[rlw6534]

I'm having similar performance with my A306 and my new WF-1000XM5 and LDAC. The only thing that helps is turning off wifi on the DAP. Note that LDAC - audio quality preferred (990/909) is totally unusable. I was expecting better with Sony DAP + Sony TWS.

 

[JerryHead]

I'm having similar performance with my A306 and my new WF-1000XM5 and LDAC. The only thing that helps is turning off wifi on the DAP. Note that LDAC - audio quality preferred (990/909) is totally unusable. I was expecting better with Sony DAP + Sony TWS.

Thank you. I was about to return the 707 thinking something was wrong with it. And just before reading your post, I discovered that turning WiFi off stabilizes the BT issue. Good to know something can be done about it. But really crappy that you can’t use WiFi at the same time as LDAC without frequent drop outs. I guess this means that Tidal and RoonArc aren’t going to work well with LDAC enabled then.

 

[rlw6534]

Thank you. I was about to return the 707 thinking something was wrong with it. And just before reading your post, I discovered that turning WiFi off stabilizes the BT issue. Good to know something can be done about it. But really crappy that you can’t use WiFi at the same time as LDAC without frequent drop outs. I guess this means that Tidal and RoonArc aren’t going to work well with LDAC enabled then.

I'm pretty new to TWS, but I thought that I was going to be able to use my A306/XM5 as a shirt pocket, no wire solution. Of course it works with AAC but I really wanted LDAC 990/909 for near lossless... and expected it to work at such short ranges... I'm using 5GHz wifi already so that doesn't help.

I wonder if firmware updates might improve the situation?

 

[Vamp898]

Wifi and Bluetooth both use 2.4 GHz, you could only fix this by switching your WiFi to 5Ghz. It's a physical issues, nothing that could be fixed in software.

But if 5GHz doesn't help....you're screwed.

You cold check if the Walkman really uses 5Ghz (sometimes wifi routers offer both to the device), but other than that...

Due to the heavy shielding if the antennas, the Walkman is actually not a good device for this use case.

I could imagine that the developers didn't care much about it either as most people use the Walkman wired.

When you use streaming anyway, you could just use your smartphone. There is 0 advantage in using streaming+TWS with the Walkman

 

[rlw6534]

Wifi and Bluetooth both use 2.4 GHz, you could only fix this by switching your WiFi to 5Ghz. It's a physical issues, nothing that could be fixed in software.

But if 5GHz doesn't help....you're screwed.

You cold check if the Walkman really uses 5Ghz (sometimes wifi routers offer both to the device), but other than that...

Due to the heavy shielding if the antennas, the Walkman is actually not a good device for this use case.

I could imagine that the developers didn't care much about it either as most people use the Walkman wired.

When you use streaming anyway, you could just use your smartphone. There is 0 advantage in using streaming+TWS with the Walkman

I'm sure 5 GHz wifi is being used (verified on my router). Unfortunately, I'm an iPhone user so no LDAC from phone. I did try it on my old V30S, but it still couldn't manage 990/909... in fact, it was worse than the Sony. Not only that but the Sony still has dropouts even with with LDAC best effort (adaptive).

I had made an assumption that LDAC 990/909 was actually achievable at short range, but not with my hardware apparently.

 

[Click]

I don't use my 707 for TWS, so I don't know how good or bad the LDAC performance is with it.

If you want good LDAC, BT, wireless performance, get a FiiO BTR7.

 

[ttt123]

I'm sure 5 GHz wifi is being used (verified on my router). Unfortunately, I'm an iPhone user so no LDAC from phone. I did try it on my old V30S, but it still couldn't manage 990/909... in fact, it was worse than the Sony. Not only that but the Sony still has dropouts even with with LDAC best effort (adaptive).

I had made an assumption that LDAC 990/909 was actually achievable at short range, but not with my hardware apparently.

FWIW, I can use the A306, LDAC-Sound Quality preferred, at home. Outside, with a lot of interference, I need to drop it to Connection preferred. This is with the Final ZE8000, which I have found to have a very strong BT connection.
Otherwise, I use it with an iPhone 14 Pro Max, while outside in HK, which is very RF noisy. No dropouts at all, and HK is a very RF signal intensive environment.

 

[rlw6534]

FWIW, I can use the A306, LDAC-Sound Quality preferred, at home. Outside, with a lot of interference, I need to drop it to Connection preferred. This is with the Final ZE8000, which I have found to have a very strong BT connection.
Otherwise, I use it with an iPhone 14 Pro Max, while outside in HK, which is very RF noisy. No dropouts at all, and HK is a very RF signal intensive environment.

AAC is working fine for me with iPhone (and A306). I was just hoping for potentially better quality with LDAC, although I'm not confident that I could tell the difference...

LDAC - Connection preferred (best effort) is mostly listenable, but I am still getting occasional dropouts even at close range. LDAC Sound Quality (990/909) is only usable with wifi off and I mostly stream around the house so that's a bummer...

My objective was to place the A306 in my pocket and use the XM5 while moving about, without the dangling wires. I can do that, but not with LDAC quality, so not a total loss. Unfortunately, I already have APP2, so the XM5 is a bit redundant (especially if I cant use LDAC - Sound quality preferred). I suspect that Apple's AAC 256 is just as good (if not better) than LDAC 330/303 so likely no gain there.

 

[ttt123]

AAC is working fine for me with iPhone (and A306). I was just hoping for potentially better quality with LDAC, although I'm not confident that I could tell the difference...

LDAC - Connection preferred (best effort) is mostly listenable, but I am still getting occasional dropouts even at close range. LDAC Sound Quality (990/909) is only usable with wifi off and I mostly stream around the house so that's a bummer...

My objective was to place the A306 in my pocket and use the XM5 while moving about, without the dangling wires. I can do that, but not with LDAC quality, so not a total loss. Unfortunately, I already have APP2, so the XM5 is a bit redundant (especially if I cant use LDAC - Sound quality preferred). I suspect that Apple's AAC 256 is just as good (if not better) than LDAC 330/303 so likely no gain there.

Update that I tested the A306 in my shirt pocket, using LDAC Sound Quality Preferred(highest), with the Final ZE8000, over a couple of hours walking around a Mall. No problems while the A306 was in my shirt pocket, but even holding it in the hand at waist level, there were dropouts. It looks like a strong BT TWS is necessary, for this to be workable.

 

[rlw6534]

Update that I tested the A306 in my shirt pocket, using LDAC Sound Quality Preferred(highest), with the Final ZE8000, over a couple of hours walking around a Mall. No problems while the A306 was in my shirt pocket, but even holding it in the hand at waist level, there were dropouts. It looks like a strong BT TWS is necessary, for this to be workable.

Wifi off?

I can download music to work offline from Tidal, etc and once I turn wifi off, I'm able to use 990/909 around the house (shirt pocket). It's only when wifi is on that I have issues. It's an extra workaround step (offline dl) but it sorta does what I wanted. Just not as convenient.

 

[ttt123]

Wifi off?

I can download music to work offline from Tidal, etc and once I turn wifi off, I'm able to use 990/909 around the house (shirt pocket). It's only when wifi is on that I have issues. It's an extra workaround step (offline dl) but it sorta does what I wanted. Just not as convenient.

WiFi was on, though I had not connected to any carrier or hotspot.

 

[SteveM324]

AAC is working fine for me with iPhone (and A306). I was just hoping for potentially better quality with LDAC, although I'm not confident that I could tell the difference...

LDAC - Connection preferred (best effort) is mostly listenable, but I am still getting occasional dropouts even at close range. LDAC Sound Quality (990/909) is only usable with wifi off and I mostly stream around the house so that's a bummer...

My objective was to place the A306 in my pocket and use the XM5 while moving about, without the dangling wires. I can do that, but not with LDAC quality, so not a total loss. Unfortunately, I already have APP2, so the XM5 is a bit redundant (especially if I cant use LDAC - Sound quality preferred). I suspect that Apple's AAC 256 is just as good (if not better) than LDAC 330/303 so likely no gain there.

I'm glad that I saw your comments. I was considering the A306 or a higher Sony DAP and the XM5 for exactly the same reason (no wires and high quality LDAC). Would another brand DAP capable of LDAC would be better with the XM5 or is the LDAC technology not quite ready for prime time? I'm guessing that it's the latter.

Slightly OT, between your Airpod Pro2 and XM5, which do you prefer using AAC for both? I thought that the LDAC capability of the XM5 would be a great reason to buy it but based the comments on this page LDAC transmission is finicky at best. I'm an iPhone user so now I'm leaning towards the APP2 but if the XM5 has considerably better SQ, I would buy it instead. I plan to buy a DAP and TWS within the next few days so I'm trying to sort things out.

 

[rlw6534]

I'm glad that I saw your comments. I was considering the A306 or a higher Sony DAP and the XM5 for exactly the same reason (no wires and high quality LDAC). Would another brand DAP capable of LDAC would be better with the XM5 or is the LDAC technology not quite ready for prime time? I'm guessing that it's the latter.

Slightly OT, between your Airpod Pro2 and XM5, which do you prefer using AAC for both? I thought that the LDAC capability of the XM5 would be a great reason to buy it but based the comments on this page LDAC transmission is finicky at best. I'm an iPhone user so now I'm leaning towards the APP2 but if the XM5 has considerably better SQ, I would buy it instead. I plan to buy a DAP and TWS within the next few days so I'm trying to sort things out.

I have tried a few other DAPs and some of them work at high quality (M11 Plus ESS, Hiby R5, A&K SR35). Oddly my Sony A306 and ZX507 cannot maintain high quality with the XM5 with wifi on.

I have no idea what's going on as I would have expected Sony to actually be better...

For me there is not a noticeable quality difference with the XM5 (it does have more bass) , I'll keep it in case things improve, but the APP2 are quite good and just work...

 

[SteveM324]

I have tried a few other DAPs and some of them work at high quality (M11 Plus ESS, Hiby R5, A&K SR35). Oddly my Sony A306 and ZX507 cannot maintain high quality with the XM5 with wifi on.

I have no idea what's going on as I would have expected Sony to actually be better...

For me there is not a noticeable quality difference with the XM5 (it does have more bass) , I'll keep it in case things improve, but the APP2 are quite good and just work...

Your comments have been helpful, thank you!

 

[JerryHead]

Anyone try listening to to the 707 through the FiiO FD5 and can give their opinion?