipped but they had not. Turns out that the Aliexpress terms start if they don't ship.... so they took my money and lied about shipping it. If I hadn't queried what would they have done... sit on it for a month?
Extremely dishonest vendor! I've been shopping on the Internet since the mid 90s and I've never run into such a seller. Never again.
ComfortCrest Appliances
Why Schiit does not enter this market is remarkable. In fact it would be very nice if producers would again produce stuff in the west. Saves a lot of oil and energy, creates jobs too. Prices of Chinese products are also rising so maybe we'll see audio players by western brands. HiFidelio was a nice one in the past. With so many technical developments it has also become more easy to construct one like the DIY RPi contraptions show. For fun I made one with a 3B+ and a touch screen. Peanuts. If a manufacturer designs a very nice housing with good PSU and IO + DAC board it can be competition. The hardware does not pose an extreme challenge anymore it seems.
Never tried Primare NP5 but as it is now it does not seem to be competition for the Chinese devices both with regards to price and features. After having created this kind of devices the west lacks to keep the market fluent by innovation.
Never tried Primare NP5 but as it is now it does not seem to be competition for the Chinese devices both with regards to price and features. After having created this kind of devices the west lacks to keep the market fluent by innovation.
Last edited:
WiiM is a western product, just manufactured in China. Quite innovative as I see it and going for a great price
Is it really? Could not find anything but it seemed a Chinese driven affair to me when looking at various angles.
Despite many thinking in separates/modules i.e. "as many external devices as possible" and me wanting to do the exact opposite by having less boxes and a least equipment/cabling/RF interference as possible I got this link and was pleased to read Mr. Putzey also seems to think all in one systems are the way to go technically:
https://hometheaterhifi.com/30th-an...utm_id=18776575&utm_term=HTHIFI&utm_content=5
Have 2 devices (except power distributor/mains filter) in my audio rack for months and would like to cut that to 1 really. My external DACs all are a tad better but I don't connect them anymore. Less = more. The first audio player with acceptable DAC (AKM please) and internal Merus class D amplifier below 1500 Euro is mine!
A very big present going this way is that one actually uses the equipment to discover new albums. What it once all was about.
Despite many thinking in separates/modules i.e. "as many external devices as possible" and me wanting to do the exact opposite by having less boxes and a least equipment/cabling/RF interference as possible I got this link and was pleased to read Mr. Putzey also seems to think all in one systems are the way to go technically:
https://hometheaterhifi.com/30th-an...utm_id=18776575&utm_term=HTHIFI&utm_content=5
Have 2 devices (except power distributor/mains filter) in my audio rack for months and would like to cut that to 1 really. My external DACs all are a tad better but I don't connect them anymore. Less = more. The first audio player with acceptable DAC (AKM please) and internal Merus class D amplifier below 1500 Euro is mine!
A very big present going this way is that one actually uses the equipment to discover new albums. What it once all was about.
Last edited:
Not sure, just based on HQ location and team behind the creation. I kind of know if dealing with Chinese companies. Ordered Linkplay based modules from this US company Ayrilic but got response from some agent in China selling the actual product and then all the transactions handled in China. Also crappy support
Many US companies move administrative HQ to Europe. Same with some Chinese organizations that want to penetrate the market in various fields. Does not say a thing except that it is cheaper taxwise or for any other financial reason like being a Reed company and such constructions. They don't do so because they like us. Dealt with both and it can be pretty aggressive even selling their shizzle at a loss just to enter the market. Always want to know all your contacts and decision makers etc. Invite to product trainings and pay for everything etc. What European companies fail to do: thinking in the long term.
I keep it simple: when the money goes to China it is a Chinese company.
Anyway the future seems to be all in one audio systems thankfully! Storage companies will go bust but destruction is the mother of creation.
I keep it simple: when the money goes to China it is a Chinese company.
Anyway the future seems to be all in one audio systems thankfully! Storage companies will go bust but destruction is the mother of creation.
Last edited:
I have posted this on a different forum but want to make it clear here as well though in what I believe to be a more succinct version.
I was a very high level military tech in charge of a very critical system that was ancient but far better than the modern replacements in actual performance. When tuned, using multiple scope probes at the same time to see the signal properly then tune it, it worked OK at best, sometimes not well at all.
When tuned by ear it worked incredibly well, so well there was a full scale investigation into our reported results which were by far the best ever recorded.
Rick
I was a very high level military tech in charge of a very critical system that was ancient but far better than the modern replacements in actual performance. When tuned, using multiple scope probes at the same time to see the signal properly then tune it, it worked OK at best, sometimes not well at all.
When tuned by ear it worked incredibly well, so well there was a full scale investigation into our reported results which were by far the best ever recorded.
Rick
Measurements are great for verification of operation to start with but agree tuning or evaluation by ear. I have got AKM DAC here that has two operating modes: measurement and Sound. The latter has more distortions. I am listening with mode set to measurement for now so it will be interesting to see how the sound mode will be like?
I have got speakers here from Pearl and when asked for measurements they said these are irrelevant as all voiced and tuned by extensive listening tests
I have got speakers here from Pearl and when asked for measurements they said these are irrelevant as all voiced and tuned by extensive listening tests
What do you mean by "Storage companies"? Are you talking about Cloud storage?
All in one systems make some sense for some but not for others. In some stuff, like TV chips, SoCs, it makes sense to integrate the parts into a single chip that can go into a single device... but doing so also limits the flexibility of the developer and users.
From an R&D point of view, we see now "CPUs" that combine hardware cores with large FPGAs in tightly coupled silicon. It allows a combination of future proofing, integration and versatility that can not be matched by a dedicated ASIC.
There is a point beyond which tight integration of components removes user flexibility... and I don't believe the entire market, across many such, will support that.
It's like the Apple and Bose models where they deliver products in a closed environment, if you like what they do, fine, otherwise you get something else that may not be as reliable in certain things and that requires a rather higher level of user knowledge but that provides flexibility.
And flexibility is good, otherwise products become obsolete quickly.... I mean, the iPhone is very integrated and people get a new one every year. That's extremely wasteful. If I got an audio system that was all in one box, I'd be looking at changing it on a yearly basis when a new digital standard/variation/license/software upgrade is required!
Let me ask you... how old is your smart phone? Mine is 8 years old now and I'm thinking of "upgrading" to a three year old one ( I want my SD Card ).... Yet, for a while my daughter was changing her phone on a yearly basis....