[Down4wotever]

Friends, and with all due respect this being a DMP thread, realty is most of us here wish for one, but still great to share the audiophile journey because that is what it is all about. I'm a proud owner of a WM1Z, Japanese tourist version back in the day and to be fair she's versatile. Ok a few threads back there was criticism for Mr Walkman's mods, ladies, gentlemen, allow me to disagree, thank you Mr Walkman I have not felt the need to pull the trigger yet, thanks to you good Sir. I'm using custom inears, Westone, ES80s another under the radar winner, pair these with the right cable for your taste, you'll be mightily surprised.

 

[MrWalkman]

Friends, and with all due respect this being a DMP thread, realty is most of us here wish for one, but still great to share the audiophile journey because that is what it is all about. I'm a proud owner of a WM1Z, Japanese tourist version back in the day and to be fair she's versatile. Ok a few threads back there was criticism for Mr Walkman's mods, ladies, gentlemen, allow me to disagree, thank you Mr Walkman I have not felt the need to pull the trigger yet, thanks to you good Sir. I'm using custom inears, Westone, ES80s another under the radar winner, pair these with the right cable for your taste, you'll be mightily surprised.

Thank you very much for your support!

It's fine, to each their own, of course. I just managed to get the 1A even more close to the 1Z sound - the closest ever, and also running the WM1A/Z firmware on all other devices like the A30/40/50 and ZX300 players. It's been a very interesting journey for these devices, starting with someone telling me that I could never understand some kind of "first generation" mods for these devices, aka "tuning mods".

While Sony advertises their achieved sound quality in devices like WM1Z/DMP-Z1 as a result of using certain cabling inside them, certain resistors and capacitors, or copper casing, most of the sound signature is achieved due to very good sound processing done in these players. Of course, the hardware matters, but in this case, not nearly as much as their brilliant sound processing. Just try the latest Midnight v2 WM1A/Z-firmware-based on a device like the 2016 A30, and you'll understand what I'm saying.

Unfortunately I don't own a DMP-Z1 - otherwise there might be something for it too. This would imply testing on the actual device, at my own risk, so there's no chance of doing something without actually owning it, which is not gonna happen anytime soon. Nonetheless, from other users' feedback, the DMP-Z1 is amazing on its own.

Hopefully there aren't people who are missing the chance to improve their WM1A/Z player's sound just because they have something with me or anything like that - and if there are people having something with me, prepare to be "blacklisted" for what you posted right now

Cheers!

 

[roofus]

I recommend that you employ the unbalanced output utilising a 3.5, to dual RCA cable for this purpose.
In such a manner the DMP-Z1 operates superlatively as a Source/DAC/Preamp, and I've yet to find any shortcomings when connecting to a multitude of devices in my studio.

It is NOT specifically beneficial to employ the 'balanced' output into dual XLR's (and may result in ground noise issues & potential damage to the DMP if the closely spaced Pentaconn plug pinout & soldering is not carefully undertaken).

The reason is that the term 'balanced' is often incorrectly interchanged to describe how cabling, circuits, amplifiers and headphones etc.. are defined and/or connected, so without giving you a lengthy lesson in the vagaries of the definition, I will simply point out that the 'balanced' output channels of the DMP do not have or share a common ground reference whilst typically many devices which employ XLR inputs do (whereby Pin 1 may also be connected directly to the chassis ground).
There are quite a few variations on this theme, but what is germane to this discussion is that the so called 'balanced' output of the DMP is actually a floating differential and there is no intrinsic benefit from using this output for devices other than headphones whereby it provides more available gain than the unbalanced output.

Such an arrangement actually makes for handy and rapidly switchable preamp/headphone amp usage because of the savvy manner in which the DMP designers implemented the volume control logic switching. The outputs are auto sensing with relay switched muting for perfectly silent and pop free change-over when using either output, and the Pentaconn output always assumes priority if and when both sockets are simultaneously connected.

Thus one can simply leave the unbalanced output (with RCA's on the end of the cable) permanently connected to their amp, active speakers or device of choice, and then simply connect or disconnect their headphones to the Pentaconn output whenever they wish to listen to them.
The DMP will silently auto-switch the output-muting relays with but a brief changeover delay.... it's executed most elegantly, kudos to the DMP team at Sony !

Very useful reply! Thank You. Explains a lot!

 

[cukis350]

so does anyone have an m1 iPad pro or macbook pro to test the USB function on the DMP-Z1 for me? I just want to be sure that my brand new Z1 is not having a faulty UBS Dac function. Any help resolve this issue is extremely appreciated. Like i stated earlier, i've tried iphone 12 max pro, 2018 macbook pro and latest 12.9" ipad pro and none of them works with the Z1 as sources for USB Dac function.

 

[pdL389]

so does anyone have an m1 iPad pro or macbook pro to test the USB function on the DMP-Z1 for me? I just want to be sure that my brand new Z1 is not having a faulty UBS Dac function. Any help resolve this issue is extremely appreciated. Like i stated earlier, i've tried iphone 12 max pro, 2018 macbook pro and latest 12.9" ipad pro and none of them works with the Z1 as sources for USB Dac function.

I use 2019 iPad Pro and 2020 Macbook Pro (not M1 versions) and both work fine with DMP. Have you tried different USB-C cables?

 

[Calfredo826]

Anybody know how to fix this sorting issue on the DMP? Some artist are sorted by their last name. My LPGT has them all sorted properly.

 

[Wikinaut]

Anybody know how to fix this sorting issue on the DMP? Some artist are sorted by their last name. My LPGT has them all sorted properly.

In the past, this has been trial and error for me by editing the music file metadata until it works as I want it to.

 

[Gamerlingual]

I have to recheck the sources, maybe it was at a other interview (they gave meetings with owners and lots of others stuff).

But what I meant was that the difference between the WM1Z and TA-ZH1ES is marginal and the difference between the TA-ZH1ES and the DMP-Z1 pretty much non existing.

But



I could not find that, all I could find was


It was not designed to succeed the TA-ZH1ES sound quality, the TA-ZH1ES would have been even bigger if it would have provided higher output.

The DMP-Z1 could be way smaller then the TA-ZH1ES because it would not have to deal with an unclean power source. That is why it is a player and not a DAC/AMP. They had the include the player to reduce external factors.

The whole idea behind the DMP-Z1 is an TA-ZH1ES with higher power output and

So if you have very high impedance headphones, yes, the DMP-Z1 is better.

But with an MDR-Z1R, IER-Z1R or other Sony Headphones (that you use with Low Gain anyway), the DMP-Z1 does not improve the sound quality over the TA-ZH1ES


That is what I said. Knowing that you payed 9000€ makes the sound instantly better

I sampled the DMP-Z1 for many hours in Japan and the difference vs the TA felt small at best. It certainly has more power to drive higher impedance headphones. But considering I used the MDR-Z1R and IER-Z1R, I was thinking the 1Z and TA are enough for music. I don’t play my music loud, so now I can see why I felt the DMP and TA were neck and neck in sound quality. These articles you provided stated all that info. Glad I bought these over the DMP. I don’t think the DMP will ever drop below 500,000 yen. I have the money for it, but I mostly use my portable DAPS and use the TA 3 times a week. So I probably won’t get maximum value in time when I use it

 

[cat3600]

Has anyone compared the sound quality of the Shanling M30 vs DMP? Since I predominantly use streaming I was thinking of selling the DMP to get something like the M30, TIA

 

[efftee]

Just wondering, anyone DAC out the Z1 with a Hugo2 or TT? Any significant changes, improvements?

 

[cat3600]

Just wondering, anyone DAC out the Z1 with a Hugo2 or TT? Any significant changes, improvements?

I use the USB from the DMP to my Devialet Expert 440 Pro Dual's USB input, the sound is extremely clean and organic. Volume control on the DMP gets disabled, it just acts as a player/source. I do want to try the unbalanced headphone output to an analog input of my amp but I don't have a cable yet. I would be curious of the difference in sound.

 

[cat3600]

Also the problem is the DMP has no remote capability so you have to physically get up and change track when you have it connected to the home audio, its a bit of pain for sure!

 

[MrWalkman]

Also the problem is the DMP has no remote capability so you have to physically get up and change track when you have it connected to the home audio, its a bit of pain for sure!

It has, but you need to change its region to J, or E, for example, to see the remote option.

https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/SonyNWDestTool

I use the USB from the DMP to my Devialet Expert 440 Pro Dual's USB input, the sound is extremely clean and organic. Volume control on the DMP gets disabled, it just acts as a player/source. I do want to try the unbalanced headphone output to an analog input of my amp but I don't have a cable yet. I would be curious of the difference in sound.

When using the USB output, the sound signature most probably doesn't apply to the sound. The DMP should only send the audio data as is.

 

[Gamerlingual]

It has, but you need to change its region to J, or E, for example, to see the remote option.

https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/SonyNWDestTool



When using the USB output, the sound signature most probably doesn't apply to the sound. The DMP should only send the audio data as is.

Confirmed. I tried the remote at E-Earphone in Tokyo and it worked like a charm

 

[efftee]

I use the USB from the DMP to my Devialet Expert 440 Pro Dual's USB input, the sound is extremely clean and organic. Volume control on the DMP gets disabled, it just acts as a player/source. I do want to try the unbalanced headphone output to an analog input of my amp but I don't have a cable yet. I would be curious of the difference in sound.

Yeah the Expert 440 is clearly a notch or six up from the DMP. In the case of the Hugo2 or TT2, which we can safely agree is not at the same level as the Expert 440, does it make sense?