[SRKRAM]

Sufficient to drive Meze empyrean or Arya

Do you have the capped version? The Empyreans are quite sensitive and shouldn't be a problem for the Sony. I use the Arya Stealths, which are the most sensitive Aryas, and I don't have any problems with them. Do you have one of the other versions?

 

[Vamp898]

Sufficient to drive Meze empyrean or Arya

They are both pretty easy to drive, i am surprised you're having issues. I owned the Meze Empyriean and could drive it effortless even on low gain.

Meze even advertises how easy it is to drive, here an quote from their homepage

Its an 31.6Ω headphone, so the Walkman should have enough power to drive them to 121db

The Arya is a bit harder to drive, but the Walkman should still have enough power to drive it up to 111db, so it should be loud enough.

Are you using 4.4mm? 3.5mm only has 1/4 of the output power of balanced so 4.4mm is a must when driving hard to drive Headphones.

But if you think you need an external amp, you can just use the USB Port to do so

 

[10DeeQ]

The WM1A Series DAP don't have an DAC, so there is no need to bypass the DAC.

If you car supports LDAC, i would highly recommend to just continue using Bluetooth and set it to highest quality.

If the car supports USB Output, just use that.

The Walkman outputs an Analog Signal, feeding that into an Audio System which converts it back to Digital and then again to Analog will reduce the sound quality.

So going straight via USB is recommended, but it makes no difference if you use your phone or the Walkman when you're using USB

Thanks for the explanation
i dont want to feed it to the headunit as the sound quality wont be so good
So im planning to feed to the DSP maybe its like a DAC ?
So the Wm1Am2 cant output SPDIF?

I know if i feed using the 3.5 or 4.4 jack ot will be double amping but if thats the only way to do, will the 4.4 give me better quality than the 3.5 ?
Thank you

 

[Vamp898]

Thanks for the explanation
i dont want to feed it to the headunit as the sound quality wont be so good
So im planning to feed to the DSP maybe its like a DAC ?
So the Wm1Am2 cant output SPDIF?

I know if i feed using the 3.5 or 4.4 jack ot will be double amping but if thats the only way to do, will the 4.4 give me better quality than the 3.5 ?
Thank you

The Walkman is an Digital Amp. That is all it can do, amping. So whatever you output from the Walkman that is not USB-C, is alsways double amping. If you circumvent the Amp, you have no sound.

The Walkman doesn't output SPDIF, you can only output via USB-C like you would with your smartphone.

As said, there is no DAC inside the Walkman, there is only an Digital Amp. The reason to by the Walkman is for this Digital Amp (in combination with its capacitors and so on of course).

If you already have an Amp in your car, you have no need for the Walkman except for storing your music on it and using it as an player, but you don't have any advantage over an smartphone then.

 

[10DeeQ]

The Walkman is an Digital Amp. That is all it can do, amping. So whatever you output from the Walkman that is not USB-C, is alsways double amping. If you circumvent the Amp, you have no sound.

The Walkman doesn't output SPDIF, you can only output via USB-C like you would with your smartphone.

As said, there is no DAC inside the Walkman, there is only an Digital Amp. The reason to by the Walkman is for this Digital Amp (in combination with its capacitors and so on of course).

If you already have an Amp in your car, you have no need for the Walkman except for storing your music on it and using it as an player, but you don't have any advantage over an smartphone then.

Noted, thanks for the detailed explanation

 

[CaptainFantastic]

@Vamp898 Thanks for the explanations. For those of us not proficient technically, how does this work exactly? My basic understanding is that for my headphones to work, they need an analogue signal coming in. Hence the role of a DAC which converts digital to analogue to an amplifier and that to the headphone. That I understood.

Source (digital) -> DAC (digital to analogue) -> Amplifier (analogue) -> Headphone/Speaker (analogue)

Now you say the digital amplifier does NOT convert anything to analogue, it's not a DAC. So how do the headphones get their analogue signal to work?

Source (digital) -> Digital amplifier (amplified digital signal?) -> Headphone/Speaker (?)

Sorry for my obvious lack of knowledge in this area.

 

[boodi]

@Vamp898 Thanks for the explanations. For those of us not proficient technically, how does this work exactly? My basic understanding is that for my headphones to work, they need an analogue signal coming in. Hence the role of a DAC which converts digital to analogue to an amplifier and that to the headphone. That I understood.

Source (digital) -> DAC (digital to analogue) -> Amplifier (analogue) -> Headphone/Speaker (analogue)

Now you say the digital amplifier does NOT convert anything to analogue, it's not a DAC. So how do the headphones get their analogue signal to work?

Source (digital) -> Digital amplifier (amplified digital signal?) -> Headphone/Speaker (?)

Sorry for my obvious lack of knowledge in this area.

many wondering the exact same thingno need for sorry really

 

[The1Signature]

Sufficient to drive Meze empyrean or Arya

I have the Empy + Elite and can telly that it drives them easily. As @Vamp898 mentioned, Meze advertises how easy they can be driven.

 

[vishweshji]

Perfect, thanks @Vamp898 and @The1Signature

 

[turbofeet]

I have the Empy + Elite and can telly that it drives them easily. As @Vamp898 mentioned, Meze advertises how easy they can be driven.

Confirm this also. Barely have the volume up to 80 without high gain and its plenty loud (for me anyway) with both the Elite and Empyrean.

@Vamp898 Thanks for the explanations. For those of us not proficient technically, how does this work exactly? My basic understanding is that for my headphones to work, they need an analogue signal coming in. Hence the role of a DAC which converts digital to analogue to an amplifier and that to the headphone. That I understood.

Source (digital) -> DAC (digital to analogue) -> Amplifier (analogue) -> Headphone/Speaker (analogue)

Now you say the digital amplifier does NOT convert anything to analogue, it's not a DAC. So how do the headphones get their analogue signal to work?

Source (digital) -> Digital amplifier (amplified digital signal?) -> Headphone/Speaker (?)

Sorry for my obvious lack of knowledge in this area.

You explain it perfectly. Since the source music is always digital then Digital to Analog Conversion (DAC) will need to occur and absolutely will be happening within the DAP.

The amplifier simply sends this Analog signal to your headphones (or external amp 3.5mm to RCA for example).

 

[roadrat]

many wondering the exact same thingno need for sorry really

Agreed.

 

[roadrat]

The Walkman is an Digital Amp. That is all it can do, amping. So whatever you output from the Walkman that is not USB-C, is alsways double amping. If you circumvent the Amp, you have no sound.

The Walkman doesn't output SPDIF, you can only output via USB-C like you would with your smartphone.

As said, there is no DAC inside the Walkman, there is only an Digital Amp. The reason to by the Walkman is for this Digital Amp (in combination with its capacitors and so on of course).

If you already have an Amp in your car, you have no need for the Walkman except for storing your music on it and using it as an player, but you don't have any advantage over an smartphone then.

Of course there is a DAC

 

[andrewski]

Way above my head, but here:

Written by @Whitigir

Don’t worry, all of these matters will lead you right back to understand more about the systems being implemented by Walkman and the engineers. It takes a lot of reading and doing research to really understand. Therefore, these followings are for people who want to know more about digital conversions.

So, here is a thread of people DIY project that is using USB receiver interfaces, and directly feeding it toward a Low Pass a filter network, in this case a line-transformers (Walkman has Inductor coils and dampening networks).

This project is called “No DAC”, and I am going to explain why/how.
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/the-best-dac-is-no-dac.273474/

*****All digital processing, conversions, regardless of whether it is being NOS (non over sampling) or OS (Over Sampling), they are a ladder from multi-bit 16-24-32 bits into gradually down to 1 bit stream. This one bit stream will then be fed toward 2 kinds of Filters (Low pass and High pass filters). These filters can be in several implementations, Resistors/capacitors network, inductor coils and resistor, capacitors, or it can also be an op-amps as a low pass filters. But all of them are operating under the same basic principle.

Now, since we got over this. How exactly did the build above become functional ? Pretty easy

1/ a built PC that runs any of the programs that can do PCM to DSD on the fly.
2/ any USB interfaces that has DSD output
3/ follow simple engineering and scope devices to achieve the desires square waves from the input to feed an inductors or transformers. This is low pass filter, and it will give you analog music

So, did I mention #1 as a conversion from PCM to DSD on the fly by the PC ? That is correct. Because if you were simply using PCM function, there is no digital conversion happening. It means that you need to feed these information toward any external DAC that is Capable of conversion PCM. How does this conversion happen ? By applying ***** as stated above. However, with a differences that depends on the DAC, what is it low pass filters ? Most IC Chips you encounter on the market such as ESS9038Pro requires to have an external Low Pass Filter networks that consisting of Active Op-Amps, and feedback networks with bypass, and coupling capacitors to give you analog signals out . This is called Active Low pass filter implementations
https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/video-tutorials/op-amps-low-pass-and-high-pass-active-filters/

picture show ROHM DAC with recommended implementations from datasheets , red circle is Active Low pass filters that is together with differential and line buffer stage

Back to that “No DAC” project. The saddest Part is that PC and all of it engineerings are involving DC and not much into AC. Noises doesn’t really degrade it the way that it does to Digital to analog signals. So, by using a PC this way (a sigma delta DAC), it isn’t optimized. It does show case the result of all PCM is going to be 1 bit stream of DSD in the end, before it is all fed into LPF and come out analog

 

[Focux]

anyone encountered this background music that seems to keep playing? trying to turn it off but to no avail

edit: bgm from APKPure, uninstalled

 

[silent8519]

They are both pretty easy to drive, i am surprised you're having issues. I owned the Meze Empyriean and could drive it effortless even on low gain.

Meze even advertises how easy it is to drive, here an quote from their homepage



Its an 31.6Ω headphone, so the Walkman should have enough power to drive them to 121db

The Arya is a bit harder to drive, but the Walkman should still have enough power to drive it up to 111db, so it should be loud enough.

Are you using 4.4mm? 3.5mm only has 1/4 of the output power of balanced so 4.4mm is a must when driving hard to drive Headphones.

But if you think you need an external amp, you can just use the USB Port to do so

Is it on the capped Version also 1/4 on 3,5mm? I would like to get Meze Liric or Focal Stellia, and I think that could make a difference in driving them properly or am I wrong with that? Thanks for advice