Zizone_

Well, at least Sony is determined to pursue improvement in sound department, whereas others are adding functinalities that have nothing to do with the sound. Naturally, it comes down to what each individual prefer when buying a product, the one that is most benefial to a person. One thing I don't get is that they show such an enthusiasm in making fun of others when they themselves claim they have no interest in products, i.e. Walkman.

you know, in the past, I tried using really old version of SonicStage on Windows XP and it worked. So I am optimistic that SS4.3 will be functional for at least few years on Windows XP and Vista. just maybe, we are little bit over paranoid... though the concerns regarding SS and current Walkman are totally understandable.

I think this year was Sony's transition year, so alot of good and bad things happened. Sony's Walkman future shouldn't be judged by this year's performance or marketing alone. In fact, it was American consumers who wanted Sony to drop ATRAC and SonicStage (most of Sony's criticisms regarding ATRAC and SS came from US), which delayed NW-A800 series launch and gave birth to NWZ-810 and NWZ-610 series. This fact alone shows that Sony is still interested in U.S. consumers and willing to adopt new policy as poplulation's standars or demand changes. Hopefully, we will see more flexible policy is adopted by Sony to be competitive in U.S. market. At the same time, without trying for something new with full support, such as blu-ray, beta, ATRAC, etc., how can the new innovations prevail? It will be interesting to see how Sony changes marketing plan accordingly to ever changing consumer demands.

In Japanese market, S series is vacant (NW-S700 series is discontinued), which means there is a room for new Walkman; hopefully it is not going to be NWZ-610 series. Traditionally, whenever this happens, new products are introduced within short duration. Though, I highly doubt NWZ-S610 series will replace NW-S700 series; NW-S700 and new NWZ-610 are totally different in terms of functionality. There were almost always more than one type of S series in the past at the same given time. New Walkman that is similar to NW-S700 series and new headphones MDR-EX700SL will make my year.

one way you can easily tell NC on is to look for blue/green NC~ logo on the screen.

Yeah, this Walkman is really for audio/music without any unnecessary functions. Plus, it has great design.

haha yeah. I never tried to play album songs gaplessly and didn't even know it was not possible. Yeah, and I agree with on your comment that DAP should follow artist's intention.

also, like someone mentioned above, I prefer a player that I can navigate through songs without really looking at a player. i really wish Sony will come up with next Walkman with NW-S700 casing and jog-shuffle design.

since when did digital audio player turned into digital video player? so many people give too much credit to video and toughscreen things... Sound. sound. sound... not that other features are bad, but focus of DAP development seems to be off lately.

? Sony Walkmans support AAC playback natively for some time.

As for me, I only appreciate gapless for live albums. But for regular album tracks, I prefer having gap of 1 to 2 seconds; I feel like each song has its own sacred realm that can't be in direct contact with other songs, even those songs may be from same album/CD. Well, that's just me though.

I think they just killed long running S series design tradition with this NWZ-S610... I mean, its design really cannot be compared to NW-S700 or NW-S200 series.

Has anyone tried SS with new Walkmans? I haven't heard whether it supports SS or not.

Toshiba's Gigabeat also uses WMP11 right? or am I wrong? If it is the case, I haven't heard compatibility issues.

There should be noticeable difference. Check to make sure your NC level is not low: home→settings→Advanced Setting→NC... I think, then you can chage level of noice cancellation.

maybe you can use both WMP and SS. but ATRAC wasn't mentioned so...

Sony USA: "MP3/WMA/AAC Audio Codec Support3, PCM Supports playback of MP3 and WMA DRM and non-DRM audio files downloaded from multiple sources. Also supports non-DRM AAC content, giving you multiple options for downloading music the way you want." but no ATRAC... hmm.. This is because NWZ-A800 series uses WMP 11.

Well, I certainly hope so... since this gum shaped casing and jog-shuttle is what first brought me into Sony's flash Walkmans. Plus, there has to be a better or at least equivalent quality of design as NW-S700 series; this NWZ-S610 series just won't do for me.

Please don't tell me that NW-S700 series is going to get replaced by that design...

I think it is too early to say Sony gave up U.S. DAP market just by looking at the disappearance of flash Walkman on US Sonystyle.com The best DAP they had on US sonystyle was NW-S700 series. When US Sonystyle dropped NW-S700, so did the JP.sonystyle.com. So, this may suggest that new product is about to be released.

Both Sony Japan and USA no longer displays NW-S700 series... well, i would like to believe that it is more than a coincidence.

S Series Link There was another interview I read when NW-S700 series was just released on jp.sonystyle.com but I can't find it anymore.

I think it is fair to say that WAV is adaptation of Windows for Linear PCM; and yes, NW-S700 supports both AAL and Linear PCM playback.

Oh really? For some reason, Sony Japan does not list linear PCM...

NW-A800 series support AAC, MP3, WMA, ATRAC and ATRAC Advancd Lossless but not WAV. Strage thing is that NW-E010 series support WAV but not ATRAC Advanced Lossless while NW-S700 series support both.