[WAmadeusM]

I think its the price mostly.

Shanling M9+ uses Stock, Off-the-shelve Hardware for 2700€... thats a tough price.
A&K SP3000 does the exact same thing and sells for 4300€

Those are very very tough prices, even outpricing Sony.

If you are more expensive than the "original" who invented the product, but then use nothing exclusive or special that sets apart your product from an 650€ M11 Plus ESS, why should people buy it?

If Sony would stop making DAP tomorrow, completely quit production, i would buy an M11 Plus ESS and just use that. What you get with the Walkman, you can not get from any other company that exists. What you get from Shanling and A&K, you can get from almost every Chinese company that makes DAP.

Sure, you can cash in on the die hard audiophile but mostly these products are invented (and marketed) not for audiophiles but rich people who want to have it for the sake of having it. So of course they are not talked about that much because nobody owns them. Or the people who own it are not active here because most of them live in China and Japan.

A&K marketed the SP3000 not for its insane sound quality, but for using the same materials that are used in watches. When you DAP markets that he uses the same material than watches, the target group is clear imho

Sony: "We use copper to reduce the output impedance, look at our self developed capacitors and our self develop lead to give our self developed full digital amp the best sound quality possible with these giant LCs"

A&K: "We use an material that is shiny and looks good and is durable and also used in watches. Inside you find chips that cost 30$ on the open market but because we put them on an PCB, they are better. You don't believe us? Better do. If you pay 700$ extra, we coat it even in gold for you! The sound? I don't know, doesn't change, but look how shiny it is"

Agree. If only Sony didn't run its screens at very very low refresh rates that give me PWM near migraines- they would then be audio nirvana.

 

[WAmadeusM]

Search i

The M2 is an significantly improved version over the first generation.

You have obviously higher sound quality, especially in the treble region due to more and better capacitors.

The M1 has 13 wound capacitors but only 8 of them are first generation FT CAP and 5 of them are OS-CON with an double layer capacitor for the power source.

The M2 has 21 wound capacitors and all of them are third generation FTCAP. That is an significant difference with a lot of minor improvements like the lead containing gold and small stuff like that.

But also more features like the improved battery life (roughly 10 hours more), android to download the songs right into your device or *shrug* stream

Especially when owning the A-Version, the M2 is a big

The M2 is an significantly improved version over the first generation.

You have obviously higher sound quality, especially in the treble region due to more and better capacitors.

The M1 has 13 wound capacitors but only 8 of them are first generation FT CAP and 5 of them are OS-CON with an double layer capacitor for the power source.

The M2 has 21 wound capacitors and all of them are third generation FTCAP. That is an significant difference with a lot of minor improvements like the lead containing gold and small stuff like that.

But also more features like the improved battery life (roughly 10 hours more), android to download the songs right into your device or *shrug* stream

Especially when owning the A-Version, the M2 is a big jump

Excluding sound fidelity - the ability to search properly, and the boot up time cannot be underestimated. Now you can view two ways. ZM2 is a improvement. Or the ZM1 was not released or supported properly. No search still on ZM1. I have a 1.5TB SD + internal on ZM2. Not having the ability to search that library would be ludicrous in 2024.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

I'm of the belief that DSD processing of Sony is heavily filtered out. It makes great for long term listening, but I've formed the view that for me, I much prefer DSEE AI over DSD mastering.

One man’s meat is another man’s poison. Some here are die hard fans of Direct Source Mode. I would think each setting has its pros and cons.

Personally for me I am in the opinion that what setting to use is dependent on the synergy of the equipment, listening mood and the source music material and whether battery operating time is of concern.

I feel that Sony has significantly improved the DSEE AI algorithms since its debut release on the ZX507. There were times where the older versions of the algorithms made the dynamics feel artificially overly boosted. Also the older algorithms prior to 1.07 had a tendency to add delayed(reactive) echo/reverbation to live music, where there is a moment of silence before the singer begins to sing, there is a noticeable spacial widening reverb added into the sound after the silence, which makes the soundstaging suddenly feel much different before and after the slient part, this delay is thankfully no longer present in the current firmware.

At where 1.07 firmware sits, I feel that DSEE Ultimate is very much on the right track in terms of carefully enhancing the perceived dynamic range of the music without hurting or causing fatigue to the ears.

 

[kumar402]

I'm of the belief that DSD processing of Sony is heavily filtered out. It makes great for long term listening, but I've formed the view that for me, I much prefer DSEE AI over DSD mastering.

DSD in general are less dynamic then PCM

 

[boodi]

what you mean by filtered out ?,

as much as improving spatial information, frqs lineraity in extremes of ranges and in the same time preserving original material , i find DSD remastering quite superior to DSEE

DSEE is the more engaging 'filter'.. but...it's the one that subtly remove and paste here and there the source material , to compress some areas of the source , resulting in more separated layers. I like it while I know it sorta removes the littlest surface details.

DSD is way more linear and gives a sensation of more smoothness , and more resolution too

Subtle , but.

 

[boodi]

One man’s meat is another man’s poison. Some here are die hard fans of Direct Source Mode. I would think each setting has its pros and cons.

I am a die hard eq + Class A/low dsp user , but find myself shifting all 3 to check out from time to time , as for some music and synergy one indid may work better then the other

 

[boodi]

Also
DSEE sorta adds some color( filter for audio wave reposition/ recompression )

As a result ( of an applied signal processing filter ) in this case with DSEE ON music strikes you less with its own originality and mix production features

Something that 1am2 quite excels on , is preserving the original material mix qualities and aims .
DSEE On and different elements in different musics get a ' same filter treatment ' , so that eventually the results in 2 different songs/music , sound not-as-different as they originally are.

Subtle,but.

On z1m2 , though , the thing is quite more refined > so DSEE adds less perception of filtering and recompression when adding in its own sauce .

My ears ymmv etc

 

[kefs]

I am so surprised how quick the battery gets used up when connected to the TAZ, which I imagine is decoding and amplifying so the walkman is just feeding files?

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

Also
DSEE sorta adds some color( filter for audio wave reposition/ recompression )

As a result ( of an applied signal processing filter ) in this case with DSEE ON music strikes you less with its own originality and mix production features

Something that 1am2 quite excels on , is preserving the original material mix qualities and aims .
DSEE On and different elements in different musics get a ' same filter treatment ' , so that eventually the results in 2 different songs/music , sound not-as-different as they originally are.

Subtle,but.

On z1m2 , though , the thing is quite more refined > so DSEE adds less perception of filtering and recompression when adding in its own sauce .

My ears ymmv etc

DSD Remastering increases the smoothness of the sound. There is a great sense of continuity in the sound. I would think this DSP works best with classical music or DSD64/128 music. PCM music’s dynamics can sound abrupt or jumpy, it’s like you are following a moving dot with your music and this dot just feels jumpy and uncontrolled, some would call it the PCM brittleness.

While DSEE Ultimate isn’t going to be as smooth sounding as DSD Remastering, I would think that the upsampling of DSEE is still a very good step up in smoothness over direct source mode, which has the most amount of brittleness feel.

End of the day, what matters is which settings allows for better music enjoyment and that is something that lies in the ears of the beholder.

Personally for myself, I would keep DSEE Ultimate enabled as I feel that Sony has done a tremendous job in making a system that can restore and enhance all types of music to something better. For those who have the time and willing to experiment, I would suggest for you to try out converting your most favourite high resolution music to different lower grade versions(128kbps mp3, 256kbps aac and etc) and compare for yourself to see if the Sony DSEE Ultimate is capable of matching close to the original high resolution music. I think you will be surprised at the results.

 

[kumar402]

Does DSEE Ultimate work with RedBook quality ? Or only if data is below redbook quality ?

 

[andrewski]

Does DSEE Ultimate work with RedBook quality ? Or only if data is below redbook quality ?

Sony says it does. I ... don't.

Respectfully

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

Does DSEE Ultimate work with RedBook quality ? Or only if data is below redbook quality ?

Yes. It will work on lossless cd quality music in this updated version:

https://www.sony.jp/feature/products/220209/?s_pid=jp_/walkman/_wmsptop

Tanaka: By making full use of AI technology, DSEE Ultimate automatically determines the type of song and reproduces even fine sounds with high accuracy in addition to the high range. What is installed in this machine is the latest version with improved upscaling accuracy for lossless codecs equivalent to CD sound quality compared to the one installed in the existing Walkman.

Sekine: The point is that DSEE, which was originally a function aimed at compressed sound sources, has evolved to target lossless sound sources this time. Recently, the number of streaming services that handle lossless sound sources is increasing, so I think that the user benefits are great.

 

[audionewbi]

I wonder if Sony will have a fu*k it moment and release another DMP-z1, but this time with uncapped version of DSEE. Part of me regrets not getting the dmp-z1 when I had the moment, but other part of me is glad as it is not a true Sony as the main part is AKM.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

I wonder if Sony will have a fu*k it moment and release another DMP-z1, but this time with uncapped version of DSEE. Part of me regrets not getting the dmp-z1 when I had the moment, but other part of me is glad as it is not a true Sony as the main part is AKM.

Although the dac is made by AKM, I felt that Sony has managed to keep their Sony House Sound intact. The DMP-Z1 doesn’t have the typical warm bass sound that most AKM based dac have, the DMP-Z1 has very well defined and impactful bass that is only found in Sony designed equipment. Although for myself, I find that the DMP-Z1 still has some very tiny hints of AKM sigma delta graininess in the higher frequencies but it is very hard to notice them unless you really nickpick at the music. Personally I would prefer the TA-ZH1ES over the DMP-Z1 from a sound quality perspective as the TA-ZH1ES has a kind of more gentle/smoother high frequency sound reproduction over the DMP-Z1.

 

[audionewbi]

Although the dac is made by AKM, I felt that Sony has managed to keep their Sony House Sound intact. The DMP-Z1 doesn’t have the typical warm bass sound that most AKM based dac have, the DMP-Z1 has very well defined and impactful bass that is only found in Sony designed equipment. Although for myself, I find that the DMP-Z1 still has some very tiny hints of AKM sigma delta graininess in the higher frequencies but it is very hard to notice them unless you really nickpick at the music. Personally I would prefer the TA-ZH1ES over the DMP-Z1 from a sound quality perspective as the TA-ZH1ES has a kind of more gentle/smoother high frequency sound reproduction over the DMP-Z1.

It is more of a mental barrier of knowing what I know than nitpicking the DMP-Z1 sonically.