[Lyzar]

Point is you shouldn't have to turn an amp up all the way to get to your preferred listening level. Plenty of amps distort, clip and just sound terrible pushed especially on daps. Like powering HD 600 with most daps, it gets loud but it loses continuity and usually low end. Not ideal, especially when you're talking about a weak output already made weaker.

I like my music loud and full sounding and rich. I couldn't get that on the capped unit. And I can't really get it with the uncapped unit with my full size headphones. It's all preference but I don't like pushing an amp to it's upper threshold. Plus imagine pushing the amp and missing 10 db of low info- yuck! Normally this isn't a problem even for a headbanger like me, but with the output of a306 it can become a bit of one. Imo of course. And resistance has to do with electrical conductivity how much % of current flows through say a copper wire, diameter, Temperature, conductivity of material, etc determines the value. And Ohms is how we measure the resistance. Basically how much voltage is carried through th
e conducting material. Silver, copper and gold are very good conductors hence their use. A pure silver wire will conduct more current than gold or copper, but of course copper is more plentiful and inexpensive. Gold is good because of it's superior anti corrosion characteristics and being very malible. I only mention this because Sony has used some gold, do I think it will have an audible difference, no, but it's a good material to use.

As mentioned in my previous post, I think the HD 599 gets enough power from the A306 and I have a capped version. I listen at 60-65 rn as I feel anything above that is uncomfortably loud. That being said, my ears adapt very quickly to lower volumes.

I don't know about harder to drive stuff, but I don't have anything that would need the full 120. I love this little thing for what it is already. All personal taste and the headphones one owns I guess

The issue with the bass is totally a flaw tho and I hope Sony addresses it (just not for me, lol, agree with not wanting +10 in bass as my unit is o.k.)! That makes the A306 hard to recommend, as you are playing russian roulette when you buy one

 

[dedero]

Now I have had a lie down and had a slice of humble pie... (I like a bit of Frampton me!...)

Curious to know - On the A300 series - Who generally uses (most of the time) Direct mode and who uses EQ in some form?

Only direct here

 

[bcarr112281]

There used to be someone on here that actually knew a Sony sound engineer. I can't remember their handle. Very knowledgeable and could possibly shed some light on things. I hope they pop in by chance.

I've just sent PMs to two people connected with Sony, although one of them hasn't been active on Head-Fi for over a year. We'll see. . . .

 

[abitdeef]

As mentioned in my previous post, I think the HD 599 gets enough power from the A306 and I have a capped version. I listen at 60-65 rn as I feel anything above that is uncomfortably loud. That being said, my ears adapt very quickly to lower volumes.

I don't know about harder to drive stuff, but I don't have anything that would need the full 120. I love this little thing for what it is already. All personal taste and the headphones one owns I guess

The issue with the bass is totally a flaw tho and I hope Sony addresses it (just not for me, lol, agree with not wanting +10 in bass as my unit is o.k.)! That makes the A306 hard to recommend, as you are playing russian roulette when you buy one

You must have really good hearing, because even on my iems I had to turn it up all the way on some songs and then on softer tracks it still wasn't as loud as I like. I mean even 35 mw a channel is anemic, and I know the 599 are only 50 ohms but if drive my old 595's with something more powerful than uncapped a306 they sound fuller and much better.

Now maybe that unit had the bass thing too and was 'ok' when I overdrive the amp. But I wouldn't have kept it no. As a matter of fact I'm using my dongle on the Sony because it sounds fuller, probably because of more power.

Thats me though, if you're happy with it that's all that matters. I had never heard a 'capped' sony before that. And don't get me wrong I'm really happy with the little sucker, it's small and super versatile and does sound good. I cant really stand full sized headphones on my ears and it works good with my iems. I'm thinking of trying the new r2r hiby dongle FC6 with it, but I'm sure it would kill the battery. I do like some analog sound sometimes though.

 

[rlw6534]

I just got off the phone with an actual Sony employee (not a third party). Apparently, the views and activity on my Sony Community Forum post was noticed and they wanted to discuss my experience with the forum. Among other things, I mentioned the lack of followup to my questions and the "boilerplate" response from the moderator (who is apparently a third party - not a Sony employee). I won't bore you with the details, but I tried to give useful feedback.

The good news is that he seemed genuinely interested in the A306 issue and its impact on owners (as well as Sony's reputation) and promised to follow up by next week at the latest as to the actual status. FWIW, I also discussed the volume cap frustration and the fact that I had to purchase from Japan to get a full power A306...

I'll update when I get more info...

Rick (rlw6334)

 

[abitdeef]

That's awesome Rick, thanks for the update and your efforts. I'm sure more and more users will chime in on that thread when they find out they received the bass lite version. It wouldn't surprise me if this is rectified in the next firmware update, meaning sony knew they had a problem already and have fixed it.

Bit of hopefulness there I admit , I also hope they improve button response time.

 

[AtomicUK]

That's awesome Rick, thanks for the update and your efforts. I'm sure more and more users will chime in on that thread when they find out they received the bass lite version. It wouldn't surprise me if this is rectified in the next firmware update, meaning sony knew they had a problem already and have fixed it.

Bit of hopefulness there I admit , I also hope they improve button response time.

As I said many pages back, there always had to be a major unacknowledged issue as to why they have pushed the full global release back 'at least' two months already and this was probably it.

 

[abitdeef]

As I said many pages back, there always had to be a major unacknowledged issue as to why they have pushed the full global release back 'at least' two months already and this was probably it.

Could very well be, and I still think it's strange that the US unit is capped when it never was before. Regardless despite the problems this is my ideal android dap thanks to the size and efficient battery use. It's much better than the a105 was it's super fluid and has so much better battery life. I can use a dongle if I want and the battery is still good, and trust me I much prefer this to my phone which doesn't even have an Micro sd slot or 3 5 out.

 

[AtomicUK]

Could very well be, and I still think it's strange that the US unit is capped when it never was before. Regardless despite the problems this is my ideal android dap thanks to....

Get these teething issues sorted and it should be a game changer for Sony after years in the shadow of Apple.

 

[Lyzar]

You must have really good hearing, because even on my iems I had to turn it up all the way on some songs and then on softer tracks it still wasn't as loud as I like. I mean even 35 mw a channel is anemic, and I know the 599 are only 50 ohms but if drive my old 595's with something more powerful than uncapped a306 they sound fuller and much better.

Now maybe that unit had the bass thing too and was 'ok' when I overdrive the amp. But I wouldn't have kept it no. As a matter of fact I'm using my dongle on the Sony because it sounds fuller, probably because of more power.

Thats me though, if you're happy with it that's all that matters. I had never heard a 'capped' sony before that. And don't get me wrong I'm really happy with the little sucker, it's small and super versatile and does sound good. I cant really stand full sized headphones on my ears and it works good with my iems. I'm thinking of trying the new r2r hiby dongle FC6 with it, but I'm sure it would kill the battery. I do like some analog sound sometimes though.

I will definitely get a dongle as soon as my wallet recovered. Maybe I just don't know how it should sound
And yeah I went to the doctor's lately cause I thought one of my ears was worse than the other. Got em tested and it turns out everything ok. My Arias just have an issue with the filters as I found out recently, which causes channel imbalance sometimes...

 

[abitdeef]

I will definitely get a dongle as soon as my wallet recovered. Maybe I just don't know how it should sound
And yeah I went to the doctor's lately cause I thought one of my ears was worse than the other. Got em tested and it turns out everything ok. My Arias just have an issue with the filters as I found out recently, which causes channel imbalance sometimes...

I'm sure your ears are better than mine and I do like things loud. I'm at around 90 volume usually.

 

[gordak36]

Got a few other issues with my NW-A306 that I wonder if others also experience

1) If Wi-Fi is on and listening on wired, there will be some buzzing on the left side of earphones / headphones. The buzzing goes away when Wi-Fi is switched off.

2) When listening via Bluetooth, I think DSEE Ultimate causes static noises in the background. I had to go to the Sound Adjustment app and turn on Direct to get rid of the static.

 

[Lyzar]

On a different note:
I am still on my first charge after measuring (now 1,5 days ago I guess), 56% battery. Mixed usage of WiFi and Bluetooth on and both of.

Downloaded my 650 song playlist from Spotify on that charge (Spotify claims approximately 5,9 GB downloaded, 1,6 GB cache, as I did some online listening too for a bit). Android claims 12h 47m of Spotify (What? how did that happen ) and 2h 53m of the Walkman App. Display on for 52m. Display at 50% (still plenty bright). Very pleased with battery performance so far!

 

[Lyzar]

Got a few other issues with my NW-A306 that I wonder if others also experience

1) If Wi-Fi is on and listening on wired, there will be some buzzing on the left side of earphones / headphones. The buzzing goes away when Wi-Fi is switched off.

2) When listening via Bluetooth, I think DSEE Ultimate causes static noises in the background. I had to go to the Sound Adjustment app and turn on Direct to get rid of the static.

Will try, but didn't notice anything on my unit.

Edit: How long does it take for the static to set in? Just connected my PXC550 (Codec: apt-x, just in case it matters) and turned DSEE on. Noticed nothing after two songs. Did you notice immediately?

 

[gordak36]

Will try, but didn't notice anything on my unit.

Edit: How long does it take for the static to set in? Just connected my PXC550 (Codec: apt-x, just in case it matters) and turned DSEE on. Noticed nothing after two songs. Did you notice immediately?

I was using the Sony WF-1000XM4s, the static was quite obvious and noticeable immediately. Not sure if the static is due to some sort of conflict between the Sound Adjustment app and the Headphones app for Sony bluetooth headphones.