[harmonix]

  Why is that?

From a sentence in my original post

 Chassis build quality - this thing is a rock. ZX1 is not in the same class. This could be a weapon. Swing carefully!

 

[harmonix]

  ^ I'm sure it would, as I said, Toshiba are my best sounding SD cards, Toshiba makes their stuff in Japan, and very importantly, ZX2 separating the internal memory into two chips will also dramatically increase SQ over a single chip. Thanks for this info btw! Its little unadvertised things like this that make me really think that proper engineering and testing went into the ZX2.

Which Toshiba card do you use - there are several series in their offerings?

 

[kms108]

 

  ^ I'm sure it would, as I said, Toshiba are my best sounding SD cards, Toshiba makes their stuff in Japan, and very importantly, ZX2 separating the internal memory into two chips will also dramatically increase SQ over a single chip. Thanks for this info btw! Its little unadvertised things like this that make me really think that proper engineering and testing went into the ZX2.

Which Toshiba card do you use - there are several series in their offerings?

I use the Exceria 95MB/s read and 60MB/s write UHS I class 3
 
made in japan, only the 64GB in made in japan, others size are made in taiwan .
 
I think T.R.A.N.C.E has the same.

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

^ Toshiba Exceria. Unfortunately I have found that with micro sd cards, the smaller the capacity the better the sound is. I have 3 models of Exceria, 8gb sounds best, 16gb is pretty good, but 32gb is just ok, not worth getting imo. I haven't tried the 64gb Exceria, but my 64gb Samsung sounds bad imo.

All Exceria models are made in Japan.
.

 

[kms108]

^ Toshiba Exceria. Unfortunately I have found that with micro sd cards, the smaller the capacity the better the sound is. I have 3 models of Exceria, 8gb sounds best, 16gb is pretty good, but 32gb is just ok, not worth getting imo. I haven't tried the 64gb Exceria, but my 64gb Samsung sounds bad imo.

All Exceria models are made in Japan.
.

 
 
in hong kong only the 64gb are japan made, the rest are Taiwan.

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

^ Mine are all made in Japan. I think with the newer uhsi 3 cards Toshiba might have switched to Taiwan except for 64gb model. But you can still find all the previous Exceria uhsi 1 cards on ebay, they are all made in Japan. Btw uhsi 3 makes no difference to uhsi 1 in a dap, its just a standard made for supporting 4k video writing.
.

 

[harmonix]

^ Toshiba Exceria. Unfortunately I have found that with micro sd cards, the smaller the capacity the better the sound is. I have 3 models of Exceria, 8gb sounds best, 16gb is pretty good, but 32gb is just ok, not worth getting imo. I haven't tried the 64gb Exceria, but my 64gb Samsung sounds bad imo.

All Exceria models are made in Japan.
.

Have you tried Sandisk or other brands?

 

[starfly]

I mean no offense to any of you guys, but this is how new audiophile markets get created. Launch a product that makes certain claims at an exorbitant price and suddenly everyone starts wondering if they need it, because it might sound better. At best, it'll be a <1% improvement, but I doubt there will be any at all. Pseudo-science. Just like the whole cables thing.

 

[kms108]

^ Mine are all made in Japan. I think with the newer uhsi 3 cards Toshiba might have switched to Taiwan except for 64gb model. But you can still find all the previous Exceria uhsi 1 cards on ebay, they are all made in Japan. Btw uhsi 3 makes no difference to uhsi 1 in a dap, its just a standard made for supporting 4k video writing.
.

I might try the sony's super expensive one, that will be in june when I get the Zx2

 

[starfly]

  Sorry for hijacking your post TRANCE but I wanted to give my impressions of the ZX2 after the 100 hours of Burn in at this point.
 
Burning in 100+ Hours
The biggest difference between 0 hours and post 100 hours can be summed up into one word : COHERENCE
To be more precise there is coherence in the timing of various instruments, notes and harmonics across the entire frequency range to the beat. Right out of the box it was okay but this coherence deteriorated until say about 50 hours and then started to come back again. 
 
Black space
This was clear from 0 hours. Much more quiet than the ZX1 and something I liked about the AK120/240 but in the case of iRiver I suspected that there was some "frequency/harmonic content deletion" to make this more pronounced. Most instruments especially acoustic are very complex and never have a single fundamental frequency and to me this was being "manipulated" in the iRiver to make things "blacker". This is just a suspicion - short of taking apart the digital filtering code and testing the signal out this is a bit tricky...
 
Frequency Range
The bottom end is stronger, faster and more articulate at the same time. I'm using SE846 so was loving this part. Having said that the high frequency performance has also been extended - there are a few tracks which I am very familiar with that I now hear 'recording artifacts" - basically traces of high hat which to me are being picked up by a another microphone on the drum kit either inappropriate placement or set to an inappropriately wide pattern.
 
"Sound Signature"
For those familiar with the ZX1 - I would say the sound signature is familiar - that meaning fast and neutral. The downside with the ZX1 was electronic hash, haze some call it brightness/whiteness. Suspect this is due to poor EMI/RFI isolation but who knows. This is no longer present with the ZX2. The sound also seems "thicker" and less harsh but want to emphasize that thicker does not mean euphonic. At the same time this less harsh smoother quality also does not mean that percussive strikes/attacks are round out they are not. A clean strike you heard attack, harmonics, decay and echoes they are all there. 
 
Small Observations
I use my SE846 for the listening and never had to go above 50% and that was usually for DSD classical recordings. The volume control seems to have more intermediate steps than the ZX1 but that could be my faulty memory - just seems to have more "intermediate steps".
 
Chassis build quality - this thing is a rock. ZX1 is not in the same class. This could be a weapon. Swing carefully!
GUI - Typical Android. Responsive. Updates your library pretty quickly. Not too much fuss loading music.
 
Small Gripes
1) Wish the screen was a bit more oleophobic - my greasy fingers smudge it too easily....
2) The case quality is nice but wish they had a cutout for the screen on the other hand maybe this trains me to only put GOOD music on the ZX2 instead of the entire kitchen sink....
 
 
Conclusion
So is this the best DAP out there? Haven't heard all of them but yes for the ones I have heard.
Is this better than the ZX1? For sure - by a mile and then bit more!
Is this better than the AK240? For my tastes yes and because of the reasons above. Your mileage could vary.
Is this better than the Hugo - SQ wise I think the Hugo still wins. The Hugo can power an HD800 but it's not a DAP... pick your poison

 
Thanks for your impressions! How is the soundstage on the ZX2?

 

[Mython]

  Sorry if I worded my response to sound like I was giving a free-pass to corporate pricing and marketing practices, and against fair criticism; that wasn't my purpose. I didn't intend to shout down any of the well backed up points made against the ZX2's price hike from the ZX1, as they temper some of the more enthusiastic praises of the ZX2. A rational and skeptical position is a good starting point when one is engaging with audio equipment.

 
 
It's cool. I didn't take anything personally, and I'm glad you didn't. We're all just talking here, chewing the cud, so-to-speak

 

[harmonix]

   
Thanks for your impressions! How is the soundstage on the ZX2

Up there with the best DAP''s I guess but I'm known to laugh uncontrollably at this notion of soundstage for IEM's and even headphones.

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

  Have you tried Sandisk or other brands?

 
Yes, I've tried Sandisk and Lexar. Sandisk actually uses flash memory very similar to Toshiba, they jointly developed a lot of their flash technology, but Sandisk does not build in Japan. Sandisk sounds nearly as good as Toshiba though, smaller capacity still sounds better to me with Sandisk. Lexar is owned by Micron, a large USA company that develops flash memory, they also have some good quality cards in smaller capacities. Samsung is my least favorite. These 4 companies all make their own flash memory, every other company buys from these guys and just puts their own name on it. Even Sony, its probably another reason why these premium sound sd cards are so expensive, because Sony would most likely have contracted the work out to either Toshiba, Sandisk, Micron or Samsung for the actual custom production of the cards, Sony just designed it most likely.

 

[bmichels]

.... much better than AK240 in terms of SQ. Besides, better battery life and no over heat like AK240, sucks!

 
"  much better than AK240 in terms of SQ " !!

  this is great news  

.  
 
can other who have also been able to compare booth DAP confirm this ?

 

[harmonix]

  I mean no offense to any of you guys, but this is how new audiophile markets get created. Launch a product that makes certain claims at an exorbitant price and suddenly everyone starts wondering if they need it, because it might sound better. At best, it'll be a <1% improvement, but I doubt there will be any at all. Pseudo-science. Just like the whole cables thing.

I won't dismiss it until I've tried it for myself - though this is the first time I have heard that memory cards make a difference. Actually first DAP I have with a card slot.
Some of the biggest performance gains on my large system has to do with cleaning up the power in AC and electronic grunge (EMI/RFI)...