Paidinfull

Obviously it's necessary to connect my HD-5 to the mains to recharge, although with it's world beating battery life it's not something I find I need to do all that often. However, it says in the manual that when I've got it hooked up via usb to my pc in order to transfer files and playlists and so on using Sonicstage, I should also connect it to the mains. I've not bothered with this on a few occasions, because I've forgotten, and no harm done. Is there a reason why you're told to do this? Isit strictly necessary? The only reason I could think of is that something might go awry if the battery were to run down completely and switch itself off mid-transfer. But I thought that you were charging the battery via the usb when it's connected to your pc anyway. Can anyone advise?

In looking around for info on the HD5, I notice that HD3s are still available, at pretty cheap prices. How do the two compare? Is there any substantial difference in the HD5, apart from more attractive looks and different buttons?

Until Tuesday, when it was stolen, I had a 30gb Creative mp3 player. I'm now looking at replacements, and the Sony NW-HD5 has a lot of attractive aspects. It's much smaller than my old player, equally good or better battery life(the reason I don't want an ipod) and it's cheap. However, all my music is mp3, and there's no way I'm converting it all to another format, and I don't like the sound of what I'm hearing about how the Sony handles mp3 tagging. My old Creative would occasionally put albums in alphabetical order rather than the correct running order, which is really annoying, and if this is what the Sony will do with my mp3 albums it's off my list, as being able to play an album in the correct order is a must for me. Can anyone shed any light on this?