[The coffini]

Poweramp vs Sony app : No chance sound-wise

After reading some of the above posts I tried myself a direct comparison - and I came to the conclusion: Poweramp has no chance against the original Sony app!

When I buy a device like the ZX1 my first concern is sound quality. I use my ZX1 only at home and only with a good HP (Fostex x Massdrop TH-X00). In direct comparison between the two apps (with all equalizing, sound effects etc. turned off) the Poweramp seems to sound not as clear as the Sony app. When I switch from the Sony app to Poweramp something (say: a bit of high resolution) seems to miss. And above it all I prefer the graphic design/look of the Sony app.

Don´t get me wrong: I use Poweramp on my smartphone, and I like its usability and all. Surely it´s a very high quality app. But the Sony app on the ZX1 beats it by a better sound quality. And that´s most important for me when I listen to my ZX1. Period.
 
 

 

[chontler]

I found them both the same. Had a widget for each on the home screen playing the same track and flipped between the same song in realtime. Could be my gear and ears of course. That's with the sound enhancement app disabled however.
I found that in poweramp's tone settings there is a music toggle that seemed to use the Sony hardware. It might be a fairer comparison to have that turned on.
But if the Sony app works for you then it can't be beat. All the faffing in earlier posts is about gaining some control over the EU volume capping.

 

[Whitigir]

Poweramp vs Sony app : No chance sound-wise


After reading some of the above posts I tried myself a direct comparison - and I came to the conclusion: Poweramp has no chance against the original Sony app!


When I buy a device like the ZX1 my first concern is sound quality. I use my ZX1 only at home and only with a good HP (Fostex x Massdrop TH-X00). In direct comparison between the two apps (with all equalizing, sound effects etc. turned off) the Poweramp seems to sound not as clear as the Sony app. When I switch from the Sony app to Poweramp something (say: a bit of high resolution) seems to miss. And above it all I prefer the graphic design/look of the Sony app.


Don´t get me wrong: I use Poweramp on my smartphone, and I like its usability and all. Surely it´s a very high quality app. But the Sony app on the ZX1 beats it by a better sound quality. And that´s most important for me when I listen to my ZX1. Period.

I had repeated this 1000x times "Poweramp Alpha" is not "Poweramp"

 

[chontler]

I had repeated this 1000x times "Poweramp Alpha" is not "Poweramp"

Thanks for the heads up. Installed the alpha. There is definitely no discernible difference there, even with my unforgiving Grados. This was once I'd figured out how to find the eq settings and realising I'd assigned a preset to headphones.
The battery life however is taking a nosedive thanks to the new visualizations... I should really disable them

 

[shadowoflight]

Interesting. So if I were to choose the zx1 over the z100, I wouldn't be getting much advantage from the use of poweramp

 

[chontler]

It's a better experience with the zx1 as the touchscreen lets you faff easily. As they are supposed to sound pretty much the same, it's memory and battery life that puts the 100 ahead.
I couldn't recommend something because of poweramp, even though I find it a better experience. You're not going to get that with the 100, but if it's just for music then having something less distracting might be in your favor. My other player is the colorfly c4 which is a big lump in terms of battery, memory and interface but it totally destroys the zx1 sound wise and if I had to choose between them, it's goodbye Sony. I just daren't take that one outside.

 

[Whitigir]

Sony slowly getting back in the game. Not quiet there yet, so far nothing beats my zx2 atm

 

[shadowoflight]

is there a problem with battery life for the ZX1?

 

[chontler]

  is there a problem with battery life for the ZX1?

Not if you disable all the google app stuff, remove all their updates and try to keep it in airplane mode.  I can get 20 hours with flacs and alacs

 

[fiascogarcia]

 
Not if you disable all the google app stuff, remove all their updates and try to keep it in airplane mode.  I can get 20 hours with flacs and alacs

Never could figure out how to disable the Google stuff!

 

[chontler]

  Never could figure out how to disable the Google stuff!

Settings/Apps/
you can then scroll the top bar.  First you want the Running list.  Choose one and then Stop/Force Stop and disable.  mess about with the player.  If you're happy with it working go back to that app and Clear Data, and if there is the option to delete updates do that.  The player keeps earlier versions of apps in case it needs to rollback, but as you won't be using it, you may as well put it back to the first version.  This frees up the system storage quite a bit and things might even run a bit more smoothly and you might even get the space for another couple of albums.
After you've gone through the Running list have a look in the All list for any more.  Someone posted a list earlier of the main offenders.  
You can't do any real damage here, but if the player does stop, just hard reset (hold power for 8 seconds)

 

[gerelmx1986]

It's a better experience with the zx1 as the touchscreen lets you faff easily. As they are supposed to sound pretty much the same, it's memory and battery life that puts the 100 ahead.
I couldn't recommend something because of poweramp, even though I find it a better experience. You're not going to get that with the 100, but if it's just for music then having something less distracting might be in your favor. My other player is the colorfly c4 which is a big lump in terms of battery, memory and interface but it totally destroys the zx1 sound wise and if I had to choose between them, it's goodbye Sony. I just daren't take that one outside.

I think touch screens are great but well, recently i as thinking about hat if i go completely blind... they're not usable for blind people IMHO

 

[shadow04]

 
I think touch screens are great but well, recently i as thinking about hat if i go completely blind... they're not usable for blind people IMHO

Strange you mention this, I suppose IEM and headphones are great, but well, recently I was think about that if I go complete deaf.... they are not usable for deaf people IMO.

 

[phonomat]

LOL, the difference being that you can use touchscreens as much as you like and they probably won't make you go blind, whereas cans on the other hand ... oh well.

 

[Keevs]

I just received a ZX1. Nice player. Trying to compare with my DX80 to see which to keep.
 
Does anyone know what the latest version of the software for ZX1 is? The build number on my ZX1 is "1.14.0000", and the Sony Music Player version is 2.2.2.
 
I loaded some dsf (DSD) files, but the ZX1 cannot play it. I read that the latest software can play DSD.