[ducnsh]

Ac noise issues are very varied basing on the location of where you live. In high density apartments which most typical Singaporeans lived in, there’s a lot more noise in the AC lines.

Try playing a 50Hz or 60Hz tone. Compare the sound at late night vs day time. See if you can hear differences. Compare the 50Hz/60Hz sound on the Walkman on battery vs your desktop setup.

The resolving power of your equipment do matter for how much of an impact this ac noise has on your equipment. The more higher resolving equipments may require more cleaner power for improved pin point accurate soundstage imaging. The pin point differences we are talking about here is between hearing just a group of violins playing at that part of the soundstage vs hearing and identifying three different violinist seated together at that part of the soundstage.

We also have many solutions to deal with AC noise, and for headphones, noises are less audible.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

We also have many solutions to deal with AC noise, and for headphones, noises are less audible.

Yes there are solutions but not necessary cheap. I think headphones will depend on how sensitive it is, just like how some iems are hiss sensitive even on battery powered DAPs. With most music, the ac noises is not of issue but I would think that with traditional classical music(I.e. Fur Elise), that’s where the electrical noises can start to be audible for the most sensitive listeners.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

But of course there are rare exceptions to this ac power noise issues. The two being TA-ZH1ES and DMP-Z1, which I can’t seem to hear ac noises from my iems.

 

[ducnsh]

Yes there are solutions but not necessary cheap. I think headphones will depend on how sensitive it is, just like how some iems are hiss sensitive even on battery powered DAPs. With most music, the ac noises is not of issue but I would think that with traditional classical music(I.e. Fur Elise), that’s where the electrical noises can start to be audible for the most sensitive listeners.

I faced the noise with my 64 Audio Trio which is very very sensitive, noise on every battery-powered device except the Walkman, I think all of us will notice the noise whether the genre is classical or not, so let our ears decide.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

I faced the noise with my 64 Audio Trio which is very very sensitive, noise on every battery-powered device except the Walkman, I think all of us will notice the noise whether the genre is classical or not, so let our ears decide.

Noise is more noticeable in quiet parts of the track. Not all music genres are that quiet as classical, especially heavy metal. I am just trying to suggest a better example of where this type of noise might be more easily noticeable to those unaware/curious. why take such critical view of my example?

Although recording quality of the music does play a more significant role in how much of these noise matters or not. Some music will reveal flaws in the sound more than others. So do explore listening to many genres of music as well, not just classical. As different flaws/issues with the equipment will show out with different genre of music.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

For me when I evaluate a new equipment, for example a new dap, I will play 5 genres of music to give myself a basic sense of how it well it sounds across many music genres that I listen to.

1. Jazz
2. Live classical concert performance
3. Heavy metal
4. Jpop
5. Electronic music

this will cover most, if not all of the various aspect of the sound reproduction.
What I find is many of these dap/dacs only get 3 of these genres well, not many are able to perform well in all five genres. Although this is my own way of evaluating equipment, everyone can have their own methodology.

When evaluating a gear, it’s important to know that your music requirements will likely change over time due to new music discovery or a change in music taste. So I would recommend to consider the sound performance of the equipment for playing a wider variety of genres and not just solely based on one or a few specific genre.

 

[FreeTime]

Ac noise issues are very varied basing on the location of where you live. In high density apartments which most typical Singaporeans lived in, there’s a lot more noise in the AC lines.

Try playing a 50Hz or 60Hz tone. Compare the sound at late night vs day time. See if you can hear differences. Compare the 50Hz/60Hz sound on the Walkman on battery vs your desktop setup.

The resolving power of your equipment do matter for how much of an impact this ac noise has on your equipment. The more higher resolving equipments may require more cleaner power for improved pin point accurate soundstage imaging. The pin point differences we are talking about here is between hearing just a group of violins playing at that part of the soundstage vs hearing and identifying three different individual violinists seated together at that part of the soundstage.

I have a CNC plotter in office, sometimes it will short circuit and the knife will dive into the table, damn scary. I solved the problem by adding a UPS into power supply, run like a champ ever since. The UPS has a LED reading of incoming voltage, it fluctuates at different time of the day.

That's one part i like about battery powered dap, more consistent voltage as long the battery is not wear out.

 

[osiris1]

For this new 1.04.01 firmware, after extended listening time, I find this settings to sound the best for my ier-m9 balanced WM1AM2 (offline playback):

Low gain
Volume level 85(extremely quiet listening environment)
Hi-res streaming mode On
Headphone App enabled with ier-m9 profile added and ear photo analysed
DSD slow rolloff
DSD gain -3db
DSEE Ultimate On
DC Phase Linearizer Type B Std
Other DSP off

What I find this time with hi-res streaming mode on, the dsd filtering mode has a bigger difference to the perceived vocal distances in the soundstage. Slow roll off seems to make vocal sound more closer while the sharp roll off seem to place more distance/sound reverberations to the vocals. This applies to all formats including flac/pcm playback. So do try out these two filtering modes for yourself if you are interested and have the necessary hearing abilities to hear such subtle sound difference.

Also this time round, direct source on with high-res streaming mode on sounds awesome too, no more noticeable digital filtering issues like ringing, aliasing or etc.

you aren't doing DSD Remastering anymore?

 

[osiris1]

Sandisk extreme pro is very good, you can also consider Kioxia high endurance which offers even better sound quality for budget consumer brands.

it really depends on your budget and how much more sound quality you want to attain. Do remember to format the card using the Walkman first before transferring music, as the formatting alignment from the Walkman OS allows for the most optimal file access(lower read access noise) for music playback.

agree on the Sandisk Extreme Pro. good speed. maybe will try Kioxia

 

[osiris1]

I got the IER-M9 off your glowing feedback but must admit I'm still curious to try the 1ZR as much as I like the M9.

The M9 is perfect fit, light & super comfy for my small ears, and even sold on my Noble K10U as too large even though sounded superb.

I bought the M9 and used it for a few years before buying the Z1R. at that time, I also thought that the Z1R would not be a comfy fit but really it is no bother with the right tips.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

you aren't doing DSD Remastering anymore?

For this new firmware, due to the inherent smoothness and more tamed transients of the new sound, I find DSEE Ultimate to sound on very on par to DSD Remastering mode thus the choice for DSEE over DSD-Re

 

[mhaapl]

Yes. Especially the new one with 200mbit reading speed.

Perfect, that's what I have ordered. 400gb with 200mb read and 140mb write.

Sandisk extreme pro is very good, you can also consider Kioxia high endurance which offers even better sound quality for budget consumer brands.

it really depends on your budget and how much more sound quality you want to attain. Do remember to format the card using the Walkman first before transferring music, as the formatting alignment from the Walkman OS allows for the most optimal file access(lower read access noise) for music playback.

Thanks for the info. I've gone with the SanDisk one, £80 for 400gb.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

The newer 200MBytes/sec sandisk extreme pro cards are using improved controllers, firmware and better nand cells:
https://documents.westerndigital.co...f/tech-brief-sandisk-quickflow-technology.pdf

 

[Whitigir]

I am done with playing around the DSP in walkman, what I am listening at the moment with the 1.04 firmware in “direct mode” give me this feeling

What in the hell ? How is this possible ? Listening to MDR-Z1R during mid night, yes! The time that audio sensory are most sensitive. The feelings I am having from this is “deeply immersive and engaging”. Why am I saying this ? notes, instruments, they float and pop and appears out of nothing ness. I have theater systems of 7.1, also 2 speakers stereos, also in the process of building a 13.2 system. But let me just say this, the level of immersion and engagement that I am having from ZM2 with this firmware, direct mode, MDR is amazing. I feel like I am listening to an AuroMax system, which is essentialLy a 26 speakers system within a dedicated room, just for music.

While multi-channels do have it immersive experiences, it does not have the engagement-ability that I am experiencing with ZM2 right here. Because my brain realizes an incoherency within the flow and tempo, timbres, localizations of the whole presentations. This multiple channels set up only works for movies, because my eyes are distracting my brain, the logic processing as to what is going on in the big screen and the localizations work in tantrum to grant immersive experiences. It has to be something on the screen and the multi-channels.

Here with headphones, and Walkman, the cohesiveness is “absolute”, the new firmware has improved it even further. The flow, consistency, density, tempo, timbres, positioning are consistent , and that if closing my eyes, I can easily pan myself, or my own position to face different directions as if I was turning my head within a dedicated room of multi channels, and still fully observing the different directions where these notes, music, instruments are popping all around me. Consistently so!

Now, with stereo system, I don’t have this immersion experience, but I do have a classic experience that a whole band is playing on the stage right in front of me, while I am sitting right at the sweet spots. All instruments, vocal are popping from left to right, in a conical area in front of me. However, this image can easily be disruptive if I just turn my head, or change my positions. Out of all experiences from these different systems I do have, I gotta say, it depends on what you are looking for, but if headphones, and something immersive consistently like a dedicated chamber/room for musical immersion, you can not go wrong with this ZM2 and MDR as a combo.

Some people would brand this headphones experiences to be called as a “head stage”, which is a much smaller staging than if you were listening to a stereos 2 channels. Then I would call the stereos 2 channels to be a “Sound-Scape” and not sound stage, because you are not sitting ”on-stage” and having instruments popping around you, but rather in a conical presentation as if a live band were playing in the front a head of you. If people call multi-channel an immersive audio experiences, then I would call headphones and a good system to be a ”total immersion and engaging experience”. In the end, if it is up to me, and from my experiences, I would totally call this to be “personal sound stage” as I am experience myself sitting right “on the stage” with the artist further from me, while all instruments is popping all around me, and it doesn’t change when I change or turn my head

ZM2 and MDR is giving me a total immersion that I feel like I can also measure the distances between me and different instruments positioning, in different recording….mind blown*!

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

“What the hell?” is a good summary for describing this new firmware.