LarryB

Yes indeed, my entire collection is made up of MP3 files encoded through Lame (files which load at a far more reasonable pace onto other players I have tried). I was not doing any type of encoding during the upload - none that I would have set to do myself anyway.

I was able to use the new X-Series Walkman for a few days recently and I can tell you one thing - the upload speeds were "glacially" slow. Honestly, it took just under 8 hours to load 27GB of songs on the 32GB player. Now I know Flash memory loads at a slower rate than normal hard drives as a rule, but the Flash Memory on the iPod Touch loads a similar amount of files in 1/3 the time if not even less. What's more, while it is nice to have Slacker there, you must update your maximum of 3 stations over WiFi. Yet the Walkman seemed considerably slower across my WiFi network compared with an iPod Touch. Slacker updates are slow to begin with but yet again, it is even slower when being forced to update only via Wifi on this X-Series player. The sound was certainly nice overall but not enough to make up for its sluggish performance in the areas mentioned. And since I have a large music library, I wanted to be able to regularly swap out songs on the player but I wouldn't dare at these speeds. Finally, photo display is also hampered with anything but medium sized photos as the player can accomodate large sized photos but often takes several seconds to display larger files. The OLED screen did not wow me either, to be honest. I just find little to recommend this player. And certainly, unless you can fit your entire collection on the player so one overnight upload will suffice, I would stay away from the X-Series.

I have only VBR MP3 files encoded with Lame and imported in Sonic Stage's My Library. Yet I have never had a problem using SS 2.1 to transfer them to the MZ-NH1 or the NW-HD1 players. I do not have v2.2 of SS, however, so if version 2.2 no longer can handle VBR files, chalk up another reason to stay the course with v2.1

Not sure what you mean, here. I have this device and besides it being a very elegant, well made player with excellent sound, the menus, IMHO, are exceedingly easy to use. They even slide along from right to left as they do on the iPod. In 10 minutes I was using the player with one hand like a pro. The only quirky thing I've noticed with a menu or setting is the distinction between track shuffle play and unit shuffle play. I think I understand it from the manual but at times it ends up not doing what I expect, particularly the track shuffle play command, not so much the unit shuffle play. It would take a bit more time to discuss fully than I want to do here, but if someone wants to discuss it with me, I'd be happy too and maybe I would learn something :smile:

Regardless of whether the storage space on standard MDs is sufficient, and regardless of whether you can do what you need to do or not with the smaller capacity, the fact that 1GB discs are being touted and they are still so hard to find if at all, is definitely something to be upset about and disappointed with as I am, and as I would understand others would be as well. The fact of the matter is that a heavy focus of the sales pitch is on the hours of storage, and to do that and not have the media to match the claims easily obtainable is just wrong.

Point taken, ReefBeef:-) And while you can reformat your standard MiniDiscs as was previously mentioned, it is the ultimate shortage of space, and resulting limitations, on Hi-MD formatted standard MDs that is all the more reason to be disappointed with the lack of true Hi-MD media availability.

Well, perhaps you can complain a bit. :cool: I mean, after all, many of the advanced recording/storage capabilities touted by Sony are based on using a Hi-MD blank. So to not easily be able to acquire the media greatly reduces the functionality one expects to have with their purchase.

I have the NH1 though I imagine this would be similar for the 900. Anyway, the unit is powered when connected to a USB port so the battery isn't drained - this is especially helpful during those long downloading sessions. However, the baterry itself cannot be charged via USB.

I am using separate Sony headphones with the NH1. First, I hate earbuds and they never have fit my ears comfortably or securely. Secondly I have rarely ever found earbuds or headphones supplied with players and recorders to be worth much so I have always used something else. Anyway, the Sony headphones I am using are the MDR-V700s. The sound quality is great to my admittedly non-audiophile ears. And while I prefer setting my own custom EQ, some of the presets are not bad, such as "Heavy." And the "Club" virtual surround setting gives the music an interesting quality though I wouldn't use it as my first choice on a daily basis.

I just picked up my MZ-NH1 from J & R in NY yesterday. Very nice machine and it sounds much better than the first Hi-MD unit, the 600D, which I tried last month. In this case, it definitely makes sense to pay a bit more.