pata2001

Wrong. Clear atereo option is available regardless of headphone. Although I've yet to notice the difference.

Old news, China only, and no Atrac.

FLAC is a lossless codec supported by many hardware devices (Cowon, rockbox). There's also Apple lossless and WMA lossless. So pretty much everybody has their own lossless codec. The fact that Atrac lossless is propietary, and cannot be easily converted to other formats outside Sonicstage, really makes it a weak offering. I mean let's face it. If Sony is so confident in Atrac, then why did they contribute to the development of AAC?

LP2 didn't fare too well mainly because Sony hardly ever improves the codec. When was the last time Sony tuned the Atrac3 codec? Noone knows, probably never. Same thing with WMA. That is the problem with propietary codecs. In contrast, Lame MP3 is improved and tuned on a regular basis, maximizing the aging MP3 codec. Same thing with Vorbis and AAC. There's no such thing as Atrac2. Vorbis is open source. Sony is controlled by Sony music, who prefer to control their content, and using an open source codec does not match their interest. At least Sony developed and now is supporting AAC.

Sony tends to color their SQ, especially using Mega bass/Groove/Clear bass, IMO mainly to compensate the commonly crappy stock bud E808, plus the old premium stock bud E838 is not bassy at all. Boomy bass != good sound quality. I used to be a stock bud basshead (gotta love the Sony "Groove" sound on their cassette walkmen), but after getting and experiencing better headphones with better frequency response range, I conclude that almost any recent DAP will sound good using a good headphone, even without EQ. The limitting factor is the headphone/earbud. Good thing Sony is improving in terms of stock bud, at least with the S70x (except the hiss problem) and A80x. I don't notice the difference of Clear Stereo.

While we're at it (all these questions are based on true stories, really!) Can I play my VHS on a DVD player? Can I play my DVDs on a CD player? Can I play my NES games on an ATARI? Can I play my Playstation games on an Xbox? Can I play blu-ray/HD-DVD on my DVD player? Can I play MP3s on my (legacy)MD player? Can I play my MDs on the PSP? Of course, the famous "Can I run windows on a Mac?" is now true.

Any cheap over the shelf $300 PC will do. My recommendation: -Use WinXP, you don't want to waste money having to buy more memory just for Vista. Besides SS is presumably more stable under XP anyway, and I think iTunes still has problems with Vista -Once you're set on XP, 1GB RAM is plenty. You can even get by with 512MB, but I'd go 1GB if you decided on integrated graphic with shared video ram. -Almost any modern processor will do, even single core. SS is not optimized for multi-core, so buying multi-core CPU for SS is a waste of money. Of course, many current CPUs are dual core already. A cheap A64 or A64 X2 is probably good enough. If you have to go intel, then get the E4300. I dont recommend a P4 simply because of its power consumption, although having HT is neat in a single core CPU. -Hard drive, try to go with a RAID 1 or 0+1 setup, just for reliability and backup sake. Doing RAID 0 is simply stupid. If you want to go single drive, then I would get an external drive to do a regular backup or sync. That's it. Just get a mobo with an integrated graphic, and you're set. Pick an optical drive of your choice (Lite-on tends to have pretty fast ripping speed, but not-so-good burners). I would think you should be able to spend only $300 to $500 max.

Problem is Sonicstage also assign region codes for the hardware in the registry, no using applocale only won't always work. Refer to this: I stumbled on this registry setting while trying to enable kanji display on my NW-E99. The hardware is capable, but Sonicstage (US version) prohibits it.

An old (2004) multi-format public listening test result: http://www.rjamorim.com/test/multiformat128/results.html Today, pretty much all codecs are "on par" with each other for bitrates 128kbps and up. So compatibility is the second important point, and currently MP3 is still the king. AAC comes second.

Is this a joke?

Set it to off, and get a good headphones. I have the S705F, and with EQ off and the NC022 stock bud, it still sound decent.

Gracenote is unicode, as iTunes uses gracenote and has no problems at all.

Tell me what are the problems of unicode, if any. I use iTunes with US winXP, and have no problems in displaying Chinese, Korean, Japanese, etc. The point of unicode is to eliminate the language problems of software like you described. The fact is windows from version 2000 and up are unicode, so the computer is already setup and unicode ready. Multiple language is NOT a niche market, unless you are a living under a rock.

It IS that bad! If one is used to iTunes, Sonicstage is way below iTunes in terms of usability. For those that are comfortable in using iPods and iTunes, don't bother with Sony. There's no point in buying something for a hyped sound quality but unusable software. Of course, if you can get one for a deal, that's another story.

Best way is to use unicode software. A user should not be burdened by this just because Sony is lazy to implement unicode.

It's Sonicstage's fault. Windows (2k/XP and up) is unicode. Sonicstage is not. That's the problem. You can only view 1 language at a time using applocale (Japanese OR Chinese OR Korean, not both, not all three).

Because he thought he can transfer his Atrac tracks from the AtracCDs to the HD3, which in fact is not possible.

You have to do it manually, until Sony gave up and adopt iTunes' tagging format.

Well, it could have be a good format at that time, where DAPs are still expensive for cost per MB. AtracCD can support seamless/gapless, which for me is the best thing about it. However, Sony is not even supporting AtracCD. Support of AtracCD comes very late outside of PCDP, plus none of the non-PCDP devices can do gapless playback. So again, not only AtracCD is already a dead-end format, Sony is killing it themselves even more.

If you use winXP, use applocale. If you use an older OS, you have to force install the version of sonicstage that match the language you want. Note that you can only get 1 asian language support at a time (ie. you cannot have Sonicstage display Japanese and Korean at the same time). So if you don't have winXP, you're screwed in this regard. Easier solution, ebay the S705, get an iPod.

Check for virus/spyware first.

Nope, that's not going to work.

Tell that to Sony.

The Walkmen have doing doing poorly in the US because of Sony USA's own stupidity. They don't advertise, don't ship products fast enough, don't make the products readily available in giant retailers like Bestbuy, and now, they don't even release the products themseleves. I mean how can you compete if you don't release the products? Then again, maybe stupid Sony USA is waiting for the iPhone to be released, so nobody will care about the new walkmen, and then Sony Music can blame poor sales to piracy...