[blazinblazin]

I am wondering will Sony try a Walkman phone again? Haha

 

[srosenberg]

It will be interesting to see what Sony releases to mark the anniversary, but speaking for the sonics alone of the 1A, they’ve already set the bar rather high in my book, as I find this to be a very accomplished DAP.

I was listening to a pair of NCM Bellas (CIEM) yesterday on the 1A and was absolutely astounded by the presentation. Of course this DAP is not perfect - screen could be better and it’s not as feature rich as some (I don’t miss any of the features it’s lacking... it does everything I need) - but on sonics alone, it’s pretty spectacular in my book.

 

[Redcarmoose]

I suspect only a tiny percentage of flagship model DAPs like the WM1Z will have any kind of value to collectors in future years.

If history has taught us anything the performance of electronic devices will continue to improve at the same rapid pace. There's no reason we shouldn't expect an AK70 or R3 sized DAP with better-than-WM1Z performance and 2GB of storage on the market in 5 or 10 years costing less than an AK70 does now. The rate of DAP improvement may even accelerate as the market grows and heavier investments are made into DAC chip development. User interfaces will improve, battery lives will get longer, DAPs will feature wireless charging, faster file transfer and so on. Unfortunately money spent on electronics is a poor investment for this reason though I'm sure there are people out there with ten year old Macbooks who find they still handle their workloads just fine.

I haven’t looked but I can guess you don’t own a Sony of any kind. It’s fine as not everyone may like Sony stuff.

But it’s the sound, if you would have talked about an improvement in sound in your post. As audiophiles I don’t think most of us care about the rest? At least I don’t, the only thing that could get me to want to put my 1Z in a drawer would be way better sound......like portable TA amp sound.

Still there are a lot of classic audio pieces of equipment, and your right the DAP seems to be in the short shelf life category. Lol

 

[kenjamin0523]

I just buy a wm1a with project K mod, can’t wait for try it

 

[Bosk]

I haven’t looked but I can guess you don’t own a Sony of any kind. It’s fine as not everyone may like Sony stuff.

But it’s the sound, if you would have talked about an improvement in sound in your post. As audiophiles I don’t think most of us care about the rest? At least I don’t, the only thing that could get me to want to put my 1Z in a drawer would be way better sound......like portable TA amp sound.

Still there are a lot of classic audio pieces of equipment, and your right the DAP seems to be in the short shelf life category. Lol

Funnily enough I owned a Sony WM1A before buying my AK380 Redcarmoose, a very nice device. I also owned a series of Sony walkmans - back in the 1980s.

Things like turntables and speakers are better investments because the technology of both hasn't changed that much in 50 years. Electronics are a different story although some vintage tube amps are an exception because again tube amp circuits haven't changed much either and you can update them to modern performance levels merely by swapping out some capacitors and resistors. Whereas something like the WM1A will dive in value the moment Sony releases an updated model perhaps later this year.

I'm not suggesting we are wasting our money buying these digital products because through the musical enjoyment they provide they pay for themselves many times over, but any DAP will suffer huge depreciation after the first year so they make poor investments.

 

[Whitigir]

Not only DAP, but everything into the Hi-Fi games. There is a surge of Hi-Fi demands in the market, be it Digital, Vynils, Large speakers, or Headphones....last but not least...wireless devices. Because technology has been progressing so very fast at mind blowing speed, and the demand for this which cut into shortage of electrical components and so on, which racked up the price of components. Then the development, production of these devices.

High precision components are mostly produced for other industry such as medical, space craft, sensitive communication devices, science....etc....but due to this Hi-Fi demands, they are not up to speed to production

Needless to say, the quality has been vastly improved, but at costs. Everything is more expensive, and especially from big companies (Sony), then there are smaller companies which relying on “because it sound good” to rip off the consumers.

Anyways, this period will cool down in the future, not sure when. There are many honest companies Originated from China are doing honest development and production at good price/performances ratios. After this huge waves of demand, ripoff, competition...etc....whatever remains will be in the game for a while, and things will become more affordable.

There are never any investments in this hobby. Sometimes, when you are very lucky, you would have something that collectors want, but is out of productions. Say some of the stuff from the 80-90 .... ? But I am afraid, in the contrast of the new technology. There won’t be anything at this moment to be called “investments”. Anyways, it is always so foolish to call materials to be an investments, neither gold, nor Cash, Diamonds, vehicles....etc...all of them depreciate, but with the scale of the inflation. Unless you are into the stock market.

 

[rcoleman1]

You only live once. I say enjoy life and the things that make you happy...no matter the cost. Period.

 

[Whitigir]

You only live once. I say enjoy life and the things that make you happy...no matter the cost. Period.

Exactly this! And I have been enjoying it

 

[emrelights1973]

İs it me or the 4,4 Sounds better with 1z?

 

[nc8000]

İs it me or the 4,4 Sounds better with 1z?

4.4 does sound better than 3.5

 

[hamhamhamsta]

Exactly this! And I have been enjoying it

Second this !

 

[gerelmx1986]

İs it me or the 4,4 Sounds better with 1z?

4.4mm is miles ahead in SQ than SE

 

[Redcarmoose]

You only live once. I say enjoy life and the things that make you happy...no matter the cost. Period.

It’s difficult to put a price value on sunsets.

 

[proedros]

It’s difficult to put a price value on sunsets.

airplane tickets + hotel

if this is your backyard sunset , congrats you are a lucky man

 

[Redcarmoose]

airplane tickets + hotel

if this is your backyard sunset , congrats you are a lucky man

No sorry......probably very esoteric sounding. What I’m referring to is a persons quality personal experiences are of an incalculable value, hence priceless. So enjoying music from a Walkman is priceless like a sunset.