There is a review online of the RS8 by a very well respected reviewer named "twister" who says the Sony and RS8 sound very very similar. Biggest difference in sound being the Sony has more sparkly Treble and RS8 more rounded; but he seems to imply they are very much in the same family of sound. Regarding power- if your going use over the ear headphones like LCD-4Z or Meze Elite, you will need the RS8 power. If only for iem, Sony has all you need (plus)- so why carry around a much heavier and larger dap? The value to me of the RS8 is if you also want to listen to easy to drive headphones which the Sony just cannot optimally drive do to being less powerful.Even if RS8 could upsample to DSD it wouldn't sound anything like the 1ZM2. Very different players with different technology. RS8 is much faster and more powerful, with system-wide EQ and a smooth R2R sound, while the Sony has its own strengths. I'd say the two are more complementary than competitive, and that the best pairing ultimately depends as much on the IEM as it does the player.
Last edited: