Iām pretty interested as well. Will be interesting to see specs though. Given they are using the same amp chip im kinda doubting they will have much more power than before. Just fingers crossed they at least have a true LO this time
What DAC chip is the Sony player using? I couldnāt find the info on the Sony Page?
Itās their own propitiatory chip like the previous generation iirc
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That sounds interesting.
Previous gen good?
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Yes, solid players sound wise (if you like the sony house sound that is), the older 1z still holds up quite well today imo
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Hmmm. How would you describe their house sound? Iāve never heard one.
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So it depends on the firmware itās flashed with and also any mods that have been done to the unit (it is pretty popular to mod the players with things like better internal wiring, custom firmware that changes the sq, cap swapping, redoing the amp stage, etc), but generally the stock players lean more toward the warm, wide, and richly dense signature that is very smooth and organic, great impact and slam, fairly black background, somewhat forgiving, not the most technical but still good enough to not disappoint, somewhat relaxed. Itās a really pleasing balance between fun and refinement, although pairing can be hit or miss
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Sounds really good. Also kind of similar to how their headphones are described. Iām assuming Sonyās pair well with them.
Internal Kimber cable is a nice touch. 
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A āco-promotional agreementā is what I think thatās called. 
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Thatās something the dmp had but now carried over, the wm1a/z also had a popular mod called the project k mod which redid internal wiring with pw audio 1960s (signal path and power supply rewiring), resolding things with nicer solder, and some extra shielding as well, that mod also had a higher tier that added even better wiring + cap replacement with AN uk caps. Also typically a battery swap to higher capacity. A very simple mod was flashing modded firmware like stuff from mrwalkman for example. Honestly the new 1Z really just looks like sony implemented all the popular community mods typically done to their previous dap lol
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Sounds like a Hiby player 
https://www.earsonics.com/onyx/index-eng.html#
just saw this, seems earsonics is doing a 4 driver hybrid in the sub $600 budget realm, and itās already available for order. looks like it could be really good for the money
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Cowon always had one guy that made great firmwares that added so many features and fixed their bad ui. He hung it up with the J3 and the plenue players never really needed it that bad but it was night and day
I wish i could pop the S open and give it a new battery and clean the buttons. I think there is a guy in the uk that mods them but that trip is a risk.
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found this recently and thought it looked pretty sweet. So many of these speaker to headphone boxes look and feel DIY but this one looks way more pro and seems like it too. sorta expensive but if you already run all your headphones off speaker taps i bet it would be pretty worthwhile.
also seems like airtight is a pretty big/reputable hifi company in Japan. their stuff looks really dope.
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Oh thatās sweet, air tight stuff is legit, didnāt know they made a headphone adapter box, but that being said itās just a fancy transformer box it looks like (but that can still be worthwhile since good transformers are expensive)
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Burson mono blocksā¦
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I saw the soloist 3gt + 2 timekeeper mono option for $5500. Damn that would be interesting to hear.
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I am totally not sold on active cooling in an amp, even if itās āquietā.
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Iāve grown up in the hobby hearing how noisy an electric motor can be, and Iām with you wouldnāt want one near a component as important as an amp. Itās such a small form factor to begin with, I wonder why they wouldnāt just augment the case with a larger heat sink to get the required cooling and forgo the fan. Iām sure the fan solution is A LOT cheaper to put into production.
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The fan is not even RGB ā¦
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