[PCheung]

My 300 arrived.... but, where is the BT setting for the EQ? On my 100 there was an extra setting @BT settings ("sound effect progr.")
The 300 is useless without EQ presets for my LDAC BT headphones!
Any idea?
In addition, the balance setting does not work with BT. Another issue....

No EQ with BT connection on ZX300

No preset EQ on ZX300

 

[superuser1]

If i am an informed buyer i wont buy something without reading about it. I fail to understand the logic of trashing something for specs it doesnt have to begin with. I just feel it is counter intuitive. But at the same time those are frustrations with the zx300 which are real and which one is reasonably expected to know before dishing out 700 quids.

 

[Sven2015]

yes. It's on the way ---> Amazon

 

[Ghost2501]

If i am an informed buyer i wont buy something without reading about it. I fail to understand the logic of trashing something for specs it doesnt have to begin with. I just feel it is counter intuitive. But at the same time those are frustrations with the zx300 which are real and which one is reasonably expected to know before dishing out 700 quids.

Perhaps Sony will add EQ control via Bluetooth on its further FW release, who knows ?

 

[Sven2015]

Remember. Sony implemented the LDAC "standard" with the last player generation. It worked very fine for me with my 1000X headphones. Currently, I'm looking for a player update (balance / better EQ / good battery time etc.pp) with LDAC support and the 300 looks very nice and the gimmicks are great.... BUT a 700 Euro player without any controlling the sound characteristics while using BT is a show-stopper! Now, the LDAC connectivity is just a commercial gimmick without any relevance for the latest player generation. Sorry. This is absolutely absurd.

In my mind, the 300 will never support the BT sound chars.... but it's just my opinion... I'm very unhappy.

btw. I remember the FW releases of the 100.... two years later and my 100 stuck very often while connection my LDAC headphones.... I fwd this problem last year... but without any comment / success / FW update of Sony.

 

[taz23]

Sorry, with such a big post, it seems rather difficult to find specific information. I would like to ask what are the bluetooth remotes that work and aren't too expensive. Will this work: https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/fiio-rm1-bluetooth-remote-controller.21494/reviews?

Many thanks.

 

[abitdeef]

Remember. Sony implemented the LDAC "standard" with the last player generation. It worked very fine for me with my 1000X headphones. Currently, I'm looking for a player update (balance / better EQ / good battery time etc.pp) with LDAC support and the 300 looks very nice and the gimmicks are great.... BUT a 700 Euro player without any controlling the sound characteristics while using BT is a show-stopper! Now, the LDAC connectivity is just a commercial gimmick without any relevance for the latest player generation. Sorry. This is absolutely absurd.



In my mind, the 300 will never support the BT sound chars.... but it's just my opinion... I'm very unhappy.

btw. I remember the FW releases of the 100.... two years later and my 100 stuck very often while connection my LDAC headphones.... I fwd this problem last year... but without any comment / success / FW update of Sony.

Remember. Sony implemented the LDAC "standard" with the last player generation. It worked very fine for me with my 1000X headphones. Currently, I'm looking for a player update (balance / better EQ / good battery time etc.pp) with LDAC support and the 300 looks very nice and the gimmicks are great.... BUT a 700 Euro player without any controlling the sound characteristics while using BT is a show-stopper! Now, the LDAC connectivity is just a commercial gimmick without any relevance for the latest player generation. Sorry. This is absolutely absurd.

In my mind, the 300 will never support the BT sound chars.... but it's just my opinion... I'm very unhappy.

btw. I remember the FW releases of the 100.... two years later and my 100 stuck very often while connection my LDAC headphones.... I fwd this problem last year... but without any comment / success / FW update of Sony.

I think the ZX300 is more for someone who wants to get close to the quality of WM1A ( balanced ) with a smaller footprint and better value.

 

[Mathieulh]

Remember. Sony implemented the LDAC "standard" with the last player generation. It worked very fine for me with my 1000X headphones. Currently, I'm looking for a player update (balance / better EQ / good battery time etc.pp) with LDAC support and the 300 looks very nice and the gimmicks are great.... BUT a 700 Euro player without any controlling the sound characteristics while using BT is a show-stopper! Now, the LDAC connectivity is just a commercial gimmick without any relevance for the latest player generation. Sorry. This is absolutely absurd.

In my mind, the 300 will never support the BT sound chars.... but it's just my opinion... I'm very unhappy.

btw. I remember the FW releases of the 100.... two years later and my 100 stuck very often while connection my LDAC headphones.... I fwd this problem last year... but without any comment / success / FW update of Sony.

If you mostly care about LDAC, you are better off buying a NW-A40 series walkman, or a Sony smartphone, or any smartphone running Android 8.0 Oreo.

The ZX300 is mostly suited for people listening to high end analog (wired) headphones rather than listening over bluetooth (just like any other high end DAP really), you should count bluetooth support as a bonus. Otherwise most bluetooth headphones nowadays can have their built-in EQ tuned through their respective apps if that's what you care about.

You should also consider that all bluetooth codecs, including LDAC are lossy and that even the best bluetooth headphones out there do not approach the quality you can get with high end DAC+AMP combos and headphones I can guarantee my Sennheiser HD650 or my MDR-1A sound better on the ZX300's balanced output than my WH-1000XM2 do over LDAC on that very same DAP (not that it matters since bluetooth always uses the headset's built in DAC, so it would sound the same over any LDAC capable source)

Bluetooth is something I only use on the go for the convenience of not having wires in the way, it's a decent compromise but not the best way to listen to music.

 

[Hinomotocho]

If i am an informed buyer i wont buy something without reading about it. I fail to understand the logic of trashing something for specs it doesnt have to begin with. I just feel it is counter intuitive. But at the same time those are frustrations with the zx300 which are real and which one is reasonably expected to know before dishing out 700 quids.

I agree - that is why I am bombarding this thread with so many questions. But I guess if the previous model had it one would assume that the upgrade model would naturally carry the same feature forward

 

[Sven2015]

The 300 is the successor of the 100. LDAC is a part / option of this successor. Sony introduced LDAC as a better BT method for "hir-es playback"

LDAC is an audio coding technology developed by Sony that enables the transmission of High-Resolution (Hi-Res) Audio content, even over a Bluetooth® connection.

(Sony.net)
The 300 offers LDAC as successor, but now as "just a simple BT protocol" without any benefits. LDAC is useless while using the 300 as successor. It's a step into the wrong direction.
A 700 Euro device without basics in modern technology!
In this case, the 1000X is useless (400 bucks!); the latest one is useless, cause Sony does not offer the devices for a perfect LDAC playback anymore!

I'm searching for a player with EQ / balance / a better BT protocol and a player with a good battery time.... mmmh - no device found! I can use my 10" android tablet with gonemad player... really, Sony?

 

[Mathieulh]

The 300 is the successor of the 100. LDAC is a part / option of this successor. Sony introduced LDAC as a better BT method for "hir-es playback"
(Sony.net)
The 300 offers LDAC as successor, but now as "just a simple BT protocol" without any benefits. LDAC is useless while using the 300 as successor. It's a step into the wrong direction.
A 700 Euro device without basics in modern technology!
In this case, the 1000X is useless (400 bucks!); the latest one is useless, cause Sony does not offer the devices for a perfect LDAC playback anymore!

I'm searching for a player with EQ / balance / a better BT protocol and a player with a good battery time.... mmmh - no device found! I can use my 10" android tablet with gonemad player... really, Sony?

You are kidding, right? All Android devices running Android 8.0 have LDAC support built-in, so do most (if not all) Sony branded Android phones as well as every recent DAP from the walkman series since the NW-ZX2 including all of the NW-A series starting with the A10. The WH-1000XM2 (which by the way also supports APT-X HD as an alternative to LDAC) also has support for an app that tweaks its built-in EQ so you don't actually need any EQ at the source. Not that I use it, as far as I am concerned, the music is altered enough during the mastering process, I don't need to butcher it more by messing with EQ settings.

As I said, if you plan on strictly listening to headphones over bluetooth using high end DAPs as a source, think again, there is no point in doing that when any source using a specific codec (LDAC, APT-X, SBC...) will sound the exact same as another source using that same codec because bluetooth does NOT use the source's own DAC but instead relies on the DAC present within the headphones. There is therefore no reason whatsoever to spend €700 on a DAP if you're only using it to listen over bluetooth, it's not going to sound any better than listening using a €200 LDAC compatible phone as the source, realistically speaking, you are throwing money down the drain.

Of course if you plan on listening to an audio source using wired headphones over an analog connection, then buying a high end DAP is something you can (and would need to) consider.

That said, if you truly care about this, feel free to contact Sony support to report the issue.

 

[Raketen]

You are kidding, right? All Android devices running Android 8.0 have LDAC support built-in

AFAIU not all android 8 devices can/will support LDAC, depends on OEM build of android enabling it & also not every bluetooth modem supports the tech needed for highest LDAC quality https://www.androidauthority.com/sony-ldac-codec-790690/

 

[gobb]

Wow Amazon JP not shipping anymore to my country as direct seller. Glad i got all the origo accessories and iems upfront the hype with the player. Using balanced with xba3nbp is an amazing experience. The price of the combination is justified to the result here.

 

[ailean]

Sorry, with such a big post, it seems rather difficult to find specific information. I would like to ask what are the bluetooth remotes that work and aren't too expensive. Will this work: https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/fiio-rm1-bluetooth-remote-controller.21494/reviews?

Many thanks.

As far as I know only the one (expensive) Sony remote will work, I've tried my RM1 and a cheap smartwatch (which both work on the FIIO X5iii) but couldn't get them to pair. As the remote feature is excluded in some regions I'm guessing Sony aren't looking to do much with it but maybe they will open it up to standards in future.
(They did add AptX/HD support after all ).

The controls on my AptX headphones did work fine thou.

 

[Sven2015]

If you mostly care about LDAC, you are better off buying a NW-A40 series walkman, or a Sony smartphone, or any smartphone running Android 8.0 Oreo.

The ZX300 is mostly suited for people listening to high end analog (wired) headphones rather than listening over bluetooth (just like any other high end DAP really), you should count bluetooth support as a bonus. Otherwise most bluetooth headphones nowadays can have their built-in EQ tuned through their respective apps if that's what you care about.

You should also consider that all bluetooth codecs, including LDAC are lossy and that even the best bluetooth headphones out there do not approach the quality you can get with high end DAC+AMP combos and headphones I can guarantee my Sennheiser HD650 or my MDR-1A sound better on the ZX300's balanced output than my WH-1000XM2 do over LDAC on that very same DAP (not that it matters since bluetooth always uses the headset's built in DAC, so it would sound the same over any LDAC capable source)

Bluetooth is something I only use on the go for the convenience of not having wires in the way, it's a decent compromise but not the best way to listen to music.

Sorry. This is nonsense! No one needs a balanced output or other "hir-es gimmicks" while listening music on the street.
The other "funny thing" is the 200 hour joke.... sorry. I'm not at home while using a MOBILE player!
I had a MDR-1A, but I hate cable while using a mobile player!
I don't use smart phone (have no one!) or a tablet for listening music on the street! BT isn't a bonus - neither LDAC nor AptX-HD BT - Sony implemented this as new standard and the latest FW offers the Apt-Codec.

The ZX300 is a mobile player with a lot of gimmicks (and nonsense). I want to use things like balance, 10 EQ and a long battery time! These gimmicks are relevant not a "balanced output" or other +things while using the player on the street! I'm a mobile player user! At home, I use a NAS, Squeezebox and RX3060! I bought my 1000XM to use it with a SONY mobile player with LDAC! Now, the headphones are useless!
Two years later and Sony has forgotten to support LDAC in a better way! This is not funny and I really pissed!