[moemoney]

I don’t disagree with regarding a Warranty but I did purchase the ones I have that way and that was about 3 years ago and they are holding up. But that worked for me and I saved a few dollars. I look at it, like buying from someone on this website used, there is no guarantee how long its going to last.

 

[RYCeT]

Thanks for alerting. Agree with you on getting a legit one with full warranty. This can is so good that you will want to keep for years and would benefit from having full warranty.

How long is the warranty on this headphone anyway? I bought mine used from here. I don't know whether it has international warranty, US warranty or none at all at this point. I do know it's holding up pretty good and I save some money. But this is Sony, if it's Hifiman, it will be a different calculation

 

[xanlamin]

I believe it is 1 year

 

[Nitreb]

Products in that price range should offer at least a 5-year warranty.

I believe it is 1 year

 

[Quadfather]

Well, yes, I think brand animosity, or its converse, bias, is an established thing. I've come to realize that fans of a certain brand are usually more accommodating to the flaws in a certain product. In terms of headphones, this degree of flexibility can stretch the gamut - from build, to sound quality, to aesthetics. I'm guilty of this as well, to be honest. I'm something of a Sony fanboy myself; most of its products are instantly must-try items, regardless of the categories they reside within. As much as I try to dissociate myself from this inherent bias, it's quite difficult to banish this portion of my psyche.

Everybody is trying to talk me into the Shanling M8 over the Sony NW - WM1Z, but I love Sony so much having the Sony NW - WM1A, that it's hard to leave.

 

[Hinomotocho]

Everybody is trying to talk me into the Shanling M8 over the Sony NW - WM1Z, but I love Sony so much having the Sony NW - WM1A, that it's hard to leave.

I just read the Headfonics review with WM1A comparison - I have a long history with Sony and have a lot of love for my WM1A, but that is a tough choice. You usually use overheads? The WM1 series does OK but the M8 might a better choice?

 

[Quadfather]

I just read the Headfonics review with WM1A comparison - I have a long history with Sony and have a lot of love for my WM1A, but that is a tough choice. You usually use overheads? The WM1 series does OK but the M8 might a better choice?

I primarily use headphones and may give it a whirl.

 

[xanlamin]

How about getting both? no need to choose then!

 

[nanaholic]

Everybody is trying to talk me into the Shanling M8 over the Sony NW - WM1Z, but I love Sony so much having the Sony NW - WM1A, that it's hard to leave.

Sony is the only DAP maker using their own digital-to-analogue conversion solution in their Walkman instead of picking an off the shelf DAC chip from AKM/ESS Saber/Cirus Logic, that automatically puts them a rank higher than pretty much all other DAP makers in my book. I'd rather support Sony so they can push the technology envelope further since they are completely unique and if their Walkman division goes under it's a complete end of the line, whereas the other DAP makers don't really need anymore support since it takes much less know-hows to use off the shelf chips.

 

[Hinomotocho]

I primarily use headphones and may give it a whirl.

I own the MDR-Z1R and I really enjoy them balanced out of my WM1A but a more powerful source will generally take overheads, even easy to drive, to another level. It's not all about volume. I know many 1A/1Z owners have a differing opinion, just sharing my experience as something for you to consider using overheads.
That being said I bought a desktop for my Z1R but otherwise would stick with my WM1A.

*I thought I was on the 1A/1Z that's why I said I own the Z1R

 

[VladYR]

I own the MDR-Z1R and I really enjoy them balanced out of my WM1A but a more powerful source will generally take overheads, even easy to drive, to another level. It's not all about volume. I know many 1A/1Z owners have a differing opinion, just sharing my experience as something for you to consider using overheads.
That being said I bought a desktop for my Z1R but otherwise would stick with my WM1A.

*I thought I was on the 1A/1Z that's why I said I own the Z1R

I owned the WM1A for around 6 months then bought the TA-ZH1ES. While the Walkman sounded great in its own right, the desktop amp took it to a whole new level. What made it sound truly incredible was an upgrade to the power cables. I went with Nordost Frey 2. Sure, it might be a tad absurd to add a cable that costs as much as the amp itself but the jump in performance was well worth it.

 

[MatthewWeflen]

I own the MDR-Z1R and I really enjoy them balanced out of my WM1A but a more powerful source will generally take overheads, even easy to drive, to another level. It's not all about volume. I know many 1A/1Z owners have a differing opinion, just sharing my experience as something for you to consider using overheads.
That being said I bought a desktop for my Z1R but otherwise would stick with my WM1A.

*I thought I was on the 1A/1Z that's why I said I own the Z1R

I haven't seen a convincing argument that amps do anything but make things louder. Do you have any online resources you could share that would enlighten me?

Or, alternatively, an inexpensive amplifier recommendation that would deliver this demonstrable non-volume improvement?

 

[nc8000]

I haven't seen a convincing argument that amps do anything but make things louder. Do you have any online resources you could share that would enlighten me?

Or, alternatively, an inexpensive amplifier recommendation that would deliver this demonstrable non-volume improvement?

Just like any other piece of sound equipment amps have each their own signature, why should it be different for amps, or do you generally mean that all sound equipment sound the same ?

 

[Kammerat Rebekka]

I haven't seen a convincing argument that amps do anything but make things louder. Do you have any online resources you could share that would enlighten me?

Or, alternatively, an inexpensive amplifier recommendation that would deliver this demonstrable non-volume improvement?

There are none because all amp reviews rely on sighted testing...which seems to be the sole reason for people hearing differences between amps (outside of impedance mismatching of course).
It’s a little funny...blindtesting is an integral part of finding out the truth in all kinds of venues where one hopes to eliminate human bias. That’s how we make medicine or indeed find out whether or not a wine is up to scratch...but not in audio! That would expose the emperor’s new clothes.

 

[VladYR]

There’s actually a noticeable increase in the width and depth of soundstage when going from WM1A to TA-ZH1ES. It’s not just the ability to significantly increase volume, although there’s also that benefit. I did some testing when I had both of those units. A friend of mine came over once to listen to some music and test out some different headphones. This amp can push the Z1Rs to volumes loud enough to sound like near field monitors . Aside from that, it gives you some options to improve detail retrieval though upgrades to power and usb cables.