[aisalen]

Wow, I like what I am hearing with my 1A listening to Angus Stone - Broken Hearts album. Very accurate, the sounds coming from it are full of emotion. Dang!

 

[nanaholic]

Wait, so this 2.0 added AptX and MQA, but no USB DAC. Isn’t MQA streaming services only ? And 1Z has no streaming options...what in the blue moon
https://esupport.sony.com/US/p/swu-download.pl?mdl=NWWM1Z&upd_id=11332&os_group_id=28

MQA is just a compression technique like FLAC/AAC,mp3 etc. Outside all the sound quality claims everyone knows the real aim is to make a smaller file with little to no loss of quality so it saves bandwidth in transmission as well as storage - and this applies to both downloads AND streaming (contrary to internet user believes, bandwidth is NOT free nor cheap if you aren’t torrenting and sharing the load around). Plus I don't think we will ever see that promised 2TB limit for SD cards any time soon (we've seem to have been stuck at the 200GB limit for forever), so in theory MQA can still help fit more songs into limited storage.

Also e-onkyo had been selling MQA downloads for the better part of the year already. I suspect Sony is probably thinking about using MQA in their mora download service as well in the future so they make their Walkmans all compatible first.

 

[nanaholic]

@nanaholic I saw on the japanese sony website, i can't read japanese but the link you sent about FW updates, it says something about music center version 2.00, what improvements?

There's no update to Music Center. It says Music Center allows you to download the 2.0FW just like for Media Go.

 

[Whitigir]

If the Wm1Z/A sounds better now, then Sony must have been listening to many feedbacks. Then they know we are waiting for DAC to complete the system lol

 

[Matrix Petka]

MQA is just a compression technique like FLAC/AAC,mp3 etc. Outside all the sound quality claims everyone knows the real aim is to make a smaller file with little to no loss of quality so it saves bandwidth in transmission as well as storage - and this applies to both downloads AND streaming (contrary to internet user believes, bandwidth is NOT free nor cheap if you aren’t torrenting and sharing the load around). Plus I don't think we will ever see that promised 2TB limit for SD cards any time soon (we've seem to have been stuck at the 200GB limit for forever), so in theory MQA can still help fit more songs into limited storage.

Also e-onkyo had been selling MQA downloads for the better part of the year already. I suspect Sony is probably thinking about using MQA in their mora download service as well in the future so they make their Walkmans all compatible first.

Agree - MQA not for quality, but for smaller files. About "fantastic quality" - I tried MQA, but was not impressed - my favourite format still DSD. If you want to try MQA for free, and to compre with other HR formats, you can look here: http://www.2l.no/hires/

A lot of possibilities for files comparison - FLAC/DSD/MQA, using the same master tape source. Tip - DSD on WM1 use direct on balanced. Shining.

 

[nc8000]

MQA is just a compression technique like FLAC/AAC,mp3 etc. Outside all the sound quality claims everyone knows the real aim is to make a smaller file with little to no loss of quality so it saves bandwidth in transmission as well as storage - and this applies to both downloads AND streaming (contrary to internet user believes, bandwidth is NOT free nor cheap if you aren’t torrenting and sharing the load around). Plus I don't think we will ever see that promised 2TB limit for SD cards any time soon (we've seem to have been stuck at the 200GB limit for forever), so in theory MQA can still help fit more songs into limited storage.

Also e-onkyo had been selling MQA downloads for the better part of the year already. I suspect Sony is probably thinking about using MQA in their mora download service as well in the future so they make their Walkmans all compatible first.

256GB cards have been around for a year and 400GB cards for some months though at a price

 

[Lemieux66]

Looking forward to updating to FW 2.0

Currently using my 1A with the MDR-1000X today - Keith Jarrett Trio at the Blue Note.

 

[nanaholic]

256GB cards have been around for a year and 400GB cards for some months though at a price

400GB only started shipping like literally last month.

Also they told us the microSD card format can support up to 2TB a LONG time ago, like at least 3-4 years ago when I was still using Windows Phone.....

 

[rushofblood]

Also pleasantly surprised by 2.00's sonic improvements - microdetail has more contrast and bass hits harder and deeper. Interestingly, matches my impressions from the DP-X1 that MQA support in firmware upgrades seem to improve the overall sound.

MQA support is great - smaller files and definitely more precise sounding than the hi res FLAC equivalent - the frustration comes when in when actually trying to acquire said MQA files. An absolute mess. Onkyo's US and Japan stores have differing catalogs, and are either supremely hard or impossible to get in to for international customers - both are region locked and the Japanese store is only accessible with VPN workarounds and charges more for equivalent content. So much for being the hi res format of the future...

Sure sounds good though. And at least there is some mainstream music on the platform...not interested at all in the usual jazz or classical which comprises almost the entire DSD catalog.

 

[Whitigir]

You are saying 3-4 years later, and we still don’t have 2TB MicroSD, and while the 400Gb is still a rip off ? Ok

 

[nc8000]

400GB only started shipping like literally last month.

Also they told us the microSD card format can support up to 2TB a LONG time ago, like at least 3-4 years ago when I was still using Windows Phone.....

2TB is in the standard definition and has absolutely nothing to do with when if ever technology is able to deliver the max the standard supports

 

[Whitigir]

Amazing, after a few updates, this firmware updates really change the sound quality somewhat. Next test would to see if there is any change to the USB digital out

 

[Matrix Petka]

Amazing, after a few updates, this firmware updates really change the sound quality somewhat. Next test would to see if there is any change to the USB digital out

Nice, confirmed that what I have heard, not just new firmware placebo

 

[kms108]

isn't MQA a extention to the existing Flac, from what I heard, it's still a flac format.

 

[FortisFlyer75]

Just to make sure with my 1a having the EU version of the with Japanese o/s running on it, will it still be okay running the 2.0 update and won't mess anything up?

I remember when the zx1 first fw update changed the sound.. For the better as the mids werent sounding right and they thankfully put that right and must of realised. They may not be active on here but they can still read