Review:Sony NWZ-ZX1 Part 2

As promised, this time I matched up Sony NWZ-ZX1 with Sony MDR1RBT Mark II.

Before I proceed with the review, I like to state some opinions, humbly.

When I bought Sony NWZ-ZX1, there are some comments in the Internet regarding this unit. A lot of it revolve around the following list of disappointments:
- not enough Amplification power to support highest end, or big, headphones
- sound quality, hissing noise apparent in various high and low resolution recordings
- Android based system

In my humble opinion, Sony is following iPod steps. Sony is known being closed to Apple since Jobs days and Jobs' vision on music players is clearly apparent on the new Sony's Walkman line up:
- Sony designed their new Walkman to cope with the ever growing high end headphone listeners' demand of wanting to play FLAC, Wave, etc format recordings. However, like Steve Jobs designs, Sony follows the trend of the majority listeners who don't want to bring around heavy, power hungry, high-end headphone. Most listeners want good quality of music with light weight, portable, yet high quality headphones that has become the major trends. So they designed NWZ-ZX1 with enough power to match up with mid end heaphones which also works with iPod, but for those who wants to listen to highes end of headphones will most likely use external amplifiers anyhow, regardless what Sony has provided.
- Straight out of the box, NWZ-ZX1 has a hiss consistently. This is because of the sound settings are not yet set to listeners individual likings. It is similar to Vanilla Android, it's up to the listeners to customize the sound characteristics they like. Here is one feature that Sony should have for future updates: multi sound profile easy access or programmable sound profiling.
- Android is one of the most flexible and powerful Mobile OS available. If iOS have Apple iTunes, Sony wants to be the choice as the music players for quality conscious listeners. This is apparent with Sony releasing their Walkman and sound quality app to Google Play Store.
- In addition, with Android OS platform, Sony can upgrade and update their Walkman app as required and requested by the market. Making their app more appealing for most listeners.

Those are what I feel I need to say, so now we continue with the review.

Sound Setting

After using Sony MDR1RBT Mark II with Sony NWZ-ZX1 for almost 3 weeks now, I have saved an EQ setting that I like since this setting boost the treble and provide punchy, detailed but deep enough bass. I tried the preset Rock EQ, I don't really like it. I prefer this setting or ClearAudio+ on depending on the headphone I used.


Important Note

I have upgraded the firmware of NWZ-ZX1 to the latest Build No. 1.13.0009 which improve the Wave playing. I did noticed Wave recordings became more like the FLAC. Previously, more trebles are played. This might be also one of the reasons NWZ-ZX1 was complained by listeners to have hissing on certain recordings. But then again, it's my opinion.


Sony NWZ-ZX1 with Sony MDR1RBT Mark II - Wired



First, of course the wired matching of Sony MDR1RBT Mark II with NWZ-ZX1. As most of you have read feom Headfi and Internet reviews regarding Sony's MDR1 Mark II series, it is a flat but uniquely rich with Sony's sound signature. It is a detailed headphone but can present deep and punchy bass, smooth treble, and lushful, sweet voice.

When combined with NWZ-ZX1, I understand why Sony are pushing forward both products as a matching pairs in the their promotional materials. This combination is such a beautiful and enjoyable that I considered both are designed for each other.

Listening to Linkin Park's In Pieces, the intro became a lot more intimate. Blank sound on right ear while guitar acoustic plays in left ear. The speedy and playful drums and bass guitar represented well without slow down. And then, the impactful drum plays handsomely that made wants to dance a bit myself. Do note that I don't dance so just gives you a picture of how fun the combo is.

Then I switched to Louis Armstrong. I set the surround sound effect to Studio, but I hear this song as if I was sitting in front of stage. Louis' voice came from a bit above me, the strings orchestra on his left at a good distance. To his right side, a guitar and next the bass player and a drummer. Louis' voice arw so intimate that I feel like I'm watching the historic recording.
Note: When I turned on ClearAudio+, this song becomes different. Louis' vocal surround me as if coming from a set of 2 big speakers.

Next, I played John Mellencamp's Wild Night, the song that Monster Beats headphones and speakers always play it wrong. The intro's pounding drum beats, consistent cymbal taps and tambourine are perfectly sounding. John Mellencamp and Me'Shell Ndegeocello's vocals are playing in front and the band members are playing behind them.

Another difficult song for headphones to play correctly is Nightwish's Bye Bye Beautiful. The intro's first drum impact usually played with lost of power. Sansa Clip+ manages to play right, but my Sony Xperia Z Ultra failed. NWZ-ZX1 managed to play it correctly.
Note: When I turned on ClearAudio+, the song becomes very dark and thick with bass.

I was about to call it the night by listening to Rihanna's We Found Love and find this song plays like I am in my living room with 5.1 home theatre setup. However, when changed the audio setting to ClearAudio+, I was transported to Club hall with the bass shaking the ground. This is impressive, I find new amd unexpected excitements with NWZ-ZX1.

This matching definitely brings out the best in both. NWZ-ZX1 is clearly a far more superior player than my SanDisk Sansa Clip+ by several levels with its ability to play a bigger range of audio frequency with 'fun' as the main spirit.



Next: Sony NWZ-ZX1 with Sony MDR1RBT Mark II - Bluetooth

Review: Sony NWZ-ZX1 Part 3

As promised, here us the continuing review on NWZ-ZX1 with the Bluetooth function with Sony MDR1RBT Mark II. I need to apologize since that's the only Bluetooth high end headphone that I have.

One signature that I found a bit disappointing is the hissing background noise that exist in all songs I played. Less hiss on 24bit recordings, more on lower quality stuffs, especially on MP3 at 192 kbs or lower. The hiss is not truly bothersome, just a low hiss. Some people might not even notice it. It just exists at the background. Some other reviewers mentioned that it is caused by the SMaster build-in amp. I don't know the real reason tho.

Anyhow, from all the same songs played from the previous part 2, one thing is also certain that this player turns MDR1RBT Mark II into a basshead headpiece with details and wide sound stage. The bass becomes so prominent across all songs that it tends to makes the songs more fun on dance genre and dark on rock genre, at the same time loss some of the sharpness.

The high frequency lost it's sharpness, the low lack depth and loss some impact, but vocal is still sweet and lushful. It does remind me of Monster Beats sound signature. Should Sony add a tad more impact, MDR1RBT Mark II will sound like the classic Audio Technica ATH-M50.

At least with all the lost frequencies, Sony's decisiona to use Bluetooth 3.0 is a smart decision indeed. One song that I always use to test Bluetooth headphones is Nightwish' Bye Bye Beautiful. Almost all Bluetooth headphones wavered when playing this song, losing their dynamic bass impact at the first beat of the drum; it's like the headphone lost power, which it is. Even MDR1RBT Mark II lost a tiny power to play it, however MDR1RBT Mark II keeps trying to maintain its power, thanks to the built-in amp in the headphone I believe. Smart move, Sony.

I do noticed that when playing dance beat songs, the music becomes more enjoyable and less analytical. Hence, details become less. The soundstage simulate club space, including the woofers. You definitely can feel the rumbling. Which means this piece is a killer wireless cans to watch movies.

Action movies come to live, transporting me to the cinema. I just hope Sony has the sense to produce Bluetooth feature into their Blu-ray players. However, due to the nature of HiRes Audio plauer NWZ-ZX1 is, playing movies on this unit is not a fun option. The audio player characteristic quality kicked in and never left, so movies audio become too flat to enjoy. I recommend Sony Xperia Z series or Samsung Galaxy 5" screen or above for superior movie watching enjoyment.
Note: Why I do not recommend other brands? Read my previous articles and you will find my bad experiences with other brands.

Rock music, however, suffers a bit. The bass is too loud, especially when the ClearAudio+ is on. It took me a while to finally programmed the equalizer to have suitable sound characteristics, but it is still lacking depth, compared to the wired sound.

One thing I noticed NWZ-ZX1 has offered is the option to prioritize quality over audio connection. This feature is helpful to eliminate network noises in frequency busy places. You can find the option in Settings, Bluetooth, Menu, Sound Enhancements dan Wireless Playback Quality.


Now, comparing NWZ-ZX1 and Astell&Kern AKs as Bluetooth music player, I must say AKs are superior, but with over 30% price difference, I would settle with NWZ-ZX1 because of other benefits that AKs don't provide.

So there, Sony NWZ-ZX1 in 3 parts (I want to write other match up, like UE700, etc, but I don't want to bore you guys. So let me know if you want me to continue on). This 30th anniversary Walkman is Sony's effort to bring back Walkman into the market. I consider this series successful. I see more amd more music listeners buy Walkman (ZX1, A15, F887, etc). It's a high quality DAP, although not for the big cans fanatics, but for daily commuters and students who want to listen for excellent music, this player and it's younger siblings are definitely the right choice, especially HiRes Audio DAP on the budget. Heck, even FIIO immediately retaliates with X1. High end DAP is definitely gone light-weight portable. More options are better for us, right?

Review: Sony NWZ-ZX1 Part 1

Introduction - Why I Choose Sony NWZ-ZX1

Among all high end, or rather high resolution, Digital Audio Players, Sony has not been in consideration for years due to their stubborn policy of not playing several popular formats of high resolution audio recordings such as: FLAC, ALAC, AIFF, and more. This decision positioned Sony as the producer of retail mid end DAP that relies solely on MP3 based format. Even with research on developing MP3 format to a higher sounding format, not many fanatics of high resolution audio listeners were interested to use Sony's Walkman as their main DAP.

Until 2014, 35 years after Sony hatched the first product line of portable audio called Walkman, Sony decided to open the door and accepted their products to play nearly all formats of high end audio recording, the result: the 35th Anniversary Walkman called NWZ-ZX1.



I first got my interest on ZX1 after the Sony's announcement of the next portable high resolution audio player Walkman series A (NWZ-A15 and A17). Those 2 new units are sexy, well built and most likely to storm the market and win a lot casual listeners. I was about to shop for iBasso DX50 or AK100, which for those keen on high resolution audio immediately recognized as 2 of most preferred DAP in the market. And after reading tons of references in the Internet I found so many stories about how great both products are that I tested them both. They are exemplary excellent DAP in their own rights.

One notable feature that AK100 and ZX1 both have is Bluetooth; AK100 employs Bluetooth 3.0 (AK100 II uses Bluetooth 4.0) and ZX1 uses Bluetooth 3.0. So both are able to stream higher resolution sounds.

The Review

Design

All are designed to last and abuse, although DX50 is sturdier in comparison, ZX1 has its own perk of being the lightest and tiniest volume-wise among the three.

However, when walking around listening to music, I found ZX1 is more comfortable in my hand especially for prolonged listening for its lighter weight and smartphone sized body. Even with the lower back protruding in an awkward way, it tends to assist my hand in avoiding slippage combined with the leather-like material to cover the aluminium frame.

The touch screen is well-sized, and the physical buttons are well placed and again well-thought-out to present easy access by soft touch recognition, with little dots and different sizes. I love using the physical buttons since they are easy to recognize even without looking at the unit. However, the hardened leather-like case lacking access to the buttons really sucks.


User Interface

I'll keep it short, it's an older Android OS. Easy to use and access. Not the richest in features but adequate for listeners. Later on I'll review the apps available for this unit.


The Sound Impression

I put a lot consideration on how to represent the sound impression I get. I prefer to approach it differently this time around since talking about high end DAP won't be fair if not paired with the headphone used. That means the combination will come to account, since I have (although cheaper variances) several unique sound headphones, I will try to provide combination impression. So here we go, I hope you enjoy my approach.


Sony NWZ-ZX1 with Sennheiser MX760



Both are known for the wide sound staging. So what happened if I paired them together?

First of all, Senn MX760 is definitely a treble rich earbud with deep bass and big sound stage. So I tested it without EQ, but the treble becomes a bit too much. Then I turned on the ClearSound+ feature which nullified all eq settings to Sony pre-programmed sound signature, both literally become a new favorite matching for serious detail-minded listening.

I played Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful Day and if I close my eyes, I swear I can imagine Louis standing in front with violin players close to his left and drums and guitar further on his rear right side, bass player right side closer than the drums. The music and voice so clear that I have high appreciation on the 24 bit and 96 kHz recording. Even Louis signature lips play can be heard.

Then I played Linkin Park's In Pieces (from Minutes to Midnight album with 16/44 recording) and for a small earbud to represent ZX1 sound, it is unbelievably enjoyable experience. Big impact and deep bass, voice and instruments separation are clear and well-placed, smooth treble. The sound are loaded with details.

Those 2 songs I think has represented how well they both match up.

Note: Warning high impact bass means do not start the music with high volume, especially over 80%. It will be painful. I used 60% max volume which are plenty already.

On the downer side, some treble heavy songs and lower recording quality (128kbps MP3 or lower) becomes too sharp and too noisy to listen due to MX760 sensitivity of details, despite of Sony's DSEE HX feature turned on to smoothen the roughness.


Bonus Impression:
SanDisk Sansa Clip+ with Sennheiser MX760

Sansa Clip+ is a cheap but a high quality player, however it doesn't have the range ZX1 has. Two major differences that separates the two:

- Clip+ bass is tight and detailed but lacking the depth and clarity.
- Clip+ has a smaller sound staging, the right analogy would be comparing a 1x1x1 cubical meter (Clip+) to a Studio size room (ZX1)

Don't get me wrong, I love my Clip+ as a casual daily driver. I have been using it for a couple of years. It's tiny size and light weight just slip to my shirt pocket inconspicuously without becoming a burden. While ZX1 requires a belt wallet or case to be used without bothering my movement.

Each has their own purpose.

So there, my first part of Sony NWZ-ZX1 impression. Next I will pair it with Sony MDR1RBT Mark II, wired and Bluetooth connected. Each has it's own sound signature that a little different one to another, especially with some hidden Sony NWZ-ZX1 features turned on.