juli_

I also used to think classical music was for a 'particular stereotype' but it's definitely not. My mother used to play it all the time, record player, radio etc etc and I used to want to scream!! But millions of years on, and I'm really beginning to appreciate it. It's unlike anything else and I find it very relaxing and soothing. Also, my b/f likes classical occasionally, and he's a Rock/Blues man. . . people are always surprised to see classical in his collection Don't forget to report back once you've messed around with the EQ. I really don't find classical needs much EQ-ing at all, just a hint of warmth which makes it feel 'fuller' and a little less 'sharpness' which makes it easier on my ears.

GusG - I got it to work finally but it seemed a bit long winded and deviated from the initial simple instructions! I edited the .inf file first - and then I saved it to the desktop. Then I dragged it over to the device along with the .ico file. Then I rebooted and it showed up! I'd attach the screenshot but it's a Word doc and I can't make it anything else! Try it again, if it finally worked for me, it must work for you too and the icon looks so cool

sorry, see the next post

Time of failure: 23.37. . . I have exactly the same information in my device as GusG. I copied and pasted the files over, and edited the .inf as instructed. But I have to admit I don't know what I'm looking for! Where should the icon appear? On the unit itself???

Ha ha - I want to see what it looks like too. In fact, I'm going to try it right now, and I'll report back with time of failure

Were you trying to transfer large batches at the same time? I read other people complained of large transfers stalling during the process. Once they transferred smaller batches, it was OK. Sorry if this answer is out of context - I was too lazy to read the whole thread. . .

I want to try it too but haven't yet, as I know I'll waste hours of my life trying to figure out why it didn't work! What's supposed to happen when you drop it in the device? Where does the icon attach itself? I think I'll try it later just to confirm neither of us can do it . . .

aob9, I have my normalizer on and it sounds fine. I tried leaving it off to see if I could hear any difference at all, and the only difference to my ears is that's it's quieter with it off! I know many people leave it off as apparently you lose some of the dynamic range, and the frequencies are made louder, but it sounds equally good to me either way, and I certainly can't hear any negative effects at all. As for classical EQ, with my current headphones I set mine to CB+1 0 0 0 -1 0 but it depends what you're using as I used to set the EQ differently with my E4G for classical music. With the A808 headphones I left the EQ off altogether for classical and it sounded fine. Generally, I find classical needs a little added warmth on the 808, and a little less 'sharpness', hence my settings I 'tweaked' my classical EQ to Brandenburg Concerto No: 3 in G - First Movement, and those were the settings that sounded best to my ears. By the way, you don't have a 'strange' taste in music at all - it's diverse which gives you a lot of variety. If yours is 'strange' then mine must be 'certifiable'

mrgee, you need to decide which bitrate sounds good enough to your own ears. I don't think there is a 'commonly-used' bitrate, mainly because people use whatever suits them regarding space, sound quality etc. If you're happy with 64kbps, then use it. You can try encoding some songs at various bitrates and then pick the one that suits you best. I have various bitrates for my music, 256 for instrumental stuff, 192 for vocals, but you should just pick what sounds good to your own ears.

Mine shows up as a Walkman too, and I can also send songs to it via WMP, but they don't show up! WMP might recognise it as a Walkman, but the 706 isn't compatible with WMP

If they are the same EX82 headphones that come with the A808 - then isolation is pretty weak. The headphones themselves are very good in quiet places, but when I tried them on the train, I got very very little isolation from background noise. They way they fit into the ear means there's quite a lot of sound leakage and not a lot of isolation.

You're right, my b/f tolerates abysmal sound quality, so bad, that when he asks me to 'listen' to a song, my heart plummets I forgot the review was about an iPod

I often read reviews (from users also) that never mention sq at all. . . just the features, how many things it can do, how 'cool' it looks blah blah blah. The first thing I want to know is how does it sound, and editorial reviews should really cover this in more detail instead of telling us about wi-fi crap that has nothing to do with sound!

Oh, I didn't even think about a firmware upgrade. I just assumed that if the 706 'flips', so should the 808! I also love the on-the-fly bookmarking facility (and gapless playback). It's much easier to add as you listen, rather than trying to calculate in advance the type of playlist you want to hear.

It's great isn't it? I have mine set up in the kitchen/diner and the sound really does 'spread' through the whole room. It seems impossible but it does, and the quality is amazing for something so small. Are you using yours with the 808 or 706 or both? I have the same speaker system but with the wi-fi bit (which I don't use) and I can use the remote control to flip albums on the 706, but not on the 808!

Well, if advancedmp3 players are quoting this information on their website, I'd have to assume they got it straight from the horse's mouth. . . except which horses mouth? We've heard as many confirmations of an upgrade, as we have denials of an upgrade. My guess is there'll be a retraction of this quote very soon. . .

The A808 is also selling at play.com for £149.99 with free cradle. The player costs more, but would be a good deal for someone wanting the package. It doesn't seem to be the same speaker cradle they were giving away free at Argos, but the link's below. http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronic...html?dpr=101800

You'd think with something as important as this, that ALL Sony support sites would have been given the same information, ie; yes - a firmware date is available - or, no it isn't. It's quite maddening for them to give out conflicting information regarding the same subject. LOL - I love my 808 and have no need for the 818's features (even though I was convinced I did at the time!)

Have you tried dragging the album art straight onto the album cover? You should then get a message asking if you want to assign the album art to all tracks - click 'yes' if you do. Also, there's been a few threads on album art, so try searching as you'll find more detailed information than I can give you. I used to have problems with album art, but have since figured it out. Don't be fooled into thinking that the album art will display even if you can 'see' it's there in SS - drag it over anyway.

Wow, I would never have thought such a low bitrate could possibly be any good, but then I've never tried it. Might have to test it now out of curiosity! EDIT: I just compared a 256k with a 132k and didn't notice any quality loss at all, and I've always been really fussy about SQ!! I can't believe I didn't ever test out the lower bitrates in the first place, I just naturally assumed they'd sound bad. . . and they don't.

My ratings weren't showing, when I tried to rate a song, it would tell me to 'connect my device', but I've switched to advanced mode now, so I'll check the ratings later. As for the amount of albums I have on there, they're not entire albums. Some only have 3 or 4 songs in there (after cutting out what I didn't want!!), it looks like I have more than I actually do! So it's really useful to have the A-Z search work properly now.

So should I activate or deactivate advanced mode?

GusG, it worked! I think by the time I finish adding the rest, it will split into 3 sections instead of 2. Glad that was sorted out Tonyjaa - I can't get the ratings to show on my player and I'm scared to use auto transfer as I don't want to transfer everything from the library onto one player. Library stuff holds albums for the 706 too, and if I select auto transfer (to get my ratings to show) I'm sure everything that's not on the player with transfer!

Aaaah - I HAD 60 before I removed some last night - now I have 34, maybe I'll add more albums and see if the function comes back. Thanks GusG, you might just have brought something to light there!

I took this photo which shows only A-Z. Now I have to scroll individually