[Mhog55]

Sony ZX300A at $380 dollars is pretty special. Also 2nd the Opus 1. Yeah night and day on the battery life between these two.

Opus #1 or #1s? 1s sounds better to my ears

 

[ncristia]

Opus 1, don't have the s. Went with the Sony and thought I'd miss the second slot for the SD but the Sony handles a 400g card, so all good.

 

[gc335]

Yeah, good idea, (but lotta work!) I was already begining to think about taking in account the features and interfact type, as well as size for portability aspect.

How would you call the categories? Like: Ultra portable. Battery Life. WIFI. With BT. High SQ...???

Personally, its the sound quality that always is more important to me, but interface and battery life are too. So perhaps I would like less categories as possible...not too much.



LOL. Yeah...rationality ask WHY???
But....the voice in my head say always WHY NOT! Less so for expansive one tough where the voice say: make ALOT of reasearch and reasoning before taking the plunge...but again, it can make me sold DAP that I will miss...like the Faudio FA1. This time its for sound only, all the rest kinda piss me off: battery life, interface, portability (so heavy), strange 2.5mm output performance (but it was perhaps due to the cable I have at the time).

I have right now: Ibasso DX90 (still my favorite but he begin to age), Xduoo X20 (so neutral AND underated!), Xduoo X3 first gen (love it but the price jump and cause its out of production), Xduoo X3II (kind of very smooth sound, plus or drawback depending, but BT compensate....i guess), Xduoo X10 (pass!), Xduoo D3 (wanna love it, but UI is a disaster, sadcause it could have been an upgrade to X2), Walnut V2S (use it as a portable amp=love it!), Benjie S5 (very practical for supreme portable DAP for survival in forest or something)...perhaps I have other too and forget. I consider Radsone ES100 as a portableDAP too because my phonejust take dust in my pocket anyway.

Whats you favorite...and talking about...overall value, would you say DX200 worth the jump?? And should XDP-100R be in the list??

The DX150 hits the sweet spot. The DX200 is a little more layered and detailed. A lot of times I feel the 150 is easier to listen to on longer listening sessions. It’s more mello.

At the current used prices the XDP100r and 300r are an easy choice.

 

[NymPHONOmaniac]

Sony ZX300A at $380 dollars is pretty special. Also 2nd the Opus 1. Yeah night and day on the battery life between these two.

Thats quite an...obscure Sony product, not on amazon.com...I think. Why is it pretty special?

Sony battery life is surely the winner, and Opus win for sound enh?

 

[ScottPilgrim]

Maybe add tags in each player for sound flavor, e.g. dynamic, wide, neutral etc

Personally looking at Zishan 4497 cause of opamp swap.

 

[ncristia]

Thats quite an...obscure Sony product, not on amazon.com...I think. Why is it pretty special?

Sony battery life is surely the winner, and Opus win for sound enh?

It’s the same as the Sony ZX 300 but with less on board storage, 16g vs 64g but half the price and it’s the Chinese version and only available at Joybuy. The Sony has its own thread. The balanced out is what brings it up above the opus1 in clarity and bass.

 

[ncristia]

It’s the same as the Sony ZX 300 but with less on board storage, 16g vs 64g but half the price and it’s the Chinese version and only available at Joybuy. The Sony has its own thread. The balanced out is what brings it up above the opus1 in clarity and bass.

The thread has 586 pages.

 

[NymPHONOmaniac]

Maybe add tags in each player for sound flavor, e.g. dynamic, wide, neutral etc

Personally looking at Zishan 4497 cause of opamp swap.

Man...yeah, perhaps....but as I dont have listen to them all it will mean crazy research!
But i do some research (or personal impressions) to highlight the Plus of each other as well as the drawback...it will evolve for sure and became more precise..was thinking about some legend numbers...like 1 for ultra portable, 2 for ultra long battery life, 3 for high end sound, 4 for intuitive interface etc...Zishan surely just have a 3 in this, but for its 100$ price its crazy good value IMO

 

[NymPHONOmaniac]

It’s the same as the Sony ZX 300 but with less on board storage, 16g vs 64g but half the price and it’s the Chinese version and only available at Joybuy. The Sony has its own thread. The balanced out is what brings it up above the opus1 in clarity and bass.

What about battery life?

Pretty crazy deal if we take the fact ZX300 cost double of it.

My fisrt unserious DAP was a little sony stuffs...16g...sound was coloured but UI was nice...i'm still curious about Sony more high end DAP but find the price crazy high, this look an affordable solution.

 

[dnaimad]

I dipped into the Sony thread and it looks like there's zero info on the DAC used, etc. Output volume is low and needs EQing to get decent sound. And the non-standard Sony usb lead.

 

[NymPHONOmaniac]

Oh....EQing? Need more impressions before puting it in the list then. Surely the DAC is sony made too.

Im curious about the mysterious Activo Ct10. Cirrus dac. Wifi. Handy and small....and made in collaboration with Astell Kern.

 

[Mhog55]

Oh....EQing? Need more impressions before puting it in the list then. Surely the DAC is sony made too.

Im curious about the mysterious Activo Ct10. Cirrus dac. Wifi. Handy and small....and made in collaboration with Astell Kern.

Wow. That's a slick looking device. Same dac chip as the ak70 mkii, just single, and I really like the white color and UI. Unfortunately, it's rather limited in power output. Otherwise, seems like a lot of bang for your buck.

 

[Mhog55]

I dipped into the Sony thread and it looks like there's zero info on the DAC used, etc. Output volume is low and needs EQing to get decent sound. And the non-standard Sony usb lead.

Finding power output of Sony daps is near impossible. I'd have to hear a couple of them before considering, mostly because they use proprietary dac components.

 

[NymPHONOmaniac]

Wow. That's a slick looking device. Same dac chip as the ak70 mkii, just single, and I really like the white color and UI. Unfortunately, it's rather limited in power output. Otherwise, seems like a lot of bang for your buck.

Yeah, I fall some month ago on CT10 on Aliexpress....was very confuse about lack of impressions or feedback about this promising device...i mean, its Iriver! Touch screen, wifi, 16g internal plus micro sd, nice cirrus CS4498 dac, line out, BT, 24bit/192khz support, nice looking, small and sleek....now that its 250$ on Aliexpress....well, its even more intriguing.

https://www.activostyle.com/product

Perhaps its popular in Japan...don't know, here there a thread tough...perphaps its a GOOD SOUNDING Ipod touch too:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/any-love-for-the-activo-ct10.883834/page-5

 

[ncristia]

What about battery life?

Pretty crazy deal if we take the fact ZX300 cost double of it.

My fisrt unserious DAP was a little sony stuffs...16g...sound was coloured but UI was nice...i'm still curious about Sony more high end DAP but find the price crazy high, this look an affordable solution.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/sony-nw-zx300.854693/page-587 https://www.joybuy.com/product/600192296.html I've used this with Campfire Audio Andromeda, Empire Ears Bravado, Sony EX1000, Oriolus Finschi and most recently Custom Art Blacks, and always using 4.4 balanced output and-it is incredible and sounds great with no eq and using direct only. Great UI.