Ascariss

Hmm interesting. First off welcome. Next, I am curious to why you haven't tried the connect player? Intelligent shuffle only works with the new Connect player software and not with SS. Intelligent shuffle needs the connect player to function correctly. The reason thereis no groups on the 608 is because the connect player software doesn't have groups in it, only albums and genres as well. Of course you can organize by artist or song name, but that is not what you are asking. I've imported 3 cds into my A3000 using CP, all ID tagged using winamp and all transfered in order as they are on the PC. Playlists can be made in CP quite easily and then transferred to the player which will play the songs in order as you had them in the playlist. Not sure you can convert groups to playlists, but you could drag all the songs in the group and make a playlist out of them. Not possible to downgrade to support groups.

Welcome Chris J, thanks for sharing your opinions on your player, do share some pictures in the near future when you can.

Nice, shame we don't have the Connect store here in canada, even though apple has their store here, and there are counltess others.

it is unlikely you broke it. If you feel you need to fix the problem or test how long the battery will last do this if you have the time. First transfer some files to it, mp3 or atrac and discharge the player completely, then recharge fully. Then add 128kbps mp3s on it, and let it play, compare how long it will play with the amount sony quotes.

Rest assured, Sony is actually working on the CP and the firmware update. I am sure they will release it soon enough.

So far no firmware update has been released for WMA support as far as I know. CP supports WMA but will convert it to atrac when transferring to the player. I am on a P3 600mhzEB intel, with 512ram, 256 video card, and XP SP2 and the player seems to be running faster for me than you apparently. It starts up a bit long 3-5 min max, and closes within 3-5 seconds. Importing is fast and transferring is a breeze too. I don't use SS for the player, no point since some features will not work. No 3rd party software yet, but there is a member working on one here. I recommend getting the latest CP update and it should work fine. As for the craddle, can't help you there, but I am thankful I didn't buy it since I was planning on buying one. have you tried switching the cable to a different USB port?

only way you will get 35 hours is atrac 28kbps, as stated by sony.

If you corrupted the database on the device, all that was needed to do, is reopen CP. plug in the player, let it sit for 5 minutes or so, then unplug it, and the database rebuilds itself. But if the database is corrupted on the pc library you will need to delete the library from documents and settings, all users, sony corporation, then find library and delete the folders in the library. then reboot, and add your files to teh library again. no need to install the program again.

Have you tried using the tab key to switch the selected areas, for the yes and no? pressing space to select it? Then once next can be clicked, install it?

I bought my A1000 at bestbuy, and futureshop, london drugs have the A1000s as well. Only the sony store carries the larger A3000. I don't see why the bestbuy in the US wouldn't carry them as well. I don't know why the US arm of best buy, where it is originally from, has less choice for HDD players when compared to canada. perhaps you should email them and ask, since our market for Mp3 players is 1/10 of what it is in the US. I am sure a large majority of US buyers of the Ipod are not buying it because it has kanji support. It is an english based market after all and you market english products in such markets. No sense in offering a french product in china right? Perhaps on the west coast here, we might need kanji support since many people are from asia, and of asian decent, but the rest of canada, really has no use for it last time I checked, french on the other hand would be, which the units support as well, in addition to the other languages I mentioned. The firmware in the A series isn't like the NE20/NE920 discman last time I checked. It is a bit different. I did mention you can change the language right on the units by yourself? They are shipped most likely with the language set to the region it is going to. But hey, if I wanted a german menu, I could change it in 5 sec if I wanted to, but I have no need for it, but 9 language choices are there. Japanese English French German Italian Spanish Simplified Chinese Traditional Chinese Korean I am sure the support for kanji was also removed from the canadian units (NE20 and NE9320). the firmware on the players seems to be global, people have installed non canadian or non european firmware from japan onto their units and have had no problems. as for a LCD remote, I might have agreed with you before I got the unit, since both my discman and MDs had LCD remotes, but now that I have the unit, the remote would be useless, since the remote I would want would need to show the same info on one screen like the main unit has, this would make the remote somewhat larger than I would want it. just wait for the units before you make any judgements, if you won't like the new players fine.

Thanks for the review, I was planning on getting these, but the local sony store was sold out, so I grabbed the EX71s, advantage also they had a short plug, which I like more than the LP. Indeed shure phones are hella expensive but a nice touch. The sony's are a good compromise. I do agree on the cable quality, it isn't up to sony's specs, and I hope my 71s last more than 6 months at least. Is the outer case of the phones plastic as well? or a rubbery like material?

It takes 7 hours to charge via USB according to the manual so you would only use it more or less for keeping the unit powered, but then it would normally last all day at work no problem with just teh battery. The AC adapter actually plugs into the wall and then using the usb cable into the player, there is no need to hook up to teh pc unless you want to transfer or charge via the usb.

I don't use the asian version of CP so i have no idea what the unicode support on it is but I've seen screenshots and it seems to support it. Both my A1000 and A3000 have options to change the language to japanese, korean and chinese, and one more asian language. All togther there are 9 languages supported by the units. Why would english only be the option for the players? French, german, spanish and italian. This covers the main european countries as well. so nothing is removed or changed physically in the player, only using software which you can change. the players are 20 gigs not 30, perhaps a larger unit will come later. OLED is much tougher than LCD, sony doesn't cover defects in LCDs so I am glad its oled, next, doesn't oled use less energy? It looks better than LCD as well. As amigoguapo mentioned, why do i need a colour LCD on a music player? to look at album art? I seriously doubt many people look at album art when listening to music on their pc, or via a radio in their car. The only reason I have some album art is because the Connect player adds it to some albums, which I remove sicne i have no use for it. Sure the OLED is useless in the daylight, so was the LCD on my minidisc, it had no backlight and I couldn't even read it in normal light.

Only noise I get is from the mp3s when there is no music playing, ie, static and small pops, usually from a 12" being recorded to mp3. other than that no noise from the unit itself, I hardly if ever hear the hdd.

Last time I checked sony is releasing quite a few accessories for the new A1000/A3000, they are by no means cheap, there will be no low end units here, this is HDD we are talking abut, kanji display really isn't such a great importance in the US market, with english as the main language, but i do agree on marketing, at least in north america for their music players at least.

sorry I meant 50 bucks, it was 49.99. why buy a stupid piece of plastic for 50 bucks when the cable hock up using the normal supplied usb cable works fine.

Actual links: http://esupport.sony.com/perl/news-item.pl...=EN&news_id=101 http://esupport.sony.com/perl/swu-download...id=2052&SMB=YES Gotta love this note: IMPORTANT: This update is only for NW-A608 models sold in Canada. lol

the latest in house music, and of course some live sets to go with that.

Go to the store, and ask about the blue A608, look at it, and then ask if they know if they will also have the silver model available soon? if he/she says that they don't know, ask them to check on the pc if they have been ordered or pre-ordered. It's worth a shot.

Ahaha, I was listened to the A3000 last night, and decided to press the artist link on the song I was playing, and it worked, found 5 songs. Tested others, 1 more worked, others did not though.

A3000 really isn't a good unit to use for working out, the A1000 is a better choice, the A600 series should have similar sound quality to the E500s and E400s, I assume. I did listen to a demo model at the store of the A600, it sounded fine, but I prefer the larger units myself.

No news of that so far, but I usually use the same bitrate as you for my mp3s, and even though I have more than 20 gigs of music on my pc, I see no need to have it all on the player.

Saw the cradle today and came to the conclusion that it isn't worth 35 bucks.

True but the E931sp don't sound that bad, problem is, they are not that comfortable for everyone, it all depends how easily they fit. sound wise, they are not too shabby, fit wise, go with something better. Congrats on the HD5, do post your comments once you get it.

Nor is it bulky, it is quite comfortable to hold since the edges are rounded over. It looks more organic than either HD5 which looks too old fashioned. A3000 @ amazon going for £175.33 and the A1000 is £141.00. Suprisingly, the new A series units have moved up on the sales charts on amazon.co.uk, even beating some ipods. Odd are the 2 gig A600s not on sale in the UK? The 20 gig HD5 black is going for Price: £289.50, but you can get it for a cheaper price, £134.99 used. So I don't think it will drop in price as you see, it was already discounted more or less before the arrival of the A3000 and A1000.