[rob2201]

I tried to attach a photo but I’m not sure how to do that. I got my A306 from Best Buy. It has a very low serial number 1000027. Thankfully it doesn’t have bass issue however I noticed few other things. I’m using it with 3 different sets of headphones. Philips Fidelio X2, L2 and Sony own wh1000xm4.
- no issues with Sony headphones everything as expected, I’m glad I can take advantage of LDAC
- with Philips L2 (16ohm @ 200mw) also no issues, and I’m happy listening at 80-90 volume levels
- but with X2 which are still easy to drive at 30ohm 500mw I have to sometimes crank volume up all the way to 120, how are people using more power hungry headphones? My supreme 40 year old DC2 Walkman will work fine with any headphones I’ve used. So that’s my first issue
- second issue is Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity problems. When I try to stream music and listen using Bluetooth I get severe dropouts. Again, my 10 year old iPod touch doesn’t have this problem. I checked wifi and I’m on 5ghz network standing next to the router. Using wired headphones seems to improve connection. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. Is one not supposed to have Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on at the same time?
Thank you

 

[rob2201]

Wanted to add that Best Buy had it available for a day or two last week but only at local stores here in PNW, I could not get it shipped. They only had one or two available at few locations. Now it shows sold out again.

 

[Jrod33084]

I tried to attach a photo but I’m not sure how to do that. I got my A306 from Best Buy. It has a very low serial number 1000027. Thankfully it doesn’t have bass issue however I noticed few other things. I’m using it with 3 different sets of headphones. Philips Fidelio X2, L2 and Sony own wh1000xm4.
- no issues with Sony headphones everything as expected, I’m glad I can take advantage of LDAC
- with Philips L2 (16ohm @ 200mw) also no issues, and I’m happy listening at 80-90 volume levels
- but with X2 which are still easy to drive at 30ohm 500mw I have to sometimes crank volume up all the way to 120, how are people using more power hungry headphones? My supreme 40 year old DC2 Walkman will work fine with any headphones I’ve used. So that’s my first issue
- second issue is Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity problems. When I try to stream music and listen using Bluetooth I get severe dropouts. Again, my 10 year old iPod touch doesn’t have this problem. I checked wifi and I’m on 5ghz network standing next to the router. Using wired headphones seems to improve connection. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. Is one not supposed to have Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on at the same time?
Thank you

As far as the Wi-Fi Bluetooth issue… not sure if the a306 is able to handle Wi-Fi streaming of Hi-res music and sending that same stream over Bluetooth LDAC. I had the same dropout results when I tried myself. Luckily I don’t do much streaming and/or Bluetooth and definitely not both at the same time so it’s not a concern for me. Maybe others will have a different result if they tried. You may have to change to apxHD or another Bluetooth codec and see if that helps. I also didn’t do much testing with it either. I just wanted to see how it would perform doing both at same time.

 

[rob2201]

As far as the Wi-Fi Bluetooth issue… not sure if the a306 is able to handle Wi-Fi streaming of Hi-res music and sending that same stream over Bluetooth LDAC. I had the same dropout results when I tried myself. Luckily I don’t do much streaming and/or Bluetooth and definitely not both at the same time so it’s not a concern for me. Maybe others will have a different result if they tried. You may have to change to apxHD or another Bluetooth codec and see if that helps. I also didn’t do much testing with it either. I just wanted to see how it would perform doing both at same time.

Thanks. I’ll try that. Bluetooth is not my first choice when it comes to serious music listening but since I have that option I use it for convenience. Maybe it’s not so much a connectivity issue but more of a limited processing power that this dap has, because increasing streaming buffer or playback cache doesn’t improve anything.

 

[abitdeef]

I tried to attach a photo but I’m not sure how to do that. I got my A306 from Best Buy. It has a very low serial number 1000027. Thankfully it doesn’t have bass issue however I noticed few other things. I’m using it with 3 different sets of headphones. Philips Fidelio X2, L2 and Sony own wh1000xm4.
- no issues with Sony headphones everything as expected, I’m glad I can take advantage of LDAC
- with Philips L2 (16ohm @ 200mw) also no issues, and I’m happy listening at 80-90 volume levels
- but with X2 which are still easy to drive at 30ohm 500mw I have to sometimes crank volume up all the way to 120, how are people using more power hungry headphones? My supreme 40 year old DC2 Walkman will work fine with any headphones I’ve used. So that’s my first issue
- second issue is Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity problems. When I try to stream music and listen using Bluetooth I get severe dropouts. Again, my 10 year old iPod touch doesn’t have this problem. I checked wifi and I’m on 5ghz network standing next to the router. Using wired headphones seems to improve connection. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. Is one not supposed to have Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on at the same time?
Thank you

Welcome! And welcome to volume capped units to the US, that's the answer to your first concern- the measly 35mw @ 16 ohms is cut by 30% approximately.

Second issue I've got no answer, my wifi never cuts out and I haven't used BT on this model ( I returned my US model and got and uncapped one) But BT was fine on the first one.

It's not the processing power as this unit crushes your ipod touch. Maybe software issue or router bandwidth conflict. Or Sony has a crappy wifi chip, don't know never tried them both simultaneously. The photo- just use the attach file tab at the bottom of your post.

 

[Jrod33084]

Thanks. I’ll try that. Bluetooth is not my first choice when it comes to serious music listening but since I have that option I use it for convenience. Maybe it’s not so much a connectivity issue but more of a limited processing power that this dap has, because increasing streaming buffer or playback cache doesn’t improve anything.

Yea that’s almost what it seems like the case is to me. If I can recall, as this was weeks ago when I tried myself, but I thought it performed better with less dropouts depending on the track playing and depending on my volume level. Like it had less dropouts the lower the volume was… Which would makes sense on your point if it’s about the processing power.

 

[psikey]

I tried to attach a photo but I’m not sure how to do that. I got my A306 from Best Buy. It has a very low serial number 1000027. Thankfully it doesn’t have bass issue however I noticed few other things. I’m using it with 3 different sets of headphones. Philips Fidelio X2, L2 and Sony own wh1000xm4.
- no issues with Sony headphones everything as expected, I’m glad I can take advantage of LDAC
- with Philips L2 (16ohm @ 200mw) also no issues, and I’m happy listening at 80-90 volume levels
- but with X2 which are still easy to drive at 30ohm 500mw I have to sometimes crank volume up all the way to 120, how are people using more power hungry headphones? My supreme 40 year old DC2 Walkman will work fine with any headphones I’ve used. So that’s my first issue
- second issue is Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity problems. When I try to stream music and listen using Bluetooth I get severe dropouts. Again, my 10 year old iPod touch doesn’t have this problem. I checked wifi and I’m on 5ghz network standing next to the router. Using wired headphones seems to improve connection. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. Is one not supposed to have Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on at the same time?
Thank you

Avoiding the volume capped ones from the likes of EU/US/UK.

 

[rob2201]

Thank you for commenting. All in all I like it a lot so I’ll wait for bass issue resolved and get the Japanese market unit.

 

[psikey]

Thanks. I’ll try that. Bluetooth is not my first choice when it comes to serious music listening but since I have that option I use it for convenience. Maybe it’s not so much a connectivity issue but more of a limited processing power that this dap has, because increasing streaming buffer or playback cache doesn’t improve anything.

Change LDAC setting from Best to other option (if on Best). LDAC Best at 990kbps is always iffy unless you are in ideal conditions. Most smartphones set at the 600kbps level.

Its 'ldac-connection pref.' on Walkman, in BT settings and Wireless Sound Quality.

If you're sat and not lots of other BT around 990 Best works OK.

 

[abitdeef]

Change LDAC setting from Best to other option. LDAC best at 990kbps is always iffy unless you are in ideal conditions. Most smartphones set at the 600kbps level.

Yes that's a good ideal, forgot about that.

 

[psikey]

So, still not reply from Sony yet

 

[rlw6534]

So, still not reply from Sony yet

Today's reply was that he was checking back with the product manager and no info yet from Tokyo. I did send the latest list of affected units. He's doing us a favor so I'm trying not to push too hard and burn the contact and get ghosted.

 

[rob2201]

Change LDAC setting from Best to other option (if on Best). LDAC Best at 990kbps is always iffy unless you are in ideal conditions. Most smartphones set at the 600kbps level.

Its 'ldac-connection pref.' on Walkman, in BT settings and Wireless Sound Quality.

If you're sat and not lots of other BT around 990 Best works OK.

Thank you. I didn’t think about that. I set it to sound quality preferences since I’m a little ocd when it comes to obtaining all possible resources from my gear when it comes to sq. I’ll give it a try.

 

[abitdeef]

So, still not reply from Sony yet

Nope and no firmware hitting either.

 

[psikey]

Today's reply was that he was checking back with the product manager and no info yet from Tokyo. I did send the latest list of affected units. He's doing us a favor so I'm trying not to push too hard and burn the contact and get ghosted.

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