[Gamerlingual]

What did you ask him?
I'm sure that what makes them look good, doesn't embarrass.
That's a debatable personal opinion.
What's for sure, though, is that all the other DAP competition is hopping mad & jealous now, hehe.

Can the same be done for a 1A? Or part of the trick is the 1Z modding?

 

[audionewbi]

If they were bothered they would have asked the board to shut it down a long time ago. It’s been about 7 months since the first tunings now hasn’t it?

Who knows, but they realise once something is on the internet, it would never go away. If I was Sony, I would look into getting people like MrWalkman working as some form of a consultant.
I know with the original MDR-Z7, did they visit Jude, so it is not something that alien. I just wish they contacted people who are this site, the people who work so hard to get that last 1% out of their DAP.

 

[gerelmx1986]

If they were bothered they would have asked the board to shut it down a long time ago. It’s been about 7 months since the first tunings now hasn’t it?

I have thought of that too, if Sony was really that concerned, they would have already had filled a DMCA Complaint

 

[524419]

@Maxx134
listening to the DMP-Z1 is like listening to music on some major hallucinogenics, at least that is how I heard it. Yes power had a part to play, but man.....that texturing, it's hard to explain, music sounded truly 3 dimensional. instruments were represented in not just their tonality, but also in their shape. The audio image had so much information that I had never heard before. Music sounded like a hologram.

Having said that, KaeSei 1A with the flat ribbon cable mod is just a beast, and is easily my favorite portable DAP. I don't consider the DMP portable, it is transportable at best
Get going on your mod, join me, music is quite something on this side of the fence.

 

[524419]

Deleted

 

[RobertP]

This is important for those who wondering how to get the actual 1A or 1Z sound signature back after try mod firmware.

Finish the back to stock process and then run the official v3.02 update (NW-WM1_V3.02.exe) four times (×4). You can do it continually after another and there is no need to unplug the cable until finished. After restart your Walkman, most of the thickness, harshness and brightness you hear before should be gone. And don't bother to do more than recommended because it doesn't make any difference. Try this solution many times today and it seem to work everytime. You may stay OEM or reapply any other firmware if you wish after that.

This is just an observation and solution. Not personal attack or any kind. I do believe in both mod firmware and sound tune firmware.

 

[seanwee]

Sony is working on an update I know they are as they mentioned it last year. But @MrWalkman keeps surprising them and they have to each time reschedule the release LoL to reimprouve the sound tuning.

But seriously they are building something as we dont have any new successors rumors yets

No way they are releasing something better than this. That would canibalise the sales of the DMP-Z1

I hope these mods have encouraged Sony to experiment more and see how far they can push their hardware. Maybe they didn’t realise the 1As true potential at the time?

This is artificial segmentation plain and simple.

If the sound of the DMP-Z1 can be ported down to even the A30 series, its not about how far they can push their hardware, its about the level of sound quality they want their players to have based on the price segment. I do believe the higher ups are quite unpleased with this mod.

I do sincerely hope that this will force Sony to step up the sound quality across the board for the next generation of daps. And if they do, we all know who to thank

 

[seanwee]

Thsi new firmware is not just a game changer, but a very serious threat to anything Sony has coming down the pipes.
The days of putting out compromised firmware and hiding their best work behind a paywall has just ended.
I hope this forces Sony to really raise their game, and go for broke.

Exactly

 

[MrWalkman]

While I get this discussion, I'm not so sure if it would be wise to have it. I didn't made this custom firmware available with the intent of "showing" what could be done, and to get people into thinking Sony are cheating them or anything similar.

Of course it's inevitable to think of it, but well... I would say let's just enjoy what we have for now. Future Walkman players may not have this opportunity.

 

[Star Mastering]

Without these mods, sales of the older walkmans would not have accelerated slightly.

 

[MrWalkman]

This is important for those who wondering how to get the actual 1A or 1Z sound signature back after try mod firmware.

Finish the back to stock process and then run the official v3.02 update (NW-WM1_V3.02.exe) four times (×4). You can do it continually after another and there is no need to unplug the cable until finished. After restart your Walkman, most of the thickness, harshness and brightness you hear before should be gone. And don't bother to do more than recommended because it doesn't make any difference. Try this solution many times today and it seem to work everytime. You may stay OEM or reapply any other firmware if you wish after that.

This is just an observation and solution. Not personal attack or any kind. I do believe in both mod firmware and sound tune firmware.

If the issue is indeed real, it has to do with how the external tuning stuff works, which I still aim to figure it out someday, at least to make it so I can set that myself from inside the firmware. It should be stored in a similar place to where Settings are stored, a place which gets reset when doing a Factory Reset. I'm thinking that's why a Factory Reset has that effect, that everything seems to sound good again.

Otherwise, when using the StockRevert thing, anything system-firmware-related that was changed when installing a custom firmware, gets reverted back to original. A custom firmware only applies to the system firmware, and not to the potential place of where the external tuning info gets stored.

 

[524419]

No way they are releasing something better than this. That would canibalise the sales of the DMP-Z1

This is artificial segmentation plain and simple.

If the sound of the DMP-Z1 can be ported down to even the A30 series, its not about how far they can push their hardware, its about the level of sound quality they want their players to have based on the price segment. I do believe the higher ups are quite unpleased with this mod.

I do sincerely hope that this will force Sony to step up the sound quality across the board for the next generation of daps. And if they do, we all know who to thank

Hardware makes a pretty dramatic difference. The difference between a stock 1A and fully modded one, is very substantial, no matter the firmware.
It-takes both...Firmware and Hardware to truly tango.
An A30 is not taking sales away from a DMP, \
The artificial separation is between the 1A and 1Z. Both are very similar outside of internal wiring and very minute differences in capacitors.
The Internal PCB is pretty much identical.

 

[gerelmx1986]

I praise @MrWalkman for revealing Sony's dirtiest secret... cripple players/ports (e.g. native DSD only for 4.4mm) via software flags instead letting the HW play the major role to justify a price jump.

This will only force sony to raise their bar and pursue true SQ achievements thru hardware and yeah better SW

 

[MrWalkman]

I praise @MrWalkman for revealing Sony's dirtiest secret... cripple players/ports (e.g. native DSD only for 4.4mm) via software flags instead letting the HW play the major role to justify a price jump.

As I was saying, let's not think this way. I don't think it would benefit anyone. Let's just be grateful we have this.

 

[Redcarmoose]

Right, the last two posts could be cleared.