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Do EUROPE X Walkmans have volume toned down?

post #1 of 8
11/26/09 at 4:10am
Thread Starter 
Is the maximum volume for EUR walkmans lower than the NA ones? Because for iPods this is usually the case... :*(
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post #2 of 8
11/26/09 at 11:37am
No, they don't.
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post #3 of 8
11/26/09 at 11:41am
Don't know for sure about Sony, but I believe that Creative has separate firmware for Europe & North America, and the volume is lower in the European version. Any Europeans are free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that there was a law that restricted or only allowed the volume to go to a certain level. Thus the separate firmware for different regions.
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post #4 of 8
11/26/09 at 1:34pm
That law isn't in place yet - not sure how they could enforce it.

There are no volume restrictions on Creative, Sony, Sansa, Samsung players in the EU.
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post #5 of 8
11/26/09 at 1:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dreamnine View Post
That law isn't in place yet - not sure how they could enforce it.

There are no volume restrictions on Creative, Sony, Sansa, Samsung players in the EU.
Bull, then how come on my EU-model NW-HD5 HDD Walkman (in which I am enjoying right now along with a pair of US-model HD5 units waiting in the wings) and also on my MZ-RH710 Hi-MD Walkman (also an EU version) I had to do a firmware hack to "un-cripple" the volume so I can get more and free up the 2 user-custom EQ settings?
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post #6 of 8
11/26/09 at 2:52pm
The EU-directive for this has been in place for many years, and many EU countries have implemented the corresponding laws for quite some time.
The new regulation that is about to be passed is actually less restrictive than the old laws - the new one only needs the standard volume to be within the safe limit, allowing users to override the limit if they choose to, whereas the old law imposes a strict limit on the volume that cannot be overridden.

DAP-makers have been using different methods to comply - iPods and Sonys are capped but some of them can be hacked, some (all?) Cowons get the full volume if you don't choose Europe as your location upon startup, some (all?) Sandisks are similar although you can get the full volume back in the options even when in Europe,...
Not sure about the X, I'd bet it is capped, though.
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post #7 of 8
11/26/09 at 4:23pm
My X isn't capped. Neither was my S639F. For other brands that have to comply with EU laws it's just a matter of switching to non EU firmwares, although my P3 isn't capped either and has EU firmware.

Don't know about older players.
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post #8 of 8
11/26/09 at 5:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zakalwe View Post
the new one only needs the standard volume to be within the safe limit, allowing users to override the limit if they choose to, whereas the old law imposes a strict limit on the volume that cannot be overridden.
If that's true (again no expert on EU law here) than I certainly like the new law better than the old. Placing a hard volume cap on a player is a little too Nanny-State'ish for my preferences.
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