[AtomicUK]

It is nice to only need 55/120 with my SE846's, loads of headroom. Actually painfull to listen above 75/120 with them!

Agreed, when in a quiet moment, I often only listen at 30/120 and it sounds fabulous.

Out of interest, now time has passed, which have become you favourite in-ears with the A307 - Is it those SE846s?.

 

[MacroOrganisim]

Absolutely a 'tech' anymore isn't really a tech in most cases. They're certainly not going to analyze frequency response if the unit's working. Maybe do a reset or such and call it a day. Or if you bug support enough you might get sent a new unit.

Yea, that seems to be the case here. I did point out that be problem could be seen with the frequency response measuring using REW and the fact that even some of their store display machines has the same problem, but he was either being dismissive or dodge the topic altogether. Sounds like he just wants to close my repair ticket .

The impression he gave me through the conversation though, is that there is pretty much nothing they could do about it. Despite being an official Sony repair center, the most they could do is simple stuff like replacing a broken screen or swapping unresponsive buttons, Anything more complicated than that equals a replacement, which actually is quite normal for electronic these days. But they only do repair, not replacement. So a new motherboard it is then.

I doubt if they publicly acknowledge the problem at all, despite them probably addressing it in a firmware update

Ah, just like what they did with the WF1000XM4 battery issue, which I am also a victim of. At least the repair tech didn't argue with me about it being "fine" on that one.

Really lost all my faith in Sony product after being screwed twice in a row by them (thrice, actually). And I used to be a Sony fanboy.

 

[MacroOrganisim]

This is really interesting

In terms of sending things for repair and the company saying it all works fine. I had a similar experience with Asus and a ZenFone 9 phone. I bought the UK version, and sent it back for repair. I provided a video with the issue and they said that they couldn't replicate the issue but as a gesture of good will they would repair the motherboard and guess what? That solved the issue!! Plenty of people had the same issue and several firmware updates were released and NONE solved the issue. For the phone it was easy to see because the IMEI and MAC addresses changed. So, given that the Walkman is an Android device , maybe you can write down the Mac addresses (Bluetooth/WiFi) and then compare against the "repaired version". If it's an authorised Sony repair centre it should all be ok. They're "embedded" to the motherboard so if that is actually changed then MAC addresses should (in theory) change with it.

You got me just a little bit worried as a fellow Zenfone9 user - have been very happy with mine.

Should have noted down those value before I sent my A306 for repair, now I guess I have to trust the repair center's word for it.

Fingers crossed the new one won't have the bass issue, and even if it does this whole mess is really just a software issue that can be fixed via OTA updates.

 

[bwhat]

Sony's manual says:

Notes on the sample data
Sample music is preinstalled on the player for trial listening.
When formatting is complete, the player will restore its preinstalled content.
Sample data is not installed in some countries or regions.

Since there's a cross section of "home" countries for NW-A306/7 - curious which regions had HI-Res sample songs preloaded?
Japan model came preloaded with:
-Blue Monday FM - Bee Moved
-Elephant Revival - Don't Drift Too Far
-Adam Agee & Jon Sousa - Paddy Fahey's
-Lara Ruggels - Out of an Eggshell

Edit: - typos

 

[Vamp898]

Sony's manual says:


Since there's a cross section of "home" countries for NW-A306/7 - curious which regions had HI-Res sample songs preloaded?
Japan model came preloaded with:
-Blue Monday FM - Bee Moved
-Elephant Revival - Don't Drift Too Far
-Adam Agee & Jon Sousa - Paddy Fahey's
-Lara Ruggels - Out of an Eggshell

Edit: - typos

The Japanese versions in the store, the demo units, have different songs like the Evangelion opening or a song from BiSH

But the version you buy have the same songs as you mentioned above which are the exact same songs than in Europe

This: (192kHz / 24bit)
And this: (96kHz / 24bit)

But as said, they are not there when you actually buy the device

 

[Psymon69]

My A306 can’t drive my Meze 109 Pro (bought to accompany the A306 on the principle of Sony specifications listed and the Meze low impedance match) and consequently I’m going to use it as a source player to a desktop amp DAC combo in my home office…..
mine is UK specification…

 

[psikey]

Agreed, when in a quiet moment, I often only listen at 30/120 and it sounds fabulous.

Out of interest, now time has passed, which have become you favourite in-ears with the A307 - Is it those SE846s?.

Bizarrely complete opposite order of IEM price!

Fiio FD7, SE846, then my M9's

Think we go through mood changes and at moment preferring sound of DD over BA

 

[Vamp898]

My A306 can’t drive my Meze 109 Pro (bought to accompany the A306 on the principle of Sony specifications listed and the Meze low impedance match) and consequently I’m going to use it as a source player to a desktop amp DAC combo in my home office…..
mine is UK specification…

What do you mean they can not drive it? Is there no sound when plugging them in? Or do you mean that 120/120 is not loud enough?

 

[unkindness]

Mildly annoyed by the fact that the Walkman player app on the A306 can't count past 9999 songs in it while my 7yo NWZ-A17 is fine counting almost 30k tracks. Hope they fix it.

 

[cliffjnr]

spec wise is this little walkman any better than an average smartphone for its audio hardware? sony don't really give u much info.

i mean it sounds good

 

[psikey]

spec wise is this little walkman any better than an average smartphone for its audio hardware? sony don't really give u much info.

i mean it sounds good

My smartphones when they had 3.5mm out would drive more power than capped Sony DAP's 3.5mm, but an uncapped one has more power. If you mean sound quality then it depends if phone even has a 3.5mm and if not, totally down to USB DAC/AMP your using with the phone.

I had an Xperia 1 III not long ago and it was good for a phone, but A306/7 is better. I also had an LG V30 years ago with a good dedicated QUAD DAC and the Sony sounds better than that too (for me anyway from memory).

I have an iPhone13mini with the apple 3.5mm DAC/AMP and the Sony sounds more musical, warm and expansive than that. I've also used my BTR5 wired out of an S21 & the iPhone and I'd still say A300 edges it too (but not for power).

 

[cliffjnr]

My smartphones when they had 3.5mm out would drive more power than capped Sony DAP's 3.5mm, but an uncapped one has more power. If you mean sound quality then it depends if phone even has a 3.5mm and if not, totally down to USB DAC/AMP your using with the phone.

I had an Xperia 1 III not long ago and it was good for a phone, but A306/7 is better. I also had an LG V30 years ago with a good dedicated QUAD DAC and the Sony sounds better than that too (for me anyway from memory).

I have an iPhone13mini with the apple 3.5mm DAC/AMP and the Sony sound more musical, warm and expansive than that. I've also used my BTR5 wired out of an S21 & the iPhone and I'd still say A300 edges it too (but not for power).

thank for that. what hardware does this little sony have or is it a secret? i cant see anything listed

 

[psikey]

thank for that. what hardware does this little sony have or is it a secret? i cant see anything listed

Its a £350 device tailored for music finesse while mobiles are jack of all trades. For a starter it has precision crystal oscillators for timing, high-grade film capacitors, solder with gold, 4-pole 3.5mm for balanced earth ...

See here

https://www.sony.co.uk/walkman/products/nw-a306/features2

 

[cliffjnr]

Its a £350 device tailored for music finesse while mobiles are jack of all trades. For a starter it has precision crystal oscillators for timing, high-grade film capacitors, solder with gold, 4-pole 3.5mm for balanced earth ...

See here

https://www.sony.co.uk/walkman/products/nw-a306/features2

cheers. so im guessing the S-Master™ HX digital amp has an integrated dac of which we dont know anything about?

 

[psikey]

cheers. so im guessing the S-Master™ HX digital amp has an integrated dac of which we dont know anything about?

It has been covered extensively (not in this thread) and not really a DAC as far as I understand