[NaiveSound]

How is this player compared to wm1a in sound quality alone?

 

[TenderTendon]

But it is mysterious to them - everything you said above was already mentioned in the e-earphone video interview regarding the chassis ground design/PCB board ground contact with chassis and anodizing etc, but again it's the only variable the Sony engineers can think of between the silver and black version, hence Sato-san came to the conclusion that perhaps the thickness difference of the alumite between the silver and black version is the cause - as he said so in the video. Notice he never stated this as a statement of fact, but with the lack of other variable factors to account for this is the one difference he came to point out. In previous development interviews for the WM1 series they also highlighted how they found that even with the same material of different purity can cause an audible difference (their claim - not mine, and again I'll point out this is just similar to the school of thought regarding things such as OFC in cables), if they have that kind of thinking then it's pretty natural for them to come to the conclusion that the more anodized black version with paint and stuff which has undergone more chemical processing is cause of the difference.

Personally speaking I think a placebo effect with the colour is as much of a plausible explanation to account for the difference - until they can put together an ABX test to show otherwise.

Just more BS..... Still no sign of logic anywhere.

 

[nanaholic]

Just more BS..... Still no sign of logic anywhere.

Putting aside actual audible difference, there's still several layers of hypothesis going on here and you'll have to break it down one by one:
1) first, the idea of a tying PCB ground to chassis ground is a supported electronic design practice - so no dispute here
2) now supposedly the material used for this chassis ground is going to have an effect - this at least checks out in the equations because the chassis ground/reference voltage point ideally should be zero with infinite conductivity, yet no material is like this so some level of difference will occur in the real world
3) now the purity of the material as a whole - hmm maybe? As an extension of 2 it's at least an interesting suggestion < - where they are at

The logic is actually there - is it BS? I dunno, I think there's at least enough grounds for a proper test to demonstrate it.

 

[Raketen]

Putting aside actual audible difference, there's still several layers of hypothesis going on here and you'll have to break it down one by one:
1) first, the idea of a tying PCB ground to chassis ground is a supported electronic design practice - so no dispute here
2) now supposedly the material used for this chassis ground is going to have an effect - this at least checks out in the equations because the chassis ground/reference voltage point ideally should be zero with infinite conductivity, yet no material is like this so some level of difference will occur in the real world
3) now the purity of the material as a whole - hmm maybe? As an extension of 2 it's at least an interesting suggestion < - where they are at

The logic is actually there - is it BS? I dunno, I think there's at least enough grounds for a proper test to demonstrate it.

Then what on Earth is the copper grounding plate they bring up in all their marketing for?- this is either functioning as a ground for the PCB or as a seperate signal ground for the audio circuitry, in either case the chassis would carry no analog signal current. The only electrical function I can imagine the chassis serves is noise/EMI protection.

 

[TenderTendon]

Putting aside actual audible difference, there's still several layers of hypothesis going on here and you'll have to break it down one by one:
1) first, the idea of a tying PCB ground to chassis ground is a supported electronic design practice - so no dispute here
2) now supposedly the material used for this chassis ground is going to have an effect - this at least checks out in the equations because the chassis ground/reference voltage point ideally should be zero with infinite conductivity, yet no material is like this so some level of difference will occur in the real world
3) now the purity of the material as a whole - hmm maybe? As an extension of 2 it's at least an interesting suggestion < - where they are at

The logic is actually there - is it BS? I dunno, I think there's at least enough grounds for a proper test to demonstrate it.

No, there is no logic there. "Putting aside the actual audible difference" What actual audible difference? I wasn't aware there was one, other than the heresay that you post and passionately defend, without having any personal experience with or explanation for. We all know that there will never be a proper test done to demonstrate it. No need to. OK, let's see. Some of the smartest electronic engineers in the world claim to hear an audible difference between identical metals of different colors and can't explain it and make no effort to explain it. Yeah, makes perfect sense to me.

Answer this question: Did Sony make the statement "the thicker oxide film of the black version causes the chassis ground to have a slightly higher resistance than the silver version", or is this your conclusion? I can't imagine Sony making this statement, fully knowing that there is no anodizing on the contacts and there would be no ground resistance difference between the 2 colors.

 

[TenderTendon]

Then what on Earth is the copper grounding plate they bring up in all their marketing for?- this is either functioning as a ground for the PCB or as a seperate signal ground for the audio circuitry, in either case the chassis would carry no analog signal current. The only electrical function I can imagine the chassis serves is EMI protection.

How dare you bring logic into this conversation. We are discussing unexplained phenomenas, and ways to avoid explaining them.

 

[superuser1]

You mean Stranger Things S02?
Or is this more on the lines of x-files and Fringe?

Will any one give the tempered glass a shot?
HERE

 

[Raketen]

At least it seems to be only coming from an informal-ish discussion with designers and not straight marketing. Could actually be interesting if they did some formal experiments with material variations and shared the results.

 

[rushofblood]

With all this talk about the chassis, there is some mention of it on Sony's Japanese website (Google translated so the phrasing is a bit awkward, but I think the idea comes across):

 

[TenderTendon]

With all this talk about the chassis, there is some mention of it on Sony's Japanese website (Google translated so the phrasing is a bit awkward, but I think the idea comes across):

Thanks for that. Interesting bit of marketing, but unfortunately that does not address what we are discussing and is actually contradictory of what was initially stated. That article boasts the fact the ground is "positively brought into contact with the aluminum case", which is proper design. What nanoholic stated is that the ground is NOT brought into contact with the black case as well as the silver case due to the different anodic layer thickness, even though there is no anodic layer on the ground contact areas of both cases.

 

[benchan2]

I really like how when it comes to sound/head-fi, every little thing becomes a variable. Like when we talk about gaming setup, we don't discuss about stuffs like how sli hard bridge performs better than soft one, and we do not talk about having a case with better grounding would give you some extra FPS.

 

[Native-DSD]

Well DSD via SE not that bad considering not Native. Chord Mojo & Hugo2 much better, but hopefully will do once the Sony balanced 4.4mm cable arrives for my SE846's.

Everything else sounds fabulous, even in DAC mode with Tidal HiFi especially good via UAPP app.

Tidal on PC with ZX300 doesn't seem to pass MQA and I also downloaded a demo MQA file to the ZX300 itself and doesn't seem to see the track. Is MQA enabled yet?

My setup now with Z5 compact linked together. Really neat and not to heavy.

SE846's are great but am looking for Headphones (non-in-ear)... also want to avoid cables and adaptors (looking for one-stop solution). Maybe I’m asking for too much, but the 4.4 mm “standard” has been around since 2014?

 

[cthomas]

SE846's are great but am looking for Headphones (non-in-ear)... also want to avoid cables and adaptors (looking for one-stop solution). Maybe I’m asking for too much, but the 4.4 mm “standard” has been around since 2014?

Sennheiser HD660 S... obviously

 

[cthomas]

So people are saying the black ZX300 is inferior sounding compared to silver? Why would Sony even allow for a black version at all if this were true lol

 

[Raketen]

I really like how when it comes to sound/head-fi, every little thing becomes a variable. Like when we talk about gaming setup, we don't discuss about stuffs like how sli hard bridge performs better than soft one, and we do not talk about having a case with better grounding would give you some extra FPS.

The idea of trying to perfect every small or ancillary detail is very appealing- that's one of the reasons I have been attached to my favorite Sony gadgets, but it's also a total marketing ploy endemic to "enthusiast" industries- particularly in audio they try to invest every little thing no matter how commonplace with esoteric properties (why every MFR has a different trademark for the same design principle etc...), and make or imply claims that are often explained with hand-wavey motions towards vaguely plausibly related principles rather than provided with actual evidence or a specific theoretical explanation. IMO the more definitive we can get with audio versions of GPU benchmarks and how they relate to human hearing, the better.