[phonomat]

I would say my budget is $499, and not sure if that would be sufficient for a good cable?

lol?

 

[phonomat]

If you like single end, balanced will blow you away.

Get a good balanced cable, and unfortunately quality is synonymous with price. When you have good synergy between iem, cable and player, it's music heaven!

No, it isn't, not at all, at least if you're talking about sound quality. Cables don't need to be expensive.

 

[RobertP]

Good materials don't come cheap unfortunately. But to get the full potential out of high end IEMs or headphones
, you need high quality cable (that doesn't always mean high price). Choose the right sound is the most important. Just like the coffee you made in the morning. Not everyone like the same taste.

 

[amham]

Cables are an age old argument. From my engineering perspective, the manufacturers are selling "snake oil". What is heard is simply cable reactance...nothing more. Spend your money how you wish but you can get good sound from cheap cables that are symbiotic with your equipment...let the flames begin.

 

[SBranson]

Is there a way to figure out where a "unknown" song is stored in the Library? I've got a few songs that have been mis-tagged or were free samples and ended up under the "unknown" heading. On the Fiio M11 I had, you could look at the information and it told you where the song was stored.

 

[spanky310]

Is there a way to figure out where a "unknown" song is stored in the Library? I've got a few songs that have been mis-tagged or were free samples and ended up under the "unknown" heading. On the Fiio M11 I had, you could look at the information and it told you where the song was stored.

oops...nvr mind, misread your question, sorry about that!

 

[Redcarmoose]

I’ve messed with cables a bunch. And.......I do think even $160 entry level audiophile cables can make an improvement. The other amazing thing is synergy. The reason I believe it’s both the quality of the cable and the personality of the cable (as mentioned here) is that you can easily determine when cables degrade the sound. The easy way to discover this is start taking the included cables and join them with other IEMs. At times it’s a wash, but other times you start to realize, even manufacturers have attempted to match the included cables with their IEMs. So just getting any aftermarket cable is not always better than an IEMs included cable.

 

[spanky310]

I would assume so but honestly can’t say as I have never connected to an amp

Totally agree, with the WM1A I do not yet have anything it could not adequately drive, actually that's the reason I got the WM1A is so that I do not need to carry a separate amp.

What I do have is a NW-A35NH for the gym and sometimes I used that with an amp so for the A35 it would be nice if this little adapter will not only charge and transfer files but also act as a digital output adapter.

 

[SBranson]

In my 20+ year interest in audio including 2 channel, I've been through a ton of cables. Some cheap ones were better than some more expensive ones. Some really expensive ones (in a friend's system) frankly seemed to be the "snake oil" in that it was more about the salesman than the product. But there are others that truly make big differences.
The postive/negative of the differences is where the synergy thing comes into play. I tried a msrp $300 cable on my Noble K10s but prefer the sound of the stock cable. Science may have a number or two to say why but I don't think the whole subject can ever been reduced to a "it's simply...." statement. Hearing is a complex thing and one that is as subject to learning as is sight for an artist. To each their own but trust your own ears (or brain) as that's what you use to enjoy the music.

That said... to reiterate my earlier post and I'm having trouble with the terms, but is there a "meta-data" button for songs on the WM1A, something that would tell me what folder they are in on my card. Sometimes my folder headings are different that what the actual name of the album is as it shows up and I get confused trying to find it on my WM1A.
Thanks.

 

[blazinblazin]

Just compare a high purity copper and high purity silver cable. Probably will hear the difference.

IEM will be easier to hear the differences than headphones. Also depends on how much potential your iem/headphones have.

If a cable already maxed out the potential of your cans of cause changing cables will give you very little difference.

Cables are your final upgrades, only for fine tuning after you decided on your best IEM/Headphones and DAP combo.

 

[AltoBajo]

Just compare a high purity copper and high purity silver cable. Probably will hear the difference.

IEM will be easier to hear the differences than headphones. Also depends on how much potential your iem/headphones have.

If a cable already maxed out the potential of your cans of cause changing cables will give you very little difference.

Cables are your final upgrades, only for fine tuning after you decided on your best IEM/Headphones and DAP combo.

I've used Forza Audioworks Copper and Hybrid,Silver & Copper cables on my IEMs,with outstanding results,the Hybrids especially so.The difference with IEMs is meant to be more so than with full sizes cans.Headfonia ran a review some years back,that was their conclusion.
I'm thinking of getting a WM1a,I've been sitting on the fence for a while! Great battery life,a major plus for me.Reportedly,excellent SQ.Looking at Sony's spec sheet and the supported files,they don't mention WAV.WMA but not WAV.Am I missing something? All my files are in WAV,to my ears,the best SQ and by some margin.
Final question,is there likely to be a WM1a mk.2 any time soon?

 

[SBranson]

I've used Forza Audioworks Copper and Hybrid,Silver & Copper cables on my IEMs,with outstanding results,the Hybrids especially so.The difference with IEMs is meant to be more so than with full sizes cans.Headfonia ran a review some years back,that was their conclusion.
I'm thinking of getting a WM1a,I've been sitting on the fence for a while! Great battery life,a major plus for me.Reportedly,excellent SQ.Looking at Sony's spec sheet and the supported files,they don't mention WAV.WMA but not WAV.Am I missing something? All my files are in WAV,to my ears,the best SQ and by some margin.
Final question,is there likely to be a WM1a mk.2 any time soon?

That's strange.. On the Help Guide page it lists WAV: https://helpguide.sony.net/dmp/nwwm1/v1/en/contents/TP0001449080.html


I can't recommend the WM1A enough. It was a revelation for my Legend Xs. I raved to an audio buddy and he bought one and sold his AK. He was as amazed as I was at how good it sounds.


As for cables..This is kind of a fun example. Scroll down in the comments where someone has put the time stamps 4:11, 7:10 and listen. With decent headphones/earphones I can hear a difference, particularly in something like the "ting" of the cymbals for instance.
This is by no means an "objective" test and would likely be discounted but I find it interesting nonetheless.

 

[AltoBajo]

That's strange.. On the Help Guide page it lists WAV: https://helpguide.sony.net/dmp/nwwm1/v1/en/contents/TP0001449080.html


I can't recommend the WM1A enough. It was a revelation for my Legend Xs. I raved to an audio buddy and he bought one and sold his AK. He was as amazed as I was at how good it sounds.


As for cables..This is kind of a fun example. Scroll down in the comments where someone has put the time stamps 4:11, 7:10 and listen. With decent headphones/earphones I can hear a difference, particularly in something like the "ting" of the cymbals for instance.
This is by no means an "objective" test and could easily be discounted but I find it interesting nonetheless.

Thanks! I've been out of the game for some time.The last Sony mobile player I had was a Discman,a very good one at that.This was on the Sony UK site.
AUDIO PLAYBACK
AAC (Non-DRM), AIFF, ALAC, DSD, FLAC, HE-AAC, Linear PCM, MP3, WMA (Non-DRM) I didn't want to buy a WM1a and find I couldn't load or play my files.I have a couple of thousand
or so CDs,originally ripped to ALAC on my MacBook.I was new to digital/computer audio.I kept reading about differences in files SQ.In the end I played a couple of songs back in ALAC and WAV,and I know what my ears told me! I had a brief online conversation with Rob Watts,the Chord DAC designer,he's a WAV man. Thanks again!

 

[SBranson]

Under the specifications on Sony.ca they list:
AUDIO PLAYBACK
AAC (Non-DRM), AIFF, ALAC, DSD, FLAC, HE-AAC, Linear PCM, MP3, WMA (Non-DRM) so they must've just taken the list from Sony's site but I've listening to APE on mine which is listed under the help guide.. Not sure why the lists are different

The only hassle I've had is with the some album art. It's a little finicky but I read on here the trick of using Amazon's photos of the albums as they are the proper format.

 

[AltoBajo]

Under the specifications on Sony.ca they list:
AUDIO PLAYBACK
AAC (Non-DRM), AIFF, ALAC, DSD, FLAC, HE-AAC, Linear PCM, MP3, WMA (Non-DRM) so they must've just taken the list from Sony's site but I've listening to APE on mine which is listed under the help guide.. Not sure why the lists are different

I'd not heard of WMA.I assumed that WAV would be an automatically supported file,but as I say,I've not had to consider it before.Apple do support WAV,albeit somewhat reluctantly I imagine. It would be great to hear from someone who's playing WAV files on their WM1a,or maybe I truly am a dinosaur! Thanks!