Mobile Hifi Rediscovered

Rather than start a new thread I thought I would reopen this one as it's still fairly current...

...anyway, my recent mobile headphone upgrade to a pair of Bowers & Wilkins P7s has had me wondering what's out there in the world of DAPs that might be a good upgrade over my existing iPod 80GB Video 5th gen and iBasso DX50.  I have to say that the iBasso, running recent firmware, is a great sounding player partnered with the P7s.  Only issue for me is the very small touch-screen - not good for someone with large hands and fingers like mine - I find navigating the iBasso to be really tricky, particularly when on the move.  But I put up with it in the name of great sound...

While the Astell & Kern AK Jr might offer a larger screen and better UI, I'm not sure whether the SQ would be much better, if at all.  Same goes for the AK100 and whether the AK120 offers something so much better, I don't know.  However, I'm intrigued by the Sony ZX2 and the new Onkyo, the latter really looks like it could be something.  

So, a question to owners of the Sony, how are getting on with it over the long term, and more specifically, does it offer a line out option on the headphone jack for use in the car or into a normal hifi amp?  Look forward to hearing from you, Bert, Chris et al...

GeeJay posted:

Just bought a Pioneer XDP-100R digital audio player, and currently listening to Pink Floyd Division Bell at 24/96.  

Sounds excellent, and have tried it with my Shure 535s, B&W P5 (mK 2), Sennheiser HD-580 and currently with Audiotechnica T51p.  Straight out of the box, and for only £499, it has a transparency and similar toe tapping enjoyable effect on my ears not dissimilar to my main rig!  Will also be trying it with a Chord Mojo in the next few weeks (before a trip to the US) to see what that adds, although the prospect of balancing multiple boxes on a cramped flight may not be the most fun!  With 2 spare micro SDXC cards (and two 200Gb cards on order), I'm looking forward to taking quite a bit of my HD music with me, and possibly some DSD files as well.  Looked at the Sony ZX2 as well, but at nearly twice the price (and ability to have 2 micro SD cards on the Pioneer), the Pioneer won out.  Am also listening to my Naim trial period Tidal streaming on the Pioneer, and with promise of MQA, it's all great!  Also runs the latest Android 5.1.1 (lollipop), it has a more current OS than the Sony.

Anyone who is still listening to MP3s on an iPod should get out and demo one of these new generation DAPs......you are in for a pleasant surprise!

ATB.  George.

I definitely would have considered this one as well, if it would have been available at the time, given the 400gb option. I am still waiting for the ones which can handle a normal sad card with 2tb....

Richard Dane posted:

Rather than start a new thread I thought I would reopen this one as it's still fairly current...

...anyway, my recent mobile headphone upgrade to a pair of Bowers & Wilkins P7s has had me wondering what's out there in the world of DAPs that might be a good upgrade over my existing iPod 80GB Video 5th gen and iBasso DX50.  I have to say that the iBasso, running recent firmware, is a great sounding player partnered with the P7s.  Only issue for me is the very small touch-screen - not good for someone with large hands and fingers like mine - I find navigating the iBasso to be really tricky, particularly when on the move.  But I put up with it in the name of great sound...

While the Astell & Kern AK Jr might offer a larger screen and better UI, I'm not sure whether the SQ would be much better, if at all.  Same goes for the AK100 and whether the AK120 offers something so much better, I don't know.  However, I'm intrigued by the Sony ZX2 and the new Onkyo, the latter really looks like it could be something.  

So, a question to owners of the Sony, how are getting on with it over the long term, and more specifically, does it offer a line out option on the headphone jack for use in the car or into a normal hifi amp?  Look forward to hearing from you, Bert, Chris et al...

Hi Richard,

I am still very happy with the Sony. It still provides top of the bill sound quality, with a pretty long battery life and sufficient connectivity options. Right now I would also consider some of the other options as they would in the one or other situation provide even more capacity 2 * 200 and perhaps soon even more.

With regards to your connection question. I have not used it in that scenario, so can't comment on that. While I assume that the connection via USB would also enable you to connect to car hifi etc.

Perhaps somebody else can comment.

Probably a dumb question but could I export files from my HDX onto one of these new gen players?

I have zero knowledge of or interest in file formats but if it's easy and i don't have to convert anything then I might buy one of these ... also i'm presuming that the metadata would be preserved?

In the same thread, I am also now contemplating to do something more to increase the listening experience. Either by switching to the electrostatic in earphones of Shure which I heard at the high end or by using the amp from Shure. Would be interested to know if others have improved sound quality on top of owning a good quality DAP like the Sony or one of the others.

Richard Dane posted:

Rather than start a new thread I thought I would reopen this one as it's still fairly current...

...anyway, my recent mobile headphone upgrade to a pair of Bowers & Wilkins P7s has had me wondering what's out there in the world of DAPs that might be a good upgrade over my existing iPod 80GB Video 5th gen and iBasso DX50.  I have to say that the iBasso, running recent firmware, is a great sounding player partnered with the P7s.  Only issue for me is the very small touch-screen - not good for someone with large hands and fingers like mine - I find navigating the iBasso to be really tricky, particularly when on the move.  But I put up with it in the name of great sound...

While the Astell & Kern AK Jr might offer a larger screen and better UI, I'm not sure whether the SQ would be much better, if at all.  Same goes for the AK100 and whether the AK120 offers something so much better, I don't know.  However, I'm intrigued by the Sony ZX2 and the new Onkyo, the latter really looks like it could be something.  

So, a question to owners of the Sony, how are getting on with it over the long term, and more specifically, does it offer a line out option on the headphone jack for use in the car or into a normal hifi amp?  Look forward to hearing from you, Bert, Chris et al...

Good to see this thread open again, Richard. I'm still very happy with my ZX2/Shure SE846. I justified this extravagance to myself because I spend around half my life away from home, so I use it almost as much as my home system. I can't comment on how this compares to any other portable players, as I haven't listened to anything else in the same league, but I certainly don't feel deprived of quality sounds when I'm not at home.

From a practical point of view, I don't find the smallish screen size a problem (other than that running the Naim app on it is a little challenging!) The standard 3.5mm jack seemed to work fine into my car, although it's not something I bother with as the car has a USB input, and a pen drive full of WAVs works really well here. I'm not sure if the USB socket in my car would accept the Sony as I use FLACs, which my car won't play. There are no other outputs (other than WiFi or Bluetooth) but for me that is part of the appeal; I wanted something compact enough for 'hand luggage only' travel. One very minor criticism - the Sony occasionally loses album artwork, maybe 5% of them have vanished. One day I might get around to investigating this.

ChrisSU posted:

Richard Dane posted:

Rather than start a new thread I thought I would reopen this one as it's still fairly current...

...anyway, my recent mobile headphone upgrade to a pair of Bowers & Wilkins P7s has had me wondering what's out there in the world of DAPs that might be a good upgrade over my existing iPod 80GB Video 5th gen and iBasso DX50.  I have to say that the iBasso, running recent firmware, is a great sounding player partnered with the P7s.  Only issue for me is the very small touch-screen - not good for someone with large hands and fingers like mine - I find navigating the iBasso to be really tricky, particularly when on the move.  But I put up with it in the name of great sound...

While the Astell & Kern AK Jr might offer a larger screen and better UI, I'm not sure whether the SQ would be much better, if at all.  Same goes for the AK100 and whether the AK120 offers something so much better, I don't know.  However, I'm intrigued by the Sony ZX2 and the new Onkyo, the latter really looks like it could be something.  

So, a question to owners of the Sony, how are getting on with it over the long term, and more specifically, does it offer a line out option on the headphone jack for use in the car or into a normal hifi amp?  Look forward to hearing from you, Bert, Chris et al...

Good to see this thread open again, Richard. I'm still very happy with my ZX2/Shure SE846. I justified this extravagance to myself because I spend around half my life away from home, so I use it almost as much as my home system. I can't comment on how this compares to any other portable players, as I haven't listened to anything else in the same league, but I certainly don't feel deprived of quality sounds when I'm not at home.

From a practical point of view, I don't find the smallish screen size a problem (other than that running the Naim app on it is a little challenging!) The standard 3.5mm jack seemed to work fine into my car, although it's not something I bother with as the car has a USB input, and a pen drive full of WAVs works really well here. I'm not sure if the USB socket in my car would accept the Sony as I use FLACs, which my car won't play. There are no other outputs (other than WiFi or Bluetooth) but for me that is part of the appeal; I wanted something compact enough for 'hand luggage only' travel. One very minor criticism - the Sony occasionally loses album artwork, maybe 5% of them have vanished. One day I might get around to investigating this.

 

The artwork topic I haven't experienced so far, so I am puzzled ....

andrew jameson posted:

Probably a dumb question but could I export files from my HDX onto one of these new gen players?

I have zero knowledge of or interest in file formats but if it's easy and i don't have to convert anything then I might buy one of these ... also i'm presuming that the metadata would be preserved?

This works with my Sony, I jut plug it into my Mac, and drag music from my Unitiserve onto it. Simple. If you store WAVs on your HDX, I'd suggest converting them to FLAC, as non-Naim devices cannot usually read metadata from Naim CD rips that are stored as WAV. Also, the smaller FLAC file sizes are likely to be an advantage on a portable device. 

Thanks Chris - A very quick search reveals that WAV to FLAC conversion is easy enough ... but what about the tagging, would i have to do that manually or would it survive the conversion?

Hi Andrew, your tags should be fine as long as you do the conversion on your HDX before moving the files. It might take some time if you have a large library, but once you've told your HDX to do it, you just leave it to get on with it.

ChrisSU posted:

andrew jameson posted:

Probably a dumb question but could I export files from my HDX onto one of these new gen players?

I have zero knowledge of or interest in file formats but if it's easy and i don't have to convert anything then I might buy one of these ... also i'm presuming that the metadata would be preserved?

This works with my Sony, I jut plug it into my Mac, and drag music from my Unitiserve onto it. Simple. If you store WAVs on your HDX, I'd suggest converting them to FLAC, as non-Naim devices cannot usually read metadata from Naim CD rips that are stored as WAV. Also, the smaller FLAC file sizes are likely to be an advantage on a portable device. 

Chris, last time I looked Naim rips did not store metadata in WAV files but in a seperate database... Much windows based software can read at least basic WAV metadata, it appears much Apple software such as iTunes  can't for some reason. 

However for portable devices I would have thought made consideration is space, and FLAC at maximum compression would be advantageous... But again Apple software tends not too support Flac

Simon

Richard Dane posted:

Rather than start a new thread I thought I would reopen this one as it's still fairly current...

...anyway, my recent mobile headphone upgrade to a pair of Bowers & Wilkins P7s has had me wondering what's out there in the world of DAPs that might be a good upgrade over my existing iPod 80GB Video 5th gen and iBasso DX50.  I have to say that the iBasso, running recent firmware, is a great sounding player partnered with the P7s.  Only issue for me is the very small touch-screen - not good for someone with large hands and fingers like mine - I find navigating the iBasso to be really tricky, particularly when on the move.  But I put up with it in the name of great sound...

While the Astell & Kern AK Jr might offer a larger screen and better UI, I'm not sure whether the SQ would be much better, if at all.  Same goes for the AK100 and whether the AK120 offers something so much better, I don't know.  However, I'm intrigued by the Sony ZX2 and the new Onkyo, the latter really looks like it could be something.  

So, a question to owners of the Sony, how are getting on with it over the long term, and more specifically, does it offer a line out option on the headphone jack for use in the car or into a normal hifi amp?  Look forward to hearing from you, Bert, Chris et al...

Very happy with mine. With the Shure 846's in tow it still sounds sublime and is such a good portable listening experience for when i'm at work. I'm just using it purely as a music player and all other features are turned off, so battery life is excellent too. I could not tell any difference between lossless and uncompressed files so this allowed me to convert my whole library to lossless (ALAC) freeing up space and allowing me to take more files around with me. Good luck with choosing Richard - some really excellent solutions around. 

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

ChrisSU posted:

andrew jameson posted:

Probably a dumb question but could I export files from my HDX onto one of these new gen players?

I have zero knowledge of or interest in file formats but if it's easy and i don't have to convert anything then I might buy one of these ... also i'm presuming that the metadata would be preserved?

This works with my Sony, I jut plug it into my Mac, and drag music from my Unitiserve onto it. Simple. If you store WAVs on your HDX, I'd suggest converting them to FLAC, as non-Naim devices cannot usually read metadata from Naim CD rips that are stored as WAV. Also, the smaller FLAC file sizes are likely to be an advantage on a portable device. 

Chris, last time I looked Naim rips did not store metadata in WAV files but in a seperate database... Much windows based software can read at least basic WAV metadata, it appears much Apple software such as iTunes  can't for some reason. 

However for portable devices I would have thought made consideration is space, and FLAC at maximum compression would be advantageous... But again Apple software tends not too support Flac

Simon

 

I've never bothered to delve into the details, but putting Naim ripped WAVs onto a memory stick, I found even a Naim streamer can't read any metadata except for track names. It's the same on a Mac, as you might expect. Curiously, my car is able to see album and artist tags, which is as much as I need while driving, so a USB stick full of Unitiserve WAV rips lives in my car. 

Thanks all for your responses to my earlier post.  A Sony is on its way here for me to try out.  A bit of a niggle though is that line out or digital out requires extra Sony add ons - not exactly cheap (the docking station is the cost of a basic DAP all on its own) and for some bizarre reason, not easily available outside of Japan!  I guess the market for these DAPs is severely limited thanks to the prevalence and music ability of smart phones.  I'm sure many would see them as a complete irrelevance...

Anyone looking for a really portable setup might be interested in the new versions of the Audioquest Dragonfly. Before I bought my Sony, I used the original Dragonfly with my Macbook, which was a neat solution for travelling, and gave a nice lift in sound quality. The new Red, and cheaper Black models claim to improve on the original and 1.2 versions....but the big attraction, to my mind, is that they now work with iPhones. You connect using an Apple Lightning to USB Camera Adapter. They claim a 2.1v output, which seems fairly respectable. If I hadn't splashed out on a Sony, I might have taken a punt on one of these for £169.

Bert Schurink posted:

Originally Posted by Jan-Erik Nordoen:

Before shelling out for the Walkman NW-ZX2 (which runs on Android 4.2), have a look and listen to the Sony Experia Z3 smartphone. The Z3 also does Hi-Res audio and (from what I've read) appears to offer the same technology as the Walkman, with the big plus that it's a phone, and a waterproof one at that.   

IPhone is my phone and I wanted a special device for only mobile audio.

i use an ADL X1 (DAC + HP amp) to convert my iPhone and laptop into excellent mobile "hi-fi" players

being on the road half of my time i make quite heavy use of them

My Sony's memory is full, so it's time to get a MicroSD card for it. Does anyone have any suggestions for cards to use (or avoid) here? Do high read or write speeds matter? Otherwise I might just go for the cheapest 128GB one as they are pretty cheap now, and I can live without a more expensive 200GB one. 

Cheers, Chris

200GB is around 90-99USD in amazon, i strongly suggest also to have listen Noble K10 universal or custom better to go with Sony ZX2, they are mobil sound nirvana together, also for whom interested with a ZX2 to go with a Japanese version if they are planing to use it with a on-ear/over-ear setup, the EU version is volume restricted, it is fine with iems though....   

Emre posted:

200GB is around 90-99USD in amazon, i strongly suggest also to have listen Noble K10 universal or custom better to go with Sony ZX2, they are mobil sound nirvana together, also for whom interested with a ZX2 to go with a Japanese version if they are planing to use it with a on-ear/over-ear setup, the EU version is volume restricted, it is fine with iems though....   

Thanks for the suggestion Emre, the Nobles look interesting - but having splashed the cash on a pair of Shure SE846, I'm done with earphone purchases for now! I'm just trying to make a more mundane decision, weather I need to spend any more than £24 on a 128GB microSD card.

İ used both 60mb/s 75mb/s, sometimes it takes whlile to copy big files but it is ok, so get a economic one, switching is quite easy so it can be even used with two like i do, 846s are nice iems also enjoy them with zx2  you may invest on a auneb1 amp to go with zx2 for on-ear  hard to drive headphones in future!