[andrewski]

I can't afford it, so I'm sure it sounds like pants.

 

[CaptainFantastic]

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.

The Z1 sounds so good, it's incredible. It makes the music feel so alive on the Z1R, I was thinking last night that there is zero doubt (for me) that this is the only setup that feels like listening to music on speakers.

I have not minutely analysed why it sounds so much better than everything else I've heard. But I think as @Sonywalkmanuser is saying, the impact this pairing is creating is something special.

 

[audionewbi]

The Z1 sounds so good, it's incredible. It makes the music feel so alive on the Z1R, I was thinking last night that there is zero doubt (for me) that this is the only setup that feels like listening to music on speakers.

I am not saying and I have not minutely analysed why it sounds so much better than everything else I've heard. But I think as @Sonywalkmanuser is saying, the impact this pairing is creating is something special.

Congratulations, I also agree that it is indeed a great device, built to remain relevant for years to come.

 

[boodi]

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.

Dsee resampling -as it is more literally freqencies shifts then a plain upsampling, has other effects too though.


And that brittle you refer depends on synergies too , shifting from Dsee to EQ+Vynil i.e. , doesn't leave me with a feeling of loosing smoothness .. slightly different presentation, yes.
In fact Dsee also put stage , and not only vocals , more to front : which is not always desirable or not always the mix and production desired result

 

[boodi]

How different do you feel the 1am2 and taz are , when you plug the z1r directly into 1am2 (for comparison)?

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?

 

[kefs]

How different do you feel the 1am2 and taz are , when you plug the z1r directly into 1am2 (for comparison)?

A huge difference, so much better playing via the TAZ

 

[The1Signature]

A huge difference, so much better playing via the TAZ

Indeed, I can confirm it is so so much better!

 

[boodi]

Indeed, I can confirm it is so so much better!

Vs 1zm2 too?

 

[The1Signature]

Vs 1zm2 too?

Yes because the power of the TAZ delivers much more dynamics into the songs. Even a non expert would directly recognize it!

 

[boodi]

It's just about dynamics vs 1zm2 to your ears?

 

[The1Signature]

to my ears, basically everything improves: bass, dynamics, depth, stage, imaging, midrange, punch

but... Here is the big but... The dap is just much more convenient to use.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

to my ears, basically everything improves: bass, dynamics, depth, stage, imaging, midrange, punch

but... Here is the big but... The dap is just much more convenient to use.

Just heard the ZX707(Singapore model with no high gain, power output restricted) for the very first time. The showroom demo unit shows 0 hours on its balanced port.

I had to use 110 out of 120 to drive my ier-m9 on balanced to reach my typical music listening volume. I think the power restricted walkman is only suitable for use with iem. Not really going to sound loud enough with more power hungry cans.

Thankfully there was also two brand new AM2 and ZM2 display models with 0 hours of usage right next to the ZX707. So I was able to compare the sound on an almost equal standpoint.

I think the ZX707 sounded quite near the AM2 on most sound quality aspect. But there are two key areas where I feel the AM2 is vastly superior. Bass texture and soundstage depth. The AM2 just feels more enjoyable when it comes to the bass response, as the feel of bass notes has more variety and goes more deeper. The soundstage has much more presence. Also I felt that the M2 Walkman seems to have more power reserves, ZX707 can start to feel abit strained(minor hints of weaker bass response) when pushed to 120 max volume, while both of the M2 Walkman demo units on low gain at 120 volume has undetectable strain on the ier-m9.

Some out there on the internet would claim that Audio source don’t matter for sound quality, only the speaker/headphone mattered. But from what I am hearing from comparing the ZX707 to the M2 Walkman, I felt that the source has so much of an importance of a role in rendering the music’s soundstage and actual noticeable bass details.

Also the ZX707 doesn’t hold a candle if comparing build quality. The hardware buttons on the M2 Walkman looks and feels much more premium. The ZX707 buttons has a shiny hard plastic like look and is significantly smaller.

The UI response of the ZX707 is more fluid but I don’t think it is a major enough of a difference for the Sony music player app, the stock non-debloated M2 Walkman is just a hint sluggish when you exit to the main menu of android OS, but it is not of a major bugbear in my opinion for music playback purposes.

One thing I notice is that there is more time delay on the ZX707(compared to M2) when enabling DSP functions like DSEE or DSD Remastering.

Outlet visited: New Sony showroom at One Holland Village Singapore.

The Sony staff at the showroom was kinda surprised to see me wanting to try out the Walkman. As it seems that not many visitors to the shopping centre would ask about the unknown Walkman device according to him.

This is part one of my post. Second part will touch on the MDR-MV1 impressions using 3.5mm ended and also the sound of the M2 demo units with 0 hours of run time vs my personal debloated 1AM2.

 

[boodi]

Just heard the ZX707(Singapore model with no high gain, power output restricted) for the very first time. The showroom demo unit shows 0 hours on its balanced port.

I had to use 110 out of 120 to drive my ier-m9 on balanced to reach my typical music listening volume. I think the power restricted walkman is only suitable for use with iem. Not really going to sound loud enough with more power hungry cans.

Thankfully there was also two brand new AM2 and ZM2 display models with 0 hours of usage right next to the ZX707. So I was able to compare the sound on an almost equal standpoint.

I think the ZX707 sounded quite near the AM2 on most sound quality aspect. But there are two key areas where I feel the AM2 is vastly superior. Bass texture and soundstage depth. The AM2 just feels more enjoyable when it comes to the bass response, as the feel of bass notes has more variety and goes more deeper. The soundstage has much more presence. Also I felt that the M2 Walkman seems to have more power reserves, ZX707 can start to feel abit strained(minor hints of weaker bass response) when pushed to 120 max volume, while the both M2 Walkman demo units on low gain at 120 volume has undetectable strain on the ier-m9.

Some out there on the internet would claim that Audio source don’t matter, only the speaker/headphone mattered. But from what I am hearing from comparing the ZX707 to the M2 Walkman, I felt that the source has so much of an importance of a role in rendering the music’s soundstage and actual noticeable bass details.

Also the ZX707 doesn’t hold a candle if comparing build quality. The hardware buttons on the M2 Walkman looks and feels much more premium. The ZX707 buttons has a shiny hard plastic like look and is significantly smaller.

The UI response of the ZX707 is more fluid but I don’t think it is a major enough of a difference for the Sony music player app, the stock non-debloated M2 Walkman is just a hint sluggish when you exit to the main menu but it is not of a major bugbear in my opinion for music playback purposes.

One thing I notice is that there is more time delay on the ZX707(compared to M2) when enabling DSP functions like DSEE or DSD Remastering.

Outlet visited: New Sony showroom at One Holland Village Singapore.

The Sony staff at the showroom was kinda surprised to see me wanting to try out the Walkman. As it seems that not many visitors to the shopping centre would ask about the unknown Walkman device according to him.

This is part one of my post. Second part will touch on the MDR-MV1 impressions using 3.5mm ended and also the sound of the M2 demo units with 0 hours of run time vs my personal debloated 1AM2.

Considering the price of a used 1am2 , no-brainer which one to favor if unsure on choice..imo

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

All the demo Walkmans at the one holland village are very clean stock with no additional installed apps.

The ZX707’s new android 13 doesn’t seem to add anything new on the surface in terms of audiophile functionality. I would think that the current Android 11 of the M2 Walkman is pretty much the same thing. Maybe there are better memory or battery optimisations, to me I can’t tell if there’s anything else that is significantly better from an operational and functioning perspective.

I would think from sound quality standpoint, if you are someone who really prioritises better sound quality, the 1AM2 is definitely a much better deal over the ZX707, 1AM2 still has quite more better sound quality that is noticeable out of the box. The ZX707 has a slimmer form factor, but I feel the size differences isnt that big as both are still within big screen dap but pocketable size. Personally if I want a smaller lightweight player for jogging purposes, I feel the tiny A305 makes more sense.

As for comparing my personal debloated well seasoned 1AM2 against the fresh demo units with 0hours clocked. I would say that the biggest noticeable sound difference is felt on the refinement of the transient sounds. On all three of the brand new demo units from the ZX707, 1AM2, 1ZM2, I can notice that all exhibit a kind of fuzziness to the trailing edges of the transient decay. It just don’t image as cleanly as my own 1AM2. And this is comparing internal storage of my 1AM2(not my swissbit microsd card) using the same demo songs that Sony supplies.

I would think the cause of this fuzziness I am hearing could be due to the brand new capacitors and maybe the unremoved Google stock bloatware. And of course I won’t be able to debloat the demo units, as this is not my property thus I don’t have the right to do this to the demo units.

Is this fuzziness easily noticeable or standing out? For myself, I can notice such clarity issues easily but I would also be in the opinion that if one is not aware of this fuzziness, it can be something that others don’t hear at all. It’s like some kind of super faint sounding buzzing/interference/grain decay that seeps through after the transient attack. Think of it like a clean shirt with some tiny specks of
lint. It is there but you have to pay careful attention to notice them, or else it is a normal clean shirt to everyone else.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

As for the MDR-MV1.

My takeaway when comparing my current MDR-1AM2 to the new MDR-MV1:

Soundstage on the MV1 is much better than 1AM2, that’s for sure. It images as good as the HD800. Just a very spacious sound that feels that it doesn’t have any perceived boundaries.(I am using my personal debloated Sony WM1AM2 on single ended high gain with MDR-MV1 profile selected in the Sony headphone app and ear scan uploaded, high res streaming mode on)

It is also the most comfortable headphone padding from Sony thus far and you can fit your ears inside padding and skin heat can escape from the holes. I would think they make a good pair of headphones for computing usage like gaming or long teleconference calls.

The MV1 has a very natural sound. It doesn’t seem to emphasis any particular frequencies nor does it make vocals stand out in the sound field. It feels like the sound is what you are hearing is part of the real world. I would say it has very decent bass reproduction when compared to other open back headphone designs.

The only biggest issue I find with this MV1 is the driver tends to distort or suffer imaging issues if you push the volume higher. This isn’t the case with the 1AM2 drivers, which can handle really loud volume levels and retain good imaging clarity for unsafe loudness. Maybe the MV1’s driver new diaphragms materials are not as rigid as the 1AM2.

I would say it is a good headphone at its asking price but in my books, I would not consider it to be better than the MDR-Z7M2. I would think the MDR-1AM2 and MDR-MV1 are both within the same tier.