[pinkbecca]

Have you used the Sony walkman android OS to clean format the sdcard before transferring music into the sdcard?

This is to avoid access speed issues with difference in sdcard cluster size and exfat/fat32/ntfs

https://helpguide.sony.net/dmp/nwzx500/v1/en/contents/TP0002433017.html

Notes on microSD cards
Use a microSD card that has been formatted on the player. Sony does not guarantee the operation of other microSD cards.

Sony does not guarantee all operations for microSD cards that are used on multiple devices.

Formatting a microSD card will delete all data stored on the microSD card. Save a backup copy in advance.

yes I did

 

[nanaholic]

Anyone here knows Japanese language to summarize what they mention in the video?

The people in the video from left to right:
Sato Hiroaki - Walkman lead sound engineer
Matsuzaki-san - Walkman electrical design and sound engineer
Pierre Nakano - Drummer of band "Rin Toshite Shigure"
e-earphone staff (he didn't mention his name)

Note: I picked out the parts where they talk specifically about the hardware of the ZX-507, leaving out discussion of stuff like streaming service (where they plug Sony's own hi-res Mora qualitas service), or Bluetooth headphone discussion regarding the choice of being able to control volume on the device rather than sending a straight signal to the Bluetooth headphone

* Pierre Nakano says his current earphone of choice is the IER-Z1R (side note: I've met Pierre-san before at a Just ear owner's secret meeting - needless to say, he is a Just ear owner and is a huge audiophile)
* Sato-san and Matsuzaki-san (with some egging on by Pierre-san) said they use songs by the famous female group Perfume as testing song when making Walkmans, because their songs are hard to reproduce faithfully as it puts a lot of strain on the power delivery of the system, without a stable and strong power delivery circuit it won't be able to get the deep bass (down to 30Hz) and the snappy kick drums attacks out of their songs
* Using Android needs a fast CPU, and the fast clock of the CPU generates much more noise inside the device, so they installed a full copper shield milled from a thick slab of solid copper around the digital circuitry. In the ZX-300 a similar shield was installed but it was pressed from thin sheet copper which had gaps in it, so the shielding in the ZX-507 is vastly increased.
* completely separate analog and digital circuitry - even the power is completely separated first before powering the components
* S-Master HX actually has 6 channels - 4 is used for the balance output, and 2 is used for the single end, and as we know the capacitors used for the two outputs are different
* They mentioned you can use DSEE HX and the Equalizer when watching video on the ZX-507 (so I'm taking that to mean the upsampling and equalizer is system wide)
* Moving the charging port to the side was the ensure the wireless antenna at the bottom of the device would not be obstructed to ensure best wireless connection performance. Whereas the height position of that port in relationship to the side of the device was taking into account the best wire routing for the battery circuitry as the device is being charged with USB to have the least interference during playback
* The balance output uses the same capacitors as those found in the DMP-Z1
* All the components for the single end circuitry must be confined within a height of 2mm, they still managed to double the capacity of the capacitors used in it compared to those used in the ZX-300 for an improved low end performance
* They use their gold-infused solder which was used in the DMP-Z1, and the formula was Sony developed. Also many of the soldering in the Walkman for certain components like the headphone jacks, connectors, and battery is still done by hand and they try to avoid soldering the connecting pins on the parts directly onto the board as much as possible (note: this is because if you solder parts like the headphone jack directly onto the board using the package pins, they have no give which when dropped will snap and break, the floating connection is what Sony use to introduce tolerance for shock absorption)
* The material used for the PCB was especially selected for its performance on being able to handle high frequency signals which is not usually used in audio products
* they make lots of prototypes with each only changing a part of the system to analyse what effect the change has, before bring everything together
* as we know the recommended burn-in time for the capacitors in the Walkman is 200 hours, they actually play the prototypes normally with normal music connected to normal headphones at each point when testing for the changes, and don't use any special "burn-in" device to speed up the process nor use burn-in signals like wave/noise tones

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

https://www.hayaponlog.site/entry/2020/02/10/094328

[Finally revealed] The reason why the latest Android Walkman NW-ZX507 has poor battery life


This time I found out why the Android Walkman has a bad battery, so I decided to write a little.

If you have a bad battery life of this Android Walkman , it is helpful if you can have a look.

Applicable model

NW-A100 series
NW-ZX500 series



Why battery life is bad




In short, the processor is bad.





This time, there is no statement about the model of the processor adopted by Walkman, but it is presumed to be the following from the GPU used .



SoC NXP i.MX 8M Mini



The reason is

Cortex-A53 4-core configuration

GPU is Vivante GC7000 NanoUltra

(Supports up to OPEN GL2.0, power saving type)



Will be.

The manufacturing process is 14nm LPC FinFET.





By the way, many people have never heard of NXP SoCs.





This SoC is mainly used for verification boats and embedded devices, and is rarely available for smartphones .



This is the first time I 've been riding Android with this.



Well, I will write the cause...



1. Underclock is too high

When I examined the Walkman with AIDA64, I found that it was operating at a high frequency of 1.2 GHz when idle (no operation) .



For smartphones equipped with the same Cotex-A53, underclocking is kept as low as 100-300MHz.



By doing this, performance is exhibited under load, but battery power is improved by reducing power consumption during idle.



The operating frequency at idle is almost four times that for smartphones .


2. The control governor is strange


Some processors have what is called a control governor . Mainly, it is a set of instructions for how to move clock steps and cores.



Normally, in a 1.8GHz class SoC, it takes about 6 to 8 steps. If it is 4 core class, processing such as core stop is also performed.



With NXP i.MX 8M Mini, there are only 3 steps, and there is no core stop.



I thought it was silly and checked the data sheet of the processor, but the following items were found in the relevant items

so. There is only one control item in the kernel (backbone) of this processor .



Min, Typ, Max in the above column are allowable values.



Moreover, it is not defined that it moves only 1 core, and it always operates with 4 cores .





I think this is a design for embedded devices.

Such devices do not operate on batteries and are often in an environment where power is always supplied.



In that case, it is convincing if you think that it is easy for the developer to understand by not making the control items complicated as for smartphones .



By the way, the battery capacity of this Walkman is 1500mA/h



Actually, it is less than NW-ZX2. Still, I always have a chipset that runs on a 1.2GHz 4-core .



The battery life is bad, too.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

Fiio M11 Pro vs Sony ZX505:
https://m.sohu.com/a/399287454_100082659/?pvid=000115_3w_a

 

[psikey]

https://www.hayaponlog.site/entry/2020/02/10/094328

Just got the Hiby R3 Pro after having an A105 and then tested a UK ZX507. My main use is for streaming Tidal ideally bit perfect with full MQA unfold (can live without offline).

I can confirm with the A105/ZX507 I got about 5hrs live streaming Tidal and with the Hiby R3 Pro which has a slightly larger 1600A/h I get around 10 hrs

With offline Tidal tracks on A105/ZX507 and following sonywalkmanuser's guide and all wireless off I would get around 9 hrs.

Obviously R3Pro benefits from not being Android but no Spotify/AmazonHD or offline for Tidal*/Qobuz.

* There exists a work around

 

[Whitigir]

https://www.hayaponlog.site/entry/2020/02/10/094328

Does that mean someone had already cracked open Zx500 firmware ?

 

[bland125]

@nanaholic Thanks for taking the time to summarize and translate, very much appreciated!

 

[mikaell]

I've had the ZX-507 and the WM1A at the same time for a while.

Really wished it to be a WM1A with streaming - but Android is really holding this back. So happy to see someone explain why the CPU (implementation) is inappropriate - I only know it's unable to run Roon.

I've commented on this before but 5 hours of music playback is abysmal (yes, with ALL optimisations). I charge my WM1A probably once a week - but most importantly I don't worry about it.
The 507 makes me worry and that's not a good thing. I've had to pay attention during the day to not run out of juice before the evening in bed listening session.

Sound-wise, compared to the WM1A, The ZX-507 is a bit warmer and has a narrower but deeper stage, while the WM1A has more clarity and definition plus a wider soundstage. Pairing it with very V-shaped profile ear/headphones might be a bit too much of a sweet thing.

Even so, the 507 is very musical and enjoyable - no matter the format you feed it. MP3s are not impossible to listen to, but very high resolution audio will not scale as nicely as on the WM1A.

Maybe Sony should develop a custom OS with streaming built-in. They could do something in tune with what Roon is doing, integrating some services into its OS. This should be a utilitarian device, with a clear purpose and great battery life. And really update their dated native music app which is pretty outdated on the WM1 series but on an Android device it's hilariously "old fashioned" - which is a pity as the sound quality is really nice.

How cool would it be to have dual boot like the iBasso - to switch between Android and a scaled back, but optimised OS?

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

I think the short battery issue is pretty easy to solve by carrying a slim powerbank along with the walkman. It charges rather quickly too, if you use usb-c pd compliant power bank.

Wish some company would design a case with integrated battery(L shaped USB-C cabling) etc.

I feel that the WM1 series and the ZX series ultimately serve two different segments of the market.

WM1 is more for serious audiophiles who seek the best sound quality from their offline high res DSD/FLAC files.

ZX/A series is more for those who stream/listen to music on the go but still want more better sound quality than what is possible out of their mobile phone's bluetooth/headphone jack. Although the lines are very blurred in this segments as in there are audiophile usb dongles and smartphones with hi-res capable dacs and etc.

Back in 2019 Dec. I have the budget to either get the ZX507 or the WM1A, to replace my aging ZX2 walkman. In the end I decide to go for the ZX507 instead of the WM1A.

The reason is more due to my circumstances. I listen to alot of old music from the 80s, 90s and etc. Most of these music are not Hi-res, just regular PCM 16bit 44.1KHz in Compact Disc format. And worse of all, is most of these music are already out of print. The only available alternative are lossy Itunes 256Kbps AAC versions of these songs.

So that also the main reason why I decide to go with ZX507 as it's able to make the part of my music collection that is full of lossy audio sound better with it's newly improved DSEE HX AI.

Although you cannot do firmware sound changing like with the WM1A, with the ZX507, you can do Music app rolling, you get to use Sony's stock Player or Fiio Player or Neutron Player or whatever that can be found on the Google App store. They all sounded different from each other.

I feel that this walkman's biggest flaw(other than poor battery) is it's tiny screen. I am not sure why they didn't stick with the ZX2's screen size/chassis. It would have made viewing music videos so much more enjoyable and as well as allowing for bigger batteries/better shielding etc etc.

Sony really needs to make a big brother to the ZX507. ZX507 Ultimate or something. Bigger screen, bigger battery, along with dual boot Android and Walkman OS.

 

[Colors]

I've had the ZX-507 and the WM1A at the same time for a while.

Really wished it to be a WM1A with streaming - but Android is really holding this back. So happy to see someone explain why the CPU (implementation) is inappropriate - I only know it's unable to run Roon.

I've commented on this before but 5 hours of music playback is abysmal (yes, with ALL optimisations). I charge my WM1A probably once a week - but most importantly I don't worry about it.
The 507 makes me worry and that's not a good thing. I've had to pay attention during the day to not run out of juice before the evening in bed listening session.

Sound-wise, compared to the WM1A, The ZX-507 is a bit warmer and has a narrower but deeper stage, while the WM1A has more clarity and definition plus a wider soundstage. Pairing it with very V-shaped profile ear/headphones might be a bit too much of a sweet thing.

Even so, the 507 is very musical and enjoyable - no matter the format you feed it. MP3s are not impossible to listen to, but very high resolution audio will not scale as nicely as on the WM1A.

Maybe Sony should develop a custom OS with streaming built-in. They could do something in tune with what Roon is doing, integrating some services into its OS. This should be a utilitarian device, with a clear purpose and great battery life. And really update their dated native music app which is pretty outdated on the WM1 series but on an Android device it's hilariously "old fashioned" - which is a pity as the sound quality is really nice.

How cool would it be to have dual boot like the iBasso - to switch between Android and a scaled back, but optimised OS?

Why is the battery bad? Because it's Android. It's not going to get the 25-30 hr battery life the 1A has.

If you want streaming on WM1A, there's a BT reciever mode that works extremely well and has LDAC. Can just BT your smartphone over to the 1A and start using Apple Music/Spotify/TIDAL, etc.

 

[Pro-Jules]

We are on the bleeding edge

Loving mine hard after the upgrade / Amazon hires via Android.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

https://satouchi.com/walkman/zx500_review.html

 

[SkyZippr]

I listen to local lossy music only, and I bought ZX507 for 4 reasons.
1. My new smartphone doesn't support SD card, so I needed a DAP.
2. It had to be Android, because I wanted to sync the playcount between the DAP and MusicBee on my PC.
3. I wanted to have balanced output. 2.5mm was okay but I preferred 4.4mm.
4. I wanted to give DSEE-HX a try.
That narrowed down to ZX507.

IMO ZX507's battery life is acceptable considering its tiny 1,500mAh battery, but I do hope future products would have at least 3,000mAh.

 

[eternalEquilibrium]

Phones have no SD card slots now? Bloody hell.they get more and more expensive and less and less options. Taken a page out of porches book

 

[mikaell]

I think the short battery issue is pretty easy to solve by carrying a slim powerbank along with the walkman. It charges rather quickly too, if you use usb-c pd compliant power bank.
Sony really needs to make a big brother to the ZX507. ZX507 Ultimate or something. Bigger screen, bigger battery, along with dual boot Android and Walkman OS.

I already carry a phone, add to that the DAP, earphones (case)... adding an extra battery pack - no thanks! When I travel yes, but day to day... My iPhone X is almost 3 years old now and still gets me easily through the day with heavy use. I don't want to carry a pack for a DAP. Again, each with their own use case.

If you want streaming on WM1A, there's a BT reciever mode that works extremely well and has LDAC. Can just BT your smartphone over to the 1A and start using Apple Music/Spotify/TIDAL, etc.

That's exactly what I'm doing - i stream via BT for music discovery.