[rutter]

A pretty interesting discussion is occurring in the DX220 thread that leads me to look for impressions involving the WM1A. It's possible that my impression that the ZX300 was doing something with imaging better than the DX220 is due to a difference in components between Sony and other manufacturers like iBasso. Power was the non-starter for me with Sony daps given how badly the IER-Z1R sounded to me on the ZX300, which basically has as much power as the higher-end Sony daps. So anyone who is able to compare the WM1A to the iBasso DX220 w/ amp8 or the ZX300 please do so.

 

[Cutie59]

Anyone in USA thinking to Their unit ?

 

[fiascogarcia]

A pretty interesting discussion is occurring in the DX220 thread that leads me to look for impressions involving the WM1A. It's possible that my impression that the ZX300 was doing something with imaging better than the DX220 is due to a difference in components between Sony and other manufacturers like iBasso. Power was the non-starter for me with Sony daps given how badly the IER-Z1R sounded to me on the ZX300, which basically has as much power as the higher-end Sony daps. So anyone who is able to compare the WM1A to the iBasso DX220 w/ amp8 or the ZX300 please do so.

Am I comparing apples to oranges? It looks like the output at the balanced port on the ZX300 is 200mw + 200mw, where my WM1z spec shows 250mw + 250mw in the balanced port. Please forgive if I'm way off base, as I don't know much about power output ratings. I don't know if the extra 50mw makes any difference or not.

 

[rutter]

I don't think the extra little bit of power should be making any difference. Based on my use of the Fiio A5 and the Magni, both very cheap but more powerful amplifiers, I thought a good deal of what was wrong with the ZX300 could be attributed to power. But people have these daps, can compare, and also disagree. I won't just sell or trade my DX220 with two amp modules unless I'm reasonably confident that somehow the WM1A sounds much better with the IER-Z1R than the ZX300 and is going to improve some of the things I'm not entirely satisfied with through the DX220.

At the same time my ears keep ringing, which is something I have to keep an eye on.

 

[Rockwell75]

Can the ZX300 drive the Z1R to the point that you won't be itching for a more powerful source?

 

[rutter]

You know what I'd say. Hell no.

 

[Rockwell75]

You know what I'd say. Hell no.

That means the 1Z and the 1A would probably struggle too as they're not that much more powerful out of balanced than the ZX300...which kind of boggles my mind a bit...unless Sony's intention is that people buy that ~$8000 atomic-bomb-detonator-looking music player of theirs to power the Z1R.

 

[rutter]

That's what I figure. Yet at least one of the posters here is driving the IER-Z1R with the WM1A to claimed great effect. You'd certainly figure they tried to match their iems to their daps, unless their daps have already been on the market for years and they didn't think producing a good enough iem was compatible with those power outputs. So do what you have to do with the iem, then there's further incentive to buy the dap refresh. I'm just relaying what I heard from the ZX300 and my cheap but much more powerful amps. And keep in mind that 250mW is into 16 ohms, not 32. It seems like normally the one figure is for 32 ohms. The power output is very low, relatively speaking at least. That's probably a good deal of the reason why the battery lives are so good, by the way.

 

[ZenErik]

Good thing the IER-Z1R only needs about 1mW for 100dB and far less for extended safe listening levels.

 

[Rockwell75]

The power output is very low, relatively speaking at least. That's probably a good deal of the reason why the battery lives are so good, by the way.

It's good enough to drive many/most iems on the market...the Z1R seems more difficult than average to drive. In terms of battery life there's that plus the Sony DAPs don't waste a lot of power on large flashy screens like Android based DAPs do, plus all of their architecture is done in house so it's a lot more efficient than many.

 

[rutter]

Good thing the IER-Z1R only needs about 1mW for 100dB and far less for extended safe listening levels.

We've been over this. The ZX300 might also be able to make me deaf through the HD650 but it made it sound worse than anything I've heard it with. There was one post in this thread that described why maximum power is important. I can pull it up if necessary.

It's good enough to drive many/most iems on the market...the Z1R seems more difficult than average to drive. In terms of battery life there's that plus the Sony DAPs don't waste a lot of power on large flashy screens like Android based DAPs do, plus all of their architecture is done in house so it's a lot more efficient than many.

Their power output is also by far the lowest I've seen from the prominent daps. I'll venture to guess that's the primary factor.

 

[JayF]

The 1z does not struggle to power the z1r - at least how I listen to music. Typically speaking I have volume setting between 60-70 depending on the recording and file type. I simply can't imagine going much higher without damaging my hearing. And the two sound quite beautiful together.

 

[rutter]

I had my volume at most at like 80 with the ZX300 on high gain, even in the 60s.

 

[candlejack]

it's 40 Ohm, not 300.

 

[rutter]

That I knew too. The posts are in this thread.