[nanaholic]

Nice piece of information!
But I do think it will take a while before all audiophile devices will be balanced only. Most manufacturers will- I believe- avoid complaining customers who still have some beloved SE-headphones lying around and will therefore still cater a long time to these SE-headphones. Yes, they could re-terminate them or buy balanced cables if it's possible, but that's something only Apple gets away with.
3,5mm has such a strong recognition and widespreaded usage, it'll take a while to phase out. IF it gets phased out, because history shows that the better technology doesn't always win out.

Most modern headphones now comes with removable cables, even really cheap entry level sub 100 dollar earbuds. So I think it's going to be a safe bet that soon enough we will see DAPs not come with any SE connections. The demise of the 3.5mm jack on smartphone is going to hasten that process even further as lay people all move to either wireless buds or lightening/USB-C headphones, leaving only the enthusiasts being interested in an analog wire, and if you are an enthusiasts, you'll be wanting to go balance for "best quality" either way and/or your headphone gear would've been capable of changing cables for a balance connection, so the stage for getting rid of 3.5mm SE on DAPs is pretty much set. Desktop devices has plenty of spaces to accommodate all jacks, so I think the 6.3mm jack will continue to live on there. The more important matter is what balance connection jack will dominate on desktop devices, and here let's hope it is the 4.4mm jack.

1A limited edition?
Never heard of that.
What is special about it? If I may ask.

It's completely black, while the normal 1A has red accents. Each pair has a unique serial number, but most important of all the earpads are different to the normal 1A - it's a little bit firmer/thicker and the pleather has little ridges in them to make them breathe better for more comfortable extended wearing, and because of the different earpads causes the LE to have a slightly different sonic characteristic to the normal one. To me the LE sounds a bit more balanced than the normal one, which I think is due to the firmer earpads providing better support which moves the drivers away from the eardrums hence altering the FR.

 

[khestoi]

how do you get album art on wav to show in the zx300?

 

[PCheung]

how do you get album art on wav to show in the zx300?

Album art not supported on wav

 

[jonathane40]

Does anyone know if the main difference between the high gain and regular through the balanced output is just volume? I recently got the Sony xba-n3 with a balanced cable and have tried it with both low gain and high gain and only notice a difference in volume. Is there any advantage in driving somewhat efficient iem/headphones with the high gain?

 

[haveblue]

Does anyone know if the main difference between the high gain and regular through the balanced output is just volume? I recently got the Sony xba-n3 with a balanced cable and have tried it with both low gain and high gain and only notice a difference in volume. Is there any advantage in driving somewhat efficient iem/headphones with the high gain?

No. It just makes it louder if it's not loud enough.

Also the zx300a is back in stock on joybuy for $386 ($366 after coupon).

 

[dragolds]

let me add that I don't think the n5ii is going to equal the Sony. To me the Sony sounds like a flagship dac with immense detail, and prat and realistic attack and decay on all frequencies. To get better than the zx300 I think you would have to spend at least 3 grand. Now I haven't heard the 1A but I believe the zx300 is very close to that. Its much better than my former best dap I've listens to the opus #1 especially on balanced.

I am thinking about getting this baby but I am worried in same time that I will be disappointed . I tried some of the cheaper Sony Walkman and The hiss was terrible and so was the volume output ...just too low . Will this thing be able to drive properly at least some headphones like for example audio- technica ATH-M40 X ? I am wondering between the sony and Fiio x7 mark 2.

 

[abitdeef]

I am thinking about getting this baby but I am worried in same time that I will be disappointed . I tried some of the cheaper Sony Walkman and The hiss was terrible and so was the volume output ...just too low . Will this thing be able to drive properly at least some headphones like for example audio- technica ATH-M40 X ? I am wondering between the sony and Fiio x7 mark 2.

No hiss on zx300 and it will be able to drive those AT with no problem. Hear fiio mark 2 are excellent, but zx300 on balanced is very high end.

 

[abitdeef]

No hiss on zx300 and it will be able to drive those AT with no problem.

I'm driving 60 ohm cans on the SE output no problem Sorry about double post.

 

[AudioBear]

No. It just makes it louder if it's not loud enough.

Also the zx300a is back in stock on joybuy for $386 ($366 after coupon).

Wow, it's $650 in the US! If I thought it would work in English I'd be tempted at that price. I wonder why there are such big country to country differences.

 

[dragolds]

No hiss on zx300 and it will be able to drive those AT with no problem. Hear fiio mark 2 are excellent, but zx300 on balanced is very high end.

Hey Thanks . Will decide next few days . I will ask you another question though . I read somewhere here that the player won't support artwork on wave . So if I place photo of the album artwork in same folder of the album it won't be visible on playing ?

 

[jonathane40]

Wow, it's $650 in the US! If I thought it would work in English I'd be tempted at that price. I wonder why there are such big country to country differences.

True, but that one comes with 16GB of onboard memory instead of 64GB like the US version. The one thing I miss the most of the nw-zx100 is the 128GB of onboard memory!

 

[AudioBear]

True, but that one comes with 16GB of onboard memory instead of 64GB like the US version. The one thing I miss the most of the nw-zx100 is the 128GB of onboard memory!

For $300 I can buy a lot of mSD memory!

 

[haveblue]

Wow, it's $650 in the US! If I thought it would work in English I'd be tempted at that price. I wonder why there are such big country to country differences.

I can't find anything in this thread or on Sony's international sites saying that the ZX300A does or does not have an English language option. But the "select language option" section of Sony's online manual for the ZX300/ZX300A makes no differentiation between the two so I assume it'll have the English option. I'll find out in a few weeks when mine gets here I guess.

Otherwise I think the hardware is the same except lower memory and the plaque on the bottom rear is in Chinese instead of English. No big deal and IMO worth the 40% price discount over accessoryjack, since they'll both take around the same time to ship to the US.

 

[AudioBear]

I can't find anything in this thread or on Sony's international sites saying that the ZX300A does or does not have an English language option. But the "select language option" section of Sony's online manual for the ZX300/ZX300A makes no differentiation between the two so I assume it'll have the English option. I'll find out in a few weeks when mine gets here I guess.

Otherwise I think the hardware is the same except lower memory and the plaque on the bottom rear is in Chinese instead of English. No big deal and worth the 40% price discount.

Please post when you receive it! Or PM me. As @jonathane40 said, it would be nice to have the 64Gb of memory but at this price I too would give it up.

 

[kms108]

Lets just keep this simple, the ZX300A is a Chinese only model, ans is sold in China only, apart from 16GB internal storage, it's the same as the normal ZX300 model.