biozet

Hey guys, I have been reading your review,and the following replies between you and Dura. This is why i like ATRACLIFE. Great storys about product design and sound quality between people who love ATRAC and DAP's. keep up the good work everyone

the image(form factor)shown on sony.de is accurate. Thickness is around 6-7 mm,totally flat design,screen printed -(long hold icon)'pwr off',at 2 oclock key,and screen printed '-home' at 5oclock button. volume rocker switch at top right edge of unit very small in hand,big (long,widescreen) gives great first impression. Holding(seeing even)this in person is the only accurate way to describe this. March 1,global announcement.

I too have had a few days with the S700-and am excited. I deal with getting my hands on pre-launch sony stuff through my job-and this is the first time in months that I have instantly said 'christmas present to self.." The new icons used in the GUI are very nice.They kinda glow in different colours and animate beautifully.Very similar to the XMB found on the PSP and PS3. wait for this one. The purple(for the first time)looks better than the black!

Keep up the good work Chris,this is the best Forum around.

Ok, I will try to answer your questions: 1.Sound Quality is very good-using line out- into my reciever- the sound is great,not any different to the HD5(I tried the same track,at the same bit rate,with the A1000 vs the HD5)Using a variety of headphones I would say the sound quality is the same-I may be proven wrong here,but listening tests are subjective. 2.bit rates cover all the stated rates shown within SS 3.2(which is what I used to load music onto both the 1000 and 3000)Gapless is only applicable with ATRAC. 3.Packaging.I do not know if the packaging is international-the units I have are from Japan-The outer wrapping is not shown,it is identical between models,and consists of very attractive metalic purple cardboard,very minimal otherwise.The internal plastic part that hold the players is made up of two parts-interchangeble between each box-The internal black box is made high quality materials. Under the white part to the left you will find several printed manuals(all very brief,stating the basics only-a pdf manual is on the CD-ROM)a AC cable,AC adaptor 'brick'very small and light with a standard usb jack.a multifunction cable to connect to the walkman(usb one end,plug with LEDon the other)The plug has two parts you press to attach and remove it from the player.A set of fontopia headphones with color co-ordinated accents,a headphone extension cable-making the total length about 1.5 meters.There is no removable battery,case,charging stand etc..etc..Thats it. The AC adaptor can be used to charge other network walkmans via usb-I have done it with two different models and have had no issues.This is great if you have to charge without needing to have a computer nearby. Charging is quick(faster than HD5)and battery life stated in press is pretty accurate-if not conservative.(I got about 22 hours from my A1000,using a variety of ATRAC bitrates). Build Quality is very good,both players are made of high quality polycarbonate plastic and metal(magnesium?aluminium?)-if you have a NW-E400/500 series walkman you will find the A1000 and A3000 to be very similar. The A3000 is 'heavy'-this is always mentioned when people first pick it up(again the E400/500 walkmans get the same comments.To me this is a plus-the players feel both 'solid' and high quality. SoftwareI do not have it(honest)It was not in the box-Japanese software is floating around,but english language software has not been distributed yet. Thats all for now,i hope this has helped you all. Photos really do not give these players the justice they deserve-in the flesh they are both really futuristic and tactile to use.(with one hand..lol)

there is no case. But i have used both for some time now(2 weeks)and have not a scratch on either. I am careful with my stuff(no keys,coins in same pocket)-so this is not such an issue for me. I have good eyes,and have not seen any 'micro scratches' at this point either. I clean them with a microfibre cloth,and if it does need to be in my bag(where it could bang around)I put it into a soft cloth bag that has been provided with other stuff. I have played with the optional cases too.The leather is nice but should be scotchguarded-'cos it gets really dirty(white leather?why?)The black slip case is almost the same as the PSP case. It gets fingerprints on it-but not to the extent of the PSP.

There is no clock or date function in either model.

I should be getting 'connect player'over the next few days(fingers crossed). I will endevour to answer any questions regarding it on this site ASAP. Any attempt to use any unique features of the hardware(artist link et.)are greeted by the request to .."connect appropriate software..." Cheers

Build quality is very good.Screen material is prone to fingerprints-but not anymore than E400/500 series. scratch resistance(so far!)is similar to the aforementioned products(very good) The battery life is lower due to the charging options-capacity capped to facilitate multi-use cable(usb/AC shared).-and speedier charging times.(dont quote me on this part-as I am only using usb.) Battery life is very good.My first few hours was almost totally occupied with playing with the GUI-without any reduction shown on the batt.indicator. Power save modes include 15sec screen shut off,and 'auto'shut off(about 20 secs) Power save cannot be disabled(so screen will be off most of the time). There is a 'screensaver'-consisting of a sort of 'shooting star'...but not too impressive. Screen is not very visible in direct light(like all of Sonys other mono-org.EL screens)-but this is not an issue with me(i dont like reading my display in the street like an ipod loser...lol). The 3000 I have has some light leakage from the 'artist link'key(upper left corner of unit)-indicating a less than perfect component seal-but its not noticible in everday usage-and my unit is not a a final indication of build. Depending on colour the screens edge matrix is visible through the plastic from some angles-just like on the red/pink e series players(again not an issue with me) The search features(not related to artist link-and connect player-as I have not used either yet)are very fast and fluid-noticibly smoother than the HD5. The search tree is from left to right(alphabetically)with the option of scrolling down within a group of letters(ie.a-c,d-f...)-indicated by a scroll bar to the right(not sure if that makes sense...lol)-overall a very very good search performance in all areas.(i only have a couple of hundred tracks on my 3000 and 1000-so this may differ with larger librarys-but I doubt it) -once selected a track is played virtually instantly. -hope this has answered some questions.