Sony NW-ZX300
Apr 16, 2020 at 7:07 AM Post #11,311 of 12,929
Yeah I love the massive Sony discounts but they usually come on the later side of a products life cycle from what I've seen.
Anyway, I wanted a silver one so that ruled out both Sony AU and Joybuy as they only have black, so I ordered from Japan.

Usually about a year in: that's when Sony realises they overstocked in Australia. Happens to almost all of their audiophile stuff, including all of the IERs, Walkmans and MDR-Z series.
 
Apr 16, 2020 at 11:17 AM Post #11,314 of 12,929
Hey guys, feel free to check out Autumn+ for ZX300, which can be found here (click).

It was tuned using a stock WM1A, so the result on ZX300/A can be slightly different.

Feedback would be appreciated :)

The original post is here.
Trying your Autumn+ on the ZX300 (Romi Audio mod). Thank you for this. It's really good and brings the ZX300 up a notch. It removed a HF hardness/edge. Better stage, and I think a slightly warmer sound. Improved PRAT, with a more involving/immersive sound.
 
Apr 16, 2020 at 4:29 PM Post #11,315 of 12,929
Trying your Autumn+ on the ZX300 (Romi Audio mod). Thank you for this. It's really good and brings the ZX300 up a notch. It removed a HF hardness/edge. Better stage, and I think a slightly warmer sound. Improved PRAT, with a more involving/immersive sound.
I am interested to try. As I know nothing about this procedure is anyone able to point me to a thread where I may find more information please. Otherwise I have a few questions: Is this just a hacked/modded firmware/OS? Is the menu and all features etc the same? Can you revert back to stock? Is there any hit on battery or potential negative impact it may have on my device?
 
Apr 16, 2020 at 4:38 PM Post #11,316 of 12,929
I am interested to try. As I know nothing about this procedure is anyone able to point me to a thread where I may find more information please. Otherwise I have a few questions: Is this just a hacked/modded firmware/OS? Is the menu and all features etc the same? Can you revert back to stock? Is there any hit on battery or potential negative impact it may have on my device?
The only thing it changes is the sound signature by loading different tunings on top of the official firmware.

You can always go back to stock by reinstalling the official firmware.
 
Apr 16, 2020 at 4:41 PM Post #11,317 of 12,929
As I know nothing about this procedure is anyone able to point me to a thread where I may find more information please.

The initial post about the Autumn+ version can be found here (click) and you can find the mod here (click).

Once in the folder, choose your device (ZX300 or ZX300A) and then choose the variant coresponding to your device. Each ZX300/A has 4 variants: China, Japan, Europe or Universal. If you're not sure which one is yours, you can just download all four of them and try them. The ones not matching your device will just not detect the device, and they will not let you continue with the update.

Please note that you should have the 2.02 stock firmware already installed.

To summarize, this is just like installing a stock firmware from Sony.

Is this just a hacked/modded firmware/OS? Is the menu and all features etc the same?

This consists only of tuning modding. The stock firmware stays the same.

Can you revert back to stock?

Yes. Just install the stock firmware and that's it.

Is there any hit on battery or potential negative impact it may have on my device?

There shouldn't be any, but this is only my opinion. Compared to other mods (for other devices at least) this one is pretty balanced aka it doesn't seem to put any significant strain on the device. If this happen, you usually hear the sound being a bit too loud somehow, forced. Because of this, I assume that the battery capacity shouldn't be affected in a noticeable way.

Give it a try and you'll notice how smooth it is. This is the reason why I don't think it's putting any significant strain compared to the stock version.
 
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Apr 16, 2020 at 4:57 PM Post #11,319 of 12,929
I'm interested to know what you have changed in order to tune the sound?
As It's a software tune, if direct sound is enabled it wouldn't come into play, am I right?

I would rather not go into details at this point, as I already stated it in the WM1A/Z thread.

The tuning applies to the whole firmware/device. This means Direct Mode on or any other combination of settings when Direct Mode is off, and also when playing via the BT Receiver function or via USB DAC.

Also, to my surprise, it also applies for when playing audio to a bluetooth device (like some bluetooth headphones/speaker).
 
Apr 16, 2020 at 5:36 PM Post #11,320 of 12,929
The initial post about the Autumn+ version can be found here (click) and you can find the mod here (click).

Once in the folder, choose your device (ZX300 or ZX300A) and then choose the variant coresponding to your device. Each ZX300/A has 4 variants: China, Japan, Europe or Universal. If you're not sure which one is yours, you can just download all four of them and try them. The ones not matching your device will just not detect the device, and they will not let you continue with the update.

Please note that you should have the 3.02 stock firmware already installed.

To summarize, this is just like installing a stock firmware from Sony.



This consists only of tuning modding. The stock firmware stays the same.



Yes. Just install the stock firmware and that's it.



There shouldn't be any, but this is only my opinion. Compared to other mods (for other devices at least) this one is pretty balanced aka it doesn't seem to put any significant strain on the device. If this happen, you usually hear the sound being a bit too loud somehow, forced. Because of this, I assume that the battery capacity shouldn't be affected in a noticeable way.

Give it a try and you'll notice how smooth it is. This is the reason why I don't think it's putting any significant strain compared to the stock version.
Thank you for the information.
You might want to amend your post to say 2.02 for the ZX300, I think you were referring to the WM1A firmware version, just to avoid any confusion.
 
Apr 16, 2020 at 6:31 PM Post #11,322 of 12,929
I would rather not go into details at this point, as I already stated it in the WM1A/Z thread.

The tuning applies to the whole firmware/device. This means Direct Mode on or any other combination of settings when Direct Mode is off, and also when playing via the BT Receiver function or via USB DAC.

Also, to my surprise, it also applies for when playing audio to a bluetooth device (like some bluetooth headphones/speaker).

So what you're telling me is that it's applying DSP to Bluetooth...........

Not sure how I feel about this TBH. I'd rather Sony just let the SBC/AptX/LDAC conversion do its thing then let it fly....
 
Apr 16, 2020 at 6:34 PM Post #11,323 of 12,929
So what you're telling me is that it's applying DSP to Bluetooth...........

Not sure how I feel about this TBH. I'd rather Sony just let the SBC/AptX/LDAC conversion do its thing then let it fly....

The DSP thing with Bluetooth is not because of the mod. It's just noticeable now, due to the unique way the tuning sounds.

The player was always doing it. However, EQ and other effects like vinyl processing are not being applied to Bluetooth. Only the sound signature of the mod/stock firmware.
 
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Apr 16, 2020 at 6:45 PM Post #11,325 of 12,929
Could you somehow mod the software to remove as much sound processing as possible, as in, try get as close to what the hardware on it's own sounds?
Or is that essentially what you have done already?

By virtue of Bluetooth, it's already pretty much as close to the metal as possible. The fact that none of the DSP settings work when you're in Bluetooth says that it's pretty much handing off your music to the converter to be quantised without any processing done prior to it.

For normal audio, that's why you have the 'direct sound' feature.
 

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