coolhand
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PM me.
Official Sony DMP-Z1 Thread
- Thread starter monini13
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- dmp-z1 dmpz1 sony sony dmp-z1
gsiu33
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you may consider to replace the DMP-Z1 with a ZX300 and make the whole system portable, and also find that there is no difference in sound quality.
Decoconnas
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Somewhat seriously considering this unit as I have been wanting for a while to update my digital source (Hap Z1es) and my headphone amp (V200). Can this drive somewhat inefficient planars, I have LCD3. And, has anyone used this as a preamp with 4.4mm to RCA cables? And if so would it go into the power amp or into the preamp (likes phono stage for example)?
gerelmx1986
Headphoneus Supremus
Sinc demoing DMP back in may. I am wondering how well do the sony XBA-Z5 scale with it? Any one tried this combo @Damz87 or @Redcarmoose ?
It’s been a while since I had XBA-Z5 but yes, I do remember it scaling quite well with DMP-Z1. Main improvement that I can remember was in treble extension and better mid bass control.
gerelmx1986
Headphoneus Supremus
Is worth of it
Paying 699 us dollar for a brand new xba-z5 when i hqve IRR-z1r
No I don’t think it’s worth $700 in today’s IEM market, especially since you already own IER-Z1R
The XBA-Z5 is on sale at amazon.co.jp for ~48000yen (In germany that is, including shipping and taxes, roughly 480€, maybe thats a good deal in your country too?). But owning the IER-Z1R i would not go for the XBA-Z5. The XBA-Z5 sounds like a cheap version of the IER-Z1R, i'd rather go for the IER-M9 cause the M9 souns like a more balanced version of the Z1R and not just like a cheaper version.
Somewhere in this thread i read lots of different things about the DMP-Z1 and i thought as i understand japanese, can bring some insight about the DMP-Z1 questions asked here.
I have not read the whole thread as it has too many pages but it seems like not all questions have been answered. If i'm wrong, please excuse me.
One of the tings I've read here was that the DMP-Z1 and the WM1Z was developed by different teams and so don't share the same sound signature.
They haven't been. The same Team that developed the NW-ZX1 and ZX2 and ZX100 and ZX300 and ZX500 is the exact same team that developed the NW-WM1Z and the DMP-Z1
Team Leader of this Team is 佐藤 朝明 (Asaaki Sato) and he seems to work at Sony like forever. He works for the ソニービデオ＆サウンドプロダクツ株式会社 (Sony Video & Sound Products Corporation)
You know his face from the NW-ZX2 and the DMP-Z1 commercial videos from Sony where he presents the product.
The guy who is responsible for the Sound of the DMP-Z1 is 佐藤浩朗 (Hiroo Sato), the exact same guy that developed the Sound for the NW-WM1Z.
The DMP-Z1 uses the 8th Generation of Analog Amps developed by Sony by the Team of Asaaki Sato. The Generations 1-7 only have been used in prototypes and the only reason to not use the S-Master HX in the DMP-Z1 was, because it could not output enough power.
The TA-ZH1ES uses a power supply, needs USB-Cables/Walkman to connect to and so on. All these things cause an unclean signal. To still get a perfect sound and a clean signal out of the TA-ZH1ES it needed to be huge and complex (4,4kg!) and because it needed to S-Master HX to archive that, it could not output enough power as they initially wished.
So the TA-ZH1ES is, according to Sony, the best sound they can produce but with the downside, that its a huge and heavy brick that is not portable.
An Analog Amp could have output more power than the S-Master HX, but then the Signal wouldn't have been as clean. So Sony experimentet and tested for years with Analog Amps but because the Signal was never clean enough, they always used the S-Master HX (which does have limited output power)
To solve this issue, the idea was to remove anything that introduces noise. So remove the socket power supply, remove the external player, and so on.
The DMP-Z1 is basically an portable TA-ZH1ES for (mostly) business people who travel a lot, maybe have several places of living or often go to hotels and stuff like that.
The DMP-Z1 and the IER-Z1R have been developed together and are advertised together for exactly this group of people. They were designed for people who want the best sound possible with them when they leave their house.
The IER-Z1R was not (as many think) developed to be better than the MDR-Z1R, fix its issues or whatever and the DMP-Z1 was not designed to replace or be better as the TA-ZH1ES.
The MDR-Z1R, TA-ZH1ES and NW-WM1Z are the original Signature Serious and are, what Sony considers, the best sound you can get.
The DMP-Z1 and IER-Z1R later were added to the Signature Series to provide the same sound quality but portable.
And the biggest issue of the NW-WM1Z is its output power, not its sound quality. Yes, the TA-ZH1ES and the DMP-Z1 sound better than the NW-WM1Z, but the improvement is very marginal as stated by Asaaki Sato and Hiroo Sato. The DMP-Z1 does sound a little bit better, but that is not its main feature, it's a side effect. It sounds as much better as the TA-ZH1ES does.
Sources:
https://www.sony.jp/walkman/special/flagship/manufacturer/
https://www.sony.jp/audio/special/interview/ZH1ES/
https://www.sony.jp/feature/products/181101/?s_pid=jp_fsl_dmp_feature_dmp
https://www.sony.jp/headphone/special/park/products_m1/tech6.html
https://www.sony.jp/high-resolution/flagship/interview07/
https://www.sony.jp/feature/owner/hr/180524/
Somewhere in this thread i read lots of different things about the DMP-Z1 and i thought as i understand japanese, can bring some insight about the DMP-Z1 questions asked here.
I have not read the whole thread as it has too many pages but it seems like not all questions have been answered. If i'm wrong, please excuse me.
One of the tings I've read here was that the DMP-Z1 and the WM1Z was developed by different teams and so don't share the same sound signature.
They haven't been. The same Team that developed the NW-ZX1 and ZX2 and ZX100 and ZX300 and ZX500 is the exact same team that developed the NW-WM1Z and the DMP-Z1
Team Leader of this Team is 佐藤 朝明 (Asaaki Sato) and he seems to work at Sony like forever. He works for the ソニービデオ＆サウンドプロダクツ株式会社 (Sony Video & Sound Products Corporation)
You know his face from the NW-ZX2 and the DMP-Z1 commercial videos from Sony where he presents the product.
The guy who is responsible for the Sound of the DMP-Z1 is 佐藤浩朗 (Hiroo Sato), the exact same guy that developed the Sound for the NW-WM1Z.
The DMP-Z1 uses the 8th Generation of Analog Amps developed by Sony by the Team of Asaaki Sato. The Generations 1-7 only have been used in prototypes and the only reason to not use the S-Master HX in the DMP-Z1 was, because it could not output enough power.
The TA-ZH1ES uses a power supply, needs USB-Cables/Walkman to connect to and so on. All these things cause an unclean signal. To still get a perfect sound and a clean signal out of the TA-ZH1ES it needed to be huge and complex (4,4kg!) and because it needed to S-Master HX to archive that, it could not output enough power as they initially wished.
So the TA-ZH1ES is, according to Sony, the best sound they can produce but with the downside, that its a huge and heavy brick that is not portable.
An Analog Amp could have output more power than the S-Master HX, but then the Signal wouldn't have been as clean. So Sony experimentet and tested for years with Analog Amps but because the Signal was never clean enough, they always used the S-Master HX (which does have limited output power)
To solve this issue, the idea was to remove anything that introduces noise. So remove the socket power supply, remove the external player, and so on.
The DMP-Z1 is basically an portable TA-ZH1ES for (mostly) business people who travel a lot, maybe have several places of living or often go to hotels and stuff like that.
The DMP-Z1 and the IER-Z1R have been developed together and are advertised together for exactly this group of people. They were designed for people who want the best sound possible with them when they leave their house.
The IER-Z1R was not (as many think) developed to be better than the MDR-Z1R, fix its issues or whatever and the DMP-Z1 was not designed to replace or be better as the TA-ZH1ES.
The MDR-Z1R, TA-ZH1ES and NW-WM1Z are the original Signature Serious and are, what Sony considers, the best sound you can get.
The DMP-Z1 and IER-Z1R later were added to the Signature Series to provide the same sound quality but portable.
And the biggest issue of the NW-WM1Z is its output power, not its sound quality. Yes, the TA-ZH1ES and the DMP-Z1 sound better than the NW-WM1Z, but the improvement is very marginal as stated by Asaaki Sato and Hiroo Sato. The DMP-Z1 does sound a little bit better, but that is not its main feature, it's a side effect. It sounds as much better as the TA-ZH1ES does.
Sources:
https://www.sony.jp/walkman/special/flagship/manufacturer/
https://www.sony.jp/audio/special/interview/ZH1ES/
https://www.sony.jp/feature/products/181101/?s_pid=jp_fsl_dmp_feature_dmp
https://www.sony.jp/headphone/special/park/products_m1/tech6.html
https://www.sony.jp/high-resolution/flagship/interview07/
https://www.sony.jp/feature/owner/hr/180524/
Last edited:
gerelmx1986
Headphoneus Supremus
When i demoed the DMP in berlin with my IER-m7 was instantly wowed nu the sound.
I’ve scrapped the Z5 and better save dor a DMP before the sognature series gets discontinued
i have from the series
MDR- and IER-Z1R as well as WM1A and as aside the 4BA IER-M7
I’ve scrapped the Z5 and better save dor a DMP before the sognature series gets discontinued
i have from the series
MDR- and IER-Z1R as well as WM1A and as aside the 4BA IER-M7
As the owner of both WM1Z and DMP, I agree the output power of WM1Z is weaker than that of DMP's. However, DMP improvements over WM1Z and TA-ZH1ES are a whole lot more than marginal. DMP beats those two by the massive sound stage and reproduction of micro details.
efftee
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I may be mistaken but would amping the WM1Z improve performance considerably?
I will let the community here chime in on this. From my perspective, the considerable improvement would be a different DAC, say AKM 4497EQ coupled with more amping. Not to take it off topic, but Astell&Kern SP2000 with AKM 4499EQ does beat WM1Z on S-Master in sound stage and micro details as it has more powerful DAC altogether. Personally, SP2K's sound stage alone is closer to DMP, but lacks the power to sound "full-bodied" if compared to DMP. DMP sits in a different league, and it is sonically superior to any smaller DAPs given the amount of components and engineering around them. Some enthusiasts on WM1Z forum are putting efforts to make WM1Z sound like DMP by altering WM1Z firmware. I've tried them but in the end flashed my WM1Z back to the stock firmware to enjoy its original "intimate" sound signature.
MrWalkman
Headphoneus Supremus
It's indeed not as effective as I'd like in achieving that goal, but I'm not out of ideas yet.
efftee
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I have the Z1. But I don’t compare that with the WM1Z or SP2K, just like I wouldn’t pit the Z1 against a Rossini -- there’s a time and place for each. Staying on the WM1Z, a portable; the challenge is on milking everything it’s got in the smallest possible package. Plugging a DAC/AMP would just turn it into a source, which there exists a competent few I can think of at half the weight. And if the aim was the AKM sound, what then are we hanging onto a WM1Z? It doesn’t make the WM1Z better, a DAC/AMP would just change it altogether.
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