[Vitaly2017]

Well guys I had the wm1z and M8 in my hands along side my friend brought hes favorite headphones too the mdr-z1r with real axios kimber kable too!

So I tested 1z and M8 with my Noir and mdr...
This is 2 very high end iem and headphone they are at very high resolution capable and will show easily each devices abilities.


I was right to say that M8 was amazing and so close to 1z I was so surprised when I heard the wm1z once again! It was like aaa wow the good old sound I loved, I remember you my friend 1z hehe. What is so interesting is that when I was listening to M8 all this time I felt it had 1z dna and some how sounded very close but it was all memories! And hard to judge and conclude things to 100%

Here what I found out. While M8 is so amazing so fabulous and lovely it was not able to outdo the true wm1z. Yep 1z has won again! Everything that I was throwing at both daps. The results where 1z took everything 2 steps above, how but how? I dont know it just had more resolution and more clarity while also being warm musical and thick in the sound as we know 1z for.
1z has deeper bass and more textures and resolution and clarity.

Treble is more open and more detailed with a touch of crystal clean decay like a swarovski glass zing.

Vocals are also cleaner and more resolved.

Overall 1z sound is clean resolute with higher articulated notes, more dynamic and powerful across the whole board of the frequencies!

Ok some folks keep saying 1z is unable to run bigger headphones. Well its not true. While I hooked the mdr-z1r to M8 I had to set Turbo mode and ramp the volume up to 40 I think and on 1z I was high gain and 70 to 75 volume.
Quiet frankly I was surprised to find out that 1z drove the mdr-z1r better then M8 ! Like really 1z how you do that?

So I also found the same results using the Mdr-z1r as my noirs when compared the test tracks... I did both test in local files and spotify stream from pixel 5 via usb to 1z and all was local and internal spotify for M8.


My final verdict is wm1z is still the Lord of all daps and even after what 5 years now? He is still the true ultimate king.





Ps: wm1z was all stock sony latest fw! Us region

 

[Whitigir]

now Wm1z is a different league with new firmware and I'm not talking about power.... it's like ps4 vs ps5

I don’t doubt it, I am just wondering if people who has wm1Z and firmware and compared to M8 ? But I will gladly take M8 anyways.

 

[Whitigir]

Ps: wm1z was all stock sony latest fw! Us region

Tiger, the WM folks just miss you too much, and they want you back in the WM1Z. The reason is already stated, the new firmware will bring it new life

 

[immortalsoul]

Well guys I had the wm1z and M8 in my hands along side my friend brought hes favorite headphones too the mdr-z1r with real axios kimber kable too!

So I tested 1z and M8 with my Noir and mdr...
This is 2 very high end iem and headphone they are at very high resolution capable and will show easily each devices abilities.


I was right to say that M8 was amazing and so close to 1z I was so surprised when I heard the wm1z once again! It was like aaa wow the good old sound I loved, I remember you my friend 1z hehe. What is so interesting is that when I was listening to M8 all this time I felt it had 1z dna and some how sounded very close but it was all memories! And hard to judge and conclude things to 100%

Here what I found out. While M8 is so amazing so fabulous and lovely it was not able to outdo the true wm1z. Yep 1z has won again! Everything that I was throwing at both daps. The results where 1z took everything 2 steps above, how but how? I dont know it just had more resolution and more clarity while also being warm musical and thick in the sound as we know 1z for.
1z has deeper bass and more textures and resolution and clarity.

Treble is more open and more detailed with a touch of crystal clean decay like a swarovski glass zing.

Vocals are also cleaner and more resolved.

Overall 1z sound is clean resolute with higher articulated notes, more dynamic and powerful across the whole board of the frequencies!

Ok some folks keep saying 1z is unable to run bigger headphones. Well its not true. While I hooked the mdr-z1r to M8 I had to set Turbo mode and ramp the volume up to 40 I think and on 1z I was high gain and 70 to 75 volume.
Quiet frankly I was surprised to find out that 1z drove the mdr-z1r better then M8 ! Like really 1z how you do that?

So I also found the same results using the Mdr-z1r as my noirs when compared the test tracks... I did both test in local files and spotify stream from pixel 5 via usb to 1z and all was local and internal spotify for M8.


My final verdict is wm1z is still the Lord of all daps and even after what 5 years now? He is still the true ultimate king.





Ps: wm1z was all stock sony latest fw! Us region

So now the question. Are you going to sell the M8 and buy the 1Z?

 

[Vitaly2017]

So now the question. Are you going to sell the M8 and buy the 1Z?

I am under an emotional shock I will need some time to digest what happened yesterday.

I like the M8 a lot but 1z is the winner and you guys know me I only keep the winners...

It is hard and emotional right now for me.

 

[Vitaly2017]

Tiger, the WM folks just miss you too much, and they want you back in the WM1Z. The reason is already stated, the new firmware will bring it new life

Haha I know I know they keep teasing me and calling me back

 

[Whitigir]

I am under an emotional shock I will need some time to digest what happened yesterday.

I like the M8 a lot but 1z is the winner and you guys know me I only keep the winners...

It is hard and emotional right now for me.

If I was that emotionally evoked, I would just buy the WM1Z and forget the M8 . Not to mention the ability to upgrade new firmware and hardware modifications and so on Tiger!

 

[Vitaly2017]

If I was that emotionally evoked, I would just buy the WM1Z and forget the M8 . Not to mention the ability to upgrade new firmware and hardware modifications and so on Tiger!

I know man! 1z slapped me in tha face yesterday so hard and he was having a revenge on me! He said oh yea this is what you did go see other daps huh here take this slap

 

[Rockwell75]

One thing I'm noticing more with this new FW update is that the player cuts out quite a bit...like a totally unacceptable number of times. It will just be a little pause as though the processor is trying to catch its breath. Sometimes I can make this problem go away by re-booting, other times not. Is there any fix to this or something I can do to mitigate it? It will drive me crazy in the long term.

 

[Whitigir]

I know man! 1z slapped me in tha face yesterday so hard and he was having a revenge on me! He said oh yea this is what you did go see other daps huh here take this slap

Why don’t you do this Tiger ? Get a 1Z, it has Gold chassis “you know tiger color and stripes ?” Buy some Black a tiger Stripes sticker, put it on, get Silicon clear case, and now we are talking in full Tiger appearances.

Honestly, Sony is still a Sony, did you see why I keep calling M8 is similar to Aiwa back in those dates ? Because it is close to Sony, but it signature has it own house sound, and that makes it an Aiwa. Back in those days, These folks can be interchangeable, swapping gears around and around.....but I tell you this, Aiwa was steadily but slowly winning the race, until Sony Swallowed them up Whole, and erase them out of existence.....I don’t know if it was out of fear, or because something else.

But once you love the Aiwa or the Sony, there is nothing like either of them on the market. I am glad to see Shanling to have similar house sound , and I was an Aiwa fan, still loving Aiwa

 

[Vitaly2017]

Why don’t you do this Tiger ? Get a 1Z, it has Gold chassis “you know tiger color and stripes ?” Buy some Black a tiger Stripes sticker, put it on, get Silicon clear case, and now we are talking in full Tiger appearances.

Honestly, Sony is still a Sony, did you see why I keep calling M8 is similar to Aiwa back in those dates ? Because it is close to Sony, but it signature has it own house sound, and that makes it an Aiwa. Back in those days, These folks can be interchangeable, swapping gears around and around.....but I tell you this, Aiwa was steadily but slowly winning the race, until Sony Swallowed them up Whole, and erase them out of existence.....I don’t know if it was out of fear, or because something else.

But once you love the Aiwa or the Sony, there is nothing like either of them on the market. I am glad to see Shanling to have similar house sound , and I was an Aiwa fan, still loving Aiwa

Ok never heard of Aiwa? Will look into it.

Yea but Sony is huge they too good and strong also ui is very strong too. With 1z is stability beyond roof.

I whish sony made 1z with android, cause zx507 doesn't cut it man not that audiophile capable and I dont want to use the dseee hx thing to enhance my sound lol screw that.

DIRECT SOURCE ONLY

 

[Ojisan]

Why don’t you do this Tiger ? Get a 1Z, it has Gold chassis “you know tiger color and stripes ?” Buy some Black a tiger Stripes sticker, put it on, get Silicon clear case, and now we are talking in full Tiger appearances.

Honestly, Sony is still a Sony, did you see why I keep calling M8 is similar to Aiwa back in those dates ? Because it is close to Sony, but it signature has it own house sound, and that makes it an Aiwa. Back in those days, These folks can be interchangeable, swapping gears around and around.....but I tell you this, Aiwa was steadily but slowly winning the race, until Sony Swallowed them up Whole, and erase them out of existence.....I don’t know if it was out of fear, or because something else.

But once you love the Aiwa or the Sony, there is nothing like either of them on the market. I am glad to see Shanling to have similar house sound , and I was an Aiwa fan, still loving Aiwa

I still have an old 80's Aiwa dual cassette boom box tucked away somewhere in my storage

 

[subguy812]

I would only say that price is not always indicative of better, subjective as hell. That said, at some point there has to be a personal decision about what something is worth to you. Everyone knows I love the SP2000. I receive lots of PM's asking is it worth the extra money, a personal decision that I can never answer for someone. I am certain the Sony is an amazing DAP, it is also upper tier priced, just as is the A&K. My site, Audio Rabbit Hole, was named for this reason, we always chase the next best thing.

If the M8 checks your boxes doesn't mean because you heard something, distinctly better, that the M8 still doesn't check your boxes. Could I see myself selling the SP2000, yes. Would it be because the M8 or R8 or DX300 is better, no. There is an acceptable margin to me, and I know that the SP2K is out of reach for so many just because of the price, even the R8 and M8 are a lot for many. I paid the price for the SP2000 and I have been happy, zero remorse. Let's be honest, I have both the DX300 and the M8 for the same price as the SP2000.

Would I be happy with the SQ of the M8 if I had never heard the SP2000, yes, I have the SP2000 and am still happy with the SQ. To me, as I have said in a previous post, I am all about the total experience, packaging, build, aesthetics, SQ and last and certainly not least is the UI. The UI is a big part of the user experience. IMO, it is probably why I am a big fan of A&K. Little annoyances hinder my experience on most DAPs. The SP2K is not flawless, but it has less things that disturb me.

 

[Ojisan]

Shanling been in audio engineering for over 30 years. some of our engineers being with company since beginning.
Software team was established 3 years ago and moved to Android just 2 years ago. They need to catch up.

I'm new to Shanlng products but I think the M8 really shows your engineering experience. Really loving the sound. I don't have experience with Android dev (I work in Win/Linux) but sometimes I wish I can contribute to the software side. With the right software, M8 will be at another level!

 

[Vitaly2017]

I would only say that price is not always indicative of better, subjective as hell. That said, at some point there has to be a personal decision about what something is worth to you. Everyone knows I love the SP2000. I receive lots of PM's asking is it worth the extra money, a personal decision that I can never answer for someone. I am certain the Sony is an amazing DAP, it is also upper tier priced, just as is the A&K. My site, Audio Rabbit Hole, was named for this reason, we always chase the next best thing.

If the M8 checks your boxes doesn't mean because you heard something, distinctly better, that the M8 still doesn't check your boxes. Could I see myself selling the SP2000, yes. Would it be because the M8 or R8 or DX300 is better, no. There is an acceptable margin to me, and I know that the SP2K is out of reach for so many just because of the price, even the R8 and M8 are a lot for many. I paid the price for the SP2000 and I have been happy, zero remorse. Let's be honest, I have both the DX300 and the M8 for the same price as the SP2000.

Would I be happy with the SQ of the M8 if I had never heard the SP2000, yes, I have the SP2000 and am still happy with the SQ. To me, as I have said in a previous post, I am all about the total experience, packaging, build, aesthetics, SQ and last and certainly not least is the UI. The UI is a big part of the user experience. IMO, it is probably why I am a big fan of A&K. Little annoyances hinder my experience on most DAPs. The SP2K is not flawless, but it has less things that disturb me.

Well that still puts the above tier daps at 3k plus for a reason.... Not because you never heard it would mean you dont need to consider it. Yea M8 or R8 could be fine but we know the existence of sp2k and 1z... And I can get them too so why wouldnt I? They do perform on a different level so there is nothing to add they are better
I am only talking about 1z and sp2k I dont really like other daps. M8 I like it too