[balleklorin]

 
 
Sony PHA-1A with Sony Xperia Z5, Sony MDR-Z7 and Sony MUC-B12SM1 engineered with Kimber Kable. Great sounding and nice looking combo! 

 

[sechsterangriff]

  Ordering replacement cables for the PHA-1A?
 
I've been searching the web and I really can't find any place to order replacement cables, like the short Walkman to PHA-1A cable?
 
Any suggestions?

 
You can always try and go to an official repair center and see if they can order the parts for you. Otherwise, there's an official micro usb b to Walkman port adapter that you can easily find on ebay.

 

[438555]

 
That's exactly the combo I use and it's great. If you pair an A17 with the PHA-1A, using the supplied short digital Walkman cable, the headphone power output is the PHA-1A, not the A17. Additionally, if you connect a micro USB cable to the charging port on the PHA-1A, it charges both devices (Walkman and DAC/amp) at the same time, even while playing.

Well, I opened the wallet today and got the A17 and also a pair of MDR-1A headphones, since I liked how they sound and sometimes using the SR325e is not practical if I'm trying not to bother other people nearby.  I'll report back on the all Sony Player/DAC/Amp/Phones combo in comparison to the Grado and others once it's charged up.
 
I will note that transfer of media to the A17 via Media Go is waaay slower than an equivalent transfer to any of my iOS devices via iTunes. But hey, once I get the whole library over there, it's only down to transferring new stuff, so not too big a deal.

 

[Krutsch]

  Well, I opened the wallet today and got the A17 and also a pair of MDR-1A headphones, since I liked how they sound and sometimes using the SR325e is not practical if I'm trying not to bother other people nearby.  I'll report back on the all Sony Player/DAC/Amp/Phones combo in comparison to the Grado and others once it's charged up.
 
I will note that transfer of media to the A17 via Media Go is waaay slower than an equivalent transfer to any of my iOS devices via iTunes. But hey, once I get the whole library over there, it's only down to transferring new stuff, so not too big a deal.

 
I've noticed this, as well. I think the Walkman USB port is USB 2.0, which slows things down. That and I am copying over lossless and high-res files, so it's a lot of data.

 

[438555]

   
I've noticed this, as well. I think the Walkman USB port is USB 2.0, which slows things down. That and I am copying over lossless and high-res files, so it's a lot of data.

So probably for copying my whole lossy library to a 128 GB uSD, it would be best to side-load it via a card reader, then use the internal memory for other "stuff"

 

[Krutsch]

  So probably for copying my whole lossy library to a 128 GB uSD, it would be best to side-load it via a card reader, then use the internal memory for other "stuff"

 
That's what I do (side load on a micro SD card). I am impressed that I can use exFat formatted SD cards with the Walkman.
 
If you are on a Mac, look into something called "M3Unify" from Doug Scripts dot com. M3Unify lets you drag/drop any iTunes playlist and it creates a properly formatted .m3u playlist and copies the tracks into an external folder (even with the option to transcode to MP3 or AAC, if you'd like). I do this and export to folder on my hard drive and then sync to the player using GoodSync (which only copies the changes).

 

[438555]

   
That's what I do (side load on a micro SD card). I am impressed that I can use exFat formatted SD cards with the Walkman.
 
If you are on a Mac, look into something called "M3Unify" from Doug Scripts dot com. M3Unify lets you drag/drop any iTunes playlist and it creates a properly formatted .m3u playlist and copies the tracks into an external folder (even with the option to transcode to MP3 or AAC, if you'd like). I do this and export to folder on my hard drive and then sync to the player using GoodSync (which only copies the changes).

Thanks for the ideas.  Definitely on all Mac at home, and will be my first non-apple music player since the Rio player with the "128 MB!" smart card slot from ~2001.  The only name I remember for that one was "False-iPod"

 

[438555]

That's what I do (side load on a micro SD card). I am impressed that I can use exFat formatted SD cards with the Walkman.

If you are on a Mac, look into something called "M3Unify" from Doug Scripts dot com. M3Unify lets you drag/drop any iTunes playlist and it creates a properly formatted .m3u playlist and copies the tracks into an external folder (even with the option to transcode to MP3 or AAC, if you'd like). I do this and export to folder on my hard drive and then sync to the player using GoodSync (which only copies the changes).

Listening to a selection on internal memory while waiting for ~110GB to copy to my card. Nice thing about the amp is that the sound is great and consistent regardless of the source device. Except here I'm not getting the clicks I hear on the iPod.

 

[Krutsch]

Nice... It's definitely a fantastic pairing. What are you using for 'phones?

 

[438555]

Nice... It's definitely a fantastic pairing. What are you using for 'phones?

I'm using the Grado SR325e with them right now.  Will be doing some comparisons with the MDR-1a I also bought today.  
 
At this point, I only have 2 albums in hires, Physical Graffiti in 96/24 and Harvest in 192/24.  Nothing I've listened to these on so far (up to Grados on my MB Air with the PHA-1A) has revealed a difference to my ears between these hires files and the same files encoded down to 256 AAC.  
 
Maybe just too many loud concerts over the years, but I can definitely tell the difference between with and without the PHA-1A amp for any of these sources.  Which I guess for me is good, since I can listen to my whole collection on the A17 in as high a quality as I can detect...

 

[YamaVega]

Does the PHA-1A have selected synergy with some devices, like A10 series?  Doesnt the PHA-1A sound the same with any other devices?

 

[sechsterangriff]

  Does the PHA-1A have selected synergy with some devices, like A10 series?  Doesnt the PHA-1A sound the same with any other devices?

The PHA-1A is a digital only DAC, so it should sound the same regardless of the device it's paired with. If it doesn't, the problem is either with the source device or faulty cable.
As far as I know the only synergy it has is with the A series and other Sony devices in that an AC adapter charges both the PHA-1A and the player.

 
I'm using the Grado SR325e with them right now.  Will be doing some comparisons with the MDR-1a I also bought today.  
 
At this point, I only have 2 albums in hires, Physical Graffiti in 96/24 and Harvest in 192/24.  Nothing I've listened to these on so far (up to Grados on my MB Air with the PHA-1A) has revealed a difference to my ears between these hires files and the same files encoded down to 256 AAC.  
 
Maybe just too many loud concerts over the years, but I can definitely tell the difference between with and without the PHA-1A amp for any of these sources.  Which I guess for me is good, since I can listen to my whole collection on the A17 in as high a quality as I can detect...

In theory, you need headphones that also have a bigger frequency response to to fully appreciate the (also increased frequency) hi-res music files. That's what the MDR-1a are there for
Anyway, I probably don't need to tell you about the whole "hi-res" debate going on so you should definitely keep your expectations in check.

 

[438555]

   
In theory, you need headphones that also have a bigger frequency response to to fully appreciate the (also increased frequency) hi-res music files. That's what the MDR-1a are there for
Anyway, I probably don't need to tell you about the whole "hi-res" debate going on so you should definitely keep your expectations in check.

 
Yeah, so far with my ears, still no difference with the MDR-1a or the SR325e between 256AAC, 44/16 ALAC, or 192/24 FLAC of the same songs.  I do, however like the remastered Physical Graffiti sound vs what is on my CD from 1991.  I guess I get to keep rocking until my ears fall off, and won't worry about re-ripping all my CDs lossless or buying a bunch of huge files.
 
And FWIW, I prefer the sound from the open-backed SR325e to the MDR-1a.  I hope I never try a pair of GS1000 and like them so much I have to get them...

 

[yaw2]

can sony xperia z5 connect sony pha 1a? thx..

 

[438555]

   
That's what I do (side load on a micro SD card). I am impressed that I can use exFat formatted SD cards with the Walkman.
 
If you are on a Mac, look into something called "M3Unify" from Doug Scripts dot com. M3Unify lets you drag/drop any iTunes playlist and it creates a properly formatted .m3u playlist and copies the tracks into an external folder (even with the option to transcode to MP3 or AAC, if you'd like). I do this and export to folder on my hard drive and then sync to the player using GoodSync (which only copies the changes).

I came up with a different way of dealing with iTunes playlists when I am always keeping my whole library on the A17:
1. I copy the whole /iTunes Media/Music folder to the SD card of the A17 (whether it's in the player or not it doesn't matter.  it copies faster in a card reader, but that only matters on the first copy)
2. I use Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) to keep any changes between the "Music" folder and the A17 up to date, w/o having to copy the whole 110 GB each time
3. To make playlists that the A17 will recognize, I first export the playlist from iTunes in the m3u8 format (the regular m3u export chokes on some characters, like the ü in Hüsker Dü
4. Then I use a grep-style search and replace to edit the exported file.  Basically removing all the # lines that iTunes adds that the A17 doesn't need, getting rid of the absolute path stuff up to and including /iTunes Media/Music, and then flipping the "/" to "\"
5. Then save the resulting file as .m3u instead of .m3u8, and put it in a "Playlists" folder in the /iTunes Media/Music folder prior to doing another sync with CCC.
 
If you want to translate a whole bunch of playlists, you can export them all from iTunes and then use Text Factories in BBEdit, or TextWrangler (or just use Perl or other unix utilities) to translate the whole bunch as shown below: