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My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

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Re: My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

#261

Post by astrange »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #207
astrange wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s funny since when I ordered a Beyerdynamic headphone on Amazon they sent me the high impedance model I hadn’t asked for. Although the best one I own is a Stax which needs an entire speaker amp.

Wait, aren't Stax the electrostatic high-voltage headphones? I think at that point, "Convenience" is deeply crossed out as a selection criteria, and a portable phone while jogging is not a likely scenario :).

They actually made IEMs once. Beyond the technology being hard to manufacture, Stax's products are mainly just inaccessible because they have the traditional Japanese business approach of being run by 800 year olds who are actively offended by the idea that anyone they don't know might want one of their products.

Re: My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

#262

Post by marlor »

jwong_ wrote: post #127
marlor wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have both a Walkman (for music) and an upgraded/rebuilt iPod (for audiobooks) and prefer them for a few reasons: - They don’t use any mobile data, and work when in a mobile-phone black spot (e.g. the national parks I go to most weekends). This is the main one. - I can store all my music on there, without needing to use any storage space on my phone. - They last forever with some basic maintenance. My iPod was made…

What Walkman and iPod do you use? I’ve started using my old iPod video again, and enjoying it for music, but curious on your use case for it as deviated audiobooks. How did you rebuild it specifically for audiobooks? Just toss RockBox on it?

Just Rockbox. I’m using an iPod Video as well. Then I set up the bookmarking and startup settings to suit. It’s very customisable.

I also generated “talk files” to voice the filenames.

My Walkman is an NW-A45 upgraded with custom firmware from www.nwmods.ml.

Re: My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

#263

Post by stonith »

dangus wrote: post #27
stonith wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a similar device and use it daily. I don't have to worry about my music being removed because the licensing changed at the streaming provider. I tried various streaming services and all of them removed music from me at some point. This isn't something that's particularly negotiable for me. I can trivially add songs that aren't on a streaming service using youtube-dl or similar. I can change songs by pressing a…

You can do all of this with a smartphone, though. There are plenty of offline music apps for smartphones. There are plenty of phones (and headphones) with physical buttons to control music. My main criticism is that this is all redundant hardware with basically no unique capabilities. Even if the DAC is extra special, that’s something you can get on a phone via USB.

Smartphones are also generally a lot larger, so they don't fit in my pocket very well while cycling or running.

I need my smartphone to do a whole bunch of things outside playing music, and restricting myself to specific models with physical audio control buttons and small screens makes the market a lot smaller and would probably leave me with a poorer phone than picking one without needing to think about its ability to play music while exercising. I did this for my previous phone and the result wasn't very pleasant, so went with the separate players this time around.

Different headphones might be an option, but again a lot of the better phones are ditching headphone jacks, so it would be restricting my phone options.

Re: My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

#264

Post by csdvrx »

nicoburns wrote: post #256
csdvrx wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You’ll be happy to hear that you also get that on the cheap low-end devices! It won't matter much if their quality is so poor I don't want to bother listening, or if the interface doesn't provide hardware buttons meaning I won't be able to skip tracks in my car.

Something like a Sansa Clip ticks all those boxes and costs ~$40 (or cost, I believe that particular model may have been discontinued).

The Sansa doesn't have bluetooth LDAC, but it could still be handy to exercice.

I'll get one and see how I like it!

Re: My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

#265

Post by jazzyjackson »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #207
astrange wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s funny since when I ordered a Beyerdynamic headphone on Amazon they sent me the high impedance model I hadn’t asked for. Although the best one I own is a Stax which needs an entire speaker amp.

Wait, aren't Stax the electrostatic high-voltage headphones? I think at that point, "Convenience" is deeply crossed out as a selection criteria, and a portable phone while jogging is not a likely scenario :).

their portable 'phones are fantastic, but yes, their full size tube amp is taking an inordinate amount of space on my desktop

https://www.headfonia.com/baby-stax/

Re: My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

#266

Post by herbst »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #212
herbst wrote: post #154

The worst about modern MP3 players is that they have little to zero buttons. I am on my second Sony E39X since my FiiO died a while ago. The Sony are way to expensive for the quality, but other button MP3 players are a different weight and price class. I hate wasting battery for a fancy screen and Android like OS, like most MP3 players these days. The reason I never stopped using a MP3 player is because I have 20/30+…

> The reason I never stopped using a MP3 player is because I have 20/30+ hours of HQ music organized in folders, just as I like it. 20-30 hours. Hmm. Clementine tells me: 16345 tracks (64 days 16:52:45) And that's not even large by the comparison with some friends. And yes, it all fits on my Sansa Clip+ (except that I keep the christmas music off the Clip+).

I ment the battery life. Compared to a phone that maybe makes 6-10 hours audio playback.

Re: My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

#267

Post by gspr »

dsr_ wrote: post #173
gspr wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 Sansa Clip+s with Rockbox is the perfect solution. I went through three before being unable to pick up any more without paying triple price. Why do great products disappear?!

Why are yours dying so fast? (Alternatively, why do mine hold up so well?) I have had two Clip+ in the last 15 years. I retired the first one because I broke the clip off; it still works otherwise. I was using them about 2 hours a day until the pandemic.

One ended up on a trip through the washing machine and didn't survive. Another's jack broke (common problem that I didn't back then know how to prevent), and I broke it even more when being an idiot in trying to fix it. The last wore out its internal flash (I think).

Re: My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

#268

Post by gspr »

Jiejeing wrote: post #209
dsr_ wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are yours dying so fast? (Alternatively, why do mine hold up so well?) I have had two Clip+ in the last 15 years. I retired the first one because I broke the clip off; it still works otherwise. I was using them about 2 hours a day until the pandemic.

I have had several clip+ses over the year, and the one thing that died every time was the onboard flash (which prevents the player from booting at all). I resurrected my last one where it was only corrupted and not dead, but I did not have other issues otherwise. Now I am using an hiby R3, which is quite clunkier, but allows me to choose between microsd storage and streaming from the phone in high quality, while also…

Yeah I had the onboard flash die once too. Apparently the trick is to never put media files there, but rather use SD cards for that.

Re: My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

#269

Post by drw85 »

iasay wrote: post #104
inferiorhuman wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps, but I was comparing Apple ear buds with the 3.5mm jack vs lightning ones. Presumably the drivers and whatnot would be similar. In general I don't think audio quality has ever been particularly important to Apple. The iPhone (and all smartphones really) is a jack of all trades gizmo not a device for high quality audio playback. I remember when I had a first gen iPhone and the call quality was atrocious with A…

Not so sure about that. I’ve got a decent quality pro audio interface and monitor headphones. I’ve also got airpod pros. The AirPods sound much much better and I prefer listening to anything with them. It’s all subjective.

That's most likely due to monitor headphones not being made for an enjoyable listening experience, but for transparency while mixing/mastering.

Re: My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

#270

Post by NikolaNovak »

astrange wrote: post #257
NikolaNovak wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Nice headphones" is of course relative. I have two sets of Sennheiaer hd380. They plugged into anything and everything and sounded nice to my ears. They are super comfy. They still plug into my computer, synthesizer, and most of my stuff - but not of course my wife's iPhone. (My old galaxy s2 had microsd, replaceable battery, grippy exterior,and of course 3.5 mm jack while being smaller in every dimension so I am sk…

Are you still using your Galaxy S2 or is it possible it wasn’t perfect despite managing to list all those things on a spec sheet at the same time?

It was perfect for the time. It's definitely lacking in features today, which is by definition true of any phone from that era.

I still have them both with me and in active use - mostly as remote controls, kids games, etc.

Perhaps more pertinently, my daily driver is a Galaxy Note 8, which also has a 3.5mm jack and MicroSD card. There's really nothing that my 4-generations newer, work-mandated iPhone has, in terms of functionality and definitely battery life, that Note 8 does not. iPhones are about sexy impracticality, and that's clearly where market has gone (Unlike S2 & S5, Note 8 also cannot be held without a case) - I'm just a old grouch who misses the olden days :).

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