For my speaker design & building work, the joy of listening to other people's rigs, and measuring acoustics, I have carried a stand-alone portable digital player for quite a long time. That way I have instant access to all of my reference recordings and test tones/tracks which I know for a fact are accurately being reproduced and are not compressed or manipulated in any way.
In 2018 I acquired a Sony NW-A45/L Walkman high resolution Portable DAP, and it served me extremely well. It saw the world in all my travels and was the source for tens of thousands of hours of speaker/room auditioning and critical listening. I've never liked how small it was, as the touchscreen was not simple to navigate, especially with my eyesight being poor. The battery finally started showing signs of not lasting as long as I expected, and I decided that after 7 years it was time for a new player.
I did my research, asked for advice, and studied the reviews and decided the software I was already so familiar with, Sony's Music Center, is still the best out there and so I settled on a new, larger, and higher quality Sony player - the Sony NW-ZX707 which offers a more robust audio platform, a larger screen, and full Android support that allows it to behave like a phone/tablet without cell service. While I don't intend to use it for reading the news or checking out X or Instagram, it is kinda cool to have those options.
I've been using it for a few months, and I am very impressed. It has enough power output to drive all my headphones with ease, except my old-school studio cans that have a very high impedance. It also can act as an excellent stand-alone DAC or drive balanced headphones if I ever feel the need for it. I like it.
I added a 1TB microSD card and proceeded to copy onto the unit about 75% of my ripped to FLAC CD collection and test tracks without issue. I like the player's interface well enough, as well. I tend to listen to whole albums, and the interface is easy to navigate for that.
Good stuff, and highly recommended if such a device is needed and justified.
In 2018 I acquired a Sony NW-A45/L Walkman high resolution Portable DAP, and it served me extremely well. It saw the world in all my travels and was the source for tens of thousands of hours of speaker/room auditioning and critical listening. I've never liked how small it was, as the touchscreen was not simple to navigate, especially with my eyesight being poor. The battery finally started showing signs of not lasting as long as I expected, and I decided that after 7 years it was time for a new player.
I did my research, asked for advice, and studied the reviews and decided the software I was already so familiar with, Sony's Music Center, is still the best out there and so I settled on a new, larger, and higher quality Sony player - the Sony NW-ZX707 which offers a more robust audio platform, a larger screen, and full Android support that allows it to behave like a phone/tablet without cell service. While I don't intend to use it for reading the news or checking out X or Instagram, it is kinda cool to have those options.
I've been using it for a few months, and I am very impressed. It has enough power output to drive all my headphones with ease, except my old-school studio cans that have a very high impedance. It also can act as an excellent stand-alone DAC or drive balanced headphones if I ever feel the need for it. I like it.
I added a 1TB microSD card and proceeded to copy onto the unit about 75% of my ripped to FLAC CD collection and test tracks without issue. I like the player's interface well enough, as well. I tend to listen to whole albums, and the interface is easy to navigate for that.
Good stuff, and highly recommended if such a device is needed and justified.
