[Liono]

It seems that golden curry has good synergy with that golden walkman. We should take notes

Both produce good sounds

 

[pngbb]

Since the M2s are Android based they pretty much behave like a smartphone. This has several advantages. E.g. you are able to install and use mail, chat or any other Android app that is supported by the DAP hardware.
The M1s have a different OS. So, I'm pretty happy Sony made that change.

Thx for ur advice. I installed Tidal and a local streaming music app MOOV. I am not going to use M2 to received email, so I try my best to switch off advertisement, so call smart feature of Google account...

 

[pngbb]

you shouldn't nee a google account for a FIRMWARE update, should only need a Wifi connection for that.
Downloading apps on the other hand (like Tidal), you'll "want" a Google Account unless if you want to side-load.

In the end, you shouldn't need Google account for anything as it's simply not a requirement or there are work arounds. I'm judging this based off my personal Android experience + vague memory of the ZX2

Thx for ur info. I add a Google Account to install Tidal and a local music streaming app. I switched on "do not disturb" mode to avoid notification from apps and disable smart features in Google account settings. Hope my WM1Z M2 will not disturbed by emails, ads or notifications...

 

[pngbb]

There is no need to install if u r not using it to surf the net

thx, I only use WM1Z M2 to play music.

 

[psikey]

Amazon UK still showing expected delivery 20th April as before, no delay notification yet.

 

[Liono]

Amazon UK still showing expected delivery 20th April as before, no delay notification yet.

Weird 15th April is the release date, must be coming from outside the UK.

 

[Whitigir]

Amazon UK still showing expected delivery 20th April as before, no delay notification yet.

I hope it comes on time for you. But years back when I tried buying MDR, they only delay 1 day before shipping date LOL!!! I don’t know about now, but back then I had my hyped up for nothing

 

[psikey]

I hope it comes on time for you. But years back when I tried buying MDR, they only delay 1 day before shipping date LOL!!! I don’t know about now, but back then I had my hyped up for nothing

I'm not fussed either way. I'm only ordering to try out before I most likely return ready for importing a Japanese one unless they haven't ruined it with an excessive volume cap.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

Just to share my previous post on the Sony Vinyl processor DSP:

Standard: adds effects of Arm Resonance, Turntable and Surface Noise.

Arm Resonance: bass notes is slower but stronger, cymbals is more splashy.

Turntable: vocal is placed slightly more forward, smoothens the sound abit.

Surface Noise: applies a very soft random dither like noise, reduces treble edginess.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

Thx for ur info. I add a Google Account to install Tidal and a local music streaming app. I switched on "do not disturb" mode to avoid notification from apps and disable smart features in Google account settings. Hope my WM1Z M2 will not disturbed by emails, ads or notifications...

You can refer to my post on ZX507 tweak and use it as a reference on how to tweak your WM1ZM2 to function better as a standalone DAP:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/sony-nw-zx500.914486/page-57#post-15339376

 

[maddib]

Germany shipping between May and June...

 

[davidmthekidd]

Just chatted with a Sony REP, I was told that there is no estimate as to when the USA versions will become available.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

For sure that it is ! A lot of people love Chord, but to me they are inferior to Sony. The TA-ZH1ES does upscaling to 384Khz and that is mightily impressive already, Even though they are building around FPGA too, but Chord is stuck after the FPGA where as Sony is carrying onward with digital amplifications.

As far as people enjoying Chord Upscaling features, I have no clues why they don’t even look at Sony products.

Yeah, may be using Neutron player in AndroidOS, other players can also upscale stuff upto 384Khz or 768Khz, but once again, Sony is the pioneer of DSP. So, beside the rating number as an objective to compare, they are very different.

If DSP is a thing then the new Walkman advances over the last Gen was about DSD remastering. It took Sony several years to develop this for the portable S-Master chip, which they were not able to squeeze into the DMP Z1

I agree totally on this bold part.

Chord's future audio performance is going to be limited by the FPGA processor performance development and the creative ability of Rob Watts to formulate better performing filter algorithms.

Also Chord's upsampling is a blanket approach, applying the same upsampling algorithm across the entire sound specturm as compared to Sony's DSEE Ultimate more nuanced sound source separation approach which utilizes AI to do real time seperation of the individual instrument types and vocals and applies targeted differential upsampling to individual separated sources before recombining them in real time back into a single upsampled sound.

Sony's AI is also a self-training algorithm that gets better as more data is fed into the AI(Meaning the AI is forever learning to get better with time by means of Machine Learning). AI don't require expensive high performance FPGA to run, they can function out of Lower end smartphone processor and GPU like the Quad core 1.8GHz NXP Processor found inside the Android M2 Walkmans.

This comment post on the Goldsound's youtube review of the M-scaler perfectly describes the issue with Chord's inferior approach vs Sony's AI approach to Upsampling

Phil Pan​

11 months ago

Upsampling has only one purpose : To enhance anti-aliasing in such a manner that it can preserve higher frequency detail. Upsampling using filter taps is being superseded in the imaging domain by Machine Learning methods. You can bet your bottom quid that in audio it will be coming fast. Computationally-speaking, ML to this level of detail can be done on a cheap smartphone processor. Companies like DCS and Chord fixated on classic DSP techniques are in for a beating, much to the benefit of consumers, professional or amateur alike. D-to-A conversion HAS to be a commodity, because while critical it is only a step in a broader logistics chain. The fact that it currently harbours a niche market of tech vendors is a temporary thing in the grand scheme of things, and it isn't true that commoditisation will result in a lessening of quality ; that would be like saying your WiFi modem needs a class A triode valve circuit so the bits it delivers are smoother.
Show less

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSRMEIEY2oE

TLDR Summary:
Sony's AI Upsampling is more adaptive, will continuously improve(via firmware updates) in performance and sound quality over time.
Chord's Upsampling approach is fixed function, more expensive and is limited by semiconductor development.

More on Machine Learning:

 

[shootertwist]

Maybe Sony felt that the forced upsampling to 32bit 192KHz has not noticeably affected the sound quality on the streaming apps. Or maybe the forced resampling actually improved the sound from the apps?

Haven’t seen any ZX507 or A105 android Walkman users complaining about this forced upsampling affecting their music sound quality on the streaming apps as well.

Just to add to this, there was a time i had the zx507 and compared this to the ibasso dx160 and hiby r6 pro that all played bit perfect but the zx507 was noticeably better. I understand these players are at different price points, just chiming in about the bit perfect thing as i also thought at that time since it is bitperfect on those players it should sound better but the zx507 was still noticeably better. Of course eventually i missed the wm1a sound which is better than zx507 so I sacrificed streaming apps for the time being.
that was 2 yrs ago and i remembered back then saying that as soon as these wm1a can get streaming that will be the best of both worlds for me… cant wait to get mine, hopefully it arrives as promised on the 3rd week by local dealer here in our country

 

[TonyStarks]

https://pur.store.sony.jp/walkman/p..._012_0_10_51141&utm_medium=aff&utm_source=001

Just wondering how good is the ripping capabilities.https://www.sony.jp/walkman/store/special/cdreco/