JamieB

I would have thought that loading Sonicstage with the device attached would re-sort the tracks into order, I know mine wasn't affected by the defragmentation. Jamie

Hi there, Just to let anyone with a bogged-down NW-A3000 know, mine is about 60% full (nearly all tracks are 192kb Atrac3+) and I found that although not as slow as other's have said their units are, it was a lot slower than when I originally bought it back in January. I use firmware v 3.0 and I didn't get on with Sonicstage CP so I am using v 3.4. Anyway, I have tried to defrag it using the Win XP defragger, which made it a little faster, however, I then thought I would try a defragger which was a stand-alone program (these are usually better than the programs built into Win XP, eg Registry Cleaner). I went to www.download.com and tried Diskeeper 10 on a free trial (you need only defrag the machine once) and it made an INCREDIBLE difference! The unit is faster now than ever. I ddn't try any other programs, so I don't know if they would perform better or worse than the one above, but I am very happy with the result. The only problem with Diskeeper 10 compared to Win XP defrag is that it takes AGES to complete! Hope this helps, Jamie

Maybe I have been running it down for totally no reason then! What a fool I am. I simply meant that the full, then half full, then a bit empty stages seem comparatively equal, whereas the nearly empty stage seems to last a great deal longer- I guess it is designed to give the owner leeway so they recharge the player before it dies (much like an empty fuel warning on a car). Well at least I know now not to run the battery to totally empty every month or so (saying that, it just died on me in work... it'll be a quiet afternoon!) Cheers, Jamie

Cheers for the tip, unfortunatley I have totally uninstalled Connect from my PC, I couldn't wait to remove it (thinking stupidly that there would be no glitches with SS v4.0). I think I'll just use SS v3.4 until a better version of SonicStage is released. Thanks for letting us know, Jamie (Oh, has anybody else realised how long the player takes to 'fully drain' the battery? It seems to go from full, to almost empty fairly quickly, but then stays on nearly empty for AGES. I tried to do a monthly total drain of the battery and had it playing on the 'empty' display for almost a whole day!)

I think that Sony have forgotten what this machine is all about... playing music. I don't need to be told what artists are similar to the one I just listened to, I bought all the music that is on the player without this silly function! Basically, all I want the player to do is turn on (quickly), play the music that I ask it to play (which is stored in a sensible, easy to find order) and play the music with good sound quality and long battery life. I think the NW-A3000 has the latter points sorted, I can't fault the sound and the length of life the player has. But I just see no point in these gimmicky features (like the clock, screensaver, calendar, artist link, etc) and feel that the software is targeted at these gimmicks. The only way I found to get the artist order back to alphabetical was to uninstall SS v4.0 and re-install SS v3.4. I haven't installed SS v4.0 since. I don't even keep the music that I have transferred from my CD collection on my pc, as it caused it to operate so slowly. I only have the atrac3plus and mp3 fles stored on the player. I know I'm in trouble if the player has a fault or I lose the tracks, but I have all the albums that I have transferred over on hard copy anyway. I just hope that Sony bring out a rapid update to both the firmware and the software, removing these glitches and gimmicks and enhancing the usability of both SonicStage and the NW series of players. Jamie

I have defragmented my NW-A3000 twice now (both times it was hardly fragmented at all). I have used around 9 Gig of space, and I found it was quite fast before the v3.0 firmware update. I expect using SonicStage v4.0 has made it even slower. The shutdown screen is reminiscent of the startup screen on a Sega Megadrive/Genesis, all pixelated. I have absolutely no care about the animation/screensaver/clock/calendar etc, these things are useless to me. My CD player has none of these trivialities, why does Sony insist on putting them on this player? I would rather they spent time speeding up everything than giving me these functions I will never use. It would be VERY good if they could alter the length of time the player will remain on pause before shutting down- if they created an "automatic turn off after x seconds" option, I would be very happy. As it is, if I answer the phone, print off something, talk to someone, the machine turns off after 10 or so seconds, then, after the v3.0 update, takes a while to go back to playing the track. What a pain. J

I was so annoyed that I simply switched back to the old version, I din't spend long looking at what the upgrade had done to the list. All I know is that before the first few artists (when sorted by artist) on the player were AC/DC, Arcade Fire etc, whereas after the upgrade this order was changed, but I wasn't sure about the exact layout. What program do you use to load the player? If I didn't have to use that program, then I wouldn't! When you say "it makes it too slow" do you mean the pc you are using, or the player? Do you know of a way I can speed up my player, now that I have slowed it down? Sorry for all the questions! The artists seem to be displayed in a bizarre order, with the album title AND artist title being used to create the list. Now that I have put SonicStage v3.4 back on, it reverted to normal alphabetic artist display. I have defragmented the player, but I find it takes longer to load up from 'off' now than previously, and longer to jump from 'now playing' back to the artist list. Many thanks for any help, J

Just in case anybody has a similar problem, I have now removed ver 4.0 and gone back to 3.4 with no problems, all back in alphabetical order (big sigh of relief). I'd like to put ver 4.0 back on, if anybody knows how I can work around this that'd be great. Cheers, Jamie (PS- I recommend Sennheiser CX-300 IEM's if you want a cheap and noticeable upgrade from the stock NW-A3000 buds)

Right- I have the latest firmware for my NW-A3000. and thought I'd update Sonicstage to version 4.0 from 3.4 (which worked fine). Not only have I noticed that my player is slower after the 3.0 firmware update, since hooking it up to the new Sonicstage, the artists are now no longer stored in alphabetical order (the logical way) they are displayed under album title, on both Sonicstage and the player. This is no use to me at all. I'm going to have to register for the Minidisc forum, uninstall ver 4.0, reinstall 3.4 and PRAY that the artists are re-organised into alphabetical order. If not, I am going to be very annoyed... Has this happened with anyone else, and if so, how did they fix it? J

Haha, I know what you mean mate. My vice used to be car stereo, spent an absolute FORTUNE on hi-fi for the car (possibly the biggest waste of money ever recorded). Ah well, we are all young once. I think that, for the cost, the Sennheisers represent extremely good value. As I previously mentioned I had considered Etymotic Er-6i's or Westone UM1's but both seemed a little too steep for me. I am very happy with the CX300's and have already mentioned them to a number of my mates who have (wait til the coast is clear) Ipods. Anyway, the cheapest place I saw them was discountdiscs.co.uk for £31.99 delivered, if you save up and want to buy them. Right, I'm off to the pub- Jamie

I borrowed a mate in work's EX71's a week prior to me purchasing the CX300's. I wasn't impressed with them. They were far more boomy in the bass department, had a sibilance that I cannot stand (not as bad as the standard Sony NW-A3000 buds, but getting close) and I found they were far less 'open' than these CX300's. The sound was very 'pinched' if you get my drift? These audio-descriptive terms aren't very helpful I know. The main difference was the weight of the buds + cable, the Sennheisers are far lighter, and as such, less heavy in the ears and easier to wear. I also think the CX300's are slightly easier to drive. I have never used a pair of the Creative's, sorry. Hope that helps, Jamie

Hi again, Just a quick review of the Sennheiser CX-300 in-ear phones, which were one of the 3 different IEM's I was considering buying to replace the stock NW-A3000 earbuds (other options were Westone UM1's @ £100 or Etymotic ER-6i's @ £75) but in the end, after reading many opinions (mainly at Head-Fi) I opted for the Sennheiser's @ £32. First of all, I am seriously impressed. These blow away the stock earbuds and the Senn PX200's I also have. The fit is spot on, not uncomfortable at all (unlike the stock buds) and the isolation is also impressive. The sound far surpasses my expectations. The bass is tight, not wooly and lumpy like other phones I've tried. There is none of the ear-destroying sibilance which plagued me with the stock ear buds, and the sound is overall far 'tighter' than the PX200's. The cable is much lighter than the Sony's, which means that it doesn't get caught on my clothes at all, and also doesn't pull on my ears in the same way as the stock buds did. Finally, the tips are soft rubber/silicone, and come in 3 sizes, and I have no problem with fit at all. I would say that the mids are slightly recessed, in comparison with my older open Sennheisers, but at £32 I really can't complain. Another bonus? They are even easier to drive than the Sony stock buds! All in all, I am a happy man. As for the bitrate query, I have tried these CX-300's with the lossless format, as well as the other lower rates, and I think that 132kbps Atrac3 is certainly fair enough quality for the space consumed. All I need now are a load of new albums to put on my Walkman! Cheers, Jamie

Oh yeah, I've had a quick listen in work to the 352kbs Atrac3+ file again, but it isn't marked on the player under 'detailed information' as 352kb Atrac3+, just 352 kb Atrac. Is this correct? I noticed that they aren't classed as Atrac3+ in Sonicstage on the compression options screen either. Am I being totally useless? This is with SS 3.4. Cheers, J

Well. I had a very quick go last night at comparing my 132kb Atrac3 version of a few Nils Lofgren songs from his 'Acoustic Live' album, with 192kb Atrac3, 352kb Atrac3+ and 352kb Atrac3 Lossless (using amped/unamped PX200 and stock Sony earbuds) and I have to be honest, I couldn't hear a HUGE amount of difference. One thing that was obvious was that I need new headphones though! The sibilance from the Sony earbuds was painful, I had a go with Coldplay's 'Spies' track, and when Chris Martin was singing the treble in certain sections was not good at all (with the stock buds). I think the only option is to take the plunge and get some upgraded IEM's, and then re-try the listening test. I'd be more than pleased if I don't have to re-rip my entire CD collection. Jamie

If I get a chance over the next few days I'm going to rip a few tracks I know really well in to various compression types, have a listen with my Senn PX200's and the stock buds, amped and un-amped, and post a report on here. It is a bit frustrating that nowhere seems to have the mid-range IEM's for trial, I guess I'll have to just keep reading around and see which would suit me best. I think that the ER6i's are looking the best bet so far, I can get them a little cheaper than the UM1's as well. I'll post again with my findings in a bit, Jamie