Thank you, mate - would be very nice to see those and your impressions as I, for instance, have no stock 1Z to compare.
Ok, for this test, I used some of the best full sized cans(Focal Utopia,Denon 9200, Senn HD800), on the balanced out, and yes the Sony can do it without amplification:
So I compared the 1a and the 1Z, and upgraded them both to MrWalkman's (Mr. Sony?) amazing firmware, the "
WM1A/Z+, but before the "1a to 1z" name change.
So here are my random initial thoughts that I notated as I was testing...
With the 1a upgraded to
WM1A/Z+ , and then also loaded the "1a to 1z"(chameleon) tuning, the Tonality of both players was surprisingly very, very similar(!).
Almost sounded exactly same.
1a was a bit less fluid and with less depth, but also a bit more
intense in the clarity(!)..
Going back to 1z, the slight more organic and fluild, and also slight sense of ease in presentation was noted, compared to the 1a.
1a instead gave a touch more sense of
energy and excitement, at the expense of slight
less liquidity and dimensionally...
The energy from the 1a was amazingly
very addicting... Actually
extremely addicting.
It makes you want to grab it more, over the more realistic , refined, and effortless sounding 1z!
But if I had to choose , yes it actually is hard choice now, as they both perform excellent, but differently...
In the end I am still keeping my 1z...
Edit**
It should be noted that the 1a needed the extra tuning of "chameleon"(1a to 1z) in order to elevate the player to the 1z level of refinement.
Without it on only "WM1A
/Z+" , it sounded more
coarse and raw and unrefined..
Edit**
My comparison was interpreted incorrectly, as it not course but in comparison to the sliky 1z tunning.
Apologies for the chaos of questions.
So I was incorrect in the assumptions, but both 1a firmwares were in comparison to the 1z with the wm1a/z+ firmware...