This is the official thread for the Soncoz LA-QXD1
This thread is for discussion and reviews.
- USB, Coax in and out, toslink input, xlr and rca output
- ES9038Q2M, 32/768kHz
- Adjustable volume
Hifiguides Amazon Link
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200$ balanced dac I just learned existed and it doesn’t seem there is any real info about it on this forum yet. Would love to hear any thoughts about it. (I can add any needed links to this post later.)
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I haven’t heard it but at ASR it’s the current “go to” fully balanced DAC sub $200.
I received mine last week but I didn’t test it until today when the Geshelli Labs Erish finally arrived.
The build quality seems very good, smooth surfaces with rounded corners. It comes with an USB-C to USB-A cable for power and a USB-B to USB-A for data. I’m using an old fire tv stick power supply and it seems to work well.
The latest driver (available at the official site) installs easily on windows 10 2004. The control panel has the option to independently control the volume for the analogue and coaxial digital outputs and that’s the only thing you can change there. I recommend updating the firmware to the max volume firmware because the default is really low and it doesn’t remember the volume after a reboot. A good bit I found is that if you change the input the USB connection stays on so you can switch back to it without having to wait for windows to notice it’s back.
I really like how it sounds combined with the Erish, but I’m not a good judge of sound quality.
The only complaint I have thus far is that I can’t get it to play DSD files but I’ll keep trying.
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Bad news.
Today I found the DAC with the PWR/Mute led blinking and it wasn’t recognized on the PC. It seems my LA-QXD1 is defective. After I tried changing the power supply to a more powerful one the DAC started to get very hot to the touch which it hadn’t done before and when I tried to listen to some music the left channel only had a hissing noise and the right channel had a distorted sound, it was the same noise in both the XLR and RCA outputs. I tested the LA-QXD1 on 2 different headphone amplifiers and with 2 different headphones and the problem persisted.
Since it failed with less than a week of use it seems that the unit is defective. I contacted the seller (hifigo) for the warranty, I hope they won’t ask me to ship it back since I already paid 65 USD for shipping.
And it sucks that I won’t be able to use my Erish until I get a replacement.
Any updates on your situation?
Sorry, forgot to post an update here. I contacted hifigo and they paid to get the defective unit sent back and sent me a new one once I confirmed it was shipped. The replacement arrived last week and it seems to work fine.
I’m using it with the Erish connected to the balanced output and a F.Audio AM01 (SP200 clone) on the RCA output.
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Apparently impressive naturalness and impressive bass for the price. Not sharp treble despite being an ESS-based DAC because they chose “better” opamps than Topping (his opinion).
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I think it’s all about ess implementation, they seem much harder to properly integrate compared to akm dacs for example
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By the way, if yall don’t know it’s made by
the designer of the much-lauded Khadas Tone Board DAC.
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The first review I saw mentioned the DAC volume was, by default, at 50%. Weird thing, especially because it’s a digital volume (so, volume down = loss of quality). A firmware update fixed that, before the Soundnews review.
Schiit modius is also available for 199$ now… if you actually need balanced. 
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Has anyone done a comparison between this DAC and the Modius? Or the JNOG? They have a similar feature set and price ($200), but the Soncoz includes the full volume control. I really enjoy the Soncoz, but I’m very curious how it compares to other similarly priced balanced DACs.
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+1 for me on the balanced comps.
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I read there have been to many failures, any long term users of this DAC?
I’ve had mine since February, use it daily, no issues.
Thanks, I read worrying reports on ASR, also this DAC seems to have a low volume of sales, what power supply are you using? do you notice any anomalies from time to time?
I’m surprised / disappointed by the lower sales volume / lack of general attention to this device. I think it’s a solid DAC. My guess is the Modius came out just after it and stole the line light.
I’ve used both a 5V iphone charger and an iFi iPower 5V supply. I never did an a/b comparison for sound quality. The iFi supply has been the regular supply. I went with it since it’s an “audio” supply, and the DAC didn’t come with one in box.
No anomalies. I updated to latest firmware to get the “power on at max volume” feature.
I’ve used it with a Geshelli Erish, RNHP, Loxjie P20, and Schiit Jot2. No issues, and I really like the sound.
For a while I experimented with HQPLAYER, running 32/768 PCM and DSD512 over USB into the DAC. No issues at all with high data rates.
With a small company like Soncoz it is imaginable that there could be lot to lot variation in quality. But given the physical build quality I’ve always had the impression it was well made.
I don’t turn it off, maybe the lack of power cycling helps?
Thanks, good to know your unit is good, I read that units after December have a new fix but with the low sales and feedback it’s hard to confirm. I have regular phone chargers they should supply the 1A, but the main issue seems to be in the power section, I read iFi users are less prune to problems, but it’s too expensive relative to the cost of the DAC itself. My first choice right now is the SMSL SU8 V2 but it’s hard to find, Soncoz looks good but I’m just skeptical, as it’s hard to deal with an RMA from my country to China.
I bought mine through Amazon in the US, so nice easy return policy. The SU8 does look good if you can get one.
Good luck!
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