[Sonywalkmanuser]

Yes, I find that you have to do walkman format as last step for better sound quality.

So much experimentation done today but I guess that's what will allow for even better sound quality out of our walkman.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

@Whitigir @Vitaly2017
Guys if you haven’t done the windows sd card tool formatting first, I really recommend doing what I posted previously. The Sandisk extreme pro shows significant noise floor improvements from the extra formatting. It’s really worth the extra time and effort.

 

[feverfive]

Dies it matter whether the card is formatted Fat32 or ExFAT? I downloaded that tool (for Mac), but haven't had a chance to use it yet.

 

[ttt123]

Dies it matter whether the card is formatted Fat32 or ExFAT? I downloaded that tool (for Mac), but haven't had a chance to use it yet.

The Sony formats an SD as ExFAT, so that is the one to use.
Also, ExFAT is a more recent, newer version than FAT32, so ExFAT is a better choice for file systems. Nowadays, FAT32 is the choice mainly for wide compatibility with older OS's like Win95. Otherwise, ExFAT is a better choice.

 

[DJ Core]

Awesome work guys! Do the wires to the battery mod will increase the sense of dynamics and a bit of slam and will make this player nearly on par with the 1Z. Yes, completely agreed on the soundstage and sense of resolution. I didn’t come up with this mod by the way. @Whitigir Inspired me to do this mod. Yes, releasing those metal clips were a bit*h.

So I turned on Hi-Res streaming and as we all know it affects the direct sound mode.

With this 4 wire Mod, what I noticed is improved imaging, deeper bass, focused mids, and treble. The soundstage is 2x as deep, wide, and tall. Layering is fantastic as well. Definitely keeping it this way.

The sense of space feels like a private concert with all these artists Live albums sound like you're there.

Yesterday I was glued to the DAP for 6 hrs straight.

 

[sander93]

So I turned on Hi-Res streaming and as we all know it affects the direct sound mode.

With this 4 wire Mod, what I noticed is improved imaging, deeper bass, focused mids, and treble. The soundstage is 2x as deep, wide, and tall. Layering is fantastic as well. Definitely keeping it this way.

The sense of space feels like a private concert with all these artists Live albums sound like you're there.

Yesterday I was glued to the DAP for 6 hrs straight.

is it also applicable to 3.5 output?
maybe I should listen to audeze lcd mx4 one more time? I did 1st time with hi-res off (or unavailable) fw 2.01 (previous one). with 1-2h / 200 playback.
sound was impressive, best I ve heard, despite weak bass. however, soundstage was comparably narrow. AK "wheel DAC" created much bigger soundstage,
now I already have 115/200 hours playback on 3.5. I usually burn it in during charging. while most listening is done through 4.4 mdr 1Am2.

 

[feverfive]

Staying at 100% will degrade the battery. Lithium Ion nominal voltage is 3.7v but when fully charged is 4.2v, this put's stress on the battery. There is nothing wrong with running down the battery, it's only when you go below maybe 20%-30% that the voltage drops below 3.7v which is also not great for the battery. For best longevity I try keeping the battery between 30% and 70%, but even between 20% and 80% is fine. Once a month or two I do a full charge and rundown to calibrate battery and eliminate trace memory (not really a problem with li-ion though).

I swear I'm not trying to make this harder than it needs to be, but to calibrate, should it be:
1 --fully charge > fully deplete (until device won't restart) > fully charge (does it need to be fully charged?), OR
2 --fully deplete (does it have to be depleted from full charged state for calibration purposes?) > fully charge

During normal use, I have made sure to never charge above 90% and never run down below 20%, but going forward I'll follow advice above to never charge above 80%.

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

I swear I'm not trying to make this harder than it needs to be, but to calibrate, should it be:
1 --fully charge > fully deplete (until device won't restart) > fully charge (does it need to be fully charged?), OR
2 --fully deplete (does it have to be depleted from full charged state for calibration purposes?) > fully charge

During normal use, I have made sure to never charge above 90% and never run down below 20%, but going forward I'll follow advice above to never charge above 80%.

2. Fully deplete from any charge level then fully charge is fine, every couple of months. Just don't let the battery protocols get in the way of your enjoyment of the dap. I often fully charge mine by accident as it is so quick to charge.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

So I turned on Hi-Res streaming and as we all know it affects the direct sound mode.

With this 4 wire Mod, what I noticed is improved imaging, deeper bass, focused mids, and treble. The soundstage is 2x as deep, wide, and tall. Layering is fantastic as well. Definitely keeping it this way.

The sense of space feels like a private concert with all these artists Live albums sound like you're there.

Yesterday I was glued to the DAP for 6 hrs straight.

Not sure why Sony released this firmware without even mentioning anything about this 3D sound processing that is hidden inside the Hi-Res Streaming mode. In my opinion this 3D effect should be marketed as a new technology/selling point all together.

It is really remarkable in terms of how it manages to transform stereo audio into 3D surround without sounding artificially processed at all(at least to my regular joe ears).

I feel with the 3D processing, it makes it much more easier to listen to complex music pieces where they have multiple music instruments, main singer, backup singer, audience all in the music. Each of these music instruments and elements has become it's own floating object in the 3D space and each of these object have its own unique reverberations and spacial cues inside the 3D soundstaging. If you turn on DSEE HX AI with this mode, the reverberation and spacial cue effect is even more noticable.

This 3D sound processing really transforms stereo music listening into another level of enjoyment. In my opinion, It is Sony's best audio technology development in 2020 but not advertised or mentioned at all.

 

[feverfive]

I'm pretty much a Direct Source-only guy, but yeah, Hi Res Streaming <on> is terrific.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

@Ryokan

Really thank you for the information on the sd formatting tool.

I used the tool with all my microsd card and found that all of them have shown improvements to their background noise floor. Music now feels even more lively as there is more dynamic range. Sharp transient sound that drops back down to the quiesce of the dead silent background noise floor.

The better performing microsd cards now have even more weighter bass notes. Even the worst performing one now feels not as grainy sounding as before.

Really impressed by the change.

 

[Tsiklon]

Can you guys best place to buy for non restricted volume version is for USA delivery thanks

The European and Korean models are the only restricted versions - the model on sale on Amazon US is unrestricted

 

[djselbeck]

Please stop saying SD card can have any effect on sound quality. This is not how the Linux kernel works. IO is always done with RAM between. Unless your SD card is broken the files are read equally with different cards. This can be proofen with checksuming. There are so many buffers in the whole IO stack from SD card to decoder that it can not have any effect. Saying otherwise is just wrong. Even if you say to hear a difference. It can not happen.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

That’s from a software only perspective. At the hardware side of things, there’s more invisible interactions that goes on that we cant see with our naked eyes.

How much power consumption drawn from the microsd card can have impact on the overall power available to the Walkman other electrical components like its amplifier. Walkman only has a small 5V battery after all.

There’s also the issue of electromagnetic and radio interferences that is coming from the data transmission pin out of the microsd card going to the Walkman’s digital section. How much these electrical noise affect the Walkman’s digital section(especially its sensitive clock oscillator)and how much Sony is able reduce its detrimental effects is something we don’t know.

 

[bland125]

it can not have any effect. Saying otherwise is just wrong. Even if you say to hear a difference. It can not happen.