[Crimson]

Don't know about those who say they would never put music on a phone, but damn, straight up redbook into a portable dac/amp sounds marvelous. With good cans, of course.

[charmerci]

If any portable digital player sounds as good as this setup or my Sony D6C setup, I would get one.

I have tried the Astell & Kern AK240 & also Calyx M players, guess what I would not swap my Sony D6C setup for them.

Oh it is a cassette player!     I didn't think it was.

[eclein]

I wish they'd release this Sony, I check my email everyday for the info.....sadly I must wait for more cash to accumulate....if anyone gets one please tell us how it sounds etc....
I took a walk today with my little Fiio X3 hi res player and some nice iems, total cost of both was about $225ish.....that little rig sounds wonderful. I tried to find a reason to bitch about the sound, I really tried and couldn't.
 IEM's and some good hi res music like some of the hd tracks stuff.....its fabulous.
Remember the first time you heard a portable player?? Very first time?? Mine was like...years ago with a 1st gen Walkman and I thought I died and went to heaven....loved them ever since!!! 
 

[Guy 13]

Hi all.
I remember the first time I've listen to a Sony Walkman
about 35 years ago.
I thought at that time, that the sound was very good for such small unit.
I was really impressed.
However, when I listen later on for the first time to a Sony Discman
I thought that the sound was not better than the Walkman.
Now my iPod sound better than the Walkman and the Discman,
especially when I sue it with my Sennheiser HD-570 and HD-650.
I have to admit that as the years add up, I am less demanding.

Guy 13

[woodsyi]

Sony has them in stock.

[JimJ]

Non-smartphone users will be relegated to a market niche. Sorry...

I don't know if anyone will remember Sony/BMG's past foibles with music distribution (rootkits, anyone?) but they'll have to make a pretty compelling argument why their service is better than Big White's.

[Russell Dawkins]

On second perusal of the formats supported, I find it disappointing that DSD (consumer speak = SACD) is not on the list–especially since Sony invented it in order to archive their Columbia masters in a future-proof way. I wonder what's up with that.
DSD is still spoken of in hushed tones on the recording side of the fence as sounding "more analog" and is generally held in respect, except by hard nosed engineering types who argue that technically PCM processes are superior.

On the surface, it looks like Sony for some reason neglected to take advantage of their "owning" the format and passed on this opportunity to one-up the Pono player, which is the only other serious contender in this field of which I am aware. I wonder if they are keeping this as a future upgrade for a more expensive or newer model.

[Canada Rob]

Enjoy The Music just did a comparison between the two Sony players and the Pono.  Well worth reading.

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/1214/Sony_NWZ_ZX1_NWZ_A17_Pono_Music_Player.htm

[Russell Dawkins]

Enjoy The Music just did a comparison between the two Sony players and the Pono.  Well worth reading.

Indeed; long winded but worth it, and a needed perspective on the whole high-res portable player market. As Steven Rochlin says, CES 2015 should be interesting. I think there must be a frantic effort by a number of players to answer the Pono challenge–and we will be the winners.

[PRELUDE]

About 4 or 5 years ago I looked all over for a player like this but ended up with no luck and bought this 150G classic pod which was a sad day for me. I do not support and like anything build by Apple and never will. I do not like Tunes and hate mp3 but had no choice.
The good news is, it has been acting for few days now. If it dies right now, I will own one of this tomorrow.   

http://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/walkman/nwz-zx1

[K.F.]

Why does anyone need a portable music player these days when we all (mostly) have smart phones that do the same thing, and some of us have Android devices that do indeed have SD card slots to store gobs of music?

But the smartphones mostly do not have very good amps, and the battery do not last very long.

[Canada Rob]

I have been playing around with the brand new Resonessence Labs Herus+ playing 16/44 and 24/96 out of my music configured MacBook using PureMusic through a set of inexpensive Etymotic MC5 in-ears.  I don't ever recall these in-ears sounding this good.  The music has weight and body that I don't recall hearing before, not to mention a great head image.  If you already have an iPhone, iPod, iPad, Android, this DAC/Amp might be an alternative to an all in one player.  A bit bulkier yes, but more versatile and able to drive heavy duty headphones, not to mention run with a computer.

Based on the Enjoy The Music article, if I was going to buy an all in one DAP under a grand it would be the Pono, and the other plus is both it and the Herus+ are North American products (not sure where the Pono is actually made, but all Resonessence Labs products are designed and built in Canada).

This review deals with the Herus hooked up to an iPod touch.
http://www.digitalaudioreview.net/2014/07/improving-ios-audio-with-the-resonessence-labs-herus/

[Russell Dawkins]

This Fiio X5 looks like a more attractive alternative to the Sony by far. $350 and it does DSD. Looks better to me, too, plus it has a killer companion amplifier which nests to it for $120.

http://www.headphone.com/collections/best-of-2014/products/fiio-x5-player








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[Canada Rob]

The Fiio X5 looks like a really nice rig.  It's nice to see a company come out with a matching amp for their player.  Several years ago I had a nice little stack: Decware Zen Head, Cypher Labs Algorhythm Solo, and iPod Touch, played through various Headphones and in-ears.  To my knowledge, the Algorhythm Solo was the first portable DAC to take the digital signal out of the iPod.  However, that stack was bulky compared to the Fiio gear.

[RDavidson]

Speaking of digital out, do any of these players have one? That's the main thing really keeping me from giving any of them a serious look. That, plus lack of DSD support. Maybe this will be a 2015 feature?

[Russell Dawkins]

Speaking of digital out, do any of these players have one? That's the main thing really keeping me from giving any of them a serious look. That, plus lack of DSD support. Maybe this will be a 2015 feature?

If you click on the link I  supplied just above, then download the user manual, you will see that the Fiio X5 has a coax digital out at the top. It also handles DSD. Plugging into the digital out mutes the analog outs.

[RDavidson]

If you click on the link I  supplied just above, then download the user manual, you will see that the Fiio X5 has a coax digital out at the top. It also handles DSD. Plugging into the digital out mutes the analog outs.

Ahhhh.......
Thanks for pointing this out. I made too broad of a statement (based on others I've seen, including Sony's HAP-Z1ES) before paying attention to this player you singled out of the crowd. Those 2 things (Digital out and DSD) in the same unit, make it pretty unique.

[Russell Dawkins]

Ahhhh.......
Thanks for pointing this out. I made too broad of a statement (based on others I've seen, including Sony's HAP-Z1ES) before paying attention to this player you singled out of the crowd. Those 2 things (Digital out and DSD) in the same unit, make it pretty unique.

Yes, it's the most attractive device of its kind I've found so far.

Sony, I've noticed, have a tendency to provide the least ins and outs necessary to sell the product, then after you've bought it and become more familiar with your needs you find
1. It won't do certain things you find you need to be able to do, or
2. You need a special cable for that, and you have to buy that at an inflated price from Sony, as it is a unique Sony-specific design configuration. They even tried that with their power supplies, in the form of requiring a negative center conductor, when pretty much all the rest of the world had adopted + center as a de facto standard. They also went so far as to employ their own proprietary memory sticks in place of the standard types, until pressured by consumer resistance, presumably, into conforming with the rest of the civilized world.

[woodsyi]

This Fiio X5 looks like a more attractive alternative to the Sony by far. $350 and it does DSD. Looks better to me, too, plus it has a killer companion amplifier which nests to it for $120.

http://www.headphone.com/collections/best-of-2014/products/fiio-x5-player








[/img]

Thanks for linking this.  I just ordered it at Amazon for 339.99.  There is a used option for 259 but I figured I wanted hassle free Amazon customer service just in case I had any issues and ordered a new one.  I already had the E12 amp that I was using with an ipod.  So this works out great.  I think FiiO X5, E12 and Westone W40 complete my jogging equipment.    Now I have to figure out what Hirez music to load.  I will have to build the "playlist" since it doesn't have that feature yet...

[Russell Dawkins]

Do you have the HS6 stacking kit? You'll need that:
http://www.headphone.com/products/fiio-hs6
Quite the bargoon at $11.90!