[namawee]

Does anyone notice some dark patches on the screen especially on white backgrouns top of screen (probably uneven back-light related)? I'm surprised to see this - it not extreme but I haven't seen this issue on phones in a long time. I'm mulling whether to try and return it but I'm worried they will say its within "acceptable" parameters. Its difficult to unsee once seen and gives me a bad taste considering how costly it is. I thought Sony quality control was better

Do you have a picture?

 

[psikey]

Does anyone notice some dark patches on the screen especially on white backgrouns top of screen (probably uneven back-light related)? I'm surprised to see this - it not extreme but I haven't seen this issue on phones in a long time. I'm mulling whether to try and return it but I'm worried they will say its within "acceptable" parameters. Its difficult to unsee once seen and gives me a bad taste considering how costly it is. I thought Sony quality control was better

Yes, just at top on a pure white screen. Its not a smartphone so a non-issue for me and I never do anything with it other than music so never looking at white web pages for example. Have in Dark mode anyway.

Photo of full white background, max brightness which shows it at its worst, and these things always seem to standout worse on photos.

 

[emilsoft]

Yes, just at top on a pure white screen. Its not a smartphone so a non-issue for me and I never do anything with it other than music so never looking at white web pages for example. Have in Dark mode anyway.

Photo of full white background, max brightness which shows it at its worst, and these things always seem to standout worse on photos.

You sure you don't have mine? I have exactly the same thing haha. OK thanks for showing me this, makes it a little less annoying knowing that mine isn't a special case. I agree in dark mode its fine and not a mobile phone so I can accept it but still a little annoying as this is premium device I expect perfection from Sony

 

[psikey]

You sure you don't have mine? I have exactly the same thing haha. OK thanks for showing me this, makes it a little less annoying knowing that mine isn't a special case. I agree in dark mode its fine and not a mobile phone so I can accept it but still a little annoying as this is premium device I expect perfection from Sony

You talk price point, but its not a mass appeal phone and decent phones cost £1K anyway.

For the sound quality, materials, build quality, brand the 1AM2 is about right, my Japanese Import cost close to £1K total to me (vs £1300 in UK). The Z is way OTT price, but people have a lower price option without any real significance in sound, quality, operation.

 

[gLer]

Looks like typical LCD light bleed, very common unfortunately.

 

[emilsoft]

You talk price point, but its not a mass appeal phone and decent phones cost £1K anyway.

For the sound quality, materials, build quality, brand the 1MA2 is about right, my Japanese Import cost close to £1K total to me (vs £1300 in UK). The Z is way OTT price, but people have a lower price option without any real significance in sound, quality, operation.

It's a Sony - I have certain very high expectations of the brand when it comes to quality control.. I agree the build quality/sound might match the asking price (+ Sony tax), the stained LCD IMO does not match this expectation however - I've had many LCD devices over the last 4-5 years or so, including Hiby DAPs, iPhone SE, and neither my ZX2 nor ZX507 have this.

Anyway i'll put the device in dark mode and concentrate on the music. It does sound fantastic in a way only Sony can, even pre burn in.

 

[maddib]

You sure you don't have mine? I have exactly the same thing haha. OK thanks for showing me this, makes it a little less annoying knowing that mine isn't a special case. I agree in dark mode its fine and not a mobile phone so I can accept it but still a little annoying as this is premium device I expect perfection from Sony

May be it's a well known general issue with the LED backlight assembly, common to the used type of display. In case it's not aligned properly you may get such irregular backlight illumination. A more perfect DAP may use an AMOLED. Does anyone know such a DAP? . You won't ever get a perfect DAP, no matter how much it costs. DAPs are a full niche product. And the manufacturers like to earn money

 

[maddib]

It's a Sony - I have certain very high expectations of the brand when it comes to quality control..

It's a Sony - I have certain very high expectations of the brand when it comes to quality control..

Lower your expectations and make a reality check. Sony primarily is a mass product manufacturer. And believe, they surely cut cost on several components, also for this DAP. By spending so much money you definitely won't get an A+ selection for every single component

 

[emilsoft]

Lower your expectations and make a reality check. Sony primarily is a mass product manufacturer. And believe, they surely cut cost on several components, also for this DAP. By spending so much money you definitely won't get an A+ selection for every single component

Mass production are Apple, Samsung - never seen QC sacrifice on their screens to this extent, and I can bet they cut costs as much as possible. Anyway, no need to try and persuade me to lower my expectations - I'm not asking for 120HZ Oled display, I don't mind the lower resolution and less color accurate LCD panel, but I expect at a minimum uniform backlight (at least not so noticeable to the naked eye), especially with Sony who tout best in class panels/TV with the price to match - trickle down tech and all that. We should keep our expectations high and call out the manufacturers for any imperfections, otherwise you can bet they will slack and cut quality more and more.

 

[psikey]

Mass production are Apple, Samsung - never seen QC sacrifice on their screens to this extent, and I can bet they cut costs as much as possible. Anyway, no need to try and persuade me to lower my expectations - I'm not asking for 120HZ Oled display, I don't mind the lower resolution and less color accurate LCD panel, but I expect at a minimum uniform backlight (at least not so noticeable to the naked eye), especially with Sony who tout best in class panels/TV with the price to match - trickle down tech and all that. We should keep our expectations high and call out the manufacturers for any imperfections, otherwise you can bet they will slack and cut quality more and more.

The key point of a smartphone is its screen you interact with constantly.

The key point of a DAP is its audio paths to deliver high end sound quality with screen off most of its use.

If screen is critical go with iBasso from what I've read.

 

[justanut]

Mass production are Apple, Samsung - never seen QC sacrifice on their screens to this extent, and I can bet they cut costs as much as possible. Anyway, no need to try and persuade me to lower my expectations - I'm not asking for 120HZ Oled display, I don't mind the lower resolution and less color accurate LCD panel, but I expect at a minimum uniform backlight (at least not so noticeable to the naked eye), especially with Sony who tout best in class panels/TV with the price to match - trickle down tech and all that. We should keep our expectations high and call out the manufacturers for any imperfections, otherwise you can bet they will slack and cut quality more and more.

YMMV.. you mentioned a problem I've not noticed in over 500hr of use... prob less than 10hrs of which I've spent staring at the screen, and 0% of that at a white screen. I'm used to dark mode on all my devices and have it the moment I received it. Non of my usual apps show any amount of bare white so yeah.. not going to bother loading a white background just to check either.

I did however check the body thoroughly for any manufacturing defects. I wish there was someway to check that audio output is as it should be though... oh well.

 

[emilsoft]

YMMV.. you mentioned a problem I've not noticed in over 500hr of use... prob less than 10hrs of which I've spent staring at the screen, and 0% of that at a white screen. I'm used to dark mode on all my devices and have it the moment I received it. Non of my usual apps show any amount of bare white so yeah.. not going to bother loading a white background just to check either.

I did however check the body thoroughly for any manufacturing defects. I wish there was someway to check that audio output is as it should be though... oh well.

You also have the dark patch? It was one of the first thing I noticed when I used the browser in light mode. In dark mode it's fine, but doesn't help knowing it's there. Maybe mine is more pronounced.

 

[psikey]

You also have the dark patch? It was one of the first thing I noticed when I used the browser in light mode. In dark mode it's fine, but doesn't help knowing it's there. Maybe mine is more pronounced.

Think your just used to high-end smart phone screens that are meant for perfection. Big money wasn't put into the screen of the Walkman, and no idea why anyone would use it for anything but music playback, the smartphone is better for everything else.

 

[justanut]

You also have the dark patch? It was one of the first thing I noticed when I used the browser in light mode. In dark mode it's fine, but doesn't help knowing it's there. Maybe mine is more pronounced.

I switched it on at the shop, checked for dead pixels and turned on dark mode. Never looked back. Not going go be bothered to check for something that doesn't affect me.. if you look hard enough, even recent iPhones still have some screen uniformity issues. I would certainly be more concerned in phones, tablets, monitors and tvs.

If this is an issue I think it's fair for you to walk away from the product. I'm just consistently getting surprised by the SQ out of these.

 

[maddib]

I switched it on at the shop, checked for dead pixels and turned on dark mode. Never looked back. Not going go be bothered to check for something that doesn't affect me.. if you look hard enough, even recent iPhones still have some screen uniformity issues. I would certainly be more concerned in phones, tablets, monitors and tvs.

If this is an issue I think it's fair for you to walk away from the product. I'm just consistently getting surprised by the SQ out of these.

I agree. I find the SQ astonishing. It's noticeably better than that of my Onkyo DP-X1. It's not a huge difference, but I like it. But, to be honest, 1400eur for the AM2 is almost unacceptably pricy. The Onkyo was 700eur.
There may be one point with the display. AMOLED displays are said to be significantly less power consuming than the type used. Someday, we will find DAPs with such displays. But it may take another 5-10 years