Starting with experience / exposure to good HiFi, listening volume, favourite music genres, source material, all the way to the size, shape of your ears and age will affect the way we hear things. We are all different and this is MY experience with my ears and my hardware. I am nearly 50. I seldom push my music beyond 65-70db. I like all sorts of genres. I use Qobuz as my main source. As always, to make a definitive judgement you should try and decide for yourself.

So. Vanilla Android. Turn on, log in, install your apps. I only have one: Qobuz, straight away downloaded a playlist for offline listening and I was good to go. So far so good.

I don’t have balanced headphones. I use Jerry Harvey customs (13 Pro) and a AKG 872. Both pro headphones but, although over the years I listened to all sorts, some many times more expensive, I would not trade either.

Android experience – a bit slow. Not as bad as 507 but there is a lag. Keep in mind, vanilla Android so probably plenty of things to tune and tweak but I am not an Android power user so this is my experience out of the box.

The build quality is great. Hefty but sitting well in the palm, solidly built, quality look and feel. Gone the cheap feel of the 507 back. The screen is decent and entirely usable but not up to high end smartphone standards.

The battery life is improved compared to the previous generation (507) – with high resolution Qobuz an hour translates in about 10- 15% of battery life, give or take. And the standby is gentle on the battery.

The sound quality is extremely impressive. There are no obvious faults – it’s a mature presentation that doesn’t favour certain aspects of reproduction. It’s a refined, well balanced sound, with the right amount of low end, a smooth treble and a great midrange. If one activates DSD oversampling the treble can be pushed in fatiguing territory but the direct sound is well judged and I can’t emphasise this enough. This wipes the floor with AQ Cobalt and, from memory, beats the ADI 2, a favourite among aspiring headphone listeners, as well.

Now on to the controversial matter of volume capping. Keep in mind, I like to listen at around 65-70dB and in order to achieve it I have to keep the volume at 65-70 with my JH 13 Pro. The AKG however require 100, sometimes more (out of 120). For me, this is enough but if you like your music loud and you have power hungry headphones, it is definitely going to be an issue.

I agree with most reviewers in this respect – Sony has to acknowledge that this is not a wireless headphone so they can’t anticipate what volume can be reached with a particular headphone. What are they capping? My JH 13 Pro, which can easily go beyond 100dB + even with the current power output? Or the AKG which can probably only be pushed as far as 80-85dB? It’s mind boggling why a company would spend years of research and resources to achieve this level of performance, and then sabotage their own work with a volume cap which compromises the experience with all but toy headphones.

Sony, why don’t we use a Sennheiser HD650 to set the volume cap? Or an Audeze for that matter? I expect that the DAP will struggle with anything over 100ohm impedance and, while this can primarily be seen as a portable source, it is good enough to be used as a desktop rig. If only Sony would unleash its power.

So here is my conclusion, based on my experience with my toys: despite the volume cap, this is the best portable source I have had or heard to date. It reaches desktop performance, although a Bartok it is not. If you have a pair of efficient IEMs, this is HiFi in your pocket with the advantage of the myriad Android apps – meaning that it will work with any and all streaming services, on and offline, without any issues. The Android experience is passable, although not as smooth as one would want/expect from a 1400 DAP. But to be fair it is usable and, so far, I haven’t had any hiccups with it. However if you plan to buy this for your 600ohm home cans, consider a US or Japanese version. I think the DAP is worth the money as long as it serves the purpose and in my case it does. But if you are that person, with those headphones, do not waste your time. Sony would rather have you go through the trouble of importing a usable version of the DAP than offer you the performance you paid for here, in UK. Thank you Sony. And shame on you Sony.

Update Feb 2022. While still loving the sound quality I became increasingly unhappy with the slugish performance of a 1000 DAP, the low power output and seeing that a new generation (the 306 and 707) is being released at a lower price point with a faster processor and Android 12, while Sony made it clear that the WM1AM2 will never be updated to Android 12, I decided to send mine back. Sony has to try harder at this price point.