[Leetransform25]

You are right, bro.. There are improvements but hardly discernible.. As they say "the law of diminishing returns" applies here.. I don't worry too much.. As long as my ZX300 gets better & better and gets closer to sound quality of NW-WM1A (when I cross-check at Sony store every now & then), I'm very happy..Now to reach 200 hours for 3.5 mm unbalanced port as well - in the pursuit of perfection, if you will..

Damn, that's unfortunate as I was hoping for some serious changes during the burn in process. Perhaps differences aren't very noticeable on SE, and on top of that your ears will slowly adapt to the changes as you listen, so once I get my balanced cable I might just leave it idle for a decent amount of time so I'll notice the improvements more easily once it's done

 

[Leetransform25]

For anyone who's upgraded from the 300, what DAP did you replace it with? From what I'm seeing many replace it with the 1A, which I find a bit odd since the two are already pretty similar to one another. The 1Z seems like a bit more reasonable upgrade but Imo that's kind of a steep price difference compared to the 300.

 

[rutter]

The dap is not finding my Galaxy S7 and when I try nfc I'm told the device is not supported. What gives? Bluetooth and nfc are enabled on both.

 

[mf15]

For anyone who's upgraded from the 300, what DAP did you replace it with? From what I'm seeing many replace it with the 1A, which I find a bit odd since the two are already pretty similar to one another. The 1Z seems like a bit more reasonable upgrade but Imo that's kind of a steep price difference compared to the 300.

I guess that's because the 1Z is an upgrade but also a bit of a side step. The sound signature is supposed to be noticeable different than both the 300 and 1A, and some people seem to not like that. The price difference might be a big factor too. I often buy daps without listening to them (don't have access to them were i am), but i definitely would NOT buy a 1Z without hearing to it for a reasonable time first. I do plan to upgrade to the 1Z (or the equivalent model) at some point in the next 2 years.

 

[Leetransform25]

I guess that's because the 1Z is an upgrade but also a bit of a side step. The sound signature is supposed to be noticeable different than both the 300 and 1A, and some people seem to not like that. The price difference might be a big factor too. I often buy daps without listening to them (don't have access to them were i am), but i definitely would buy a 1Z without hearing to it for a reasonable time first. I do plan to upgrade to the 1Z (or the equivalent model) at some point in the next 2 years.

I have heard that the sound signature of the 1Z does differ from the ZX300 and the 1A, but if I'm not mistaken the general consensus is that it still sounds better, so if I were to upgrade in the future the Z would be a logical choice, but as I mentioned the price tag and weight may turn me off a little. If I were to go with anything else I might choose the SE100 or the SP1000M, but one still isn't portable friendly (SE, large size), while the other is still quite pricey (SP, $2399), not to mention the completely different brand that I'm not familiar with.

 

[Audiophile2019]

For anyone who's upgraded from the 300, what DAP did you replace it with? From what I'm seeing many replace it with the 1A, which I find a bit odd since the two are already pretty similar to one another. The 1Z seems like a bit more reasonable upgrade but Imo that's kind of a steep price difference compared to the 300.

You r right , bro.. No point upgrading to WM1A since sound quality between the two is very close where as price about double .. Nice to have WM1Z but I guess price difference is too steep - about 5 times more than ZX300.. For me personally, that can never be justified..

 

[mf15]

I have heard that the sound signature of the 1Z does differ from the ZX300 and the 1A, but if I'm not mistaken the general consensus is that it still sounds better, so if I were to upgrade in the future the Z would be a logical choice, but as I mentioned the price tag and weight may turn me off a little. If I were to go with anything else I might choose the SE100 or the SP1000M, but one still isn't portable friendly (SE, large size), while the other is still quite pricey (SP, $2399), not to mention the completely different brand that I'm not familiar with.

Made a typo there, should have been i would NOT buy a 1Z without listening to it, haha. But yeah, it's definitely an upgrade but i can understand why some people wouldn't buy a dap if they don't like the sound signature, even if its actually better than another one that they enjoy (what's the point on having something "better" if you don't like it?). I feel you on the size and brand thing too, i've been through several brands of daps and i always end up going back to sony, guess i just like their combination of portability/user interface/sq, even if their products often come with weird choices or compromises most of the time.

 

[Leetransform25]

Made a typo there, should have been i would NOT buy a 1Z without listening to it, haha. But yeah, it's definitely an upgrade but i can understand why some people wouldn't buy a dap if they don't like the sound signature, even if its actually better than another one that they enjoy (what's the point on having something "better" if you don't like it?). I feel you on the size and brand thing too, i've been through several brands of daps and i always end up going back to sony, guess i just like their combination of portability/user interface/sq, even if their products often come with weird choices or compromises most of the time.

If we're lucky, perhaps in the next couple years (hell maybe even this year if we're really lucky), we might recieve an update to the ZX and WM DAPs that'll provide a better upgrade alternative than what we have now.

 

[Erfan Elahi]

I guess that's because the 1Z is an upgrade but also a bit of a side step. The sound signature is supposed to be noticeable different than both the 300 and 1A, and some people seem to not like that. The price difference might be a big factor too. I often buy daps without listening to them (don't have access to them were i am), but i definitely would NOT buy a 1Z without hearing to it for a reasonable time first. I do plan to upgrade to the 1Z (or the equivalent model) at some point in the next 2 years.

exactly! Some people may like some not. For the moment what I can only wonder will the 1Z add some more realistic bass and some personality to be addicted to? Will never know unless tried.

Same here because of my location, no options to demo from a store.

 

[Rockwell75]

I got my balanced cable in this morning. The most notable improvement seems to be in the overall weight of the sound and the resolution. The EQ seems to make a more noticeable difference as well. On thing that surprised me though is that I didn't have to decrease the volume at all-- I could still listen to everything at the same volume I was before. Is this normal?

 

[rutter]

I had to decrease it somewhat, not too much. I think you went with a cheaper cable but if the improvements sound good to you, and from the description they seem to be rather similar to what I heard, then I wouldn't worry about it too much. I didn't have to lower the volume as much as I thought I might have to either.

 

[Rockwell75]

I think you went with a cheaper cable

It was still $100...I couldn't bring myself to drop the $300 on the ALO cable. The cable I got was very well reviewed and it seems to be having the effect I thought it would...but I've never heard of cables having a noticeable effect on volume before. Maybe someone else can comment on that.

 

[Shane D]

It was still $100...I couldn't bring myself to drop the $300 on the ALO cable. The cable I got was very well reviewed and it seems to be having the effect I thought it would...but I've never heard of cables having a noticeable effect on volume before. Maybe someone else can comment on that.

It is not the cable as much as the output port. The balanced out has more goodies in the line. You can see the differences on the Sony site or early in this thread I believe.

What cable did you buy? I bought a KK and the balanced difference seemed huge. Then I got a Sukira cable and it was even better. Both sounded louder and fuller.

Shane D

 

[Rockwell75]

It is not the cable as much as the output port. The balanced out has more goodies in the line. You can see the differences on the Sony site or early in this thread I believe.

What cable did you buy? I bought a KK and the balanced difference seemed huge. Then I got a Sukira cable and it was even better. Both sounded louder and fuller.

Shane D

I got this cable: https://www.amazon.com/Replacement-...ords=4.4+mmcx&qid=1554325376&s=gateway&sr=8-1

It definitely sounds better, fuller, more resolving. Maybe I misunderstood but I had thought I was going to have to halve the level of volume on the ZX300 once switching to balanced. It might be a touch louder, but not by much.

 

[lior777]

anyone compare zx300 vs lg v30 SQ ?