kerfuffle

The NW-E400 and NW-E500 series. Beautiful, but pricey. And agree with Rob A on the NW-HD1 as well. I used to get asked why I didn't get an iPod (which was cheaper than the NW-HD1, but I got the NW-HD1 at the same price as the iPod as it was on sale) a lot when I first bought it.

If you're a NRMA member, you can get ten percent off products from the Sony Style shop online.

I don't think you'll be able to find any other dock besides the Sony one; since the NW-A3000 isn't as popular as the iPod, there aren't many accessories for it by third-party vendors.

I think it's because that when MP3 manufacturers market their players, they use the rate that 1 GB = 1000 MB, whereas in reality 1 GB = 1024 MB.

I wouldn't mind a solution on this, either. Slightly off topic, but what I find annoying in SonicStage is that when you transfer songs, instead of going back to the group you transferred to (as in previous versions of SonicStage), it goes back to the beginning of the group list! It wouldn't be so bad if i) you had a scrolling mouse and ii) you didn't have many folders, but i) I use a touchpad, and the scrolling function doesn't work in SonicStage and ii) I have at least 150 folders in my Walkman. >.< Very annoying, especially if the tracks you just transferred are at the bottom of the group list.

For the second question, I believe that when you're changing the tags of your songs, it's only changing the tags of the MP3 file, not the converted ATRAC3plus file. That's why the changes are being registered on SonicStage, as your MP3 files are in the Library. For the first question, you can always delete the MP3 from the Library (not from the computer itself), then re-import the song so that when you look at the format, it'll show ATRAC3plus Hi-LP instead.

You pick an artist from the Artist mode - don't go into their albums or tracks. Going into their albums or tracks will just shuffle the songs by that particular artist. Not the best solution if you wanted to listen to a particular song from the 5th album listed of a particular artist first, but it's the only one I came up with so far.

Congratulations! I didn't have any 'Please Recycle' sticker on my Walkman - must be an American thing. Your NW-HD1 has black spots too? So it's not just mine, then. They were there from the beginning.

Unfortunately, it's not possible to copy files from an ATRAC CD to your NW-HD3.

O_O You can get ATRAC3plus bitrates under 132 kbps. ATRAC3 bitrates are 66kbps, 105kbps and 132 kbps, whereas ATRAC3plus bitrates are 48kbps, 64kbps, 96kbps, 128kbps, 160kbps, 192kbps, 256kbps, 320 kbps and 352kbps. I use ATRAC3plus at 64kbps. I don't mind the sound quality; it sounds pretty good when you rip the songs straight from the CD.

If you're picky about gaps between tracks, it's better to rip directly from the CD straight to ATRAC3plus.

O_O SonicStage does use Composer; in All Tracks view, you can search by Composer. Or did you mean that you can't look at your tracks according to the Composer on your Walkman?

Another downside - if you want to transfer anything to the NW-HD1 you must connect the power adaptor to the power socket, otherwise you'll get a message on the Walkman when you connect it to the computer asking you to connect the power adaptor.

SonicStage just transfers them as is, into a folder (known as Groups). If you don't specify what folder you want to transfer the song to, it'll make a new folder called New Group. If you want the tracks and groups to be sorted into a specific order, you have to do it manually. Hope that explanation helped.

Converting that to Australian dollars, which comes to about AUD$250 (I'm assuming you're American), it's a pretty good deal for a brand new one; I paid twice that two years ago.

I think the NW-HD3's made in Malaysia.

Yep, the tracks in the NW-HD1 stay in the order you put them on, in folders (or groups). You could make 26 folders for each letter of the alphabet, with all the tracks beginning with A in the A folder and so on.

Nope.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news (especially for a Walkman I love), but there's no Search function whatsoever on the NW-HD1.

The NW-HD1 does not alphabetise all your tracks. There's no playlist function. According to Sony, the NW-HD1's battery can last up to 30 hours, compared to the NW-HD5's 40 hours. I can't comment on whether the sound quality is the same as I've never listened to a NW-HD5 before. I'm not sure what you mean by the controls working the same way . . . If you want to switch from, say, Artist to Album, you press the MODE button. If you can live with all of that, go for the NW-HD1.

Nope. NW-HD1 wins hands down for me.

It'll cost money, though.

O_O He smells like a spammer to me. Both links in his signature lead to the same website.

^ My thoughts exactly. I can't understand why you would need a remote for a 2GB MP3 player.

The NW-HD1 for its looks, but the NW-HD5 for its capabilities (removable battery, playlist function, battery life, etc.) I'll pick NW-HD1 for the poll, though. xD