[sergkeitriantafyllidis]

Its the shielding used on the sdcard and internal components. Its a commercial grade sdcard which means its more resistant robust and endurant hence which all result in a less errors tolerance in the process which again results in a more seem-less and accurate readout equals better sound quality at the end as perception….

Try conducting a blinded, or even better a double-blinded experiment. I am curious if you will be able to distinguish the sound without knowing the source.

 

[dennarwhal]

Not to be a spoil sport but I strongly recommend that we keep this thread away from discussions relating to topics that are controversial like the ability to hear the difference between SD cards, MQA and others. This is the 2nd or 3rd time we have veered into this topic already.

The more veteran members here may remember that they lost the original WM1A/Z thread to such topics which lead to actions that violated HeadFi regulations.

I am no admin or moderator nor do I have any favourites here. However, what I do favour is enjoying music and Sony products, especially their Walkman. There is nothing quite like a Gold Walkman. I am sure all of us participating in this thread can agree

Let's all do our part to keep this thread open and alive for us to participate in. Thanks!

 

[Andricop]

Am I the only one who prefers to have separate micro SD cards for each Artist and see no point in paying extra for ultra big storage? I have a separate one for my "mix tape" of the week.

Yes

 

[KevP]

Give Hiby with its Hiby Open Android OS a try, it just seems to work perfectly for streaming services, better than any other brand DAP's I've had.

Wifi & BT on R5G2 no issue either but then its glass front and back so maybe less metal blocking signal?

Well, I sent back the WM1AM2 to Sony UK, as I'd ordered a Japanese version. Arrived a few days ago. High gain option and no volume cap, of course, which is just wonderful. However, the performance issues are still there (so it wasn't that I had a bad'n). Trying to download around 10,800 Tidal tracks to the 1TB card in the Sony gave me the same problem as before. When it got to the last 2,000 it just stopped and no amount of re-starting would help.

I've done an interesting experiment over the last few days. I have a Hiby R8 as well. I swapped the microsd cards, so it was using the one where the download had failed to complete on the Sony. So that would eliminate the card being faulty or corrupted.

Result: Download was jerky and very very slow on the Sony and reached the same point where it gave up the ghost. Right beside it, using exactly the same wifi signal, The Hiby sailed through the download, smoothly and very quickly.

So what's going on here? It seems to be related either to the version of Android (The Hiby has v9, Sony has v11), or the firmware, or ????

Any thoughts anyone?

It's a beautifully put together DAP that screams quality. But, oh dear me, if Sony wants to promote this as a DAP that can be used seamlessly with the various streaming platforms - and importantly for me at least - allows you to easily download content for off-line use, they really have got to get their act together on the firmware.

 

[Andricop]

Not to be a spoil sport but I strongly recommend that we keep this thread away from discussions relating to topics that are controversial like the ability to hear the difference between SD cards, MQA and others. This is the 2nd or 3rd time we have veered into this topic already.

+1

 

[Liono]

Well, I sent back the WM1AM2 to Sony UK, as I'd ordered a Japanese version. Arrived a few days ago. High gain option and no volume cap, of course, which is just wonderful. However, the performance issues are still there (so it wasn't that I had a bad'n). Trying to download around 10,800 Tidal tracks to the 1TB card in the Sony gave me the same problem as before. When it got to the last 2,000 it just stopped and no amount of re-starting would help.

I've done an interesting experiment over the last few days. I have a Hiby R8 as well. I swapped the microsd cards, so it was using the one where the download had failed to complete on the Sony. So that would eliminate the card being faulty or corrupted.

Result: Download was jerky and very very slow on the Sony and reached the same point where it gave up the ghost. Right beside it, using exactly the same wifi signal, The Hiby sailed through the download, smoothly and very quickly.

So what's going on here? It seems to be related either to the version of Android (The Hiby has v9, Sony has v11), or the firmware, or ????

Any thoughts anyone?

It's a beautifully put together DAP that screams quality. But, oh dear me, if Sony wants to promote this as a DAP that can be used seamlessly with the various streaming platforms - and importantly for me at least - allows you to easily download content for off-line use, they really have got to get their act together on the firmware.

Do you get the same issues if you download content to the Internal memory rather than the mSD card?

 

[KevP]

Haven’t tried it, but the Hiby had no problem whatsoever.

 

[ejong7]

Anyone has any experience of 1AM2 against similarly priced units like M7, DX320, Kann Max etc? Only have the opportunity to hear 2 of them so far albeit separately, wish to hear more opinions. Currently looking for an update to my DX160 I'm having now.

 

[andrewski]

With all respect.

I know this is taboo, but it's taboo everywhere and I've never seen so many speak up. Don't hate.

When Sony came out with a 'for premium music' micro SD card, I was curious. Actually thought about spending $400+ (Cdn) for 64G. Instead I paid attention to the difference between my onboard storage compared to my mSD card. In a blind test, I couldn't tell if a track was on the card (it sounded good). But on tracks I'm very familiar with, I could tell if it was onboard storage (it sounded better, more extension). This has been the case with all three of my phones (HTC M8, LG v20, LG G8).
So far all of my cards have been Kingston (64G, 128G, and now 512G). Over about 8 months my 512G card has developed errors faster than the others. At least five tracks a had short burst of fuzz that I had to overwrite.
Now I have unexpectedly bought a Walkman and need a new card. I don't believe digital is digital. In that case a Columbiahouse CD should sound the same as a gold archival CD, or SHM CD (never bought one of those). Anyways, I bought a Swissbit industrial 256G hoping for an improvement. I bought it before reading this thread, and feel alot better about it after reading this thread. Because I spent the money I'm sure I'll think it's better. Just wanted to share, and distract myself for the next 4-8 months waiting for my NW-WM1AM2.

I roll tips
I roll cables
I roll cases
I roll cards

 

[kenjamin0523]

With all respect.

I know this is taboo, but it's taboo everywhere and I've never seen so many speak up. Don't hate.

When Sony came out with a 'for premium music' micro SD card, I was curious. Actually thought about spending $400+ (Cdn) for 64G. Instead I paid attention to the difference between my onboard storage compared to my mSD card. In a blind test, I couldn't tell if a track was on the card (it sounded good). But on tracks I'm very familiar with, I could tell if it was onboard storage (it sounded better, more extension). This has been the case with all three of my phones (HTC M8, LG v20, LG G8).
So far all of my cards have been Kingston (64G, 128G, and now 512G). Over about 8 months my 512G card has developed errors faster than the others. At least five tracks a had short burst of fuzz that I had to overwrite.
Now I have unexpectedly bought a Walkman and need a new card. I don't believe digital is digital. In that case a Columbiahouse CD should sound the same as a gold archival CD, or SHM CD (never bought one of those). Anyways, I bought a Swissbit industrial 256G hoping for an improvement. I bought it before reading this thread, and feel alot better about it after reading this thread. Because I spent the money I'm sure I'll think it's better. Just wanted to share, and distract myself for the next 4-8 months waiting for my NW-WM1AM2.

I roll tips
I roll cables
I roll cases
I roll cards

Just got my Swissbit last month and it definately improves sound than my sandisk extreme pro. You will be suprised how Swissbit sound.

 

[TonyStarks]

Just got my Swissbit last month and it definately improves sound than my sandisk extreme pro. You will be suprised how Swissbit sound.

Swissbit and Greenliant (Cannot remember the correct spelling ) is another 2 that I am itching to try...

 

[sergkeitriantafyllidis]

With all respect.

I know this is taboo, but it's taboo everywhere and I've never seen so many speak up. Don't hate.

When Sony came out with a 'for premium music' micro SD card, I was curious. Actually thought about spending $400+ (Cdn) for 64G. Instead I paid attention to the difference between my onboard storage compared to my mSD card. In a blind test, I couldn't tell if a track was on the card (it sounded good). But on tracks I'm very familiar with, I could tell if it was onboard storage (it sounded better, more extension). This has been the case with all three of my phones (HTC M8, LG v20, LG G8).
So far all of my cards have been Kingston (64G, 128G, and now 512G). Over about 8 months my 512G card has developed errors faster than the others. At least five tracks a had short burst of fuzz that I had to overwrite.
Now I have unexpectedly bought a Walkman and need a new card. I don't believe digital is digital. In that case a Columbiahouse CD should sound the same as a gold archival CD, or SHM CD (never bought one of those). Anyways, I bought a Swissbit industrial 256G hoping for an improvement. I bought it before reading this thread, and feel alot better about it after reading this thread. Because I spent the money I'm sure I'll think it's better. Just wanted to share, and distract myself for the next 4-8 months waiting for my NW-WM1AM2.

I roll tips
I roll cables
I roll cases
I roll cards

Let's assume that you are right that there are differences in sound related to "developed errors", and digital is not digital in general.

Does that mean that when we transfer music from the PC to the Walkman, errors could also occur and result in music degradation? If yes, should we use high quality USB cables to minimize the effect? Are there any silver-plated USB cables? Or maybe optical should be better. I've seen some Corning optical Thunderbolt cables that cost several hundreds of dollars and I cannot stop thinking about them.

To further minimize music degradation, should we care about the SSD or HD brand we download music tracks to in the first place? Would SSD or HD be better? I think HD might be better because there is a spinning disk similar to a vinyl disk, which could mean that tracks would play smoother.

Also, tracks are usually compressed in a ZIP or another type of archive. Should we prefer ZIP over other archives. I think the type of archive can affect the track quality similarly to the type of vinyl sleeve. A better designed archive could cause less damage to the tracks. How about which software we use to uncompress the tracks? Similarly to the way we remove a vinyl disk from its sleeve, extracting track could potentially damage them. I think WinZip is pretty good at doing things and it's been around for a while, but I am open to new suggestions.

Last but not least, could the internet connection potentially affect the quality of tracks while they are being downloaded? Should we prefer DSL, cable, optical, satellite, or mobile connection? I think definitely not mobile, as there are many interferences. How about the connection speed? High-speed connection could cause more errors. Maybe high-speed connection with artificially limited download speed. Which provider to choose is also a question. But in my area only Xfinity is available, so I am out of options.

I apologize for the long post, but there are so many factors to think about in order ensure that the original sound quality is preserved during the transferring process.

 

[andrewski]

Let's assume that you are right that there are differences in sound related to "developed errors", and digital is not digital in general.

Does that mean that when we transfer music from the PC to the Walkman, errors could also occur and result in music degradation? If yes, should we use high quality USB cables to minimize the effect? Are there any silver-plated USB cables? Or maybe optical should be better. I've seen some Corning optical Thunderbolt cables that cost several hundreds of dollars and I cannot stop thinking about them.

To further minimize music degradation, should we care about the SSD or HD brand we download music tracks to in the first place. Would SSD or HD be better? I think HD might be better because there is a spinning disk similar to a vinyl disk, which could mean that tracks would play smoother.

Also, tracks are usually compressed in a ZIP or another type of archive. Should we prefer ZIP over other archives. I think the type of archive can affect the track quality similarly to the type of vinyl sleeve. A better designed archive could cause less damage to the tracks. How about which software we use to uncompress the tracks? Similarly to the way we remove a vinyl disk from its sleeve, extracting track could potentially damage tracks. I think WinZip is pretty good at doing things and it's been around for a while, but I am open to new suggestions.

Last but not least, could the internet connection potentially affect the quality of tracks while they are being downloaded? Should we prefer DSL, cable, optical, satellite, or mobile connection? I think definitely not mobile, as there are many interferences. How about the connection speed. High-speed connection could cause more errors. Maybe high-speed connection with artificially limited download speed. Which provider to choose is also a question. But in my area only Xfinity is available, so I am out of options.

I apologize for the long post, but there are so many factors to think about in order ensure that the original sound quality is preserved during the transferring process.

I have no idea if you are being serious. I don't download unless it's not available on CD. I encode WAV files using HI-MD.

I'm sorry everyone, this was not my intention. My last post on the matter.

Thank to everyone who has contributed

 

[sergkeitriantafyllidis]

I have no idea if you are being serious. I don't download unless it's not available on CD. I encode WAV files using HI-MD.

I'm sorry everyone, this was not my intention. My last post on the matter.

Thank to everyone who has contributed

Yes, I am serious, as I want to ensure the best possible sound quality. I am new to this, so want to learn from you guys as much as possible, and that is why I asked so many questions. When I referred to downloading tracks, I mostly meant Hi-Res tracks, as their quality is superior to CD; unless of course I can find the desirable content on SACD.

 

[Pro-Jules]

Well, I sent back the WM1AM2 to Sony UK, as I'd ordered a Japanese version. Arrived a few days ago. High gain option and no volume cap, of course, which is just wonderful. However, the performance issues are still there (so it wasn't that I had a bad'n). Trying to download around 10,800 Tidal tracks to the 1TB card in the Sony gave me the same problem as before. When it got to the last 2,000 it just stopped and no amount of re-starting would help.

I've done an interesting experiment over the last few days. I have a Hiby R8 as well. I swapped the microsd cards, so it was using the one where the download had failed to complete on the Sony. So that would eliminate the card being faulty or corrupted.

Result: Download was jerky and very very slow on the Sony and reached the same point where it gave up the ghost. Right beside it, using exactly the same wifi signal, The Hiby sailed through the download, smoothly and very quickly.

So what's going on here? It seems to be related either to the version of Android (The Hiby has v9, Sony has v11), or the firmware, or ????

Any thoughts anyone?

It's a beautifully put together DAP that screams quality. But, oh dear me, if Sony wants to promote this as a DAP that can be used seamlessly with the various streaming platforms - and importantly for me at least - allows you to easily download content for off-line use, they really have got to get their act together on the firmware.

On all the DAPS I have owned the initial stage of downloading hundreds of tracks / all my favorite albums using Qobus, Amazon Music HD or Tidal has without exception, been totally miserable.

So I think any time your DAP'S download queue looks to have hundreds of tracks to download - you can expect some trouble ahead.

Just my experience - every time.
Fiio 9?
Hiby R6 Pro
Sony 507 (I have owned 2)