DAP discussion thread

Discussion in 'IEMs and Portable Gear' started by zerodeefex, Oct 8, 2015.

  1. brencho

    brencho Friend

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    Zx2 and wm1a, both made by Sony with different output Impedances, each have a different effect on sound of Andromeda. If you mean the oi of balanced vs single ended jacks, that's a different matter but I don't think oi changes across the two jacks within the same dap.
     
  2. donunus

    donunus Friend

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    The wm1a and the zx300 wont care but the older sony’s like the zx2 will. Differently designed amp. The zx2 reacts with the impedance.
     
  3. donunus

    donunus Friend

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    I know this. It was in context of talking about the zx300 in particular which is the same as the wm1a in this regard. These players don’t react with fluctuating loads the way their amp is designed. I guess its sort of like a current mode amp.
     
  4. donunus

    donunus Friend

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    Of course I could be wrong since I haven’t spoken directly with the Sony engineers. All my info about the zx300 is just based on reading from other sites claiming to have spoken to Sony people lol
     
  5. Senorx12562

    Senorx12562 Case of the mondays

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    I believe what is being referenced is not a change of any kind in the operation of the player due to the load impedance presented by the transducers, but rather a change in the frequency response of the transducers because of the differing load impedance across various parts of the frequency range being reproduced and the concommitant variations in damping factor. I am not aware of the output impedance of any amplifier changing based on changes in load impedance of the transducers being driven, it is the ratio between the two that changes. The oi of the device is a constant. Or I need more coffee.
     
  6. Stuff Jones

    Stuff Jones Friend

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    What's the difference between the zx300 and zx300a?
     
  7. Poleepkwa

    Poleepkwa Friend

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    If I remember correctly the ZX300a has less storage and Chinese mainland only. Also available in black.
     
  8. Cellist88

    Cellist88 Friend

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    just 16 gigs onboard memory vs 64. Just get a bigger microsd card since they are cheaper these days. And yes...it comes with english included and no volume cap so it works as is.
     
  9. sepinho

    sepinho Friend

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    Apologies if this has been asked and/or answered before, but what are my options looking for a sub-$300 DAP with Tidal Offline?
     
  10. torifile

    torifile New

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    I’ve read good things about the Hiby R3.
     
  11. Prostheticwhim

    Prostheticwhim New

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    Hiby R3 has Tidal Streaming only, afaik, for offline you need android OS.
     
  12. TheBarnard

    TheBarnard Friend

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    I thought the Fiio X5, just for example had a balanced OI of ~3ohm vs. SE <1ohm
     
  13. brencho

    brencho Friend

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    Interesting man. Would be cool to measure on the wm1a (and zx300) to see if the oi is different on the SE and balanced jacks on each. I do prefer the andro balanced but that might have to do with power.
     
  14. Tsukuyomi

    Tsukuyomi New

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    Would you guys consider the ZX300 better than the FiiO X5 gen III ?
     
  15. gixxerwimp

    gixxerwimp Professional tricycle rider

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    Found a Pentaconn cable attached to XBA-N3 at the Sony store and used it to try the balanced out of the ZX300 with Andros. Firstly, SE with PW No. 5 sounded a bit closed in compared to ZX2. Bass was bloomy/bloated as I find Andros to be with near 0 Zout sources. With the el cheapo stock XBA-N3 balanced cable, ZX300 sounds more open and bass levels are slightly boosted cf. ZX2. So my guess is that the SE Zout is pretty close to zero ॐ and the balanced out is around an ॐ, maybe a touch less. The Chinese site that reported 1.6 ohms must have been referring to the balanced out.

    Store environment was rather noisy so I couldn't really get any better impressions. I had to listen about 4 clicks louder than usual on ZX2 to compensate. Now that I know they have a Pentaconn cable, I might try the black and gold bricks next time for the hell of it.
     
  16. lerrens

    lerrens Facebook Friend

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    Just compared Astell&Kern KANN vs Sony WM1A vs iPhone+Mojo side by side and was disappointed by KANN...

    I really wanted to like KANN but compared to Mojo, the KANN sounds flat and the treble has an artificial weirdness to it. Timbre is a bit off and listening fatigue kicks in pretty early.

    WM1A & Mojo both have a much fuller, natural & coherent sound. Using Sony's XBA-A3 IEMs, the WM1A outperforms Mojo in details and high-end extension.

    Leaning towards Sony DAPs at the moment, yet still gonna wait for a few months before pulling the trigger.
    Sony is definitely coming out with a WM1A successor and maybe we'll also see a mid-tier SP1000 from Astell&Kern this year.

    Anyone else keeping an eye out for unannounced DAP releases?
     
  17. Returnity

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    I'm super excited for the WM1A successor as well.

    My only complaint is the lack of USB DAC function. I was expecting it to be rolled out via firmware updates at the beginning of this year, but each day I get more hopeless.

    Seriously considering to switch to ZX300 if the performance from the balanced output is really identical.
     
  18. Returnity

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    Hiby R3 will be able store offline Tidal files on micro SD.
     
  19. lerrens

    lerrens Facebook Friend

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    I bet that the USB DAC function would be a 'new feature' for the new model.

    ZX300 balanced is nice and performs about as good as WM1A balanced, through Z1R it's lacking the sense of air from WM1A, but might be because it's not powerful enough for full-sized cans. (I've only tried full-sized cans for ZX300 balanced)
    ZX300 SE sounds noticeably worse though... about the same tier as AK70II, which IMO is a rank lower than Mojo.
     
  20. torifile

    torifile New

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    How’s the scrolling speed on the ZX300 relative to the WM1A? I can’t find much info on the processor or OS it runs but from the looks of the UI, they are the same software. I find the scrolling speed on my WM1A to be a bit laggy. I know I’m spoiled from using years of buttery smooth iOS devices so I’m fairly critical in this domain.
     

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