[tidalwav1]

My imported Japanese A307 also seems to have the same bass issue.

 

[emilsoft]

My imported Japanese A307 also seems to have the same bass issue.

Oh no this might be a firmware problem I hope.. i will update what my findings with Sony are, I brought them printouts of details, measurements of the fault and even link to this forum which the Sony store staff scanned and sent over to their team.. i can only hope they dig into this properly.

 

[Mmet]

Oh no this might be a firmware problem I hope.. i will update what my findings with Sony are, I brought them printouts of details, measurements of the fault and even link to this forum which the Sony store staff scanned and sent over to their team.. i can only hope they dig into this properly.

May be it is not .. 2 user measurements ( which i trust more than a youtuber video ).. the same bass drop off impression in 2 countries including the jp one
Even people whom likes the sound are saying yes it is brighter than normal sony warm house sound.

So, it may be a case of personal liking and synergy with their iems and headphones . ( The Higher and more linear impedance of the iem .. the better the results )
And the output impedance and internal components of this model are playing tricks with different loads that it sees ...

Or ( most unlikely for me ) just a bizarre coincidence that makes 3 defective players in 3 different countries give the same defective measurements and auditory impressions !!!

 

[emilsoft]

May be it is not .. 2 user measurements ( which i trust more than a youtuber video ).. the same bass drop off impression in 2 countries including the jp one
Even people whom likes the sound are saying yes it is brighter than normal sony warm house sound.

So, it may be a case of personal liking and synergy with their iems and headphones . ( The Higher and more linear impedance of the iem .. the better the results )
And the output impedance and internal components of this model are playing tricks with different loads that it sees ...

Or ( most unlikely for me ) just a bizarre coincidence that makes 3 defective players in 3 different countries give the same defective measurements and auditory impressions !!!

The youtube measurement gives me hope as that one is flat, I don't particularly have a reason to mistrust it.

But as you say lot of users here say it's bright, and that has me concerned if they're simply not so impacted by the massive bass drop off and prefer the jpop style tuning, not realising it's a major issue (no source should have frequency tuning especially a 350$ one). I'd like to see some more spectrum analysis measurements from other users to help us confirm if this might indeed be a universal problem.

 

[steakikan]

My imported Japanese A307 also seems to have the same bass issue.

Dang, seems it is safer to cancel my pre-order first. Too bad I like the form factor of this unit.

 

[ttt123]

A306 HK version is also affected. Bass is missing, so that you hear the note, but there is no weight to it. Any music with bass content will sound unbalanced, and the bass foundation being missing makes the music balance very abnormal and unbalanced.
-Bought on the weekend from DMA in SSP. Took it back to the store today. Tried another A306, and it had the same defective Bass.
- Store said it was not a deffect, as all their stock is the same, and they cannot replace it as it is working "normal" as Sony intended. The new model has a different sound, maybe not to my preferences. After listening to it, the store agreed that the bass was severely reduced, but I would have to take this up with Sony, as the store could not do anything as it was performing as per Sony design. The store did agree to provide feedback to Sony on this issue, that they had also not been aware of until I brought it up to them.
- Tested using an L&P W2-131 dongle. Play a song with bass with the IEM plugged into the A306. Then plug the W2 dongle in, switch the IEM to the W2, and you can hear the difference right away.

- Let the store hear the different sound, with the IEM plugged into the A306, and then through the W2. Store tried easier to drive IEM, as they suggested my Fiio FD7 was hard to drive, and that may affect the bass. Same result with the IEM they used.

When listening to music that does not have much low bass, the A306 sounds fine. But pick a bass heavy song, and it can be heard right away that there is an absence of any low bass.

 

[emilsoft]

A306 HK version is also affected. Bass is missing, so that you hear the note, but there is no weight to it. Any music with bass content will sound unbalanced, and the bass foundation being missing makes the music balance very abnormal and unbalanced.
-Bought on the weekend from DMA in SSP. Took it back to the store today. Tried another A306, and it had the same defective Bass.
- Store said it was not a deffect, as all their stock is the same, and they cannot replace it as it is working "normal" as Sony intended. The new model has a different sound, maybe not to my preferences. After listening to it, the store agreed that the bass was severely reduced, but I would have to take this up with Sony, as the store could not do anything as it was performing as per Sony design. The store did agree to provide feedback to Sony on this issue, that they had also not been aware of until I brought it up to them.
- Tested using an L&P W2-131 dongle. Play a song with bass with the IEM plugged into the A306. Then plug the W2 dongle in, switch the IEM to the W2, and you can hear the difference right away.

- Let the store hear the different sound, with the IEM plugged into the A306, and then through the W2. Store tried easier to drive IEM, as they suggested my Fiio FD7 was hard to drive, and that may affect the bass. Same result with the IEM they used.

When listening to music that does not have much low bass, the A306 sounds fine. But pick a bass heavy song, and it can be heard right away that there is an absence of any low bass.

This confirms my fears - it's a larger problem and seems like botched firmware or marketing completely missing the mark with their "tuning".

If the store says this is by design you can show them my measurements done in a proper controlled experiment (impedance/load irrelevant so they can't say your headphone impedance is impacting the bass): if they say all their other stock measures the same this doesn't mean it's correct.. if a car manufacturers delivers a batch of cars with 3 wheels instead of 4 it doesn't mean it's right.. and this is huge problem, this 350$ device can't do correct audio reproduction with -10db bass cut, this is simply a manufacturer defect, and if it really is by design then it's false advertising specifying high quality audio reproduction as per their website. It's like buying a BMW with square wheels.

Sony - if you're reading this, which I'm sure you're not, but if you are.. we Sony fans love bass, meaty and plumpy or tight and punchy - but it needs to be there, and you don't have to butcher a 350$ product to entice us to "upgrade" to a 900$ one.

I urge everyone who has a problem with the player sounding very bright, you're likely having this problem - write to Sony, take it back to the retailer and make a big fuss, don't let them mess you about saying this is by design - you paid 400$ and you should expect stellar audio reproduction, if not at at least on par with a 10$ usb-c dongle!

 

[emilsoft]

Alright so I think I figured out REW enough to do this correctly, and it definitely looks like my A306 is having trouble with lower frequencies.



The orange line is from the Apple USB C Headphone Adapter plugged into the A306, and the blue line is from the A306 in direct mode without any DSP filters applied.

If anyone has experience with REW and wouldn't mind reproducing the results I'd really appreciate it! I have about a month to return it, but I'm considering buying another from a different seller just to have a direct comparison.

I measured the same - see my earlier posts. It’s a huge bass cut, unlistenable unless I treat it like an alarm clock radio

 

[psikey]

This confirms my fears - it's a larger problem and seems like botched firmware or marketing completely missing the mark with their "tuning".

If the store says this is by design you can show them my measurements done in a proper controlled experiment (impedance/load irrelevant so they can't say your headphone impedance is impacting the bass): if they say all their other stock measures the same this doesn't mean it's correct.. if a car manufacturers delivers a batch of cars with 3 wheels instead of 4 it doesn't mean it's right.. and this is huge problem, this 350$ device can't do correct audio reproduction with -10db bass cut, this is simply a manufacturer defect, and if it really is by design then it's false advertising specifying high quality audio reproduction as per their website. It's like buying a BMW with square wheels.

Sony - if you're reading this, which I'm sure you're not, but if you are.. we Sony fans love bass, meaty and plumpy or tight and punchy - but it needs to be there, and you don't have to butcher a 350$ product to entice us to "upgrade" to a 900$ one.

I urge everyone who has a problem with the player sounding very bright, you're likely having this problem - write to Sony, take it back to the retailer and make a big fuss, don't let them mess you about saying this is by design - you paid 400$ and you should expect stellar audio reproduction, if not at at least on par with a 10$ usb-c dongle!

Those with more tech knowledge, could a faulty part on the circuit board lead to a drop in just this range? Like a capacitor or resistor ? Or the 4-pole 3.5MM instead of 3-pole with some earphones ?

 

[emilsoft]

Those with more tech knowledge, could a faulty part on the circuit board lead to a drop in just this range? Like a capacitor or resistor ? Or the 4-pole 3.5MM instead of 3-pole with some earphones ?

The 3.5mm 4/3-pole isn’t a problem, I checked with both types and same result. It might be a cap, but it looks more like a firmware issue to me

 

[emilsoft]

I'm not good enough with DAW tools but I've tested my A306 with a quick sweep soundfile and I don't seem to see any difference in volume between low and high frequencies.

I've attached the sweep file I generated and the playback of it recorded from my A306. (Excuse the extreme noisiness in the recording, the line in on my computer is not very good.) This is at full 120 volume, direct source on, and the peak stays at -6 dBTP through the sweep.

Japan unit, serial is S01-1003###-#.

I did a quick check on your recorded file, I'm seeing roll off in the bass here too.

 

[psikey]

I did a quick check on your recorded file, I'm seeing roll off in the bass here too.

So, looking down to some of us not knowing what bass is

I can only go on my ears and feel the bass kick is more than with my 1AM2, but await more feedback.

 

[emilsoft]

So, looking down to some of us not knowing what bass is

I can only go on my ears and feel the bass kick is more than with my 1AM2, but await more feedback.

I'm not disqualifying that some batches are working fine, that youtube measurements you showed gave me hope.

If you can't hear it then maybe it's fine - dance track with lot of bass, volume matched sources, IERM9 on both back and forth - it should be obvious if there's a problem.. one can still hear the bass notes, but the quantity is a lot less and everything simply sounds brighter more foward because of it, like there is something lacking in the music - aka alarm clock radio (with nicer mids and treble)

 

[psikey]

I'm not disqualifying that some batches are working fine, that youtube measurements you showed gave me hope.

If you can't hear it then maybe it's fine - dance track with lot of bass, volume matched sources, IERM9 on both back and forth - it should be obvious if there's a problem.. one can still hear the bass notes, but the quantity is a lot less and everything simply sounds brighter more foward because of it, like there is something lacking in the music - aka alarm clock radio (with nicer mids and treble)

I was being serious! Maybe some of us can't hear. I listened to the YouTube sweep file you posted earlier just now on my A307 and can hear/feel the vibration all the way from 25 and my hearing drops off around 17,000 thats about it. Could'nt tell if volume at 25-250 was less than the higher ranges.

If I could just stick its output from 3.5mm in to laptop 3.5mm and record the played YouTube I would, but assume its not as easy as that.

Certainly what I'm hearing isn't alarm clock or I'd consider lacking until your concerns raised. And listening to DAP or DAC/AMPs with decent IEM's for near on a decade I'd hope I would notice.

 

[emilsoft]

I was being serious! Maybe some of us can't hear. I listened to the YouTube sweep file you posted earlier just now on my A307 and can hear/feel the vibration all the way from 25 and my hearing drops off around 17,000 thats about it. Could'nt tell if volume at 25-250 was less than the higher ranges.

If I could just stick its output from 3.5mm in to laptop 3.5mm and record the played YouTube I would, but assume its not as easy as that.

Perhaps listening to a frequency sweep is more difficult to discern by ear. If you have good speaker system you can try testing on that with two different sources and same bass heave dance track, as bass is much easier to distinguish on a full range speaker system.

perhaps the 307 isn't affected, only the 306.. who knows..