Sony NWZ-F806 mini review (& F-series player reviews / impressions / discussion) - Page 21

I've been following Sony for many years now, X was my last big Sony DAP purchase (other than E and S series here and there). It was bit too warm for me, hows the sound signature on Z? I know people keeps comparing it to X, but warmth wise how is it? About the same or is it tad warmer?

 

For my ears its more to the bright side than warm....

 

Anyone would like to confirm/object?

 

no objections here Turok, your's is a most respected view... I find the WM-Z to be very different to the WM-X, the soundstage is wider, it's more or less neutral (so brighter sounding with greater detail/definition), the amp is very powerful and it has a impressive SQ... overall a big-step up imho.

 

ps... in the custom pre-set settings is one called 'unique', that sounds very similar to the WM-X but with a better soundstage... there also two additional 'custom' settings where you can set your own preferences hth.

Edited by OK-Guy - 10/11/12 at 2:21pm

Spot on, could not said it better, thank you OK-Guy, for keeping this thread going on.....

 

I enjoy this and the WM-Z threads,  I was enjoying the 4.Ai thread but some have started getting the poxy 'graphs' out now in their quest for penile-envy, point scoring at its worst imo.... that said Bokyung did a nice post/review on the 4.Ai before it started getting train-spotter'ish.

 

for those of you that don't know, I bought the WM-Z on Turok's recommendation, it was a toss-up between the WM-Z & DX100 so after a fair amount of discussion in the threads and PM's, I decided on the WM-Z... it may not quite be quite up there with the DX100 but for someone who has limited PC experience (unlike Turok), the WM-Z is an absolute boon... it is simplicity in itself and I find the sound-quality extremely enjoyable, fantastic value for money and seriously underrated.

 

you saved me $800 Turok... 

Interesting, Sony going with bright over warm/dark?  Off to reading more impressions for now.

 

your starter for 10... hold-on make that 166, enjoy

 

 http://www.head-fi.org/t/584479/new-sony-walkman-z-series-mini-review

I want this thing so bad now lol. Can't wait to get my hands on it...

 

Once i got it I would do a comparision between the F and Z as well. I've been using the sony A series walkman almost all generations every year (though never had an X), I found the difference sublte enough for me that I might only notice the difference during A-B test. However the Z series is more obviously brigher and clearer which I thoroughly enjoyed. :) Hope the F has the very same SQ!
 

vedye

 

f & z series has the same kind of sound i would say, both brigher & clearer. the x series on the hand got that warmer bass tone but that also due to the earphone that it use is mdr-nc020.

while a series has a few kind, from button till touchscreen, all are a series.

 

Edited by alexlow - 10/11/12 at 6:44pm

Just received it yesterday, sounds great but sadly it came dented + chipped. Horrid packaging by amazon (too small of a box height wise, too large of a box length x width wise (literally like 8x the size of the sony box itself). so the player's box was being squished and it was rolling around due to no cushioning aka bubble wrap, paper, etc). In all, box was ripped and lost some of its pretty black coating, which was replaced by frayed paper. Receiving my replacement tomorrow.

 

Does everyone use the PowerAmp / Neutron / PlayerPro player with this rather than the stock app? I do love the W button with the stock player but I hate its interface and it's pretty laggy. Sound quality difference is minimal to none (didn't do much A/Bing, but hardly heard a difference if any) with any of the stock player's enhancements. Using Westone ES3X by the way. Sucks the W button isn't customizable. Probably going to test PowerAmp vs PlayerPro tomorrow as I hate the interface of Neutron. Literally unusable to me. 

 

A huge upgrade from the Samsung Stratosphere, which is essentially a Galaxy S. It has a Wolfson WM8994 but for some reason, it did not sound anything like how people describe the Galaxy S series. I did have Voodoo installed with it rooted but there was a ton of hiss and a periodic clicking noise (the hiss was inaudible with music on, but the click was pretty audible depending on how loud the music was).

 

Also, PlayerPro did sound MUCH better on the Stratosphere than PowerAmp, which is why I'm going to compare them tomorrow. On the Stratosphere, PowerAmp just sounded bloated and muddy in comparison to PlayerPro. As of now though, it does seem like it sounds better than PlayerPro, though I haven't done much testing. I like PlayerPro's UI much more though. Can't comment on EQing though because either I'm terrible at it or everything just sounds off after EQing to me. Will try that tomorrow too :)

I used Poweramp on the demo unit and it sounded the same as the stock player mostly, I couldn't really tell a major difference. However a number of Z10x0 users report that Poweramp sounds poorer on theirs, so it could be so.

Personally I prefer Poweramp to PlayerPro on my GSII because Poweramp's equalizer and tone settings cut it better for me.


All that said I agree with you that I found the stock player to be fairly sluggish feeling (an apparent 20fps frame rate cap too at times) and its visualization function is far from even appearing to be relevant to the music. I didn't find any significant difference with Clear Stereo or DSEE either...
Edited by salanos - 10/11/12 at 10:16pm

..and I thought I am a Sony Walkman freak.....welcome Alex to the team......

haha, still remember the good old days, anyone with me?

 

 

chewing gum, grandfather version. 128MB was a luxury during those days.

than came the alien invasion from cybertron
 

 

not to forget the torpedo metal head

 

 

LOL, I saw less and less industrial design for Sony DAPs. These look too boring to buy.

Thanks for the pics reminding good old Sony days.