Once firmly, Chinese companies have occupied the market of high-quality players for connoisseurs of high-quality sound. Very rarely break through single swallows from Korea and very rarely - the Japanese (with the exception, of course, Sony). Therefore, every product of companies from the country of the rising sun is just worth its weight in gold, and especially if it's the eminent Venture Craft. In general, without superfluous words meet - Soundroid VALOQ.
Developers of Venture Craft have long established themselves as people who know how to make sound. Their line of portable amplifiers is distinguished not only by the relatively high cost, but also by the corresponding price level of sound. To the development of the player in the company came up on a grand scale. As the DAC, this year's hit is used - the AK4490, but in this player it was supplemented with the AK4137, able to trace the signal on the go, and the administration of the upsampling was left to the user, having made the appropriate options in the menu. The amplifier has a fully balanced circuit and uses a bunch of MUSES8820 and AD8397, while the MUSES8820 can be changed to get a different sound handwriting. The other elements, Vishay Merufu resistors, Rubycon PML film capacitors did not fail. Unusual made and control, built around two analog "krutilok." All this was packed in a compact enough for its filling.
Of course, the player could not be very cheap, so , but for the Japanese product it is, in general, almost the budget price.
Specifications
- DAC: AK4490
- Resampling: AK4137
- Amplifier: balanced, MUSES8820 in the role of a preamplifier (interchangeable) + AD8397
- Output Power: 2 × 125 mW @ 32Ω
- Signal to noise ratio: 110 dB
- Total harmonic distortion + noise: <0.001% (PCM 44.1 kHz / 24 bit, @ 1 kHz without load)
- Frequency range: 10 Hz to 100 kHz
- Linear output: 2 Vrms
- Supported resolution: up to 384 kHz / 32 bit, DSD256
- Supported formats: WAV, AIFF, MP3, AAC, ALAC, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, DSDIFF, DSF
- Built-in Memory: 6 GB
- External memory: MicroSD up to 2 TB
- Input: MicroUSB 2.0
- Output: combined 3.5 mm TRS (headphone, line, optical), 2.5 mm TRRS balanced
- Screen: 2.4 ", TFT, 320 × 240
- Battery: 3000 mAh, 3.7V
- Operating time on one charge: about 7 hours (with MUSES8820)
- Charging time: about 6 hours
- Dimensions: 70 mm × 107 mm × 20 mm
- Weight: 160g
Packing and delivery kit
The box of the player brings to mind the idea that minimalism has its own charm and only the people of Japan really understand this point. The player is sold in a very compact cardboard box with a "dust jacket", on which from a variety there is only a TTX on the back side. The box opens as a book, giving access to the player itself and carefully stored in a separate compartment MicroUSB-cable. On this, in fact, the delivery kit ends, tuning in a philosophical way and making me write hokk like:
Weeping, O beautiful geisha,
Your samurai's all salary
Spent on two replaceable chips
Neither you cheholchikov, no film on the screen, although without the latter can obviously do without. The cover, by the way, is official to the player, moreover, it is made by VanNuys themselves, and in the best traditions of the latter: Velcro, carabiners, in general - beauty. The frustration is that this case will have to be , but the cover is really cool.
Design and management
As for the look and ergonomics, with VALOQ I went the full path from hatred to love in length about 3 weeks. At first glance the player seemed uncomfortable and unattractive, but as I used it, I realized that I was mistaken on both points. The case of VALOQ is made of high quality plastic with an unusual texture, at first it seems that it is not as cool as aluminum, but in fact the plastic made it easier to make the player, while retaining the necessary strength. In addition, during use came the understanding that this plastic is very pleasant to the touch. However, VALOQ has minor flaws in the assembly: the wheel of navigation and the button are slightly dangling and tumbling, if you shake the player, and the volume control has a slight horizontal backlash (however, very unobtrusive). In addition, the appearance of the player slightly spoils the chrome plated plastic inserts on the right side, but call it increasingly big problems - it will be a strong exaggeration and thickening of colors. Except for this, VALOQ is assembled well and does not cause any complaints.
The controls are located exclusively on two faces, top and side. On the top are two output jacks, 3.5 mm for headphones, combined with a coaxial and 2.5 mm balanced (the player uses a fully balanced gain scheme). There is also a multi-color LED indicator (it changes color when charging or when playing high-resolution files and DSD). On the right side there is a horizontal volume control wheel, combined with a power switch. The wheel is very convenient, with the "right" tight stroke, it allows you to easily set the desired level, though the volume here grows exponentially, so at first it will be quiet for a long time, and then the volume will quickly increase. Fortunately, the tight wheel travel allows, despite this, it is flexible enough to choose the necessary volume. Another disadvantage of the solution applied is the shutdown timer, if the player turns off after a specified idle time, in order to turn it back on, it will be necessary to unscrew the wheel to the minimum and then spin back, including. But to this "krutilke" loudness quickly enough you get used to it and you even begin to enjoy using it.
The right panel with chrome insert contains control elements, there are exactly three of them, except for the memory card slot (the player has 6 GB of its flash, but, of course, this is not enough). At the very top is a wheel with the ability to press, most of the functions are assigned to it: it serves for navigating through menus and rewinding tracks, pressing serves to select a submenu and play / pause. Double tapping on the playback screen switches to the next track, triple - to the previous one. I can already imagine the wave of your indignation, if you need to, return, for example, from 10 tracks to the second ... Fortunately, the developers thought about this, their solution is hidden in the context menu caused by a long click on the wheel on the playback screen. In this menu are the settings for the upsampling, the item for adding the track to favorites and the function for viewing the current folder or the current album. That is, if you need to switch to several tracks in any direction, you call this menu, select the desired track, and in a second it already plays with you. At the same time due to sharp clicks to control the player with the help of rotation is very convenient, there is no slipping, there is no "underdog".
Just below the main control is the second most important - the return button. It traditionally, with a short press, returns one point back, at long - it outputs to the main menu. Slightly below this button is a lock switch, since the wheel is sensitive, then when you try to shove the player into your pocket, the track can rewind for a few seconds, brutally and mercilessly injuring the inner perfectionist. It is in such cases that the lock comes to the rescue. Another element of the interface is a MicroUSB-connector on the lower edge of the device, but this, perhaps, is expected.
On the back side, closed with a cover with two T5 screws, there is a compartment for replaceable operational amplifiers. In principle, their replacement is not difficult, you just need to do it carefully and use a special tweezers to extract the chips, you can easily bend the OU's legs.
The main part of the front panel is allocated to the screen, and it is not stingy, it is very good in color depth, resolution, viewing angles and even almost not bad behaves in the sun. However, you can appreciate this only on the display of album covers, the rest of the menu is purely textual and the variety of colors does not shine. It is organized reasonably. The very first item serves to return to the playback screen, under it there are two items for viewing files from the internal memory and from the microSD card. Next - the menu with a media library, there are standard lists such as albums and artists, and unexpected filters that display only DSD files or High-Res. Immediately placed and play-lists. Closes this menu set of menus to configure everything and everything. There are both expected things like a five-position equalizer and different sleep timers there, and unexpected like control of the upsampling. Of the languages the player supports only English and native (in the role of the latter, it is, of course, Japanese). Unfortunately, the diacrete in the titles is not friendly. In general, the firmware of the player, despite its simplicity, is very stable and convenient, there is so much wanted gapeless, I want to separately note the rapid scanning of tracks from the memory card.
Working time is not the strongest side of this player. Even with regular Muses 8820 it works a little more than 7 hours. When replacing them for expensive and elite OPA627, the working time is reduced to 4 and a half hours. This, of course, very little, but it's a fee for a small size and a balanced amplifier circuit.
Sound
To listen to the device used the following headphones: Meze 99 Classics, Lear LHF-AE1d, Ambient Acoustics AM10, Audio Zenith PMx2, Noble Kaiser K10AU, Campfire Audio Jupiter, Dita Audio Brass and others.
Over sound in VentureCraft clearly worked. The player's input is a little cohesive, also slightly softened, but at the same time very solid and musical. This is exactly the sound to which these epithets, stuffed with rags, like to use heat and light, like to use. If the supply of the player bores you, at your service is the ability to change the OS, having received a different sound. The opamp used as a low-pass filter changes, so they only affect the feed, leaving the power the same. VentureCraft itself offers several options for OPA627 for fabulous money (since the chips themselves are very expensive), but you can quite experiment with other operating systems, the results are sometimes very pleasant.
The second way to influence the sound of the "Valka" is the upsampling. Usually such an option is added by the manufacturer "for delivery" and the sound does not affect much, but this player is an obvious exception. Here, a separate chip is used for resampling, and control is given to the user. There are several options: resampling up to 172 kHz and 384 kHz with the ability to select 24 or 32 bits, as well as upsample in DSD128 and DSD256. In the case of PCM, you can also choose one of the two digital filters (their influence, just, is almost not audible), in DSD they, of course, do not work. Speaking of sound, both versions of PCM make the feed lighter and lighter (I assume that the RF interference goes further than the audible one), and DSD makes the lower half of the band more collected and elastic. So - VALOQ gives users a wide field for experiments. I for myself settled on using the stock Muses 8820 and the upsample in the DSD256 (and what am I, sorry for that?).
Finally, the third way to change the sound, however, not particularly noticeable - is the use of a balanced output. In this player, the balance does not give more power, so all its pluses boil down to better channel separation, which slightly widens the imaginary scene, but in fact the effect is not as great as it is presented, and it can even be written off even on the effect of the cable (although here I am also skeptical).
The bass of the player is quite deep and pleasantly elastic, although it lacks a little bit of shock, I think it was done specially to make the sound sound more alive. VALOQ clearly "sharpened" the player for real instruments, and they rarely need a strong percussion LF. The bass is very melodic, there is some flowing effect, the instruments of the lower registers are not ideally spaced apart in different plans, but seem to blend smoothly with each other, giving a feeling of greater naturalness. The textures are not perfect, but very well.
The midrange range is the main "strength" of this device. VALOQ avoids the slide into razor sharpness with all his might, instead he adds a little bit of warmth and emotion to the tracks. Instruments of the mid-range and especially vocals - sound exciting, and this is perhaps the main epithet for the midrange player. The imaginary scene is roughly average in width, and more than average in depth, although there is no strict separation of plans. The nature of the instruments is emphasized, highlighting the nuances, and emphasize not micro-parts, but rather "macro-features". It's hard to convey in words, but hearing this, you immediately understand what it's about. On some genres such as small jazz collectives or chamber music this sounds very engaging.
The player's upper frequencies were also softened, however, without excessive fanaticism. HF in the performance of VALOQ is quite audible and well-designed, but then removed almost any hints of sharpness and accentuation. Sometimes this gives the effect of narrowing the scene, but at the same time the player almost perfectly works on HF and attack, and attenuation, which is quite rare among portable equipment. Due to this, different percussion instruments and light supersonic sounds play quite reliably, although sometimes they are muffled by lower-frequency sounds.
By tradition, several comparisons with different players of a similar price range. I will compare only by sound, questions like the size and ergonomics - we will put it beyond the brackets.
TheBit OPUS # 1. A more restrained emotional player, offering a wider (sometimes as much as busting) imaginary scene and more accented HF.
Fiio X7 + AM2. I still consider this option one of the best players of the year, against the backdrop of VALOQ, Fiio offers a more detailed sound with a large number of micro components, but they can sometimes tire.
Luxury & Precision L5Pro. "Spiritual brother" VALOQ, a little darker, a little more than LF, but it's better to detail MF and HF, although, in general, the difference between these players is not so great. On the side of VALOQ - the elasticity of LF and the addition of emotions on the midrange.
Cayin N6. More intelligent on the player, the Cayin LF droplet is less quantitative, but they are more energetic and slashing. MF - a little less emotional, but more detailed, HF is a bit more quantitative.
QLS 360. More rough on the pitch and aggressive player, sometimes replacing the technical level with the vigor of filing. In some ways, QLS is the antipode of the VALOQ filing, where the Japanese are trying to turn everything into hockey, the Chinese device chops the revolutionary hymns "ladder" a la Mayakovsky.
Compatibility
Of course, the player is not the most powerful, and even the balanced output does not add power to it, but in fact - very few people will use tight IsoDs or low-sensitivity headphones. Of course, I want the player to have a power reserve, but for this it is necessary to pay for the background noise and shorter working time (or larger sizes). So 125 milliwatts per channel is a very reasonable level of power, which is enough for most headphones, which generally makes sense to use in a portable. If we talk about specific examples that I liked, we can note, for example, Meze 99 Classics and FLC-8S.
The genre player is almost universal, naturally corrected for your personal preferences, if, for example, you want a doling LF or wild aggression on the MF - this is not the droid that you are looking for. If you like a whole and slightly softened pitch - VALOQ will play you anything. Especially good he can do serious music - classics, jazz, vocals and so on. Sensitivity to the quality of records is moderate, somewhere by 7 points out of 10.
Traditional sample tracks
Blues Pills - Jupiter. Having absorbed in their creativity the best that was in the world history of the blues-rock of the years since the 1970s, Blues Pills began to anneal, recalling the best years of the grandees of the genre. In Jupiter there is everything for which we love this music, beginning with the classy vocals (which is atypical - female) and ending with the correct "unclear" sound. It is the latter that becomes a serious test for many players, but VALOQ perfectly copes with it due to the emotionality and excellent physicality of the drums.
Nazareth - Woke Up This Morning. From the contemporaries of the genre, let's move on to the classics, very few people brought in the genre as much as Nazareth did, that's just one problem - almost all of their records differ markedly sharp on the HF. But then the hero of our review comes to our aid who, on the one hand, slightly smoothes the harshness of the HF, and on the other hand, wins them out at the right level, so as not to turn into a rustling something. Well, to add to this the emotional MF and the elastic drum - it turns out and is absolutely gorgeous.
Ian Gillan - Gethsemane. Well, one more track, which on the one hand continues the ideologically taken topic, but reveals the talents of VALOQ on the other hand. Central number from places forbidden in Russia musical "Jesus Christ Superstar" - certainly a song that goes beyond genres, and few people in the world could have performed it the way Gilan did it, and, actually, it is not necessary. Masterly mastery of the emotions of the voice, excellent orchestration, bravura crescendo, in general - a chic song, and a small addition of emotions from the Japanese miracle goes to her only good.
conclusions
Very nice player, requiring, however, a little addictive. A characteristic feature of Japanese devices - they always have a pronounced character (although often very different). VALOQ was no exception, in its sound there is the same "musicality", so suitable not to fall into the audiophile, but simply enjoy your favorite music. К плееру быстро привыкаешь, и он становится «интуитивным» устройством, пользоваться которым приятно не только из-за звука, но и эргономически.
The article is based on materials .
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