[artpiggo]

Note $ = HKD

 

[riverground]

Here's e-earphone's impressions if you guys could understand Japanese,

 

[NickleCo]

Note $ = HKD

Theres a price for the 1am2 on jp website saying it will cost ¥159,000.

 

[Sp12er3]

Sadly even tho audiophiles should be well aware that what's matter most in sound is the Sum of Its Parts and not just some spec numbers, most are still stuck on those small spec improvements propagated by lots of chinese DAP marketing, This is Sony's Signature Series product, there's a reason the A100, ZX507 Is released first and aren't in their flagship audio line. Improvement in audio quality from stock FW 1A and 1Z should be expected, whether it can exceed the level of performance that recent excellent custom ROM provides is to be decided but I'm 100% sure it wont be as middling as the update from zx300 to 507 was. They already had a try at it, the hardware result is all their effort to mitigate the known weakness of Android.

 

[NickleCo]

All this talk about sonys new line up made me want to listen to music eventhough i havent been listening to anything for 2 months now lol.

 

[purk]

Was hoping for a more powerful S-master chip. My 1A already have the ungraded capacitors and exotic wirings….still my iBasso DX300MAX Max Ti totally outclassed it.

I am sure that the new Walkmans will sound better but I don’t expect night/day sound improvements here. I was hoping that Sony will keep the size more or less the same. I may get the 1AM2 instead of the 1ZM2 when it is available.

 

[gonzalo05]

Come on Sony we wanted a new open back flagship.

 

[NickleCo]

.

 

[starouterspace]

I hate to rain on everyone's parade here but I am disappointed. I figured after 6 years, Sony would improve on S-Master HX further and have higher output power for its devices but no, same old same old. Looks like the earlier post about the 250mW limit of the S-Master HX was right.

Instead, we get android 11 (with which we do not know if Sony has bypassed the Android SRC limit), 0.03% higher copper purity on the 1ZM2, a thicker cable internally for the 1ZM2 and thats kinda it.

With regards to battery life, I hate to say it but Sony probably tested it in ideal lab conditions. I will be legitimately amazed if actual usage reaches that level.

I think I will keep my WM1A and my next upgrade would still be to the WM1Z.

It's just the old class D amplifier again...

 

[Bosk]

Difficult not to get the impression Sony have fallen behind their competitors based on today's offerings. For the money they're asking those players don't jump out at me as being spectacular though the proof will be in the listening.

If these Walkmans were software updates I'd label them incremental 0.1 > 0.2 versions rather than entirely new 1.0 > 2.0 products. Not seeing much innovation here.

 

[Sp12er3]

Come on Sony we wanted a new open back flagship.

with their last attempt at an open set of headphone being the MDR MA900, which were just an iteration of the F1, I wonder how they will go about designing it. the MA900 already had 70mm driver and fully open, earspeaker-like design, two unique characteristics by itself, pretty sure they wont settle with any basic design. Sure, a lot can be done to doll up the "100% for lightweight, ended up looking just flimsy" MA900 design but I feel they always feel the need of a new "innovation" to make an open back Signature Series stand out from the crowd. like the change from full aluminum to washi paper the Z7 had to undergone.

 

[nanaholic]

Difficult not to get the impression Sony have fallen behind their competitors based on today's offerings. For the money they're asking those players don't jump out at me as being spectacular though the proof will be in the listening.

If these Walkmans were software updates I'd label them incremental 0.1 > 0.2 versions rather than entirely new 1.0 > 2.0 products. Not seeing much innovation here.

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 of them were just like "oh yeah this is what it sounds like", and I put them down and never look at them again and just goes back to the 1Z.

I mean if all you are worried about is output power then yes, you'll feel disappointed (from the beginning since the original WM1 anyway), but in terms of overall polishness and refine-ness of the product, Sony have never been touched by the competition IMO.

 

[dennarwhal]

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 of them were just like "oh yeah this is what it sounds like", and I put them down and never look at them again and just goes back to the 1Z.

I mean if all you are worried about is output power then yes, you'll feel disappointed (from the beginning since the original WM1 anyway), but in terms of overall polishness and refine-ness of the product, Sony have never been touched by the competition IMO.

And this is exactly why I love Sony. To Sony, they are their own competition. Their attention to the way something feels is astounding. While this product is merely incremental, I still feel that it truly is what a Walkman would be.

While there exist many music players and the walkman is a music player, not all music players are a walkman.

 

[MrWalkman]

WM1ZM2 CPU-Z and Antutu score...
https://www.call-t.co.jp/tenchoblog/entry/033955.html

Looks like a NXP SoC again. Though it looks like a bit of an upgrade to the ZX500 SoC (which is also using a NXP SoC), I expect the UI to be sluggish at times - hopefully not most of the time!

DAPs using the Snapdragon 660 could be better in that regard.

In any case, am I mistaken, or they're not even using different caps on the main board? Are they atributing the 1ZM2 sound entirely to things like wire, solder, and the copper enclosure?

I expected a new generation of S-Master, with higher power output, though I never had issues with the power of the 1A/1Z.

 

[Virtu Fortuna]

As much as I understand the overall disappointment regarding the non-existent upgrade in output power or in S-Master chip, it's always a good idea to wait until people actually listen to the device.

The latest example is the Shanling M9. It seemed to be a software & CPU update only, but when you listen to it it sounds excellent and better than the previous M8.

I don't think Sony would've released a device when they're not sure about the sound quality. I believe they have surpassed the 1Z in sound department so they release it now. If that's not the case and it's just a Android and USB-C version of the WM1Z with a bigger display, then of course I'll be disappointed.