Sony did not pay anywhere remotely close to $1000 for a volume pot, I would be shocked if they paid even $300. I found a DIY forum where in 2015 an RK50 was sold for $498US, and that is to a hobbyist. Sony is not paying anywhere, not even remotely close to 1K for a volume pot, not a chance.
It's custom made especially for Sony using OFC. I don't know what the original RK501 is made out of and google doesn't help (but logic will say if they are already made with OFC it would be heavily advertised as such and would easily come up in search). So with this level of customisation you actually have no idea how much they pay for one.
While this solder type is exotic in most applications, it is very commonly found in high performance scientific equipment. Nothing to write home about really, and definitely not a "new" discovery.
A lot of things in electronics, especially for the tried and true audio application, are not revolutionary new discoveries, but rather step evolution and improvement on the basic building blocks and components. The circuit design themselves are already well understood (maybe even a little too well), leaving makers seeking improvements in better resistors, better capacitors, better diodes etc. If the don't have better DAC chips to play with (which comes in fairly predictable life cycles currently), then you go and improve the other building blocks, and if those building blocks aren't improving, they go out of their way and make their own. This seems to be what they have done here, while it's not something to write home about, but on the other hand to just brush that off entirely is not quite fair either.
I don’t see exotic solder being used in expensive audio gears, unless it is my DIY stuff. So I can count the credit toward Sony for this, but still...exotic solder has existed since forever and not new
While this solder type is exotic in most applications, it is very commonly found in high performance scientific equipment. Nothing to write home about really, and definitely not a "new" discovery.
I don’t see exotic solder being used in expensive audio gears, unless it is my DIY stuff. So I can count the credit toward Sony for this, but still...exotic solder has existed since forever and not new
If they're just using this alloy to solder the Kimber Kables then I agree, it's no big deal, but if they've developed a gold-based alloy that's compatible with a mass soldering process and that mitigates the embrittlement issue associated with gold, then THAT is a big deal.
It's custom made especially for Sony using OFC. I don't know what the original RK501 is made out of and google doesn't help (but logic will say if they are already made with OFC it would be heavily advertised as such and would easily come up in search). So with this level of customisation you actually have no idea how much they pay for one.
Another thing to remember is the DMP-Z1 is likely voiced for the Z1R so it may not be a neutral voicing. I personally would go with something more powerful if you plan to drive the 300 ohm load or those hard to drive orthos. I also think that the ZH1ES is more powerful than the Z1 given the same load. Can anyone please tell me if Sony used an upgraded USB cable on the ZH1ES while put it up against the Z1? I find the supplied Walkman to ZH1ES cable is holding the ZH1ES a good deal. Thanks.
Battery power supply done right is superior to LPS interm of noise. Still, the lack of any DAC or line out puzzle me. I still don't buy the whole Texas Instrument headphone module thing. It's like I am doing all these front end works on the DAC side but I want to shortchange myself on the amplification stage.
Battery power supply done right is superior to LPS interm of noise. Still, the lack of any DAC or line out puzzle me. I still don't buy the whole Texas Instrument headphone module thing. It's like I am doing all these front end works on the DAC side but I want to shortchange myself on the amplification stage.
Is the Texas Instrument amp stage not up to the task in general, or is there a particular area of weakness that it has that concerns you? I haven't much time these days to research so I haven't looked into the amp side of this at all.
Is the Texas Instrument amp stage not up to the task in general, or is there a particular area of weakness that it has that concerns you? I haven't much time these days to research so I haven't looked into the amp side of this at all.
TPA6120A2 - Texas Instruments. You can do a search even on amazon.com and you will see that this particular chip is being used in various products mostly on the low end side, and on portable amps. I'm sure that Sony will be able to extract the very best performance from this integrated chip but it is a far cry from the amplification stage of $2000 DAC/amp units.
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