With the Z-1060 90% of the time I use Poweramp instead of the stock player. The volume was always louder and it has a much better equalizer, which makes the Walkman sound better. I don't understand how Sony thinks that a 5 band equalizer is enough for audiophile players. From what I have seen...

Looking at this F886 to replace my Z1060. Anybody know the difference in battery run time between the two versions? Also, I haven't seen anything regarding the transfer rate of the F886 via USB. Any improvements there? Having USB 3.0 like speeds makes a nice difference, especially with large...

So I recently purchased an Aune T1 Amp/Dac and paired my Z with that amp and a pair of Samson SR850s. The bass is much deeper and extended with this combo. It isn't overly deep though on Rock songs, but just right for Hip Hop and R&B. I also find that my music is more transparent. FLAC and 320...

Quote: Not in the UK. Far from it! I live in Ohio! :) I just remember him from back in the day. Jools Holland always has good guests on though. Pulp and Grinderman come to mind immediately. Booker T and the MGs I have on some Soul compilations and it is good stuff! Just thinking about the...

Quote: Yes, I use it both with Poweramp and with the Sony Music Player and it sounds really good through HDMI. In order of sound quality I would say that as far as sound quality is concerned it would look something like this: FM Transmitter<Bluetooth<Headphone Out<USB (playing files from...

Also for what it is worth, I have a Samsung Galaxy S 4G and as a music player I think it sucks. The sound is thin and anemic. That is initially why I bought my Z. It would be great if I had an all in one device. But I haven't heard a phone that has reached the sound quality of the Z yet.

Quote: Raphael Saadiq has been around for awhile but I really like the direction he has gone in. I will have to get his latest album though, thanks for the rec. Love the Stax stuff. Been listening to Syl Johnson and David Ruffin lately too. Good stuff! Maxwell's latest is nice too if you...

Quote: Good choice with Teddy and The Cure. I would think Disintegration would test your phones the most given the complexity of the album. Check out Lee Fields and Charles Bradley if you like Soul music. I bought Lee Field's new album and it sounds great at 320 kbps, although lossless...

Quote: Hmmmmm. A non answer. A positive note you say? How about my Z sounds effing amazing in my new Hyundai Veloster. Voice activated Dimesion stereo with amp and subwoofer. The Z makes it sound good. :) Haters gonna hate. Not sure how the system could sound much better.

Quote: Yeah, it seems like new information that maybe a rep gave the reviewer. Good news if it is true!

Interesting...... This site says that we will be upgrading to Android ICS later this year. My next thought is WHEN?! That will be nice because FLAC is natively supported by ICS IIRC. http://lesterchan.net/blog/2012/05/16/sony-walkman-z-series-launch/

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-home.pl?mdl=NWZZ1050BLK&template_id=1&region_id=1&tab=howto#/howtoTab   Scroll down to the How-to Section for instructions on how to add playlists via Windows Media Player or Media Go. Playlists cannot be added on the player any other way unless you use...

I have been playing back the Z on my home system and the bass really thumps through hdmi. The sub woofer is liking it!

  Plus one for FLAC. Album art has not been a problem for me in Poweramp when playing FLAC files. Many programs can encode FLAC; including Winamp, Foobar, and EAC. I used Winamp because it is quite easy to use so you might wanna try that one first. Poweramp is great for downloading album...

Quote: This is not included with the stock player. You can scrobble with certain players/apps. Poweramp will do it, and so will the Audiogalaxy app. I'm sure there are plenty of others as well. 

Well, Audiogalaxy is working like a charm for me with the Z. It accepts MP3 (.mp3), WMA/WMA Pro (.wma), AAC/ALAC (.m4a), FLAC (.flac) or Vorbis (.ogg) as long as they are DRM-free. The downside is that your computer has to be on and connected to the net to stream. Not a problem for me though, I...

Quote:   Try ABXing a lossless file and a high bitrate compressed file. I found that I couldn't reliably tell the difference between a 256 AAC VBR file and a FLAC file. Before I did the test I thought I could tell a difference, it was a placebo effect. That is why it is my chosen format...

Quote: I use Poweramp pretty much all the time with this player. I like the interface better. Sound is the same listening to it flat. But I like the preamp feature on Poweramp to pump up the volume when listening in my car. There appears to be less distortion when cranking the volume on...

Quote: I am seriously thinking about streaming lossless from a home server that I can leave on 24/7 at home. You guys should check out Audiogalaxy for those purposes, it accepts all kinds of file formats (lossless included) and you just stream your collection via your own computer or...

Quote: Open the music player icon. Once at your library screen press the menu button to the right of the home  button and open the settings. Scroll down and then open the About Music player. It will tell you the version you have. I have version 1.2.4.  

Quote: Firmware version number.

Quote: Yes, the American version. Don't notice a difference either, but it isn't worse either. :) Probably some bug fixes.

Automatic firmware update to 1.2 tonight. 133 MB in size. Said it was for Google Play and general stability and performance updates. Good news! Now for that Droid update! lol

Quote: Yeah, it is weird. They should have at least supported FLAC natively for lossless files. LPCM (WAV and AIFF audio containers) as the only lossless format supported natively is very weird to say the least. Why make huge files when you can get the same sound quality with a lossless...

ATRAC is not natively supported with the U.S. version. It is supported with the Japanese version. You will have to use another player to try to get it to work with the U.S. version.