[davidmolliere]

Some folks are already saying that DX220 is better than WM1A. I'm not giving much for Sony's chances here. Will the extra battery life be there saviour?

I am always very weary of people saying X is better than Y : on which criteria? Is SQ unidimensional all of a sudden? Plus it doesn’t take into account personal preferences in terms of tuning...

Now I have had both WM1A and DX220 (and WM1Z btw). Those are different DAPs with different strength... DX220 is modular has several AMPs with different flavors and open system with the android option on top of Mango. WM1A is build like a tank, has insane battery life. Both have top of the line components such as POSCAP (at least some AMPs do). DX220 can provide more output power, so there is the question of what is your IEM / Headphones collection and does it need power? WM1A has the Sony house sound and this something special that nobody can really match.

Both are great DAPs IMHO. Some people might prefer WM1A over WM1Z : not a question of price, ability or anything but a matter of tuning.
I have also owned ZX300 and it’s another flavor yet which I like very much, somewhere in between the 1A and 1Z in terms of tuning.
I am betting ZX500 won’t be too far from ZX300 and it’s not a bad thing IMHO.

 

[imparanoic]

I am always very weary of people saying X is better than Y : on which criteria? Is SQ unidimensional all of a sudden? Plus it doesn’t take into account personal preferences in terms of tuning...

Now I have had both WM1A and DX220 (and WM1Z btw). Those are different DAPs with different strength... DX220 is modular has several AMPs with different flavors and open system with the android option on top of Mango. WM1A is build like a tank, has insane battery life. Both have top of the line components such as POSCAP (at least some AMPs do). DX220 can provide more output power, so there is the question of what is your IEM / Headphones collection and does it need power? WM1A has the Sony house sound and this something special that nobody can really match.

Both are great DAPs IMHO. Some people might prefer WM1A over WM1Z : not a question of price, ability or anything but a matter of tuning.
I have also owned ZX300 and it’s another flavor yet which I like very much, somewhere in between the 1A and 1Z in terms of tuning.
I am betting ZX500 won’t be too far from ZX300 and it’s not a bad thing IMHO.

My friend had DX200, the UI was flaky and I initally didn't like it, but after reloading third party UI, seems to be decent, is the DX220 native UI better? on the other hand, Sony Linux UI is rarely bad, yes, some models such as NW-A40 had slow and unresponsive, but after firware update seem to be decent.

at the end of the day, all DAPs have advantages and disadvantages, whether it supports bluetooth 5.0, ldac, atpx hd, amp modules, good battery life, streaming apps, ext dac option, depends what really suits your need and requirements

 

[Soundizer]

Sorry, but when is it available?

 

[davidmolliere]

Sorry, but when is it available?

Mid October if I remember correctly this was posted earlier in the thread

 

[Soundizer]

Why buy it over the FiiO M11?
Does it run Tidal App in full resolution?

 

[Colors]

Does it bypass Android SRC?

 

[davidcotton]

Why buy it over the FiiO M11?
Does it run Tidal App in full resolution?

If nothing else the sony players will have access to the playstore and not have to sideload apks onto it.

 

[Whitigir]

Does it bypass Android SRC?

Android SRC is bypass-able since Android 8 or 7, I forgot ....but I think it is the thing in the pass now

 

[PointyFox]

It has USB-C, so it's already better.

 

[superuser1]

Android SRC is bypass-able since Android 8 or 7, I forgot ....but I think it is the thing in the pass now

I'm afraid Android SRC is still a thing! Apps can use drivers which give direct access to the audio layer allowing those particular apps to bypass SRC. Companies like hiby ibasso etc have implemented a system wide driver that allows this bypassing for other 3rd party apps even without those apps having specific drivers to access the audio HAL.

 

[BurritoJustice]

Does it bypass Android SRC?

No, the stock Sony player bypasses SRC but all other apps and streaming services, even high-res ones, are down/resampled to 48kHz/16bit.

See my earlier post in the thread where I quote the source.

 

[CoryGillmore]

No, the stock Sony player bypasses SRC but all other apps and streaming services, even high-res ones, are down/resampled to 48kHz/16bit.

See my earlier post in the thread where I quote the source.

Another reason why Android is trash in the DAP world. Coupled with terrible battery life I don't see why anyone would actually want Android on their DAP.

 

[BurritoJustice]

Another reason why Android is trash in the DAP world. Coupled with terrible battery life I don't see why anyone would actually want Android on their DAP.

I mean, it's more a failing of Sony than Android. Many other manufacturers have universal SRC bypass, it's the standard of modern android DAPs.

Traditional DAPs will always have their place, but the market as a whole is moving towards open android ecosystems. I'd go as far to say that it will become the majority, as this is already becoming the case with the immense popularity of the M11/DX220 et al. Sony have obviously conducted market research to make such the jump.

Calling them all trash is a bit toxic for the community in my opinion, as a lot of people want this and it shouldn't feel like they are "lesser" audiophiles.

 

[518013]

Another reason why Android is trash in the DAP world. Coupled with terrible battery life I don't see why anyone would actually want Android on their DAP.

Makes my decision very easy...Sticking with the WM1A.
Hopefully Sony does not go the Android route for the next WM series. If they would just focus on Sound Quality and leave the streaming etc behind, it will be a Day 1 Purchase for me.

 

[abitdeef]

I mean, it's more a failing of Sony than Android. Many other manufacturers have universal SRC bypass, it's the standard of modern android DAPs.

Traditional DAPs will always have their place, but the market as a whole is moving towards open android ecosystems. I'd go as far to say that it will become the majority, as this is already becoming the case with the immense popularity of the M11/DX220 et al. Sony have obviously conducted market research to make such the jump.

Calling them all trash is a bit toxic for the community in my opinion, as a lot of people want this and it shouldn't feel like they are "lesser" audiophiles.

Android daps sound fantastic, and you can stream if you want and use different music player apps for a bit of variety And of course you get more customization options.

The reason Sony daps have better battery life isn't because of not using android it's because of class d amping and not pushing as much juice as their competitors. I wouldn't be surprised if Sony's next flagship is android based.

I personally don't care if a dap is android based or not, as long as it sounds good and functions good. I'm using R5 right now and it's fantastic, and I used m11 before that and it was also fantastic.

2 cents