loaded and charged!
Some very quick first impressions:
I absolutely love the screen; I have an aversion of LCD-screens because of their being subtly off-colours; no coincidence I got a plasma at home.
But this OLED-screen has really beautiful lively colors. If this is what future televisions are going to be like, I’m gonna have one.
Interface: great: just tried a few things, but it works great, and very logical; browsing through 300+ albums is no problem whatsoever. looks cool too, and the flipping and all that modern stuff is really well executed.
Sound Quality: very good, as good as my A808, but not obviously better; almost the same in fact. There are small differences, the X sounding maybe more organic, the A808 slightly more lean slightly less sonylike then usual but again the differences are small.
It might be getting used to things, a complete lack of burning in; going from ATRAC to MP3 etc.
But both units sound so much the same that I will survive a blind test (and that from someone who is convinced he can easily hear differences in interconnects in my speakerbased system).
But apparently this burn-in thing is for real here (I’m a believer in burn in anyway having heart components and cables chance radically in the first 10 or 20 hours) so I'll see how this all works out. If it gets even better I'll be even more happy then I already am with the SQ.
update: upon careful listening there indeed seem to be some not-burned-in artefacts; slightly edgy treble, slightly boomy bass, no doubt these will disappear.
BTW, this unit is not more powerful then the A808, F.I. it doesn't drive my HD485 better, and on other headphones I need to set the volume about 2 points to get the same subjective volume I get out of the A808.
Anyway, SQ is top, having heart some of -but far from all- other brands, I haven't heart anything better, but a lot of DAP's from famous brands sounding (far) worse (no amp, DAP>phone).
Build quality: excellent, Sony at it’s best. OTOH, not quite completely my taste: the sides look like burned plastic, the front and back are fingerprint magnets with stupid little glitters, but material choice and build quality is Sony at its best.
All in all, I’m very happy, and thinking right now that for someone with my demands (SQ first, memorysize, build quality, batterylife and then good looks/style after that) this is the best choice.
