Sony ZX300

Ouch, that same cable is way more £45 on amazon uk. Oh well, @Forza AudioWorks is putting together a nice one for me (nudge ).

Anyway, I'm rather anal about album art & the ZX300 (and all Sony devices it seems) is annoyingly fussy about this. I've been looking for a way to batch convert jpgs from progressive to baseline to get around the issue. I struggled in Photoshop, but just today found that IrfanView does the job. Here's a quick & dirty...



Tick "Include subfolders"
Set "Output directory" to $D so saved files go into the source folder (will overwrite).
Click "Add all"
Then open the "Options" screen...



Ensure "Save as Progressive JPG" is unticked...



You can also resize etc the images in the "Advanced" dialogue box if you like (I tend to go with 600x600 for portable devices).
Click "Start Batch" to do the conversion....




Finally, I'll batch embed the images into the tracks using an action I created in mp3tag, although you can do that a hundred different ways.

 

Dammit. No 2-pin connectors for that cable. Otherwise looks like good value for money! Nice find.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Extension-Yi...g=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=BPDFNSTJZB5KTZSBP4HB&th=1
Here you go!

 

That will teach me to read and not look at the pictures.
Also found this on AliExpress, so bought it from there.

 

Do you feel that it is a noticeable improvement going from the normal 3.5mm to the balanced output or is the effect rather subtle?

 

You get 4 times the power, so it shouldn't be that subtle.

 

It's noticeable to me. The single ended output wasn't that much better (if it was better) than my Samsung S8+ phone. If that was the final sound, I do not feel that it would have warranted a $100 increase let alone the price of the ZX300. With balanced, I do find the price worth it over my phone especially now that I have to carry a second device so the inconvenience is also worth it.

Also, keep in mind that I have the joybuy version ZX300A so it's the 16gb one at a discount compared to the $700 or so ZX300. I'm not sure how I would feel if I paid $700 instead of around half of that.

 

Well, I'm going to say it's very noticeable, just on the fact that I notice it at all. I rarely hear small differences, so by that logic, it must be very noticeable indeed if I hear it. That's on 2 different Sony daps that I heard a difference, never on any of the AK daps I owned, which would be several, upto their flagship (at the time) AK240, also including the Fiio X7, and Ibasso DX200.

 

Sony definitely puts more effort into the balanced output on their DAPs - worth taking advantage of the 4.4 if you can

 

Going to balanced on an Onkyo DP-X1 I felt that the improvement was noticeable.

 

Went balanced out of the zx300 on the Andromeda and aeon closed recently. For the Andromeda there was an improvement but I doubt I could quantify it well. I lack the experience to properly describe the difference with the Andro.

For the Aeon closed, I hate this phrase, but it really is night and day. I know this is a power rather than balanced issue. Single ended with the Aeon there is no bass and obvious distortion(I think only 50mw so not shocked at all). With the balanced output I really quite enjoy it a lot this way. Listened to Led Zepplin 1 on a loop and the sub bass returned, no distortion. It is still better from a non portable amp, but this is good enough for me to stop stacking which can be awesome but in my opinion is a pain in the ass.

Edit: I should have said no obvious distortion. No golden ears here.

 

The impedance seems to be different between the SE and the BE on this. The MD plus sound thinner and more treble focused going balanced. I'm not sure it's worth it.

 

As far as stereo setup goes, I usually like SE signal route more, but with Sony DAPs I can easily agree with what you wrote.

 

I have yet to get hands on a ZX300, but it has been my observation (so far) that the MD Plus does not benefit from balanced in the way that Andromeda does on almost any source I have used (so far). This includes various schiit amps (although the difference is not so profound there), various fiio daps, and even my little ES100 bluetooth adapter. I have not been super anal about comparisons, but I am chalking this up to impedence on portable sources, where the difference is most notable.

 

I just noticed the balanced Yinyoo cable I bought has an resistance of 9ohm. That alone is is bound to change the sound of the earphone Have to wait for my ZX300 to come back from service, before I can test this.

 

Finally got my cable in, this thing is super supple and glasses friendly, looks more quality than some of the cables I've bought in the past like btg audio.
Only thing is the connector barrel is a circle and my future Sonic's mg5hx has a recessed socket, oops;ditto my harmony 8.2 but the pins are long enough to fit in this case.

Overall though this is a hell of a deal for 20 bucks. Thanks for the tip!
http://imgur.com/a/quOJZKy

 

Forgive my ignorance, but are there any sonic differences with the ZX300 versus ZX300A on JoyBuy?

 

Nope Tested them side by side last weekend. They are identical. Makes the zx300a a damn good buy.

 

I received the cable and have been very impressed with it. Shoutout to @Ice-man for the tip.
These seems to be well-made and while not a perfect fit for my Stagedivers ( they have recessed pinhole). Cable is very soft and supple. Really a joy to use with glasses. The balanced output on the ZX300 is noticeably improved in the frequency extremes over the single ended version. Tighter and more focused sound.
I am not sure how much this change is because of the cables resistance or the output impendance difference between single ended/balance version.