juli_

I have the Triple.Fi's and they sound excellent with the 829. I can't hear any hiss, or if there is any, it's negligible. I think the 829 is more neutral than the 808. I found the Triples/808 combo to be too warm, and more balanced with the 829. It still has 'punch', and I don't hear any 'processed' sound whatsoever. That's with absolutely no EQ or any effects applied at all. They sounded a little too bright with the Zune though. As for the E500, I didn't like them at all with the 808.

Rum Mp3tag and let it pick up all your music. Then click one of the top menus to view by album. That way they'll all be in alphabetical order. Highlight an an individual album (it will go blue), then right clight and choose "Extended Tagging". Click the red cross X on the right of the menu that pops up and then click OK. It will delete all existing screwed up artwork. The click the + symbol and navigate to where your chosen album art it, and click OK. You'll see a message saying 'saving tags' or something. Then you should see the album cover in the left hand preview pane of Mp3tag. If you scroll down the tracks you'll see the album art is the same for each track. I haven't had a single failure yet, it's time consuming, but it works. I've written all this from memory, so if it doesn't work (!!!), tell me, and I'll run the program and note all the steps.

I ended up using Mp3tag to sort out ALL my album art on my 829 yesterday. I didn't know I could do it in 'batch' form, but once I did, it was fine. Now every single track has the correct album art. It took a while, but it worked, which is the main thing. There's nothing worse than spending hours on something, only to find out it didn't make the changes. I had certain albums displaying 5 different covers on the 829 (covers that were not even on my hard drive anymore!), so it was nice to finally sort it out!

Sorry, no idea why the pictures were duplicated. I checked and only 2 attachments were inserted.

I had exactly the same problem until prankz (thank you prankz!!) told me to go WMP > Tools > Options > then click the 'privacy tab' along the top menu and take OUT the tick in the 2 boxes beneath: "Enhanced playback and Device experience" I also make sure my library settings don't override anything either (see second pic). I am going to try that program you said worked for album art. Since switching to WMP with the 829, I'm going crazy with all the covers displaying incorrectly under individual songs, especially as the covers have been physically deleted. Does WMP have some long-term memory or something???

Hey Zizzy!! I just got my 829 today and what can I say? I LOVE it with all my heart!! The soundstage is the single biggest difference that I hear You were right, it IS bigger. One of the reasons I was holding on to the Zune 80 was because of the soundstage. It really is much bigger than the 808, and while it lacks the Sony 'punch', it more than makes up for it in sheer dynamics and space. But. . . the 829's soundstage (to my ears), is halfway between the 808 and the Zune. It's just perfect. I hear virtually the same sound signature over a larger area, which makes it seem slightly more neutral than the 808. Either way, I'd have to say this is my most favourite Sony player (sound quality wise), to date. I was fully expecting not to perceive any difference in sq - so it was a lovely and unexpected surprise to hear the improvement over the 808. If I imagine the difference between the 706 and 808 to be a 50% improvement in sq, then I'd say the difference between the 808 and 829 is at least 30%. It's certainly noticeable to my ears P.S The 829 is barely any bigger than the 808, but it looks quite a lot bigger in the pictures. And on a positive note, the 829 fits the speaker cradle for the 706 and 808 models!!

Well, I caved in and got the NWZ-A829 So much for my resolution not to buy it!! I just can't be trusted. Anyway, it will be here tomorrow and I'm really curious about the soundstage compared with the 808. I know Zizone said it's slightly bigger than the 808 so I'll be looking forward to hearing for myself. If it's comparable with the Zune soundstage then I'll definitely sell the Zune.

Hahahaha, yes!! However, it's a woman's privilege to change her mind at least seventeen times

Both the Denon AH-C551 and C700 pair really nicely with the Sony. The sonic differences between the 2 are that the C551 has slightly less treble extension and slightly more bass impact. But the C700 is definitely not short on bass. However, if you're sensitive to treble in any way, the C551s are a really good bet. Both phones play very loud, and I rarely listen to more than 15/30 with either of them. If you go to Head-Fi and do a search for both of them, you'll find quite a lot of information. You can get the C700s from Amazon UK for £70 (half the price they used to be last year!), but they don't stock the C551s. You can get the C551s from eBay for about £50. I have 2 new pairs of them now along with the C700 (have to have backups!!) and I like them both equally. The C551 has a smaller aluminium housing than the C700 which makes the fit better for people who like to wear them over the ears. Anyway, if you get time, go and check Head-Fi, as both pairs get really positive reviews. If you end up wanting a pair of C551s (and don't want to go the eBay route for whatever reason), I can sell you a pair of mine. I don't really need 2 pairs of C551s, I was being greedy

Well, after a couple of automated responses from Amazon, I finally got a 'human' to reply. He said he'd pass over my query to the relevant department as he couldn't understand the reasoning behind the price increase. And today when I checked, it's back to the original price of £209. So there was clearly a misprint somewhere.

markey, I did check Advanced MP3 players to make sure they were still showing the same price as before, which they were. But I can't understand why Amazon increased the price by so much, and I wonder if AMP and any other stockists are about to do the same. AMP won't have it in stock until April 30th anyway. stuge - £200 is a joke, but £300 is a whole half-hour sitcom!! So US citizens get to buy it from Amazon.com for the same price in dollars as we pay in pounds, I'm going to wait until it reaches £1000, and then I will buy two.

I just checked Amazon again for availability of the 829 and the price has changed from the already monstrous £229 to the unbelievably ludicrous price of £305.43!! How is this possible? It's literally twice the price of the US model and now Amazon have increased the price by almost £100? Why would they do that? It's not from the marketplace, it's listed as direct from Amazon. Who's going to pay over £300 for it when we were already moaning about the £200 price tag? I'd like to ask Amazon about it, but I have no idea who deals with price changing. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-NWZA829K-16GB...2485&sr=1-1

You can't get more volume than the maximum it's capable of producing - but if you're using the supplied headphones, they don't isolate very well and you'd probably be better off buying a decent set of isolating earphones. It's easier to get extra volume that way. P.S. None of my business but wanting volume to make your ears 'bleed' (when your hearing has already been compromised), might not be such a good idea! Your hearing will deteriorate a lot faster.

lowball, as the Sony's only 2 weeks old, do you have the original receipt for warranty purposes?

I get that message regularly. It always happens when the songs are already in SonicStage. Today I transferred 2 albums to SS, but I didn't see them go across to the library - so I dragged them over again and got the same message "can't import songs. . . " When I checked the SS library, I found the albums had already gone across, I just hadn't seen them. SonicStage won't put the same albums in twice. Check to see if that's what happened. It might not be, but it's worth a try. And look in the library to see if the albums you might have transferred without realising, have been split into separate tracks (just in case you don't see the actual album.)

What were the files you told it not to convert? wma lossless? Or something else?

And your 45 euros I hope!! Don't you love the implied threat about water damage??? Anyway, at least you'll get it back. I wonder how they can repair an unreplaceable battery?

OH! No you can't. They won't ship electronics outside the UK (same policy as Amazon.com) You can ask someone to buy it for you and ship it over but then the price would be more to include postage. I can get it for you if you really want it.

Yes. That's the one. A 12-month warranty is reassuring at least. Yes, but I don't need another 808 so I ain't searching for my own link

I posted a link to a refurbished 808 on Amazon UK for less than £80 ($160). It comes with a 12-month warranty as well. Sadly, I can't remember which thread I posted the link in

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!! Under Library tab, everything was already unchecked - but in the Privacy options, the first box was checked. I've taken the tick out, so let's see what happens Thanks for that, much appreciated!

Funnily enough, despite thinking I was an 'accomplished WMP user' - I did not know about the 'monitor folders' option! I always used the 'add to library' function which was more long winded. So I've learnt something new Now here's a poser for you. I have everything disabled in WMP so it does NOTHING on its own. And yet, occasionally I'll notice my album art has changed. For example, I have a nice Mike Oldfield 'Ommadawn' cover which has been happily minding its own business for months, and then suddenly, it decides to display a Pink Floyd cover instead. I have this type of thing happen every couple of weeks, then I have to go back and change everything again. What's SPOOKY, is 'what' is changing it if internet access has been disallowed under WMP options? It's as if a naughty gremlin is shuffling around in my music folder when I'm not looking and swapping covers willy nilly! As for the 'sync' feature, yes, it's excellent. I bought my sister in law the little B105 and set it up before I sent it to her, and the sync was very fast and efficient.

I guess you haven't used SonicStage as your main music manager then. WMP is 'easy to use' when you've been using it for years (like I have), but if you've been used to other software, then WMP isn't as simple as it looks. The default settings for 'rip' are set to 128kbps (markey, check the settings in the options), and there are various other settings that need to be looked at and changed, ie; "Check internet for media info". If I leave the box checked (as the default) all my album art gets changed from what it was, to what WMP thinks it should be! The default settings need to be tweaked in various ways before even starting!

It's nothing to do with WMP, it's because SS 'hides' the music in its own location, whereas everything in the Music folder is easily viewable in WMP. I remember spending many a fruitless hour looking for my mp3s. I couldn't figure out where they were for a LONG time. But once you know how to access the stupid SS 'hidden' folder, it's easy to transfer them to the Music folder, and then they'll show up in WMP.

If you have Vista, there's a giant circle with the Windows logo on it in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. It's what you click on to access the 'start' menu