SONY NW-ZX500
Dec 21, 2021 at 3:46 PM Post #7,891 of 8,633
ya in us$$ still will cost more, but thanks for the link
 
Dec 22, 2021 at 7:14 AM Post #7,893 of 8,633
How are you guys managing your library on the ZX507? Or more accurately, is there a way to browse albums sorted by Album Artist? I listen to quite a bit of hip hop, and with all so many featurings here and there, browsing by artist is not something you want to do.

I feel like I have to scroll through too much to find what I want while ideally I'd like to browse an artist and have the albums displaying chronologically, just like my OCD has me do it on my computer.
 
Dec 22, 2021 at 7:59 AM Post #7,894 of 8,633
How are you guys managing your library on the ZX507? Or more accurately, is there a way to browse albums sorted by Album Artist? I listen to quite a bit of hip hop, and with all so many featurings here and there, browsing by artist is not something you want to do.

I feel like I have to scroll through too much to find what I want while ideally I'd like to browse an artist and have the albums displaying chronologically, just like my OCD has me do it on my computer.

In the Walkman app settings, if you select “Artist List Display” you can switch the list to view by Album Artist instead of simply Artist. It probably should have been the default setting!
 
Dec 24, 2021 at 12:10 PM Post #7,897 of 8,633
How many hours of playback are you guys getting from this thing? IEM plugged in or Bluetooth use.
it depends on many factors.
screen usage
type of files being play. hi-res, dsd consume battery very fast.
upscaling. even faster.
plus when u turn OFF/ON device it losses %. it seems to drain 0to1% in 2-3 h of rest. however, after it's auto turned OFF, and then turned ON, u may notice 5% decrease in charge %
and I dont think it's ok to project % usage during short 1-2,3 hours on 100% battery.
I suspect no linear battery consumption (at least as it shown) + smtm battery % keep on increasing after charger had been unplugged or keep on decreasing when charger had been plugged.
I almost never listen music 2+h nonstop.
conclusion. overall it's acceptable.
u can fastcharge it even with 25W charger from samsung or usb c from lenovo. (usb A slow charges it)
it nice to take with u powerbank for long journeys 5000 mah more than enough.
 
Dec 25, 2021 at 7:45 PM Post #7,898 of 8,633
There is an Android music player app, USB Audio Player Pro. This app allows you to login to Tidal and play music from there bit-perfectly on the ZX500/A100 players. All other 3rd party apps are using a different audio path, the one that resamples the audio, while UAPP can play audio through the same audio path as the Walkman app, the one that doesn't do any resampling.
How does UAPP achieve that? It has a custom USB driver for USB DACs, but does it actually have access to different internal audio paths or APIs?
 
Dec 26, 2021 at 3:57 PM Post #7,901 of 8,633
There is an Android music player app, USB Audio Player Pro. This app allows you to login to Tidal and play music from there bit-perfectly on the ZX500/A100 players. All other 3rd party apps are using a different audio path, the one that resamples the audio, while UAPP can play audio through the same audio path as the Walkman app, the one that doesn't do any resampling.
Coming back to UAPP, it still sounds amazing but I'm 99.99% certain it sounds a touch brighter than the Sony Walkman player. UAPP Bit perfect is on; Walkman Direct mode is also on.
Is that even possible?
 
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Dec 26, 2021 at 4:32 PM Post #7,902 of 8,633
Coming back to UAPP, it still sounds amazing but I'm 99.99% certain it sounds a touch brighter than the Sony Walkman player. UAPP Bit perfect is on; Walkman Direct mode is also on.
Is that even possible?
Yep. The Walkman APP has a warmer sound.
 
Dec 26, 2021 at 6:42 PM Post #7,903 of 8,633
Coming back to UAPP, it still sounds amazing but I'm 99.99% certain it sounds a touch brighter than the Sony Walkman player. UAPP Bit perfect is on; Walkman Direct mode is also on.
Is that even possible?
Yep. The Walkman APP has a warmer sound.

Given how, for example, the A30/40/50 players can sound much better when running the WM1A/Z firmware (via a custom firmware package) it's very possible that the Walkman player app on the Android players has a role in the intended sound signature of these players.

Regarding the fact that A105/ZX507 didn't receive USB DAC mode or BT Receiver, A30 didn't receive these functions as well. However, the player is perfectly capable of running those functions, proof being that you can get them via the WM1A/Z firmware.

A40 also didn't get BT Receiver, yet it works fine with the WM1A/Z-based firmware, as well as with a port of the stock A50 firmware for the A40.

If the upcoming WM1A/Z successors will use a different SoC, I expect Sony to mention something that because of the new SoC, BT Receiver and USB DAC mode are now supported or something, even if these functions are running fine on the ~1.7 GHz dual-core SoC and 512MB of RAM of the non-Android players 😅 Or maybe there will be firmware updates after a while for the A105/ZX507, bringing the functions for them too.
 
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Dec 26, 2021 at 7:20 PM Post #7,904 of 8,633
Yep. The Walkman APP has a warmer sound.

Given how, for example, the A30/40/50 players can sound much better when running the WM1A/Z firmware (via a custom firmware package) it's very possible that the Walkman player app on the Android players has a role in the intended sound signature of these players.
Tempted to ask whether this has anything to do with Sony's S-Master digital amplification technology, i.e. do the Walkman app and UAPP mess around with the amplification process? With regards to S-Master amplification see p.6 on this manual here: https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/res/manuals/W000/W0004221M.pdf
 
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Dec 26, 2021 at 7:26 PM Post #7,905 of 8,633
Tempted to ask whether this has anything to do with Sony's S-Master digital amplification technology, i.e. do the Walkman app and UAPP mess around with the amplification process? With regards to S-Master amplification see p.6 on this manual here: https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/res/manuals/W000/W0004221M.pdf

I would rather say that Sony relies a lot on sound processing (hardware is also important, sure).

The Walkman app may do additional sound processing, while UAPP doesn't.
 

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