Ascariss

Apologies, I confused the players. This one has the noise cancellation. Then the player will have english installed on it, you will have to just find it in the options area. Most JDM units that are sold on ebay have english on them. Seeing as this is a normal NW-S, I would suspect it will come with sonicstage and have atrac on it still. So no need to worry.

All the players regardless of origin have english installed on them, but if it is a japanese model from japan, it might have different radio frequencies. Any reason why you could not buy one at a local store?

there is quite a difference between 20 and 30, I rarely listen to 20 myself, too loud, and I usually stop at 14/15 and even then it's loud. you shouldn't be listening to music over 20. My unit is from the US.

according to this thread the sound cap was stopped with the older HD units. http://www.atraclife.com/forums/index.php?...=4345&st=40 if the models are still capped, then there is no method to uncap them currently, as there is no service manual for the 818.

There is no volume limiter for EU countries on the 818 units, not any of the newer models, check in the options to see if AVLS is turned on.

I am sure there would be some method to modify the firmware on the device to play gapless, but then perhaps the player's chip might not support gapless playback to begin with? I am unaware if the chip in the 818 is the same as the 808, but if it is different then there might not be gapless playback. Anyone know what chip is in the 818?

I never had this issue using wmp11 to transfer over files, have you tried adding a folder into the music folder with your album name? then copying in the entire album there?

The battery life will be lower of course, there are no specific numbers, each time you test the environment is different, so results won't be identical for different people. I've yet to test mine, but easily could over this weekend.

Although I am curious myself regarding the software, I really am not looking forward to it, since WMP11 works like a charm on the device and shocking as it may be, wmp11 isn't that bad, much better than itunes, runs smoother and looks better.

please re-read my post. I said wma not mp3, (mp3 plays gaplessly back on MY PC not on the A1000) I never said a mp3 player that plays mp3s will be able to play mp3s gaplessly.

I was referring to wma not the mp3 (but lame mp3 is gapless, seeing as I can play it gaplessly on my pc in winamp. I ripped an album to wma format and transferred it over (using connect player), it was wma format (I checked it using the file information on the player) and it played the entire album with no gaps. I posted this long ago in my review of the player in a thread.

Sony would have to introduce a program though for the atrac portion of the player, I only know of sound forge that can encode files directly to atrac, but I am not aware of any program that will automatically convert wav, or re-encode mp3 to atrac format except sonicstage or connect player. If sony was planning on supporting atrac in north america or europe, ie outside of japan, I believe that the new player would have still supported atrac, but they don't so atrac is probably being ditched. In the long run this is not a problem, since there are other codecs which can be used for lossless listening and gapless playback. The market for lossless playback is limited, seen by the masses of sheep buying up ipods and songs from itunes. I don't think itunes sells lossless songs in the store and most people who would rip to apple lossless (I have no clue if most ipods support this) so most users tend not to look for this in a mp3 player. As for gapless, I would rather see a cue file approach from sony rather than since then you could drag and drop large sound files with cue files and still have the feeling of gapless playback from one single file. But gapless can be achieved with other formats, even mp3s encoded with lame, or using wma for gapless, the A1000 supported it. there seems to be no info on any new players from sony, with new models just introduced this fall I doubt sony is planning on introducing anything right away in the new year, maybe a preview at ces but I have no concrete facts for anything such as that. Creative is selling their new 32gb flash zen for 349 US on the creative website, it is pre order for now, which is a shocker. Now sony could do the same, release 16 and 32 gig models, use the 900 series as a basis for the new player, added drop and drop, new codecs and viola, new player.

no. I can't order online from usa sony. I used www.jr.com but I live in canada, and ordering to canada is no problem from JR.com, it might be harder for countries with different billing addresses.

the prongs do not go down, just pull out the connector from the device with more force, it will come out of it. you won't break anything.

I use psp video 9 to convert my vids to the correct format. I add the video, changet the settings to Fw1 50+ 320 x 280 768kbps stereo/128kbps. then let it covert the video, it automatically makes a thumbnail. Using windows explorer, I copy and paste the vid and image into the video directory of the 818 and then disconnect it. I have converted podcasts, avi's and wmv files and once converted them play. link to the software http://www.pspvideo9.com/ I find this method easy and fast for me, never had any problems. I have yet to convert a full length movie though.

clockwork you can't convert flac to atrac3/atrac3+ and retain gapless. It needs to be encoded directly from the cd source to atrac to remain gapless. and yes this is the reason for the gap.

I am guessing you have the NW-A808 not 818? since no such model exists. next, the 808 player plays mp3s and wav files natively, meaing you DO NOT need to encode them to atrac unless you want gapless or longer battery life. 1. Do NOT use a hub to transfer your files to the device, connect the mp3 player DIRECTLY to the PC. 2. gaps appear only if the source material is not gapless in the first place, encoding from flac or ogg or individual wav files to atrac will not yield gapless. In order to achieve true gapless you must rip the cd to atrac directly using sonicstage. You need the original cd to get gapless playback. 3. ATRAC3+ is a newer version of ATRAC3, it has a bit more bitrate options and thus allowing you to get different quality of sound depending on how low you want to go. DO NOT use atrac if you are re-encoding mp3s to atrac, only encode wav files to atrac. Go the options in sonicstage and set the transfer to NOT convert any mp3 files to atrac unless they are not suppoted. 4. I've not used atrac lossless, but as you mentioned they are large since they are lossless, there is nothing you can do about that. No need to use lossless, in the end you won't be able to tell the difference between atrac 352 and atrac lossless. 5. check what bitrate the files got encoded to when they got transfered over, if you transfered over mp3s which got converted to atrac, 192 or lower, then you would be re-encoding the files to a lower quality thus reducing their sound and making them sound a bit watery. So here is what you do -connect the device DIRECTLY to the pc NOT the hub -check encoding settings in sonicstage and see that it is NOT re-encoding the mp3s to atrac -re rip cds directly to atrac using sonicstage to achieve true gapless -files that sound gapless on your pc ie wma or mp3(lame format) when transfered to the device will NOT be gapless -if you want optimal sound encode your songs to atrac 352 directly from the CD or wav files -if you only have mp3s transfer them AS IS, do not re encode them to atrac.

We don't have the NW-S706 anymore on sale in any of the sony stores, it has been discontinued, I've not seen one in stores in a while, although some stores may still have one model left, but you would have to look far and wide. The sonystyle website removed it a while ago, and I can't find it anymore. So you may be out of luck there. Only other option is ebay or other vague online stores that carry older sony models. not sure about the better sound quality, I've listened to my 818 for over 5 hours and it didn't tire my ears, again I've not used noise cancelling since I have ex-71s and they isolate the environment just enough for me. as for my cost, in total I paid 235 can with shipping and duty taxes from the US, which is almost the same price as the 8 gig 600 series. I received my order within 2 working days from new york, and I am on the west coast of canada.

808 is discontinued a while ago, no 818, sony choose not to sell it here. we only have the 8 gig 600 series, that is why I had to buy my 818 from the US, but due to the dollar, the overall price was cheaper than buying an 8 gig 600 series here.

not bad, a bit chunky, probably because of the tv, menu seems to be same as the current models.

that's a pretty big assumption there, seeing as the 818 might be different than the 600 series. I've used quite a few headphones, with my older a1000, sony's, and a sennheiser pair and once with shures. I was also able to test shures and sennheiser's on my 818 and the sound was still better, none of the headphones are muting the sound. as for refinment of sound, it all depends on the users opinion and what genre of music they listen to.

I have both the A1000 and NWZA818 and the newer 818 sounds much cleaner and better than the A1000, in my personal opinion,

Maybe you need new drivers? go the device manager in windows, found in settings-->control panel-->system-->hardware tab-->device manager. check the USB area, maybe it needs a new driver? if there is a device there that isn't recognized or not working ocorrectly double click to install new drivers. do you have any other pc's you can test this on?

which media windows player do you have? did it come with 11? if so install it. I initially didn't install wmp11 on my pc, and it couldn't see the 818 in windows explorer, only appeared after wmp11 installation.

you should of probably sent if off to sony instead at the very start, saved up some cash then let them repair it, at home repair jobs, unless you know your electronics well, are not advisable.