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Sony NW-ZX2 Digital Media Player

Sony NW-ZX2 Digital Media Player

When Apple discontinued its 160GB iPod Classic portable music players, a funny thing happened: Their prices on eBay doubled overnight. And while many tech-pundits see dedicated portable players as an ergonomic dead end (supplanted by ubiquitous smartphones), crowd-funded sales in excess of $3 million for Neil Young’s Pono player demonstrate that music lovers still have a healthy appetite for dedicated portable media players.

Sony, which created the first “Walkman” portable player, has been involved with portable audio since its inception, but recently has not been as dominant in the market as it was in the early days. That could change with its latest offering, the NW-ZX2. Priced at $1199, this Android-based player can handle any commercially available music file including DSD128, plus it also plays videos from YouTube, Hulu, and Facebook. The NW-ZX2 has WiFi and Bluetooth support. In short, the new NW-ZX2 does virtually everything an Android-based smartphone can do except make and receive phone calls. And it sounds much better than any smartphone I’ve heard.

Tech Tour
Instead of an oddly shaped or “look at me, I’m different” case, the Sony NW-ZX2 is conventionally phone-shaped, measuring approximately 2 ½” by 5″ by ½”. Most of its front panel is a 2″ by 3 ½” touchscreen. The NW-ZX2’s enclosure has a matte-black anodized finish with just a hint of texture, making it easier to hold than early iPhones with a mirror finish. The back of the NW-ZX2 is inset with textured genuine leather that further enhances its gripability. Ever since my first iPod Touch lasted exactly 30 minutes before it jumped out of my shirt’s breast pocket and into the toilet, I’ve valued players with less slippery surfaces that remain in pockets even when gravity nudges them in other directions. The Sony NW-ZX2 feels secure in my hands (or pockets) due to its shape and thickness. Weight-wise, it achieves a happy medium between being neither too heavy (like the Sony PHA-2 DAC/amp or Colorfly C4 portable player) nor too light and unsubstantial like an iPhone 5. No amount of time in your thigh pocket will bend or otherwise alter the NW-ZX2’s case.

Sony has incorporated a number of new technologies into the NW-XZ2. First and foremost is its use of supercapacitors to enhance power output capabilities. According to a Sony technical paper, a supercapacitor can augment a Class D power amplifier’s peak power output by over three times! This makes it possible for the NW-ZX2’s headphone amplifier to produce quite a bit more power during dynamic peaks. Also, the supercapacitors increase battery life by relieving the battery of some of the peak-power demands that can reduce its reserves.

The NW-ZX2 employs two crystal clocks. Sony’s previous (but not distributed in the U.S.) player, the NW-ZX1, could only do 44.1, 88.2, and 176.4kHz natively, but the ZX2 adds 48, 96, 192kHz native rates, as well as native DSD64 and DSD128.

Sony NW-ZX2 Digital Media Player

The NW-ZX2’s chassis is constructed of solid aluminum. The interior of the chassis is lined with gold-plated copper to reduce noise and improve isolation between electronic subsections. Other “tweaks” include use of high-purity solder and MELF capacitors in the analog output stage. These high-cost metal-electrode caps are usually only found in custom-tweaked or megabuck components, and are currently the best parts of their kind available. The NW-ZX2 also employs seven Os-Con caps, three in power filtering and four in the analog circuit.

Ergonomics
Anyone who has spent any time with an Android-based phone or tablet (such as the Sony Xperia) will find himself right at home with the NW-ZX2. Upon startup you will be greeted by that swoopy Android graphic and unlock screen. Once unlocked with an upward swipe (if you choose not to use the password lock), the NW-ZX2 will display its home screen, including whichever app you had open when you last used the device. The NW-ZX2 comes with “Play” as the primary music app. It looks very much like the music app on Sony’s HAP-Z1ES full-sized digital player and includes many of the same features, including SenseMe mood channels, playlists, and multiple view options.

Through Google’s “Play Store” you can acquire additional apps. I added Tidal as well as Oppo’s HA-1 remote-control app. With the preloaded Google Chrome browser you can do anything that you would do with a web-enabled smartphone, including watching videos, logging into Facebook, or reading e-mail. You can also set up the NW-ZX2 so it can instantly access your Gmail account. The only limitation is that the NW-ZX2 needs access to a WiFi hotspot to enable all this space-age connectivity—it has no other way to directly access Web-based content.

If you use and like the Android operating system, you will be very comfortable with the NW-ZX2. But if you are an Android newbie, there will be a learning curve. My review unit arrived without any instructions (it was only the second one in the U.S.), so I had to fly blind during my initial listening sessions. Except for a minor panic attack when I managed to mute the NW-ZX2’s outputs (I unmuted it somehow and haven’t had the problem since), I had no operational issues with the NW-ZX2. I’ve gone back and forth, playing tracks from Tidal, then Sony’s Play app, then YouTube vids via Chrome with no hang-ups or inordinately long delays between selections. Also I could field e-mail and surf the Web while listening to music with no hiccups. After several weeks of use, the NW-ZX2 and its Android OS have proven to be stable and reliable.

The only notable operational issue I experienced with the NW-ZX2 was when I disconnected it from my MacPro desktop computer. If you merely click “disconnect” from the NW-ZX2’s screen, instead of first moving the NW-ZX2’s icon from your Mac desktop to the trash, you can corrupt the contents of any micro-SD card mounted in the NW-ZX2. This happened to a 32GB card, and it took me almost two hours of copying to repopulate it fully. To avoid this catastrophe, I suggest following Apple’s “best practices” and getting in the habit of always moving USB icons to the trash (or virtually “ejecting” them) before disconnecting the physical device itself.

 

One particular ergonomic area where the iPod Classic long excelled was “blind” in-pocket use. As much as I love touchscreen-controlled devices, they are virtually impossible to use or navigate by touch alone. The iPod Classic’s selector-clickwheel still rules when it comes to on-the-go use. And while the NW-ZX2 does have dedicated navigation buttons on one side, when it’s in screen-save mode (with the screen blacked-out), only the pause and skip-forward and skip-back buttons are active. If you want to adjust the volume you will have to push the unlock/power button or pause button, and then you can adjust the volume by using the up/down buttons located below the power button. With some practice you can probably do this while the NW-ZX2 is still in your pocket and still in its leather case. If you use the shuffle mode and have a wide variety of music with differing “average” volumes, you may find yourself needing to adjust volume “on the fly”; here, the NW-ZX2’s push-push scenario for volume adjustment is a less-than-optimal solution. Of course, you could activate the NW-ZX2’s automatic volume “leveling,” which will adjust all your tracks to have similar max volume levels. But for most listening situations where I could manually adjust my levels, I preferred leaving this auto-volume adjustment feature set to off.

Importing music from my music library from my Mac to the NW-ZX2 was as simple as drag-and-drop. According to the owner’s manual, the NW-ZX2 will support up to eight layers of sub-folders, so you won’t have to change your folder hierarchy to bring music into the device. The combination of the NW-ZX2’s 128GB internal storage and its micro-SD card slot (which will currently support up to a 128GB card) gives the ZX2 a maximum storage capacity of 256GB (but remember some small part of this storage is delegated to the OS). Although not enough storage for an entire mature music library, it is certainly large enough to supply music for several long vacations. And if you insist on bringing your entire music library with you, no matter where you go, the NW-ZX2 supports any number of additional micro-SD cards, so nothing except your budget prevents you from acquiring a sufficient supply to hold all your music.

Although populating the Sony NW-ZX2 is simple and reliable, it’s not exactly a hands-free operation. So it’s a nice touch that the NW-ZX2 offers a desktop app called Sony Media Go that’s similar to the HAP-1 app for the Sony HAP-Z1ES.  Although it’s only compatible with Windows-based PCs, it allows users to set up a system that regularly transfers new music to a NW-ZX2 device from their main library and manages these files automatically.

One of the best features of the iPod Classic (and other iPods) was the way it easily integrated with the entire iTunes ecosystem, both on- and off-line. The Sony NW-ZX2 has a leg up on many other manufacturers’ current portable players because it also integrates into a larger digital eco-system, except from Google instead of Apple. Is Google’s virtual world as slick and well integrated as Apple’s iTunes, App store, and iTunes library match? Nope. But Sony’s choice of Google’s open Android operating system does allow for a potential level of flexibility, device customization, and functionality that can’t be matched by any completely Apple-centric portable device.

Battery life ranks as one of the performance parameters that seems less important than sonics when shopping for a portable player, yet it often ends up being one of the principal complaints that new users have with their players. On paper the NW-ZX2 seems to have excellent battery life—60 hours playing MP3 files and 33 hours playing high-resolution files. However, in the real world my playing time was quite different. When I first received the player, I found that something was draining the battery even when the NW-ZX2 was in sleep mode—if the player sat for a day, the battery would be nearly dead when I turned the unit on. The only two apps I was using were “Play” and “Tidal,” but for some reason when one was stopped, the other would begin playing. After a couple of days this problem vanished. Why? Neither Sony’s engineers nor I could duplicate it again, so I have to chalk it up to “teething pains,” rather than an acknowledged and repeatable bug.

Sound
Back in the early years of high-performance audio, when Harry Pearson was developing his yin/yang sound paradigm, audio source devices were more harmonically and dynamically colored than they are today. Identifying whether a source device was warmer or cooler than neutral was easier then. Today, finding any current-production portable player that is archetypically “tube-like” or “solid-state-like” is nearly impossible. It’s not that every device sounds the same, but that the sonic differences among top-tier portable players are subtler. More often than not, the overriding sonic factor is how well their analog output stages interface with a pair of headphones rather than the “voicing” that the manufacturer has added to the player’s sound. During the review I used the NW-ZX2 with a wide variety of headphones. Regardless of their type or price, the ’phones themselves varied from neutrality far more obviously than any of the top-tier portable players I compared with the NW-ZX2.

In my experience the principal reason that a portable music device doesn’t perform up to its full sonic potential is a mismatch between the device’s headphone amplifier and the headphones connected to it. With sensitive in-ear monitors, some portable devices have a continuous hiss or hum because the amplifier isn’t quiet enough or delivers too much gain. Conversely, many portable players lack enough amplifier power to drive low-sensitivity, high-impedance, full-sized headphones to satisfying volume levels. The Sony NW-ZX2 proved to be among the more “headphone-friendly” portable players I’ve tried, in that it supported a wide range of headphone sensitivities.

Given that the NW-ZX2 is a portable device, I think it’s safe to assume that more often than not it will be paired with in-ear monitors, which are generally higher in sensitivity than full-sized, over-ear cans. With my most sensitive in-ears, the 115dB/1mW Westone ES-5 custom monitors, I could hear only the very faintest midband hiss when no music was playing. With any live music track, including my own live classical concert recordings, room noise masked this low-level hiss completely. Switching to the only-slightly-less-sensitive Jerry Harvey Roxanne in-ear monitors I heard nothing but silence, even during the spaces between cuts. Other in-ear monitors I tried, including the Ultimate Ears In-Ear Reference Monitors, Cardas EM5813, and Etymotic 4Ps, were all dead quiet and able to play well above my maximum high-volume comfort zone.

With the far-less-sensitive 90dB/1mW HiFiMan HE-560 full-sized earphones, the NW-ZX2 delivered enough power to drive them to satisfying volume levels on any commercial release I tried. With my own live recordings, which have on average -5dB lower volume levels, I would have preferred a bit higher output levels. Switching to a pair of even-less-efficient cans—the Beyer-dynamic DT-990 600-ohm version—resulted in lower-than-ideal maximum volume levels, even on standard commercial releases. If you must use something with extremely low sensitivity and high impedance, you may need to employ an additional external headphone amplifier such as the new Sony PHA-3 (which can drive the DT-990s to well above satisfying levels even with my own lowest-level recordings).

With the U.S.-made Grado RS-1 headphones—longtime audiophile favorites—the NW-ZX2 delivered more than adequate volume with every music file in my library. Although the Grados aren’t that difficult to drive, they do need an amplifier capable of some power to sound their best, especially when it comes to bass control. Through the NW-ZX2, the RS-1’s bass took on a slightly woolly character that lacked some speed and definition compared to the Oppo HA-1 or Woo Audio WA-7 “Fireflies” desktop headphone amplifiers. The RS-1’s upper midrange through the NW-ZX2 was also a trifle more prominent than with either of the two desktop headphone amplifiers.

 

One of the best full-sized headphone pairings with the NW-ZX2 was the new $199 group-buy AKG K7XX headphones from MassDrop. In addition, this version of the venerable K-701/702 design had a better fit due to slightly softer earpads, and its neutral sound signature mated nicely with the NW-ZX2. The upper frequencies were lively and well defined without sounding grainy or hyper-articulated. The bass response of the K7XX, which is 3dB higher than that of the original K-701 according to AKG, mated well with the NW-ZX2, giving the K-7XX more warmth and musicality than the original version.

The other standout full-sized headphone pairing was the Oppo PM-1 fitted with PM-2 earpads. The PM-1 is among the easiest-to-drive and most universally device-friendly, full-sized, over-ear headphone currently available. As you might guess, the NW-ZX2 had no trouble driving the PM-1s well past most normal-humans’ comfort level, and this combination resulted in a sense of dynamic effortlessness that is rare in portable players. Also, the NW-ZX2’s built-in five-band EQ allows users add a touch more high-frequency emphasis to the PM-1 at 2.5kHz and 6kHz.

Besides the five-band EQ, the NW-ZX2 also has some additional “sound-shaping” controls. Although Old School audiophiles largely eschew EQ adjustments, headphone enthusiasts often employ “frequency curves” to modify the sound of their cans. You may or may not find the NW-ZX2’s additional sonic modifiers of value, depending on your tastes. Under “Sound Adjustment” there is “Surround Sound,” which has five options: off, studio, club, concert hall, and matrix. While I’m sure there are some tracks that will benefit from these DSP modifiers, I used “off” 99.9 percent of the time. The NW-ZX2 also includes something called “Dynamic Normalizer,” which reduces the differences between output levels of tracks. While I can see where this could be of value in certain situations, again I left this off for most of my listening.

One sound enhancement I did find valuable was Sony’s DSEE HX, which I have previously experienced on the Sony HAP-Z1ES music player. It works on all MP3 and lossy formats to improve high-frequency extension.

Obviously the NW-ZX2 ($1,199) has some serious competition—principally from Astell&Kern’s AK100 II ($899) and AK120 II ($1499), Calyx Audio’s M player ($999), as well as Sony’s own, more affordable A17 Walkman hi-res player ($299). Although I did not have the A17, AK100 II or AK120 II on hand, I did have the AK240 ($2495) and Calyx M. For sonic comparisons I used Tidal and my own high-resolution DSD128 recordings. Headphones for the comparison included both high-sensitivity in-ears, such as the Westone ES-5, Jerry Harvey Roxannes, and Ultimate Ears In-Ear Reference Monitors, as well as lower-sensitivity full-sized headphones, such as the HiFiMan HE-560, Audeze LCD-2, Mr. Speakers Alpha Primes, Beyer-dynamic DT-990 600-ohm version, and the Oppo PM-1.

With all three players—the Astell&Kern AK240, Calyx Audio M, and Sony NW-ZX2—the headphones had more pronounced colorations and sonic personalities than any of the players. Of the three, the Calyx M delivered the most drive for difficult headphones, such as the Beyerdynamic DT 990 600-ohm. Also when coupled to the Mr. Speakers Alpha Prime headphones, the Calyx had slightly more low-bass extension, giving electronic dance music a bit more throb. All three delivered hiss-free sonics with most 115dB sensitive in-ears (but the Sony did have a slight hiss with the Westone ES-5).

Listening to the same stream of Justin Townes Earl’s latest album Absent Fathers from Tidal, I could clearly hear the increased fidelity from the NW-ZX2 compared to my iPhone 5. With my AKG K-7XX headphones the music had a larger soundstage through the NW-ZX2, greater three-dimensionality, and a more natural and organic harmonic balance. The upper midrange was less “splitchy,” and lacked the slightly brittle character in the upper midrange that I heard through the iPhone.

Moving up the price ladder, when I compared my own live recordings played through the NW-ZX2 with the Calyx M, the differences were much less pronounced, and with some headphones the differences between these two players’ sonic signatures were nil. As I mentioned earlier, the Calyx could and did drive my most difficult-to-drive headphones better than any other portable player I’ve used, so the Calyx had an edge there. But with less demanding headphones, the sonic differences were so slight that many times in my own A/B tests I could not reliably tell one from the other.

Pitting the Sony NW-ZX2 against the twice-as-expensive Astell&Kern AK240 player was, for me, a sonic dead-heat. Hard as I tried, using the most revealing headphones and in-ear monitors, I could not detect any readily identifiable sonic differences between the two players when all the sonic shape-changing modifiers in both players were turned off. Once I activated any of the NW-ZX2 or AK240’s filters, EQs, or soundfield settings, I could reliably tell which was which.

As for which is “better” or “the best” portable player…for most users it will probably come down to features, ergonomics, and which player’s operating system is more in tune with a prospective buyer’s own preferences. For some purchasers, Sony’s Android OS may be a bit too busy or feature-laden; for others, the AK240’s two-way streaming may be redundant. Obviously, Sony has an edge price-wise, but Astell&Kern also offers its less expensive (and comparably priced) AK120 II and AK100 II players.

I compared the NW-ZX2 with my (now-discontinued) first-generation Astell&Kern AK100. With higher-impedance headphones the NW-ZX2 did a much better job of retaining dynamic drive and bass control. With higher-sensitivity in-ears the sonic differences between the two players were much less pronounced. I still preferred the NW-ZX2 with higher sensitivity in-ears, but its advantages were primarily in soundstaging and dimensionality. (The Sony consistently produced a larger soundstage with greater separation among instruments and a more pronounced sense of three-dimensionality.)

For a final A/B listening test, I compared the Sony NW-ZX2 with the Oppo HA-1 desktop DAC/headphone amplifier. With similar prices, the two have some overlapping capabilities such as being able to play Tidal streams. When I compared their sound on the Tidal stream of Joshua Radin’s latest album, Onward and Sideways, I found the two produced equally excellent sonics, capturing the intimate quality of Radin’s vocals and the gutty edge of his fingerpicked acoustic guitar. Both produced equally large soundstages with similar dimensional characteristics. I could live happily with either.

Wrap-Up
Looking at 2015 CES press coverage, I saw many tech journalists and bloggers writing that the NW-XZ2 was “the return of the Walkman,” which is less than entirely true. Sony has been making portable players continually since its first Walkman cassette player appeared in 1979. What has changed is that the company now offers the A17 Walkman along with the NW-ZX2, Sony’s first cost-no-object digital player designed to challenge premium players from other companies. The NW-ZX2 reestablishes Sony as one of the preeminent manufacturers of portable audio playback devices. And, yes, Sony has succeeded masterfully in achieving its design goals—the NW-ZX2 delivers excellent sound, plays any digital format thrown at it, and looks, feels, and responds like a high-performance product should. If you had any doubts about Sony’s commitment to high-quality audio, the NW-ZX2 should put them to rest.

SPECS & PRICING

Memory capacity: 128GB
External memory: Micro-SD (card not included)
Key features: High-resolution audio playback, S-Master HX digital amplifier, DSEE HX (Digital Sound Enhancement Engine), ClearAudio+, Clear Bass, equalizer, VPT, one-touch listening via NFC and Bluetooth connectivity
Compatible audio formats: MP3, WMA, FLAC (192kHz/24bit), linear PCM (192kHz/24bit), WAV (192kHz/24bit), AAC-LC, HE-AAC, Apple Lossless (192kHz/24bit), AIFF (192kHz/24bit), DSD (2.8MHz, 5.6MHz)
Battery life: MP3 up to 60 hours
Charging time: Approximately 4.5 hours
Operating platform: Android 4.2
Display: 4-inch FWVGA (854 × 480) TRILUMINOS Display for mobile
Communication mode: WiFi (IEEE 802.11b/g/n/a)
Bluetooth: Bluetooth (A2DP/AVRCP/OPP/HID/SPP)
Accessories: USB cable, leather carrying case, spacer (headphones not included)
Dimensions: 65.1mm x  131.2mm x 18.5mm
Weight: Approximately 235g
Price: $1199

Sony Electronics Inc.
16530 Via Esprillo
San Diego, CA 92127

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