Reviews by Gabbbbbbbbbbbb
~
Disclaimer:
John Burson -after having seen my posts in the Zishan Z1 thread- contacted me & offered me a Burson
opamp of choice to try with the player. I picked the V6 Classic Dual with DIP socket extenders, but due
to some logistical difficulties that ended up being a non-option, so I gladly accepted his offer to send me
a V6 Vivid Dual instead. (in exchange of nothing, but my honest opinion of course)
The test setup:
For the past year I've been happily using my Zishan Z1 with the 49720HA opamp. I used to think I was quite the
hipster to use something like this, but compared to the V6 it's just tiny.
Since right now I don't really have anything else to test the V6 with of course I used the Zishan Z1 with my trusted
& well respected HD600 cans.
Since I've read another reviewer disregarding the V6 vivid + Z1 combination I started thinking what could've been
the cause of this. Upon some reflection I think I may know why. A long time ago, when I bought this player on a
impulse I was really disappointed with it, because it sounded pretty bad with everything & it did not take very long to
find out that it's due to it having a really high output resistance. (close to 100 Ω I think) What this means in practice
that with this player it's basically impossible to achieve perfect electrical coupling. (It is recommended to try to have
an output resistance no higher than 1/8th of what your headphones or earphones have) As such after realizing
that the player sounds horrible with all of my IEMs I just relegated it to 'burn in rig' duty. This has only changed when
on a whim I listened to the player my HD600s that sounded thin & dead with all of my daps and this is what prompted
the first opamp upgrade to the 49720HA & what made this review possible. I also used the Xiaomi Graphene
Headphones for testing briefly, but I gave that pairing up very quickly, since they are not a good match with the Z1 in
general.
Fitting the V6 inside the player is of course impossible, so I used a Burson DIP-socket extender to make this work
with an external fit. (as pictured below)
----
My honest opinion on the sound:
I'm no good audio reviewer material, listening back and forth, trying to find minutiae of differences is not something I cannot really do. So after some burn in, I just listened to to music -in shuffle mode- over the past couple of days, while doing a little back and forth with my previous opamp. Before the burn in I thought the sound resembled entry level Naim gear the most, meaning overly engaging sound with boomy -even for the Z1+HD600 combo worse than normal- bass and a pleasantly smooth top end with great sparkle, all that with a better and more realistic midrange / vocals than before. After the -off the head- burn in period of 50+ hours the sound felt completely elevated across the board. Yes it's still a very engaging listen, but it doesn't sound like Naim anymore. Now the sound is close to uncolored with a touch of extra brightness and bass energy, so The Vivid naming is apt. I suppose the main point is that the V6 powered player has reached a level of high fidelity, sophistication and technical ability that I did not think possible with just opamp rolling, at least not without other modifications. The HD600s are not great cans for testing staging, but the soundstage felt perhaps a touch better than normal, with great ambience. Orchestral pieces sounded really amazing & just ehm grand. (that description is probably not very good, oh well) Another horrible description incoming, you've been forewarned! I really like the sound of 'crying' accoustic instruments, if you don't know what that is, then listen to Wu Bai's 'Last Dance' on Youtube & you'll know. Anyway I feel that those crying string sounds are absolutely amazing with this opamp and I could say that the emotional delivery in general is very good. I think it goes without saying that the opamp is still too engaging for a laid-back, relaxing listen though.
TLDR: The sound is great, I'll continue using the Z1+V6 combo for the foreseeable future.
Is it worth the $70 asking price?
Now this is an interesting question! I think for the Zishan Z1, as much as the performance has improved, I don't think It's easily worth the $70 + import taxes to get there. Though considering that I like using the HD600s everywhere, at least where their open nature is not a problem It's tough to say. Maybe it's possible that I would go for it, since realistically I don't think I could spend $100-150 and get a player that sounds better with these headphones. (Luckily I don't have to, since I get to keep the V6 for free, imagine that!)
With more expensive desktop gear though I think it can be totally worth it. If one way or another you have the opamp switching option in a $1000+ dac or preamp, adding a number of these could bring more than enough improvements to justify the extra 10-30% spent, well that's what I think anyway, though component matching and mis-matching can also be a factor.
Battery:
The Z1 lasts 7 hours with the V6, this is barely shorter than what I normally get with the 49720HA. Overall this is a very reasonable performance for my aging battery, so I can safely say it's fine, there is nothing to worry about.
What would you think if you saw someone pointing this thing at you on the train?
Disclaimer:
John Burson -after having seen my posts in the Zishan Z1 thread- contacted me & offered me a Burson
opamp of choice to try with the player. I picked the V6 Classic Dual with DIP socket extenders, but due
to some logistical difficulties that ended up being a non-option, so I gladly accepted his offer to send me
a V6 Vivid Dual instead. (in exchange of nothing, but my honest opinion of course)
The test setup:
For the past year I've been happily using my Zishan Z1 with the 49720HA opamp. I used to think I was quite the
hipster to use something like this, but compared to the V6 it's just tiny.
Since right now I don't really have anything else to test the V6 with of course I used the Zishan Z1 with my trusted
& well respected HD600 cans.
Since I've read another reviewer disregarding the V6 vivid + Z1 combination I started thinking what could've been
the cause of this. Upon some reflection I think I may know why. A long time ago, when I bought this player on a
impulse I was really disappointed with it, because it sounded pretty bad with everything & it did not take very long to
find out that it's due to it having a really high output resistance. (close to 100 Ω I think) What this means in practice
that with this player it's basically impossible to achieve perfect electrical coupling. (It is recommended to try to have
an output resistance no higher than 1/8th of what your headphones or earphones have) As such after realizing
that the player sounds horrible with all of my IEMs I just relegated it to 'burn in rig' duty. This has only changed when
on a whim I listened to the player my HD600s that sounded thin & dead with all of my daps and this is what prompted
the first opamp upgrade to the 49720HA & what made this review possible. I also used the Xiaomi Graphene
Headphones for testing briefly, but I gave that pairing up very quickly, since they are not a good match with the Z1 in
general.
Fitting the V6 inside the player is of course impossible, so I used a Burson DIP-socket extender to make this work
with an external fit. (as pictured below)
----
My honest opinion on the sound:
I'm no good audio reviewer material, listening back and forth, trying to find minutiae of differences is not something I cannot really do. So after some burn in, I just listened to to music -in shuffle mode- over the past couple of days, while doing a little back and forth with my previous opamp. Before the burn in I thought the sound resembled entry level Naim gear the most, meaning overly engaging sound with boomy -even for the Z1+HD600 combo worse than normal- bass and a pleasantly smooth top end with great sparkle, all that with a better and more realistic midrange / vocals than before. After the -off the head- burn in period of 50+ hours the sound felt completely elevated across the board. Yes it's still a very engaging listen, but it doesn't sound like Naim anymore. Now the sound is close to uncolored with a touch of extra brightness and bass energy, so The Vivid naming is apt. I suppose the main point is that the V6 powered player has reached a level of high fidelity, sophistication and technical ability that I did not think possible with just opamp rolling, at least not without other modifications. The HD600s are not great cans for testing staging, but the soundstage felt perhaps a touch better than normal, with great ambience. Orchestral pieces sounded really amazing & just ehm grand. (that description is probably not very good, oh well) Another horrible description incoming, you've been forewarned! I really like the sound of 'crying' accoustic instruments, if you don't know what that is, then listen to Wu Bai's 'Last Dance' on Youtube & you'll know. Anyway I feel that those crying string sounds are absolutely amazing with this opamp and I could say that the emotional delivery in general is very good. I think it goes without saying that the opamp is still too engaging for a laid-back, relaxing listen though.
TLDR: The sound is great, I'll continue using the Z1+V6 combo for the foreseeable future.
Is it worth the $70 asking price?
Now this is an interesting question! I think for the Zishan Z1, as much as the performance has improved, I don't think It's easily worth the $70 + import taxes to get there. Though considering that I like using the HD600s everywhere, at least where their open nature is not a problem It's tough to say. Maybe it's possible that I would go for it, since realistically I don't think I could spend $100-150 and get a player that sounds better with these headphones. (Luckily I don't have to, since I get to keep the V6 for free, imagine that!)
With more expensive desktop gear though I think it can be totally worth it. If one way or another you have the opamp switching option in a $1000+ dac or preamp, adding a number of these could bring more than enough improvements to justify the extra 10-30% spent, well that's what I think anyway, though component matching and mis-matching can also be a factor.
Battery:
The Z1 lasts 7 hours with the V6, this is barely shorter than what I normally get with the 49720HA. Overall this is a very reasonable performance for my aging battery, so I can safely say it's fine, there is nothing to worry about.
What would you think if you saw someone pointing this thing at you on the train?
