[nc8000]

Hello. Today I received my A55 Walkman from japan.
I want to try it out but the screen protector for the player still didn't arrived.
I thought to use it without screen protector until it's gonna arrive.
Is it a good idea? Does the screen getting scratched easily?
The player is brand new.

Just go ahead and use it, if treated reasonably the screen wont scratch easily

 

[mrsergey]

Just go ahead and use it, if treated reasonably the screen wont scratch easily

Ok. Thanks.
I have one more question.
Does the player get's loud enough.
I'm listening on high volume to music.
For example on my cowon plenue D3 im listening at 110/140 volume on high gain and on the fiio M17 at 80/120 on "over-ear headphones" gain.

 

[nc8000]

Ok. Thanks.
I have one more question.
Does the player get's loud enough.
I'm listening on high volume to music.
For example on my cowon plenue D3 im listening at 110/140 volume on high gain and on the fiio M17 at 80/120 on "over-ear headphones" gain.

It may struggle, I only use it with in ears. You should try the MrWalkman custom fw or at least if you have an EU volume capped unit use the Rockbox nwdest tool to change the region to enable hi gain

 

[baskingshark]

Ok. Thanks.
I have one more question.
Does the player get's loud enough.
I'm listening on high volume to music.
For example on my cowon plenue D3 im listening at 110/140 volume on high gain and on the fiio M17 at 80/120 on "over-ear headphones" gain.

For most IEMs, the A55 should be okay in terms of power.

But it struggles with low sensitivity/high impedance type transducers. What gear are you intending to drive with the A55?

 

[mrsergey]

For most IEMs, the A55 should be okay in terms of power.

But it struggles with low sensitivity/high impedance type transducers. What gear are you intending to drive with the A55?

I have hifiman re800 60ohm. They work amazing with my LG V60 phone and M17.
I also have ikko oh7 90 ohm.
They work excellent with LG V60 but not so good with fiio M17.
I also use letshuoer S12 pro. They are 16 ohm but they are planar iems. They work excellent with cowon plenue d3 and M17 but terrible with LG V60.
I also have many more iems but those 3 im using the most.
I'm only using iems, not headphones.

 

[Bigbeat]

I want to try it out but the screen protector for the player still didn't arrived.
I thought to use it without screen protector until it's gonna arrive.
Is it a good idea?

If you have a bookcase (i.e. with a flap covering the DAP screen), your new "precious" can easily survive without the screen protector suffering no damage till it arrives.

I was in a similar situation with my NW-WM1A. However, I did not have any case either. So till the screen protector and the bookcase arrived, I used the DAP only at home as a desktop source lying on its original cardboard box. I applied rather a precautious approach.

However, YMMV.

Anyway congratulations on buying just this DAP. You will definitely not regret it.

 

[mrsergey]

Today I tried the A55.
I used only the stock firmware to get my initial impression and I indeed wasn't disappointed.
The initial impression is good.
First of all I was afraid that the volume not gonna be enough for me.
But I was listening on 115/120 and I was satisfied from the volume.
Now the feature that I actually disliked and many liked was the clearaudio+.
Im not a fan of this feature at all.
It ruins the sound for me.
I ended up using EQ set on 'bright" instead and this was my preferred sound.
Also, I don't know if it just my imagination but when I changed the region from japan to usa to have English language, the player sounded different and I actually preferred the Japanese region sound. I thought it only effects the sound on the cfw.

 

[nc8000]

Today I tried the A55.
I used only the stock firmware to get my initial impression and I indeed wasn't disappointed.
The initial impression is good.
First of all I was afraid that the volume not gonna be enough for me.
But I was listening on 115/120 and I was satisfied from the volume.
Now the feature that I actually disliked and many liked was the clearaudio+.
Im not a fan of this feature at all.
It ruins the sound for me.
I ended up using EQ set on 'bright" instead and this was my preferred sound.
Also, I don't know if it just my imagination but when I changed the region from japan to usa to have English language, the player sounded different and I actually preferred the Japanese region sound. I thought it only effects the sound on the cfw.

You can change it back to J and it will maintain the English gui but you will loose the gui option to change language. And yes the regions do change the sound. Next try to install the WalkmanOne custom fw from MrWalkman which will give you loads more options to play with and lift the sound further (though you will loose some features as it is based on the 1A/1Z fw).

 

[mrsergey]

So I downloaded the mrwalkman cfw.
And the player transformed from average to almost on the same level as M17 (in terms of sound quality not power obviously).
First of all I did side by side comparison with my cowon D3.
The sony sounded better. More musical and fun, bigger soundstage, punchier bass, less harsh treble, more natural and accurate mids and better detail in the sound.
The only thing that I wish sony had was the same amount of volume as on my cowon.
As for the m17, on paper it's not fair to compare between those 2 devices because m17 is much more expensive.
But some iems that I tried are actually sound better on the sony player.
And others sound much better on the M17.

here are the 3 devices side by side.
The M17 is a beast compare to the other 2.
But the difference in sound not as big as the difference in size.

 

[MrWalkman]

So I downloaded the mrwalkman cfw.
And the player transformed from average to almost on the same level as M17 (in terms of sound quality not power obviously).
First of all I did side by side comparison with my cowon D3.
The sony sounded better. More musical and fun, bigger soundstage, punchier bass, less harsh treble, more natural and accurate mids and better detail in the sound.
The only thing that I wish sony had was the same amount of volume as on my cowon.
As for the m17, on paper it's not fair to compare between those 2 devices because m17 is much more expensive.
But some iems that I tried are actually sound better on the sony player.
And others sound much better on the M17.


here are the 3 devices side by side.
The M17 is a beast compare to the other 2.
But the difference in sound not as big as the difference in size.

Nice, I'm glad you're enjoy it! It can actually sound really good for a player this size.

 

[nc8000]

So I downloaded the mrwalkman cfw.
And the player transformed from average to almost on the same level as M17 (in terms of sound quality not power obviously).
First of all I did side by side comparison with my cowon D3.
The sony sounded better. More musical and fun, bigger soundstage, punchier bass, less harsh treble, more natural and accurate mids and better detail in the sound.
The only thing that I wish sony had was the same amount of volume as on my cowon.
As for the m17, on paper it's not fair to compare between those 2 devices because m17 is much more expensive.
But some iems that I tried are actually sound better on the sony player.
And others sound much better on the M17.


here are the 3 devices side by side.
The M17 is a beast compare to the other 2.
But the difference in sound not as big as the difference in size.

Yes as I’ve said before, had I had the A55 with WalkmanOne 6 years ago I would possibly never have bought the 1Z nor IER-Z1R as the A55 plus my 13 years old JH13 ciem would have more than good enough for my travelling needs. Not that I regret buying the 2 others though as they are clearly better but also an awfull lot more expensive

 

[mrsergey]

Nice, I'm glad you're enjoy it! It can actually sound really good for a player this size.

Thank you very much for the incredible work you did for the sony and audiophile community.

Yes as I’ve said before, had I had the A55 with WalkmanOne 6 years ago I would possibly never have bought the 1Z nor IER-Z1R as the A55 plus my 13 years old JH13 ciem would have more than good enough for my travelling needs. Not that I regret buying the 2 others though as they are clearly better but also an awfull lot more expensive

I actually do regret buying the M17.
It's maybe 100$ better than the sony A55 (with cfw) in terms of sound, surely not 1500$ better.
But at least the M17 looking really good next to my laptop when it's on his stand.

 

[nc8000]

Thank you very much for the incredible work you did for the sony and audiophile community.

I actually do regret buying the M17.
It's maybe 100$ better than the sony A55 (with cfw) in terms of sound, surely not 1500$ better.
But at least the M17 looking really good next to my laptop when it's on his stand.

I’ve had over 6 years great joy from my 1Z, at least 1.000 hours per year during my travels so no regret

 

[dedero]

Hey there, I would like to have an A50 for running as I don't want to spend much money on a DAP for that, does it worth the A50 or the A40/A30 is enough?
Are those volume capped in Europe too?

Cheers

 

[nc8000]

Hey there, I would like to have an A50 for running as I don't want to spend much money on a DAP for that, does it worth the A50 or the A40/A30 is enough?
Are those volume capped in Europe too?

Cheers

For that use A30/A40 would be fine. Stock EU units are volume capped but that is easily changed either by using the Rockbox nwdest region change tool or by installing the MrWalkman WalkmanOne custom fw. Both require a Windows computer (physical or virtual)