Hmmm sorry if I've missed it but is there a conclusive answer to this query yet? I have an A 808 and A 818...the ATRAC 808 has considerably more volume than the 818 which has the annoying habit of 'dipping' the volume at high frequencies. I have checked that the awful AVLS is turned OFF. Infact the atrac version beats the windows version hands down for both sound quality and stability of playback