[Shane D]

Which IEM you used?

I don't use IEM's.

Shane D

 

[Erfan Elahi]

Yeah that’s what comes up from the tracking number Joybuy gave me (and their customer service quoted the same so I didn’t misquote the tracking number). Usually electronics like DAPs ship to NZ from Hong Kong or mainland China, so it’s a bit unusual.

AliExpress and Joybuy, they have warehouses across Russia, Europe, USA and Australia. Probably China mainland warehouse stock is finished. Besides it will never be shipped from China mainland because it is a battery based product, if from China warehouse, must be shipped via HongKong.

Also, since they normally ship by post, so sometimes they get wrong country delivery. It happened with me twice with AliExpress. One went to a South American country instead of Seychelles, another went to USA. One came back automatically after 2 months labeled as "miss-delivered". Another (USA), I applied for refund, they refunded. So you can either wait or ask for refund. But If you wait, if it still doesn't come within your protection time, better ask for refund.

 

[kms108]

Either way, it will have to shipped from China, the ZX300A version is a China only model, and is not available from other countries. Hong Kong also has the similar regulation about shipping batteries.

 

[Dizzle77]

Anyone know if there is a USB-C data sync cable available? I’ve had a quick look, but can’t find anything so i’m doubtful. Just thought i’d ask

 

[kms108]

Only custom made cables available.

 

[shady1991]

Hi, can you guys tell me if there is a possibility to change lef/right balance in zx300? I couldnt find it anywhere and this is the only reason holding me from buying the walkman.

 

[geagle]

Hi, can you guys tell me if there is a possibility to change lef/right balance in zx300? I couldnt find it anywhere and this is the only reason holding me from buying the walkman.

Yes... settings ==> output settings ==> L/R balance (goes to + 3dB on either L or R)

 

[shady1991]

Yes... settings ==> output settings ==> L/R balance (goes to + 3dB on either L or R)

Thanks for the quick reply. My wallet won't be happy about this news..

 

[Signal2Noise]

Thanks for the quick reply. My wallet won't be happy about this news..

If you normally use an SDCard for storage you can save some chump change by opting for the ZX300A variant which just has 16GB internal storage.

 

[purk]

Has anyone ever compared the ZX300 with the WM1A? What the main difference soundwise?

 

[MattTCG]

Has anyone ever compared the ZX300 with the WM1A? What the main difference soundwise?

Most that have chimed in here, have said that the 1a is sonically superior with better staging, even more natural tone etc. But that the zx300 arrives and performs surprisingly close at it's price point and offers superior usability with it's near perfect form. I've had both and would agree with these sentiments.

The 1a was not really a pocketeable device for me, and more of a transportable DAP.

I love the zx300. For the price it might be the closest to perfect that I've experienced. My one criticism is the power output. With iems, even non senstive, the zx300 sounds very good and even better through the balanced output. But with my full sized headphones that I consider transportable (58x) even over balanced it's slightly lacking in it's ability to drive the headphone.

I read through this whole thread before buying the zx300. There were many pages of comments about how well the zx300 would drive even the hd650 (the 58x is a bit easier to drive). And would drive the hd650 to "uncomfortable levels." That's just not true. I suspect that these statements came from folks looking at the numbers and not actually testing it out for themselves. I never listen to music at a loud level. I have tinnitus problems and anything over medium will start up those issues for me. But I usually get to medium and then back it down 2 or 3 notches...or more.

With the hd58x, the zx300 is able to get to a modest volume level at 80-90 on the dial, but bass levels and "fullness" is not quite there and neither is a decent sound stage. Any levels past this on the DAP result in clipping. And this is with FLAC files. When I play SACD or dsd files (often recorded much softer) the zx300 simply can not drive the headphones to a reasonable level. All of this is over the balanced output with high gain. And my unit is not volume capped. I tested with rockbox.

Still, for iems this DAP is as good as I've heard.

 

[maira]

Most that have chimed in here, have said that the 1a is sonically superior with better staging, even more natural tone etc.

I had a brief listening a few days ago with both and would second that. 1a is a step up (or a half step), but it was an important difference for me personally. ZX300 was good, 1a was close that i enjoyed it. But that was SE, lots of folks here said in BAL the two were nearly identical sounding... .

 

[Mathieulh]

Most that have chimed in here, have said that the 1a is sonically superior with better staging, even more natural tone etc. But that the zx300 arrives and performs surprisingly close at it's price point and offers superior usability with it's near perfect form. I've had both and would agree with these sentiments.

The 1a was not really a pocketeable device for me, and more of a transportable DAP.

I love the zx300. For the price it might be the closest to perfect that I've experienced. My one criticism is the power output. With iems, even non senstive, the zx300 sounds very good and even better through the balanced output. But with my full sized headphones that I consider transportable (58x) even over balanced it's slightly lacking in it's ability to drive the headphone.

I read through this whole thread before buying the zx300. There were many pages of comments about how well the zx300 would drive even the hd650 (the 58x is a bit easier to drive). And would drive the hd650 to "uncomfortable levels." That's just not true. I suspect that these statements came from folks looking at the numbers and not actually testing it out for themselves. I never listen to music at a loud level. I have tinnitus problems and anything over medium will start up those issues for me. But I usually get to medium and then back it down 2 or 3 notches...or more.

With the hd58x, the zx300 is able to get to a modest volume level at 80-90 on the dial, but bass levels and "fullness" is not quite there and neither is a decent sound stage. Any levels past this on the DAP result in clipping. And this is with FLAC files. When I play SACD or dsd files (often recorded much softer) the zx300 simply can not drive the headphones to a reasonable level. All of this is over the balanced output with high gain. And my unit is not volume capped. I tested with rockbox.

Still, for iems this DAP is as good as I've heard.

I own both the HD6XX the HD58X and the Japanese version of the NW-ZX300 and I can tell you with no uncertainty that while using them over balanced (I don't use SE at all with those headphones) I can drive both with ease to "uncomfortable levels", I am not looking at a graph/data I am actually using them and speaking from experience.

I usually listen to the HD58X between 35 and 45 at high gain on the volume knob (depending on what I listen to) and between 50 to 70 at high gain on the HD6XX, they get plenty loud at these levels and don't lack any power while being driven properly, in fact a volume of 80 on high gain with the HD58X would literally damage my eardrums.

Are you using the EU version of the ZX300? Even software uncapped I have already shared my thoughts about the fact that the hardware (the main logic board) itself is very likely capped in the EU version (unlike the NW-WM1A/1Z which is only software capped) which is why no international units exist for the ZX300 (The EU service centers do not have the international uncapped board required for a full international warranty support) and that removing the cap with the rockbox tool only somewhat slightly alleviates the issue.

Of course I would need both a factory capped and uncapped unit side by side to ascertain that theory, but as I have kept saying over and over, despite people not believing it, this theory of mine is very likely.

As I previously explained in earlier posts of mine, you do not go from a 200mW output to 4.2mW with software alone, the restrictions on the power output are too severe and would likely require physical changes to the board (added resistors or different capacitors), although some of the restrictions such as the removal of high gain are software based.

International Uncapped Unit:
Headphone Out (Stereo mini-jack)
MAXIMUM POWER OUTPUT (JEITA 16Ω/MW)
50 mW + 50 mW (High Gain)
Headphone Out (Balanced standard-jack)
MAXIMUM POWER OUTPUT (JEITA 16Ω/MW)
200 mW + 200 mW (High Gain)

EU Capped Unit:
Headphone Out (Stereo mini-jack)
MAXIMUM POWER OUTPUT (JEITA 16Ω/MW)
1.6-4.2mW
Headphone Out (Balanced standard-jack)
MAXIMUM POWER OUTPUT (JEITA 16Ω/MW)
1.6-4.2mW

 

[MattTCG]

I own both the HD6XX the HD58X and the Japanese version of the NW-ZX300 and I can tell you with no uncertainty that while using them over balanced (I don't use SE at all with those headphones) I can drive both with ease to "uncomfortable levels", I am not looking at a graph/data I am actually using them and speaking from experience.

I usually listen to the HD58X between 35 and 45 at high gain on the volume knob (depending on what I listen to) and between 50 to 70 at high gain on the HD6XX, they get plenty loud at these levels and don't lack any power while being driven properly, in fact a volume of 80 on high gain with the HD58X would literally damage my eardrums.

Are you using the EU version of the ZX300? Even software uncapped I have already shared my thoughts about the fact that the hardware (the main logic board) itself is very likely capped in the EU version (unlike the NW-WM1A/1Z which is only software capped) which is why no international units exist for the ZX300 (The EU service centers do not have the international uncapped board required for a full international warranty support) and that removing the cap with the rockbox tool only somewhat slightly alleviates the issue.

Of course I would need both a factory capped and uncapped unit side by side to ascertain that theory, but as I have kept saying over and over, despite people not believing it, this theory of mine is very likely.

As I previously explained in earlier posts of mine, you do not go from a 200mW output to 4.2mW with software alone, the restrictions on the power output are too severe and would likely require physical changes to the board (added resistors or different capacitors), although some of the restrictions such as the removal of high gain are software based.

International Uncapped Unit:
Headphone Out (Stereo mini-jack)
MAXIMUM POWER OUTPUT (JEITA 16Ω/MW)
50 mW + 50 mW (High Gain)
Headphone Out (Balanced standard-jack)
MAXIMUM POWER OUTPUT (JEITA 16Ω/MW)
200 mW + 200 mW (High Gain)

EU Capped Unit:
Headphone Out (Stereo mini-jack)
MAXIMUM POWER OUTPUT (JEITA 16Ω/MW)
1.6-4.2mW
Headphone Out (Balanced standard-jack)
MAXIMUM POWER OUTPUT (JEITA 16Ω/MW)
1.6-4.2mW

You may be right, I may be crazy

I was actually quite surprised once I got into the rockbox tool to find that the DAP was not volume capped. I truly expected it to be capped based on listening levels that I was getting from my 58x. Of course your theory is essentially speculative. You would need to measure spl levels from both International and EU units to have more objective proof.

 

[kingdixon]

You may be right, I may be crazy

I was actually quite surprised once I got into the rockbox tool to find that the DAP was not volume capped. I truly expected it to be capped based on listening levels that I was getting from my 58x. Of course your theory is essentially speculative. You would need to measure spl levels from both International and EU units to have more objective proof.

This was mentioned on the rockbox tool page ..

Sound pressure regulation (SPS): When ON, the volume is supposed to be capped; when OFF, uncapped. On recent models, this setting does not usually have an effect, you need to select an "uncapped" destination code (see table below).

So if you only checked the sps is off, it might not be in effect, you can also check is your region uncapped or capped from the table.