Okay friends, during 1.5 years of reading reviews, debating on Head-Fi, demo-ing 10+ times, one DX320 and 3 amp cards later..., never once I thought I would finally pull the trigger on the Gold Brick! My Sony Signature Series combo itch is finally scratched (NW-WM1ZM2+IER-Z1R)
Couple of cool and not cool things I noticed, (gonna be a rant, feel free to skip)
Cool things:
>
The gold chassis is soooo beautiful.. I mean, yeah you can argue that 1AM2 is cheaper or so, but after so many years of buying audio stuff (since iBasso DX50 in 2013 or so..) this is hands down the most beautiful thing I have in the collection
> I don't know about all the talk the 200hrs burn in.. but at the first minute I plugged in my IER-Z1R on 4.4mm;
it sounds glorious out of the box.. maybe new toy syndrome/placebo, but it benefits me hehehe. If it's this good now, wonder how at 200hrs!
> The leather case is surprisingly good quality! As a fan of leather cases for my Airpods, iPhone, watch straps, Sony gave us a good case..
> The screen is actually quite pretty once on a standalone basis; although it's smaller than DX320 it has pretty good color reproduction and refresh rate is decent.
> It came with 3.5mm and 4.4mm covers; my first time seeing these on a DAP
Not cool things:
>
Why isn't a screen protector provided for a $3K device?! Even my DX320X at half the price came with one..
> Coming from iPhones and even DX320,
this feels much slower. Even to install spotify took couple minutes. But I understand it's due to a slower CPU for lower noise and better battery life
> Z
2 gets pretty warm, especially when charging. I'm sure it's a good heat warmer in winter (none here where I live)
So excited to write more but it's 4am here so I will be listening more and posting more over the next few days. Now to get to that 200hrs and follow the optimization guide..
Cheers guys for making this journey so fulfilling - reading 964 pages with a Ctrl+F "zm2" was not easy but it was all worth it