Wing

I'm still using my A608 from last year and out of the 4 times I've had to send mine back for repair, 2 of them were due to the OLED display completely disappearing. It didn't grow dimmer as time passed, it just stopped displaying one day. Now, my warranty is over and it's happened a 3rd time and I'm stuck with a player that has no display, I can't even tell visually when the thing is low battery/fully charged. Maybe mine is just an isolated case . Hope u have better luck than me!

Nice first look, Chupacabra. I really do like the small form factor of this unit, it's the size of my old MD remote! How is the battery life on it? Is Sony's ~18 hour atrac playback/charge fairly accurate?

Luckily, the warranty covers parts and a battery defect is categorized as such. I've sent mine in for repair. I tried updating the firmware but it didn't help. I wouldn't want to change models, the A608 worked flawless for 6 months and it's really the (normal) battery life that I liked about it. I could easily get 36+ hours per charge.

Hi all, I've been happily using my A608 for the last 5-6 months and I do believe it is the best investment I've made in terms of portable audio players. However, around a week ago, my A608 stopped charging properly. I would leave it charging overnight and maybe get 40-50 minutes of use outta it before it was almost completely drained. I automatically assumed that the battery is toast but before I go back to get it repaired/replaced, I would like to hear any insight or advice as to what could have happened and what I could try. I use it daily on my way to/from work. My computer has never been subjected to a surge as it is protected via UPS. It always stays safely tucked inside the pouch which is always in my pocket and has never gotten wet. I may have dropped it on the ground once or twice, but it was a short fall. I also noticed that Sonystyle Canada doesn't sell the A608 anymore, has it been discontinued? Thanks in advance.

Checked out the back of the box, mine says NW-A608/VC. I didn't check the box of my previous unit before I returned it so I don't know how it differs from this one. VC might stand for Violet Canada or something. What colour is your unit? I just remembered I had tested the FM Tuner function and both were set for Canadian frequencies. So I guess that rules out the idea of it being a Euro model.

Here's an update of my situation. Took ANGRYBADGER's suggestion. Called Sony Canada, and they troubleshooted over the phone. They basically told me I had a defective unit, so I took it back, got my replacement (got violet, they didn't have silver in stock). Charged it up, converted/xfered a song with Connect.......now I'm a happy camper The volume is quite loud, even at around 18 (thats more like it!!!), tested the quality with my XD200's and V500's, perfect So far, no more pops or hisses, etc. Very impressed. The unit has firmware version 1.0, as opposed to the previous unit which was already 2.0. I guess I got one of the earlier batchs of A608's. I don't know how to confirm this, but I might have gotten a european model. Is there something in the information menu that tells me the region of the unit? My previous one was definately defective because of all the random pops and hisses, but the volume might have been on par with the Euro model's volume standards. If so, changing the firmware won't affect the volume limit.

I kinda had a similar problem with my A608, where songs with ID3 tags that had weird characters would come out as all "U"'s or dashs. I had to format to properly delete songs because the player wouldn't play any new songs I put on. Now I check the ID3 for all the songs before I upload them. Totally agree with ya, have to wrestle with Sony's software to get it to work properly. Sony software is weird that way, when I close Sony's Connect player for example, there are still processes still running in the background like Sony's CDDB thing (aka tinyhttp) and others which hinders MP3 File Manager.

My AVLS is off. Sometimes, I get really loud pop noises (don't know if its the player or the stock headphones) Much louder than the audio being played. Another funny thing I found is that the Canadian v2.0 firmware and the European v2.0 firmware links in the sticky'ed thread retrieves their file from the japanese website. As a matter of fact, the Canadian and European links point to the same target. Japanese Link: http://www.aii.co.jp/contents/connect/_dat...W-A600_V2_0.exe Canadian Link: http://dl1.aii.co.jp/contents/connect/_dat...W-A600_V2_0.exe European Link: http://dl1.aii.co.jp/contents/connect/_dat...W-A600_V2_0.exe Correct me if I'm wrong, but this leads me to believe there isn't any difference between different country firmwares at all.

I also tried installing the EU firmware and there was actually no change in the volume. If it did decrease, then it was a minimal change and I couldn't notice the difference. I tested it just by walking down the street. With my old NetMD, I was able to drown out most of the noise pollution (I can still hear cars, horns, people shouting), where with the A608 with the CA and EU firmware, I could barely even hear the music while walking down a busy street or taking the subway. Or maybe im goin deaf

chrisb1975, were you hinting about using a different country firmware? I have a Canadian A608 which is already firmware version 2.0, and I tried the Japanese model's firmware v2.0 (thought that maybe the japanese one didn't have volume limits). Powered it on, no change The volume is still quite low (max is 31). Maybe i'm slow, but care to elaborate on how you removed the volume limit?

I dunno how, but the advanced menu finally showed up, along with a bunch of other options in the Search/Menu. They definately weren't there before, but I turned off my player and turned it back on a couple times and they finally showed up (now I can format the thing ) Another weird thing that happend is I used Connect player this morning to throw some songs on. I put 3-4 songs on there, taking the total songs to 11. I close Connect player and disconnect the player, turn on the player and see 13 songs on there. For some reason, there are 2 "Unknown" songs in the middle of the list, both are 0 seconds long. I try playing them and the OLED reads File Error and goes back to song #1 (the two unknown tracks are #5 and #6. Connect Player doesn't show these two unknown tracks on the device, it shows a total of 11 songs still. Anyone else had this problem?

Thx for the advice Stuge. Regarding the format option, I pressed down and help the Search/Menu button but I couldn't find the advanced menu. What am I doing wrong? Used the Connect Player software, and it reminded me of how cumbersome Sony's OpenMG software is. I find it really slow updating the device database, it keeps on doing the update so I'm assuming it updates it for every song I transfer?

2nd day using my A608, and I also find the volume kinda low even at max. My brother built an external amp for his headphones, gonna try it the next time I see him. "NOTE: This utility is only for use with the products identified above and sold in the Canada. Not all models are sold in all countries." It could be a generic message, replace [Canada] with your country.

Hi there. I just got a new Sony NW-A608 and I've been reading the forums on how to transfer my songs onto the device without using the Connect software. I've been a Sony portable audio consumer for a while and I know how inefficient the Sony software is. I tried the Mp3 File Manager software from this thread, with a clean install and the got the software started up. When I click/drag an mp3 over, it gets to 10% and then says the transfer was interrupted, some of the files might not have been transfer. I just got the unit, it is fully charged, I haven't formatted yet, I deleted the two songs it comes with using the MP3FM software and I haven't touched the Sony Connect software either. I am weary of formatting the unit, it has a bunch of files and directories already on the unit. Also, how do I format the device? Do I just do a Right-click on the device in Windows Explorer and choose format? If so, what file system type do I use? Thanks in advance. Wing