SONY NW-ZX500

[DJ Core]

To throw my two cent into the ring: I would either get an USB Dongle (Significantly higher sound quality than both of these) and cheaper and you can plug it into almost whatever you want (including your PC, whatever Smartphone you own and so on).

I am not even sure if i would replace my MIAD01 if it ever gets broken or just gut any Smartphone i want and use it with Dongle.

Most Dongles get very hot and are very limited spec wise since design teams are limited by how much room they have for the electronics.

A high-quality DAP will always sound much better and refined due to better shielding, very low noise floor and consistent power due to having its own power supply / Battery.

 

[Vamp898]

Most Dongles get very hot and are very limited spec wise since design teams are limited by how much room they have for the electronics.

A high-quality DAP will always sound much better and refined due to better shielding, very low noise floor and consistent power due to having its own power supply / Battery.

That is true, but not all of them.

There are a tons of Dongles that are better than most DAP. DAP have especially bad noise floor a lot of times.

In terms of specs, the DC07 or the DAWN PRO beat most DAP.

The Walkmans have something around >=8µV. The FiiO M23 has 3.1µV. The DC07 has 0.7µV, the DAWN PRO has 1.3µV on balanced. If you plug the SE846 into an Walkman, you instantly hear an audible hiss that is loud enough to still be audible on low volumes. There is dead silence on any of the above mentioned dongles.

Also they have less distortion and better SNR than even some 3000€ DAP like the A&K SP3000 or NW-WM1ZM2.

And at least my DAWN PRO doesn't get hot

The biggest issues with DAP is that they have way too much unneeded power. The maximum input power for almoost all IEM is 100mW before they break. An Dongle delivers already more than this.

The FiiO M23 pushes 1 Watt (1000mW) into 32Ω! you can push most Headphones beyond 130db with that power. That is the reason for their high noise floor, high distortion and bad SNR, way too much power that nobody ever needs.

I owned and used DAP exclusively in the past but since the release of the CS43131 USB Dongles, i see no reason to use them anymore. You just pay a lot of money to have the exact same chips in an Smartphone without Camera and SIM Card

If you're driving IEM, the best thing you can have is an CS43131 USB Dongle DAC. No Noise Floor, excellent THD+N, SNR, razor flat frequency response, 4 Vrms into balanced (enough to destroy most, if not all, IEM).

 

[Mantrox]

Hey folks, for anyone that has gone through the software mods (remove apps, lower cpu frequencies, etc), can anybody share their experience?
Where there significant improvements in battery life?

Also, has anybody investigated the possibility of installing a battery with same size but larger capacity (if it exists)?

 

[mrdatsun]

Hey folks, for anyone that has gone through the software mods (remove apps, lower cpu frequencies, etc), can anybody share their experience?
Where there significant improvements in battery life?

Yes. Complete waste of time, imo.

(But I did not do cpu frequencies mod.)

 

[Vamp898]

Hey folks, for anyone that has gone through the software mods (remove apps, lower cpu frequencies, etc), can anybody share their experience?
Where there significant improvements in battery life?

Also, has anybody investigated the possibility of installing a battery with same size but larger capacity (if it exists)?

I did not do it with the WM1ZM2 and had somehow longer battery life than anyone who did that. So I also say, waste of time

 

[Mantrox]

Loud and clear.
Thanks.

I guess i'll just enjoy the juice i can squeeze.

 

[mtl171]

Hey folks, for anyone that has gone through the software mods (remove apps, lower cpu frequencies, etc), can anybody share their experience?
Where there significant improvements in battery life?

Also, has anybody investigated the possibility of installing a battery with same size but larger capacity (if it exists)?

Removing apps didn’t make a noticeable difference battery life wise. Surprisingly biggest difference for me came from switching from Spotify to Spotify Lite for streaming.

 

[mrdatsun]

If resetting doesn't work, there is nothing you can do.

I bought my WM1ZM2 the month i moved to Japan and the relays got broken 3 months after that. Luckily i was living in Japan and so was able to use warranty but i can tell you from experience, it is basically impossible from a foreign country.

After the repair, you have to sign in person that you received it, they will hand it to no one else. And of course, don't ship internationally.

Also, as a private person, you are not allowed to ship something that contains Li-Ion Batteries to Japan. Only companies are allowed to do that.

Due to the volume cap i always recommend to import from Japan, but as i've seen several reports from people with broken devices (My IER-M9 is now broken too) i do absolutely no longer recommend that.

I've just sent my zx507 to Sony for them to look at. I'll see what the verdict is shortly I hope. In the meantime enjoying an M1s.

 

[Kozwoz]

Anyone know if high gain delivers more power than low gain? Or power delivery is the same?

I ask because output power specs always reference power based on high gain. So can only assume low gain power is different?

 

[Kozwoz]

Regarding bit perfect playback, please correct me if I’m wrong. The Walkman App is the only app that can do bitperfect. High-res on upsamples and off downsamples. Is this correct?

If UAPP bit perfect setting is turned on this does not mean it’s playing bit perfect?

 

[rlw6534]

Regarding bit perfect playback, please correct me if I’m wrong. The Walkman App is the only app that can do bitperfect. High-res on upsamples and off downsamples. Is this correct?

If UAPP bit perfect setting is turned on this does not mean it’s playing bit perfect?

UAPP and Neutron can both play bit perfect on the ZX500.

 

[Keirapc]

Hi everyone, does anyone know how to relock the bootloader on zx505?

 

[rlw6534]

I was replying to a post that seems to have disappeared. Anyway, here is ZX500 International firmware:


http://info.update.sony.net/PA001/N...ents/0015/NW-ZX500_0000_V4_06_00_NW_WM_FW.UPG

 

[rlw6534]

Hi everyone, does anyone know how to relock the bootloader on zx505?

fastboot oem lock

Note that it takes a long time because it resets the device memory (wipe). You'll have to go through setup again and reload apps, etc.

 

[Vamp898]

Anyone know if high gain delivers more power than low gain? Or power delivery is the same?

I ask because output power specs always reference power based on high gain. So can only assume low gain power is different?

The Power depends on the volume.

When you listen at the exact same volume, low and high gain will have the same power. But high gain allows for an higher volume, so higher power