[handwander]

UI and dont forget the battery!!

Battery is a nice bonus (at least that will be an upgrade over the M1) but I typically don't drain the 10 hours of battery before I'm able to recharge it anyway so not a big concern for me.

Then again if I'm planning on buying used, who knows what the battery life will be. Actually I wonder if there's a way to find out battery health or at least the amount of cycles. Probably not.

 

[davidcotton]

Might buy an A-35 this week. The used Japanese prices are quite low, maybe around $120. Kind of a useless buy since SQ wise it's probably not that superior to the shanling m1 I use now. Still, feel like new cheapish dap and pretty disappointed at most offerings around this price point. Biggest selling point for me might be the UI since most other devices do poorly in this regard, and not sure I want an android player.

Tell you something, if it supported audiobooks/podcasts out of the box I would not have bought the hiby r6. Did everything else well. Nice size, decent battery, drag and drop support etc etc.

 

[conradg]

Hi all,

I've had an A35 since March, so about three months now, and it's served me well. Or it did, until Saturday morning when I tried to use it.

The battery appeared to have died, so I plugged it in and fully charged it. But after charging it, I noticed that it was doing nothing but a continuous power cycle: screen turns on, Walkman logo, wavy line animation, Creating database starts going, Creating database completes... and then it reboots. And it keeps going over and over and over until the battery dies.

I can still plug it into my computer and see it as a hard drive. I was even able to update the firmware (or at least go through the process; I believe I already head the most up to date firmware). But once disconnected from the computer, it goes back into the endless power cycle.

Has anyone ever seen anything like this? Sony support was, no surprise, completely useless. They did initiate a return request, so I can now send it back in, but would be great to fix it if possible. It seems like earlier Walkman units has a pinhole button for a hard reset. Is there no way to do something like that with an A35?

 

[DrKrFfXx]

Hi all,

I've had an A35 since March, so about three months now, and it's served me well. Or it did, until Saturday morning when I tried to use it.

The battery appeared to have died, so I plugged it in and fully charged it. But after charging it, I noticed that it was doing nothing but a continuous power cycle: screen turns on, Walkman logo, wavy line animation, Creating database starts going, Creating database completes... and then it reboots. And it keeps going over and over and over until the battery dies.

I can still plug it into my computer and see it as a hard drive. I was even able to update the firmware (or at least go through the process; I believe I already head the most up to date firmware). But once disconnected from the computer, it goes back into the endless power cycle.

Has anyone ever seen anything like this? Sony support was, no surprise, completely useless. They did initiate a return request, so I can now send it back in, but would be great to fix it if possible. It seems like earlier Walkman units has a pinhole button for a hard reset. Is there no way to do something like that with an A35?

Holding the power button for 8+ seconds has replaced the pinhole reset.

Other than that, I'm clueless about your issue. Forcing a firmware update/repair might do the trick, but it seems you already did that.

 

[conradg]

Holding the power button for 8+ seconds has replaced the pinhole reset.

Other than that, I'm clueless about your issue. Forcing a firmware update/repair might do the trick, but it seems you already did that.

Holding the power button still works, but it just reinitiates the power cycle again. Very curious.

 

[Jonathan-Mac]

I haven't had any problem like that, but after over a year of use the battery lasts much less than it did at the outset, and it never got close to what it's claimed to have. The extremely long start-up times make a full shut-down inconvenient after use but if that's not done it just eats battery power even while doing nothing.

 

[gsora]

After the demise of my (previously trusty) Fiio X1 I'm interested in a NWA35, which is about 50 euros cheaper than the A45.

What's the difference between A35 and A45? Just the USB DAC functionality?

 

[trellus]

After the demise of my (previously trusty) Fiio X1 I'm interested in a NWA35, which is about 50 euros cheaper than the A45.

What's the difference between A35 and A45? Just the USB DAC functionality?

The A45 also has aptX (and aptX HD) in addition to LDAC and SBC, the A35 only has LDAC and SBC.

 

[Real Man of Genius]

Greetings,

Been awhile. Kinda surprised my log in is still active.
Anywho... I just obtained this little gem and I have a few questions if you please:
My firmware is 1.02 and it looks like there is a newer version 1.20 available. Problem is I have a Chromebook so it would be a bit of a hassle to borrow someone's PC to perform the update so... is it worth it?
I am unlikely to have Thai characters so what are the specific "other issues" that are addressed by this update?
Also - does it really have to update the database every time it starts up? For reals?

Thanks!

 

[kova4a]

Greetings,

Been awhile. Kinda surprised my log in is still active.
Anywho... I just obtained this little gem and I have a few questions if you please:
My firmware is 1.02 and it looks like there is a newer version 1.20 available. Problem is I have a Chromebook so it would be a bit of a hassle to borrow someone's PC to perform the update so... is it worth it?
I am unlikely to have Thai characters so what are the specific "other issues" that are addressed by this update?
Also - does it really have to update the database every time it starts up? For reals?

Thanks!

You'll get improved responsiveness and speed of the UI, which is worth it. As far as the database updating goes, I just treat it like my ereader - just keep it in sleep mode unless I know I won't be using it for a very long times as the a35 has 5+ days of standby, so you don't need to power it off every time you don't use it like other DAPs.

 

[Jonathan-Mac]

Beware - leaving it in sleep mode will eat through the battery fairly quickly - five days of sleep will leave you with very little left for listening. The best way to do things is to remember to power it up five minutes before you're going to use it, still a pain though.

 

[docholliday]

Beware - leaving it in sleep mode will eat through the battery fairly quickly - five days of sleep will leave you with very little left for listening. The best way to do things is to remember to power it up five minutes before you're going to use it, still a pain though.

That's odd...mine's been in sleep mode for over a week and has only dropped about 10%.

 

[WilcoRoger]

That's odd...mine's been in sleep mode for over a week and has only dropped about 10%.

+1 here

 

[Artmuzz]

A question about the EQ on the Sony NW-A35. When a I go into sound settings and select EQ the EQ goes from 60Hz to 16kHz. I’m sure on my older Walkman DAP the EQ in the lows went further like 32Hz. It’s a bit of a bummer that it only goes to 60Hz now.

 

[Jonathan-Mac]

A question about the EQ on the Sony NW-A35. When a I go into sound settings and select EQ the EQ goes from 60Hz to 16kHz. I’m sure on my older Walkman DAP the EQ in the lows went further like 32Hz. It’s a bit of a bummer that it only goes to 60Hz now.

I just checked my A845 and it only goes to 16Hz.