Mobile Hifi Rediscovered

Just found out while I was trying to buy some additional storage capacity that now the maximum capacity of Micro SD Cards has increased to 200GB which means that the Sony can now without a change get 300+GB of music stored which is great.

Still contemplating though as it's twice as expensive per GB than a 128GB card.

Is there a limit on the card size the ZX2 can read. I've not seen anything mentioned in the literature that came with it. 

You won't go wrong with the Shure 'phones Chris.  

Sony mentioned originally the availability of 128GB as it was the top at that point in time. But has also not excluded bigger sizes. The below link indicates that a user has tested it with the 200GB and it seems to work.... Under further research a 512GB card seems to be planned in the future - but costing a lot....for standard SD512 is already available

Cheers Bert - i'll have a look at that link when i'm home later. 

James

The sad thing is that nowadays I am buying almost everything on high res - so the need for storage capacity has dramatically increased. With my close to 3TB of music I will only be able to reflect a fraction of it on my mobile setup (I will not buy 20+ 200GB cards going forward). But from 128 to 200 is a major jump, so I will definitely try it out and get two or three.

Just confirming the SanDisk 200GB card works fine in the Sony NW-ZX2.

Great - thanks, I will get it then, with two confirmations it's a good step forward.

Also predecessors of the SE846 have been used by so many people around the world. I first bought them in Hong Kong and they where also popular there. There are multiple sizes and material covers delivered with them, so fit shouldn't be a concern. It's more about which material does feel well to you and how do you ensure enough closure of the ear for the bass to fully show it's capability (subwoofer like if in the recording).

but go somewhere where you at least can try them, friends or dealer. They are too expensive to feel sorry about them.

I would be very much interested in your experiences / satisfaction with the Sony so far....

Chris - this was one of my concerns as my canals are pretty narrow and with my previous Etymotics the only tips i really found suited me from a comfort / ear canal seal were the memory foam tips. With the Shure, i've found the silicon rubber tips work the best (they give you a good selection to find the best fit for you in the package). I did get a slight ache for the first few hours of wear but found i didn't quite have the body in my ear properly. Pulling down my ear lobe whilst inserting the tips seats the body correctly in my outer ear and i find them extremely comfortable with excellent sealing and the resulting sound is sublime. There are plenty of dealers around who should be able to let you at least wear a pair to make sure you are completely happy. 

James

Thanks for the link Bert. Looks a useful thread 

Hi Bert,

I'm loving it in short. i had looked at the ZX1 but decided it wasnt right due to lack of storage. When the ZX2 came out I took a big gulp at the price but have taken the plunge. i knew I'd had enough of my iPod and MP3s to the extent I had stopped listening to music on the go.

My biggest frustration has been Naim not tagging uServe RIPs hence the previous thread on my grudging conversion to FLAC. I have a feature request in for a music mode, which like flight mode, would turn off all services not required for music replay. no response to date. i do find it has quite a high noise floor but I can tolerate that for giving me such wonderful sound when on the move. at the same time I bought some Sennheiser IE800s which I really could do with some custom moulds for.

I am tempted by the Sony headphone amp and if that works and improves the noise floor will get a custom case made for all three components.

my other grumble is Android related I think in that it sees the internal memory and the card seperatly, which can is a pain when transferring. i had thought I would buy loads of SD cards but have realised I'm just going to stick to the one. That covers most of the music I'm likely to listen to on a single leg of a trip.

I've not read the whole thread but the title sums it up perfectly for me.

Russ

Thanks for sharing. The noise floor is there, but it's for me a non issue, as the music sounds through in full. I think it pairs also extremely well with my Shures. With the storage cards I had the same initial idea of having a lot. But so far I am pretty fine with my core set of internal memory and one 128 Gb card. I will now go for the 200gb card as the core set. And will have perhaps one additional extra card on top of the than spare 128 gb. Should then give me a nice core set with all styles and then a specific card for jazz and pop/rock, perhaps if the exchange is not a big thing I might also go for an additional classical one.

I got to a creative idea. As my listening is mostly in the office. I could also use a pretty comfortable option by just getting a mobile hard disk with wifi and just stream from the hardDisk. Does anybody do this and have experiends with this ?

Bert, have you had enough of fiddling about with microSD cards? I haven't tried your WiFi hard disc idea, but I can't see why it wouldn't work, although I would expect some loss of sound quality over WiFi, perhaps? I guess the worst that can happen, if it doesn't work, is that you attach the drive to a computer and put a UPnP server on that.

Yes that's the idea. Buy 2tb and push the collection on it with a normal server and it should work. That should give me and a decent storage on the device itself with 300gb on board, and possibility to stream from effectively another 1.8 Tb, then I am getting almost and the size of the overall collection.

Chris,

I am guessing that it would need to work with the Mediaplayer which is on these type of harddisks. Otherwise it would not make sense. If I need for normal use an additional computer to use this capability - it's not as handy as I intent to. So that would be a no go then. But I guess I can only buy it and try it out. For my normal NAS streaming from it works flawlessly, but that has a normal Music server installed, so I guess it might be not so easy with these mobile disks. 

I will soon give it a try. Would be ideal for work and more scenarios. And should give good results from an audio perspective. 300gb on the best quality and the remainder via wifi with potentially a small degradation in sound quality, looks like an acceptable compromise - as it's also not my main system.

It has with the ZX2 your combined storage can noe be a bit above 300gb and it sounds better than the ZX1

So I took the plunge on the Sony headphone amp, PHA-3AC, and after my initial complete disbelief that a product touted to pair a Walkman required mains power I've now been listening to even better mobile tunes on my way to lunch with my brother in Sheffield.

The headphone amp is being power by an Anker USB 'lipstick' charger and I guess I'll found out tonight if it has enough power to get me there and back.

The fantastic news is that the high noise floor of the NW-ZX2 has almost completely gone. Still some noise as to be expected but it no longer get in the way and I'm hearing music that wasn't there previously. Note this is in real-world mobile scenario as I sit on the train.

In Naim terms I'd say the difference is comparable to the step up from Qute2, NAP100 with Neat IOTAs going to NDX, 282 B&W 805s. Not that they sound similar, just the delta in sound is of that difference.

Or perhaps saying the noise floor has gone from the Alps to the Dales would be more fitting.

I'm also thinking that the battery power to the headphone amp is probably a very clean electrical setup so perhaps not all bad.

Now for the custom case to hold it all Happy days.