[Peridot]

  The PM3 has excellent synergy, but I suspect any well balanced, somewhat warm tilted headphone will do well. I am loving the B&O H7, but that is in Bluetooth mode. I think the wired signature would be equally excellent. It only has a 40mm driver but it plays bigger. I think B&O nailed the sound signature.
 
Edit: and not to stir controversy too much, but do you think it is such a departure in musicality from the ZX2 as some seem to suggest? My phone just updated to Android six and it is even more responsive, noticeable for sure, but not crazy better, just better.

 
Unfortunately, I haven't had the benefit of hearing the ZX2. On a number of occasions I've had one in my online shopping basket with the mouse hovering over the 'complete purchase' button.
 
I'm pretty certain I'd love it's SQ as much as the Onkyo. Perhaps I'd like even like it more but I wouldn't get as much use out of it. Having 400 GB of storage available together with unrestricted Spotify and Tidal storage capability is personally more important to me than any SQ benefit.
 
All my research into closed headphones is leading me to the PM3s as the perfect solution for my needs. I even possess a beautiful balanced cable that was made for them 

 
 
The only problem is that I auditioned a pair recently and wasn't all that impressed. It was a brief listen under show conditions and perhaps I didn't give them enough time.
 
I had my heart set on the newly revised Beyer T5p, but they have reported high leakage and I need very low leakage levels. Unfortunately many closed 'phones appear to be not so 'closed' after all. I found the pug ugly but well reviewed Beyer DT150 at a great price so I've bought them to tide me over. I'm at an age where I can wear something like that in public and not be bothered 

.
 
I suppose one advantage of the Onkyo player over the ZX2 is that I can be reasonably confident that it will drive 250 ohm phones okay. Then again, while I'm ugly enough to wear DT150s, I don't really believe they should be plugged into something as beautiful as the ZX2 

 

[Sonic Defender]

   
 

Why did I think you had owned the ZX2 before? My bad, I must have you confused with somebody else in the DP-X1 thread. If the H7 is in your wheel house I suggest you give them a listen to and you have the advantage of Bluetooth as an option.

 

[Whitigir]

128gb internal storage and 200gb on slot....you are looking at 328 GB ? Not even enough ?

 

[Sonic Defender]

128gb internal storage and 200gb on slot....you are looking at 328 GB ? Not even enough ?

Would be plenty for me, but I'm weird.

 

[ebweinstein]

 
A recent update to the Spotify App includes the option of user selectable storage location for offline music files. Previously it was selected by the app itself and if often got it wrong. Perhaps this will now allow use of alternative locations on the ZX2 ?

 
Can anyone confirm that the Sony ZX2 can save to SD card using the most recent version of Spotify?

 

[Peridot]

128gb internal storage and 200gb on slot....you are looking at 328 GB ? Not even enough ?

 
Not for me. with my 432 GB on the Onkyo, I'm currently agonising over what to leave out of my current library, never mind any future additions.
 
Once Sandisk / Toshiba get their 3D NAND production facilities into commercial operation, we'll see larger micro SD cards available perhaps later this year, but I suspect the initial prices will be eye watering. 
 
Given the limited application of high capacity memory and the fact that we're hardly going to moan over a slight increase in size and weight on a DAP, manufacturers should really go for full SD slots. If I could have 1TB now with an upgrade path to 4TB, I'd be reasonably content 

 

[Whitigir]

Dang! You probably have the largest collection in Data files that I have known

 

[Sonic Defender]

   
Not for me. with my 432 GB on the Onkyo, I'm currently agonising over what to leave out of my current library, never mind any future additions.
 
Once Sandisk / Toshiba get their 3D NAND production facilities into commercial operation, we'll see larger micro SD cards available perhaps later this year, but I suspect the initial prices will be eye watering. 
 
Given the limited application of high capacity memory and the fact that we're hardly going to moan over a slight increase in size and weight on a DAP, manufacturers should really go for full SD slots. If I could have 1TB now with an upgrade path to 4TB, I'd be reasonably content 

See, for me, I think we amass collections so large that we can never fully enjoy them. You would need to listen to many hours a day to even touch a portion of that collection mate. Are you sure you're not just hooked on collecting music? I have also found that having too much choice makes it a) hard to pick and b) hard to stay satisfied with the current selection, I'm forever music surfing whereas back in the day it was much more work to surf the collection so I think I was a lot more patient and just enjoyed things more. I swear in this modern age we have musical ADD and I suspect we enjoy music a lot less intimately than we did when music was rather expensive, less plentiful, and harder to get. Even with my smaller collection I have plenty of material that goes un-enjoyed for years, and every time I add more music to the collection (just purchased Joe Bonamassa's Blues of Desperation) the odds of those buried albums every being played declines.
 
I say this in the context of portable music so for me having everything is pointless, I take the music I am currently listening with me preferring to update a smaller library more often. I also find huge collections annoying to scroll through when I know I'm not listening to most of it. Rant done

 

[dougi555]

I don't use Spotify, but the ZX2 has no problem with storing Tidal offline content external to the "internal 2GB memory". I have 109GB of hi-res content on mine at the moment.

I can confirm that both TIDAL & QOBUZ save no problem. I have dozens of albums and playlists. I never use Spotify so cannot comment.

 

[_wednesday]

Not a problem with Spotify either

 

[Peridot]

 
I say this in the context of portable music so for me having everything is pointless, I take the music I am currently listening with me preferring to update a smaller library more often. I also find huge collections annoying to scroll through when I know I'm not listening to most of it. Rant done

 
I'm just not organised enough to chop and change from a larger library to a 'current listening' one. I much prefer to carry at least the bulk of it with me. Yes, some of it will be aired very infrequently but when the mood takes me I like to be able to find it quickly rather than have to go and load it onto the player. I do quite like digging into the lesser used parts of my library from time to time for a change. With some of that stuff if it wasn't to hand, I'd probably never listen to it again. 

 

[Sonic Defender]

   
I'm just not organised enough to chop and change from a larger library to a 'current listening' one. I much prefer to carry at least the bulk of it with me. Yes, some of it will be aired very infrequently but when the mood takes me I like to be able to find it quickly rather than have to go and load it onto the player. I do quite like digging into the lesser used parts of my library from time to time for a change. With some of that stuff if it wasn't to hand, I'd probably never listen to it again. 

But does that infrequent benefit really outweigh having to scroll through massive lists of artists and albums? Do you (like I used to, still do to an extent) find yourself scrolling through content looking for something you want to play? There is no right or wrong of course, just different ways of going about things. I'm just curious how much time we spend navigating our huge collections, but ultimately playing mostly our current interests anyway.

 

[Mowork]

   
Unfortunately, I haven't had the benefit of hearing the ZX2. On a number of occasions I've had one in my online shopping basket with the mouse hovering over the 'complete purchase' button.
 
I'm pretty certain I'd love it's SQ as much as the Onkyo. Perhaps I'd like even like it more but I wouldn't get as much use out of it. Having 400 GB of storage available together with unrestricted Spotify and Tidal storage capability is personally more important to me than any SQ benefit.
 
All my research into closed headphones is leading me to the PM3s as the perfect solution for my needs. I even possess a beautiful balanced cable that was made for them 

 
 
The only problem is that I auditioned a pair recently and wasn't all that impressed. It was a brief listen under show conditions and perhaps I didn't give them enough time.
 
I had my heart set on the newly revised Beyer T5p, but they have reported high leakage and I need very low leakage levels. Unfortunately many closed 'phones appear to be not so 'closed' after all. I found the pug ugly but well reviewed Beyer DT150 at a great price so I've bought them to tide me over. I'm at an age where I can wear something like that in public and not be bothered 

.
 
I suppose one advantage of the Onkyo player over the ZX2 is that I can be reasonably confident that it will drive 250 ohm phones okay. Then again, while I'm ugly enough to wear DT150s, I don't really believe they should be plugged into something as beautiful as the ZX2 

Where did you get the balance cable for the PM3s?

 

[Sonic Defender]

  Where did you get the balance cable for the PM3s?

He bought my cable which was made by PETEREK from here in the forums. Very nice work, and a great little cable.

 

[Peridot]

  But does that infrequent benefit really outweigh having to scroll through massive lists of artists and albums? Do you (like I used to, still do to an extent) find yourself scrolling through content looking for something you want to play? There is no right or wrong of course, just different ways of going about things. I'm just curious how much time we spend navigating our huge collections, but ultimately playing mostly our current interests anyway.

 
If I know what I want I use the search option. Otherwise I find the speedy, responsive scrolling on modern players copes fine with large libraries.