[Pokemonn]

You guys should know that IF Sony start to sell "perfect" products, then many small company will bankrupt...Lol

 

[audionewbi]

So my friends slowly getting back home and I've asked them about various gears. The few who tested the DMP-Z1 all agreed it was good sounding but at this price point none of them got to see its purpose, they are all dominantly speaker users, so they have no proper respect for headphones, but they all saw themselves listening to such a setup at home, albeit they all disagreed on the price.

The IEM user friend hasnt replied back to my inbox yet, they are the one i'm hoping to hear from.

Sadly non of them tested the IER-Z1R.

 

[audionewbi]

Some interesting read, from marketing point of view of Sony that is!
https://www.sony.com.au/microsite/c...release_-_Sony_remasters_Signature_Series.pdf

 

[Whitigir]

Thanks! I think in all of the newest release, the IER-Z1R is more a unique Sony move. It has all the fancy stuff one can dream off. The DMP-Z1 is such a failure for it pricing. I don’t see this unit to be competing against a proper desktop setup at the same price at all.

The power output is only 1.5W at 16Ohms. Now...that is a bit sad. Why couldn’t Sony do with Sony own discrete amps....

Funny, the price of RK50 is so out of this world, yet to finally be in the end meeting an amp chip of

Buy by 1000x and the price of
TPA6120A2: 1.66 cents

 

[audionewbi]

Thanks! I think in all of the newest release, the IER-Z1R is more a unique Sony move. It has all the fancy stuff one can dream off. The DMP-Z1 is such a failure for it pricing. I don’t see this unit to be competing against a proper desktop setup at the same price at all.

The power output is only 1.5W at 16Ohms. Now...that is a bit sad. Why couldn’t Sony do with Sony own discrete amps....

Buy by 1000x and the price of
TPA6120A2: 1.66 cents

One of my friend who has the t+a dsd8 dac and uses its home PC to upsample everything to DSD using HQplayer said it best. He told me it isn't small enough to be portable and if you are at home why would you not just spend that money on a DAC/amp setup that can eventually be used in your home stereo if you happened to want to go down that path.

He loves his DSD and loves his DSD 8. Every year he keeps an eye on Sony to see whether the Sony/Phillip love child file format will release something special to handle DSD. He did not like the Sony TA-ZH1ES at all. He did like my WM1A paired with JVC FW01 but he is not a fane of 4.4mm plug, which I happened to love. He believes the single ended output, if designed correctly has alot of offer. He pairs a TH900 with the DSD 8, which happened to be my favourite closed back headphone as well. That headphone isn't too fussy about amping, which might explain his point of view.

 

[Whitigir]

DMP-Z1 is said to be carriable ! It is the first of it kind, you just carry it inside your backpack if needed, and onto airplane pack to listen to it

Still, this price point, and the pricing between rk50 vs tpa is mind boggling

 

[audionewbi]

DMP-Z1 is said to be carriable ! It is the first of it kind, you just carry it inside your backpack if needed, and onto airplane pack to listen to it

Still, this price point, and the pricing between rk50 vs tpa is mind boggling

I've heard the best potentiometer is none! But I do believe the RK50 will impact the sound, however lack of discrete headphone amp is very disappointing. It feels like they were giving a target selling point and were told to make a product as soon as possible!

 

[Whitigir]

I've heard the best potentiometer is none! But I do believe the RK50 will impact the sound, however lack of discrete headphone amp is very disappointing. It feels like they were giving a target selling point and were told to make a product as soon as possible!

Yes, the RK50 ofoucrse will impact the sound (warmer signature and specially strong true fidelity bass performances). I observe it, and there are others who also agrees. You are correct that 0 potentialmeters is the best. I agree with the highlighted parts LOL.

See, the crossover network of IER-Z1R is fancy components and small enough to fit. Ofcourse Sony has the ability to fit discrete amps just as small inside the DMP-Z1....but I Bet, the highlighted above happened !

 

[Rinne H.]

Reserved

 

[nanaholic]

I've heard the best potentiometer is none! But I do believe the RK50 will impact the sound, however lack of discrete headphone amp is very disappointing. It feels like they were giving a target selling point and were told to make a product as soon as possible!

That is not my impression at all. Again as I've said before:
1) This is a product by the Walkman team and not a TA product, they never intended for this to compete with the desktop amps from the other team, thus their philosophy is different from a TA amp and what they want to do. Thus batteries instead of transformers (both for noise reason AND because Walkmans will be running on batteries, duh), a self contained machine instead of one needing a source etc.
2) Again the idea of this product is for the team to explore what is possible/will be possible to be used in future Walkmans, a discrete amp section will not give them what they need to learn when the new S-Master comes out (which will be the IC amp in place of the TI chip here, obviously), and they focused their effort on the analog buffer stage - there's an entire separate PCB of the analog stage in the DMP-Z1 that is build with all of Sony's newest caps and condensers (all discrete components!), which sits completely separately in its own compartment in the H-shaped chassis. This is also something new in terms of chassis design - instead of the traditional U shape bath-tub design, they are doing an H-shaped separate compartment chassis for better EMI shielding and separation between the digital section and the analog section. This is definitely something I want them to apply to the Walkman.

Just because you don't understand the product there is no way that this thing was ordered by the top as a "just make one" device, not with the level of detail both Sato-san had been able to tell me regarding how each part came about, there's clearly lots of love given to this just by the way Sato-sans were able to talk about it. (I'm an EE grad, I know what it is like to throw together something which you don't want to do, the DMP-Z1 is clearly not such a thing).

Also PM Sato-san had said to me there will be a very detailed interview of the DMP-Z1 just like the WM1 interview. I asked him to get someone in the company to translate it professionally and release it in English so that people can understand their vision better - just like with the WM1 (and after I translated it, which I remember very vividly). He said there would at least be a Chinese version, and perhaps their Singapore branch will do it though no promises. I'd suggest you hold those speculations until you get to at least see the product from their POV.

 

[purk]

Like I said before, I'm not getting the idea of the TI TPA chip. If the company wants to use it in the walkman, why not prototype it in one of the walkman. The DMZ should not be used as a test best given its pricetag. I have sampled many desktop amplifiers, and the one with an integrated chip always sound the least expensive. This is true given that you are trading performance with available space. On desktop headphone amps, I'm most impressed by ECP audio. You can search ECP T4 or Ravenswood or L3 and see the internal. His circuit designs are very crafty and his build quality is second to none. My ECP L3 + HD800/R10 can compete with the very top end electrostatic system head on including the KGSSHV + SR009.

 

[Whitigir]

Even Burson, a small company, can do a discrete Op-Amp design. I don’t see why Sony can not....the idea of expensive front end including RK50 to just be choked down by TPA is crazy and make no senses. Even IER-Z1R has discrete components for Cross over (thin film Capacitors and F-Resistors)

 

[purk]

Even Burson, a small company, can do a discrete Op-Amp design. I don’t see why Sony can not....the idea of expensive front end including RK50 to just be choked down by TPA is crazy and make no senses. Even IER-Z1R has discrete components for Cross over (thin film Capacitors and F-Resistors)

Very much agreed here. It sounds like they ran out of space and decided to use the integrated amp module to save space. If you notice, Sony didn't say much about the amp module except "high quality analog amp module". We need extreme top end at this level.

 

[Kakki]

Actually, everyone knows that step attenuators with precision fixed resisters always sound much better than those variable attenuators...
You can see that almost all high-end pre-amps are now getting away from those traditional variable attenuators because they are not precise, not good in sound and also short in lifetime.

I still think that DMP-Z1 design philosophy is very much confused / compromised... because if Sato-san wants to make something new for the next generation Walkman, why is it a big traditional variable attenuator?
Everyone knows that it is very difficult to make a precision variable attenuator in small size ... that is why all precision / expensive variable attenuators are always big in size. They will not fit into the next generation Walkman.

All I can say is that DMP-Z1 is a very unique product (in a bad way) in SONY history based on very much confused / compromised design philosophy and has nothing to do with past good SONY traditions or DNA.
You can easily know that from the product name as well ... it has nothing to do with past TA series, nor ES / R-series.

 

[Whitigir]

Yeah, this product is of it own line. Probably a water down version will soon be following. Yeah, Sony loving people knows the company history and inspirations as much as discovery. This one magnate to make everyone scratching their head.

The most unique and valuable offers now are: IER-Z1R, and MDR-Z7 MKII.