[emilsoft]

Send it back, it does sound faulty.

I recall their NW-A55 also was very bright and had little bass but not this extent. it might be that there's a fault.. am I the only one hearing this? Can anyone compare to their other DAPs?

 

[goody]

It going in my drawer so I can forget about it as soon as possible lol.. or perhaps it can act as a dedicated transport for my Earmen Sparrow

looks like you got a big dud of a unit

 

[gordak36]

Ladies and gents there's something very wrong with the a306 - i can't believe anyone in their right minds would release something sounding so off.

Just so my tests don't falsify some data due to balanced armature impedance tonality changes, I plugged in the 306 in my headphone amplifier - Woo WA8 and tested with HD800s

To compare and contrast, I aligned the volume with all my other test devices (and all Sony DAPs were set to volume 100 on 3.5mm, I noted they all (AM2, ZX507) sounded the same level on 3.5mm scale, plenty loud and the 306 I have is uncapped for sure.

I started with Mojo 2: It sound excellent, wide, detailed, instruments separated, also smooth, sparkly, tight and articulated deep bass. All great

WM1AM2: Similar to Mojo 2 but a bit more together sounding (Sony coherence),but less instrument separation and little fuzzy and less articulated, but still a nice listen.

ZX507: a lesser AM2 essentially, but nice bouncy warm bass, groovy if not so refined.

a306: Oh, did i accidentally turn on a bass shelf eq on the DSP, sounds like everything below 125hz is chopped off by about 10db - and I mean everything. Nope, DSP is off, what in the world is going on here something must be wrong with my player, maybe some rogue process is running chopping off all the bass or there is a hardware fault. It is THAT BAD I'm serious. This is no precision audio instrument that costs 350$ - this should be a 5$ dac dongle with a cheap Android OS phone slapped on.

Please someone tell me things improve massively with burn in, otherwise this is absolute trash. It's seriously as if Sony have put on an EQ shelf cut from 120hz down, if not higher.

* I don't mean to diss anyone enjoying their player - but if you listen to a ZX507 or an AM2 on 3.5mm and jump to the A306 for same track, you should hear a massive decrease in bass; it's not even a neutral-bright, it's a super compressed bass that moves almost no air like there is a serious problem. The 3.5mm on the a306 should at least be on par with the ZX507

I also ran into the same issue but on the capped NW-A306, bass was greatly reduced compared to using my phone.
For those who owned both the capped and uncapped versions, was there any huge difference in bass?

 

[goody]

I recall their NW-A55 also was very bright and had little bass but not this extent. it might be that there's a fault.. am I the only one hearing this? Can anyone compare to their other DAPs?

Are you sure your unit is not capped i had an EU unit once and it sounded lifeless

 

[emilsoft]

Are you sure your unit is not capped i had an EU unit once and it sounded lifeless

I'm quite sure it's uncapped. It goes as loud as my uncapped ZX507 on 3.5mm with aligned steps. Drives IER-M7 very very loud without even reaching it's maximum output

It does sound lifeless yes - like heavy compression has been applied.

 

[psikey]

Ladies and gents there's something very wrong with the a306 - i can't believe anyone in their right minds would release something sounding so off.

Just so my tests don't falsify some data due to balanced armature impedance tonality changes, I plugged in the 306 in my headphone amplifier - Woo WA8 and tested with HD800s

To compare and contrast, I aligned the volume with all my other test devices (and all Sony DAPs were set to volume 100 on 3.5mm, I noted they all (AM2, ZX507) sounded the same level on 3.5mm scale, plenty loud and the 306 I have is uncapped for sure.

I started with Mojo 2: It sound excellent, wide, detailed, instruments separated, also smooth, sparkly, tight and articulated deep bass. All great

WM1AM2: Similar to Mojo 2 but a bit more together sounding (Sony coherence),but less instrument separation and little fuzzy and less articulated, but still a nice listen.

ZX507: a lesser AM2 essentially, but nice bouncy warm bass, groovy if not so refined.

a306: Oh, did i accidentally turn on a bass shelf eq on the DSP, sounds like everything below 125hz is chopped off by about 10db - and I mean everything. Nope, DSP is off, what in the world is going on here something must be wrong with my player, maybe some rogue process is running chopping off all the bass or there is a hardware fault. It is THAT BAD I'm serious. This is no precision audio instrument that costs 350$ - this should be a 5$ dac dongle with a cheap Android OS phone slapped on.

Please someone tell me things improve massively with burn in, otherwise this is absolute trash. It's seriously as if Sony have put on an EQ shelf cut from 120hz down, if not higher.

* I don't mean to diss anyone enjoying their player - but if you listen to a ZX507 or an AM2 on 3.5mm and jump to the A306 for same track, you should hear a massive decrease in bass; it's not even a neutral-bright, it's a super compressed bass that moves almost no air like there is a serious problem. The 3.5mm on the a306 should at least be on par with the ZX507

Maybe a fault one.

I'm listening A307 vs 1AM2 via 3.5mm and to me A307 has more bass. Volume about 70/120 with my M9 and FD7's.

 

[emilsoft]

Maybe a fault one.

When you compare side by side A306 with you AM2 (low gain), 3.5mm, both adjusted to equal step (say 70-80 depending on your headphone), do you not notice a massive bass decrease? It's not just the lack of it, it's like it's compressed and lacking any dynamics, completely dead.

There could well be a fault with mine, typically faults don't manifest themselves like this though, unless Sony messed something up with the regional tuning

 

[psikey]

I'm quite sure it's uncapped. It goes as loud as my uncapped ZX507 on 3.5mm with aligned steps. Drives IER-M7 very very loud without even reaching it's maximum output

It does sound lifeless yes - like heavy compression has been applied.

Is it Japanese market sourced ?

 

[psikey]

When you compare side by side A306 with you AM2 (low gain), 3.5mm, both adjusted to equal step (say 70-80 depending on your headphone), do you not notice a massive bass decrease? It's not just the lack of it, it's like it's compressed and lacking any dynamics, completely dead.

There could well be a fault with mine, typically faults don't manifest themselves like this though, unless Sony messed something up with the regional tuning

Will have another A-B listen after my evening meal and update.

 

[emilsoft]

Maybe a fault one.

I'm listening A307 vs 1AM2 via 3.5mm and to me A307 has more bass. Volume about 70/120 with my M9 and FD7's.

Well something must be wrong with mine then. I will try factory reset. Which build number do you have? Mine is 1.00.12

Thank you for your feedback as I'm trying to make sense of this - it helps knowing what's your experience

 

[emilsoft]

Is it Japanese market sourced ?

It's from UAE official Sony store - it's probably closely aligned to Japanese one or maybe even Chinese, if it has Chinese tuning maybe that's the issue

 

[abitdeef]

I also ran into the same issue but on the capped NW-A306, bass was greatly reduced compared to using my phone.
For those who owned both the capped and uncapped versions, was there any huge difference in bass?

Quite a difference yes, the capped one just didn't have the oomf to drive my iems good. So yes the bass and everything sounds better. That being said this is a neutral sounding player. If anything it's a little hot in the trebles

 

[goody]

When you compare side by side A306 with you AM2 (low gain), 3.5mm, both adjusted to equal step (say 70-80 depending on your headphone), do you not notice a massive bass decrease? It's not just the lack of it, it's like it's compressed and lacking any dynamics, completely dead.

There could well be a fault with mine, typically faults don't manifest themselves like this though, unless Sony messed something up with the regional tuning

This is exactly how a capped unit sounds like ...i am 100% your unit is capped it literally sounds like the music get worse even when volume is increased

 

[emilsoft]

This is exactly how a capped unit sounds like ...i am 100% your unit is capped it literally sounds like the music get worse even when volume is increased

If mine is capped I wouldn't expect it to match pound for pound both my uncapped WM1AM2 and ZX507 on 3.5mm volume - it can drive all my earphone with plenty gas left in the tank.

Maybe mine is half capped?! Where they removed the bass but forgot to also decrease the volume.. no idea what's going on.

 

[emilsoft]

This setting makes it sound more balanced, i.e. what i'd expect the bass to be like close to my other DAPs in their natural state