[vedye]

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However a number of Z10x0 users report that Poweramp sounds poorer on theirs, so it could be so.
Personally I prefer Poweramp to PlayerPro on my GSII because Poweramp's equalizer and tone settings cut it better for me.

 
That would be the case for me. I found PowerAmp sounds poorer on my Z1060. You can say it's slightly warmer, but to me it's muddier. It's a lot more obvious when I tweak the bass. The distortion was obvious enough for me to ignore, it muddy the sound quite a bit for me. I'm using both sony ex-1000 and IE-80 by the way.
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I didn't find any significant difference with Clear Stereo or DSEE either...

 
To me it's the Clear-Bass that is keeping me from using anything other than Sony Walkman. With the Ex-1000 which shines in the treble and clearity, it lacks just a little bit in the bass to my taste. With Clear-Bass to be +1, it rocks my world. No distortion what's so ever that I could tell. I sink in the sound easily for hours listening to Armin van Buuren's A State of Trance. Using PowerAmp, no matter how I tweak the EQ, i couldn't find the sweet spot of that satisfaction. Worse, as mentioned above, little tweaks in the Bass in PowerAmp make the sound muddy to me.
 
Normally I use IE80 though. As it's a lot easier for listening outside home. Easier to carry and put on/off etc. With IE80 I normally just set the treble to +1 in the stock player, no clear-bass is needed. The sound feels "silky" to me with IE80, though not as "clear" like with the Ex1000. But good enough for me for listening to music on the go

 

[turokrocks]

Poweramp was "weak" when comparing it with the Sony player.
I could detect more details with it!

 

[nonsupremous]

Quote:

 
To me it's the Clear-Bass that is keeping me from using anything other than Sony Walkman.

I couldn't agree more.  I feel the same way.  There's something about that clear bass sound that has kept me stuck to a Sony for years.  I've grown so accustomed to the sound, that it just seems like that's the normal sound.  Everything else is tinny or "off" by comparison.

 

[OK-Guy]

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haha, still remember the good old days, anyone with me?... chewing gum, grandfather version. 128MB was a luxury during those days.
 

 
 
if that's what you call 'old' I must me one of those 'decrepitly ancient' Walkman users...
 

 
I loved my Professional Walkman... and I had that big yellow Sportsman Walkman... I was a technological god back then.
 
>walks out thread sobbing for the old days<

 

[salanos]

haha, still remember the good old days, anyone with me?

Will you give me some of those ;-;

Poweramp was "weak" when comparing it with the Sony player. I could detect more details with it!

Do you mean you could find more details with Poweramp or with the Sony stock player?

That would be the case for me. I found PowerAmp sounds poorer on my Z1060. You can say it's slightly warmer, but to me it's muddier. It's a lot more obvious when I tweak the bass. The distortion was obvious enough for me to ignore, it muddy the sound quite a bit for me. I'm using both sony ex-1000 and IE-80 by the way.
To me it's the Clear-Bass that is keeping me from using anything other than Sony Walkman. With the Ex-1000 which shines in the treble and clearity, it lacks just a little bit in the bass to my taste. With Clear-Bass to be +1, it rocks my world. No distortion what's so ever that I could tell. I sink in the sound easily for hours listening to Armin van Buuren's A State of Trance. Using PowerAmp, no matter how I tweak the EQ, i couldn't find the sweet spot of that satisfaction. Worse, as mentioned above, little tweaks in the Bass in PowerAmp make the sound muddy to me.
Normally I use IE80 though. As it's a lot easier for listening outside home. Easier to carry and put on/off etc. With IE80 I normally just set the treble to +1 in the stock player, no clear-bass is needed. The sound feels "silky" to me with IE80, though not as "clear" like with the Ex1000. But good enough for me for listening to music on the go

Did you enable the Limit mode? For me I have Poweramp running as much as +7dB of 30Hz and around 3dB of 60Hz boost on my SII (not that I ever use my SII for portable listening though) and I always make sure I enable the limit mode. It does very well to avoid distortion and without limit mode it sounds pretty awful. That said, I love how effective Clear Bass is at one or two levels of boost, but the fact that Sony's equalizer is only limited to five bands three levels up and down is a turn off for me.
Again, I will try more with the F806 once I receive it, but as I stated I could not detect any significant difference between Poweramp and the stock player on the store unit. Also, have you guys tried using Poweramp's Direct Volume Control? In my case it definitely boosted the volume significantly, but I couldn't tell well enough if it delivered on the improved dynamic range.
I intend to set Poweramp to use DVC and limit it to 7dB bands on my F806, and likely I will use an EQ setting that only involves boosted 30/60Hz to give my XBA-3s their extra kick.

 

[OK-Guy]

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LOL, I saw less and less industrial design for Sony DAPs. These look too boring to buy.

 
to boring to buy you say... but not boring to listen to by any means... ever thought of giving up being a style-icon?

 

[Achmedisdead]

Quote:

. I didn't find any significant difference with Clear Stereo or DSEE either...

Sony has always said that Clear Stereo will make no difference unless you are using their earphones. And DSEE  is only there for low-grade lossy files, to perk up the clarity of those 128kbps mp3's. So if you are using better quality files DSEE isn't worth bothering with.

 

[turokrocks]

Quote:

1. [img]http://cdn.head-fi.org/6/6d/100x100px-LS-6d2947aa_makoto-princessmiku185x185b.png[/img]

1. salanos
2. 
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4. offline

1. 35 Posts. Joined 6/2012
2. Location: that little red dot

 

Poweramp was "weak" when comparing it with the Sony player. I could detect more details with it!

Do you mean you could find more details with Poweramp or with the Sony stock player?

Sony stock player!!
 
Esp. with live concerts....

 

[salanos]

to boring to buy you say... but not boring to listen to by any means... ever thought of giving up being a style-icon?

In my honest opinion, I love blockier/faceted industrial designs as much as I might something stylishly svelte and minimalistic.

Sony has always said that Clear Stereo will make no difference unless you are using their earphones. And DSEE  is only there for low-grade lossy files, to perk up the clarity of those 128kbps mp3's. So if you are using better quality files DSEE isn't worth bothering with.

You mean only stock earphones have an effect with Clear Stereo? I seem to hear a very... very small change with Clear Stereo enabled on my S739F.
DSEE, well, I was using VBR0 LP22.1 MP3 files on the demo unit and one FLAC. So I can't be too sure. The one song I did try that was a low bit rate VBR (I think it was V2 with LP17.5) was the unusually sparkly one though, so I'll have to see for myself in due time when I load the FLAC and V0s I use normally.

 

[cat6man]

anyone know how to access the sony's service menu? 
 
other forums mention the low volume problem and there are posted service menu access instructions for other devices, but nothing yet for the F80x series.
 

 

[Achmedisdead]

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anyone know how to access the sony's service menu? 
 
other forums mention the low volume problem and there are posted service menu access instructions for other devices, but nothing yet for the F80x series.
 

If the volume is that low, you can always amp it.

 

[AyeVeeN]

A/B'd a Droid Charge (WM8994, unfortunately no Voodoo Sound but the Stratosphere didn't benefit at all with Voodoo Sound, which also has a WM8994) against an F806 (WM8994). F806 sounded overall more clear / less digital + had more black space, while the Charge in comparison sounded more congested overall, and everything had a weird-ish decay to it. Also the Charge had a lot of hiss (audible in many of the more quiet-ish trance songs I listen to, albeit not quite as bad as the Stratosphere) so I guess that justifies me keeping this $300 thing .

 

[OK-Guy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cat6man /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
anyone know how to access the sony's service menu? 
 
other forums mention the low volume problem and there are posted service menu access instructions for other devices, but nothing yet for the F80x series.
 

 
I had a look on the 'anything but iPod' forum and couldn't didn't anything regarding to low-volume... I can only surmise that you are on about the Euro-models that have a volume-cap (this also pertains to any mp3 player in Europe), on the Sony WM-Z the volume cap equates to approx. 85/90% of the standard model so the WM-F should be in the same ball-park... using my new IEM's with the WM-Z I find that maximum levels are too much for my ears, I have trimmed my listening volume level by about 25% to compensate, the Sennheiser Amperiors I owned were easily driven by the WM-Z and were more than loud enough.
 
so I guess if you want to bugger-up your hearing do what Achmedisdead recommends, buy a amp.

 

[OK-Guy]

the new  Ltd Edition of the hybrid Professional range... some bargains to be had by all accounts...
 
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=sony+professional+walkman&_sacat=0&_from=R40

 

[cat6man]

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If the volume is that low, you can always amp it.

nope...........i go line out to aux in to my car stereo and it requires max volume on the car stereo to be usable, which is not acceptable