Does anybody know what the new chip(s) are in the M6 SL?

Meizu made sure to point out in their press release that the new M6 SL will have a new audio chip with improved sound quality. For over two weeks now I've been trying to find out what new chip they are using. Come on Meizu, you can let us know, it's not like it's a state secret.

No. Why is exactly what chip the M6 SL uses even important to the end-user?

Originally Posted by Err0r

No. Why is exactly what chip the M6 SL uses even important to the end-user?

Because if we knew what audio chip they were using we could make some educated assumptions on how it will perform based on other players that may already use that particular chip. Also, in general, more info, not less, is good for the user. Frankly, I can't believe that even needs saying on a fan forum.

I for one am interested. The M6SP currently uses a very good DAC from NXP (formely Philips Semiconductor, for the Americans here: Philips is a really large player on consumer electronics in Europe), which supports 24-bit audio up to 100 kHz samplerate. It works as a charm when hooking it up to my stereo. I can't see some other chip easily beating NXP's DAC.
For all I know, they might put something worse in, just to get rid of the hissing problems. Which is more a problem of the way they designed the board.

Next to that: A lot of people using Meizu's I know are not the average end user, but a bit more tech savvy and are just interested.

Originally Posted by greggish

Because if we knew what audio chip they were using we could make some educated assumptions on how it will perform based on other players that may already use that particular chip. Also, in general, more info, not less, is good for the user. Frankly, I can't believe that even needs saying on a fan forum.

it doesn't sound like you would know the difference between... say a burr brown DAC vs a TI. given your word selection, it doesn't even seem like you know what a DAC even is--which would leave me to believe that for all intents and purposes it should not matter to you one bit. do you care what metal meizu is using in the casing? what about the solder, do you obsess if it's tin/lead vs one with silver in it?

Originally Posted by yao

it doesn't sound like you would know the difference between... say a burr brown DAC vs a TI. given your word selection, it doesn't even seem like you know what a DAC even is--which would leave me to believe that for all intents and purposes it should not matter to you one bit. do you care what metal meizu is using in the casing? what about the solder, do you obsess if it's tin/lead vs one with silver in it?

Thank you so much for your pompous and condescending reply telling me what I need to know and what I don't need to know. Now where is the ignore feature on this forum?

can you explain why you would care about the "audio chip"? it obviously affects you as the end user, but what useful information do you plan from gleaning given an ABC vs XYZ "audio chip"?

Originally Posted by yao

can you explain why you would care about the "audio chip"? it obviously affects you as the end user, but what useful information do you plan from gleaning given an ABC vs XYZ "audio chip"?

I still can't believe that I am being put in the position of having to explain myself for wanting to know what chip(s) the new M6 SL will use on a MEIZU FAN FORUM. But, I'll go ahead and give it another shot, since even the admin of this forum thought it was a strange question (honestly I find that to be a bizarre reaction from the admin of a fan site), but anyway here goes. For the last week or two I've been researching different players that I might buy. I've been looking at Meizu, Teclast, Onda and Ainol. I've been reading about which players are dual chip, a main chip and a separate chip as a dedicated DAC (Digital to Analog Converter), sorry to disappoint you about my level of ignorance. All the players I looked at that were dual chip, except the Meizu, use the Wolfson as the DAC, and most used a Rockchip for the main chip. I read that the dual chip players with the Wofson sounded better than comparable players with just a Rockchip such as the Teclast C260 as opposed to the dual chip C280 and C290. So anyway, I was curious if the M6 SL was going to be a single or dual chip player, if it was going to use the Wolfson instead of the one it uses now, etc... I'm sure my technical knowledge doesn't measure up to your expectations, but even with you cautioning me that I don't need to know this stuff, I'm still going to try and find the info. Thanks for nothing. Boy, what a friendly forum you folks have here. Haven't had this much fun since the inquisition.

Yao - I think that is rather uncalled for. I think what Greggish wants to do, is compare the M6SP with NXP's chip to say a competitor that maybe has the M6SL's chip. People do this all the time. I did this when I was looking at buying an upconverting DVD player. I compared the Faroudja chipset with some of the more expensive upconverting chipsets in order to decide whether I wanted to "step up" to a more expensive model. This is exactly what greggish wants to do, does he want to "step up" to the M6SL with its different audio chipset or does he want to stick with the NXP audio chipset of the M6SP. Don't be ignorant. Some of us have a lot more technical knowledge than you think we do.

Thank you, paulbeers. It's comforting to know that there are helpful folks like you here. Maybe I just got off to a very weird and unusual start that is not truly representative of the atmosphere here. But, I still find it hard to understand the forum admin's peculiar reaction to my question.

if you don't have the opportunity to test the actual players, i would suggest you check out meizu's user forum:
http://en.meizu.com/userforum/forum_topics.asp?FID=12
perhaps ice-orange or yankee will be able to shed some light on the information you seek.

unless you tried a previous version of M6 and were unsatisfied with it's audio, i don't see the point in obsessing over such trivialities; but hey, maybe your ears are more sensitive than mine.

I don't think the question is whether he is unhappy with the chip in the M6, I think the question is whether he will be happier with the chip in the M6SL. I want to know the same thing. I am very happy with my M6, but want to know if I will be happier with the M6SL. All we have heard is that it has an "improved" audio chip, but what is it? How is it improved? What do we know about it?

Originally Posted by paulrbeers

What do we know about it?

Exactly. Don't you think people would share it if they knew?

greggish, your question is absolutely legit and appropriate for this forum. Counterquestioning greggish's motives and state of knowledge are nothing than cheap dialectics. Please don't be upset with the whole community in this forum.
Though I don't have any insight on the audio chips, mfb and I have recently tried to get more info about the video part, to learn more about its capabilities and restrictions in terms of video playback. So I can clearly see how an audiophile is asking the same questions for the audio relevant parts.

I must say though, that the M6 is having a major bug since it has been released : the end of song stutter. This has neither been addressed by Meizu nor been solved in several firmware updates, which only leads to the conclusion that they are ignorant to it since so many months have passed without solution or official statement. Now you have to ask yourself what is more important for your fastidious ears : the delicate differences of d/a convertors or the ugly stuttering at the end of every live track ?

Oh, this is my 1000th post ! omg, I am spending too much time in forums I guess ...
Hey Err0r, you're still 3 ahead :-)

Could the end of song bug be a hardware issue , Is it some sort of decoder chip that reports the lengths to display of the song... Either way i agree they should of adressed the issue but with meizu coming out with all new players firmware updates will be very rare.

I am 99% sure this is a firmware issue, independent from the hardware.

There are many reasons for wanting to know the what chipsets are being used in the M6/SL players. I, for one, am an audiophile/musician and think that most 16 bit audio sounds rather harsh! Especially older CDs. Another reason, hackers need this information in order to release projects such as the RockBox project.

The chipset in my M6 supports 24 bit, which is worth knowing, but is not specified in any of the M6 specifications. Since it does support this, I have found that is also plays in outstanding fidelity, 24 bit ogg and flac files.

The popularity of downloading/pirating 128 bit MP3s has ruined many peoples hearing. They actually think this is what the music should should like, which in many ways is even worse than FM radio. It is also usually normalized to the point that the music is truly ruined!

The DAC chipsets used in portable media plays is very important to music lovers in the know...because there is a BIG difference between chipsets. ie. Apple iPod chipset sucks major ass!

Those who don't care about this obviously have not heard music in anything but shitty mp3 formats where the chipsets don't matter, because low bitrate mp3s will all sound like shit even when played back through a great DAC.

Apparently the M6SL uses a Wolfson DAC, I don't know Wolfson so I can't make any conclusions.

Originally Posted by J.Wong

The following is quoted in J. Wong 2007-10-4 18:43:00 statement:
In fact, there is little to hide the chips, used dac m6sl is WM8987, but did not recommend the use of the chip circuit BTL overall result is very high performance

More info about the WM8987: http://www.wolfsonmicro.com/uploads/.../en/WM8987.pdf

It at least does offer 24-bit, and 44.1, 48, 88.2 and 96 sampling rates

BTL is Bridge-Tied Load , differential output for each channel (4 wire) as opposed to common stereo ground. (3 wire)

I think that this issue of stutter and the end of the tracks is due to some problem in Philips UDA1380HNaudio decoder... limitation in decoding old MP3 codes.

If Meizu have changed to Wolfson... engineers surely might have a powerful reason... it could be this annoying issues of stutter... or maybe Wolfson (used by Teclast and Onda) have proved to be a good audio decoder... or maybe both reasons.

Of course Meizu shouldn't use Wolfson WM8750, they seems to have choose a more recent release of this Swiss company, as seems to be WM8987.

On the other hand, according with what I've read here... Wolfson is less expensive than Philips.

Finally I've tested personally that Wolfson brings an excellent sound, better than I've heard in any other player as I comment if my review of Onda VX858 here Onda Vx858 Cool or Crap? Post Your Thoughts!

Now we are surprised by Meizu changing to a Wolfson audio decoder!!! :D