Sony Walkman custom firmware (non-Android)

[Scubadevils]

I've been using midnight for the last couple of weeks and it is now my current favourite... very excited to hear v2!

 

[Redcarmoose]

I've been using midnight for the last couple of weeks and it is now my current favourite... very excited to hear v2!

Glad to hear of your quest now into the firmwares. Funny too, you have the N3, SA6 and ZEN like I do!

 

[Scubadevils]

Glad to hear of your quest now into the firmwares. Funny too, you have the N3, SA6 and ZEN like I do!

Indeed, planning the new EST too?

 

[Redcarmoose]

Maybe.

 

[Scubadevils]

I wasn't going to but I must say I'm curious...

 

[snapandslide]

Glad to hear of your quest now into the firmwares. Funny too, you have the N3, SA6 and ZEN like I do!

I'm doing my best to convince SD to get the Z1Rs too.....

 

[Redcarmoose]

Lol. Then he’d be all done.

I'm doing my best to convince SD to get the Z1Rs too.....

 

[Scubadevils]

Definitely a question of when and not if at this stage! Though the MEST 2 is quite appealing...

 

[hamhamhamsta]

An attempt to describe how Project Midnight v2 Plus sounds. I don’t think my words do it justice. I’m listening via Romi Mod 1Z, Sony own 4.4 mm cable, LimeEar Aether and my own car speakers. About 4-5 hours listening experience.

It’s just slightly warm, not as much current fw, it’s at a level higher in terms of technical strengths like clarity, separation, very musical yadda yadda. From A to A+. Special mention, test version has amazing, amazing, amazing bass. Bass hits with great authority, deep depth with great weight. EQ is amazing, adding more bass increases bass quantity (slightly?) while maintaining great quality, no smear up or down. 3D soundstage is amazing, if the song was created in a room, studio, hall, theater, etc you’ll notice the size from reflection/ echoes and hear everything, and I mean everything. Air, lots of air and very fluid. I think soundstage is spherical, instead of horizontal line in older tech, now vertical domain is greatly expanded. Depending on what you use to hear, as long as you have pretty decent iem, you will hear everything in the recording. I mean everything, if the singer breath, flick his wrist, takes a little fart somewhere in the song, you’ll hear them. You get the picture. I didn’t know there’s a person laughing on 0:01 second in the song ‘Build Me Up Buttercup’ by the Foundations until now and I’ve listened countless times.

Extremely smooth natural delivery, effortless, with a touch of glam. Excellent reverbs and echoes. What I mean is, if anyone has heard CA Andromeda, especially first time listening, Andromeda makes everything sounds more beautiful, more sweeter. That’s the feeling I get from this fw. Just a slight touch. If song is rough, you’ll hear the dynamics, fast tempo, you’ll hear everything, every beat of the drums, each tap of the bongo, how much pressure applied, its inflection, you can feel the fiber of each tones, if it makes sense. Layering is incredible. Everything is in their proper places, main vocal, instruments, background vocals, micro details are perfect, macro are cohesive and musical. It’s one and it’s many parts. And you hear them all at the same time. The most amazing thing for this is its consistency. Every, I mean every part of the song is treated with great consistency, from start to finish, every song. It’s laser focus, attention grabbing. Not relaxing at all. Hard to do anything else when listening to it. Every song becomes a journey in itself, hauntingly beautiful if your songs called for it, energetic if it’s a dance track, a chameleon fw; an emotional rediscovery if you will. Yes you’ll hear new things in your most familiar setup music, but the way they are presented is slightly different. And for much the better. Remember this is more 3D? This fw greatly expands what’s already in your songs. Feels like listening in 360 degrees. You’ll start noticing, hey I always knew the bass was on the background, but now you’ll know it’s exact positioning, the different textures/ strands that make up the bass. It’s like watching (hearing) everything in 8 bit color in the past, and now you see the whole scene in HD in real life. Amazing!

I can’t go back to previous iterations, it’s like a new reawakening Lol. The best way I can describe this is like listening to VE Elysium, except VE is more horizontal soundstage, while here it’s 3D. In many ways, this fw already surpassed VE Elysium in terms of what it brings to the table. For once, Elysium is warm, musical, goey, thick, emotional, macro great, micro not so, while this fw brings emotionality with all the above mentioned strengths.

The only downside to this is, it can feels emotionally draining after a while, since it force/ grabs so much of your attention and focus when listening and won’t let go. There’s so many things going on at same time, all crystal clear, that it can be a little overwhelming. Your feelings and your soul come under it’s spell and you become total slaves to your music.

Truly far surpassed current Midnight fw. Not so much as in technical sense, yes it’s better, it’s the sum of parts greater than its individuals. Its not about whether it’s Analogue or HiFi, warm or cold. Its the way music is presented in 3D terms compared to traditional 2D axis. Which I think is its greatest achievement. You’ll view music differently after this, I know I do.

If you have iem that can present great depth for example ASG 2.5; I was listening via LimeEar Aether, an iem that has decent depth. You’ll greatly experience this 3D atmosphere I’m talking about. I suspect IER-Z1R will sounds extremely sublime with this FE, since I think it has great depth. I think it also works very well with closed iem, those that don’t have air vents, something about the bass. Even via car speakers, sounds really really really good, almost as good as listening from iem setup based on current Midnight fw. The closed car enclosure, excellent reverbs and echoes, with huge soundstage. Soundstage expands when I increase the volume, so instead of getting louder, its spherical soundstage expands, becomes bigger, bottom deeper, ceiling higher. Dialed bass +2 in my car speakers, listening for 2 hours drive, no smear up, nothing. Great great bass authority. Wow!

This fw literally worth its weight in actual gold!

 

[aceedburn]

An attempt to describe how Project Midnight v2 Plus sounds. I don’t think my words do it justice. I’m listening via Romi Mod 1Z, Sony own 4.4 mm cable, LimeEar Aether and my own car speakers. About 4-5 hours listening experience.

It’s just slightly warm, not as much current fw, it’s at a level higher in terms of technical strengths like clarity, separation, very musical yadda yadda. From A to A+. Special mention, test version has amazing, amazing, amazing bass. Bass hits with great authority, deep depth with great weight. EQ is amazing, adding more bass increases bass quantity (slightly?) while maintaining great quality, no smear up or down. 3D soundstage is amazing, if the song was created in a room, studio, hall, theater, etc you’ll hear everything, and I mean everything. I think soundstage is spherical, instead of horizontal line in older tech, now vertical is greatly expanded. Depending on what you use to hear, as long as you have pretty decent iem, you will hear everything in the recording. I mean everything, if the singer breath, takes a little fart somewhere in the song, you’ll hear them. I didn’t know there’s a person laughing on 0:01 second in the song ‘Build Me Up Buttercup’ until now and I’ve listened countless times.

Extremely smooth natural delivery, effortless, with a touch of glam. Excellent reverbs and echoes. What I mean is, if anyone has heard CA Andromeda, especially first time listening, Andromeda makes everything sounds more beautiful, more sweeter. That’s the feeling I get from this fw. Just a slight touch. If song is rough, you’ll hear the dynamics, fast tempo, you’ll hear everything, every beat of the drums, the bongo, the inflection, you can feel the fiber of the tones, if it makes sense. Layering is incredible. The most amazing thing for this is its consistency. Every, I mean every part of the song is treated with great consistency, from start to finish, every song. It’s laser focus, attention grabbing. Not relaxing at all. Hard to do anything else when listening to it. Every song becomes a journey in itself, hauntingly beautiful if your songs called for it, energetic if it’s a dance track, a chameleon fw; an emotional rediscovery if you will. Yes you’ll hear new things in your most familiar setup music, but the way they are presented is slightly different. And for much the better. Remember this is more 3D? This fw greatly expands what’s already in your songs. Feels like listening in 360 degrees. You’ll start noticing, hey I always knew the bass was on the background, but now you’ll know it’s exact positioning. It’s like watching (hearing) everything in 8 bit color in the past, and now you see the whole scene in HD in real life. Amazing!

I can’t go back to previous iterations, it’s like a new reawakening Lol. The best way I can describe this is like listening to VE Elysium, except VE is more horizontal soundstage, while here it’s 3D. In many ways, this fw already surpassed VE Elysium in terms of what it brings to the table. For once, Elysium is warm, goey, thick emotional, while this fw brings emotionality with all the above mentioned strengths.

The only downside to this is, it can feels emotionally draining after a while, since it force/ grabs so much of your attention and focus when listening and won’t let go. You become your own music slaves.

Truly far surpassed current Midnight fw. Not so much as in technical sense, yes it’s better, it’s the sum of parts greater than its individuals. Its the way it presents music in 3D terms compared to 2D axis. Which I think is its greatest achievement. You’ll view music differently after this, I know I do.

If you have iem that can present great depth for example ASG 2.5; I was listening via LimeEar Aether, an iem that has decent depth. You’ll greatly experience this 3D atmosphere I’m talking about. I suspect IER-Z1R will sounds extremely sublime with this FE, since I think it has great depth. I think it also works very well with closed iem, those that don’t have air vents, something about the bass. Even via car speakers, sounds really really really good, almost as good as listening from iem setup based on current Midnight fw. The closed car enclosure, excellent reverbs and echoes, while soundstage really wide. Soundstage expands when I increase the volume, so instead of getting louder, soundstage becomes bigger. Added bass +2 in my car speakers, listening for 2 hours drive, no smear up, nothing. Great bass authority. Wow!

This fw literally worth its weight in actual gold!

Spot on. Like I mentioned. Truly worth waiting for. And it will be released soon. There should also be a version for Dawn as well. Wait for it. It’s absolutely bliss.

 

[costas23]

Oh my, you guys make me wet my pants in agony, I just can't wait

Still enjoying DMP-FEv2 on the wm1z and it amazes me every day.
I have warm iems and think the dmp-based firmwares fit better than the wm1z based ones. Hope Dawn will also get this update ..... but is mrwalkman still active?

 

[aceedburn]

Oh my, you guys make me wet my pants in agony, I just can't wait

Still enjoying DMP-FEv2 on the wm1z and it amazes me every day.
I have warm iems and think the dmp-based firmwares fit better than the wm1z based ones. Hope Dawn will also get this update ..... but is mrwalkman still active?

MrWalkman is very much active. He’s just busy with a move back to his home country. Patience is the greatest virtue.

 

[XP_98]

Hope he could keep his WM1A...
Still time to donate I suppose...

 

[Akogingu]

Could have sworn MrWalkman was selling his 1A and we weren't getting anymore updates for the foreseeable future. So there's a new FW in the works confirmed?

 

[nc8000]

Could have sworn MrWalkman was selling his 1A and we weren't getting anymore updates for the foreseeable future. So there's a new FW in the works confirmed?

It has been in the works for over a month and yes he was selling his 1A but maybe donations prevented the sale