[NewEve]

Sony ZX507 x IER-M9
Pink Floyd DSD Eargasm
Wish you were here…
​

Review of the pairing will be published after I consider the honeymoon period over in order to avoid the usual pitfalls and will include a comparison with Campfire Audio’s Solaris 2020.

 

[Richard Wray]

Hi all,

Has anyone got Apple Lossless working on the ZX507? I have the Apple Music app but cannot find the settings.

Thanks

Richard

 

[n00b]

I don’t think it’s available for Android yet, but should be coming soon.

Related question: does the ZX507 play back bit perfect hi res or does it do that wonky android downsampling thing

 

[Faizalfx]

I'm using zx507 + m9. Its really a match made in heaven. Btw anyone installed the latest fw? Any sound changes?

 

[AudioAw2015]

I don’t think it’s available for Android yet, but should be coming soon.

Related question: does the ZX507 play back bit perfect hi res or does it do that wonky android downsampling thing

The native music app is bit perfect. The streaming apps are resampled to 48khz I believe. The Hi Res Streaming option upsamples that to 192khz.

 

[mico1964]

I don’t think it’s available for Android yet, but should be coming soon.

Related question: does the ZX507 play back bit perfect hi res or does it do that wonky android downsampling thing

Native music app and UAPP bypass Android audio.

 

[ztf340]

Hi, I have a question about 'bit-perfect' on ZX507.

As the Hi-Res streaming mode is on, the output of all streaming music would be 32bit 192khz. I know this process is called upsampling and cannot be regarded as 'bit-perfect'.

However, if my streaming app provides a Hi-Res version of a song with just 32bit 192khz, same to the output of ZX507 when Hi-Res streaming mode is on. In this circumstance, can I call it 'bit-perfect'?

When I turn off Hi-Res steaming mode, all streaming would be resampling to 16bit 48khz. Similarly, as the function is off, if I am listening to a streaming song with just the same output, can I call it 'bit-perfect'?

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

Just use high res streaming mode if you are using any streaming app. I felt that since firmware 4.0, the up-sampling conversion doesn't seem to degrade the sound quality on the ZX507 so noticably. Even DSEE Ultimate seems to gel well with 24bit 192KHz files, there isn't a need to switch off DSEE Ultimate if you are playing High-resolution content which previously could be over-sharpened by this DSP effect.

End of the day, you are listening to music in analog format. Everything that is recorded digitally and played back had gone through analog to digital conversion and volume manipulation. What matters most is how the music being played sounds to your ears. Infact almost all modern DAC perform internal oversampling either via special DSP/FPGA chips or internally inside the DAC chip itself. Infact the Sony S-Master HX chip inside your walkman actually truncates the digital 32bit 192KHz input into a 1bit signal and oversamples 11.2MHz internally within the chip itself. There's so much digital bit manipulation going inside your walkman or any dap for that matter, so what I am saying is, just listen to the music and compare the final sound output and care less about the bit perfectness.

What matters most I feel is the synergy between your iem/headphones and your dap. That is the most crucial step in ensuring enjoyable music experience.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

I'm using zx507 + m9. Its really a match made in heaven. Btw anyone installed the latest fw? Any sound changes?

Sound Signature wise, I felt that the latest firmware sounded the same as the previous firmware. The subjective improvement I notice is that the spatial sound engine seems to be able to intelligently generate more ambient positional surround with more variety of music content as more and more of my stereo music offline files played on walkman app seems to showcase more different spatial positional sounds, with music instruments taking more varied positions within the spatial headspace. It's a very unique sound experience but you have to definitely need to do the ear shape mapping with your IER-M9 to hear this spatial surround effect with pin point accurate imaging.

 

[ztf340]

Just use high res streaming mode if you are using any streaming app. I felt that since firmware 4.0, the up-sampling conversion doesn't seem to degrade the sound quality on the ZX507 so noticably. Even DSEE Ultimate seems to gel well with 24bit 192KHz files, there isn't a need to switch off DSEE Ultimate if you are playing High-resolution content which previously could be over-sharpened by this DSP effect.

End of the day, you are listening to music in analog format. Everything that is recorded digitally and played back had gone through analog to digital conversion and volume manipulation. What matters most is how the music being played sounds to your ears. Infact almost all modern DAC perform internal oversampling either via special DSP/FPGA chips or internally inside the DAC chip itself. Infact the Sony S-Master HX chip inside your walkman actually truncates the digital 32bit 192KHz input into a 1bit signal and oversamples 11.2MHz internally within the chip itself. There's so much digital bit manipulation going inside your walkman or any dap for that matter, so what I am saying is, just listen to the music and compare the final sound output and care less about the bit perfectness.

What matters most I feel is the synergy between your iem/headphones and your dap. That is the most crucial step in ensuring enjoyable music experience.

Thank you for replying. I totally get what you mean here. In fact, my ears even cannot distinguish the AAC file and the lossless song with 16bit 44.1khz.

Apple Music supports lossless and hi-res lossless on Android today, so that 's why I am a little interested in the data output things. The fact is I am quiet satisfied with my zx505 + ier-m9.

 

[rlw6534]

Thank you for replying. I totally get what you mean here. In fact, my ears even cannot distinguish the AAC file and the lossless song with 16bit 44.1khz.

Apple Music supports lossless and hi-res lossless on Android today, so that 's why I am a little interested in the data output things. The fact is I am quiet satisfied with my zx505 + ier-m9.

This has always been a point of confusion for me. For example, with Amazon Music and hi-res streaming on, Amazon Music reports the device capability as 24/192 which would imply that the Sony DAP is actually processing at 24/192 rather than upsampling. With hi-res streaming off, the Amazon app reports 24/48 as the device capability.
I wish Sony was more clear on his feature.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

Basically there’s only two sampling rates for all general android apps(excluding neutron player and USB Audio Player Pro which can be configured for source file bit perfect and native sampling rate playback)

Hi-Res Streaming Mode OFF: all android app sources are up or down sampled to Fixed 16bit 44.1KHz or 16bit 48KHz

Hi-Res Streaming Mode ON: All android app sources are upsampled to fixed 32bit 176.4KHz or 32bit 192KHz

There is a slight reduction in battery life if you enable high res streaming mode as it’s performing upsampling but it’s only like 10% reduction or so.

The walkman music app is able to play all offline files at native bit and sampling rates(also only the app that can playback DSD Native 11.2MHz). And only the Walkman app is able to use DSEE Ultimate mode, the rest of the apps using the android audio path is only capable of doing DSEE AI which only upsamples using AI but does not do AI Bit depth expansion/Dynamic range control like in the ultimate version.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

Thank you for replying. I totally get what you mean here. In fact, my ears even cannot distinguish the AAC file and the lossless song with 16bit 44.1khz.

Apple Music supports lossless and hi-res lossless on Android today, so that 's why I am a little interested in the data output things. The fact is I am quiet satisfied with my zx505 + ier-m9.

This is what I find works for the best sound quality for ZX500 + IER-M9:
Sony triple comfort hybrid tips
Stock M9 Balanced cable
High Gain
Volume between 60 to 75 (depending on song and listening environment)
High-Res Streaming On
DSEE Ultimate On
DC Phase Linearizer Type A Std
Uploaded latest Ear photo profile to Sony server(must be Apr 2021 or later)
Sony Headphone App with IER-M9 wired model selected
Latest firmware with latest headphone app version

 

[rlw6534]

Basically there’s only two sampling rates for all general android apps(excluding neutron player and USB Audio Player Pro which can be configured for source file bit perfect and native sampling rate playback)

Hi-Res Streaming Mode OFF: all android app sources are up or down sampled to Fixed 16bit 44.1KHz or 16bit 48KHz

Hi-Res Streaming Mode ON: All android app sources are upsampled to fixed 32bit 176.4KHz or 32bit 192KHz

There is a slight reduction in battery life if you enable high res streaming mode as it’s performing upsampling but it’s only like 10% reduction or so.

The walkman music app is able to play all offline files at native bit and sampling rates(also only the app that can playback DSD Native 11.2MHz). And only the Walkman app is able to use DSEE Ultimate mode, the rest of the apps using the android audio path is only capable of doing DSEE AI which only upsamples using AI but does not do AI Bit depth expansion/Dynamic range control like in the ultimate version.

So why is Amazon Music reporting 192 kHz as the audio path? Upsampling makes no sense in this context, i.e. the stream is already 192 kHz.

 

[skycoke]

So why is Amazon Music reporting 192 kHz as the audio path? Upsampling makes no sense in this context, i.e. the stream is already 192 kHz.

Hi the problem is that the stream is at 192khz them android reduce it to 48khz and Sony then needs to upsample to 192khz to stay really hi res, so you can thankx Android for this non sense