IpaqMan

My NWE005F earbuds came in all black. These are fair to poor earbuds compared to others you can buy for $20 or more. I tried them for a few minutes and immediately stowed them away. Even the Ipod earbuds sound better. You may be surprised at how much better your music sounds with better earbuds.

I have both the MDR-EX90LP and the MDR-EX85SL. To my ears, they EX85s sound about the same as the EX90. The EX85s are less expensive because of less expensive components and less sound quality testing. I have been using the EX85s the most because they are lighter, have a short cord, and a more robust strain relief on the earbud. The EX90 and EX85 are the best earbuds that I have ever used in terms of sound quality, comfort, and stay in the ear quality. My other earbuds have included the CX300, EX71, EX81, MD33, MX500, and E3C. The EX81 sounded very similar to the EX71. Personally, I did not like the over the ear piece of the EX81. The EX71 has a very strong bass. The bass seems to overwhelm the other frequencies. The EX90 has an excellent bass that does not drown out other frequencies. The EX90 is significantly better sounding than the EX71/81. Because of the driver design, the EX90 tends to stay in my ear much better than the EX71 did. IMHO, for about the same price, the EX85 is a much better value than the EX71/81.

I have the NW-S705F and love the included NC22 earphones. They are very similar to my MDR-EX90LP in terms of driver design and comfort. I bought the EX90 to replace my CX300. I like the CX300 but they would not stay in my ears for long periods (hours). I was constantly fiddling with the buds to reseal them. The EX90 and NC22 don't require as tight a seal and are more comfortable as a result. The large driver acts to lessen wiggle movements that tend to loosen IEMs. The only issue that I have read about is that the driver section may be too large for some ears, kind of like standard earbuds that are too large for some ears.

FYI, brand new Sony NW-S705F (pink) are selling for about $60 to $70 on Ebay currently. This is probably due to Woot.com dumping a load of pink and violet models for $50 / $60 early in May.

As of yesterday, you could buy a pink NW-S703FP from Buy.com with free shipping for $49.99 plus tax if applicable. That would be cheaper than any Sony replacement item. BTW, I found a web review which compares the earphones to isolating IEMs. The main point was that the Sony earphones were more comfortable than isolating IEMs. I have the Sony EX90s and they are definitely more comfortable than my Shure E3s. The EX90s are similar in style to the Sony S70x phones.

I had the same problem with SonicStage on one of my PCs. As soon as SS detected my NW-E005F, I would get the Omgjbox has encountered an error ..... When I restored my PC to a full image of one year ago, SonicStage 4.3 worked! I eventually found that a personal video recorder software program would break SonicStage, so I removed the PVR software and installed a different PVR. Now SS works on all of my PCs.