Computer Audio Blasphemy, nige tries Another SD Card Player

[Sligolad]

The chinese player is good but the DAC in it can definitely be improved as it is not as good as the Big7 with the bare SD card unit direct to I2s.
The SD card direct to the Big7 is the new benchmark for me.

Hoping to start looking at a RJ45 system for I2s to link the player to the Big7 next but will take a while.

[adolfo.a.aguiar]

In the chinese player specs, it says "support to only one subdirectory". Does it mean only one subdirectory for each directory or just one directory and one subdirectory in the sd card?

[abraxalito]

What I see on mine is that it pulls up the contents of just one level of subdirectory on to the screen. I have not tried adding a third level down of directory to see if it sees it, but my guess is that 'support to only one subdirectory' means it won't.

So having multiple folders in the root directory each one containing folders which contain .flac files is fine. This gets 'unpacked' on the screen so I don't see any subdirectory levels, just the folder name which contains the music no matter whether its first or second level down.

[jkeny]

So has anybody sorted out how to interface the ESP86 with the control buttons of the SD card?

[Fran]

Sometimes you got to wonder why you go to all the effort!!
Just received the SD all in one box from AliExpress today, had to pay €22 for customs to clear DHL which was quick.
All in less than €150 and it is some bargain.

Just plugged it in and it sounds very good out of the box and it is much bigger than i thought with a real good screen which is bigger and easier to see.
After listening to the Meitner with SD player this thing is not far away and may be knocking on the door for as good as with some hours on it but early days but blown away for what you can get for less than €150 so some euphoria at the moment :-)


Only issue so far is that it likes the Panasonic SLC card but does not like those cheaper white SLC cards we purchased recently!!

I got mine today (€47 customs from DHL, ouch) and would echo the comments from Pearse. I have the same issue with the new integral SLC cards. Sometimes it reads them, more times it doesn't and it won't play from it even when it does read it. Other than that, its a lovely unit. Sound comments so far (very early) are the same as above, bit of sharper edge to it.

[Fran]

So has anybody sorted out how to interface the ESP86 with the control buttons of the SD card?

Nope. I have the code that gives the functionality but I haven't been able to hook it in. I've also somehow killed my spare - and I did nothing to it other that solder on a wire to a terminal of one of the switches. I initially thought it was just a case of pulling up or down the leg of the switch to ground or 3.3v but I think its more than that now.

[adolfo.a.aguiar]

Another question on the chinese sd player.
It can't read an Apacer 64GB SDXC card. The spec says it can play 64GB cards but they must be SDHC, which is contradictory.
Have you tried 64GB cards?

[abraxalito]

Yes, I've tried a 64G card (Sandisk I think). No go.

I'm not sure this proves anything though as I have a Sandisk 32G card which it refuses to read. Plus various older, smaller capacity cards from Transcend which also don't work.

[jkeny]

Ah, these SD card players are turning out not to be reliable at reading SD cards.
Unless we can find a reason or explanation for this & how to avoid it, it kinda topples the whole 'project'

[Fran]

Ah, I don' think they're unreliable as such, just fussy. So if this was a commercial product, you'd have to supply with a card that you know works, or be able to provide some.

It is a pain though to invest in the SLC card and it not work..... would love to know the reason why. My new one still doesn't play hi res files.