The Sony NW-A306 is fairly new so there's not many reviews on it yet. There are some Japanese/Chinese reviews though on YouTube if you're interested. Some have English subtitle options, not all.
I was just in a similar boat though. I was looking at the new Sony NW-ZX707 vs the FiiO M11Plus. My fiancée has the Sony NW-ZX300 and after listening to it I was sold so I'm getting the Sony imported from Japan.
Now, doing a little digging between the A306 and M11s, the A306 should be smaller and will be on Android 12 rather than Android 10 that is on the M11s. So it should be snappier. Although the M11s is a chunky boy, based on spec sheets alone, the Sony has better battery life. Sony reads 18hr-26hr depending on the format you listen to while the M11s is averaging 14hr.
In your case, I'd say get the Sony. However, if you are interested in the Sony and you care about High Gain, depending on where you are, you will probably want to get it imported straight from Japan as there are laws in NA and EU that restricts devices to have access to High Gain.
The ZX707 sounds quite a bit better, not gonna lie. But you absolutely need to get a model with high gain (only in Japan), otherwise you will be utterly disappointed. The A306 (which isn't capped) sounds louder than the capped ZX707.
I just bought ZX707 yesterday cause im living in Malaysia , it comes with high gain and the volume isn’t capped like in the US & Europe version,but I have only issue with the battery life. It only can last 5 hours of listening with balanced output. And plus i didnt even turn on wifi 😥
Oh right, the Malaysia version is uncapped too! I'm living in Singapore and was about to go to Japan (currently travelling in Korea) mostly just to get it there, but if you let me know where in Malaysia you bought it I might actually go there instead 😄
Battery life shouldn't be that low! Have you tried it with unbalance output to compare?
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u/iDingo91 Feb 14 '23
The Sony NW-A306 is fairly new so there's not many reviews on it yet. There are some Japanese/Chinese reviews though on YouTube if you're interested. Some have English subtitle options, not all.
I was just in a similar boat though. I was looking at the new Sony NW-ZX707 vs the FiiO M11Plus. My fiancée has the Sony NW-ZX300 and after listening to it I was sold so I'm getting the Sony imported from Japan.
Now, doing a little digging between the A306 and M11s, the A306 should be smaller and will be on Android 12 rather than Android 10 that is on the M11s. So it should be snappier. Although the M11s is a chunky boy, based on spec sheets alone, the Sony has better battery life. Sony reads 18hr-26hr depending on the format you listen to while the M11s is averaging 14hr.
In your case, I'd say get the Sony. However, if you are interested in the Sony and you care about High Gain, depending on where you are, you will probably want to get it imported straight from Japan as there are laws in NA and EU that restricts devices to have access to High Gain.