Hi, I have two nw-hd5 – they are really great indeed, but in fact I still miss “an old good atrac” v1 from mini discs – sounds best to my ears ;-). Both nw-hd5 have been upgraded to v1.2 firmware, sonic stage (ss) is v4.0 and all the cds ripped @ 320 kbps, all of them transferred @ 320 and playable @ 320 on nw-hd5. My first guess is to check transfer settings in ss - be sure to check standard transfer mode -> 320 and conversion set to disabled. The second guess is that ss 4.2 may have new/buggy drivers ?. I remember that earlier ss like 3.0 or so could not transfer @ 320 to nw-hd5 (only 256kbps). 320 kbps support was introduced in ss 3.8 or something (one step before 4.0). Try to upgrade firmware to 1.2 (but I don't really know if it's an issue), uninstall ss v4.2 and try to install ss v4.0 (off-line installer is available @ download section). Good luck !
