[musicday]

Lotoo Paw Gold is the most powerful music player- 500 mW@32 ohm, however Chord Mojo does only "720 mW@8 ohm " but having the smallest distortion gets louder.Plenue S is more powerful than Sony but not as powerful as Lotoo, i believe.

 

[hanes]

Hi!
 
I tried both players today at IFA in Berlin! 

 
Just some quick impressions:
 
- They might look very similar, but the two players differ quite a bit in weight and feel! The black 1A feels almost "light" in comparison, the gold 1Z feels super heavy and solid...you have to hold it in your hands to understand...amazing! Built quality of both for sure is absolutely outstanding!
 
- I asked about the OS and have been told by the Sony staff that Android 5.0 is used for both players - but with a Walkman interface that actually does not allow any 3rd party apps. Actually I had a little discussion with the guy about whether it makes sense or not to use streaming services on a High Res Player. I felt his arguments were typical marketing ******** (sorry!), such as "Real Audiophiles are not interested in these ways of listening to music" ....... but he did not seem to have much knowledge about audio anyway and might just have memorized "his text" before the fair 

. Just telling me "This walkman has a very minimalist approach" would have been better I think....
 
- The interface itself was very clean and simple - almost no graphical elements. But not very stylish either....
 
- Sound of the 1Z: That`s a difficult one! Since I could only listen to the material on the device, I could not directly compare to my own devices (DPX-1 and Mojo) with my own music.  At least I could use my own IE800 and also the provided MDR-Z1R. What I can tell after listening to it for about 10 minutes is that the device really seem to have a lot of driving power (to drive bigger headphones) and a very full bodied, warm but still very detailed sound. I`d say direction is similar to the ZX-2...with more impact and maybe a tad crisper in the highs...but that is almost impossible to tell without direct comparison. For sure it sounded absolutely great, but on the first listen I didn`t feel it sounds 2500 Euros better than other top players that already cost too much 

. Which I don`t mean too negative towards sound quality ....just I feel recent DAPs somehow have reached the end of the flagpole in terms of pure output sq. 
I think people who buy this device might buy it because they simply can afford it and fall in love with the way it looks and feels and the whole minimalistic concept.  
 
But this are just some first impressions.....

 

[proedros]

  Hi!
 
I tried both players today at IFA in Berlin! 

 
Just some quick impressions:
 
- They might look very similar, but the two players differ quite a bit in weight and feel! The black 1A feels almost "light" in comparison, the gold 1Z feels super heavy and solid...you have to hold it in your hands to understand...amazing! Built quality of both for sure is absolutely outstanding!
 
- I asked about the OS and have been told by the Sony staff that Android 5.0 is used for both players - but with a Walkman interface that actually does not allow any 3rd party apps. Actually I had a little discussion with the guy about whether it makes sense or not to use streaming services on a High Res Player. I felt his arguments were typical marketing ******** (sorry!), such as "Real Audiophiles are not interested in these ways of listening to music" ....... but he did not seem to have much knowledge about audio anyway and might just have memorized "his text" before the fair 

. Just telling me "This walkman has a very minimalist approach" would have been better I think....
 
- The interface itself was very clean and simple - almost no graphical elements. But not very stylish either....
 
- Sound of the 1Z: That`s a difficult one! Since I could only listen to the material on the device, I could not directly compare to my own devices (DPX-1 and Mojo) with my own music.  At least I could use my own IE800 and also the provided MDR-Z1R. What I can tell after listening to it for about 10 minutes is that the device really seem to have a lot of driving power (to drive bigger headphones) and a very full bodied, warm but still very detailed sound. I`d say direction is similar to the ZX-2...with more impact and maybe a tad crisper in the highs...but that is almost impossible to tell without direct comparison. For sure it sounded absolutely great, but on the first listen I didn`t feel it sounds 2500 Euros better than other top players that already cost too much 

. Which I don`t mean too negative....just I feel recent DAPs somehow have reached the end of the flagpole in terms of pure output sq. 
I think people who buy this device might buy it because they simply can afford it and fall in love with the way it looks and feels and the whole minimalistic concept.  
 
But this are just some first impressions.....

 
sound of 1A ?

 

[hanes]

   
sound of 1A ?

Listened to the 1A literally only for 3 minutes. Because one of the 1Z got free (people were lining up) and I quickly changed seats.
I didn t feel there was a huge difference, maybe a bit more impact on the 1Z - but again, there is more time and direct comparison needed to tell 100%. Sorry. 

 

[gerelmx1986]

 
sound of 1A ?

+2

 

[proedros]

 
Listened to the 1A literally only for 3 minutes. Because one of the 1Z got free (people were lining up) and I quickly changed seats.
I didn t feel there was a huge difference, maybe a bit more impact on the 1Z - but again, there is more time and direct comparison needed to tell 100%. Sorry. 

 
just what i wanted to hear 

 
 
thank you

 

[gerelmx1986]

Getting the 1A for sure, My bet wll be amazon USA or Accessory javk which has pricing a bit lower... f.e XBA-Z5 original price $699.99 Jacks price for me Including shipping FEDEX express priroity 534 USD
 
ZX2 original price $1199.99 Jacks price 1069 USD

 

[cthomas]

Getting the 1A for sure, My bet wll be amazon USA or Accessory javk which has pricing a bit lower... f.e XBA-Z5 original price $699.99 Jacks price for me Including shipping FEDEX express priroity 534 USD

ZX2 original price $1199.99 Jacks price 1069 USD

Accessory jack prices are ridiculous for grey Imports.

 

[gerelmx1986]

Accessory jack prices are ridiculous for grey Imports.

How ridicuous? i find them to be fine, and what is a grey import?

 

[Zakalwe]

no Android (on a DAP it feels like buying a cow when I want a glass of milk)

I asked about the OS and have been told by the Sony staff that Android 5.0 is used for both players - but with a Walkman interface that actually does not allow any 3rd party apps.

Meh, so I get a glass of milk attached to a big black box hiding a crippled cow that still eats and poops like a cow... okok, I'll stop with the stupid metaphors.

 

[cthomas]

How ridicuous? i find them to be fine, and what is a grey import?

Grey Imports are not covered with a manufacturer warranty so your Walkman will go to Hong Kong to be repaired. I wouldn't want someone other than Sony handling that kind of product if something went wrong. And all of their prices are way too high, you could potentially save the same amount by shopping around for a legit dealer or just asking for a deal. And then some of their prices are higher than legit sellers, for example I looked at their price for a pair of HD800's which were $1900AUD. I bought mine on sale for $1250AUD from a legit dealer on sale but they are no more than $1500 at any given time in Australia.

 

[Zakalwe]

How ridicuous? i find them to be fine, and what is a grey import?

Grey Imports are not covered with a manufacturer warranty so your Walkman will go to Hong Kong to be repaired. I wouldn't want someone other than Sony handling that kind of product if something went wrong. And all of their prices are way too high, you could potentially save the same amount by shopping around for a legit dealer or just asking for a deal. And then some of their prices are higher than legit sellers, for example I looked at their price for a pair of HD800's which were $1900AUD. I bought mine on sale for $1250AUD from a legit dealer on sale but they are no more than $1500 at any given time in Australia.

Don't AccessoryJack handle warranties by dealing with their local Sony? Generally I agree with avoiding grey imports. However, in some cases there may be good reasons to avoid the local product, such as the EU-capped versions, or when there is no local product at all for the foreseeable future. And since mighty Sony still operates like it's 1985 without global warranties and where Sony in country A has no clue about Sony products from country B, the best workaround is to find a dealership that can provide international sales and international warranty service, such as AJ. The experience may be a bit clunkier than what it could be if Sony did it right themselves, but they can't or won't. Places like AJ are kinda lika a modern GUI on top of the rusty old Sony business machine.

 

[gerelmx1986]

Don't AccessoryJack handle warranties by dealing with their local Sony? Generally I agree with avoiding grey imports. However, in some cases there may be good reasons to avoid the local product, such as the EU-capped versions, or when there is no local product at all for the foreseeable future. And since mighty Sony still operates like it's 1985 without global warranties and where Sony in country A has no clue about Sony products from country B, the best workaround is to find a dealership that can provide international sales and international warranty service, such as AJ. The experience may be a bit clunkier than what it could be if Sony did it right themselves, but they can't or won't. Places like AJ are kinda lika a modern GUI on top of the rusty old Sony business machine.

Yeap, AJ handles the warrabty with the local sony, I had already that experience with my ZX100, got it defective, sent it to AJ and AJ sent it to sony HK and then the way back

 

[cthomas]

Don't AccessoryJack handle warranties by dealing with their local Sony? Generally I agree with avoiding grey imports. However, in some cases there may be good reasons to avoid the local product, such as the EU-capped versions, or when there is no local product at all for the foreseeable future. And since mighty Sony still operates like it's 1985 without global warranties and where Sony in country A has no clue about Sony products from country B, the best workaround is to find a dealership that can provide international sales and international warranty service, such as AJ. The experience may be a bit clunkier than what it could be if Sony did it right themselves, but they can't or won't. Places like AJ are kinda lika a modern GUI on top of the rusty old Sony business machine.

Yeah I've bought grey Imports but only if I'm saving a good amount, at least 30%. I'm just saying AJ prices are over the top for grey market stuff and some cases are more expensive than official dealers. I can't speak for Sony in Hong Kong but I know most companies will even refuse to repair an item that's out if warranty simply because it wasn't bought through official distribution lines.

 

[gerelmx1986]

 
- They might look very similar, but the two players differ quite a bit in weight and feel! The black 1A feels almost "light" in comparison, the gold 1Z feels super heavy and solid...you have to hold it in your hands to understand...amazing! Built quality of both for sure is absolutely outstanding!
 

Screen is Glass?