cliffster115

oh didn't see that! did you by any chance play with the user adjusted settings for the clear stereo, or bass/treble gain and know what to make out of it?

hmm if what you mean by work as in hearing the "shrills" or artifacts, then yes, it seems that after turning off those music settings, i can still hear the slight artifacts. However, i just recently posted something up on altering the bass or treble gains (see my new post) under the test mode for the A818 or A82x series that allows you to alter the gains for bass or treble. I changed and saved the bass gain to -9.0 for the lower frequencies, and it seems that the artifacts aren't there anymore. Perhaps it's just my imagination, but i will do some further critical listening and testing, and report back later!

Today while browsing, i stumbled upon the service manual for Sony's A82x series walkman. Well being curious, I decided to get the test mode on my NWZ-A818, and guess what it worked! I found the manual here: http://stashbox.org/v/97717/NWZ-A826.pdf For those who want to enter into the test mode quickly without reading the PDF, here are the following steps: Setting method: 1. Turn the power on. 2. Press the [bACK] key for 1.5 seconds or more, the home menu is displayed. 3. Slide the [HOLD] key to set the hold on. 4. While pressing the [OPTION] key, press the key as following order: (up) → (up) → (down) → (down) → (right) → (left) → (up) → (down) → (up) → (down) → (right) → (play) 5. The set reboots when the [HOLD] key is slided to set the hold off, and the color bar is displayed in the liquid crystal display. 6. Enter the test mode when the [bACK] key is pressed in the state of step 5. Aside from the fact that you can simply test to see if your walkman is working properly, there also seems to be some distinct settings that the user can manipulate. I'm talking about the mode for CLESTE (Clear stereo with and without cable) and DAC (audio gains for bass and treble). As of now, i'm not sure if changing these settings applies to only the player in Test mode, or applies to the player in general when playing music (hopefully for the latter!), or if it only applies to the player when custom EQ is set. We will have to see! For the CLESTE mode, you can change the settings by pressing up or down, and for W/O cable, you can change it from -83 to -20. Not sure what it will sound at the moment. To confirm and save the settings you will have to push the start button. Now here's the really interesting part, being the basshead that I am, I'm looking at the Bass gain settings. Not sure what it does, but apparently in this mode, you get set the gains for the following frequencies: 50Hz, 100Hz, 200Hz, and 250Hz. The settings for those frequencies are from -10.5 to 0. From what I'm entering now, it seems that you can only set one "DAC BASS GAIN" to all of the frequencies. I have mine on -9.0 and will see how it will sound later. For the T-GAIN of the test mode under DAC, you can set the "DAC TREBLE GAIN" only to either 0 or 1.5 and applies to the frequencies of 5khz, 7khz, 10khz, and 15khz. I currently have mine on zero gain. I would advice everyone who tinkers with this to WRITE DOWN YOUR PLAYER'S ORIGINAL SETTINGS. If you set the player to factory setting, it will not reset the settings under the test mode. Have fun, let me know what all those gains in frequencies mean, and if you hear any apparent changes in your music, or if it at all works.

What is this I'm hearing? I have the NWZ-A818 the brother to the SS-free A808, and i think it is great! However, when I'm being very critical of my music, I find something peculiar concering artifacts produced. From what I have read in this thread, some have heard "shrills" as a cast off to the treble, and that is what I believe I am hearing. My settings are on normal with the equalizer, used with sony MDR-V700 headphones. After reading around a bit, i used several user's EQ settings from around this thread, and believe dita's recommendation of cb+3 0,-1,+1,+2,+3 with dynamic normalizer seems to suit me best. I would also like to note that what I'm hearing on the critical side is mostly heard in my left ear, the "shrill" that's being slightly produced applies to some songs. Sometimes this "shrill" or artifact leads me to hear some slight popping or cracking staticky sound, although it is very slight, i can hear it in my left ear. I have also noticed the same when i use the supplied earbuds that came with the player on the same settings of normal eq and custom eq, and 320kbps rips. Don't get me wrong, but overall the music experience with the A818 and the MDR-v700 are very good, but sometimes the slight shrill can be very annoying. I'm just wondering if it is because of my critical hearing, player, or headphones that are causing this, or if it's simply the way the music has been recorded. Any comments or suggestions or eq settings to decrease this?

Personally, I really don't see the new NWZ models worth it to me at the moment. There's just the addition of bluetooth (which I don't use and probably won't because I like quality wired headphones) and a larger screen (which won't have any significan't value for me since I don't watch any videos on my A818 to say the least). Not to mention, I'm absolutely disappointed that Sony failed to include a small software features such as OTG playlists and ratings!! And plus i really like the solid metal contruction of my A818 and smaller footprint. So no you're not the only one

You're totally right, I couldn't believe Sony decided to forgo the option of OTG playlists & ratings!!! A SECOND time i might add! But seriously what have they got to lose?

browsing through this thread, the a820 series looks pretty cool, but in my case it is just basically a bigger A818, as i really don't need bluetooth. I was really disappointed that sony once again didn't include on the go playlist functionality or gapless You would think that they would already, since most of the competition out there it already has it for OTG playlists! But oh well, sound is all that matters!

Yup, very true, and I'm beginning to see Sony's tactic in marketing.

Mine too! This update ONLY applies for the A816 unfortunately.

This is quite interesting! I'm sure that must mean there has to be an update for the NWZ-a818 pretty soon! Although it's very peculiar that Sony only issued this update for ONLY the A816, atleast for now. Hmm from what i just looked at, it seems that it main functionality is for music compatibility services.

Yeah I'm beginning to see that Sony probably won't release a firmware to add new features. Atleast they could release a firmware update to fix the year issue of where songs that are dragged and dropped onto the player display "Unknown."

So it is now February, and I would expect some kind of firmware update for us NWZ users. You guys heard of anything yet coming out soon?

I just got these headphones and they sound unbelievable paired with my A818! However, I think they sounded much much better after burning in, because i noticed high frequencies that weren't really smoothed out so to speak. When these phones are hooked up to an amp, damn they literally shake on your head and don't distort at high volumes. I was only able to handle 50% and during this time, and you could literally feel air being pushed to your ear from the the bass, thus the vibration. Treble is great as with midrange IMO, so i love these headphones!

I really hope that the next iteration of Walkman player will be able to utilize these memory sticks but i'm staying doubtful since it'll increase the player's physical dimesions. With CES going on Sony has to be cooking up with new walkmans to be released later! I just saw that iRiver came out with like 20 or so mp3 players at CES, crazy! I just hope that Sony comes out soon with a firmware that adds & corrects missing features (such as year, rating, & playlist) on the NWZ-A81x! Has anyone heard anything about new firmwares?

ender325, These settings sound awesome on my NWZ-A818 player with my MDR-v700 headphones!!! For my other headphones (such as the mdr-ex082) i usually like to use the "V" equalizer, with CB=2-3, and then 21012. Oh and like loove to listen to Trance, Dance, Club Music, Rock and pretty much everything else hehe. What are some equalizer preferences do others use?