[gelocks]

  Kingston has 128GB mSDXC cards too.

 

 
Ummm, where did you come up with this? I am currently using a Patriot 128GB card.  Looks like Lexar and Samsung have some too....

 
Can you guys put up a link to their official web pages?
I haven't seen any others... maybe Patriot but I don't remember!

 

[The Walrus]

Since SDXC supports up to 2TB, do you thing A17 will work with 256GB microSD when it comes out? 

 

[Wertzius]

Yes, i think it will. It is exFat ready, so there is no real limit.

 

[phanker]

Surprised there wasn't much a gap. What differences did you notice exactly?  Was thinking of getting a home headphone amp rig to maximize the 1A I have currently and whatever else in the future.
 
I've also came to a similar conclusion as you too.  The A17 is excellent with easy to drive headphones.  An added portable amp won't help much if at all (except the beasty PHA-3 maybe).  The pattern I found so far is anything super efficient in the 20-30 ohms impedance range, similar to the 1A.
 
Here's a link to your C5's response from GoldenEars.  Holy bass batman!
Helpful to adjust the EQ to smooth it out a bit.  My IE60 sounds even better now after some tuning even with the A17's limited EQ.
 
http://en.goldenears.net/22841
 
Quote:

  I've had a few days to play with the A17 now and I must say I am blown away! Being that the B&W P7 are the nicest cans I have at this time I am impressed with how well this little DAP keeps up with my Schiit Bifrost Uber/Asgard 2 setup! I have just been switching between the 2 on the fly and can't believe how well the A17 does! Is there a difference? Yes, but it's not HUGE, not nearly the gap I thought there would be.  There is some serious ES tech in this little guy...
 
Maybe the P7 are so easy to drive that it is really skewing my opinion of just how good the A17 is?
 
I'd like to get a hold of some better headphones and see what I hear...
 
I am almost considering picking up a PHA-3 and a pair of MDR-1A and running them balanced and being done with everything else....
 
I REALLY want to hear the MDR-1A

 

[zamuz]

I'm very tempted with this device. Only a few Sony stores here in Chile, not exactly close to where I live, and the one A17 they had on display had run out of battery by the time I got there today! Man.

I want to compare the ClearBass on it with the F886. Is it similar in quality? I tried the ClearBass setting on one of the older Walkman that was on display and it sounds bad compared to the F886 (which I bought online, Sony didn't bother bringing it over here). The only reason I care about this is because I get a nice extra kick out of the Etymotic HF5 with ClearBass, so if the A17 performs similarly then I'm sold. Has anybody compared the two?

 

[georgelai57]

What does the A10 actually do when you long-press the Option button? It says it's powering off yet when you press any button, the screen comes on instantly. So does it actually power off to save battery life or it doesn't?

 

[audioxxx]

It's in a standby state, which consumes power but has instant on times, (this is also handy to turn the screen off when charging, very annoying that it stays on).
The a10 does this because it has such a huge battery run time so it can get away with it, so it's a feature.
It also goes to sleep and shuts down after 24hrs or so (not sure of exact power down times).

 

[castleofargh]

     
Here's a link to your C5's response from GoldenEars.  Holy bass batman!
Helpful to adjust the EQ to smooth it out a bit.  My IE60 sounds even better now after some tuning even with the A17's limited EQ.
 
http://en.goldenears.net/22841

be very aware that you cannot lower the bass on the A10. the last slider going down is at 400hz. the bass boost option is a shaped boost that most people love, but it doesn't go in negative values.
 

I'm very tempted with this device. Only a few Sony stores here in Chile, not exactly close to where I live, and the one A17 they had on display had run out of battery by the time I got there today! Man.

I want to compare the ClearBass on it with the F886. Is it similar in quality? I tried the ClearBass setting on one of the older Walkman that was on display and it sounds bad compared to the F886 (which I bought online, Sony didn't bother bringing it over here). The only reason I care about this is because I get a nice extra kick out of the Etymotic HF5 with ClearBass, so if the A17 performs similarly then I'm sold. Has anybody compared the two?

the clearbass is pretty much the same from those 2 models, and the magnitude was pretty similar too(almost 10db boost at max level). I use mostly hf5 and mc5 on this DAP and it becomes OKish with clearbass ^_^.
if you're not afraid of the larger shape of the dynamic driver etys, I advise you to try one of the cheapo ones they now have. they aren't as good as the hf5 dead flat in treble extention(and far from the er4), but they sound super duper clean and they respond much better to EQ than the ETYs with BA drivers. so you end up with better bass using clearbass IMO. also even my mc5 is a good deal less sensitive so you don't really notice the hiss that you can perceive if you pay attention with the hf5. and of course the impedance is dead flat so the 4ohm output is a non issue. (I suggest that because those IEMs are around 50$ for most of them, so it's not a huge leap of faith to take and they still have the massive isolation).
 

It's in a standby state, which consumes power but has instant on times, (this is also handy to turn the screen off when charging, very annoying that it stays on).
The a10 does this because it has such a huge battery run time so it can get away with it, so it's a feature.
It also goes to sleep and shuts down after 24hrs or so (not sure of exact power down times).

that!
all the non android sony DAPs have been like this for years. if you use it everyday or several times a day, you're glad to have a 2second boot, if you let it in a drawer for months, it doesn't matter, it will shutdown on its own after a day. when you're used to that, going back to a 25second boot dap is not a lot of fun.

 

[JACONE]

I just got my Fiio L5 connector so I can use my ALO international with a-17.
The a-17 amped sounds really good as I'm getting a true line out.
 
The sound is very clean and the bass is nice and punchy. 
 
I also order my Dignis leather case as well ($59). It's about 19% of the price of player but feel it's worth it.
I also order a $7 silicone case since it has a screen protector as well.
 
Once I get cases, I can take player out!

 

[gerelmx1986]

My replacement fiio x3 arrived today so I will do a truthy comparison between A17 & x3 after I come home from android dev courses

 

[RLXfiend]

I'm having issues getting album art to work on MP3s, they work fine on FLAC, but no MP3 images are showing. I've tried with baseline jpegs under 500 x 500 (saved from GIMP), but still not showing. Anyone else have this issue?
 
I have the NWZ-A15, all files are loaded on microSD card from rsync, using EasyTAG to tag.

 

[gerelmx1986]

SONY A17 VS FIIO X3
 
finally my replacement for the fiio x3 arrived today so i had a brief shootout agains t one and other
 
Albums tested
 

1. Dr. Chesky's sampler that come with fiio x3 (copied it to micro SD) [24/192] Dr. chesky as artist i think
2. Naxos 25th Anniversary: Greatest Violin Concertos: Bach & Vivaldi [16/44.1] Capella Istropolitana & Takako Nishizaki (Bach violin cto. in E major)
3. Beethove the complete Piano sonata CD 3 [16/44.1] Vladimir Ashkenazi (sonata No. 7)
4. Thomas Tallis The Complete Works- Music for Queen Elizabeth [16/44.1] Chapelle du Roi & Alistair Dixon (Spem in Alium, NOPE NO BLOODY SHADES OF GRAY
   
    and no cheating like *cough* The King's Singers *cough* with *cough* Multi-tracking recording technology *cough* it's the original 40-Voices motet)

 
Inserting the micro SD from the sony to the fiio with no problem despite being exFAT (fiio FW is 3.2) but Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo sloooooow to scan 5, 300 FLAC... 15 minutes wow. The sony when I reinserted the SD back, took just 3 minutes (with is 64GB filled with mozart, Byrd, WF Bach and others)
 
FIIO x3 playing chesky was rendered quite good but like the sony walkman unable to distinguis the supposed "binaural" marvel nope nothing not even on the sony. stage was on par in oth devices for this album
 
Switching to Bach concerto for violin solo in E major- fiio has the erratic problem of floating trebbly instruments making the presentation so unnatural, the reverb is not detailed tought the harpsichord was more audible on the fiio than the sony, but the sony has this natural presentation with revrb, no floating violin over me.
 
Beethoven sonata no. 7 sounded meh! on the fiio x3. the piano just the piano, booring, on the sony this changes to enveloping soundstage, reverb and nice finer details like hamers hitting strings are heard on the sony.
 
Chesky's was shocking for me given the nature of MDR-1R (XBA-H3  was a total disaster on the sony A17, they want an amp), the fiio rendered the organ scale (for pedal) muddy bass ont eh MDR-1R even with gain set to H, but XBA-H3 was tamed bass with impact nice neutral.  On the sony the MDR-1R's achieved freaking low bass levels WOW, but H3 unbeareable boom became untoleable so i ahd to quit chesky's on the sony haha
 
anyways switched back to 1R's  the spem in alium the sony tends to add more detail and reverberations, enveloping 3D stage, sounds less congestd than fiio x3 during super dense passages liek when all the 40 voices sounds mega powerful.
 
Sony sounds better than the fiio x3, but the fiio x3 reminds me of older walkmans esp. the X-series

 

[RLXfiend]

I found my problem with the cover art was using ID3v2.4, saving the tags as ID3v2.3 fixed it for me.
 
I think ID3v2.4 isn't supported on this device so my files were falling back to ID3v1, which doesn't support embedded images.

 

[Tassie Devil]

I notice a heap of Sony ZX1's now coming up FS.  Because the A series is as good or even better? - anyone compared them?
 
I balked at the ZX1 price and glad I did.  The A17 is a very nice unit and holds more albums
 
A luddite friend of mine demanded to know what the hell was the point of having 600 albums on board.  She is a bit of a techno-phobic  snob and "loves" rummaging through her cupboard to find her CDs so no point trying to discuss the issue with her!

 

[Levanter]

I notice a heap of Sony ZX1's now coming up FS.  Because the A series is as good or even better? - anyone compared them?

I balked at the ZX1 price and glad I did.  The A17 is a very nice unit and holds more albums

A luddite friend of mine demanded to know what the hell was the point of having 600 albums on board.  She is a bit of a techno-phobic  snob and "loves" rummaging through her cupboard to find her CDs so no point trying to discuss the issue with her!

I think they are selling to make way for the ZX2 instead.