[konseki]

I just bought Sony A20. Comes with free 64 GB memory card 1 screen protector 1 silicon case complete with another screen protector and download of 20 free high res songs. SGD 299 local Sony store. I'm confused coz salesman advise me to rip to wav if its from normal music CD. Sounds better?

 

[DaejeonCitizen]

I just bought Sony A20. Comes with free 64 GB memory card 1 screen protector 1 silicon case complete with another screen protector and download of 20 free high res songs. SGD 299 local Sony store. I'm confused coz salesman advise me to rip to wav if its from normal music CD. Sounds better?

There is no difference between FLAC and WAV in terms of sound quality. Save space and rip in FLAC.

 

[MrRavensFjord]

Hey everyone, I registered just to put this out there. I've had my A25 for about a month now, pretty well taken care of. Thing is, since yesterday, it started booting up with a black screen. I took it out of the desert heat yesterday (mid 90s), and that seemed to fix it. I chalked it up to it being a one time deal, however today it went back to booting up to a black screen, and it hasn't gone back to normal in about a 12 hour period. I assume it's a software problem, as the screen is getting power, and music can still be played, the screen is just black. I have tried holding the reset button for minutes at a time, but it keeps booting into a black screen. I have also eliminated a corrupted SD card as well, it seems purely device-centric. I believe I can send it back and exchange it, however if there is something else I can do, I'd prefer that. Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

 

[Lenin Reddy]

guys with some budget sensitive IEMs like vsonic 3ds the A15 has showed some hiss .Even "Lachlanlikesathing" ranted about hiss in his youtube channel on A15 "hiss issue"  with some iems . Does A25 has similar hiss issues like the A15 ? Any A25 owner plz answer this ?

 

[Subhakar]

guys with some budget sensitive IEMs like vsonic 3ds the A15 has showed some hiss .Even "Lachlanlikesathing" ranted about hiss in his youtube channel on A15 "hiss issue"  with some iems . Does A25 has similar hiss issues like the A15 ? Any A25 owner plz answer this ?

My DUNU DN-2000J IEMs with 8-ohm impedance sound a bit distorted or harsh to my ears while using Sony NW-A25 (4ohm output impedance). The same IEMs sound perfect when I use Oppo-HA2 or FiiO E6 amp in the middle, the output impedance of both of which being less than 1. Again, the same IEMs sound superb when used out of Onkyo DP-X1 single ended, whose output impedance is 1.

 

[fish1050]

Still not available in Canada?
 
Okey it is now May 21st and the A20 series is still not available in Canada.  What the frack Sony!!!
 
sony.ca still shows coming soon but given the suggested pricing they might as well not bother.  $429.99 for the A26 and $549.99 for the A27. Given the A17 is still selling for $349.99 how can they justify asking a $200.00 premium on the A27?  For what, proprietary noise canceling and a better equalizer. Forget it.
 
Take a hike Sony, my next DAP won't be one of yours!!

 

[soccerdude84]

I posted this in the nw-a10 topic, but I may as well post it here too:
 
In terms of sound quality, how does this dap compare to the nw-hd5, would it be an upgrade, a downgrade, or no change?

 

[Tober138]

  Newbie here. Please bear with me.
I'm looking into the Sony NW-A25 and the Fiio X1 (or maybe the X3) to store my mp3 collection and have a more premium sound.
Which one do you recommend? 
I already have Yamaha EPH-100 IEMs.
Thanks.

 
The NW-A25 is smaller and lighter, has a superior UI and crazy good battery life (30-50 hours vs. 8-10) compared to the X3.  I would argue that the X3 can better drive more sensitive headphones without an external amp.
 
For me, I ended up going with the X3 over the Sony for two main reasons:
 
1 - Sony is not gapless with mp3 and other lossy file formats (X3 is)
2 - The proprietary cable
 
These issues may or may not be important to you.  For me, these were key as I travel a fair bit for work and my player is strictly for portable, on-the-road use (if I'm at home, I turn on my stereo to listen to tunes, not my DAP).  This means that I want my player to store as much music as possible without carrying any extra cards, so the bulk of my tunes are 320 mp3s; hence the lack of gapless playback would just be annoying to me over long hours of listening on a plane or in my hotel room.  Also, since the X3 uses a standard charging cable, I don't have to worry about misplacing / forgetting to pack a special, device-specific cable - I can just use one of the few I already have in my bag.  More importantly, if I were to lose or damage my Sony cable while on the road, I'd be stuck until I could order a new one - whereas I can get a micro USB cable pretty much anywhere at any time (airport, hotel gift shop, nearest gas station).

 

[fish1050]

   
The NW-A25 is smaller and lighter, has a superior UI and crazy good battery life (30-50 hours vs. 8-10) compared to the X3.  I would argue that the X3 can better drive more sensitive headphones without an external amp.
 
For me, I ended up going with the X3 over the Sony for two main reasons:
 
1 - Sony is not gapless with mp3 and other lossy file formats (X3 is)
2 - The proprietary cable
 
These issues may or may not be important to you.  For me, these were key as I travel a fair bit for work and my player is strictly for portable, on-the-road use (if I'm at home, I turn on my stereo to listen to tunes, not my DAP).  This means that I want my player to store as much music as possible without carrying any extra cards, so the bulk of my tunes are 320 mp3s; hence the lack of gapless playback would just be annoying to me over long hours of listening on a plane or in my hotel room.  Also, since the X3 uses a standard charging cable, I don't have to worry about misplacing / forgetting to pack a special, device-specific cable - I can just use one of the few I already have in my bag.  More importantly, if I were to lose or damage my Sony cable while on the road, I'd be stuck until I could order a new one - whereas I can get a micro USB cable pretty much anywhere at any time (airport, hotel gift shop, nearest gas station).

Here's an idea, just order a backup Sony cable, problem solved
 
For portability I will take storage, compact size, better UI and battery life over gapless mp3 playback
 
But that's just me

 

[ninogui]

Demoed the european variant at a local shop with sony´s own play headphones (24 Ohm) 105db and at 30 - to my (un)surprise I feel there´s no headroom for that bit extra volume, also people complain about bluetooth vol level which is no surprise - aim here is to feed a bt speaker for travels as an option not using line in
 
In fact if it wasn´t for the microsd slot, hires decoding and extended battery I would still keep my like 10 years old A-866 - sounds as good as this new one I assure you ! almost no difference in menus all the same filters are available - as well as bt !
 
FM radio is a must for me so I will probably try to source the AP model uncapped volume A25S with no earphone bundle (got plenty playing around and noise control is not a must)
 
However I´m in doubt on the fm radio tuning. Even if I can´t auto search stations (not sure) because of the tuning crystal stepper ( being different than europe maybe?) will I still be able to manually tune into an european fm station with at least 0,1 Mhz (or less) steps up or down?
 
Example 89,5 , 107,4 etc

 

[lsamod]

Has anyone used Fiio A1 amp with A20? Is it sufficient to drive something like Havi b3???

 

[yannisgk]

  Has anyone used Fiio A1 amp with A20? Is it sufficient to drive something like Havi b3???

I'M USING FIIO A3 WITH A15 AND IT IS LOUD ON MY ETYS HF-5 IEMS BUT NOT SO LOUD ON MU NEWLY PURCHASED AKG K550 HEADPHONES!!!

 

[lsamod]

  I'M USING FIIO A3 WITH A15 AND IT IS LOUD ON MY ETYS HF-5 IEMS BUT NOT SO LOUD ON MU NEWLY PURCHASED AKG K550 HEADPHONES!!!

Thanks! Havi B3 is an iem too. But it is very inefficient ... I'm not gonna use full size cans with A20.

 

[fish1050]

A20 series now available in USA, sort of
 
While the A20 series still shows as coming soon on the Sony Canada site it is for sale in the US now, at least on one site.  Surprisingly it is Abt Electronics which does not ship to Canada.  On Amazon it is still only available from Japanese exporters.  Sony's choice to make it available to Abt first has me scratching my head once again.  I have to say that with every passing day I grow more tired of Sony's antics.   From making the North American market have to wait 7+ months longer than Asia and Europe before making the A20 series available to the rediculous markup from the A17 at least in Canada ($70.00 for the A25, $200.00 for the A26) when and if it ever becomes available for sale
 
With better sounding DAP's for the price of the A20 series and cheaper coming from the likes of iBasso, Xduoo and Fiio (working on X1 series 2) I am looking to cut the cord with Sony on my next DAP.  I got confirmation direct from Fiio today that they are working on the next generation X1 DAP.   Likely to sell for about half of what Sony is charging for the A20 series the X1 Series 2 could be a home run.  Fiio proved with the X7 that they can produce DAP's with all the modern bells and whistles and if some of those features make it on the X1 like bluetooth then I say adios Sony.  I just bought a Fiio Q1 to pair with my A17 and based on battery life (30 hours), size and sound quality it is a match made in heaven. 

 

[Gah73]

Local store has the A25HN version reduced to 160CHF from 240CHF.
Would you advise this over the xduoo x3?

Would it be a noticeable step up from the sound of the galaxy s7?
Has anybody tried it with LDAC headphones?

Thanks