[gazzington]

Sold a few items today that's covering money spent on wm1a which makes me able to enjoy my purchase more now. Kinda wish I'd only bought top tier stuff to begin with

 

[nc8000]

It seems you missed this press release.

Press release from September 5: https://www.sony.jp/CorporateCruise/Press/201809/18-0905B/

Did indeed. Don’t read Japaneese

For Japan ? Or global , that is the question

All other fw releases have been the one and same globally so I would expect that to be true this time as well.

 

[audionewbi]

Does anyone know how the Sony own S-Master HX technology handles conversion compared to the older R2R chips? I ask as an owner of R2R2000 who owns all the other major daps and the Hugo 2 has said that ever since he got hold of his r2r2000 he can't listen to the delta-sigma chips based DAC the same way he used to before. His words, there seems to no distortion with the R2R2000 and the sound is pure, clean at all volumes.

I can't find any material regarding the handling of digital data with the Sony own S-Master chips. Thanks in advance.

 

[Quadfather]

Sold a few items today that's covering money spent on wm1a which makes me able to enjoy my purchase more now. Kinda wish I'd only bought top tier stuff to begin with

I have the Sony NW - WM1A, the Lotoo Paw Gold Diana, and the Questyle QP1R. Still, I am jonesing for the Sony NW - WM1Z. The torture never ends.

 

[Kira69]

Does anyone know how the Sony own S-Master HX technology handles conversion compared to the older R2R chips? I ask as an owner of R2R2000 who owns all the other major daps and the Hugo 2 has said that ever since he got hold of his r2r2000 he can't listen to the delta-sigma chips based DAC the same way he used to before. His words, there seems to no distortion with the R2R2000 and the sound is pure, clean at all volumes.

I can't find any material regarding the handling of digital data with the Sony own S-Master chips. Thanks in advance.

Depending on the input. Quick resume.

PCM:

• Input sampling rate (fs) = 32 kHz to 384 kHz
• If enabled: DSP (DSEE HX, etc.)
• If enabled: DSD RE. transition to on-time DSD11.2MHz conversion DSD process (Only on TA-ZH1ES and DMP-Z1)
• Clean Data Cycle (384KHz → DC Phase Linearizer and Noise Shaper)
• Synchronous Time Accuracy Controller (S-TACT) (Output = 2048 fs = PWM (C-PLM) 90MHz or 98MHz)
• Pulse Height Volume Control (LDO regulator)
  
• Audio Pulse Driver hybrid amplified output

DSD (only on balanced):

• Input sampling rate (fs) = 2.8 MHz, 5.6 MHz, 11.2 MHz
• Synchronous Time Accuracy Controller (S-TACT) (output = 2048 fs = PDM 90 MHz)
• Pulse Height Volume Control (LDO regulator)
  
• Audio Pulse Driver hybrid amplified output

More about S-Master HX:

https://www.sony.jp/audio/products/TA-ZH1ES/feature_3.html
https://www.sony.jp/walkman/products/NW-WM1Z/feature_1.html#L2_80
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-Master
https://docs.sony.com/release/ES_STR_05_Final.pdf (a bit dated but still relevant)

 

[Whitigir]

Does anyone know how the Sony own S-Master HX technology handles conversion compared to the older R2R chips? I ask as an owner of R2R2000 who owns all the other major daps and the Hugo 2 has said that ever since he got hold of his r2r2000 he can't listen to the delta-sigma chips based DAC the same way he used to before. His words, there seems to no distortion with the R2R2000 and the sound is pure, clean at all volumes.

I can't find any material regarding the handling of digital data with the Sony own S-Master chips. Thanks in advance.

I think he has some biases from his feedbacks. You are asking for 3 different technology here. I am not an expert about them, but I did read about them. Here is what I found out

1/ R2R2000 is a resistor ladder type of conversion. Resistor ladders are full of errors and mistakes, and without a good FPGA+firmware, it would sound really really bad. Ask Rob from a Chord, and read his posts for more details

2/ Chord Hugo 2 is neither Resistor ladder, nor S-Master. Chord is Pulse-Arrays. It is more similar to S-Master but also different. Chord uses FPGA to control these Arrays (multiple elements of pulse driver), while Sony has it all built-In onto a chip. Lately, Sony mentioned that their S-Master limitations did not allow them to achieve higher power output. This limitations is not existed with Chord

3/ S-Master, is it Sony own just as much as Chord own design. It is also Pulse Code drivers as @Kira69 showed above, but my guess is that it was designed under a different method and language. Chord is increasing their element counts where as Sony has been improving the S-Master too, but not sure what they had been doing

All 3 technologies are very similar to Non Over Sampling, which is not found in any Delta-Sigma as they are natively oversampling. However, to claim that Delta-sigma has more distortions is more like biasing. Theoretically speaking, Non over Sampling has more distortions, and lower details, lower dynamic range with even higher noise floor but higher analog natural resemblances . By applying oversampling, the noise floor can be pushed further out of human hearing range while retaining and extracting all the details within the meaningful dynamic range, and ofcourse with different modulations, there are different sound signatures.


From what I have been observing, anything NOS that is done well, it has a very natural and organic timbres that is just right, for example WM1Z. For Delta-Sigma that is done right, the dynamic punches and bites are excellent, but details could be a little bit over saturated and less natural or less organic. About distortions, NOS would distort more than Sigma-Delta. But that is just me and my experiences. Neither has it done perfectly, you just need to know your preferences, and how you enjoy them. I have both, and R2R7 DAC and an LKS004 DAC, and previously had WM1Z, but traded for Dx200Titanium (unexpected)

 

[NaiveSound]

I have the Sony NW - WM1A, the Lotoo Paw Gold Diana, and the Questyle QP1R. Still, I am jonesing for the Sony NW - WM1Z. The torture never ends.

Could you sell a few of those and get one?

 

[Quadfather]

Could you sell a few of those and get one?

I switch between them a lot and love all three of them.

 

[alphanumerix1]

Sold a few items today that's covering money spent on wm1a which makes me able to enjoy my purchase more now. Kinda wish I'd only bought top tier stuff to begin with

Gotta go through the journey to appreciate the destination

 

[NaiveSound]

I switch between them a lot and love all three of them.

Could you eat some ramen and blogna sandwiches(no cheese, no mustard) For a while and make it happen?
Buy cheaper toilet paper and drink faucet water. It can all happen!! 6 minute max shower time and no more than 1 bulb on in the house at any one time?
Pay the minimum payment on your cards and you can make this happen!!

 

[idimonius]

I might be a couple of years late to the party, but I`ve been enjoying my 1A ever since I got it earlier this week. Such a great DAP indeed. Build quality is excellent, build like a tank, nothing rattles, great battery life too. Just a joy to hold it. The OS is simple, yet very functional, solid and intuitive. Oh, sounds great as well. Great job Sony! Looking forward to the USB DAC feature.
My temp balanced setup

 

[purk]

I might be a couple of years late to the party, but I`ve been enjoying my 1A ever since I got it earlier this week. Such a great DAP indeed. Build quality is excellent, build like a tank, nothing rattles, great battery life too. Just a joy to hold it. The OS is simple, yet very functional, solid and intuitive. Oh, sounds great as well. Great job Sony! Looking forward to the USB DAC feature.
My temp balanced setup

From your picture, I would get a better 3.5 mm to 4.4 mm adapter when you have more money. That Geekria is built on the cheap and actually degrade the sound of your balanced output quite a bit. I own one and it sounds bad next to the Pentaconn adapter that I built myself. You will thank me later when you have better adapter.

 

[gazzington]

From your picture, I would get a better 3.5 mm to 4.4 mm adapter when you have more money. That Geekria is built on the cheap and actually degrade the sound of your balanced output quite a bit. I own one and it sounds bad next to the Pentaconn adapter that I built myself. You will thank me later when you have better adapter.

Do know of any decent 4.4 to 3.5 adapter that I can buy?

 

[gazzington]

I switch between them a lot and love all three of them.

I think I'm going to save and try and get a good second hand lotoo paw gold in the future

 

[purk]

Do know of any decent 4.4 to 3.5 adapter that I can buy?

I think Norne Audio can make you one. You can contract Drew of moon-audio and I'm sure that you can make some for you. Can you DIY? If so, I highly recommend it as such adapter can easily cost $150.