SONY NW-A30 SERIES
Feb 27, 2017 at 12:01 PM Post #1,156 of 2,453
 
  What is the point of LDAC?



At the root, it's probably so they don't have to pay licensing fees for AptX.

 
On paper, Aptx have a data rate of 576 kbps vs LDAC's 990 kbps. That's why Qualcomm only claims close to lossless 24/48 while Sony claims close to lossless on 24/96 playback. They are all temporary workaround. BT 5.0 is suppose to allocate much more bandwidth for audio (they claim 8 times of the current bandwidth overall but didn't say how much is available for the audio layer) but even 8 times of the current 328kbps should be enough for 24/96 lossless once that becomes available but then again we'll have to buy all new hardware.
 
Feb 27, 2017 at 12:29 PM Post #1,157 of 2,453
  What is the point of LDAC? I own the NW-A35 and the MDR-E750BT supposed to support LDAC over bluetooth, but the quality is over bluetooth using these headphones is horrible even when configuring the LDAC settings (quality, speed) within the WM menu. Is this working only for Hi-Res audio (which by the way none of my FLAC library is considered to be in the WM...) or am I missing something? Quality is great when connected through cable.

 
I thought the A30 series comes pre-loaded with 3 24/96 tracks. did you try those? What kind of file are your source. I don't have my A35 yet (arriving today though) but I just downloaded the Media Go software and start organising my sony files. I notice that the HR symbol is only on true 24/48 and above files. I don't know if you need a HR source to trigger the LDAC playback.
 
Feb 27, 2017 at 1:28 PM Post #1,158 of 2,453
Damn, Getting into Hi-Res audio is expensive. So hard to find true 24/48 legal source (I don't want any of that upscaled stuff). Looks like I'll be looking at the Sony PS-HX500 or the Teac TN-570 to digitize my old LP collections. 
 
Feb 27, 2017 at 5:35 PM Post #1,162 of 2,453
  I can't find the Media Go software on the US Sony site under A30 series so I downloaded a copy for the A27. Does it work the same? Will it detect the A35 when I connect to the PC?


​yes or try http://mediago.sony.com/esp/download/
 
Feb 27, 2017 at 6:20 PM Post #1,163 of 2,453
  What is the point of LDAC? I own the NW-A35 and the MDR-E750BT supposed to support LDAC over bluetooth, but the quality is over bluetooth using these headphones is horrible even when configuring the LDAC settings (quality, speed) within the WM menu. Is this working only for Hi-Res audio (which by the way none of my FLAC library is considered to be in the WM...) or am I missing something? Quality is great when connected through cable.

It might be your iem's, have you tried another model?  I have been using LDAC for a couple of years now and the sound quality is great with multiple devices.
 
Feb 27, 2017 at 6:23 PM Post #1,164 of 2,453
  Can you organise your folder on Media Go before transferring to the A35? I click on  2 separate folder in Media Go for transfer and they ended up in the same playlist/folder

I am pretty sure that MediaGo puts the tracks onto your device in the default manner Sony recommends.  I think you will need to use drag and drop with your folders if you want to do this.
 
Feb 27, 2017 at 6:26 PM Post #1,165 of 2,453
   
On paper, Aptx have a data rate of 576 kbps vs LDAC's 990 kbps. That's why Qualcomm only claims close to lossless 24/48 while Sony claims close to lossless on 24/96 playback. They are all temporary workaround. BT 5.0 is suppose to allocate much more bandwidth for audio (they claim 8 times of the current bandwidth overall but didn't say how much is available for the audio layer) but even 8 times of the current 328kbps should be enough for 24/96 lossless once that becomes available but then again we'll have to buy all new hardware.

Actually that is incorrect AptX has a data rate of 320 kbps,  AptX HD has a data rate of 576 kbps and my A17 on highest LDAC quality setting gets 909 kbps.
 
Feb 27, 2017 at 9:19 PM Post #1,166 of 2,453
  I am pretty sure that MediaGo puts the tracks onto your device in the default manner Sony recommends.  I think you will need to use drag and drop with your folders if you want to do this.

OK. Did the drag and drop into the music folder but the player will just display the 1st layer sub-folder and everything within that sub-folder is bunched together. Am I doing it wrong?
 
Feb 27, 2017 at 9:48 PM Post #1,167 of 2,453
  OK. Did the drag and drop into the music folder but the player will just display the 1st layer sub-folder and everything within that sub-folder is bunched together. Am I doing it wrong?

I had no issues with my A17 doing drag and drop but I have no idea about the A30 series. It seems that Sony is pushing MediaGo as the recommended way to put tracks on the A30 series.  It could have something to do with the new OS on the A30 series.  Apparently with the A30 series and the WM series the player no longer analyzes the tracks when loaded onto the player.  MediaGo is now used to analyze tracks while they are loaded onto the player.  That could explain why your sub-folders are not setup correctly.
 
Can I ask why you don't simply let MediaGo put the tracks on your A30 as Sony recommends?   I use MediaGo now for all my music transfers and I have no issues at all with playing any tracks, displaying album art or handling playlists.
 
Feb 27, 2017 at 10:01 PM Post #1,168 of 2,453
  I had no issues with my A17 doing drag and drop but I have no idea about the A30 series. It seems that Sony is pushing MediaGo as the recommended way to put tracks on the A30 series.  It could have something to do with the new OS on the A30 series.  Apparently with the A30 series and the WM series the player no longer analyzes the tracks when loaded onto the player.  MediaGo is now used to analyze tracks while they are loaded onto the player.  That could explain why your sub-folders are not setup correctly.
 
Can I ask why you don't simply let MediaGo put the tracks on your A30 as Sony recommends?   I use MediaGo now for all my music transfers and I have no issues at all with playing any tracks, displaying album art or handling playlists.

I did that initially and Media Go just put the 1st 2 albums I transferred into the music folder mixed together in a folder with the name "unknown" even after I changed the name in Windows Explorer. Windows Explorer even show the new name after re-connect but within the player UI, it's still shown as "unknown". This is getting weird, Some of them are coming up as individual albums and some not. Maybe because some of them is foreign language?
 
Edit:  OK, I think I found the problem. While the Foreign language albums are displayed correctly in Windows Explorer. Under property, the Album name, Artist, Titles are all in some random characters. If I copy and paste from Windows Explorer and fix those fields, it shows up as a proper album
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
Feb 28, 2017 at 12:07 AM Post #1,169 of 2,453
I installed Media Go and it started cataloging my music files but it was painfully slow so I gave up and just dragged and dropped everything.
 
The new firmware does not fix the bug of sometimes having to press the back button several times from the list of songs to go up to the list of albums.
 
Feb 28, 2017 at 2:42 AM Post #1,170 of 2,453
  I did that initially and Media Go just put the 1st 2 albums I transferred into the music folder mixed together in a folder with the name "unknown" even after I changed the name in Windows Explorer. Windows Explorer even show the new name after re-connect but within the player UI, it's still shown as "unknown". This is getting weird, Some of them are coming up as individual albums and some not. Maybe because some of them is foreign language?
 
Edit:  OK, I think I found the problem. While the Foreign language albums are displayed correctly in Windows Explorer. Under property, the Album name, Artist, Titles are all in some random characters. If I copy and paste from Windows Explorer and fix those fields, it shows up as a proper album
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Now that I think back (2 years ago) I did have several hundred tracks that were dumped into an Unknown Album folder in MediaGo when I first started using it.  It turned out to be a tagging issues with some of the tracks.  I was acquiring tracks from several different sources, some were improperly tagged (mostly spelling mistakes) or some were missing metadata.  I made all the corrections to the tag info inside MediaGo.  As I made the corrections MediaGo automatically sorted them back into the right location under Artist and then Album.  If you find you have issues in the future I would recommend correcting them using MediaGo.  That way if they are correct within MediaGo you should not have any problems when you add them to your A30.  
 
MediaGo is also great with batch editing tag info as you can select multiple tracks at the same time and change the common tag info all at once.  This was a godsend when I had to change the Genre for example for hundreds of tracks, I could do them all at once. 
 

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