[Partlys4int]

I am little lost with high gain. How do inknow on which earphones to use? Is there some parameter? Does it make sense on iem xban3bp? Dont want to harm as i am not sure whetjer it makes sense.

I don't think you will harm headphones with it. From what I understand, gain is mainly how freely your player's power flows. If you use high gain, then your power flows very freely, but many headphones don't require that much power, so why waste it? In-ear headphones definitely won't be needing high-gain, with the possible exception of some very expensive high-end IEM.

That's what I know of high-gain, but I'm no expert and can't 100% vouch for it.

 

[soundblast75]

Most ridiculous things discussed on and on in here:
1. different sound on black or silver.Get real
2.zx100 sounding almost as good.Totally disagree with that.much narrower less clean output. Sony upped the game with 1A and Z and ZX300 is a portable version of that.Of course it sounds less good than 1A if you care..
3.After uncapping you get better sound..haha, its just louder

 

[psikey]

Will post more on DAC connection later.

OK, just done DAC link with iPhone 5S and connected perfectly and Tidal sounds awesome even over SE.

 

[Bepli]

Most ridiculous things discussed on and on in here:
1. different sound on black or silver.Get real
2.zx100 sounding almost as good.Totally disagree with that.much narrower less clean output. Sony upped the game with 1A and Z and ZX300 is a portable version of that.Of course it sounds less good than 1A if you care..
3.After uncapping you get better sound..haha, its just louder

totally agree, 1. is just bs there is no electronic or chemical reason that the sound can change
2. also bs different internal design, better output power, balanced and much more, saying that the zx300 sounds just a small bit better than zx100 is bs, the zx300 is like a wm1a with a bit less power and a lower spec se
3. in terms of electronics it will probably only be louder, tho there might be a change in sound depending how the volume cap is implemented. its very unlikely that its implemented in a way that it makes it sound different.

 

[deafdoorknob]

OK, just done DAC link with iPhone 5S and connected perfectly and Tidal sounds awesome even over SE.

THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!!

do you mind giving spotify a once over

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[nanaholic]

To further explain Sato-san's hypothesis that the colour coating makes a difference, they talked about the process of "alumite" in the video.
http://www.nacl.co.jp/en/alumite/

While the Japanese refers to this as alumite, the closest to our English understanding is the process of anodizing:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anodizing

TL;DR - it's a process which artificially increases the oxide ("rust" - if you must) film on the surface of the metal in order to protect the bare metal underneath. Metals such as aluminium has a natural oxide film on the surface but it is still common to anodize it further to increase this film to a thicker thickness to increase protection and/or to use the pores introduced in the process to inject colour (such as in the case of the black version). As said the anodizing process is literally introducing oxide ("rust") to surface of the metal and thus decreases its conductivity and purity, and in the case of the silver vs black of the ZX300 the anodizing in the black version is much thicker in order to take on the colour, thus with the internals being the same and the chassis ground property being different (the thicker oxide film of the black version causes the chassis ground to have a slightly higher resistance than the silver version, thus venturing off from the ideal ground that the chassis is suppose to provide), they speculate that is the cause of the sound difference.

If you believe in purity of copper cables affecting the sound (which many cable believer will buy into straight away - that's why they insist on OFC cables, no?), this doesn't seem like that far fetch of a hypothesis.

 

[psikey]

THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!!

do you mind giving spotify a once over

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!

Spotify is fine

My final DAC testing

Works perfectly with Tidal on PC with pass-through of MQA

Works perfectly with S8 USB C. Photo shows UAPP feeding Native DSD though supposedly not to SE at the ZX300 output (balanced only).

 

[Bepli]

Spotify is fine

My final DAC testing

Works perfectly with Tidal on PC with pass-through of MQA



Works perfectly with S8 USB C. Photo shows UAPP feeding Native DSD though supposedly not to SE at the ZX300 output (balanced only).

seems like it doesnt decode mqa this way.

To further explain Sato-san's hypothesis that the colour coating makes a difference, they talked about the process of "alumite" in the video.
http://www.nacl.co.jp/en/alumite/

While the Japanese refers to this as alumite, the closest to our English understanding is the process of anodizing:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anodizing

TL;DR - it's a process which artificially increases the oxide ("rust" - if you must) film on the surface of the metal in order to protect the bare metal underneath. Metals such as aluminium has a natural oxide film on the surface but it is still common to anodize it further to increase this film to a thicker thickness to increase protection and/or to use the pores introduced in the process to inject colour (such as in the case of the black version). As said the anodizing process is literally introducing oxide ("rust") to surface of the metal and thus decreases its conductivity and purity, and in the case of the silver vs black of the ZX300 the anodizing in the black version is much thicker in order to take on the colour, thus with the internals being the same and the chassis ground property being different (the thicker oxide film of the black version causes the chassis ground to have a slightly higher resistance than the silver version, thus venturing off from the ideal ground that the chassis is suppose to provide), they speculate that is the cause of the sound difference.

If you believe in purity of copper cables affecting the sound (which many cable believer will buy into straight away - that's why they insist on OFC cables, no?), this doesn't seem like that far fetch of a hypothesis.

the difference in resistance wont change the sound I think, can I you provide any like measurements of the resistance or that the device actually outputs something that changes through the different colors. It shouldn't make a difference.

 

[psikey]

seems like it doesnt decode mqa this way.

What makes you sat that? I set it to Pass-through MQA it played fine, or are you expecting an MQA icon on the ZX300

 

[Bepli]

What makes you sat that? I set it to Pass-through MQA it played fine, or are you expecting an MQA icon on the ZX300

Well it says PCM not MQA, also I asked the Sony Support and put me through to a tech guy and he told me that at the point of release it will probably not decode it through USB DAC feature.

 

[Bepli]

What makes you sat that? I set it to Pass-through MQA it played fine, or are you expecting an MQA icon on the ZX300

Also try using different MQA albums, if it at one point shows something higher than 48khz it will decode MQA, if not the chances are very high it does not. I hope if it isnt implement at the moment, that they will add it soon.

 

[nanaholic]

the difference in resistance wont change the sound I think, can I you provide any like measurements of the resistance or that the device actually outputs something that changes through the different colors. It shouldn't make a difference.

I'm just pointing out how their hypothesis goes - I'm not doing their work for them.

I mean you used to have people on the AK380 owner's thread swearing up and down that a rusty Cu sounds different to a freshly polished Cu, if you accept that AK is working on a similar idea of using the chassis material as the reference ground and thus a change in the property of the chassis has an affect on the sound then this isn't even new ground we are treading on and Sony isn't the first to be doing this....

 

[kms108]

I sent Rockbox the output for the 300A, as it was still unsupported. They added it to the database and uploaded a new destination tool. Confirmed working on the 300A now.

could be the letter A that makes the differences.

 

[Bepli]

I'm just pointing out how their hypothesis goes - I'm not doing their work for them.

I mean you used to have people on the AK380 owner's thread swearing up and down that a rusty Cu sounds different to a freshly polished Cu, if you accept that AK is working on a similar idea of using the chassis material as the reference ground and thus a change in the property of the chassis has an affect on the sound then this isn't even new ground we are treading on and Sony isn't the first to be doing this....

I accept that the properties of the chassis of a DAP can change the sound, but the anodized black color on the ZX300 will probaly make a very little difference in the resistance which would result in a inaudible change. I am totally fine with things getting explained properly and in a electronic way, but I have just had enough of like snake oil stuff in my life so I want like actually facts about stuff.

 

[abitdeef]

Spotify is fine

My final DAC testing

Works perfectly with Tidal on PC with pass-through of MQA



Works perfectly with S8 USB C. Photo shows UAPP feeding Native DSD though supposedly not to SE at the ZX300 output (balanced only).

Can't wait till you try the balanced out, but you're making me glad I ordered one. Of course I ordered black so it might not sound as good And removing the cap and setting to high gain will definitely add more power not just volume which will add more headroom and improve sound overall.

And a lot of people are calling the SE output warm, is it like x5iii warm? Because the bass and mids are prominent on a35 but overall I don't think it sounds warm.