Sure. But do people actually look at the measurements (do they even have it?!) or do they just say it is so because "it sounds good to them therefore it is"? My point is that it is nearly always the latter, and almost no one measures their setup to have that dampening factor data that you are...

I'm not answering because the volume is irrelevant - because surely you understand that low/high volume listening is ALSO a subjective preference? It's all subjective preference galore, still nothing to prove that a higher output will drive a IER-Z1R in an objectively better way many would like...

Which doesn't matter either way, because in the end it still loops back to subjective preferences. Don't tell me you've never heard of anyone preferring flabby fat bass over tight clean bass? To that person, flabby fat bass is "better" and he'll tell you that.

I actually know exactly why I prefer the unbalanced output. I listened mostly to Jpop, which is known for poor mastering. The lower resolution of the unbalanced output masks the flaw of that, which makes me able to enjoy the music more and not focus on the flaws of the music. Again perfectly...

Good we've reached the same page - that Head-Fi IS subjective only. So we can clearly throw the whole "you need more power for DDs" into that subjective basket then. :beerchug: The only important thing in Head-fi is to find people who shares the same subjective preference as yourself, else you...

The point is that it is simply a subjective preference and not a fact. What is good power and what is excellent tuning? There's are all subjective because 99/99% of the people who says these things have NEVER measured those things, they are just attributing what they hear as being true - which...

It's good that you have you beliefs and acknowledges that it is simply that - a belief. However I think you would agree that a belief is not a universal fact, no? And a belief in audio is just another word for subjective preference. Just because many people who thinks the IER sounds slightly...

That's just personal preference, not a measurable subjective fact. This is the issue people have - they are confusing their subjective preference of "I don't like this sound" to the objective fact of "the phone is under driven" and doesn't know that they two actually has no correlation at all...

Simply not true. The myth you need MOAR power for DD is that - a myth. My Just ear custom is a 16mm large DD+BA hybrid with a DD that's bigger the the vast majority of the DDs in IEMs you can find and it sounds superb on my 1Z - in fact I don't even use half of the output volume. The IER-Z1R...

I can say with a certain degree of confidence it's product driven rather than business driven. The original ZX-1/2 when released was considered "insanely priced" because the audiophile DAP market didn't exist back then, yet the team pushed the then CEO Kaz Hirai to get the product greenlited...

Do we even know what the FPGA in the ibasso does? Cos I can program a straight passthru on a FPGA and slap it into the DAP and claim "look at that FPGA magic in my DAP!!!!111" while in essence it does absolutely nothing. At least in Sony and Chord products I know their FPGA is actually used...

At the TOTL range, there's really no objectively better but only subjective preferences. You can show measurements of the exact same ruler flat FR from 2 to 20kHz and 0.0001% THD etc from half a dozen DAPs and people will still have a preference for one over the other and insisting one is...

Not even that, there're like half a dozen DAPs which uses the exact same DAC chip from AKM and they can still sound different due to implementation and component choices....

You realise you are in an audiophile forum right? Audiophile chases 0.0001% differences, 0.03% is already an absolute win.:ksc75smile:

Haven't done anything? Did you even read the release materials? Just in terms of active components they created a completely new power regulation stage (the massive silver capacitor), new FTcaps (version 3 vs version 1 in the WM1) which they specially customised, and more accurate clock...

In the live stream yesterday Sony said they requested the GPS module removed from the SoC so it would not interfere with playback, I'm assuming this is why they went with this particular SoC because the chip manufacturer would actually accommodate that for them with a small MOQ, whereas going...

Probably heat. As FETs work they emit heat. Capacitors don't do that.

That 99.99% pure copper body costs a lot and is a PIA to mill into shape - they waste a lot of good and very pure copper just milling that chassis out from a solid block of copper, plus they the apply their special gold plating technique to it, it's many more layers of work to create that...

I don't stream so I wouldn't know. It's also why I have no use for Android on my DAP because I'm not interested in streaming.

Which is why I also use the A100 as reference. As a pure player device the tiny A100 which runs Android 10 is fine to me as well, never felt sluggish (the battery draining is another issue altogether). Multi-tasking on a DAP is such a silly concept to me in the first place, not sure why or even...

I'm skipping this, I don't doubt the sound would be fine but I don't like Android no matter how much/little skin is slapped on it. :beyersmile:

Never felt the scrolling was sluggish even on the A100 or the 1Z. Of course if you are used to the 120kHz refresh rate and animation of modern smartphones then yeah I guess, but that's just fluff and a waste of battery IMO. FWIW I'm also the type who turns off the high refresh rate on my iPhone...

I never felt the competition has caught up with Sony to begin with, my WM1Z is still as good if not better than the other flagship DAPs out there. I bought the WM1Z at launch, never stopped auditioning new DAPs since then but also never had a DAP which made me want to trade in my 1Z either - all...

https://www.sony.jp/feature/products/220209/?s_pid=jp_/walkman/_wmsptop Team interview in text.

I never expected them to increase the power because they don't have a new S-Master chip. Unlike other DAP makers which relies on AKM/ESS where they have yearly refreshes on their DAC/amp chip line ups, Sony's entirely in-house S-Master takes a lot longer to improve, and the last couple of years...