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Post by whitigir on Sept 28, 2022 8:51:08 GMT
I would like to bring up this discussion regarding the state of the DAPs nowadays.
We all enjoying our new and shiny toys, and many different brands, especially from China, are producing new products at lightning speed. After all, it doesn’t take as much resources as a new smartphones anyways.
So, why would it be of any concerns to any of us ?
Well, the reliability, and long term usage. Walkman and Sony is a given that they last on and on for years and years, without even replacing the battery. Knock on wood, even my old Zx2 is still going on and on for more than 18 hours on one charge. There are no other players that can keep up with this reliability without changing out the battery.
What about a worse situations, like broken screen, damaged main board ? Who is going to repair it if you love your player so much ? And how much would it cost ? Or would you be ending up with trashing it and buying the next flagship instead ?
Well, regardless of how much it may cost, you will need to be able to buy parts first. I know Steve have no problems buying parts, but myself do have problems of acquiring them, can not from AK, Cayin, HIBY for example. I am only able to get parts from Sony, Ibasso, Shanling, Fiio. Yes, swapping out battery and main board , modifying, servicing them is within my scope. So, just as long as I can get parts, I am not worried about “warranty” or “servicing”. Therefore, any brands that I can not access to “spare parts”, I will stay away from them
How about you as typical consumers ? Would you be able to ship back and forth from and to China ? Waiting for it ? Taking the risks ? Or would you sell it off after a few months and buying into the next flagship ? How and what is your plan regarding these issues ? Please share it up
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Post by gazzington on Sept 29, 2022 17:52:21 GMT
I don’t do or have the ability to do my own mods but know I can send a dap to Steve if I needed something fixed or modded.
However, I think my days of flagship daps (anything over 1.5k) is over. Too many new daps come out that it’s impossible to keep up. I’m getting my wm1z modded by Steve as I know it’s something that I will be happy with for a long time. If the new wm1z mk2 was non android I would have likely bought one
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Post by TheBandicoot on Sept 30, 2022 11:12:52 GMT
Honestly, this is a more wide scale problem with the entire tech industry than just the DAP landscape. Everything used to be very repairable; parts were easy to obtain, standardised or basic enough in design where something else could be used instead. Everything nowadays is custom made to fit only the device it came in, nothing is cross-compatible anymore and usually requires specialist tools to even get into let alone diagnose the problem.
For example; big tech companies like Apple have made sure to monopolise their repairs as well as their products. An iPhone costs Apple nothing to actually make (around 100 dollars) and they sell them for 700+. It's easier to get parts for an iPhone today than a Sony Walkman because there's simply more of them, nothing is interchangeable though outside of donor replacements. You can for instance remove the camera from the 13 Pro to put into the iPhone 11, not because it wouldn't work but because Apple has actively blocked the functionality through their software - much like TouchID on older iPhones. Only Apple has the suite to allow those parts to be swapped and their repair fees are extortionate because who else can you actually go to?
I can't get parts for my Walkman so I'd have to rely on a repair service through someone like Steve just to fix it. If our options die out then we're stuffed. Even if I could get the parts, I don't have the skillset to repair it nor would it be economical to replace a ÂŁ120 screen on a ÂŁ200 device.
Tehcnology gets outdated very quickly in today's world and despite the world's "efforts" to improve recycling, we're worse with waste now that nothing can actually be repaired.
Take Apple again, their AirPods are the best convenient solution for iPhone users but they're completely unrepairable. Apple don't even offer to fix them, they literally just replace them....
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Post by gazzington on Sept 30, 2022 12:17:57 GMT
This is exactly what I was getting at in my poorly written contribution last night. I’d stick to something that Steve can repair. Posting to China seems like a lot of hassle
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Post by TheBandicoot on Sept 30, 2022 13:17:49 GMT
This is exactly what I was getting at in my poorly written contribution last night. I’d stick to something that Steve can repair. Posting to China seems like a lot of hassle That was my long-winded way of saying it haha.... The only DAP's I've ever owned are the WM1A and ZX300, both are Sony Walkman's and literally run the same OS and UI. I buy music instead of streaming because I hate subscription services as a customer and I love owning what I pay for. Being able to access files offline locally is a must for me. The problem is most people's phones are more than capable for their needs. The only downside is the market's push into wireless earbuds. I get the convenience but you have to give up a lot. It's a perfect example of "needs vs wants". |
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Post by rcoleman1 on Oct 2, 2022 13:29:25 GMT
This is exactly what I was getting at in my poorly written contribution last night. I’d stick to something that Steve can repair. Posting to China seems like a lot of hassle Definitely. Keeping my WM1Z mod as long as Steve can repair it...no matter what new DAPs are released. |
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Post by souldriver on Oct 14, 2022 6:54:10 GMT
Im rocking the Cowon S modded by Steve, and if it ever broke i would go over the moon to replace it. I am trying to get a desktop chain to match its tier.
I tried a hiby r62020 that i bought second hand and had less than a month on it. I receive it and it will not charge out of anything except the wall and it had to use my phones fast charger, and you could watch it drain. I send it back to warranty and i had 2 options. 1) wait weeks if not months to get it sent to china and back for a repair. 2) settle for another used a returned unit in another color. During this the retail shop told me he has seen a bunch of new daps with dud batteries.
All my daps have been Cowon, but they are extremely slow with releases and their lot of A2 chips from 2015 are going to run out someday. I am extremely happy i found Steve. This is a rare audio buy where i have basically zero caveats. It felt like a custom bespoke experience.
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Post by whitigir on Oct 30, 2022 12:38:10 GMT
Im rocking the Cowon S modded by Steve, and if it ever broke i would go over the moon to replace it. I am trying to get a desktop chain to match its tier. I tried a hiby r62020 that i bought second hand and had less than a month on it. I receive it and it will not charge out of anything except the wall and it had to use my phones fast charger, and you could watch it drain. I send it back to warranty and i had 2 options. 1) wait weeks if not months to get it sent to china and back for a repair. 2) settle for another used a returned unit in another color. During this the retail shop told me he has seen a bunch of new daps with dud batteries. All my daps have been Cowon, but they are extremely slow with releases and their lot of A2 chips from 2015 are going to run out someday. I am extremely happy i found Steve. This is a rare audio buy where i have basically zero caveats. It felt like a custom bespoke experience. Do you have problems getting parts from Cowon ? At this point , even with accessing to parts, I would be hesitant to get any products from China. I know AK have some good customer services but with their policies such as No transferring or warranty No parts available Void of services if modified I am still hesitant to get their products anymore. Take battery for an example, my Zx2 is still running like a champ, lasting almost 20 hours play time and it has been 6 years or so. It doesn’t just get stored it in the drawer, my cousin use it daily !!! Talk about piece of mind* If anything that is worth buying again, it would be a Sony, and or a Walkman. Because as powerful as Pha-3, the battery degradation is also an issue |
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Post by souldriver on Nov 13, 2022 18:44:36 GMT
Tbh, i never had to get parts for the cowon. I only ever had them modded 3rd party.
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Post by ryokan on Nov 17, 2022 14:43:26 GMT
Apart from price should they brick the main reason I haven't bought a new totl is size and heat, personally I prefer a more portable size and good battery life like with my P6k. I only use iem's with daps so don't need loads of power.
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Post by whitigir on Nov 19, 2022 15:52:33 GMT
Apart from price should they brick the main reason I haven't bought a new totl is size and heat, personally I prefer a more portable size and good battery life like with my P6k. I only use iem's with daps so don't need loads of power. Agreed, and the hassle of having to plug it in every day or twice a day as much as my phone is pretty stupid. At least the phone doesn’t heat up in the pocket. That is why I am going for Walkman again. |
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