[Whitigir]

Borrowed the Zx1 from a friend, moreover A17 has more storage.
I was around when mp3 just launched and
saw the hype. And now i'm seeing the same hype for high-res as you stated. Just saying!

Well, I am a bit different than you, back then I got hyped away from Vinals.....moved upto Digital and Cds...etc!

Then MP3 came, and it disgusted me, matter of fact I never cared about any dedicated Portable players as much as IPods....Daps...etc! I got my CDs, DVDs, blurays, vinyls rips playing on my Home Stereos, why would I want something portable ?

1/ Quality IEMS only recently been manufactured and commercialized
2/ it is a hell lot of work to rip stuff, and put into a very ugly UI....bad sounding system.

I rather enjoy my Home Stereo. Sirius and Hd radios...MP3 had never been appealing to me....because I care about music quality!

I didn't even flinch at NW-ZX1

Ak240 was Ridiculous, like I said, using third party chips and design their own is no better than anY smartphone manufacturers......not enough innovations and creativities to charge that much....short battery life ? Yuck....

Until NW-ZX2.... People cry about it being overpriced ? It is basically a High quality home system setup....only Portable and is on the go ! You need to convert your files though ! You even have a nice screen with quality displays as a mini TV !! What else do you want ?

 

[Ryou234]

I am a newbie here. I had invested on my Hi-Reso Sony equipment few weeks back. Just some question hoping the experts here can help me with

Current set:
Sony Pha-3
Sony Zx1
Sony XBA-Z5


I am using the poweramp music player instead of the stock music player on my ZX1. For some reason it seems to sound better overall. The EQ i choose is the bass and treble. PS: I am a sucker for deep bass.

Qns:
1) The ZX1 combo with PHA-3, the battery seems to be draining extremely fast, anyone has any tips on how to reduce the battery draining problem?

2) Why is above set/combo not worth it? I have read lots of posts in the forums here saying that there are better alternatives instead.

 

[Whitigir]

I am not an expert in portable stereos, I was craving for it though. I made my choices as follow



Why ? I will answer your questions in my own opinions

1/Pha-3 is an Amazing amp, but it is huge, bulky, for something like this, I would not call it being portable. I rather use my loud stereo at home
2/ ZX2 is a huge improvement on ZX1 as far as Sound Quality, power output 2x as much....etc, and I only use IEMS, no huge CANS, again, anything not considered portable, I rather use my Home Stereos
3/ As much power as ZX2 can push, I don't see why it would need an amp, again, not for IEMS. Some couple hundred ohms CANS may be

For battery draining, don't your PHa3 charge your player ? While your player and Pha3 discharge themselves playing music ? This cycle is horrible for anything running on batteries. Try to find away to disable your PHA3 charge function, and you are good. If the Pha3 has not this function, Pls disregard.

 

[Love Music]

Borrowed the Zx1 from a friend, moreover A17 has more storage.
 

I see. I am thinking of either getting the ZX1 or the A10 because I'm running out of space on my F887. But I don't know if I should get the ZX1 if they both have the same sound quality. I really want to get the ZX2 though seeing so many positive reviews on them but the price...

 

[Whitigir]

From Steve , enjoy the music, he says A17 is best of the bunch....even better than ZX1...now ZX2 really is top of the line !

 

[reginalb]

I am a newbie here. I had invested on my Hi-Reso Sony equipment few weeks back. Just some question hoping the experts here can help me with

Current set:
Sony Pha-3
Sony Zx1
Sony XBA-Z5


I am using the poweramp music player instead of the stock music player on my ZX1. For some reason it seems to sound better overall. The EQ i choose is the bass and treble. PS: I am a sucker for deep bass.

Qns:
1) The ZX1 combo with PHA-3, the battery seems to be draining extremely fast, anyone has any tips on how to reduce the battery draining problem?

2) Why is above set/combo not worth it? I have read lots of posts in the forums here saying that there are better alternatives instead.

 
Your setup is fine, overkill really. I could EQ the ZX1 to sound identical to any player that you'll see mentioned around these parts as being so superior to it. I, too, heard some differences to other players that I compared it to, then I did some careful EQ using an AB switch, went to blind testing with a partner, and what do you know, you can't hear the difference any more. Note that people that claim to hear massive differences are all doing sighted tests. Blind ABX testing invariably turns up that people can't hear the differences that they claim hear. Most differences in what people hear are just their bias showing through. 
 

I am not an expert in portable stereos, I was craving for it though. I made my choices as follow



Why ? I will answer your questions in my own opinions

1/Pha-3 is an Amazing amp, but it is huge, bulky, for something like this, I would not call it being portable. I rather use my loud stereo at home
2/ ZX2 is a huge improvement on ZX1 as far as Sound Quality, power output 2x as much....etc, and I only use IEMS, no huge CANS, again, anything not considered portable, I rather use my Home Stereos
3/ As much power as ZX2 can push, I don't see why it would need an amp, again, not for IEMS. Some couple hundred ohms CANS may be

For battery draining, don't your PHa3 charge your player ? While your player and Pha3 discharge themselves playing music ? This cycle is horrible for anything running on batteries. Try to find away to disable your PHA3 charge function, and you are good. If the Pha3 has not this function, Pls disregard.

 
If you use IEM's, why would you need 2x the output power? That doesn't make any sense. Besides that, according to Sony at least, they have identical output power. 15mW per channel for both. If I had one gripe about the ZX1, it would be about the output power, but the spec on the ZX2 is identical. And it can power those IEM's you've got there with ease. 

 

[Whitigir]

^ you are totally correct, another amp is overkill, and my bad...as what I meant was the software volume limits. I saw a member confirmed the Zx2 has 60 volumes while ZX1 only permit 30 ? Never had Zx1, so I can't say for sure

 

[reginalb]

^ you are totally correct, another amp is overkill, and my bad...as what I meant was the software volume limits. I saw a member confirmed the Zx2 has 60 volumes while ZX1 only permit 30 ? Never had Zx1, so I can't say for sure

 
It's possible that there's a software limit on the ZX1, or that it's specced incorrectly. It does seem to have a little less juice than a clip+ (also 15mW/channel according to spec)

 

[Whitigir]

Thanks for the confirmation . I think these guys can drive the CANS of anywhere 150 ohms and less ?

 

[AUDIOBREEDER]

Sound is definitely different. But it depends on what is your requirement.
ZX1 is a good player if A17 was not introduced now. I think ZX1 got caught in a conflict and should have had that micro SD and released later. A17 managed to become a beast despite it looking like a toy.

I see. I am thinking of either getting the ZX1 or the A10 because I'm running out of space on my F887. But I don't know if I should get the ZX1 if they both have the same sound quality. I really want to get the ZX2 though seeing so many positive reviews on them but the price...

 

[purk]

^ you are totally correct, another amp is overkill, and my bad...as what I meant was the software volume limits. I saw a member confirmed the Zx2 has 60 volumes while ZX1 only permit 30 ? Never had Zx1, so I can't say for sure

From what I understand the volume is relatively the same but the 60 steps allow finer volume attenuation.

 

[Wnuwk Siphon]

From what I understand the volume is relatively the same but the 60 steps allow finer volume attenuation.

More volume steps = good. Usually my ZX1 is either too loud or too soft... Might be different to other (in-)ears.

 

[Love Music]

From Steve , enjoy the music, he says A17 is best of the bunch....even better than ZX1...now ZX2 really is top of the line !

Wow! That's nice to know i thought the ZX1 might have been better since it was there previous flagship model. 

Sound is definitely different. But it depends on what is your requirement.
ZX1 is a good player if A17 was not introduced now. I think ZX1 got caught in a conflict and should have had that micro SD and released later. A17 managed to become a beast despite it looking like a toy.

128gb storage space is enough for me. My main priority is just the sound quality. Seeing some people say the A10 sounds better than the ZX1 surprised me though since the ZX1 has a better amp section.    

 

[purk]

Wow! That's nice to know i thought the ZX1 might have been better since it was there previous flagship model. 
128gb storage space is enough for me. My main priority is just the sound quality. Seeing some people say the A10 sounds better than the ZX1 surprised me though since the ZX1 has a better amp section.    

I own both the zx1 and a17 and to my ears and headphones, the zx1 is the better sounding of the two. The amp section on the a17 lacks the sense of power and dynamic compared to the zx 1.

 

[Love Music]

I own both the zx1 and a17 and to my ears and headphones, the zx1 is the better sounding of the two. The amp section on the a17 lacks the sense of power and dynamic compared to the zx 1.

I see. Would you say that the differences are so little that it's hardly noticeable? Iirc many stated that the ZX1 and the F880 sounded identical. Seeing that the A10 has the same power output as the F880 would you say that the sound is more like that than the ZX1?