nc8000
Headphoneus Supremus
And does NOT sound the same, there are clearly noticable sound differences between the regions (at least for me and many others). And yes it is done in software and by how the dac is initialized on boot up, the hw is indeed identical across the world but it is programmable hw just like the products the use a fpgaBut how should they tune it? Its an digital amp. It amplifyies the signal exactly as is.
To tune it, they would have to modify the signal (apply EQ or anything like that) which would be visible in measurements (and it is not. All Walkmans from all regions measure 100% identical)
If you don't use direct, everything you adjust/modify and so on can be seen in measurements. As soon you use direct, everything is 100% perfectly flat as it is supposed to be.
So direct means that. The Song is send to the amp straight, without any modification. And as the amp is an digital amp, it will always produce the same result if you give it the same signal. There is nothing between the amp and the headphone except the LCs and even they can be left out (and they are very simple electronic gates, they are incapable in modifying the sound).
So except the Software, there is just nothing that could modify the sound and when using direct, the software does nothing (scientifically proven). So every walkman, no matter the region, should sound the same and does sound the same.
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