New Sony Walkman NW-A300 Series (Android 12) | Page 134 | Headphone Reviews and Discussion - Head-Fi.org

gandesh · Mar 10, 2023 at 12:36 PM

psikey said:
Ever since A105, ZX507, WM1AM2 etc, the sound in Sony DAP's go through one of two paths termed Red/Blue (covered in this & other Sony DAP threads). The Walkman App is written in such a way it bypasses Android audio system directly accessing the Sony sound chip/amp and uses maybe 60% of the power that other apps do and tends to be about 8 volume steps lower for same output volume compared to other apps too, so less amp power for a given volume (I think).

UAPP uses its own audio driver so get around Android audio and detects the Sony internal 'DAC' but will still use more battery than the Walkman app. Extra battery use was more an issue with A100/ZX500 series that had weak battery life to start with.

I've never used 'seek' even in the old iPod days so will explain why I'm experiencing no issues, just play, pause, FWD mostly (I don't listen to podcasts). I also use the Sony BT remote more than the side buttons too anyway.

Walkman App & UAPP may not give same audio 'flavour' as UAPP uses its own audio driver, but both should be bit-perfect (except A300 series converts DSD to PCM first, not Native DSD).

Ok so the amplifier is the same but the different paths use different drivers.

Knowing that I need to get used to the Walkman player, the app does not detect some of the album art I have whereas some other player do, even if the album art is embedded in the music file. Any suggestions?

psikey · Mar 10, 2023

gandesh said:
Ok so the amplifier is the same but the different paths use different drivers.

Knowing that I need to get used to the Walkman player, the app does not detect some of the album art I have whereas some other player do, even if the album art is embedded in the music file. Any suggestions?

Again, it is covered in thread somewhere (or the older ZX507/A105 ones). It does have to be a certain type which others can maybe advise better. I use my DAP 95% with screen off and couldn't care less if any Album Art or not.

This with a quick web search may help?

" was how the album art was saved before it was embedded into the mp3 file, it had nothing to do with the size of the file in pixels or kb file size.

I found out that it was a setting called "Progressive" when saving a JPG file, there are various options you can change before saving a JPG file like compression amount and so on but if progressive is ticked in the options when saving the file, and embedding it into your MP3, the Sony Walkman will not display the album art.

I extracted every album art that was not displaying and re-saved them without this option ticked, then re embedded them using Mp3Tag, and now every MP3 and Flac file I have shows their album art perfectly."

gandesh · Mar 10, 2023 at 12:55 PM

rlw6534 said:
Updated again:

1000443: a306 | ? | ? | US | Best buy : issue
100054X: A306 | YY1301B1 | Black | EU | Amazon | REW Graphed : no issue
1000613: a306 | YY1301B1 | Black | US | sony.com | REW Graphed : issue
1001126: a306 | YY1301B1 | Black | Germany | Amazon | REW graphed : issue
1001704: a307 | ? | ? | Japan | eBay | REW Graphed: no issue
10033xx: a306 | ? | ? | Japan | eBay | REW Graphed : no issue
1003647: a306 | YY1301B1 | Black | Japan | Amazon.jp | REW Graphed : no issue
1005860: a306 | YY1301B1 | Black | Japan | Amazon.jp | REW Graphed : issue
1006471: a306 | YY1301B1 | Black | Japan | Amazon.jp | REW Graphed : no issue
1100033: a306 | YY1301B1 | Black | UAE | Sony Store | Graphed: issue
2000112: a306 | YY1301B1| Blue | UK | Amazon | REW graphed : no issue
2000246: a306 | YY1301B1 | Blue | Japan | eBay | REW Graphed : issue
2001129: a306 | YY1301B1 | Blue | Japan | Bic Camera | REW Graphed : no issue
20037XX: a306 | ? | Blue | Japan | ? | REW Graphed: no issue
2004288: a306 | YY1301B1 | Blue | Japan | Japanese Elec. store | REW Graphed : issue
3000045: a306 | ? | ? | HK | DMA Store | issue
3000108: a306 | YY1301B1 | Gray | Japan | Masterteamhk : issue
3000840: a307 | YY1301B2 | Grey | Japan | Amazon.jp | REW Graphed : no issue
30039xx: a306 | YY1301B1 | Gray | Japan | eBay | REW Graphed: issue
3003915: a306 | YY1301B1 | Gray | Japan | Amazon.jp | REW Graphed : issue
5000078: a306 | YY1301B1 | Black | Singapore | REW Graphed : no issue

Are both capped/uncapped versions having the bass roll off issue? Saw somewhere in this thread that this issue may have been due to a software update that should not have applied for capped devices

rlw6534 · Mar 10, 2023 at 1:08 PM

gandesh said:
Are both capped/uncapped versions having the bass roll off issue? Saw somewhere in this thread that this issue may have been due to a software update that should not have applied for capped devices

AFAIK the EU/UK/US/Canada/Singapore regions are volume capped and it seems to be random with all regions (based on the list).

Mankotron · Mar 10, 2023 at 1:33 PM

rlw6534 said:
Updated again:

1000443: a306 | ? | ? | US | Best buy : issue
100054X: A306 | YY1301B1 | Black | EU | Amazon | REW Graphed : no issue
1000613: a306 | YY1301B1 | Black | US | sony.com | REW Graphed : issue
1001126: a306 | YY1301B1 | Black | Germany | Amazon | REW graphed : issue
1001704: a307 | ? | ? | Japan | eBay | REW Graphed: no issue
10033xx: a306 | ? | ? | Japan | eBay | REW Graphed : no issue
1003647: a306 | YY1301B1 | Black | Japan | Amazon.jp | REW Graphed : no issue
1005860: a306 | YY1301B1 | Black | Japan | Amazon.jp | REW Graphed : issue
1006471: a306 | YY1301B1 | Black | Japan | Amazon.jp | REW Graphed : no issue
1100033: a306 | YY1301B1 | Black | UAE | Sony Store | Graphed: issue
2000112: a306 | YY1301B1| Blue | UK | Amazon | REW graphed : no issue
2000246: a306 | YY1301B1 | Blue | Japan | eBay | REW Graphed : issue
2001129: a306 | YY1301B1 | Blue | Japan | Bic Camera | REW Graphed : no issue
20037XX: a306 | ? | Blue | Japan | ? | REW Graphed: no issue
2004288: a306 | YY1301B1 | Blue | Japan | Japanese Elec. store | REW Graphed : issue
3000045: a306 | ? | ? | HK | DMA Store | issue
3000108: a306 | YY1301B1 | Gray | Japan | Masterteamhk : issue
3000840: a307 | YY1301B2 | Grey | Japan | Amazon.jp | REW Graphed : no issue
30039xx: a306 | YY1301B1 | Gray | Japan | eBay | REW Graphed: issue
3003915: a306 | YY1301B1 | Gray | Japan | Amazon.jp | REW Graphed : issue
5000078: a306 | YY1301B1 | Black | Singapore | REW Graphed : no issue

Thanks for keeping the list.
You can add mine too, if you want. I posted the results on page 130. I bought it from Amazon.de (Germany).

cliffjnr · Mar 10, 2023 at 1:39 PM

gandesh said:
Ok so the amplifier is the same but the different paths use different drivers.

Knowing that I need to get used to the Walkman player, the app does not detect some of the album art I have whereas some other player do, even if the album art is embedded in the music file. Any suggestions?

i had all mine as cover.jpg in folder and it didnt show. all i had to do was run them thru musicbrainz picard and in setting set the cover embedded on every track and it worked.

rlw6534 · Mar 10, 2023 at 1:39 PM

Updated again :wink:

crvyxn · Mar 10, 2023 at 1:45 PM

rlw6534 · Mar 10, 2023 at 1:52 PM

iKenndac · Mar 10, 2023 at 2:29 PM

rlw6534 said:
1000443: a306 | YY1301B1 | Black | US | Best buy | REW Graphed : issue
100054X: a306 | YY1301B1 | Black | EU | Amazon | REW Graphed : no issue
1000613: a306 | YY1301B1 | Black | US | sony.com | REW Graphed : issue

What's fascinating to me is that these three units have the same model number and are within 200 serial numbers of each other, and yet two have the issue and the one in the middle doesn't. I just re-did the test on mine (the one in the middle with no issue) to make sure — same result (and it sounds fine through headphones). I know we'll never get the full story from Sony, but I'd love to find out what actually went wrong.

gandesh · Mar 10, 2023 at 3:28 PM

so many reports on failed A306/7
Do you think sony will fix the devices already sold?

cliffjnr · Mar 10, 2023 at 4:09 PM

gandesh said:
so many reports on failed A306/7
Do you think sony will fix the devices already sold?

who knows but they would have to offer you a refund if device is found defective

abitdeef · Mar 10, 2023

gandesh said:
Are both capped/uncapped versions having the bass roll off issue? Saw somewhere in this thread that this issue may have been due to a software update that should not have applied for capped devices

Yes, both. It's very random. Sorry didn't know this was already answered

but there honestly doesn't seem to be any pattern.

abitdeef · Mar 10, 2023 at 9:19 PM

gandesh said:
so many reports on failed A306/7
Do you think sony will fix the devices already sold?

Honestly I think this is a software problem and will be corrected. If it's hardware it will be a mess. Especially for those that go out of their region because of the volume cap.

BTW anyone from Acessory Jack have one with the bass issue? I'm assuming you could send it back to the vendor if there's is a hardware problem. Say there is a capacitor that's the wrong value for instance. Sony probably isn't going to repair all those, it would just switch them out.

But I don't think it's that because a problem like that would likely occur in specific sequences in production. Instead of so widespread and random.

It's an intriguing mystery for sure.

ductue89 · Mar 10, 2023 at 10:26 PM

rlw6534 said:
Updated again :

1000443: a306 | ? | ? | US | Best buy : issue
100054X: A306 | YY1301B1 | Black | EU | Amazon | REW Graphed : no issue
1000613: a306 | YY1301B1 | Black | US | sony.com | REW Graphed : issue
1000992: a306 | YY1301B1 | Black | Germany | Amazon | REW graphed : no issue
1001126: a306 | YY1301B1 | Black | Germany | Amazon | REW graphed : issue
1001704: a307 | ? | ? | Japan | eBay | REW Graphed: no issue
10033xx: a306 | ? | ? | Japan | eBay | REW Graphed : no issue
1003647: a306 | YY1301B1 | Black | Japan | Amazon.jp | REW Graphed : no issue
1005860: a306 | YY1301B1 | Black | Japan | Amazon.jp | REW Graphed : issue
1006471: a306 | YY1301B1 | Black | Japan | Amazon.jp | REW Graphed : no issue
1100033: a306 | YY1301B1 | Black | UAE | Sony Store | Graphed: issue
2000112: a306 | YY1301B1| Blue | UK | Amazon | REW graphed : no issue
2000246: a306 | YY1301B1 | Blue | Japan | eBay | REW Graphed : issue
2001129: a306 | YY1301B1 | Blue | Japan | Bic Camera | REW Graphed : no issue
20037XX: a306 | ? | Blue | Japan | ? | REW Graphed: no issue
2004288: a306 | YY1301B1 | Blue | Japan | Japanese Elec. store | REW Graphed : issue
3000045: a306 | ? | ? | HK | DMA Store | issue
3000108: a306 | YY1301B1 | Gray | Japan | Masterteamhk : issue
3000840: a307 | YY1301B2 | Grey | Japan | Amazon.jp | REW Graphed : no issue
30039xx: a306 | YY1301B1 | Gray | Japan | eBay | REW Graphed: issue
3003915: a306 | YY1301B1 | Gray | Japan | Amazon.jp | REW Graphed : issue
5000078: a306 | YY1301B1 | Black | Singapore | REW Graphed : no issue

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