Thanks Benwu. Which third party cable did you try and what is made of? OFC/OCC copper or silver plated copper?

Hi, Has anyone tried the M1 with balanced cable yet? If yes the one pioneer or third party and did you find appreciable uptick in sound quality? Thx

Hi all, As a new and proud owner of 1Z I have tried to go through all the pages on this thread, right from page 1 and am sure I have covered at least 85% (may have skipped some) over let few days. So please gentle when I ask questions, I have tried to find answers first through the earlier...

Hi guys, I just bought my NM WM1Z in Japan. Its international version. How do I check if its EU version and/or volume capped? Thanks Blue Star

Hi mate, i get it. Thing is - i bought these two amps way back in Hong Kong when I wasnt aware of the vacuum tube scenario in Japan. With over 35kgs the LM218A will be a pain to ship back for any kind of change. Not worth IMO. Instead I am slowly phasing these out from Japan to my bro who lives...

Exactly!

No, I am not aware of it. I have a step up transformer with more than enough headroom and my Line magnetic LM 2018A plugged to it and paired with my Dali Helicons doesn't sound sh!tty to me.    Could it be better? may be. But then I have other avenues to pursue for refinement  

Hi mate, Yes, I am aware. Have 2 amps which I really like and weren't available for Japan voltage when I bought. Running them with a 100 to 220V step up transformer :). 

No problem mate. I know how frustrating waiting can be. Hope you get your soon.

Got it. I can always buy and ship from here if you like ;)

You mean Amazon? Looks like they do have it in stock. Unlike Amazon US, Amazon JP doesn't sell them but you can find plenty on local marketplace (kikaku.com). Not sure about Amazon in other countries. 

I have been using the SEM1 with ZH1ES exebsively alongside the Z1R. Sounds exrenely good even via unbalanced output.

Echo it! I am listening to Audeze LCD XC with this amp and the combo sounds excellent!

Curious, what was the issue with your M1?

To be honest, Japanese companies are quite far behind when it comes to properly advertising their product or achievements. Just think Onkyo/Pioneer released XDP100/DP-X1 when for a while you couldn't find product description or manual in English. Its s shame really. My brother in law (Japanese)...

Perhaps Sony thought not worth stating the obvious..... It can be taken as insult in Japanese culture :)

Deleted duplicate post

Warm and in extremely good way!

I tested out a few headphones while burning in my amp. Here are some observations (all headphones except Pioneer SE M1 paired in balanced mode) - no surprise, Z1R pairs with this amp very well - Audeze LCD XC and LCD3 - ZH1ES drives both headphones quite easily. No loss of detail on LCD3 which...

  Quite frankly (just as AppleHeadMay said) I stopped comparing these two headphones long time back. Both of these are real beauties and are very fun and engaging headphones. If at all these two have made me appreciate the difference between dynamic and planer magnetic headphones. Also these...

I have the advantage of being a n00b :). Typically I can state my opinion explicitly and nobody comes after me :) :) LAN647 has a point that he listened to this headphone and is not bashing it purely on measurements. There are two ways I see this - this headphone aint his cup of tea. No issues...

Thanks mate. Unforunately that cable doesnt work for me all my amps have a single 4 pin output. I think for now I will just stick with the stock unbalanced cable. Unless there is a clear aonic benefit no point in shelling out cash giventhe M1 sounds truly awesome with the stock unbalanced cable...

I take this back. Mine has been burned in about 24 hours now. Listening to same setup today with some known bright tracks I cant find any noticeable brightness jump when switching on DSEE HK and/or DSD upscaling. If at all, the highs sound a bit more controlled from yesterday. Paired with Z1R...

Hi mate, let me try to answer your questions - straight of the box the amp sounded very nice but i am also burning in at the moment. Lets see if the sound characteristic changes - i have mostly flac and some DSD files. Audirvana on iMac to ZH1ES via USB cable - i do like the Z1R very much. Its...

Where did you get your balanced cable? Can you share some pics? Also, how does the sound compare with unbalanced cable? Any noticeable improvement? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk