DAP discussion thread

I tend to shy away from treble problems. It was a pretty smooth sound signature, if anything maybe missing some aiir up top.

 

The only thing I don't like is that everything is dependent on the rotary knob working.

 

That's good to know. The initial experience was OK, but surely not great. If they did their homework over the years, that's cool.

 

any updates here regarding the zx300 and ak70mkII comparison?

 

Just want to correct this, only Shanling with high OI( around 5 ohm) is original M2 and M2s. Rest of our players has OI quite under 1 ohm. In China customers(and seems also some engineers in companies), doesn't consider high OI as problem, that's why it's repeated by so many devices from different manufacturers over and over again. In this case M2s was kind of step in wrong direction and I will make sure it will not repeat, all our future players will have low OI.

If it makes you nervous, I can tell you changing it is quite easy and you can get replacement parts directly from us.

 

Do you guys have any opinions on DAP mods? It seems to me some are (were) quite serious work (Vinnie at RWA) while others seem questionable (PW Audio mod of WM1A /Z) on a price / quality ratio, and finally some are super expensive and risky (Ryuzoh).

 

From my experience, once mod starts changing actual parts of audio circuit, it can have some interesting results. At Shanling, we have one external engineer, who tinkers with our players. Recently heard M5 done by him, that had changed opamps, some other parts also changed, added shielding to digital part. Result is significantly better sounding player, but now it heats little bit too much and battery life isn't as good as before.

MS Mod to WM1A/Z is their typical approach, in past shown also on their EOS cable from Effect audio.

 

Since I am in China, does your guys tinker with other players

 

Well, he is not in China.

 

So I got a zx300a in the house. It costs $360 and took about 9 days after ordering from Joybuy. I cannot say exactly how it compares in reference to the WM1A as I no longer own the WM1A nor the Andromedas that I paired with it. However all in all, I can easily recommend it over the WM1A regardless of the used prices that seem to dip slightly under $700 these days. Recommended over the SBAF favorite ZX2 and I think this represents a new standard dap quality that comes at a great, affordable price.

Maybe @Dr. Higgs can chime in on the differences between the wm1a and the zx300 with the andros. I remember someone at the recent NYC meet saying they would not able to pick over the other in a blind test with the andros. From what I remember, It sounded extremely similar to the WM1A through the balanced output.

The Dac function does still have lag so its not ideal for music, but fine for music. Its much smaller and portable.

So far ZX300a/EE Phantoms seems to sound better than my memory of the WM1A/Andromeda pairing.

 

Through the SE output WM1A is at least 1 tier above the ZX300 though. Don't have anything with 4.4mm so I couldn't compare the BAL out.

 

Noice, it seems like a very reasonably priced and awesome player! I'd love to compare head to head with wm1a via balanced and single ended, so if we're ever in the same place at the same time... So far, i'm really digging the wm1a with balanced cable.

Seems like this preference is driven by your liking of the EE Phantoms over the Andromeda given the similarity between daps in tonality? Would love to hear the Phantom one day as well. Btw, do you know the output impedance on the ZX300, and do you hear a difference going from SE to Balanced? This made a surprising difference on the wm1a, curious if that's true on the zx300.

 

wm1a se is worse than the balanced. It seems the 3.5se is just an extra to have with the main engineering focus on the 4.4 mm. I said this countless times but I would not judge the wm1a or zx300 from 3.5 se output.

@brencho I'm not sure, but on head-fi they said someone measured it as 1.5, which might be more ideal for the andros. I feel the EE isn't the absolute best match because I am finding it to be more bassy than I like from sources that are not as close to 0. It definitely sounds much more neutral from the pico slim amp. I'll be happy to loan you the gear after my SE cable gets replaced as the cable has problems on the left side. I should get it this saturday.

 

Regardless of the output impedance of these players I don't think it makes a difference due to Sony's design being the same power output at all impedances.

 

@donunus You don't think what makes a difference on what? Not sure i follow, vague pronoun references

 

no difference in the way the iems will sound whether it is 1 ohm or 5 ohms output impedance if the player doesn’t fluctuate in power and gain at different impedance loads

 

Yeah that's been my experience with ba iems (probably most infamously the andros) that sound really different on devices with oi close to 0, 1, 2 and 5. Doesn't seem to be a gain fluctuation issue bc you can raise or lower gain independently from oi and that doesn't impact tonal balance the same way.

 

Of course output impedance matters. Just saying not for the sony

 

We are talking about the sony right? If not, nevermind.