[Sonywalkmanuser]

For the record, I do think the name calling is a bit too far… But you must see where some of the skepticism Is coming from especially if you offer it as advice.

Because again, how would a launcher affect the sound quality changes of a bit perfect player app? I think this warrants some caution or at least blind testing before telling other users how to improve their sound quality experience. Just my two cents…

Because EMI noise from the SOC running do affect sound output, see the words from Sony themselves. When you use a low resource, low footprint launcher, you are reducing the amount of processing done, which in turn leads to lower power utilized, lower heat generated and lower switching noise from data processing.

https://www.sony.jp/feature/products/zx700/

Now that we've told you all about the high-quality sound hardware, please tell us about the first flagship model to be equipped with an Android OS. Although the Android OS has made it possible to use various online services, it seems that many users have a negative view of the sound quality. What do you all think about this?​

Sekine: As you know, Sony has resumed mounting Android OS on the NW-ZX500 and NW-A100, which were released in 2019, and this time as well, we have used that knowledge and know-how in the design. Listening to the voices of people who are concerned about installing an Android OS, it seems that many are concerned about the increase in noise caused by adding circuitry to run the Android OS. It's true that running the Android OS requires a high-performance processor, which means more noise. In fact, the Walkman has achieved both the convenience of the Android OS and high sound quality through various efforts, such as shielding the processor and suppressing noise with the NW-ZX500.
Sato: In the NW-ZX500, we covered the processor with a gold-plated metal block made of copper, rather than oxygen-free copper, and aimed to improve sound quality by influencing the weight of the block itself. The new model takes this idea one step further by completely surrounding the processor with a gold-plated block made from machined oxygen-free copper to strengthen the ground and isolate noise. The effect is obvious when you actually listen to the sound. You can enjoy extremely clear sound.

By the way, Sony has previously installed high-performance processors even in models that are not equipped with Android OS, such as the previous generation "NW-WM1Z". Naturally, we have taken all the necessary noise countermeasures. So I don't feel like I've done anything special just because it's equipped with Android OS. We recognize that the innovations in the latest model are simply an extension of what has come before.

 

[Killedkella]

Because EMI noise from the SOC running do affect sound output, see the words from Sony themselves. When you use a low resource, low footprint launcher, you are reducing the amount of processing done, which in turn leads to lower power utilized, lower heat generated and lower switching noise from data processing.

https://www.sony.jp/feature/products/zx700/

Now that we've told you all about the high-quality sound hardware, please tell us about the first flagship model to be equipped with an Android OS. Although the Android OS has made it possible to use various online services, it seems that many users have a negative view of the sound quality. What do you all think about this?​

Sekine: As you know, Sony has resumed mounting Android OS on the NW-ZX500 and NW-A100, which were released in 2019, and this time as well, we have used that knowledge and know-how in the design. Listening to the voices of people who are concerned about installing an Android OS, it seems that many are concerned about the increase in noise caused by adding circuitry to run the Android OS. It's true that running the Android OS requires a high-performance processor, which means more noise. In fact, the Walkman has achieved both the convenience of the Android OS and high sound quality through various efforts, such as shielding the processor and suppressing noise with the NW-ZX500.
Sato: In the NW-ZX500, we covered the processor with a gold-plated metal block made of copper, rather than oxygen-free copper, and aimed to improve sound quality by influencing the weight of the block itself. The new model takes this idea one step further by completely surrounding the processor with a gold-plated block made from machined oxygen-free copper to strengthen the ground and isolate noise. The effect is obvious when you actually listen to the sound. You can enjoy extremely clear sound.

By the way, Sony has previously installed high-performance processors even in models that are not equipped with Android OS, such as the previous generation "NW-WM1Z". Naturally, we have taken all the necessary noise countermeasures. So I don't feel like I've done anything special just because it's equipped with Android OS. We recognize that the innovations in the latest model are simply an extension of what has come before.

From what I understand, the default launcher is still always active in some shape or form even when using third party launchers, so you may be actually increasing the total ram usage when using a non-stock launcher. I would check the default launcher in the settings and see if it is still active.

On my ZX500, I have a launcher installed but I just checked in the installed apps section in the settings and I can see that under Quickstep (the stock launcher) it shows that it used 11 MB in the last 3 hours.

it may be more beneficial to use the stock app perhaps, as that is what the product has shipped with if we are min maxing performance this way.

 

[Sonywalkmanuser]

From what I understand, the default launcher is still always active in some shape or form even when using third party launchers, so you may be actually increasing the total ram usage when using a non-stock launcher. I would check the default launcher in the settings and see if it is still active.

On my ZX500, I have a launcher installed but I just checked in the installed apps section in the settings and I can see that under Quickstep (the stock launcher) it shows that it used 11 MB in the last 3 hours.

it may be more beneficial to use the stock app perhaps, as that is what the product has shipped with if we are min maxing performance this way.

The ram used increased but the quickstep app is suspended from processing.
By using the AP15 launcher, you are no longer having to process other extra elements like animations, wallpaper, icons, search bar and other widgets that quickstep has.
While there are many 3rd party launchers that offer tons of customization and leading to worse performance than the stock quickstep, there are also some 3rd party launchers that is specifically optimized to be minimalist like this AP15 which does improve UI responsiveness even over the stock quickstep.

There are also other 3rd party launchers that reduces the amount of background running applications to save battery:
https://droidrant.com/which-android-launcher-uses-the-least-battery/

On the ZX507, AP15 consumes about 27MB of memory.

 

[notcbw]

How much time do you really spend looking at the launcher though? It doesn't even do anything when you are in another app or when your screen is off. It has 4GB of RAM so I don't know why are you so concerned about the ram usage. The most energy intensive application is probably your favourite streaming app and DSEE AI, and almost all of the EMI coming from the PCB would be Wifi/BT/NFC since the digital circuit part is already well shielded and is FCC certified.

Just turn both airplane mode and direct stream on in the walkman player if you are that bothered.

 

[Monkeyk2010]

Technically you should be able to downgrade it just by flashing every partition from a unpacked firmware with fastboot. But I have never tried this so please be careful.

Do you know why the dtbo / mhz file doesn't work with mine? Could it be that you are in chn and mine is international?

 

[notcbw]

Do you know why the dtbo / mhz file doesn't work with mine? Could it be that you are in chn and mine is international?

I'm not sure. The region should not matter since the hardware are the same. Is the custom kernel working for you?

 

[Monkeyk2010]

I'm not sure. The region should not matter since the hardware are the same. Is the custom kernel working for you?

Yeah everything went perfect except the frequency. So the flashing of the dtbo.img works but nothing changes.

 

[BrandonSLi]

Hi, I am trying to use a remote control for my NW-ZX507 , so I can leave it inside the bag, I have tried the Sony RMT-NWS20 and iRiver IAA01 remote control but both does not work.

Does anyone have any tips or ideas?

I'm using KDE Connect from cellphone to partially "remote control" zx707, just like controlling any other android devices, under the same network. It can do pausing, resuming, adjusting the volume, skipping to the next track, and switching between already opened apps. Maybe it's not exactly what you're looking for.

 

[koedame]

Can you try this dtbo?

This works fine with my NW-A105.
BTW, https://github.com/notcbw/2019_android_walkman/blob/main/dtbo_a100.img seems to corrupt and cpufreq driver fails to load.

 

[koedame]

Tried to modify brightness-levels ( line 2666 in dt.0.dts ) to make backlight more dark, since A100 is too bright for bedtime.
With this image, cpufreq ragne is 400 to 1200 Mhz for my preference.
dtbo_a100_1200mhz_400mhz_backlight_signed.zip
2019_android_walkman/dtbo_a100_1200mhz_400mhz_backlight_signed_unzip_boot.zip

 

[koedame]

Made 1200 - 1000 - 800 - 700 - 600 - 400 - 200 Mhz DTBO image with darker baklight.
https://sidenet.ddo.jp/2019_android_walkman/dtbo_a100_1200mhz_200mhz_backlight_signed.zip
And here is a stock DTBO image.
https://sidenet.ddo.jp/2019_android_walkman/dtbo_a100_stock.zip

 

[Mrxyzl]

Made 1200 - 1000 - 800 - 700 - 600 - 400 - 200 Mhz DTBO image with darker baklight.
https://sidenet.ddo.jp/2019_android_walkman/dtbo_a100_1200mhz_200mhz_backlight_signed.zip
And here is a stock DTBO image.
https://sidenet.ddo.jp/2019_android_walkman/dtbo_a100_stock.zip

Can you make one for zx500 too?

 

[punkedrock]

Dumb question. Is the factory reset pin the same as the wake up pin? And if not. Is there a way around it?
Also, is this thing just useless at this point or am I missing a point for it to play tidal songs that have downloaded without buffering them?

 

[punkedrock]

Dumb question. Is the factory reset pin the same as the wake up pin? And if not. Is there a way around it?
Also, is this thing just useless at this point or am I missing a point for it to play tidal songs that have downloaded without buffering them?

It is the same. Um, though is there any settings I need to toggle for Tidal to play the downloaded files and not buffer?

 

[myromeo]

I’m just catching up on this latest development, wow, fantastic work guys!

Has anyone confirmed if the A100 volume limit is in fact removed through region change?