SONY NW-WM1Z M2 / WM1A M2

[Sonywalkmanuser]

https://www.torachanblog.com/2022/04/sony-nw-wm1am2chord-mojo2.html

This time as well, the earphones are connected to F Audio Dark Sky with the attached cable using the included 3.5mm adapter for single-ended connection, and Mojo2 is connected to the same SONY A105 via USB, and the W. Music app is playing the 24/96 download sound source. increase.

What surprised me when I listened to it again this time was the good single-ended sound quality of the WM1AM2. From the conclusion, I felt that there was a part that exceeded the sound of Mojo 2 rather than inferior to it at all.

It is the number of sounds and the high scale that I felt even when connecting in a balanced manner. I thought that Mojo2 also had a rich number of sounds and made me hear a sense of scale, but the WM1AM2 goes even further. Therefore, even if you are listening to the same song, WM1AM2 is more powerful and you can listen comfortably. And the closeness of vocals. There is power that is not buried in the thickness of the sound. I think that this area is also raising the level of comfort.

If you switch to Mojo2, it sounds a little lighter or cleaner. I like this area, but I think both are at a high level in terms of sound quality.

However, I wish WM1AM2 had a little more output. The TINHIFI P2 Plus I use isn't enough for a single end. You may feel that way even more with headphones. With Mojo 2, you can rest assured that there is no worry about the output.

However, this time I found that the sound quality of WM1AM2 is at a fairly high level with balance and single end. I think that even the high middle DAP in the middle of 100,000 units is top class. Isn't it one of the convincing ones that it is popular?

https://www.torachanblog.com/2022/04/sony-nw-wm1am2ibasso-dx300.html

It will be the impression I heard in this state.
First of all, the current WM1AM2, but I have no impression that the sound is light. Of course, it depends on the song, but I think it's finished in a calm sound.
This is comparable to the DX300. If there is a difference, the DX300 has a stronger direct feeling, and the WM1AM2 feels a little more mature.
However, there is a big difference in the spread of the sound and the impression is different.
The DX300 spreads well in the horizontal direction, but less in the vertical direction. On the other hand, the WM1AM2 spreads well in the vertical direction, making it easier to feel the three-dimensional effect and increasing the immersive feeling.
When I listen to it at a glance, I feel that the DX300 is more familiar to my ears and has higher sound quality, but when I listen carefully in a calm environment, I notice the goodness of the scaled sound of the WM1AM2.
I think the WM1AM2 is the one who can enjoy the thrilling presence and power.
After all it turned out that it is the best Walkman who was particular about sound quality.
Therefore, the conclusion was completely opposite to the impression of the audition. Even though the sound source and environment were limited for a short time, I thought again that the impression of the over-the-counter audition was not always correct.

 

[xjaynine]

Agree, I'm a Sony fan but at £1,299 or £3,299 UK buyers need honesty and should import it, not put up with this EU capping nonsense.

Yes it's harsh, but I agree with @psikey , and hopefully serves as good information to prospective EU customers.

Imagine if you've shelled out shelled out 3300 GBP for the 1ZM2, only to find out later sometime in the future and in the worst possible way (beyond the return window) that your DAP didn't drive headphones well within uncapped specations.

As enthusiasts we might be familiar with EU volume capping but others might not.

It's at least fair to point out the ambiguous marketing communications from Sony EU branches. Listing the uncapped power specs on the EU listings is misleading. Yes, it puts Sony at marketing or sales disadvantage, but this is the right thing to do. But I am guessing the same restrictions would apply for all DAP manufacturers wanting to sell and distribute officially in the EU.

In Australia there are enforceable consumer protections laws if a retailer or manfacturer sells something misleading, a bait-and-switch, or not fit for purpose.

 

[xjaynine]

Dignis case for M2 is coming end of May. Here is the sample 2 of the case.
It looks like an Alcantara, a Patina and a "Walkman" version are also in the work.

Dignis cases are so nice! I've used a couple for cameras. Does anyone have any long term experience using one for the older Walkmans? I find their tolerances to be too perfect/ tight, which can be a double edged sword.

Am concerned about the case rubbing up and 'polishing' the finish of something like the 1Z. The 1A, ZX3/500s should be okay since they're aluminum.

 

[davidmthekidd]

l

Just get both. The TA-ZH1ES needs a good source like the 1ZM2. Electrically Noisy GPU based computer USB ports isn’t a good source for the amp.

Taz doesn't filer USB noise coming from the PC? Is this why you recommend a walkman?

 

[metaljem77]

Ah I just ordered. It's cheap just $5 a piece.

Did you buy it from 313 or is it possible to buy it online, say from Sony SG’s website? If the latter is possible, could you please share the link? Thank you in advance

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

Taz doesn't filer USB noise coming from the PC? Is this why you recommend a walkman?

USB noise filtering has a specific filtering power(kHz to MHz) band curve and won’t necessarily filter out every noise in the spectrum, there will likely be residual noise left over if the source is extremely noisy. It is much better if you start the chain from a clean low noise, low jitter source(like in the case of the battery powered, Low noise cpu/system of the Walkman).

Also for PC/MAC, you have to deal with the audio drivers, various output plugins, foobar, Roon or other music players software and operating system audio layers.

Using the Walkman, you can just use the Walkman music app which has a much more elegant user interface than foobar or etc. Also the Walkman music app has its own unique Sony house sound signature/spatial processing(this is my experience after comparing Neutron app and Usb Audio pro App against the Walkman music app)

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

Here’s some useful videos that explains what is EMI and how it can affect the operation of sensitive electronic devices if the noise gets beyond a certain limit:

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

@psikey
On the topic of Golden ears, I think this post from Giru is really interesting:

It's always amusing to read/listen/watch these "objective" vs "subjective" debates about audio equipment on the "enternet". Apparently it's the place to be if you want to appear smart and flash your recently polished ego with whatever "Noledge" that you've gained by regurgitating facts and ideas that ultimately still have little to no scientific validation or worse: have minimal real-world application.

It is true that we can test and assess the performance of electronic and electric systems to remarkable accuracy these days but time and again we fail to understand that such scientific assays have little value when we talk of their "application/translation" to human "perception".

Sound stimuli (just like light stimuli) have a varied "perception" by individuals that depends on a plethora of factors and hence there is no "objective" method of quantifying the "experience" of such stimulus. A very good example of this is asking yourself "do we all see the same way?" Or "do we all see the same colours?"





The above two videos explain how we all might be following the same "patterns" of "experiences" while responding to a similar visual stimulus but eventually our "personal" experience to a visual stimulus is almost unique. Not only that; our "experience" can also be modified by a variety of factors.

It is a similar story with sound. We all grossly follow the same patterns of "perception" but our individual "experience" is unique and highly dependant on various factors. Infact; given how sound transmits predominately by physical/mechanical pathways (as compared to visual stimuli) we may have even more individual variation in its perception.

A simple analogy: let's say that Amir (no pun intended) buys a mass spectrometer and goes around town trying to find the restaurant that makes the best spaghetti. He would show you how restaurant A's spaghetti has more sodium chloride and a high percentage of aromatic compounds as compared to restaurant B. But does that truly make A's spagehtti better?
Obviously not. It's a personal choice. Ofcourse certain objective measurements would tell you why A's spaghetti might be more palatable but all that goes out the window if I'm suffering from a cold, have a low taste perception, have a shorter tongue and most importantly have never tasted spaghetti! There is no question of this test being able to correctly correlate to my real life "experience".

Certain individuals (and therefore manufacturers) are hell bent on these measurements being absolute indicators of how good an equipment is while it couldn't be far from the truth. There are a lot of factors at play and individual perception might make that -8 to -10 db (or etc) of difference absolutely useless.

This makes "hobbyist" measurements of audio equipment to conclude whether it is "superior" or "inferior" to certain other equipment that don't test well, rather moot and comical. I pray for the souls of people who waste their time on measuring stuff and or gushing over objective numbers than actually enjoying their music (which is afterall the core of audiophilia).

This doesn't mean however that measurements are useless. Measurements and technical analysis of equipment in the domain of R&D and manufacturing is an important tool to ensure that devices perform consistently with no gross deviation from normal that might induce a subjective "perception" away from the common pattern of experience.

TLDR: Measurements are not completely synchronus with individual perception and hence your time is better spent listening and believing your own ears than to blindly go with data that is spit out of a machine.

Thanks for reading! Enjoy your weekend!

Cheers!

PS: Amir did not have any economic interests in restaurant A's business.

 

[goody]

I am absolutely not surprised about the gimped Eu version of the dap ..i was never going to buy it i think the last uncapped was the x series and A865...I dont thik it is hardware related as the sony's own firmware can can be changed by changing regions ..

I hope someone cracks the EU android firmware but i doubt it ,i will wait for the amazon japan version

 

[Kiats]

No argument from me there! S-Master is masterful engineering, even if you don't love the sound.

As for the volume cap, of course it's not Sony's fault. It's a stupid, pointless law. But by putting pressure on commercial entities like Sony, it may encourage more widespread derision of the law, and hit them where it hurts (the bottom line). Ultimately, targeting the revenue stream is the only thing that works.

Agree on the S-Master.

As for the volume cap, frankly, I suspect it'd be more effective if one were to lobby your MEP than Sony. The EU Commission, in its current iteration, is not very concerned about what even Big Tech thinks. But the European politicians will be interested in what their own voters think.

 

[Kiats]

Sony are not misinterpreting the rule. When EU originally introduced the rule it was indeed based on a device and it’s included headphone and was a dB loudness limit and that rule at leadt made some sense. However EU then expanded the rule setting a cap on output power of the device itself which makes absolutely no sense considering loudness depends on what you plug into the device. Why Sony serms to be the only dap maker that obeys this rule I don’t know but Apple also did while they had a headphone out (and still do for that models that still has headphone out). I could guess that Sony is sufficiently big and themselves represented in most EU countries and can’t be seen breaking the rule while most other manufacturers are not. Are other daps by other makers that are sold in EU even CE certified ?

In addition, Japanese companies are very law abiding. Further, it is not just the DAP business that they have but their entire range of consumer products. In the bigger scheme of things, any infringement leading to banning of their entire product range would have a big impact vs Chinese companies that have less to lose.

 

[Whitigir]

Taz doesn't filer USB noise coming from the PC? Is this why you recommend a walkman?

I don’t know what you are talking about, there are different noises, but of course TAZ filter incoming noises from shielding and drainage. Hence it is qualified as a USB Integrated DAC with high resolution capability by JEITA

 

[twister6]

835hours! wow

https://mobile.twitter.com/mo_stcx/status/1520360392794411009

Since I haven't seen block diagram of WM1Z internal design, how much is there of an overlap between SE and BAL ckts? Typically, on many other DAPs, SE is a subset of BAL, thus I don't bother to put as many hours of burn-in on SE as I do on BAL. And, most of my IEMs have 4.4mm terminated cables anyway. Got 60hrs on BAL now, mostly using iBasso burn-in load dongle, and on my way to get to 200hrs golden mark so I can start analyzing and comparing the sound. Thus curious if it will cover 3.5mm as well?

 

[aaf evo]

Since I haven't seen block diagram of WM1Z internal design, how much is there of an overlap between SE and BAL ckts? Typically, on many other DAPs, SE is a subset of BAL, thus I don't bother to put as many hours of burn-in on SE as I do on BAL. And, most of my IEMs have 4.4mm terminated cables anyway. Got 60hrs on BAL now, mostly using iBasso burn-in load dongle, and on my way to get to 200hrs golden mark so I can start analyzing and comparing the sound. Thus curious if it will cover 3.5mm as well?

I think on the M2 startup screen it says to burn in both separately?

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

@twister6, you can refer to this post by @Whitigir

I thank you . Yes, the S-Master is not exactly a class D. It is in fact a Direct Digital amplifications with the buffer stages of the class D.

The right class D requires analog input, then modulated into PWM as square waves and then amplifying it with Mosfet switching cycles.

S-Master already applying the processing and conversions of the digital stream of PWM together with oscillators as a sampling pulses to be Square waves which is processed from the previous digital stream and then amplifying by class D output.

In fact, S-Master can be analog amplified as well, and Sony made it with TA-ZH1ES (half bridge of it amplification circuit).

The S-Master inside Walkman is a portable S-Master and with balanced out as a Full bridge side, where as the single ended is Half bridge. They need burn in separately

Pros: Staying as close to the digital information as possible. Efficient of 80%

Cons: switching noises from Mosfet…which the SA-Z1 is using GAN-FET that switches much better and has ways less noises or intermodulation distortions