[Xperia Z3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] RockStar2005:
Hey gen,

1) PowerAmp will play Hi-Res FLAC files and so will Walkman. NEITHER will downsample as far as I know, but know that the Z3 itself can only process up to 24-bit/96kHz. So if you have any like 24/192 files, they will be downsampled. But that's b/c of the phone, not the 2 apps themselves. If this is an issue for you, then you may wanna consider a Hi-Res audio player like the new Sony Walkman Player (or just wait to see what the upcoming 2015 Walkman has to offer?). Since a stand-alone player will pretty much ALWAYS sound better than any phone can, this can be something to consider purchasing down the line (I may do just that one day). They only spend like up to $40 max on the Z3 (the BEST android phone for audio) for audio, where on the players it's a much a higher amount. Just something to keep in mind. The Walkman doesn't let you use PowerAmp, but it does come with the same options like Surround Sound, etc. Some say these other ones are supposedly better than the Walkman, so you can check them out too (but I still bet the Walkman is great from reviews I've read): FiiO X3, X5, iBasso DX90. I'm not sure if they let you use PowerAmp either, but you can always ask in the forums there for each one on Amazon (I may do that now). The stock programs they have though may be better than PowerAmp anyway?

2) They might be, not sure. My take on ClearAudio+ is, leave it off. lol I think it does nothing but WEAKEN the sound. Several ppl on here have agreed with me, but it's up to you. Regarding DSEE HX, as nice as it is, I think actually that enabling the "Surround Sound" and choosing "Studio" will do more to liven up the sound than DSEE HX does.

I think both apps are great, but I prefer PowerAmp (PA) b/c it simply gives a BIT more life to my music than Walkman does, but it's very close. Since I can't use DSEE HX while playing music in PA, I use "Studio" to compensate for not having that, and it does more than DSEE HX does anyway. You can still use all the other options though. I disable ClearAudio+, enable Dynamic Normalizer b/c it gives an extra notch or two of volume which is great esp on headphones.......... under Sound Effects, leave the EQ flat if using PA, Clear Bass will vary (but it's great for giving a nice tight isolated bass sound), Surround Sound "Studio". (I sometimes keep S-Force on or off. Sometimes it makes things sound better, other time it can cause skips or spikes in the music.)

In PA, the best EQ preset IMO is "Rock". On my HTC One M8, I sometimes used "Bass and Treble" as well, but on the Z3, I notice the songs I needed that preset for no longer need it, and "Rock" sounds just fine on them, which leads me to believe that perhaps the Z3 has better sound quality than the M8? Not sure. In order to make "Rock" your default preset, go to any song, play it then hit pause right away, tap on EQ icon at top, tap on Save, then scroll down and press & hold on "Rock", tap on Assign, check or select Speaker, Wired Headset, and Bluetooth, then tap on Ok. "Rock" is now your default preset! (I can actually send you or anyone on here my PA settings file which I think will give you the best sound. You would just need to import the file into PA for it to be applied. If interested, simply send me a PM and I'll get it to you.)

If you still choose to use Walkman over PA, then regarding the EQ, my suggestion is the "Soul" preset. "Folk" is good too, but the one that I found to give the most clearest and best quality sound is not "Rock" but "Soul". It should make ANY type/genre of music sound better, even rock. All the other Z3 settings I mentioned above should still be utilized for best sound.

I think it's easier to search for or quickly find my albums/artists in PA than in Walkman. PA has a feature where you quickly scroll to a certain letter, where with Walkman you have to type in the first few letters of the album/artist in order to "quickly" scroll to it.

Regarding headphones, yeah Sony's headphones are great! I'd tried out (which you might've seen from earlier posts) the Sennheiser HD 598s, and the Audio-Technica M50Xs. Both were very good, but I ended up with the AKG K550s. It needed an amp though to hit "peak sound", so someone on here suggested the new Sony MDR-1As (said the 1Rs were great too, and I think MK2s are a step-up from the regular 1Rs), and I ended up trying those out and preferred them to the AKG headphones. They didn't need the amp (thanks to Dynamic Normalizer) so I got to return that as well as the other headphones.

RockStar2005