imagine_

It's interesting to see that walkmans are sold in completely different packages in different places. When I bought my NW-E407 when it came out, it was in a thin, clear, cheap plastic case. But when the new a-series came out, all models were in those cool sony connect boxes. That's why I was surprised to see that A-3000 in that cheap packaging... Definitiely not sold in those in canada.

I just installed it over a canadian version, didn't need to reinitialize the player. The only advantage I've seen is DSEE, which makes it sound better. But the program seems to use more ram and is somewhat slower...

Same thing in the sony global site where they showcase their "concepts". The walkman concept is showing off their nw-hd3 model (which is ancient....) and old sonicstage 2.x.

probably has nothing that the owners of the old models would be interested in.. I don't think they made any performance improvements, just added some features for the new models.

I would definitely like to see this as well for the first gen NW-E4/5x... Nobody confirmed whether it was a chip limitation or not. Could someone from sony confirm this? It would be great to have at least some of the intelligent features (e.g. star rating system) on the older models if they really can't get the artist link on there. If they could, that would be great, because it would let the older customers be happy with their product so they will buy sony again in the future! (It won't really limit the sale of the newer models, because only intelligent shuffle is not the main selling point anymore).

Wow.. I enable AVLS so I never go above 16. That way, I get used to low volumes, and 16 sounds really loud. That is the best way: to make your ears adjust to volume level, that way you don't damage your ear drums.

This volume limit is in ALL players sold in europe.. not just sony! It is the law, sony doesn't have a choice.

Other than the price issue (which won't stay so high for so long), I really like the features that come with this player. I really liked the design too, but one thing that bugs me is the silver metal around it... it gives it a weird sort of look that pushes me away. I wish it was a little closer to the old models, without a metal frame above the jog dial.

Maybe try doing system restore to the time right before you plugged it in?

I update my library every time i find a song that I really like (not often, since I am too busy studying most of the time.) I mainly listent to it when I get bored on the two to three hour round bus trip to/from school.

There is no question - all of sony's new and 1-2 year old devices beat any ipod model hands down. iPods do not have any sound detail, no bass, no nothing.. just sounds like you're listening to a cheap radio. The old ipods i have to admit sounded a lot worse than the new ones in terms of distortion, and even though the new ones sound more clean, they are not even close a match to sony or samsung or any other competing dap's at the same price range.

My brother bought one of the new ipod nanos a couple of days ago (as a replacement for the NW-A608 which we returned in march because it had a defective battery). After playing the exact same files with the exact same earphones, it is obvious that the sound quality of the ipod is absolutely HORRIBLE. It is like listening to something very very cheap: there is NO detail in the sound at all, let alone any bass. The difference when you put on one of the preset equalizers is very minimal, and nothing can make it come CLOSE to an NW-E407 or my old sony discman.

That is the sound preset. It can either be 1 or 2, choose by holding the button in the back of the player. Modify the presets by holding the menu button and scrolling to 'Sound'.

I think it is because you have special characters either in the file name or the id tags.

You should always full charge it and empty it 3 times whenever you first get it. I don't think you can return anything in turkey, which I hate. That is why Canada and america is a lot better.. you can return it even if there is nothing wrong with it.

If you have a small budget or just don't want to spend $50 on new earphones, I would recommend Panasonic RP-HV288. My included earbuds stopped working in one ear, so I bought these for $15 CAD. Very cheap and sound great, better specs than other earphones at that price range.

I would go with the NW-E4/5 series or NW-A607 before they end up disappearing from the market. If you are lucky, you can get a really good price on these as they have just been discontinued. These ones have better battery life and larger display than the new NW-E00x models.

SonicStage would be useable to me IF: - There were more of and nicer small player skins. - Didn't use 100 MB of RAM. - Equalizer, better sound output (for example, instead of having its own player algorithm, use winamp as a backbone to play the files within the program) - Import different kinds of files (it says some of my songs are corrupted or have a weird format, but I can still play them in winamp) Other than that, the functions are acceptable for someone who just uses it for transferring to a walkman. For someone who just wants to buy and organize music, it has nothing that itunes doesn't have, and I don't think anyone would actually WANT to use it if they didn't have to.

It is 'enough'.. there is nothing to worry about

I have been on 7 flights (international and local) in the past two months, and listened for most of the flight.. was never a problem. It was clearly visible and the attendants didn't say anything. With the little amount of power these things use, even if everyone on board was listening, I don't think there would be any problem at all. It is just a safety precaution to shut off all devices, since some ppl may have old devices such as old cell phones which emit a lot of radiation.

A similar thing happened with my A-608 which I purchased in late March 2006. After conditioning the battery, I charged the battery completely, and barely used it, then at the end of the day the battery lost charge to less than 50% while not playing anything. This never happened with my E-407 so I just returned it to Best Buy and got my money back.

I have the NW-E407 (about identical to A608) and I bought it a month after it first came out (~June/July 2005). I have been using it almost every day ever since and have had no serious problems. The only minor problem that I experienced was dust coming under the screen but I think they might have fixed that in the new models. The build quality is nice and solid, there are no cracks or creaking sounds when you press the buttons, etc.. As for the software, the latest sonicstage 4.0 is very much improved and it is stable and useable. I personally don't use sonicstage, I use MP3 File Manager 2.0 which lets me drag and drop files from any computer. The only little things I don't like about MP3FM is that 1) you can't create new groups, so you have to go into sonicstage and create the new group, then drag a file into it. 2) You can't play files from mp3FM. That's about it. Other than that, the battery life is exxcccellent. Other players are just starting to catch up to the sony players. The sound quality is excellent there is no question about it.. all sony players sound amazing.

Another very good features which is also missing from MP3FM and should be included in these new programs: - Ability to play the song before/after having transferred it. Is this not being looked into because it is impossible to do? or because it is too hard to do? Thanks. P.s.: Great work on voidmp3fm.. looks great even though I can't use it . If we keep working at it like this with suggestions, etc.. we may eventually have a program like mp3fm which will work with every device and have all the features that sony refuses to give us.

I wonder what they are planning to replace it with, I don't think the E00x are the replacement for these models. If you can still find them, I would recommend getting the A608 .. very good device!

Is there a possibility that someone could post a picture comparing the E00x model with the E4/E5xx model? It would be great to see a comparison review of those two also.