[Whitigir]

Does all DACs do this?

Not all of them, no. It is related to how people is connecting their headphones to these DAC/amp/dap. When it has enough power, a quick slide from Positive to negative polarity will cause a short in a super short time like 0.2 second. If the amplifier/DAC/daps has enough power, it can potentially fry the voice-coil on these headphones. Sometimes it doesn't take only a few tries, it could happen after of one too many time.

The best way to do it is to turn off the amp/DAC/dap, and then remove/plug in your headphones. But because as a DAP, you do not want to turn it off every time to do just plug/unplug your headphones. It will need a mechanism to help disengaging the circuit, and this is where the relays come into play.

Sony thinks a lot on these matters, including reliability and so on...hence you have it on the new WM1Z at Balanced out (240 mW per channel) and not SE (60 mW per channel). It is also found in the Pha-3 balanced out 335 mW per channel as well, but as an Amp/DAC, you can turn it off at your leisure, so it doesn't always click like the one in wm1Z

 

[Sarnia]

  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Westone-WSTW80-W80-Earphones/dp/B01M6W1XVL
 
up at £1200 but the dodgy dealer is selling again at £780 so i hope its going to go down the WM price match route ..... finger on the trigger and waiting

That'll only work if amazon themselves are selling them. They don't seem to be at the moment.

 

[JamesKH]

Would it be a problem to keep the WM1A plugged in all the time?

 

[gerelmx1986]

Would it be a problem to keep the WM1A plugged in all the time?

​yep it will damage the battery by "trickle charging"

 

[gerelmx1986]

 
Thanks. Thought I went mad after 6+ hours of Mozart...

I would never go mad with Mozart

​ I have the complete Mozart edition of the Phillips record label (180 FLAC albums) and 56 of the new DG Mozart edition

 

[pCollins]

  I would never go mad with Mozart

I have the complete Mozart edition of the Phillips record label (180 FLAC albums) and 56 of the new DG Mozart edition

 
The constant clicking to & from HR tracks is getting to me.

 

[jmills8]

The constant clicking to & from HR tracks is getting to me.

then stay on and not go to and from.

 

[nc8000]

There is 0, No, Zero way to stop it from clicking. It is a mechanical relay mechanism at work. If it no longer click, your Walkman would be just a dead brick

Why would there be a mechanical mechanism when going from one file format or resolution to another ?

 

[nanaholic]

Why would there be a mechanical mechanism when going from one file format or resolution to another ?

 
Just a guess - there're two clocks crystals of different oscillating frequency (44.1kHz and 48kHz) in the walkman, and switching format/sampling rate requires the circuit to switch to the clock crystals with the correct integer multiple - this engages different parts of the electronic circuit, and as the electronics engages/powers up this leads to pops/clicks/noise in the headphone output, and thus triggers the mechanical muting relay of which its purpose is to prevent such pops/clicks/noise from being transferred to the headphones and damaging them and/or the hearing of the listener.
 
When I owned the Venturecraft Valoq Venturecraft was pretty specific about how they didn't build a muting circuit into the headphone output (their claim was that it makes the output path more "pure") - hence whenever you power on/power off the DAP with headphones plugged in you can clearly hear pops/clicks as the electronics inside the DAP powers on/powers down.  Sony's approach in the WM1 series is that they would use a software controlled mechanical switch to engage/disengage the headphone output when such thing happens so as to preserve both a "pure" signal path like the Valoq, while also providing a much more pleasant user experience (so you don't hear those pops and clicks suddenly pumped into your ears via your headphones).  Note that traditionally the common method is using a transistor-type relay as the muting circuit which is completely silent in operation, but the engineers will claim that will lead to "contamination" of the output. 

 

[nanaholic]

Seems that a new update is rolling out to Japanese owners of both the WM1 and A30 series Walkmans right now and reports are saying that both Walkmans gets a massive speed boost in UI response so lots of excited owners right now.
 
Gonna dig around to see if there's a direct download link.

 

[blazinblazin]

That's nice news.
The UI going to be perfected.

 

[PCheung]

  Seems that a new update is rolling out to Japanese owners of both the WM1 and A30 series Walkmans right now and reports are saying that both Walkmans gets a massive speed boost in UI response so lots of excited owners right now.
 
Gonna dig around to see if there's a direct download link.

 
The update is a leak found on 2ch and not official yet

 

[nanaholic]

I have found the direct link:
http://walkman.update.sony.net/fw/pc/WM1/NW-WM1_V1_10.exe
 
Applying the update will take it from V1.02 to V1.10, so we've got a pretty big leap.
 
Yep huge speed improvement in scrolling speed and flicking between the different home screens. 

 

[buzzlulu]

New to this thread and just started reading through the posts - 75 pages starting at the end and working back.

General question - while I understand that these are wonderful players for an all in one single box solution I am curious on people's opinions comparing a WM1A to an iPhone7 transport (digital out via lightning) fronting a Mojo or Hugo(2)?

The obvious immediate benefit (for me) is the addition of Tidal streaming. Curious to know if anyone has done some comparisons. Headphones would be Z1R (obvious synergy) and Utopia - so easy to drive.

Thanks

 

[blazinblazin]

Anyone follows VGP2017 Japan award?
Looks like WM1 series did well.
 
http://vgp.phileweb.com/vgp2017/detail18.html