[Zakalwe]

http://www.sony.net/Fun/design/activity/product/pcm-d1_01.html

You're talking about the animation, right? I agree, it looks very slow. They removed it in PCM-D50 / D100 and the operation feels very swift to me. I use D100 as my DAP and recorder when I'm practicing or attending a concert (good old bootlegging), they're big, but they can take a beating and last for a long time.

Plus, the sound quality is superb (harsh, analytical, but very clear, which is what I want)

It has been a while since I have actually used mine for a longer time. I don't think I was all that bothered by the animation, but the operation is awkward. The directory structure and names are fixed, so one needs to get used to searching in FOLDER01 or FOLDER02 etc., no album or artist names or the like. Internal memory and card memory are treated separately, with both having their own FOLDER01...FOLDER10 lists. Switching between memories means fiddling in the options menu.

And the memory cards are expensive and hard to find, and the ones with "large" capacity (4GB) need that flimsy adapter that breaks for no apparent reason. At least the adapters are cheap.

Nevertheless, it is a beautiful device. Made in Japan, titanium. Every few months I play around with it a little and admire it, reminiscing about what Sony could build when they really wanted to. I hope the WM1 will be similar in that regard.

 

[JamesInLondon]

Hi All;
 
I interview folks for a living and so rely on recording gear; over almost 30 years I have used used only two brands; Sony & Nagra. I never owned the D1, but the D50 was a piece of crap that died within 3 months of the warranty expiring. But other, much older Sony kit, like my little ICD-MX20 just keeps trucking on and lives with me wherever I go and when I have to do an interview it is the Nagra SD that I almost always use.
 
In the background you can see my ZX2 sitting in the NWH10 cradle, feeding a pair of Little British Monitors; this is my office sound system and I hope that the 1A/Z will both fit into the cradle, when I finally get one.
 

 
 
Good Luck
James

 

[T.W.G]

   
I was indoors and it was in the evening so couldn't test under different lighting conditions. However I didn't have any issues on the display in using it. I had the ZX1 ages ago and didn't really run into too much trouble but having said that I probably used the play, FF, RW buttons more in my pocket.
 
In fact aside from you mentioning display issues, I've not heard anyone else mention  - so not certain what you mean by whether you hope Sony has learnt? Out of curiosity, did you lodge an issue/complaint with their customer support?

I'm only referring to outdoor use. I've asked that in the ZX100 thread, too and there are enough people that can confirm the embarassing fact, that Sony walkman displays are useless outside when it's too bright!

Take your ZX1 into the sun, set the display to maximum brightness and you still can't see what's going on. Unbelievable for a mobile device that's built to take with you... and embarassing because Sony showed it in the past that they know how to built suitable displays and their smartphones are working outdoors, too.

For the OLED comments: I'm happy that they did NOT use an OLED display. I don't want a device with burn in problem from the display or a device that get's useless because the OLED is broken too fast.

 

 

[Whitigir]

The cradles shall fit the new 1A/Z just fine, and the same as the dongle digital out cables. I feel like a broken record to keep on saying that Sony does not use Software to alter the sound signature from 1A to 1Z.

The 1Z has beefier Digital circuitry due to more FT capacitors being used where the 1A uses OS-Con. FT capacitors were developed by "Sony alone" and it purposes of design = to achieve better power stability and more power delivery, the material used and researched were chosen after the years of development and research since the time Zx1 was released and only to have it mature and finished until now. The most Majestic about these Capacitors is the ability to stay purest to the sounds signals with clear vocal and natural timbres while having the most powerful power delivery for it size. In short, Power and superb sound quality were the reason these were developed.

The 1Z also uses "F resistors" and the letter F stands for Fine tuning. With the use of this F resistors, the Z were able to achieve the measurable higher frequency (trebles) which is better than 1A, and this is the most unique things about 1Z, it can reach higher and vividly presenting the details while being very smooth.

The 1Z also utilize Kimber Kables which were specifically designed to work in the new Walkman, using high quality and purity Copper strands with larger sizes and braided. These cables were shown to be better than OFC.

The 1Z also utilize OFC Copper-gold plated casing and grounding pins on the chassis to the whole circuitry, this is where the 1A only get brushed aluminum. Therefore, the grounding pins on the chassis provides better resistivity, higher conductivity, and natural characteristic of Copper being used in Acoustic Analogy Circuitr. Hence, Sony stated that the Copper-Gold plated brings different and unique Acoustic properties.

Yeah, all of these above were confirmed from various sites, and with insider information as well.

 

[gerelmx1986]

My biggest question is why @Whitigir said earlier in this thread that OS-CON are inferior?
 
I had an A17 walkman whih used POS-CAP and to my ears os-con do a better job so the s master ouputs a better signal, with less treble distortion if not gone entirely.

 

[Whitigir]

My biggest question is why @Whitigir
 said earlier in this thread that OS-CON are inferior?

I had an A17 walkman whih used POS-CAP and to my ears os-con do a better job so the s master ouputs a better signal, with less treble distortion if not gone entirely.

OS-Con are not inferior products over-all. It is actually top tier for audio performances, but Sony was not satisfied, so they decided to develop their own capacitors. OS-Con are "only inferior" to Sony "FTCap", which was developed for sound quality together with power delivery alone .

 

[Leviticus]

The cradles shall fit the new 1A/Z just fine, and the same as the dongle digital out cables. I feel like a broken record to keep on saying that Sony does not use Software to alter the sound signature from 1A to 1Z.

The 1Z has beefier Digital circuitry due to more FT capacitors being used where the 1A uses OS-Con. FT capacitors were developed by "Sony alone" and it purposes of design = to achieve better power stability and more power delivery, the material used and researched were chosen after the years of development and research since the time Zx1 was released and only to have it mature and finished until now. The most Majestic about these Capacitors is the ability to stay purest to the sounds signals with clear vocal and natural timbres while having the most powerful power delivery for it size. In short, Power and superb sound quality were the reason these were developed.

The 1Z also uses "F resistors" and the letter F stands for Fine tuning. With the use of this F resistors, the Z were able to achieve the measurable higher frequency (trebles) which is better than 1A, and this is the most unique things about 1Z, it can reach higher and vividly presenting the details while being very smooth.

The 1Z also utilize Kimber Kables which were specifically designed to work in the new Walkman, using high quality and purity Copper strands with larger sizes and braided. These cables were shown to be better than OFC.

The 1Z also utilize OFC Copper-gold plated casing and grounding pins on the chassis to the whole circuitry, this is where the 1A only get brushed aluminum. Therefore, the grounding pins on the chassis provides better resistivity, higher conductivity, and natural characteristic of Copper being used in Acoustic Analogy Circuitr. Hence, Sony stated that the Copper-Gold plated brings different and unique Acoustic properties.

Yeah, all of these above were confirmed from various sites, and with insider information as well.

 
Isn't it true that the circuitry on both Walkmen is exactly the same in balanced mode?

 

[gerelmx1986]

OS-Con are not inferior products over-all. It is actually top tier for audio performances, but Sony was not satisfied, so they decided to develop their own capacitors. OS-Con are "only inferior" to Sony "FTCap", which was developed for sound quality alone

Now i got it hehe  mis understanding

 
I am listening to some brytn trios ( a cello with many strings) and i can feel my combo right now, a zx100 and z5 produces this natural smooth sound, nice neutral balanced sound withot falling into the lifeless region *cough* ipod *cough*.
 
It has warmth and neutrality, i will get the 1A or the 1Z still thinking because construction of the frme is better, it won't dissasembl it self LOL, (maybe that affected the resale value of my zx100

 had to reglue the top plastic and the leather thingy)

 

[gerelmx1986]

 
Isn't it true that the circuitry on both Walkmen is exactly the same in balanced mode?

Looking at the fotos it seems like a solid YEAH, except fo the resistor i think LOL

 

[Mimouille]

The cradles shall fit the new 1A/Z just fine, and the same as the dongle digital out cables. I feel like a broken record to keep on saying that Sony does not use Software to alter the sound signature from 1A to 1Z.

The 1Z has beefier Digital circuitry due to more FT capacitors being used where the 1A uses OS-Con. FT capacitors were developed by "Sony alone" and it purposes of design = to achieve better power stability and more power delivery, the material used and researched were chosen after the years of development and research since the time Zx1 was released and only to have it mature and finished until now. The most Majestic about these Capacitors is the ability to stay purest to the sounds signals with clear vocal and natural timbres while having the most powerful power delivery for it size. In short, Power and superb sound quality were the reason these were developed.

The 1Z also uses "F resistors" and the letter F stands for Fine tuning. With the use of this F resistors, the Z were able to achieve the measurable higher frequency (trebles) which is better than 1A, and this is the most unique things about 1Z, it can reach higher and vividly presenting the details while being very smooth.

The 1Z also utilize Kimber Kables which were specifically designed to work in the new Walkman, using high quality and purity Copper strands with larger sizes and braided. These cables were shown to be better than OFC.

The 1Z also utilize OFC Copper-gold plated casing and grounding pins on the chassis to the whole circuitry, this is where the 1A only get brushed aluminum. Therefore, the grounding pins on the chassis provides better resistivity, higher conductivity, and natural characteristic of Copper being used in Acoustic Analogy Circuitr. Hence, Sony stated that the Copper-Gold plated brings different and unique Acoustic properties.

Yeah, all of these above were confirmed from various sites, and with insider information as well.

Confirmed from what sites? Sites repeating the marketing language of Sony? Of course they will achieve better performance with the Z. I doubt that it is detectable without very critical listening on perfectly mastered tracks in a quiet environment.

 

[Whitigir]

Isn't it true that the circuitry on both Walkmen is exactly the same in balanced mode?

That stands true, only the interconnect cables from the Board to the Jack plugs are different, 1A uses OFC and 1Z uses Kimber Kables. However, Walkman is different than other players in their design, using S-Master, which is called "direct Digital". This is a hybrid design that will be affected by the rest of the components inside the circuitry. You can see Sony making the same statement over and over again that Zx1 has this capacitors, and Zx2 has that many capacitors, then Zx100 has beefier capacitors....etc...etc. it is very true that better digital sections result in better over-all performances.

1Z utilizes FT Capacitors which is superior to OS-Cons in Power deliver and Audio performances in the Digital sections

The Walkman Digital signals variations can be observed by using Walkman as a transport from "stock cables vs Dongle cables" there will be much obvious sound quality differences feeding external DAC. I observed it from using Zx2 and Pha-3

 

[gerelmx1986]

Confirmed from what sites? Sites repeating the marketing language of Sony? Of course they will achieve better performance with the Z. I doubt that it is detectable without very critical listening on perfectly mastered tracks in a quiet environment.

I think you are right as i said do a proper blind test and I won't be able to tell difference

 

[proedros]

i say , make a thread 'whitigr vs gerelmx' and let them fight it out 

we need people reviewing/comparing 1A/1Z and not  subjective speculations 
 
hopefully soon 

 

[thanatosguan]

That stands true, only the interconnect cables from the Board to the Jack plugs are different, 1A uses OFC and 1Z uses Kimber Kables. However, Walkman is different than other players in their design, using S-Master, which is called "direct Digital". This is a hybrid design that will be affected by the rest of the components inside the circuitry. You can see Sony making the same statement over and over again that Zx1 has this capacitors, and Zx2 has that many capacitors, then Zx100 has beefier capacitors....etc...etc. it is very true that better digital sections result in better over-all performances.

1Z utilizes FT Capacitors which is superior to OS-Cons in Power deliver and Audio performances in the Digital sections

The Walkman Digital signals variations can be observed by using Walkman as a transport from "stock cables vs Dongle cables" there will be much obvious sound quality differences feeding external DAC. I observed it from using Zx2 and Pha-3

I can't say for certain because my time with the 1Z and 1A is limited... my mother, who was a concert soloist of Chinese mandolin, said something about 1Z has more details. Of course, take this with HUUUUGE caution because A) she has no prior experience with any headphone electronics, barring Walkman of early 80s, B) This is not a double-blind test, she knew she changed the device on hand.
 
That being said the sensibilities of serious musicians often shock me. My professor can tell if an orchestra is tuned to sound darker or not easily. Not to mention the ineffable ability of concertmasters... to tune instruments on site...
 
These things should be at your local Sony Stores or audio stores by now, if there is any. The ZH1ES is the one on a short leash, of the new Sony Signature trio... I heard there's only 2 in circulation for audition in mainland China.

 

[gerelmx1986]

  i say , make a thread 'whitigr vs gerelmx' and let them fight it out 

we need people reviewing/comparing 1A/1Z and not  subjective speculations 
 
hopefully soon 

That's it paper specs or marketing may brainwash some people but meh, i will stop responding to these claims if they havent listened to it