SONY WM1Z “K” PROJECT PREMIUM MOD
Three months ago and following a comparison made by my friend Nic on Headfi, I decided to send my Sony WM1Z, one of my favourites player, to get it modded with the “K” Project Premium Mod provided by Singapore store Music Sanctuary. I was very happy with my “non” modded WM1Z by I was looking to maintain a similar warm character and get a little more balance across all the frequencies and a little more clarity and articulation.
I opt for the Premium Mod which includes:
- Brand new Pentaconn 4.4mm socket (to ensure that solder used on the socket is fresh, and not contaminated by existing solder)
- 1960s wiring mod for both single ended (4 wire) and balanced outputs ( 8 wires)
- Exotic Mitsubishi Heavy Industries precious metal (not gold) based solder used for all solder joints, existing solder will be cleaned off prior to soldering with the precious metal based solder.
- 1960s wire for the DC ground wiring
- Isolation of inductor coils and capacitors with shielding products from Japan (Oyaide and fo.Q)
Here you can find all the prices and options:
Project K – The “K” Mod for Sony DAPs
PROCESS
First of all I have to say, I was a little hesitant about sending such a expensive player to get it modded and void warranty, but I’m glad to inform that I am very impressed with the professionalism and expertise showed by Calvin from Music Sanctuary doing the mod. Communication was fast and I was always informed about the progress of the mod.
I sent my Player on January 8 and received it back via DHL on 15 February, so the mod takes around a month to be done. That time includes: make the mod itself, burn in the player (around 100 hrs) and the necessary tests made by Music Sanctuary to check all worked perfect after mod is done. All original cables and components that were changed were also returned back to me.
Visually the Modded Player has the same aspect as the non modded one and no changes were made or visible externally.
The same is true for all the functionality of the player itself.
Music Sanctuary sent back to me Kimber Kables and socket which have been changed.
COMPARISON
The three aspects that stand out in the Modded WM1Z vs the regular WM1Z are the Blackness of the Background, the sharpness of the note articulation and the increase of the already great resolution. All of this makes the player change a little in terms of its signature, coming from a very warm tonality to something more neutral and linear, but maintaining a very full level of bass and a neutral-natural tonality.
As I mentioned previously I was very happy with the sound quality of my original Sony WM1Z, but sometimes I found it a bit too full sounding, specially on the mid range, that made it a little claustrophobic at times for me and I was finding some difficulties to pair it up with some of my iems (which are warm sounding also), so I was looking for a little more balanced sound and a little more clarity and sparkle up top and modded Sony has offered me all of that.
Starting with the bass, the “K” WM1Z, traded a little of mid-bass presence for sub-bass impact. After the mod the sub-bass increased and has clearly more impact, it is more tight and punchy, and mid-bass is reduced which makes low mids more neutral.
That makes Mids clearly more neutral on the “K” WM1Z and more linear with the rest of the frequencies, which are airier also, with a little of emphasis on high-mids. There are clearly benefits from decreased mid-bass and the blackness of the background. Some people will prefer the more full and romantic mids from the original WM1Z but I find “K” WM1Z pairs better with more iems, specially mine which normally are more mid-forward.
Treble is in line with mids and is elevated in comparison with the original WM1Z, that makes the “K” modded more airier than the original WM1Z, having more sparkle and added resolution, which is on the top of the DAPs I have tried. As I previously mentioned about the mids, some people will prefer the more shy treble of the “original” WM1Z but I personally find the “K” WM1Z to have much better note articulation, and sound stage is much bigger in size on the modded player.
I hope my impressions will be helpful to those considering – The “K” Mod for their Sony DAP.
