NWZ-ZX1 Artist Menu - Artist or Album Artist?

[c.simon]

Does the Artist menu on the NWZ-ZX1 use the Album Artist tag in the files to group by, or does it sort by the track Artist?

[Anonymous]

Hi there

I have had a hunt around (as I don't own a walkman), and unfortunately I cannot answer this specific question.  A couple of suggestions for you, if no other forum members can help

• Contact Sony Support, they should be able to help
• Visit your nearest Sony Centre and ask the sales person for a product demonstration and have a go yourself.

Unfortunately this is the same answer as your other question:

http://community.sony.co.uk/t5/portable-audio/nwz-zx1-genres-menu-what-is-the-browsing-structure/m-p...

Cheers

[c.simon]

Hello, many thanks for replying.

I already contacted Sony Support in April (with a total of 7 questions like this, 2 of which I've reposted here as you've noticed) and only got a vague reply in June about the Genres question, after they initially closed the case without replying!

"There is a "Genre" selection in the home menu of the device. This Genre selection allows the customer to select a song or album of a specific genre but the unit will not play all songs of that Genre. "

I guess that means the browsing structure lists albums and then songs, and not songs or artists or album artists. But I didn't get any response as to the other questions.

There are no Sony Centres anywhere near me as far as I know, and the only stockists within about 2 hours driving are places like Currys and PC World, where I've never seen a NWX-ZX1, let alone one that might be loaded with correctly tagged music to have a look at.

I'm very interested in the device, however it's very expensive so I need to know whether it will index my collection as I would want it indexed, but getting any basic information like that is very difficult! The 128GB memory is a sticking point, it won't even hold my collection in MP3 format never mind lossless or hi-res. The version of Android in it is also looking a bit dated, so I can only hope that they release an updated new version of the device next year.

Anyway, I was just hoping that an owner of the device would visit this forum and be able to provide some answers.

[BloodyMarvelous]

The Menu offers several options for selecting the music you want to hear.

• Albums
• Artists (song artist, not album artist) > Albums or All
• Genres > Artists or All > Albums or All
• Playlists

What I haven't figured out yet (and not sure it's at all supported) is how to use multiple tags with the NWZ-ZX1. For instance having artists Metallica and Michael Kamen as separate artists in the same field, or Jazz and Blues. The semicolon ";" is not respected by the player and will list the artist as "Metallica;Michael Kamen" and the genre as "Jazz;Blues" instead of separating them as separate artists or genres.

Also, album numbers aren't respected. if you have a 2CD it will play 1-1-2-2-3-3-4-4-5-5. The order between tracks with the same tracknumber is determined by the song title. So for Pink Floyd's The Wall the playback order will be:

2.1 Hey You

1.1 In The Flesh

2.2 Is There Anybody Out There

1.2 The Thin Ice

1.3 Another Brick In The Wall Part I

2.3 Nobody Home

You'll need to renumber the second album so that the tracknumbers are continuous to prevent this unwanted shuffling, in this case starting with 2.14 Hey You, 2.15 Is There Anybody Out There, 2.16 Nobody Home, etc.

There's a lot of room for improvement as far as reading tags is concerned in my humble opinion.

The player itself is a remarkable piece of design, with stunning sound quality and will play virtually any file format (except multichannel audio and DSD/DSF files).

The 6 buttons on the side make for easy use without having to turn on the screen. Even in the dark or in your pocket since they're different in size and have raised nipples for easy recognition by touch:

• Screen/Power on/off (small)
• Vol up (large with nipple)
• Vol down (large)
• Next (small)
• Play/Pause (small with nipple)
• Previous (small).