[Xperia Z General] Akinaro:
Hey.

I was wondering what do you think about sound quality after latest LP update? And most important, what do you think about latest amazing retarded idea of dumping Walkman brand and making one of worst music app Sony created for past... well, they never had bad music player until now!

But before I write what I think about sound quality, I really, really need to say something about this "Music" Player.

>>Skip it if you dont care about walkman app<<

I always loved W series from Sony Ericsson, I had, and still have most of my older phones from this series. And because Im really fussy about sound quality and music player design I was a bit shocked after I saw Sony idea to remove Walkman name, and going to most lame excuse I ever read to rename app to.... Music...

I didnt install this app update when I had KitKat(dont mess with something that actually work) So after Installing LP I had time to see what they did to my most beloved app on my phone. And Im shocked how someone could destroy something with only really small changes.

At first nothing is changed, but what is most important are details.

After you open app everything is normal.

I never liked main page, its chaotic and beside good look its not usefull, but I never used it so I didnt care about it, I spend there only 1sec after opening app... untill this update...

Now everytime when Im listening something and Im clicking widget or icon, instead of going to current music player its moving me straight to main page... and to do something in actual player, I need to click lower bar to open it... annoying as hell.

Now lets look at most important part of player:

looks simple and good right? its change color depend on cover, and it have big buttons. But beside that they ripped fewparts that was good about walkman player. First of all they removed Favorite icon(star) that I, and lost of people I know liked, because it was quick way to select your favorite track. Now this option is in lame, small duplicated menu as a text.

About that menu. Why they putt menu dots in lower right corner if you can access menu just by clicking album art? I have no idea...

But thats not everything!

How about SECOND menu in top right corner!

You thought that all? HELL NO! we have THIRD setting menu!

Because Sony love Mario, and they though that it would be funny to say to users: "Sorry, but setting that you look for is in another Menu!"

So now not only they make chaos in settings, remove one of simplest fav option, but they forgot about.... simple and quick option to see current playlist. You can only click artist name to go to page of his album, or you need to swype left to select current playlist menu, that sometimes doesnt count what you selected, and sometimes add track to end of the list and sometimes to next track on the list... no one know how this "magic" work...

Now how about burying one of best option that compared to other similar options, actually work good: Sense Me playlist...

Instead of putting this option as a one of main feature, they buried it in playlist menu...

Seriously, most of similar apps that sets music by mood work weird or need weird scan everytime to play something.

Of course its not perfect but still better than others, and I never had weird track placement when I used it.

Now most important: Sound quality options.

As most of you know, they removed few important options that bump volume in our XZ, but they also messed up rest of settings.

As I mentioned they moved sound settings to weird place.

Its look simple but still its a bit pain to use it, especially Headphones option:

From this list, I have MH-EX300AP and STH30, and with or without ClearAudio+ options, settings for those specific headphones work like cra#p.

EX300 options make sound more centered and with huge boost of middle parts, and STH30 option make sound more muffed with too much bass.

Rest of options except bumping middle parts and squeezing scene to middle doesnt do anything.

<<< - End of the less important Rant about Walkman Player... sorry, "Music" Player - >>>

Now lets talk about actual quality of the sound on Xperia Z with LP.

For most of the day I use my good old JVC HA-S600 that have best quality-price-mobility ratio I ever had, but also I use mentioned before MH-EX300AP for outdoor and in home a bit used Beyerdynamic DT 770s(look like **** but sound is still amazing)

And no matter what I have on my hears, sound compared to what I got in KK is just a bit worst in LP. Its still have nice amount of details for most of time, and at least its dont sound like old radio.

But overall quality is weird, especially wide scene. I tried messing with EQ, ClearAudio+ still sound much flatter, and middle parts behave weird, when there is much going on, on the scene its lost all details and its just plain hum that sometimes move to high levels.

I have my two favorite test tracks (Aphex Twin "Vordhosbn" and Bruno Coulais "La marche" Himalaya OST ) and I know those tracks like my own hand, so after I played them on LP it was obvious for me that something is not right. Those tracks are really heavy for every headphones and player, they have all necessary parts to hear whats going on: One is loud with good amount of bass, and other is really soft and have really wide scene with different vocals. And especially in La marche you hear that now xperia is WAY flatter than before.

And as I said Im using Walkman almost my whole "life with phone", And I never encounter such problem with it.

Now I really dont know if its because of new player or because of this update.

Its not big deal, probably 90% of you dont hear any difference except loudness, but just like with camera those small changes make people crazy if they use this all the time and they know what it should look/sound.

Sooner or later Im gonna back to 4.3 but now I was wondering if its my specific xperia z got that (even if I installed LP two times for test purposes)