Sony Walkman NW-A45

Again, the instructions for removing the volume limit are here: SonyNWDestTool < Main < Wiki

It definitely works on the NW-A45, takes only a few seconds and IMHO is absolutely necessary if you plan on using wired cans.

With the volume cap in place, the sound is weak and weedy; once it's removed it's full, punchy and detailed with an impressive soundstage.

I honestly can't recommend these DAPs enough. They have excellent sound, amazing battery life, a great feature set and will essentially play any format you throw at them. The firmware (while admittedly not as slick and snappy as something from, eg, Apple) is solid, stable and responsive. I consider mine to be the iPod Classic replacement I was after for so long.

Only a couple of issues that I would flag up:

Firstly, the firmware is kind of particular about what kind of album art it will display - it must be embedded in the audio files and it will not display progressive JPEGs full stop. If you're having problems with album art showing up, this will be why - easiest workaround is to convert the cover art to PNG and re-embed, but it might be time consuming if a lot of your files are affected.

(Note that iTunes - on Mac at least - seems to convert album art to PNG before embedding anyway, so if you're using it to rip your CDs or organise your library you shouldn't have any problems).

Secondly, playlists require a bit of faffing, but work fairly well once you understand the limitations (for example: all tracks in a given playlist have to be on the same memory source - not split between the SD card and internal memory). I think Sony's Music Center transfer app takes care of a lot of this if you're on Windows. If you use iTunes on the Mac, this (paid-for) software will sync your library and playlists fairly seamlessly: Dapper | Map Pin Software | Jeremy Laurenson

Also - not an issue for me, but if you have a collection of DSD files: note that they will be converted to PCM for native playback (though I think it is possible to output them as pure DSD to an external DAC using USB-OTG over a suitable USB-to-WMPort cable).

After nearly a year of use, those really are the only slightly negative things I can say. Everything else "just works". I'm very pleased with mine and would encourage anyone after a decent budget DAP or iPod Classic replacement to give these a try.

 

Thanks Sevoflurane. Just ordered one. Can’t wait to give it a try.

 

Will it work with Windows XP ?

 

NW-A45/A45HN/A46HN/A47 | Help Guide | System requirements

The system requirements suggest not, though they probably only refer to the supplied software. If you put the music on the player manually (I.e. treat it like a USB hard drive) the player should work. Personally, I do use the Sony software, and I would want to be sure that e.g. firmware update software would run on Windows XP before committing.

 

Thanks

 

Anyone who has this:

Do the ClearAudio+ sound effects or other sound effects work while the USB cable is connected to an amplifier?

 

The effects only work over a wired headphone via analogue out, and are unavailable via Bluetooth. If you connect via the supplied USB cable to an amplifier the amplifier would just treat the player like a USB drive, so no, the effects won’t work if the device is used in this fashion.

The connection at the player end is Sony’s own DMPORT connection, not a USB. I think you can get DMPORT to analogue cables but I haven’t used one so cannot confirm how the device behaves when one is used to connect to an amplifier.

Edit: I can only find DMPORT to 3.5mm line out cables on eBay, no official ones, and reports suggest they don't actually provide a true line out because of the nature of the Sony DAC / headphone amplifier. If that is the case then such a cable WOULD be affected by any of the settings mentioned above.

 

Assuming you’re talking about connecting it to an external DAC via USB-OTG (which is possible, though not, IIRC, with the WMPort-USB cable that comes bundled with the player), then: no, none of the ClearAudio+ effects are available when operating like this (and you’ll get a message saying something like “sound settings do not apply to USB audio output” if you navigate to the screen where you’d normally activate them).

 

Has anyone successfully tried this? Is tbere, for example, a DMPORT to micro USB cable I could use to connect to my Oppo HA2? The standard USB cable will not output audio via my DAC.

 

I’ve seen it done, though never done it with my unit.

Appears you do need a dedicated cable to do it (and they only seem to be available from sellers based in Far East, so are a bit pricey).

If you want to give it a try, the Sony WMC-NWH10 (WMPort to female USB-A) and the Fiio L27 (WMPort to male microUSB) should both fit the bill.

There’s also this one on Amazon, which specifically states it’s designed for the HA-2 (and one of the reviewers confirms it works with the A-30 series, so *should* also work with the A-45): https://www.amazon.com/Custom-Walkman-Digital-WM-Port-Degrees/dp/B00YWEHSQY

If you do DSD, one advantage of this setup is that it will output pure DSD to the external DAC, whereas the Sony players convert it to PCM to play it back natively.

 

Yes, 400gb Sandisk cards work just fine in the NW-A45.

This player works exceptionally well within the Sony ecosystem, when paired with a LDAC-enabled noise-cancelling headphone like WH-1000XM3. In such a setting, the player acts only as a transport so that it is at no disadvantage with its very small size and weight. As another post says, the player's software is very straightforward and easy to use.

 

I have just upgraded to a 400GB Sandisk micro SDXC card and can confirm that it works fine on my NW-A45 as I have just loaded it up with 347GB of music [formatted card capacity 366GB]. Took a while to sync the music, and it definitely takes longer to index the library, but that's a lot of lossless music in a small box.

 

More experiments!

Sony NW-A45 > Fiio L27 WMPORT to micro USB cable > Oppo HA2 DAC / headphone amp > Sennheiser HD600. Even plays DSD files as reported by a previous poster.

The internal amp of the Sony isn’t bad, but the Oppo drives the Sennheisers beautifully, so that’s my best sounding combination.

AptxHD with the Bowers and Wilkins PX for good wireless sound, and the Oppo DAC and Sennheisers for the best sound. Good fun, this! Thanks to @redeyedandblue for the tip.

 

Have a 400GB in mine and it works perfectly.

 

Oh man, that's a huge monkey off my back. Still, I'm terrified that I'm going to shell out a lot of cash for a MAGNUM SD card only for it not to work

 

Does anybody know more about the DC Phase Linearizer settings in the sound menu? How exactly does this affect the music? Should I leave this setting off or on? I'm torn whether or not I'm getting 'pure' sound because i get somewhat better bass response with it on but I'm afraid it's just tampering the sound

 

If it sounds better to you, then do it. That's why it's there. The audio police won't arrest you for tampering with the sound.

 

Agreed! Don’t use any of those settings myself as they don’t work on Bluetooth headphones and even with wired headphones I prefer the sound without then switched on, but all a matter of individual taste.

 

Anyone ever get error code 24667 when importing MP3s? I was importing an album with 12 tracks all from the same source, and four wouldn’t transfer, triggering this code for each.

 

The Walkman converts DSD to PCM for native playback? I don't remember reading that anywhere in the product description. I feel a bit ripped off. Is there any way to turn this off? I thought i was getting pure DSD this whole time!

 

You did? And you didn't notice a difference?

Let's take a moment to think about what this could possibly mean.

 

I do notice about a 1 to 5 percent difference between hi-res and CD audio. A very small difference but a difference regardless. I don't care what you maniacs say about the limits of human hearing lol. I just checked Amazon, and it plainly states that it plays back DSD but through a PCM conversion so it's my stupid fault for not noticing that. But what sample and bitrate does it convert the DSD signal to? Isn't 192khz 24bit higher quality than standard DSD? Wouldn't it make sense to convert to that so nothing is lost? Someone explain! Me big dumb ape not good with numbers!

 

Does anyone know if there's another cable I can use in tandem with the FiiO L27 that ends in a USB-C male connector so I can connect the player to a FiiO K3 DAC? I would also be okay with a WM-Port to USB-C cable.

 

Does the screen on these devices rotate when you hold the unit horizontally? I can't find any mention of this in Sony's official documentation.

 

No.