[sirensynapse]

Hi, 2 more nw-a45 questions. Thanks for replies above, on last one.
How much of a difference in battery useage does using the v2 boot option make?
Does it matter which brand or speed sdxc card I use?
Danke

 

[frootmouser]

Sevral years ago I got myself one of the first consumer-tier Sony daps that supported FLAC. This allowed me to finally ditch all my random bit rate mp3s and re-rip everything to FLAC, then properly tag them all - this was a significant step in my journey to raising the quality of my music listening.

I just want to warn you that it is highly probable that within 3-4 months you will be enjoying this set up so much that you will be enquiring about how much of a step up the WM1A is, then will have purchased one by the 6 month - I suggest to start saving now.

See you on the threads

Haha thank you for the warning, you may very well be right. Let's check back in again in 6 months

Yep, that's exactly what I've been thinking about doing. Started ripping albums around 25 years ago and I've got some horrible 128kbps CD rips and worse from limewire and the rest Replacing them is now a realistic goal given that storage is so cheap. So far I've reripped about 100 albums and I honestly can't wait to listen to them again in flac with the new set up!

 

[Hinomotocho]

Haha thank you for the warning, you may very well be right. Let's check back in again in 6 months

Yep, that's exactly what I've been thinking about doing. Started ripping albums around 25 years ago and I've got some horrible 128kbps CD rips and worse from limewire and the rest Replacing them is now a realistic goal given that storage is so cheap. So far I've reripped about 100 albums and I honestly can't wait to listen to them again in flac with the new set up!

I find FLAC to be an improvement over mp3, and each time I thought an album sounded a bit dull, sure enough it was mp3 (even high bit rate).
It takes some time to rip but you'll feel happy to have done it and reap the rewards. Also, a chance to tidy up tags. For the albums you can't get a higher quality format you can use the Walkman up scaling setting. I don't use it as I prefer direct source.
The stock firmwares may not display all the album art but the Mr Walkman firmwares have solved this issue. There are various methods to tag so album art displays, in case you'd opt to stay in stock. I use free Tagscanner for PC which has a button that will save album art to appropriate size which seems to display fine with stock firmware.

 

[greymousetaxi]

Hi everyone. I've read through more pages of this thread than I care to admit and I'm totally in awe of the knowledge on display here. It's humbling when you come across people that are such experts in their field/hobbies!

I'm a novice but I probably understand a bit more about audio stuff than your average person on the street, have learned so much by reading this thread too. I've never owned a high end system of any kind but some of my friends have over the years.

Anyway...I've recently bought a second hand Sony A45 that has only been used once or twice. It should arrive tomorrow and I'm looking forward to trying it out. My main aim was getting a simple, music only device that was good value for money, sounds great and can make use of my digital music collection. My library has had very little playtime over the past 2-3 years and Spotify has made me lazy. I'd like to get back to curating and enjoying my own library of music again. Currently in the process of replacing most of my favourite albums with flacs but unfortunately some of my rips are very poor quality from back in the day. Updating them will be an ongoing thing.

I actually stumbled across all the Mr Walkman fw stuff after I'd decided to buy the A45. A friend swore by his A35 and I'd read good things about the A45 in general, not even taking into account custom fw. All of this is a total bonus for me and I'm glad I went for the 45 instead of one of the newer budget players (Mechen M30 etc).

I have a few questions of course, if people don't mind! Any other tips or advice are more than welcome, thanks.

1. I plan on installing Walkman One fw but how long do you recommend running it on stock? Have read about burn in on devices, does this need considering?

2. Have ordered a SanDisk 512GB Ultra to go with it, hopefully this will be ok?

3. Running Walkman One, will I be able to connect the A45 to a Bluetooth speaker? Would it also be possible to connect to a car stereo via AUX cable or the likes?

Bought a pair of KZ ZS10 Pro Xs that were on sale. I realise they're entry level but they will still be a huge improvement over any I've used in the past. I've tried a friend's ZS10 Pros and liked them. Will come back to you guys for advice when the inevitable upgrade happens!

you should check out the cca trio, the kz zs10 pro x is quite dated. edx lite is also another good one that uses a similar tune.

 

[WilcoRoger]

Does it matter which brand or speed sdxc card I use?
Danke

Read speed is what matters in 99% of the cases - e.g when the player re-creates the database. During playback, it hardly matters.

Write speed is important only when you actually put music on the card. Don't connect the player directly, use a card reader instead, you'll get an order of magnitude faster transfer speeds (USB2 vs USB3)

 

[soundchecked]

i know there's been previous attempt at a sound region chart on an excel spreadsheet but i was thinking if anyone could make it into sort of measurement graph of the different region instead of the good, elevated, recessed, veil labels honestly kinda pain the ass lookin at them

 

[Pekorrat]

Hi Mr Walkman, My faithful A55 started failing, the hold slider turns on intermittently nonstop and has been a issue that sincerely makes the device annoying to use, I don't know how could have happen, i treated my Walkman like my most precious treasure, tried putting it in rice, cleaning the slider, discharging it, reinstalling the firmware, even sliding HOLD on and off quickly several times, but even leaving the device alone will turn HOLD on and off no matter what.

I know this may come as a hard request, but is there anyway in current firmware or future update to disable the hold feature permanently so it doesn't turn on?

Best Regards,

 

[raif71]

 

[greymousetaxi]

i know there's been previous attempt at a sound region chart on an excel spreadsheet but i was thinking if anyone could make it into sort of measurement graph of the different region instead of the good, elevated, recessed, veil labels honestly kinda pain the ass lookin at them

i would if i had the time and equipment to do it. i would like to think that I'm actually hearing differences, i know wm1z and dmpz1 sound different right away. v2 and v1 sound totally different too. i dont think graphs can exactly measure those differences. there is more to sound than graphs. intuition wins either way.

 

[aceedburn]

i would if i had the time and equipment to do it. i would like to think that I'm actually hearing differences, i know wm1z and dmpz1 sound different right away. v2 and v1 sound totally different too. i dont think graphs can exactly measure those differences. there is more to sound than graphs. intuition wins either way.

Absolutely spot on. I’ve never believed or even relied on graphs for anything audio. My ears have always been the best measuring equipment I have and it’s connected to my brain and senses. So that’s the best representation of sound for me!

 

[MrWalkman]

Hi Mr Walkman, My faithful A55 started failing, the hold slider turns on intermittently nonstop and has been a issue that sincerely makes the device annoying to use, I don't know how could have happen, i treated my Walkman like my most precious treasure, tried putting it in rice, cleaning the slider, discharging it, reinstalling the firmware, even sliding HOLD on and off quickly several times, but even leaving the device alone will turn HOLD on and off no matter what.

I know this may come as a hard request, but is there anyway in current firmware or future update to disable the hold feature permanently so it doesn't turn on?

Best Regards,

Hello, I can help with the service manual:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/e9j2...nual.pdf?rlkey=gs1wea022izvmupetqw45xff1&dl=0

These devices are not that complicated to open.

 

[Alex-D]

i know there's been previous attempt at a sound region chart on an excel spreadsheet but i was thinking if anyone could make it into sort of measurement graph of the different region instead of the good, elevated, recessed, veil labels honestly kinda pain the ass lookin at them

This is very interesting.
I didn't have a lot of time for this, so I made some test measurements to see how the frequency response changes when changing the settings.
At the moment I have the stock firmware 3.01 installed and didn't have time to keep changing regions.
I decided to check how vinyl imitation settings affect the output signal of the player.
In the attached files are the graphs obtained during measurements, you will understand what to what according to the legend.

For measurements I used REW application. Output signal is 96 kHz. The player as a DAC.
The output signal was taken from the balanced output through a nice thick copper interblock cable.
As an input channel I used PreSonus Audiobox 22VSL audio interface input.
I'm not an expert in such measurements and electronics, maybe I did something wrong, maybe I made the connection incorrectly. But during the measurements I had a very fast battery drain on the player, and when I switched on simultaneous charging with the player while using it as a DAC, the player got very hot and the warning indicator (mark on the battery) started blinking and I had to stop the measurements.

When I have more time I'll try taking measurements on the Walkman One firmware with different regions.

 

[sunjam]

This is very interesting.
I didn't have a lot of time for this, so I made some test measurements to see how the frequency response changes when changing the settings.
At the moment I have the stock firmware 3.01 installed and didn't have time to keep changing regions.
I decided to check how vinyl imitation settings affect the output signal of the player.
In the attached files are the graphs obtained during measurements, you will understand what to what according to the legend.

For measurements I used REW application. Output signal is 96 kHz. The player as a DAC.
The output signal was taken from the balanced output through a nice thick copper interblock cable.
As an input channel I used PreSonus Audiobox 22VSL audio interface input.
I'm not an expert in such measurements and electronics, maybe I did something wrong, maybe I made the connection incorrectly. But during the measurements I had a very fast battery drain on the player, and when I switched on simultaneous charging with the player while using it as a DAC, the player got very hot and the warning indicator (exclamation mark on the battery) started blinking and I had to stop the measurements.

When I have more time I'll try taking measurements on the Walkman One firmware with different regions.

Wow... it is great! Thanks a lot for your efforts. I think it'd help most of us in selecting the various settings.

 

[Arz Mael]

Hello MrWalkman,
Did you finally finish the firmware that allows to force volume on our precious ?
(I don’t mean volume cap)

 

[Lookout57]

Hello MrWalkman,
Did you finally finish the firmware that allows to force volume on our precious ?
(I don’t mean volume cap)

If was available it would have been announced and links posted.