Modifying WM1Z/A

[524419]

I wonder how is your journey going

Capacitors come in Monday. Got delayed in shipping

 

[Morbideath]

I had to dramatize it as its the special ones

Man, should they hire u in charge of marketing (bad joke, sorry), Romi would have become much more popular than MS!
Too limited mod info was disclosed by Romi, instead i was taken in by the word salads of MS years ago.
I'm glad I'm ascending to immortality. Hallelujah!

 

[Lookout57]

All this talk about Romi is tempting me to have him mod one of my WM1A's.

 

[Morbideath]

All this talk about Romi is tempting me to have him mod one of my WM1A's.

Neither of us have ever auditioned it yet… It's already Vitaly's stairway to heaven. Sorry if i was misleading.

 

[endlesswaves]

All this talk about Romi is tempting me to have him mod one of my WM1A's.

Pardon me for asking. I see you have both 1A and 1Z. Why mod the 1A and not the 1Z. Won't modding the 1Z will improve the sq more than the 1A with the same mod?

 

[Whitigir]

Pardon me for asking. I see you have both 1A and 1Z. Why mod the 1A and not the 1Z. Won't modding the 1Z will improve the sq more than the 1A with the same mod?

Nope, the differences after extensive hardware mods between WM1A to WM1Z is only 2

1/ Chassis of OFC Goldplated
2/ Firmware limitations

It depends on how you are utilizing the Ground of WM1Z, which determines what voicing you are tuning it to

Beside that WM1Z mainboard is $600 to replace as part, where as WM1A is only $300.

Unless you love and appreciate the Golden chassis, I don’t see why would you want to modify WM1Z. It could be very heavy for portability usage.

With the used price of WM1A, it is unbeatable to have extensive modifications done on it in comparison to WM1Z

 

[endlesswaves]

Nope, the differences after extensive hardware mods between WM1A to WM1Z is only 2

1/ Chassis of OFC Goldplated
2/ Firmware limitations

It depends on how you are utilizing the Ground of WM1Z, which determines what voicing you are tuning it to

Beside that WM1Z mainboard is $600 to replace as part, where as WM1A is only $300.

Unless you love and appreciate the Golden chassis, I don’t see why would you want to modify WM1Z. It could be very heavy for portability usage.

With the used price of WM1A, it is unbeatable to have extensive modifications done on it in comparison to WM1Z

Thanks. 1 step less to attain audio nirvana.

 

[Lookout57]

Pardon me for asking. I see you have both 1A and 1Z. Why mod the 1A and not the 1Z. Won't modding the 1Z will improve the sq more than the 1A with the same mod?

Whitigir summed it up correctly. As he has previously described the 1Z is Sony's modded version of the 1A. And the 1Z is so heavy that I use it mainly at home or when I travel on an airplane or in a hotel.

The 1A I would get modded is the one I take on the train when traveling to meetings for work or listen to in bed before I go to sleep. So to get close to 1Z performance in the 1A package is why I would do it.

 

[Queen6]

Nope, the differences after extensive hardware mods between WM1A to WM1Z is only 2

1/ Chassis of OFC Goldplated
2/ Firmware limitations

It depends on how you are utilizing the Ground of WM1Z, which determines what voicing you are tuning it to

Beside that WM1Z mainboard is $600 to replace as part, where as WM1A is only $300.

Unless you love and appreciate the Golden chassis, I don’t see why would you want to modify WM1Z. It could be very heavy for portability usage.

With the used price of WM1A, it is unbeatable to have extensive modifications done on it in comparison to WM1Z

The OFC chassis has some minor advantage, equally far more related to sales & marketing and prestige that technical attributes. WM1A off the secondary market is a perfect for modding. As you said the WM1A is a bargain, WM1Z reasonably priced given the current landscape of high end DAP's

Q-6

 

[lumdicks]

Nope, the differences after extensive hardware mods between WM1A to WM1Z is only 2

1/ Chassis of OFC Goldplated
2/ Firmware limitations

It depends on how you are utilizing the Ground of WM1Z, which determines what voicing you are tuning it to

Beside that WM1Z mainboard is $600 to replace as part, where as WM1A is only $300.

Unless you love and appreciate the Golden chassis, I don’t see why would you want to modify WM1Z. It could be very heavy for portability usage.

With the used price of WM1A, it is unbeatable to have extensive modifications done on it in comparison to WM1Z

I recently left the Solar System and using @Whitigir DMP Musical FW on my Romi modded 1A, of which I did not like with my stock 1Z. Now I can get that the upper the tier of the hardware, the higher performance of any particular FW, irrespective of tier.

My stock 1Z stayed at Jupiter 3.01, which is lovely.

 

[lumdicks]

The OFC chassis has some minor advantage, equally far more related to sales & marketing and prestige that technical attributes. WM1A off the secondary market is a perfect for modding. As you said the WM1A is a bargain, WM1Z reasonably priced given the current landscape of high end DAP's

Q-6

Agreed, almost a steal so weight for travel should be the main concern.

 

[hshock76]

Man, should they hire u in charge of marketing (bad joke, sorry), Romi would have become much more popular than MS!
Too limited mod info was disclosed by Romi, instead i was taken in by the word salads of MS years ago.
I'm glad I'm ascending to immortality. Hallelujah!

Can't wait to hear your early impressions of Romi vs your friend's MS Ultimate Mod.. The one thing that was holding me back to do the Romi mod was the LP-Vinyl signature he was marketing. I was concerned that it will too warm and deviate from Sony's original signature or is only good for certain genres like vocals.

Unfortunate to hear that your MS Mod did not work out or was flawed. I believe with the new management since last year things are much better now. I spend quite a fair bit of my afternoons in MS whenever I am back in SQ and all I can say is that their crew, both full time and part timers are great. Both MS and Romi have different strategies for their Mods and what they aim to achieve: MS - extension of Sony signature; Romi - LP-Vinyl.

Coincidentally, I have heard 2 mentions of Elna Selmic II Caps in the last 2 days. so that's prob what I will consider as a next step for my MS 1Z... but it's always about synergy and I know who I can turn to whenever I need more knowledge on all things Mod related... Yes Mr @Whitigir?

 

[Morbideath]

Can't wait to hear your early impressions of Romi vs your friend's MS Ultimate Mod.. The one thing that was holding me back to do the Romi mod was the LP-Vinyl signature he was marketing. I was concerned that it will too warm and deviate from Sony's original signature or is only good for certain genres like vocals.

Unfortunate to hear that your MS Mod did not work out or was flawed. I believe with the new management since last year things are much better now. I spend quite a fair bit of my afternoons in MS whenever I am back in SQ and all I can say is that their crew, both full time and part timers are great. Both MS and Romi have different strategies for their Mods and what they aim to achieve: MS - extension of Sony signature; Romi - LP-Vinyl.

Coincidentally, I have heard 2 mentions of Elna Selmic II Caps in the last 2 days. so that's prob what I will consider as a next step for my MS 1Z... but it's always about synergy and I know who I can turn to whenever I need more knowledge on all things Mod related... Yes Mr @Whitigir?

Synergy is one thing, the other thing is implementations. I insist fitting BG caps to my device but Romi said the 1960 wiring is blocking the placement of caps. Also due to the sloppy soldering the wiring cannot be reused anymore. So if u wanna add more caps, it depends on implementations of different modders

 

[hshock76]

Synergy is one thing, the other thing is implementations. I insist fitting BG caps to my device but Romi said the 1960 wiring is blocking the placement of caps. Also due to the sloppy soldering the wiring cannot be reused anymore. So if u wanna add more caps, it depends on implementations of different modders

Yes agree on the implementation part of it. The WMS on your unit was def disappointing. Hopefully mine being a personal unit of one of their management staff is done better. I'm not planning to open to check and risk spoiling the experience as I have so much joy with it now.

Btw, the MDR is getting more love from the walkman vs the IER with Helios. Stopped listening to the MDR on the Tazzy and never thought the closed backs can sound so good on a smaller, less powerful amp/player.

I have also been looking for sites to download high Res mandarin/cantonese albums for the longest time with no success but chanced upon hifitrack.com in one posts in this forum and found loads of DSD albums! I am a happy man now. God answered one of my prayers on Easter Sunday!! My turn to Hallelujah! If you know of any other sites let me know.

 

[Morbideath]

Yes agree on the implementation part of it. The WMS on your unit was def disappointing. Hopefully mine being a personal unit of one of their management staff is done better. I'm not planning to open to check and risk spoiling the experience as I have so much joy with it now.

Btw, the MDR is getting more love from the walkman vs the IER with Helios. Stopped listening to the MDR on the Tazzy and never thought the closed backs can sound so good on a smaller, less powerful amp/player.

I have also been looking for sites to download high Res mandarin/cantonese albums for the longest time with no success but chanced upon hifitrack.com in one posts in this forum and found loads of DSD albums! I am a happy man now. God answered one of my prayers on Easter Sunday!! My turn to Hallelujah! If you know of any other sites let me know.

MS mod does sound good but not to the full extent as advertised. For such a premium / expensive mod this is unacceptable for many out there.

Yeah since u can read Mandarin It's much easier. PM sent