barbes
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Now available from PriceJapan for mid-February shipping.
SONY NW-ZX2
- Thread starter leylandi
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forper
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This statement has been bothering me more and more.
I have considerable listening experience from top end portables from the late 90s to the end of the MD era, dozens of units mostly from Sony but also from Victor and Panasonic. The best sounding in real life was the MZ-RH1, playing back uncompressed .wav it was unbelievably detailed and rich, with ATRAC it was easily the best too. Many others agree. In fact I would regard it as and it is regarded by many as "audiophile grade". That inline remote sure doesn''t seem to affect the sound.
Another poster mentioned it, actual experience vs tech talk. In the real world an inline remote can obviously be properly isolated so as not to affect sound.
purk
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Please continue to enjoy your wired remote and not worry too much on the sound degradation. If you ever step up to a more expensive custom IEMs with better cabling..you may want to ditch that wired remote as it could be a bottleneck in your system. I personally dislike the wired remote b/c it was always in the way of everything. I have no doubt that the MZ-RH1 is an audiophile grade player as they do command so much money on ebay. Also we can all agree that it takes awhile for DAP to approach the sound quality of those legendary MD/Discman of the past. However, I do think that the current crop of audiophile DAPs have now cleared that hurdle especially the one that can play hi-rez well-recorded materials. The great thing about the ZX1/2 is the ability to stream music from wireless server/wifi drive.
Cecala
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Australian Price from Price Japan = $1419. All for increased battery life & microSD addition.
United Kingdom Price = 770 Pounds. Sony UK lists it at 995 Pounds
USA price = $1158
Hopefully when/if released in OZ the price will be closer to $1100.00 for those interested.
Edit: Forgot to add that these are delivered prices.
Mmet
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Well.. if the DAC inside is good enough, then may be I can put my HUGO aside and only attach to the ZX2 either my TU-05 or my TUR-06 (2 great portable tube amps).
May be this will provide a nice warm signature..?
OMG
harmonix
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ButtUglyJeff
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Sony USA still hasn't listed a price, so I have no idea if importing is going to be a deal or not...
Cecala
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harmonix
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Looks like we have a release date Feb 14 - at least in Japan anyways.
It looks like there is only one real review the second article is just straight reporting of the product.
Interestingly the review does say there is a big difference between the zx1 and 2. Mainly the low end is much more dense and impactful. The soundstage is wide and deeper, overall background is more quiet. Mentions that while the zx2 is not as bright guitar picking is much clearer.
Then it compares with the ak240, ak120ii and ak100ii. Long story short against the ak240 it seems the 240 wins by a slight margin. The zx2 wins the ak100ii and is a shootout between it and the ak120ii.
Mimouille
Headphoneus Supremus
These reviews on new products always sound like huge bullocks. The guy would not be able to differentiate AK120II and AK240 in a blind test as they are similar internally. The ZX1 had a HUGE soundstage. Wider and deeper than the ZX1 would sound quite weird in my humble opinion. The bass on the ZX1 had great impact too, as it was boosted versus more neutral DAPs. All in all, sounds like crappety crap (no offense to you I hope, as it is not your review).
harmonix
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I had the ZX1 for a good part of the year. It had a good soundstage but not a huge sound stage IMHO. But I'm used to full floor standing speaker setups so your mileage will vary.
It was on the bright side but it was not annoying to me - this kind of sound I usually associate with EMI/RFI inteference (i.e. background is not black) hopefully the extra measures they have done to isolate the chasis and the analog vs. digital components will help. That would be the determining factors for me. This dark background and sound stage the AK240 does in spades but somehow I suspect the digital filter they use has somehow stripped out some of that tonal richness - suspect that might be responsible for that dark background in the soundstage which I associate with the AK's sound fingerprint irrespective of model. This is the one thing holding be back from the 240 and sitting out for something more to my tastes.
T.R.A.N.C.E.
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[size=12.7272720336914px]Price Japan delivered price:[/size]
[size=12.7272720336914px]USD- $1094[/size]
[size=12.7272720336914px]AUD- $1337.[/size]
[size=12.7272720336914px]GBP- 728[/size]
[size=12.7272720336914px] [/size]
Looks like USA and UK buyers can bite as its not a bad price (but not if you want warranty), but for us Aussies, our dollar is crapping itself. Hopefully Aus ZX2 release price has a good chance to be much better. I personally reckon the ZX2 will be $1200 Aud. I sure hope our bad dollar won't screw it up for us.
My take on the ZX1 is a big sound stage, due to its thin, fast and airy sound, but the ZX1 does not have a dry sound, it is more liquid which keeps emotion in the music. The bass is not thin though, it hits hard for sure, I'm trying to wrap my head around an improved ZX1 bass on ZX2, because I already love that part. I'm sure ZX2 will improve extension, control and balance of the bass, should be quite awesome.
By bet is ZX2 will also increase note fullness in mids and treble without taking away speed or air and increase blackness of back round, may even increase sound stage, but because of the increase in note thickness it won't sound weird. If what that review says is true, its improved on all areas of the ZX1 without losing any of what the ZX1 did best.
Edit: Woah, price actually changed about 3 times in the last few minutes I checked it lol. So these prices aren't current anymore.
[size=12.7272720336914px]USD- $1094[/size]
[size=12.7272720336914px]AUD- $1337.[/size]
[size=12.7272720336914px]GBP- 728[/size]
[size=12.7272720336914px] [/size]
Looks like USA and UK buyers can bite as its not a bad price (but not if you want warranty), but for us Aussies, our dollar is crapping itself. Hopefully Aus ZX2 release price has a good chance to be much better. I personally reckon the ZX2 will be $1200 Aud. I sure hope our bad dollar won't screw it up for us.
My take on the ZX1 is a big sound stage, due to its thin, fast and airy sound, but the ZX1 does not have a dry sound, it is more liquid which keeps emotion in the music. The bass is not thin though, it hits hard for sure, I'm trying to wrap my head around an improved ZX1 bass on ZX2, because I already love that part. I'm sure ZX2 will improve extension, control and balance of the bass, should be quite awesome.
By bet is ZX2 will also increase note fullness in mids and treble without taking away speed or air and increase blackness of back round, may even increase sound stage, but because of the increase in note thickness it won't sound weird. If what that review says is true, its improved on all areas of the ZX1 without losing any of what the ZX1 did best.
Edit: Woah, price actually changed about 3 times in the last few minutes I checked it lol. So these prices aren't current anymore.
seeteeyou
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SUPER sweet F880/ZX1/ZX2 cradle for awesome output quality, BCR-NWH10 will be available on Feb 14th for 14,750 yen plus tax
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LOL - there's the skinniest chance in hell of a ZX2 making it through UK customs at £728 all-in.
I mean, good luck to anyone trying it, but the UK is a rip-off.
USD- $1094 is more likely to end up as £900-£950 GBP when all is said and done.
T.R.A.N.C.E.
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But Price Japan are ok with down marking the value of the parcel, you just have to request it, at least they did use to do this, hopefully still. Then you should get it through customs without tax, right?
Quote:
Yeah I'm getting this. Usb noise is always a problem in any audio product, even expensive Dacs. This looks like it will be a power conditioner for the Usb signal, sounds good to me. Can use ZX2 as a source for my NAD M51 Dac > Fostex Studio Monitors.
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