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Sony Walkman NWZ-A17

Jan 18, 2015 at 11:18 AM Post #2 of 471
I bought it and I think it's great. I had previously purchased the fiio x3 which I had returned because it requires way to much work. It needed lots of firmware updates and in my opinion is not user friendly. I am sure I will be criticized for these statements. The Sony was ready to go out of the box. After charging I was ready to transfer music and I was playing musc. Right away. It's main fault is its not having an all metal case. It sounds fabulous to me I use beyerdynamic dt51i headphones which sound great. It's a quality product at a great price. The competition is mostly way more expensive and not of the same quality.
 
Jan 18, 2015 at 11:53 AM Post #3 of 471
radiomann, 
 
Thanks for your post! 
 
So would you say it sounded noticeably BETTER than your X3, or the same? 
 
With regards to your last sentence, which devices are you referring to? Did you happen to pit the A17 against the X5, or the iBasso DX90, or another player? If so, please provide details. What about compared to your phone's audio (please list the phone you have too)? 
 
I have the Sony Xperia Z3 and tried out the iBasso DX50 last night vs my Z3, and to me they were pretty much identical. I couldn't say the DX50 was any better, despite being $200 (and at most only $40 went into my Z3's audio equipment, and that's considered "high-end" for android smartphones lol). The DX50 is going back. I want to know if ppl who tried other devices around $200 ($200-$350) noticed a difference vs either my Z3 or the DX50. That's why I ask. I just wonder, if at $200 I couldn't notice a difference, would I at around $300? 
 
Thank You, 
 
RockStar2005
 
Jan 19, 2015 at 4:32 PM Post #4 of 471
IMO, DX50 and FiiO X3 are pretty comparable in SQ. Don't know about your Sony.

One advantages of those DAPs is the power of their headphone amps, which could come into play more with more difficult to drive headphones.
 
Jan 19, 2015 at 4:51 PM Post #5 of 471
cel, 
 
Thanks for your input! Yeah I had the same impression regarding the X3 vs the DX50. 
 
That is true too. Good ampage is important. 
 
I actually bought the DX50 and compared it to my phone (Z3) using Sony MDR-1A headphones. After listening to several of the same songs on both, my opinion is they both sounded the same really, so I returned the DX50, and I just bought the Sony Walkman (NWZ-A17) from Amazon. It will come in by Wed. It has better specs and is $100 more, so I'm hoping I'll notice more of a difference as I don't want to spend any more than $300. If not, it'll go back too and that's that, but I'm hoping it does sound better than my phone. I guess that says something about my phone that it measured up to at least a $200 (DX50) stand-alone player. lol
 
Thanks,
 
RockStar2005
 
Jan 21, 2015 at 12:07 AM Post #8 of 471
I got one a few weeks ago from amazon.  Got some mdr-1r's to go with them.   No way I'm going to take my home cans out in the wild.  The A17 has a very easy to use interface as my thumb has mastered the buttons already.  My oppo pm-1's sound great out of it, which surprised me.  They will get quite loud with very good sound quality with all my wav and flac files.   (44/16 and up to 96/24 with a few 192/24).  I don't use mp3's so can't report on them.    I must admit I'm very surprised as to how good it sounds.  The digital section is superb.  Don't know what power ratings it has, maybe some one can find out.   Just some thoughts on the A17 dap from a rookie.  
 
Jan 21, 2015 at 12:43 AM Post #9 of 471
Hey raptor, 
 
Thanks so much for the post! I appreciate the info/review on the A17! Glad you were so happy with how it sounded (and the loud volume thing too ftw lol)! 
 
I get mine tomorrow (Wed) from Amazon, so will need a lil time to review it, but it sounds like it's gonna (hopefully) be the one player to out-do my Sony Xperia Z3 phone. The easy interface I expected, though I'm still happy to hear someone else confirm it. The looks seem nice too (even though it's not metal lol). The main goal, or what I would consider to be a successful outcome, is that they sound NOTICEABLY better than my Z3. The A17 is $100 more than the iBasso DX50 I just returned, so I'm hoping that extra $100 yields the difference I'm looking for.
 
The main thing I'd really love is to hear someone say is that the A17 really cuts down or eliminates that damn "background/tape hiss" sound you get when you jack up the volume. Any opinion on that (anyone else who has an A17, feel free to chime in too!)??
 
RockStar2005
 
Jan 21, 2015 at 2:25 PM Post #10 of 471
rockstar2005 said:
  Hey raptor, 
 
Thanks so much for the post! I appreciate the info/review on the A17! Glad you were so happy with how it sounded (and the loud volume thing too ftw lol)! 
 
I get mine tomorrow (Wed) from Amazon, so will need a lil time to review it, but it sounds like it's gonna (hopefully) be the one player to out-do my Sony Xperia Z3 phone. The easy interface I expected, though I'm still happy to hear someone else confirm it. The looks seem nice too (even though it's not metal lol). The main goal, or what I would consider to be a successful outcome, is that they sound NOTICEABLY better than my Z3. The A17 is $100 more than the iBasso DX50 I just returned, so I'm hoping that extra $100 yields the difference I'm looking for.
 
The main thing I'd really love is to hear someone say is that the A17 really cuts down or eliminates that damn "background/tape hiss" sound you get when you jack up the volume. Any opinion on that (anyone else who has an A17, feel free to chime in too!)??
 
RockStar2005
Click to expand...


Just tried a full volume check and heard nothing but silence.   The volume bar was all the way to 30 and 15 on the volume scale is loud when music is playing.   Sony documentation on the A17 doesn't give signal to noise ratio figures, at least I haven't found any.   
 
I read somewhere that the face plate is metal and the back case is plastic.
 
Jan 21, 2015 at 3:35 PM Post #11 of 471
Raptor,

That's awesome! Thanks so much for running that test.

Yeah I think I read that too. Sounds nice to me. I'd prefer ALL metal, but I'm fine with it as is. I'm gonna test it against my Z3 by listening to several songs on both devices. But that's cool that even at full blast you heard no hiss. Can't wait 'til tonight!

RockStar2005
 
Jan 23, 2015 at 11:48 AM Post #14 of 471
Hey cel, raptor, and radioman....................
 
Had a chance to compare my Z3 phone to the A17 Walkman in more depth last night. Decision's been made.................. the Walkman wins! lol
 
It was close, I had the best settings enabled on both the Z3 and the Walkman. But it won b/c of how it handled vocals.......... after several song comparisons, I realized that they're just more clear on the Walkman. And also when the singer pronounces words with an "s" in them (sibilance), on the phone, it sounded somewhat forced and artificial....... like not how you would hear someone say it in real life. But on the Walkman the S's sounded natural and more realistic. P
lus it seemed like the Walkman had slightly less background hiss too vs phone. I think it depends on the song.......... some songs even the Walkman couldn't completely get rid of the hiss, but on at least 1 or 2 the Walkman had less at a higher volume than the Z3 did at about the same volume. ​
  
Do you guys think at like $800, or $1200, or even say, $3000, that those portable players could get rid of the hiss completely? Have any of you ever tried one of those super pricey devices?? ​
  
What's interesting to me is how different the setup had to be on the phone to even match the Walkman. On the Walkman, I had no extras enabled at all really. Only thing I had was I'd turned up the 2.5 kHz band in the Custom EQ by 2 notches. That was it........all else was on 0, even Clear Bass. Doing so made the vocals a bit louder and more clear, and somehow it even gave the drums a lil more punch too it seemed. I learned this "trick" from my Z3's walkman app which has this setting already in an EQ preset labeled "Soul". The Walkman didn't have that preset, so I had to do it manually. All the other stuff like DSEE HX, Clear Audio+, even VPT was off. On my phone, I play around with Clear Bass and I def think it sounds better with VPT (Surround Sound, "Studio") on, where on the Walkman when I enabled "Studio", it sounded good on some songs, but others it sounded kinda compressed. On my Z3, the walkman app is really good but it couldn't match the A17 Walkman's sound quality. For that, I had to use my phone's PowerAmp app with its EQ on "Rock" (phone's walkman app's EQ, Off or FLAT ((or else it affects PowerAmp's EQ if not)), though it displays "Custom" if you play around with Clear Bass, which is normal). It was only then that my phone really made comparing difficult. I was almost ready to send back the A17 actually lol, but then I finally noticed the vocals difference more clearly on one song and from there it all became more obvious. ​
  
So vs a $200 iBasso DX50, my phone sounded as good (or slightly better?? not sure), but vs the $300 Sony Walkman A17, it couldn't match up, even with the mighty PowerAmp app on its side. ​
  
Thanks again to everyone who contributed and came on to share their story! ​

 
RockStar2005
 
Jan 23, 2015 at 1:50 PM Post #15 of 471
I forget. What kind of headphones are you using? If low impedance, high sensitivity IEMs, then those are often prone to background hiss from amps.
 
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