So I just received my WM1Z, it has 140 hours on it I believe. I’ll put it on to burn later after I transferred some more tracks.
The Sony is quite different than I expected. Starting with the LPG, its signature consists of a bump around the sub- and mid-bass giving it a boosted and full-bodied low-end, followed by a bump at the lower midrange starting at 500 KHz up until 2-3 KHz, and then a treble peak around 9-10 KHz. Accordingly, the midrange is forward and dense. It creates a solid, powerful vocal presentation, and generally speaking, the LPG is quite upfront. The mid-upper treble peak in turn gives it its brighter than neutral tone, and that extra bit of sparkle, clarity and excitement.
The WM1Z’s bass is more neutral by comparison, and doesn’t seem to be particularly enhanced. Especially the upper bass is slightly laidback, in order to create a cleaner stage. However, this also takes some warmth as well as depth from the presentation. In contrast to the LPG, it has its main energy around an upper midrange peak at 6 KHz, followed by a slightly attenuated treble to balance the tone and maintain its naturalness. But its not necessarily a dip in the treble, it’s closer to linear. The 6 Khz peak is tuned to put more emphasis on the articulation of notes, and effectively increase its resolution. Both the instrument and vocal size is fairly large, creating a nicely full presentation. But as
@EagleWings mentioned, while larger in size compared to the LPG, vocals aren’t denser. The LPG’s lower midrange is more prominent, giving it that bit of extra vocal power and solidity. The 1Z’s vocals in turn are centered on articulation, although it’s nevertheless nicely balanced throughout the vocal range. In addition, the tone of the midrange is quite accurate, and overall its pace seems to be very good.
As is, I wouldn’t necessarily classify it as a particularly smooth player due to its upper midrange emphasis, at least not as a defining trait; but I’m counting on it to settle in a bit more after burn. I was mainly expecting it to be warmer and more forward; more emotional perhaps. But these expectations were shaped relative to my AK, which is bassier, and accordingly, warmer, thicker and smoother. I would say the Sony is a mildly warm player with a focus on a realistic portrayal of tone. It's a beautiful player to see and hold btw, despite that its quite heavy. But weight doesn't bother me much.
These impressions are based on SE; I’m going to have to wait a short while for some balanced cables unfortunately, but I’ll let it burn for a while and come back to it in a bit.
It saves the hassle to change cables, especially since Sony's using a different type of plug (regardless if it's better).
but agree completely with you that the AK380 got an excellent SE and useless balanced 
. As I've said in the AK380 thread, the AK amp seems to me to have been designed SOLELY to provide the 380 with a proper balanced output and nothing else. If used alone I'd prefer the 380 SE over balanced anyday.
