[andrewski]

I have been repeatedly charging and discharging my battery. Rookie mistake

And battery care has made it more frequent.

 

[kumar402]

I have been repeatedly charging and discharging my battery. Rookie mistake

And battery care has made it more frequent.

I guess you should avoid discharging below 20%. Keep at 35-85% for best battery care.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

Another consideration is that audio equipment do have temperature sensitive crystal clocks, so if you live in a colder environment, it may take a while of warm up time before your Walkman reaches thermal equilibrium internally and allowing it to sound optimal. So if you plan on listening again later in the day, it might be a good idea to leave the Walkman on standby instead of shutdown. This may or may not matter depending on how much you can notice the effects of warm up time. I live in a tropical environment so the effects of warm up time for my end is rather negligible but I would think this may be a different case for colder places.

 

[ttt123]

I guess you should avoid discharging below 20%. Keep at 35-85% for best battery care.

The Sony statement about "charging and discharging frequently" is meaningless, as that is what will happen if you use the DAP. It is just a generic statement, so do not read too much into it.
An analogy is to say that if you eat a lot, you will go to the washroom more frequently. That is true, but so what? It is normal.

OPTIMUM BATTERY LEVEL TO CHARGE AT:
My recommendation is to charge from 50 - 60 %
The reason is due to the charging algorithm, which uses high current for a low battery level, reducing the current as the battery level increases.
- Low battery level will charge at high current. 20% battery level will charge at max current, say 2+ Amps
- Moderate battery level will charge at lower current . 60% battery level will charge at 1.2-1.5 Amps
- High battery level will charge at low current, tapering off to trickle charge. 70-80% will charge at .5 to 1 Amps
(current levels are approximate, just to give an idea of how the charger varies the current, depending on the charge level of the battery being charged. The actual current levels will be higher or lower, depending on the DAP/Charge circuit. The thing to note is that modern chargers are not constant current, but are variable current. And Lithium batteries do not like high current/heat.)

So the lower the battery level before you start charging, the higher the current. The higher the current, the greater the heat, and stress on the battery.

OPTIMUM: Charging at around 50% battery level will reduce the charge current, so less heat and stress on the battery.
NOT OPTIMUM: Discharging the DAP to very low levels before charging, as that results in high current and high heat for the battery.

Also pay attention to the heat dissipation of the DAP.
BAD PRACTICE for the DAP:
- blocking air circulation
- putting it on a pad, or cloth, as that insulates, and blocks heat transfer
- an insulating case will block heat transfer from the case, and retain heat in the DAP, and cook it. Fortunately, the Sony S-Master runs cool, so heat buildup is not a major problem for Sony DAPs

The above is my understanding.

 

[FreeTime]

Hi there. I have a question. I'm looking at importing to the UK the grey version from Japan which I believe is the only uncapped region? Is there an easy way to change the language of the player from Japanese to English?

Sorry for the late reply, thankfully SonyWalkmanuser has reply to you. Busy with new project lately, working around the clock, hardly enough sleep, lol

 

[FreeTime]

This is interesting. Looks like there is more mystery to uncover about this Sony chameleon sound signatures.

I wonder if this language setting would also affect the A306.

Maybe @FreeTime can share his experience?

I have only tried the language setting with ZM2, the soundstage of Japanese is lovely, especially the height, but the vocal sound saturated, I end up sticking back to English.

 

[kumar402]

The Sony statement about "charging and discharging frequently" is meaningless, as that is what will happen if you use the DAP. It is just a generic statement, so do not read too much into it.
An analogy is to say that if you eat a lot, you will go to the washroom more frequently. That is true, but so what? It is normal.

OPTIMUM BATTERY LEVEL TO CHARGE AT:
My recommendation is to charge from 50 - 60 %
The reason is due to the charging algorithm, which uses high current for a low battery level, reducing the current as the battery level increases.
- Low battery level will charge at high current. 20% battery level will charge at max current, say 2+ Amps
- Moderate battery level will charge at lower current . 60% battery level will charge at 1.2-1.5 Amps
- High battery level will charge at low current, tapering off to trickle charge. 70-80% will charge at .5 to 1 Amps
(current levels are approximate, just to give an idea of how the charger varies the current, depending on the charge level of the battery being charged. The actual current levels will be higher or lower, depending on the DAP/Charge circuit. The thing to note is that modern chargers are not constant current, but are variable current. And Lithium batteries do not like high current/heat.)

So the lower the battery level before you start charging, the higher the current. The higher the current, the greater the heat, and stress on the battery.

OPTIMUM: Charging at around 50% battery level will reduce the charge current, so less heat and stress on the battery.
NOT OPTIMUM: Discharging the DAP to very low levels before charging, as that results in high current and high heat for the battery.

Also pay attention to the heat dissipation of the DAP.
BAD PRACTICE for the DAP:
- blocking air circulation
- putting it on a pad, or cloth, as that insulates, and blocks heat transfer
- an insulating case will block heat transfer from the case, and retain heat in the DAP, and cook it. Fortunately, the Sony S-Master runs cool, so heat buildup is not a major problem for Sony DAPs

The above is my understanding.

Good info. Generally I loose 30% of battery at max after using it for 5-6 hrs or so and then I charge.

 

[kmo0066]

Good info. Generally I loose 30% of battery at max after using it for 5-6 hrs or so and then I charge.

Just a good rule of thumb, charging lithium battery up to 100 percent is not great as that does stress the battery the most. It's better to go down to let's say 30 and charge up to 80 percent. This regime is the fastest to charge and will minimize cycle damage.

 

[kumar402]

Just a good rule of thumb, charging lithium battery up to 100 percent is not great as that does stress the battery the most. It's better to go down to let's say 30 and charge up to 80 percent. This regime is the fastest to charge and will minimize cycle damage.

I have that Battery Saver ON so it charges till 88% and then stops. I guess it should help battery in long run .

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

The Sony statement about "charging and discharging frequently" is meaningless, as that is what will happen if you use the DAP. It is just a generic statement, so do not read too much into it.
An analogy is to say that if you eat a lot, you will go to the washroom more frequently. That is true, but so what? It is normal.

OPTIMUM BATTERY LEVEL TO CHARGE AT:
My recommendation is to charge from 50 - 60 %
The reason is due to the charging algorithm, which uses high current for a low battery level, reducing the current as the battery level increases.
- Low battery level will charge at high current. 20% battery level will charge at max current, say 2+ Amps
- Moderate battery level will charge at lower current . 60% battery level will charge at 1.2-1.5 Amps
- High battery level will charge at low current, tapering off to trickle charge. 70-80% will charge at .5 to 1 Amps
(current levels are approximate, just to give an idea of how the charger varies the current, depending on the charge level of the battery being charged. The actual current levels will be higher or lower, depending on the DAP/Charge circuit. The thing to note is that modern chargers are not constant current, but are variable current. And Lithium batteries do not like high current/heat.)

So the lower the battery level before you start charging, the higher the current. The higher the current, the greater the heat, and stress on the battery.

OPTIMUM: Charging at around 50% battery level will reduce the charge current, so less heat and stress on the battery.
NOT OPTIMUM: Discharging the DAP to very low levels before charging, as that results in high current and high heat for the battery.

Also pay attention to the heat dissipation of the DAP.
BAD PRACTICE for the DAP:
- blocking air circulation
- putting it on a pad, or cloth, as that insulates, and blocks heat transfer
- an insulating case will block heat transfer from the case, and retain heat in the DAP, and cook it. Fortunately, the Sony S-Master runs cool, so heat buildup is not a major problem for Sony DAPs

The above is my understanding.

Some of the other Chinese DAP like DX240 or DX320 do come with dual batteries, one for digital section and one for analog amplification section. Although this may result in better sound quality by isolating power supply noise, this makes maintaining proper charge level parity between the two battery extremely difficult as each section has different power load demands that is highly varied depending on user settings(DSP) and volume levels(amp load). In the long run I would think this approach would likely result in constant uneven battery charge levels between the two different battery cells, which ultimately results in faster battery deterioration in one of the batteries, leading to lowered reliability.

I am glad that Sony didn’t go for this dual battery approach in the Walkman even though they have done this power isolation for their bigger DMP-Z1(which obviously has enough space and weight to accommodate bigger and more batteries and allowing for more complex battery management systems to work).

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

Again I would suggest for anyone who cares for the battery of their Walkman to invest in a well designed quality USB charger that has low power supply ripple. Poorly designed USB charger has high ripple and other power supply noises which can cause more excess power/electrical noise on to the battery management system of the Walkman leading to more heat generated during charging. This increased temperature may have longer term effects on the lithium battery.

https://www.mdpi.com/2313-0105/8/2/11#:~:text=The ripple is generated by,400 V to 12 V).

https://goughlui.com/2014/06/09/exposed-power-bank-ripple-devices-at-risk/

 

[littlexx26]

I use ifi ipower elite since day one

 

[kumar402]

I got this adapter fro Ddhifi for Walkman but I feel it takes away some Sony magic here. Sound is more open and light on its feet. Many enjoy such sound but I like heaviness and dense tonality of Sony. The decay of bass I feel is truncated. Will try for few more songs. So far only in my 3rd song with this adapter.

Aesthetically it matches the color of Walkman very well tbh. Does add additional 32gm though. May help in strengthening my grip further.

 

[karloil]

I got this adapter fro Ddhifi for Walkman but I feel it takes away some Sony magic here. Sound is more open and light on its feet. Many enjoy such sound but I like heaviness and dense tonality of Sony. The decay of bass I feel is truncated. Will try for few more songs. So far only in my 3rd song with this adapter.



Aesthetically it matches the color of Walkman very well tbh. Does add additional 32gm though. May help in strengthening my grip further.

I only use mine when I'm using my 1AM2 with an amp.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

There’s quite a lot of differences in sound signature when you compare:

Ipad music app > wm1am2 usb dac mode in direct source mode
Sony music app > direct source mode

There’s a certain kind of brighter, more colder sound with iPad music app, which can get fatiguing over long listening. Not sure if it is due to the usb cable I used but it’s just a regular anker usb-pd cable or likely Apple’s internal sound processing.(usb headphone mode selected)

Personally I much prefer sound tuning of Sony music app as its has a much richer musical tonality that doesn’t screech at your ears.