[cooperpwc]

  I have been testing the PMEQ setting that @cooperpwc so generously shared with me. I really like what they do, the changes are very subtle but with time noticeable. I don't know if he is planning to share them or not but I do hope he does as it really is that good. 

 
 

 
I hope he does, too! 

 
I promise that I will soon. I have been spending a lot of time testing and tweaking but I think I have it now.
 
I was initially negative about the PMEQ because the presets were so useless. But if you program it yourself for subtle tweaks of the PAW Gold sound, the sound quality is superb. That is the benefit of Lotto's decision to go with an dedicated Blackfin 514 DSP. (As they put it: "Fast Reaction Speed".)

 

[cooperpwc]

So here are the fruits of my tinkering over the past couple of weeks in the form of "PMEQ.BIN" file for the PAW Gold.
 
As I noted immediately above, I was initially negative about the PAW Gold's PMEQ because the presets were so useless. But if you program it yourself for subtle sound tweaks, the PMEQ sound quality is superb.
 
The PAW Gold also has stunning sound quality but with the caveat that it is a bit too bright in the very high frequencies. I call this high-frequency glare. I think that this is an honest expression of the hardware which is powerful and clean. We have not seen the sound signature change with firmware updates unlike (cough) some other DAPs.
 
The problem with the high-frequency glare is that it is (i) fatiguing, (ii) creates a relative hollowing out of the otherwise excellent mids, and (iii) is hard on the hearing.
 
Here is the solution that works for me:
 
[No longer online but you can create it from below or, even better, try my new setting in this post.]
 
This tweak is very subtle and it may not be obvious at first that it does anything at all. In my view, it makes an enormous difference over extended listening. Not to be dramatic...
 
If you want to try it, download the file and transfer it onto the PAW Gold internal SD card. Then use Settings > PMEQ Management > Import PMEQ to import it into one of the User Settings. You can then rename that User Setting as you like within its settings area. (The PMEQ.BIN files do not retain names.) "LOTOO" works for me since this is now its default sound for my purposes.
 

 
Again, this setting is quite subtle. It removes the high-frequency glare while retaining the original sound balance. The PAW Gold's bass is superb and so this PMEQ setting does not touch it at all.
 
FYI here are the settings.
 

 
Lastly, the PAW Gold PMEQ settings also have a GroupGain Filter feature to lower overall volume to avoid distortion for line out use. I only use this PMEQ setting with the headphone out where the digital volume is cumulative - and I don't listen with the volume at 100% (!) - so I have left that GroupGain Filter setting at 0 db. If you are using this with the line out, you will want to set the GroupGain Filter to -2.2 db. However I have not tested this with the line out so I make no claim that it is a useful improvement to the DAC-only sound signature. (It does work equally nicely without and with the NXT-2AK.)

 

[Synthyss]

Thanks, I will try asap!

 

[Jazzi]

   
 
Here is the solution that works for me:
 
http://1drv.ms/1JiTk93
 
This tweak is very subtle and it may not be obvious at first that it does anything at all. In my view, it makes an enormous difference over extended listening. Not to be dramatic...
 
If you want to try it, download the file and transfer it onto the PAW Gold internal SD card. Then use Settings > PMEQ Management > Import PMEQ to import it into one of the User Settings. You can then rename that User Setting as you like within its settings area. (The PMEQ.BIN files do not retain names.) "LOTOO" works for me since this is now its default sound for my purposes.
 

So far it sounds great.  Thanks for sharing, cooperpwc!

 

[dulty]

Thanks for sharing @cooperpwc . It's strange though, I've never thought of the Gold as being 'bright'...

 

[cooperpwc]

  Thanks for sharing @cooperpwc . It's strange though, I've never thought of the Gold as being 'bright'...

 
Point taken. The PAW Gold is not bright in the normal skull-rattling sense centered around the 5 khz band. (Think HD800...) Rather it has what I call high-frequency glare, i.e. it is a bit to bright way up in the 10 Khz range and above. The PMEQ setting that I posted addresses that high-frequency glare. I updated my post to clarify that.

 

[Synthyss]

Its not bright it is little aggresive if you ask me ^.^

 

[unknownguardian]

by the way guys, though i myself don't own a paw gold but i got 3 PMEQ to share (saw this floating around in one of my head-fi chat group and many were praising the PMEQ - especially the first one which makes the paw gold sounds a tad more emotional, whereas the second and third one makes paw more smooth sounding). maybe you guys can try it out and let me know your thoughts.
 

 

 

 

[cooperpwc]

I have mixed feelings about my new Dignis case. It may be fine in the winter but outside in the steamy Shanghai summer it really holds in the heat. It is beautiful though...

 

[Jazzi]

I have mixed feelings about my new Dignis case. It may be fine in the winter but outside in the steamy Shanghai summer it really holds in the heat. It is beautiful though...

I have the Dignis in Gold-Brown. No mixed feelings with mine.  I think it's a great case for the money.   Unlike you though, mine doesn't spend a lot of time outside.  

 

[Jazzi]

  by the way guys, though i myself don't own a paw gold but i got 3 PMEQ to share (saw this floating around in one of my head-fi chat group and many were praising the PMEQ - especially the first one which makes the paw gold sounds a tad more emotional, whereas the second and third one makes paw more smooth sounding). maybe you guys can try it out and let me know your thoughts.
 
 
 
 
 
 

@unknownguardian, thanks for sharing!  I've installed and will give them a listen.

 

[cooperpwc]

 
I have the Dignis in Gold-Brown. No mixed feelings with mine.  I think it's a great case for the money.   Unlike you though, mine doesn't spend a lot of time outside.  

 
Yah, I love mine too (black). I think that I am just going to leave it on. 

 

[cooperpwc]

@Jazzi, you are right. The weather has become unseasonably mild here - mid-20s C - and the PAW Gold is running nice and cool in the Dignis case. It only gets hot when it is stinking hot outside (and it would get pretty hot without the case anyway). The case is staying on. It is really sweet.
 
I have to say: Dignis make fine leather cases for DAPs. They design them well. My M case is also excellent. (And the cases they make that are included with the AK240 aren't too shabby either.)

 

[paulomario77]

Hi folks,
 
I don't know if what I am about to report is a bug in the PAW or some kind of incompatibility between the latter and my system.
 
I decided to buy the PAW after my Calyx M suddenly died. The M was already replaced on warranty by Chris Zainea, by the way. On the M I used a 256GB SD card from PNY, whch was formatted in NTFS. Upon inserting this card into the PAW it didn't recognize the file system and suggested that I format it, and so I did.
 
With a freshly formatted SD card in the PAW I connected it to a USB 3.0 port on my Vaio notebook and started copying my music files back again to the SD card. They are all CD rips encoded in Apple Lossless. The operation lasted several hours as the files resided in my NAS, a Synology DS213J.
 
When I started hearing music from the PAW I came across a song which played up normally during its first half, and then became mute, while the time counter kept running. If I just fast forwarded a bit playback would resume. This was repeatable everytime the music was played. I noticed that 2 or 3 other songs exhibited the same behavior, muting after a few minutes of playback.
 
So I had the idea of comparing these music files residing on the SD card with the original files on my NAS. To my surprise, both files had the exact same size, but their contents were different. The binary comparison was done in Total Commander, which also happens to be the software that was used for copying the files to the PAW in the first place.
 
Total Commander has a very useful tool called Synchronize Directories. With this tool I first did a batch binary comparison of the contents of all files on the SD card and their NAS counterparts. I should mention that, for this, I removed the SD card from the PAW and inserted it directly into my notebook. The results: out of a total of 6,302 files, 46 were corrupted, that is, differed from their originals residing on the NAS. Then I chose to copy only those files to the SD card. I haven't had any problems with playback on the PAW after those files were recopied.

 

[audionewbi]

It would be hard to pin point what went wrong at where.