Dinko

From CNN: http://edition.cnn.com/2006/BUSINESS/01/18....ericsson.reut/ or just seek Sony Ericsson on the news sites.

Thanks!

Can you post a quick review? Always wondered what that CD was like.

I'm not quite sure what you're talking about there. I have an RCA Lyra and sound output is as good as Sony HDD players.

How is the volume relative to other earphones? I just noticed that with a pair of these, regardless of what player I connect them to, I have to increase the volume on the player in order to get the same level of sound that I get from other earplugs? Say I use a Sony device with volume normally at 15, with this pair I have to push volume up to 20 or 21 to get the same volume. So far I didn't care because the player was in my pocket and I didn't see the volume indicator, but two days ago I noticed that I had volume higher than what I used to have for the same songs with the earplugs that came with the player. SInce then, I tested these with other players, and compared with other earbuds, and the results are always the same: higher volume with the EX51 than other earplugs.

Samsung has a page up which acts as tutorial for people interested in digital audio players. It's the first time I see this version of it. Thought it might be interesting: http://www.samsung.ca/cgi-bin/nasecabc/en/...igitalaudio.jsp What's nice is that they have a relatively unbiased tutorial on digital audio in the first tab, then they have their promotional "Samsung's Digital Audio Edge" tab in which they claim Samsung's superiority. This is the most extensive yet easy to follow online info page I've seen so far about DAPs. No mention of ATRAC (duh!) but they do mention AAC so they might support that in the future. NB: Some of the info is specifically Canadian (Bonfire music download service, model numbers...)

There was another company from Taiwan that came up with a very similar clone calling it the iBob or something like that. That's probably what happens when you subcontract to third party suppliers. You give them all the technology and they beat you at your own game because the Nano has no video, no WMA playback, and no radio. The Nano probably has better battery life than the clones, but that's it. DAPReview had a page some time ago showing off a bunch of clones from China. There were knock-offs of the Sony Perfume Bottle/Stick Walkman series too.

Yup: http://www.mp3players.jp/exec/detail/B000BHLSKI/

All Sony NW-**** gadgets are limited to 5mW + 5mW. As for bass... I would still recommend different earphones. I got a pair of these and never use them because bass is way too heavy on Sony guizmos with those earphones: http://www.atraclife.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=665

2 hours is way too short. I get around 35-40 hours of playback on the 407 using ATRAC3 at 132kbps. Keep the player plugged in till it says something like "FULL" or "FULLY CHARGED". If you still get low playback time, then there must be something wrong with the player. There's no way that even 360kbps mp3 files will cut the battery from 50 to 2 hours under normal conditions.

If it's anything like the F-series Gigabeat, it should be pretty nifty and beat the crap out of the video iPod. About the F-series: - the hardware is very good. At first, when I saw it for real in the store, I thought it looked really cheap. But then it turns out it's some kind of aluminium casing or solid-feeling metallic-like plastic. - the "PlusTouch" control pad is easier to control than the iPod scroll wheel (slightly less sensitive and doesn't require rolling your fingers all day, you just keep your finger pressed on the botton and it scrolls down really fast). - doesn't scratch that easily and doesn't attract fingerprints like iPod - much more customizable than iPods (wallpapers, menu design, menu font, menu direction, screen direction) - on-the-go features: delete track, USB-on-the-Go (requires adaptor or the cradle) - album skip! Remember those Sony MD remotes that allow you to skip a group or album? The Gigabeat F-series does the same thing on the device itself. Very handy when you have 200 albums on there but you only want to skip to the next one without scrolling around the menu. - programmable button: Toshiba calls it "A-button" and there are a number of functions you can associate with it. - different connectors all of which can be useful according to the situation: proprietary plug for cradle, standard mini-B USB jack & dedicated power plug (the mini USB & dedicated power plug are redundant if using the cradle). but that's about the F-series. The S-series appears to have radio, a slightly different button layout, and good features from the F-series may not have been retained for the S-series. I'm certainly looking forward to the future Gigabeat gadgets.

That Sansa e200 looks really interesting. If I were in the market for a new mid-capacity player, Sandisk's 6GB of flash memory + loads of features including an expansion slot would make it my top contender, ahead of Samsung, Apple's Nano, or just about anyone else.

Never gotten a BSOD, but I did get freeze-ups during boot up when I had forgotten my Hi-MD player connected to the PC with a minidisc inside. If there was no minidisc, the PC started fine. Probably just part of the computer's specs being able to boot from an external drive if needed, and it just can't recognize the files on the external USB device.

Cool! Congratulations & Welcome!

It's another Sony public relations fiasco if it ever catches fire in the mass media: "SONY USES EU, ASIA, CANADA FOR PRE-US MARKET TESTING" From a marketing perspective it is an interesting strategy. They are willing to frustrate a certain portion of customers in the whole world, so they can test a product prior to launching in the largest and possibly most crucial market. They are already aware of the CONNECT problems, and working to fix them. Obviously it is not just their internal people having trouble. I complained to a person in marketing at Sony of Canada, and I am sure there are others around the world who complained directly to Sony, instead of posting on the message boards. The problem being, that this risks affecting people's relationship with the company even further. Like you, mgillespie, I don't like being taken for a guinea pig without my consent. There are newspaper ads for human guinea pigs in laboratory testing. All of them offer to pay the testers. With Sony's new Walkmans, we are paying to have that privilge. Even without releasing the product in the US, they are already affecting US opinion amongst those people who are interested in DAP gadgetry and who access the Internet. It's not the most widespread group perhaps, but it does represent a certain portion of the DAP-buying public. The instability of the CONNECT software (works for some, not for others) just gives people the image that Sony still can't get it right, so why bother when you can go to the competition?

I like the tone of their response. Too often customer service by email results in weird replies (mean, accusatory, badly worded...) That said, my PC comes with the factory installed WindowsXP and Connect player still doesn't work, and Sony still couldn't do anything to help. So there goes that argument.

No. Sony devices wrap the files in OMG protection. Toshiba devices add a similar *.SAT extension. The iPod hides the files from Windows Explorer, but if you ask Explorer to show hidden files and folders, you'll see the actual AAC files and they are playable as if they had just been dragged and dropped, although I haven't tried playing them on other computers, they appear to be regular AAC files, no extra extensions or DRM. Haven't tried mp3s on the iPod. Other than that, I know from experience that (at least some if not all) Samsung & RCA player leave the files as they are. You can drag and drop files on them. Some RCA players require you to run "Device Profiler" which organizes all the ID3 tags, you can do it through the computer, or on the device itself. Samsung just accepts drag and drop, no profiling required. I can't speak first hand about other brands, but Cowon & others reportedly accept simple drag and drop, or at the very least don't add stupid DRM like Sony & Toshiba.

No problem at all. You can authorize two (or more) ATRAC devices on the same computer with SonicStage (I don't know about CONNECT). You can easily use the different ATRAC devices with the same computer. You can transfer the same playlists or tracks to more than one device.

Hello and welcome to the boards. Yup. Couldn't fix it. Since you're having issues with Connect, your best bet might be to move to SonicStage 3.3. Keep in mind however that some of the A3000 features will not function with tracks transferred by SonicStage.

Primarily (80%) classical and film scores. I spend the other 20% listening to just about anything and everything else. Except jazz. I don't know why, but jazz gets on my nerves and makes me angry. This preference for orchestral music also governs my preference for ATRAC devices. ATRAC reproduces orchestral sounds much better at convenient bit rates (132kbps) than any other format, and it's gapless.

No, but you might have some luck with RealPlayer. When I connect an NW-E407 RealPlayer says the device has no media inserted because it treats the player as a Memory Stick Walkman. When I connect an NW-E99, RealPlayer recognizes the device. You might try RealPlayer, but Windows Media Player is completely incompatible with Sony devices.

Bit of a misunderstanding there. The problem isn't repeat playback, its "stop playback". See, virtually every player out there that I've come across plays one playlist, then the next, then the next. If you want to play one playlist repeatedly, you can choose to do so by "Repeat". If you want to play one Album and stop the player, you often have the option of playing just one album. At the very least, there is some way to either make the player play all the time, or stop after a specified playback period. Which the A*000 does not. It's always plays one, then stops. And I could find no way to make it play every playlist one after the other, or every album one after the other. Now, I can see where you're coming from, but the player should have one of two options: 1) Either it plays everything, and allows you to tell it to only play one playlist/album and stop afterwards (RCA Lyra being one example of a company that does that), or 2) It plays only one album or playlist at a time, and gives me the option to play everything in a row (Apple iPod being one example) until the battery dies. The new Sony models forgot about that. They just stop and give no options. Something that should be easily corrected in future firmwares.

Just when you gave me hope. Oh well... maybe in the next firmware.

Are you saying it played back Song 1 from the same album? That's even weirder if you have it in normal mode and not on Repeat.

Sadly, yes. Every time I played an album, it played all the songs within the album, then stopped, and went back to the menu. If no action was taken, the player powered off. I tried different modes, but nothing changed. It kept stopping at the end of each album. Same thing if I chose to play by Playlist or Artist.