LDAC support on Windows 10/11

Some days ago I found out about a Windows app/driver combination, that allows Windows 10/11 users with a BT computer to play audio to their buds/headphones via LDAC. This should work with most BT transmitters that your laptop/computer may have (or an USB BT adapter - Class 1 recommended).

The app can be found at: https://www.bluetoothgoodies.com/a2dp/

I am not affiliated in any way with them, I just thought that it's something awesome which many may not know about, so here I am. I tested it with the WF-1000XM4, as well as with the WH-1000XM5.

This is the app part of the package. The app allows you to select what codec to use (between SBC and LDAC), and you can set additional settings below. For LDAC you can select which samples rate are made available in the Sound control panel.

This allows you to use a playback software that can use the audio interface exclusively, switching sample rates based on the sample rate of the audio source. For example, having the 88.2 kHz sample rate enabled in the app and then playing a 88.2 kHz audio file will result in the audio data being sent unmodified to the LDAC encoder. On Android devices the audio is always upsampled to 96 kHz.

Of course, some care more or less about this stuff. However, I find that the sound quality greatly improves. I took advantage about the multiple sample rates by using Tidal, selecting my XM5 as the playback device, then enabling "Exclusive mode". I was then able to see the sample rate that is streamed via BT in the app.

Your buds/headphones don't have LDAC support? The app also supports SBC, and enables you to set certain parameters that enables sending audio at higher bitrates, which it seems that can make SBC sound almost as good as aptX HD (link).

All this is achieved by replacing the default Windows driver that is used when playing sound via BT, with a custom one wrote by the person who made this.

More info can be found on their FAQ page.

Unfortunately you can only try this for free for 10 days. After that, it requires a license (which I bought happily). Normally it's $9.99, but if you buy a license before the trial expires, it's $5.99.

Have fun listening!

MDR Proxy - firmware sidegrade tool for Sony bluetooth headphones/earbuds

Here you can find a tool which allows us to install previous firmware versions to our Sony bluetooth headphones/earbuds.

Please read the guide carefully!

2023-02-28 - MDR Proxy stopped working after the last update. It's been fixed now.

2023-02-11 - Added the latest Headphones app (9.3.0).

2022-12-09 - Added the 1.6.1 firmware version for WF-1000XM4 to the firmware library.

MDR Proxy

New web address & some info about the next update

Hello,

I've updated the domain name from nwmods.ml to mrwalkman.com. When accessing the old address, you will be automatically redirected to the new one.

An update to the Walkman One firmware will come at some point. Highlights of this update would be (at least) a new region, called J3, which in my opinion sounds very good (I'm using it for some time already), and a low latency USB DAC mode, enabling us to use our players for watching movies or other real time applications with delay between the video and audio so low that it becomes unnoticeable.

In the meanwhile you can try the J3 region on the WM1A/Z players. You can download a version of Walkman One with the J1, J2, and J3 regions here.

In order to install this you must first use the StockRevert package for the Walkman One firmware in order to get back to the stock firmware. Afterwards you can install this version. The settings file's contents won't be updated, so you won't see J1, J2, and J3 in the list of regions, but you can set it to one of these (it should look like REG=J3, for example). You can also delete the settings file. It will be recreated at the next reboot, and the list of regions will show the new regions.

There are no other builds for other devices at the moment.

Take care.

The stock playback icons are now available!

Hello,

If you tried the "Love Live! Sunshine!!" playback icons but now you want to get back to the stock ones, they are now available here.

I'd like to also take this opportunity to thank everyone who supported me so far. You're awesome, and I really appreciate the support!

Happy new year!

The "Love Live! Sunshine!!" edition icons are now available

You can find installers for the "Love Live! Sunshine!!" edition icons, here. They will only work while you are on the stock firmware for your player. Check out more details on the page linked above.

Installers for the stock icons will be available in the next few days!

"Love Live! Sunshine!!" edition coming to all Walkman players

A nice visitor of this website contacted me recently, asking if there's a way to make the "Love Live! Sunshine!!" edition (that exists only for some NW-A50Series players) available to everyone, given that he already owns one of these special edition NW-A50 players.

Fortunately, that is possible, so installers for this will come soon for NW-A30, NW-A40, NW-A50, NW-ZX300, and NW-WM1A/WM1Z, and it will work without any issues with the custom firmware, as well as with the stock firmware. Of course, there will also be installers to revert the icons to their stock appearance.

These special edition NW-A50 players are selling for as much as $400 on websites like eBay, so I think it will be nice if people can get this on their players without having to pay such amounts of money.

 

This is the NW-WM1A with the special icons

Read before installing

Hello,

Information related to most of the questions you might have, is already documented.

Please check out the FAQ section, as well as all TXT info files that are placed strategically in the folders of the downloaded firmware archive.

TXT info files that can be found in the downloaded firmware archive (they can be opened with any basic text editor, like Notepad)

You're missing important pieces of information by not reading the available info.

If you think you read all the info and there's still no answer to your question, feel free to ask it in the comments section or via email.

Thanks for your understanding.