Sony ZX300

Discussion in 'IEMs and Portable Gear' started by Stuff Jones, Jun 21, 2018.

  1. animus

    animus Almost "Made"

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    As a long time WM1A user, here are some tips:
    1. You are putting your files in the MUSIC folder in the root folder of your microSD card right? If you aren’t, the player won’t recognize your files at all.
    2. Check if they show up under Unknown artist or a similar label. Sometimes the Sony OS shits itself and refuses to read ID3 tags from certain files. You may have to use software like dbpoweramp to retag them if this is the case.
    3. If worst comes to worst, factory reset should do the job. You’ll lose your hour count but at least you should get your music to actually load.

    Hope this helps.
     
  2. gixxerwimp

    gixxerwimp Professional tricycle rider

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    So just to clarify, after adding new flac files, they don't show up in the database until a few days later, and you've done nothing else in between except turn it off and on?
     
  3. Claud

    Claud Living the ORFAS dream

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    Mounted and unmounted SD card and it took so long to create the database that I thought that was the answer----NO.
    Going to try transferring files without removing card later after work.
     
  4. Claud

    Claud Living the ORFAS dream

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    YES
     
  5. Claud

    Claud Living the ORFAS dream

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    Thank you also animus. And you too Walderstorn
     
    Last edited: Feb 24, 2020
  6. Walderstorn

    Walderstorn Friend

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    There is an edit button, you don't have to keep adding monologue-style replies. It makes it easier for everyone, unless, ofc, someone removed a post.
     
  7. Claud

    Claud Living the ORFAS dream

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    Boy am I glad I own a ZX 300. I am breaking in my new IEMs and using my ZX 300 and my iBasso DX 220 to play music 24/7 through new IEMs. The iBasso only lasts 5 or 6 hours on a full charge. The Sony lasts at least 12 hours. The iBasso sounds better, but I am very happy to have the long lived Sony that also sounds pretty decent.
     
  8. gixxerwimp

    gixxerwimp Professional tricycle rider

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    I have been using mine very sparingly lately (focusing on full-size rig), and check my ZX2 and ZX300 every few months to make sure the batteries haven't drained too low from sitting idle. I just happened to check them yesterday and the ZX300 still had 2 bars after several months of not being used (the ZX2 was at a little over 1/2). I have "Battery Care" enabled on ZX300, which is supposed to only charge the battery to 90% in order to extend its life by putting less stress on the battery. Yours is already out the door but I just thought I'd share my experience.
     
  9. Ash1412

    Ash1412 Friend

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    So after seeing @gixxerwimp 's profile post about the mrwalkman firmware mod making the rounds over at HF, I took a chance at trying it out, both to get features missing from the normal firmware like support for progressive jpg cover art and to test out the validity of firmware making a sound difference (I mean, considering the ZX2 debacle, it's very likely). Subjectively, I think it did cause changes to the sound, and I also agree with HF impressions that changing regions changes the sound. Notably, there does seem to be a big change in presentation between CN and J, which might very well explain why a lot of people thought the ZX300 sounded harsh while I personally thought it didn't sound any harsher than the usual delta sigma suspects. I want to put out a request for someone with proper equipment to measure the FR and more importantly the filter response (impulse, imaging, etc.) of these firmwares.
     
  10. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    How did you find the FW changed the sound? I liked the stock HK region sound (or whatever region came on the 300a from Joybuy), curious how the firmware changed things.
     
  11. Ash1412

    Ash1412 Friend

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    Mine was on the E firmware by default I think. For me, I was messing around between E, J, and CN (guessing that should be the region for the Joybuy ones) and I do think I notice a difference. I started out thinking in just overall terms like bright or warm and in terms of that, I would rank it from warmest to brightest J>E>CN for sure, aligning with the HF guys. But when I went back to E thinking it was the best of both worlds hybrid I was looking for, I started getting a bit annoyed with how it sometimes goes from bassy and warm straight to bright in one track, especially on overprocessed music, and how its staging seems kinda morphed in a way (the analogy from the Convert 2 thread makes sense here) versus the straightforward stage of J and CN. These days I stick to J for the most part cause I'm on the FDX1 with neutral filter, haven't tried CN with warm filter yet. All I will say is that J sounds like a softer filter in that it doesn't seem to try to bring out as much as possible from every track/leaves you feeling a sense of the music being floating a little bit but works well in smoothing not-so-great mastering (which comprises most of my mobile listening anyway). C sounds the most solid/nicest below the treble range but starts to introduce some weird shimmer stuff in the treble that seems to be similar to how @ChaChaRealSmooth describes Sabre.
     
  12. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    For those who still have one of these and use it as a DAC out to an amp, do you just set the volume to max, or is there a line out value for it?
     
  13. jaker782

    jaker782 Friend

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    No longer have one, but it uses the same s-master amp circuit found in the WM1A/Z. No true line-out, so you just turn the volume up on high gain to a comfortable level. I typically use 100, but it depends on your amp gain. Regardless, the amp circuit in the Sony DAP's is extremely clean and sounds pretty darn good to my ears into an external amp.

    Or you can use a USB digital out cable into an external dac. The required cable is about $35 on Amazon.
     
  14. fastfwd

    fastfwd Friend

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    You can get a line-level signal from the WM-Port connector, if you buy a cradle from Japan or wire up a cable: http://mjulier.free.fr/lineout_sony.html
     
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  15. jaker782

    jaker782 Friend

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    Awesome info! I never knew it was even possible to obtain a true line-out function using the WM-port. I wonder why Sony never released a cable for this? I have a WMC-NWH10 USB conversion cable, which provides USB digital signal output for connecting to an external DAC, but this does not provide an analog "line level" output for connecting to an external amp. If you build one of these per the linked instructions, I would buy it!
     
  16. Sqveak

    Sqveak Friend

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    Their wmport docks used to offer it.
    Fiio used to make line out cables for walkmans but those haven't been available for a while now.
    Currently an eBay seller called "yourcable" sells walkman line out cables terminated in either 3.5mm TRS or RCA.
     
  17. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    I just ordered one of the eBay ones. It’s coming via packet shipping from Hong Kong so will be a while before I get it, but I’ll report back on it when I do.
     
  18. jaker782

    jaker782 Friend

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    Do you have a link? I can't find a listing for the Sony cable.

    Edit: I found it... sold by "yourcharger", not "yourcable".
     
    Last edited: Jun 24, 2021
  19. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    Well the yourcharger cable is a bust. The connection is fine, but the ZX300 doesn’t recognize it and won’t send a signal through it, unless I’m missing a setting.
     
  20. fastfwd

    fastfwd Friend

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    That sucks. It's probably the wrong resistor between pin 9 and ground. Sony DAPs don't all use the same resistances to enable features, and what the cable vendor chose might work for some other DAP but not the ZX300. There's a table of resistor values you could try on the page I linked above.
     

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