[PapaThrust]

Quick question : If i use a easy to driven iem (like the DM6 which i'm using), is there will be any differences between SE and 4.4 Bal given the same volume level? Because many claims are telling that the 4.4 will sound significantly better and i don't want to reconfigure all my stuff to 4.4 terminated

P/S : Is there anyone using DM6 with ZX300 here

I was using the DM6, DMG, Andro, Andro S, Solaris, Fiio FH5 along with some others comparing sound signatures - balanced, unbalanced with Sony ZX 300.
Out of a group of 5, three of us musicians more than 30 years each, none could reliably distinguish a difference between balanced and unbalanced besides the obvious more power factor. Not for the lack of trying.
On paper the balanced generally has some subtly better specs, truly these are outside of the mere humans hearing range. Kinda been proven quite a while back
I believe if you are pre convinced that balanced is ..eh... better- than that is how you will hear it. Thats cool. Technically, it is a purer signal right?
We were comparing many Daps as well, and with an AB switcher simply LEVEL THE VOLUME and really dig in. So after reading many "OMG the the night and day difference" reviews we all had a good laugh and readily call BS on all those claims. I'm not saying there are zero differences, I am saying they are tiny.
Of course I know many will disagree...try to prove it is all I will say, prove it to yourself.
Remove the placebos and marketing hype, disregard many reviewers getting a ton of free crap (a lot of those cats have a pattern.... check that out). Then do some serious A/B ing with an open mind, you'll likely be surprised.
At the end of it all, I still have Sony 300, Hidiz AP80, and Andro S - several balanced cables sit in a fancy bag in the drawer.
I do regret buying balanced cables. The differences are in the drivers.
Find something that lets you enjoy the music and ENJOY THE MUSIC!
Peace

 

[duyanh43]

I had the DM6 for a bit along with Solaris, Andro, Andro SFiio FH5 and some others

What's your opinion on DM6, is it better than the FH5 or not? Also how do they compare with Andro, i seen many users claim they are much alike. I'm looking to upgrade my DM6. Thanks in advance

 

[ailean]

So now all my non-balance terminated phone will be useless... idk why they must design the DAP like that

Cost cutting mostly, that, the storage and screen are the main differences I can see between the ZX300 and the Sony big boy DAPs for now. The 1A and 1Z are getting old though so I'd expect a new premium DAP at some point to push the feature gap higher. Don't Sony have a Walkman anniversary coming up or something?

 

[GreenBow]

That said, single ended headphones don't sound particularly worse depending on your source, it's just that on the NW-ZX300 (and really all other Sony DAP) the SE lacks the power to drive most headphones efficiently (even if it's still better than your average cellphone's headphone jack), making it (and even the likes of the NW-WM1Z) somewhat of lack lusters in this department, that makes a good (in fact very good) listening experience, something that's conditioned to using the Balanced outpout on those particular DAPs (unless you are using IEMs which aren't very demanding in power), that's why I would never recommend something like the NW-A45 for anything other than IEMs or bluetooth. There are however good sounding DAPs that provide enough power on their Single Ended output to drive most headphones, the tradeoff usually being lower battery life and sometimes (but not always) higher distortion.

If that's right, then there is no point me buying a balanced cable. I have sufficient volume for my single ended cabled AKG N40, that I was going buy a balanced cable for. People have said though, that balanced makes the ZX300 more lively and dynamic. I think that was roughly the difference anyway; since it was a long time ago that I read it.

However I thought the point of running balanced cables was to remove noise from the audio signal. I thought it was about noise created in the DAC chip substrate. Once noise is cancelled out, it's not there to destructively interfere with the music signal. Any noise that can do that, will degrade the music signals.

 

[PapaThrust]

What's your opinion on DM6, is it better than the FH5 or not? Also how do they compare with Andro, i seen many users claim they are much alike. I'm looking to upgrade my DM6. Thanks in advance

pm'd

 

[Mathieulh]

If that's right, then there is no point me buying a balanced cable. I have sufficient volume for my single ended cabled AKG N40, that I was going buy a balanced cable for. People have said though, that balanced makes the ZX300 more lively and dynamic. I think that was roughly the difference anyway; since it was a long time ago that I read it.

However I thought the point of running balanced cables was to remove noise from the audio signal. I thought it was about noise created in the DAC chip substrate. Once noise is cancelled out, it's not there to destructively interfere with the music signal. Any noise that can do that, will degrade the music signals.

Power isn't volume alone, in fact your need power to drive high impedance headphones regardless of sensitivity, hearing something loud doesn't mean it's driven by a powerful enough amplifier.

A balanced output will remove crosstalk that you would get on a Single Ended output induced by the shared grounds between channels, it will also roughly double the power output per channel supplied by your amplifier at the cost of increased (but unnoticeable by human ears on something like a DAP) distortion, this increase is really the main appeal of a balanced outpout in a DAP as this essentially allows twice the power output using the same footprint. (So you don't need to carry a (more) power hungry bulkier amp to achieve higher levels of performance.

 

[Mathieulh]

Generally the signal path design on the ZX300 is a lot better on the 4.4 output vs the 3.5, so yes most people notice improvements to the sound beyond just the added power level. It's the 4.4 that compares closer to the high end Sony DAPs, whereas the 3.5 on the high end ones tends to be rated a lot better when compared to the ZX300.

I've not heard the DM6 but all my listening tends to be on easy to drive IEMs and going from the 3.5->4.4 (especially after burn in) sounds like a DAP upgrade.

You are wrong, the 3.5mm is a lackluster even on the NW-WM1Z. If you go for a Sony DAP, you've got to go for/invest in balanced cables.

The power output alone on single ended (60mW@16ohms) is a very good tell, that is very weak, not NW-ZX2 or NW-A35 weak, but weak enough that you can't drive any remotely demanding headphones on it.
To be honest the extra 10mW you get from the WM1 series aren't going to make a whole world of difference. Remember, that's not a typo, those are mW into 16 (yes, sixteen) ohms, as a reference, if you look at the hiby R6 Pro's SE output, that's 245mW@32Ohms, this is roughly twice the power you get on the WM1 series balanced output and over 8 times the power or the WM1 series SE.
While the balanced power output is somewhat decent on the WM1 and ZX300 series it's still somewhat on the weak side compared to its competition, for example, yet again looking at the R6 Pro, it sports a 750mW@32Ohms power output, I will let you do the maths as to how that compares to the 250mW@16ohms of the NW-WM1Z. That said I don't think anything needs that much power, but it's nice that it's there and you have the option to drive insanely high power hungry headphones, should those ever appear (I don't see anything requiring that much power other than electrostatics and those use their own amps/energizers), although then again we see plenty of desktop amps with over 1W of output, I guess some people just like buying gear with high numbers.

 

[ailean]

You are wrong, the 3.5mm is a lackluster even on the NW-WM1Z. If you go for a Sony DAP, you've got to go for/invest in balanced cables.

The power output alone on single ended (60mW@16ohms) is a very good tell, that is very weak, not NW-ZX2 or NW-A35 weak, but weak enough that you can't drive any remotely demanding headphones on it.
To be honest the extra 10mW you get from the WM1 series aren't going to make a whole world of difference. Remember, that's not a typo, those are mW into 16 (yes, sixteen) ohms, as a reference, if you look at the hiby R6 Pro's SE output, that's 245mW@32Ohms, this is roughly twice the power you get on the WM1 series balanced output and over 8 times the power or the WM1 series SE.
While the balanced power output is somewhat decent on the WM1 and ZX300 series it's still somewhat on the weak side compared to its competition, for example, yet again looking at the R6 Pro, it sports a 750mW@32Ohms power output, I will let you do the maths as to how that compares to the 250mW@16ohms of the NW-WM1Z. That said I don't think anything needs that much power, but it's nice that it's there and you have the option to drive insanely high power hungry headphones, should those ever appear (I don't see anything requiring that much power other than electrostatics and those use their own amps/energizers), although then again we see plenty of desktop amps with over 1W of output, I guess some people just like buying gear with high numbers.

I guess it's all relative, I only use easy to drive IEMs or portable headphones. The day I feel the need to strap a couple of floor stander speakers to the side of my head to enjoy that 3 secs of battery life hopefully will be after I'm buried.
Power is only a small part of the equation and beyond a reasonable level doesn't make much sense unless you insist on using headphones designed for a mains powered amp on a portable rig and are happy with 8 hours vs 20 hours of playtime.
And yes the Sony DAPs aren't really designed as desktop systems but they are about the only ones actually designing and using components specifically for portable use in a high end DAP, almost everyone else tries to squeeze desktop bits in and I just got bored of the huge power drain that causes (I have enough kit I need to try to keep charged as it is ).
In theory balanced is better then single ended, but in reality it's all about how you implement the balanced vs single ended and how well matched the headphones are to the amp design. You can certainly make a single ended output sound lots better then a balanced one by design (lots of poor balanced designs out there) and there are plenty of decent headphones out there that are not balanced capable that would pair very well with such a device.

 

[Remiam7]

I notice a dramatic improvement in sound quality with my Pono Player in balanced mode compared to SE. On my ZX300 have not gotten that far as I just received it.

 

[Malevolint]

I've been struggling with balanced vs single ended. It's hard to do a proper test.. and by the time you switch to single ended and plug in an adapter or whatever, is your memory even going to be reliable enough to remember the subtle differences?

I broke a connector on my balanced cable and am using my Anole vx from the unbalanced end and it doesn't feel like I'm missing anything at all.

I like the balanced end because it has a sturdier connection and I have right angled connectors on my cables so it's easier to keep them in my pocket without breaking something... But I can't say I've really heard a sound quality difference.. Especially with iems. Full headphones do sound better because they require more power.. But you can't even properly drive full headphones from the zx300, so this debate is kinda stupid

 

[U2Joshua]

This just in: I called Sony Technical Support: https://www.servicesplus.sel.sony.com/sony-service-contacts.aspx

In short, the original tech support rep didn't have a founded opinion so she put me on hold for 5 minutes while she contacted a senior support specialist. After she came back she told me that I could in fact use the 4.4mm Balanced output with a 4.4mm to 3.5mm cable connection to the Sony WH-1000XM3s (non-balanced) headphones. She said it would not cause any damage to the DAP, and it would not void my warranty if I should encounter any problems.

She concluded by saying that Sony doesn't guarantee that I'll get a better sound out of the 4.4mm output, as it will be up to the subjective interpretation of the listener to make that determination.

I was rather humored by the inclusion of that last comment.

FWIW: in addition to Sony’s response, I also inquired with Crutchfield, whom I purchased my NW-ZX300 from. After 3 days I received the following response,

“Sorry for the delayed response. I got a response from one of most experienced tech agents and he said that using the adapter will neither improve your sound nor damage any of your components. If anything, it may just lower the audio level a tiny bit (it’s basically a floating ground adapter). I hope this is helpful. Let me know if you have any other questions.”

 

[Mindstorms]

Guys have you noticed any sound signature change on your device when you change firmware? i come from wm1a forum, also can you adapt zx300 firm to zx100 device i think not?? shame on sony for leaving zx100 unupdated.. at least they should include the eq... i dont care about vinil procesor thanks in advance

 

[Mathieulh]

Yes I saw this beast, but was disappointed with the 5pin xlr. was really expecting a 4.4 balanced TBH....

A&K will never supply a 4.4 balanced connection because they are trying to promote their crappy, unreliable, outdated 2.5mm standard.
To be honest most A&K hardware, including, but not limited to, DAPs which I have had the opportunity to look into, have been, in my opinion, compared to the competition, overpriced pieces of trash.

There are much better options at a similar or lower price point than most of their offerings, including this new DAP.

 

[Mathieulh]

Cost cutting mostly, that, the storage and screen are the main differences I can see between the ZX300 and the Sony big boy DAPs for now. The 1A and 1Z are getting old though so I'd expect a new premium DAP at some point to push the feature gap higher. Don't Sony have a Walkman anniversary coming up or something?

They are getting old for sure, but they are still relevant to this day.

 

[FrankieZappa]

The MDR-100aap does not support a balanced outpout, in fact, to my knowledge, it uses the extra connection in the TRRS for the remote on the cable, not for a dedicated balanced connection.

Actually it does.