ceres

As the NWA series depends on Sonic Stage your best bet would be to install a VM and Sonic right in it. Both Parallels and VMWare offer trial versions.

of course, we would need some more reviews and comparisons but from what I have gathered so far these new Sony phones are nothing special. do they offer considerably more detail, clarity and resolution than mdr ex90?

I have just ordered Sennheiser´s new CX 95 IEMs. They carry a 100 euro pricetag but can be bought for 77 incl. shipping on amazon. Contrary to the likes of cx300 (400 and 500 are supposed to be more balanced) Sennheiser advertises the new CX95 as neutral, high resolution phones. That´s exactly what I am looking for to complement my nwz818 and potentially classic. The cx 300 were fabulous given their pricepoint and target group. I have only read preliminary reviews on a few German hifi boards but people really seem to think a lot of the new sennis. Some are putting them clearly above competition that costs twice as much. Per se that doesn´t say much bc imho a number of really expensive iems are not worth the money. Especially when looking at sq. Sennheiser may be competent enough to pull another cx 300 with a differing target group in mind this time around. I currently own Sony MDR90EX phones and UEs Triple.Fi 10s. The Sony Phones are really nice and precise and certainly a year back they were a steal at around 60 Euros. I really like them a lot. However, they leak sound and really are a class below the quality you need to bring out the best of todays dap and coding technology. Enter the Triple.Fi 10. SQwise these are truly outstanding phones. People talk about Sure500 and what not. Triple.Fi 10s are pretty much the HD650s of IEMs. My major gripes are hiss, price and really bad, uncomfortable fit (subjectively). I will either sell the triple.fis or keep them for reference and wait for some fit mod. Anyway, I am looking for phones that will beat the super.fi5s for neutrality and resolution and offer baseline sq that is well above my Sonys. I don´t expect the cx 95 to come too close to the triple.fis. I will post a review once I have spent some time with the cx 95. For the record: Phones I have owned and dismissed: Ety ER6i, Super.Fi5, Panasonic HJE 70, Sennheiser CX300, PX 200, Vmoda Vibez, Westone UM2. See you soon! ceres

what about media monkey or winamp 5.5? these apps support mtp players and aac natively. anyone try these?

It is definitely a bug. I couldn´t resist the current price level so I purchased a nwz 818 walkman despite wanting to wait for the successor. Anyway, dropping itunes encoded aac files works flawlessly including year and embedded album art so it´s a bug with mp3 tags. I hope it will be taken care of along with on device rating, playlisting and gapless playback

What about cable quality and microphonics? Is it possible to replace the cables?

I am not a firm believer in brand loyalty. Especially not with tvs. I might be looking for a new tv around feb. Right now my favorite would be Samsung F86 42in. Sony Bravias are seriously overpriced. As much as they are the creme de la creme, I cannot justify the huge price premium so it´s going to be Samsung , Panasonic or Sharp for LCD. Sony, however, has this certain penchant to come up with surprising products from time to time. I am thinking of the es standard dvd/sacd players and stereo amps that really offered great value. Sony has recently revitalized the es brand with some stereo equipment. I bought the new smaster digital stereo amp along with the fitting cd/sacd player after auditioning a lot of gear that cost twice as much. The ES value was definitely there so I bought the kit and tossed my 8 yr old advance accoustic stuff. Sony needs to repeat stories such as ES Series, R1 Cam, PS2 and so forth. Lately, there were a lot of product launches that were purely marketing and not helping the consumer in any way.

Apparently the "new" PS3 includes 65nm RSX and Cell parts as power consumption during blue ray playback and gaming is down to 130W from almost 200W. Also fan noise stays around 0.9 Sone max.

Yes mp3tag does also handle aac tags (and probably everything else). ceres

That is certainly a good idea. S needs to step up marketing considerably. The company has started to churn out products that consumers will want to own. Mentioning them during cl match halftime breaka is not going to get them far. Ultimately Sony needs to come up with new exciting players before the next ipod refresh. That´s the way it goes in the dap business. The current Sony lineup is very solid albeit not turning heads or complete (hdd player missing). I think with the potential this company has we need to see more, better hardware. Allying with Amazon isn´t a bad idea either.

I like the way that the 360 performs running games. Truth be told I consider it the better gaming machine for the time being. However, I cannot stand the noise level that is coming from that machine. Also current price point is in favor of the PS3. A propos RPG, which is the best one out there for the PS3?

Maximo Park - Russian Literature from their current album Our Earthly Pleasures.

I´d like Sony to improve hiss and white noise behavior with high end iems in the next iteration of walkman players. It´s not a matter of snr as nwx a8xx rate around 94db and the industry´s best is 95-96. It´s rather the core sound engine that is not tuned to better deal with low impedance, high sensitivity iems. (it´s a lot better in nwa than last year´s s series) Now that Sony has some high end iems out I expect advances. That´s also a reason why I am holding out to buy a new dap.

Thanks for the nice review. The MDR EX 90 leak a lot of sound. Given the fact that the SL700 are an in ear design I would reckon that this issue is eliminated, correct? I have seen the 700sl for 249 USD on ebay. Given the strong Euro the 700sl cost 50% of the triple.fis. ceres

true. it´s widely available through retail channels, however. I am wondering if there will be a new player released soon. Right now I´d like to think so bc sonystyle usually has the latest gear available and swift turnaround.

Have you tried parallesl or vm vare with your mac and sonic stage? SS is not doing anything demanding so it should actually work.

which is a pity bc I would really like to check it out.

Hi, as it appears Sony reduced mobo quality and employed cheaper parts in the 40 GB Version resulting in degraded br quality. Also NO DVD Upscaling if rumors are true. Shortly CELL will move to <65 nm structures. That along with the lack of rumble controller in European PS3 bundles means Sony has blown it yet again for Europeans. I accept the fact that S wants to focus on gaming with the 40 Gb model but the omission of the new controller is a cheap move. It will be rectified after Xmas I reckon. By then I will be able to buy decent BR/DVD Players for around 300 Eur.

Thanks for your imput! Nobody noticed the omission of SACD in the press releases. I was curious to check out sacd over hdmi as the ps3 received quite some praise for sacd fidelity. Luckily I own a top end sacd/cd player so I will still opt for the less expensive 40 GB unit.

I´d rather think your computer time is off Re-sync your computer time via the internet and see if it´s correct.

Winamp 5.5 also hit the stage today and the new one window ui looks good if you switch off some stuff If you fork over the required 19 bucks, you´ll also get very good encoders for aac. I think this program can evolve into something great. It has radio, podcasts and fledging community capabilities. Can anyone with the new nwz please try to drop a wpl playlist in winamp? Also please try whether it is possible to add aac files to that wpl list. Then transfer the playlist to the attached walkman, please. Thank you!

Now that the price has come down to 399 eur I will buy a ps3 as I don´t own a high quality dvd (want upscaling) player. The data I have seen suggest that the ps3 dvd capabilities match the denon 2930 which is very good. Blue-Ray is a nice add-on as well as is sacd over hdmi. Truth be told I will cancel my NWZ Walkman order as I won´t spend 200 eur on an mp3 player if I can get (of course subsidized by Sony) PS3 for 399. I will also use the PS3 to stream video from my computer. Here in Germany HDTV is not widespread so I will -of course legally- dl HDTV series I like from the US and transfer to PS3 HDD. I am really excited to try the PS3. Gaming will also be done but only casually. I actually sold my HR03 modded 8800 for 300Eur so the PS3 comes for almost free. I usually just play a few games per year ( MTWII, Supreme Commander and Bioshock last year) so higher pricepoints for PS3 games won´t bother me. BTW, I´d really like one of those Japanese white PS3s epecially at 242 eur

so? people tell a lot of things. buy some hifi magazines and read the voodoo. it´s all subjective. Instead look at the numbers and witness how current ipods cave in under 32 ohms load. what´s a listening test worth with countless iems if auditory cubes are different in every person? the numbers (don´t know the classic) haven´t improved in current ipods so you might want to rethink your bass (it´s not just bass) comment. nothing is attested apart from the fact that shuffle 1st gen is the best sounding ipod ever with the best response curve under load. sucky is too much but ipods never shine on listening tests. to me they still sound like entry level digital amps. "faithfully reproduce what artist intended" is a good joke in many respects. I am sure the artist doesn´t have any say whatsoever in 90% of all cases. When you listen to the cd on a 700 usd stereo rig and then compare to a 700 usd nano rig (you can get there with tripple driver iems), it´s like day and night. In the end it´s just portable audio. When you look at the response curves and other figures that expensive iems give with test heads it´s an illusion to think of great sq. The one thing I expect is better sq with every generation of players. Some get there, others try. Some just take wild guesses. Ipods are still best as far as software integration is concerned and I reckon it will stay this way for this a while. We also owe Apple for showing how easy it can be to manage large libraries. In other areas they stay ridiculously stubborn. Take the eq for example. Almost every phone, iem is "strange" in one way or another. Why not be able to counteract that? What´s the problem with augmenting atmosphere? Others were hopelessly behind Apple just one year ago but now things are changing. BTW, I have never heard of that MOSSBERG dude in my life so he cannot possibly be THAT important.

True for the most part if you look at the past but competition is moving on and has surpassed the ipod in some areas (not all). Apple has become lazy and overconfident with their iPod brand. Also, Ipods are buggier than ever. I used to own quite a few pods precisely for the reasons above. Today only iTunes would get me into the pod realm. The upcoming Mac Pro however....

Here is a screenshot of the upcoming winamp 5.5 gui. Looks good imo. If it turns out good winamp might evolve into the weapon of choice for mtp based players. Encoders built into winamp a top noth incl he-aac and the possibility to tie in lame. We will see. http://stashbox.org/36898/10781315820-Main-Window.png http://stashbox.org/36900/Bento1.jpg