[purk]

I Just finished doing the same thing but used DH-LABS OFH-20 ($12 for 2 meters on eBay) (Silver plated crystal copper wire). The stage is twice as wide, depth has improved a lot as well Transparency/Separation is amazing vs before with stock copper wire. This is just 5 minutes in. Loving what I'm hearing. I'm also loving the treble refinement.

I just did the 4 wires that come from the 4 Sony Capacitors to the 4.4 Jack. Didn't touch anything else (I don't think it's necessary.

This is with Hi-Res Streaming off...can't imagine how wide it'll sound with that turned on.

Listening to Khalid - Bluffin', can't believe how massive the sound stage is. Almost sounds Binaural now. This is worth doing fellas. Definitely time well spent.

If you're going to attempt doing this, the trick is to carefully remove the rubber cover but especially the metal plate that protects the internals without damaging your DAP.

It''s like going from a 2.1 system to a 7.1...still testing songs I know From Micheal Jackson to Yuna, Khalid... I'm like wow...that's a massive soundstage.

I think i just made my self an NW-WM2Z

It's Def worth it.

Awesome work guys! Do the wires to the battery mod will increase the sense of dynamics and a bit of slam and will make this player nearly on par with the 1Z. Yes, completely agreed on the soundstage and sense of resolution. I didn’t come up with this mod by the way. @Whitigir Inspired me to do this mod. Yes, releasing those metal clips was a bit*h.

 

[sarnhelen]

So I decided in an idle moment that i would check out the SanDisk Extreme Pro 400GB, bought off Amazon. But I have a Mac and the idea of laboriously trawling through terabytes of music again and adding stuff one by one to Android File Transfer (again) was discouraging. After checking out numerous one-star rated alternatives on the iOS app store, I found what I wanted and this might be useful to Mac owners here. The Finder replacement app Commander One in its PRO version ($30) treats an Android device exactly like a Mac HD, and its split pane meant I could attach the Samsung Evo card in a card reader to one Mac port and the 507 with the Extreme Pro in another port, select all the Music folder in the Samsung pane, drag across to the 507 pane and go away, let it get on with it. And I can see I'll be using Commander One for everything now since it also can access Box, Dropbox, as well as all kinds of other stuff I don't use now but which the geniuses at work will think necessary during online operations (at least until some new Mac OS comes along and screws it...).

And btw, incredibly, the Extreme Pro DOES sound better. If that's psycho-acoustic delusion I'm all for it.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

So I decided in an idle moment that i would check out the SanDisk Extreme Pro 400GB, bought off Amazon. But I have a Mac and the idea of laboriously trawling through terabytes of music again and adding stuff one by one to Android File Transfer (again) was discouraging. After checking out numerous one-star rated alternatives on the iOS app store, I found what I wanted and this might be useful to Mac owners here. The Finder replacement app Commander One in its PRO version ($30) treats an Android device exactly like a Mac HD, and its split pane meant I could attach the Samsung Evo card in a card reader to one Mac port and the 507 with the Extreme Pro in another port, select all the Music folder in the Samsung pane, drag across to the 507 pane and go away, let it get on with it. And I can see I'll be using Commander One for everything now since it also can access Box, Dropbox, as well as all kinds of other stuff I don't use now but which the geniuses at work will think necessary during online operations (at least until some new Mac OS comes along and screws it...).

And btw, incredibly, the Extreme Pro DOES sound better. If that's psycho-acoustic delusion I'm all for it.

That's great to hear. By the way what was your previous microsd card. I like to know where you came from.

 

[sarnhelen]

That's great to hear. By the way what was your previous microsd card. I like to know where you came from.

Samsung EVO 512GB. Fortunately I had used only 366GB so could simply copy all.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

@Ryokan

I tried using your method of using the windows sd card formatter tool to do a full erase format before using walkman to format another time. I did detect an improvement in sound on the lexar card. Guess I should try out for the rest of the microsd cards and see if this tool helps the rest.

 

[Ryokan]

@Ryokan

I tried using the windows sd card formatter tool to do a full erase format before using walkman to format another time. I did detect an improvement in sound on the lexar card. Guess I should try out for the rest of the microsd cards and see if this tool helps the rest.

I always use guiformat or SD Card Formatter, since Windows once wouldn't detect over a certain size - is that still the case?
All I know is when I took the new card from the packet and just quick formatted in the player it sounded crap to what I'm used to, bass was noticeably affected, everything sounded thin. I posted my findings that the card sounded completely different. The next day I formatted with SD Formatter then again in the player. As posted I couldn't tell a difference both sounded great. One minute I'm agreeing with you then I'm contradicting you, but I was honestly reporting what I'd heard.
If anyone has a new card in the packaging use it straight away without formatting (make a music folder), or just formatting in the player see if it sounds any different to when the card is formatted in the pc.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

If anyone has a new card in the packaging use it straight away without formatting (make a music folder), or just formatting in the player see if it sounds any different to when the card is formatted in the pc.

I tried using my Sandisk extreme pro direct out of package and just creating a music folder. It was way too bassy with bad imaging. After which I format it via Walkman and it sounded great.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

I tried using the sdcard formatter tool on the Toshiba exceria m303 before doing Walkman format. I notice a slight improvement in background noise floor and slightly better clarity and deeper bass. The smooth sound signature remains intact.

Guess I should try this formatter tool on my extreme pro now.

 

[Ryokan]

I tried using my Sandisk extreme pro direct out of package and just creating a music folder. It was way too bassy with bad imaging. After which I format it via Walkman and it sounded great.

I did a full format not a quick one, can take over an hour depending on card size.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

I did a full format not a quick one, can take over an hour depending on card size.

I did the overwrite format on the sdcard formatter tool. Took really Long for the Lexar.

now I have done the overwrite format for the Sandisk extreme pro. Formatted via Walkman again. Now copying my music back in.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

After doing 3 individual overwrite format on windows sd card formatter tool + Walkman format on Lexar 633x, Toshiba Exerica M303 and Sandisk Extreme Pro.

In my opinion, there is a sound quality improvement from do the above step. It does not change the sound signature of the card but improves on the background noise floor further.
The better the card initially is, the more gains to be had.

Sandisk Extreme Pro’s bass now reveals more texture and goes even deeper. Soundstaging has more reverbations showing up. Treble now has even higher extensions. Notes feels weighter than before.

I am sharing this as my experience, it is your choice if you wish to perform this longer procedure that reduces the write cycle of your microsd card by abit.

 

[ttt123]

After doing 3 individual overwrite format on windows sd card formatter tool + Walkman format on Lexar 633x, Toshiba Exerica M303 and Sandisk Extreme Pro.

In my opinion, there is a sound quality improvement from do the above step. It does not change the sound signature of the card but improves on the background noise floor further.
The better the card initially is, the more gains to be had.

Sandisk Extreme Pro’s bass now reveals more texture and goes even deeper. Soundstaging has more reverbations showing up. Treble now has even higher extensions. Notes feels weighter than before.

I am sharing this as my experience, it is your choice if you wish to perform this longer procedure that reduces the write cycle of your microsd card by abit.

I'm trying a variation. Use Sd card Formatter to do a quick format, then format on the ZX507, and then take the card out to copy the music files back in using a USB card reader.

The SD Card Formatter formats to SD Association standards, and this optimizes the SD card file structure, and the SD Association measures improvements of 52% faster sequential read, 3% faster random reads, and 61% faster random writes. As this is to do with the optimized Format done by the SD Card Formatter, the quick format should deliver this advantage. The Overwrite format is more for data security, to make sure to overwrite all files on the SD card, so they are unrecoverable, by writing to every cell, so the overwrite (which takes a long time), should not be needed. I guess you can try this out?
https://www.sdcard.org/press/thoughtleadership/200309_The_SD_Memory_Card_Formatter.html

 

[DCaudiophile]

Can you guys best place to buy for non restricted volume version is for USA delivery thanks

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

I'm trying a variation. Use Sd card Formatter to do a quick format, then format on the ZX507, and then take the card out to copy the music files back in using a USB card reader.

The SD Card Formatter formats to SD Association standards, and this optimizes the SD card file structure, and the SD Association measures improvements of 52% faster sequential read, 3% faster random reads, and 61% faster random writes. As this is to do with the optimized Format done by the SD Card Formatter, the quick format should deliver this advantage. The Overwrite format is more for data security, to make sure to overwrite all files on the SD card, so they are unrecoverable, by writing to every cell, so the overwrite (which takes a long time), should not be needed. I guess you can try this out?
https://www.sdcard.org/press/thoughtleadership/200309_The_SD_Memory_Card_Formatter.html

I wonder when the microsd card when it is intially manufactured, does it come preformatted with this same optimized formatting.

I did try using this windows sd overwrite formatting without using walkman format. The sound quality is not as good as with walkman format included.

 

[ttt123]

I wonder when the microsd card when it is intially manufactured, does it come preformatted with this same optimized formatting.

I did try using this windows sd overwrite formatting without using walkman format. The sound quality is not as good as with walkman format included.

The write up on the SD Association web site says they have found it unreliable whether manufacturers follow the SD Association standard. They may follow their own standard, or use a standard that is not SD optimized. Logically, this should not happen, but it does.
As there are multiple storage types, HDD, SSD, USB flash, it is possible that a generic format that is not SD optimized could be used. Their recommendation is to use the SD Industry formatter to be sure. That makes sense to me, as that is the only way that you are going to be sure. So probably a good general practice to use the SD Association SD Formatter on cards that you buy.

I'm also wondering whether it would be better to just add a Music folder and use it, rather than re-format it on the ZX507, in case the Device format alters it from the SD Association standard? Though I see you have tried that, and found it better after formatting on the ZX507...