Review on 🎧 Sony NW-WM1 Hi-Fi Player: 256GB, NFC, Bluetooth, Golden - Superior Sound Quality by Adisorn Yang ᠌

Name: 🎧 Sony NW-WM1 Hi-Fi Player: 256GB, NFC, Bluetooth, Golden - Superior Sound Quality
Item: 🎧 Sony NW-WM1 Hi-Fi Player: 256GB, NFC, Bluetooth, Golden - Superior Sound Quality
Rating: 5

April 13, 2023

Matches the description completely, very satisfied.

I listened in detail, and then I bought this player in conjunction with the Sony MDR-Z1R ears. I connected both 3.5mm and balanced cable. Compared with Astell & Kern SP1000M at the same price. And with WM1A. And also listened to several other top-end closed headphones, of which Sony turned out to be both the most comfortable and the cheapest. And with detailed listening, perhaps the most balanced in sound. We can say that I chose not separate ears or a player, but a bunch. And I chose Sony's bundle as a system.

A&K has a different balanced jack (2.5mm) and none of the ears I chose come with this cable. But 4.4mm is supported by some Sony and Sennheisers out of the box. With a 3.5mm connection, A&K sounds better (louder anyway), but in terms of balance, Sony's bundle is noticeably better. Sony has a much longer battery life, it (1Z) has 2 times more internal memory (or you can take 2 times cheaper WM1A, there will be the same amount). Sony has full-fledged push-button control of basic functions. It would seem a trifle, but when listening to music on relaxation, you don’t really want to be stupid on the screen once again, and so the whole life is on this screen. And in general, Sony's interface seemed more thoughtful and convenient.

In a face-to-face comparison of WM1A against WM1Z, Z'ka won. The most surprising thing is that I really heard the difference that they write about (less emotional, more analytical sound of the younger model). I think that if I took WM1A, then after a couple of weeks of listening I would have already forgotten how Z'ka sounds and calmed down. Or maybe not!

In short, if anyone wants to hear what the 1Z is really capable of, they need to use the right ears, the right connection, the right settings, and put on some good hi-res music. I listened to a selection of Oleg Bocharov found on the net (many thanks to him in absentia!), As well as some of my own classics and pop jazz (Adel). Connected by balance. About player settings. Please _turn off_ high gain and dynamic volume normalization first. Other settings affect, but less.

Pros

* heaviness is good, heaviness is reliable! (C) *very high quality build * battery lasts a little less than an eternity * does not heat up * perfect teamwork with the MDR-Z1R and other top-end Sony headphones via a balanced cable. By the way, the new top Sennheisers (800s, 820, 660s, IE800s) also come with a 4.4mm balanced cable. * actually the presence of this balanced 4.4mm connector. * very convenient control * Thank you Lord, there is no Android here. There is nothing to fail, there is nothing to eat the battery just like that. * interesting technologies like hi-res MP3/AAC upsampling, turntable emulation, analog amplifier emulation that really work! For example, it turned out that the mode of adding surface noise of the plate quite well removes the plastic sound of heavily compressed MP3s! And it's understandable why. * can work as a DAC for a computer * in principle, the built-in memory of 256gb (and even 128gb in the younger model) is enough to store a fairly large music library in CD quality (lossless). The presence of a micro-SD slot, I think, closes the issue with hi-res storage. * the kit comes with a branded case, not very convenient, but partially solving the problem of a gypsy look

Cons

* of course I would like it easier * the golden color gives off a gypsy, to put it mildly. But there is nothing to do. But you take it in your hands and you understand that life is a success! )) * the advantages of purely digital amplification were higher (economical, no heating). There are also disadvantages - it does not shake high-impedance headphones well. And in general, power, it is felt, is not always enough. But not in the case of Sonek Z1R with their 64 ohms. * non-obvious influence of the high gain setting on the sound quality, although this setting is separate, and the "direct" mode does not touch it. * the sound quality when connected via a regular 3.5mm mini-jack is worse than in terms of balance. But again, you need to turn off high gain, then not everything is so bad * USB connector (charging, communication with a computer) is proprietary, it is better not to lose the wire. Spare costs 1200r and it still needs to be found. * Write that it takes a long time to ate the database. But this is if a lot of music is added after connecting to a computer, or if a new card is inserted, full of music. And so quite smart.