[Lépine]

Interesting, three of you have pointed to using Low Gain over High Gain. I will spend more time with Low Gain.
I have, because of my initial couple of hours owning the player not gotten very impressive dynamics, left it on High Gain and not changed it. Made it easier to observe the maturity of the player.

Personally, I could have done okay with less battery life, I would have preferred more "grunt". There are plenty of
very efficient IEMs out there so not an issue to find one that can really show off the Sony. Now if I can get my GS-X
to not distort the sound, we would be in business I'll just have to get one of the grounding adapters to use an
external desktop amp.

 

[andrewski]

I'm enjoying low gain very much. But the volumes mentioned baffle me. With MDR-Z7M2's I'm at 62, which I'm worried is a little too loud, but allows long listening sessions. With my IER-Z1R's I'm at 53, and that's really loud. Perhaps my WAV's off CD are plenty loud?

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

I'm enjoying low gain very much. But the volumes mentioned baffle me. With MDR-Z7M2's I'm at 62, which I'm worried is a little too loud, but allows long listening sessions. With my IER-Z1R's I'm at 53, and that's really loud. Perhaps my WAV's off CD are plenty loud

I think you shouldn’t worry too much about volume number being too high. This is using a very well curated Sony S-Master HX voltage regulated volume control and not some “generic” class A ESS Sabre volume control which might just suddenly blast your eardrums with a loud hyperstream II transient “explosion”.

 

[andrewski]

I think you shouldn’t worry too much about volume number being too high. This is using a very well curated Sony S-Master HX voltage regulated volume control and not some “generic” class A ESS Sabre volume control which might just suddenly blast your eardrums with a loud hyperstream II transient “explosion”.

Hearing damage doesn't have to be jarring though ...

 

[Whitigir]

Hearing damage doesn't have to be jarring though ...

On the front of hearing damages. You damage it on daily basis, whether you hear loud music or not. It is just that if you are exposed to louder music than your comfort zone, and long hours every day, then you will accelerate the hearing damages. Therefore, you use it up, or lose it

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

Hearing damage doesn't have to be jarring though ...

I suggest you should try switching to DSD remastering if you haven’t. As you listen more to DSD, your brain will eventually adjust itself to the less intense, softer sound presentation of DSD. Once that happens you will find that you don’t really need to turn up the volume to hear fine details in the music. This may help to delay the eventual hearing loss that might happen to us all.

 

[AudioAndCoffee]

On my both adequately drivable MDR-1AM2 and IER-M9. I recently discovered(from using dsd remastering mode) that using low gain is a better option over high gain. Volume matched, low gain seems to have stronger bass slam compared to high gain. Maybe there’s more capacitor power reserves with low gain or something.

agreed

 

[Kiats]

And how did you arrive at this conclusion? I have both the RS8 and 1ZM2 and have been spending 25 hours with them.
I don't see in your inventory an RS8.

It is really in the second hour from turning these daps on that you hear the capabilities.

With IEMs the Sony does well against the RS8 which is slightly more musical and slight
more realistic rendering of live recordings. RS8 has much bigger sound stage, most likely
from a more powerful amp.

With headphones there is no contest. Sony doesn't have the power to sound dynamic
and with higher current requirements the volume is still low at 80 and high gain on a 20 ohm LCD-MX4.
Which, no doubt you would already know. The RS8 has been reported by well accepted reviewers
as producing very good results for headphones with the C9. So far, I have not had good
luck with headphones and the Sony. Someone has explained to me that I need to ground
the Sony to use with an external amp. Not sure about investing more money into this solution
without more information.


The 1ZM2 is a very nice player, mine is finally after 30 hours and using a U18t showing me the
capabilities that have made the Sony a cult. If the Sony 1ZM2 continues to open up the
treble, I shall be quite happy with the final results.

I had the RS8 on demo for a few days.

 

[ducnsh]

+1 for low gain, I am using low gain with volume 65 for MDR-Z1R and 55 for IER-Z1R, low gain has more texture and dynamic to my ears.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

FPGA burn in update:
DSD Remastering now really has much improved bass definition. Bass feels extremely tight, every beat starts and stops exactly on the frequency spot without any feeling of after tones. With certain recordings with headphones, bass can feel like tiny air pressure movements pushing or pulling on your skin. I feel that bass on dsd remastering is so much much more emotive and rhythmic sounding than what you can get from PCM playback.

 

[zephyrstar]

Got a pair of Denon AH-D9200 a few days ago and it really sounds great with the NW-WM1Z M2. Really low impedance makes it a great headphone for a DAP.

 

[andrewski]

I suggest you should try switching to DSD remastering if you haven’t. As you listen more to DSD, your brain will eventually adjust itself to the less intense, softer sound presentation of DSD. Once that happens you will find that you don’t really need to turn up the volume to hear fine details in the music. This may help to delay the eventual hearing loss that might happen to us all.

I think I may eventually find myself using DSD remastering. But I find 100hours of burn in at 8hours a charge a bit of a hurdle. I'm still in blissful discovery mode with my IER-Z1R's with Kimber at 115hours. Perhaps after 300, I'll start the DSD burn.

Silly question. Is there a separate burn in for high gain? Would it benefit low gain? Thanks

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

I think I may eventually find myself using DSD remastering. But I find 100hours of burn in at 8hours a charge a bit of a hurdle. I'm still in blissful discovery mode with my IER-Z1R's with Kimber at 115hours. Perhaps after 300, I'll start the DSD burn.

Silly question. Is there a separate burn in for high gain? Would it benefit low gain? Thanks

Though we cannot really see with our naked eyes on how the electrons flow inside these capacitors, but I would imagine that with burn in, there’s some kind of unclogging/smoothening of the electrical pathway caused by the repeated flow of electrons flowing though the capacitors.

There are many suggestions on what kind of method to achieve a more effective burn in results. I think from a sensible point of view, just ensure that there is adequate loudness and the use of many different genres of music to allow for the internal electron pathways to organically form its own pattern from the music you listen to. Gain shouldn’t play too much part on this but maybe @Whitigir has some other suggestion.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

I think I would use DSEE Ultimate for when I am traveling outdoors with my Walkman. The lower power consumption and the more dynamic sound(as per remastered by the AI) will be more effective at countering external noises.

But if you are in a quiet place like maybe in your bedroom or some quiet library, this is where you can really notice the beautiful smoothness and finer sounds that DSD Remastering offers. It’s not that DSD remastering is not as capable of strong dynamic transients as dsee ultimate but dsd remastering mode is much more conservative in revealing dynamic transients.

 

[emilsoft]

Though we cannot really see with our naked eyes on how the electrons flow inside these capacitors, but I would imagine that with burn in, there’s some kind of unclogging/smoothening of the electrical pathway caused by the repeated flow of electrons flowing though the capacitors.

There are many suggestions on what kind of method to achieve a more effective burn in results. I think from a sensible point of view, just ensure that there is adequate loudness and the use of many different genres of music to allow for the internal electron pathways to organically form its own pattern from the music you listen to. Gain shouldn’t play too much part on this but maybe @Whitigir has some other suggestion.

Just do recommended burnin of 150-200 hours, playing at a good volume and then do another burning in dsd mode and eq enabled with reversed audio tracks to workout the fpga - it’s when you go to the gym you don’t wanna do just dumbells but also need to work your buttocks too

Just do recommended burnin of 150-200 hours, playing at a good volume and then do another burning in dsd mode and eq enabled with reversed audio tracks to workout the fpga - it’s when you go to the gym you don’t wanna do just dumbells but also need to work your buttocks too

I also recommend separate burnin sessions one for music on sd card to get the read speeds lubricated and then from the internal memory - 100 hours on each should suffice