balleklorin
Head-Fier
Sony PHA-1A with Sony Xperia Z5, Sony MDR-Z7 and Sony MUC-B12SM1 engineered with Kimber Kable. Great sounding and nice looking combo!
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?
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.
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"
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).
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).
Nice... It's definitely a fantastic pairing. What are you using for 'phones?
Does the PHA-1A have selected synergy with some devices, like A10 series? Doesnt the PHA-1A sound the same with any other devices?
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.
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).