bogon07

The new Australian Pulse magazine doesn't show any HDD players at all. Only the last 3 types of flash players. The Personal Audio section is looking very thin these days.

Good find navsimpson, Most reviews for the EX90 seem pretty positive. Unfortunately they are currently way overpriced in Australia @ $199AUD We're also getting the budget! version of them, the Ex85 @ $149AUD

kerfuffle, S705 @ $369AUD mmmm still comparatively cheaper. (And even cheaper in the US @$199.95US=$259.95AUD!!!!!) The 4GB NW-S706F will come in Black and Violet and costs AUD$439. Thanks for the update, now back to studying for you. Have to look out for any MySony pre-release offfers probably mid-November. I forgot it is Pulse time again & hopefully there will be one waiting in the mailbox this afternoon.

Noticed that the Sony NZ & OZ are both quoting the same price in their own currencies for the RH1 ($599.95) & S205/3 ($299.95/$249.95) making them relatively cheaper in NZ. If Sony follows this trend for the S7003/5 @ $329/$399 then those lucky Kiwis will be getting their ones atleast $50AUD cheaper ! Not quite the cost of a plane ticket yet.

Feedback & customer response !!!!! From what planet. Sure we'd all say we don't want more storage capacity. I've just fired off a product enquiry to Sony Oz. Hopefully they'll come back with an encouraging response. Same here, got this from postmaster@am.sony.com This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification. Delivery to the following recipients failed. Productinfo.au@ap.sony.com Just after their confirmation email**** CONFIRMATION ONLY - PLEASE DO NOT RESPOND TO THIS EMAIL **** Atleast SonyNZ have mentioned these new players, the MySony Oz newsletter doesn't, it only advertises the recent Sports models again.

kerfuffle, Thanks for the update. Interesting to see what happens when and the new batch of Sony earphones (incl. MDR-EX32s) turn up here. Good luck with the HSC. I hope you do well.

Is 4GB memory in short supply or does Sony think the price point for that model will be too high? And as kerfuffle said more COLOURS. It should look good in silver too. Bob123 congratulations on actually getting answer from MySony NZ. MySony Oz never tells you anything only to keep looking at the website.

Yep, for some reason Sony really load up the price of their earphones here. Atleast $50AUD ontop of the conversion from the o/s price. Look at the MDR-NX1 the RRP was $120AUD now they're recently lowered to around $70AUD @ Sony Central in an effort to makeway for the newer models. kerfuffle, Did you end up with the Ex51s ?

Thanks for the update on the noise-cancelling feature. It will be very helpful on public transport. Does it only work with the supplied earphones?

Thanks for the review. Interesting to hear about the volume differences. I wonder how well the noise-cancelling earphones perform on a crowded train full of zealous iPod users.

The EX90 were just recently released in Australia but with a price big enough to kill an elephant ..... $199AUD. Although Minidisc Australia has them @ $169AUD !

Not having an E003 I can't compare it's SQ to an A1000. A few forum members seem pretty impressed with it. Have a look at some of the detailed reviews on E00* players. Doomlordis http://www.atraclife.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1593 gonococcus http://www.atraclife.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1800

Taxes, Import duties and transport costs aside. The fact is Sony & Apple are both selling mp3 players in the US for $150US & $149US but in Australia they are $299AUD & $219AUD respectively which is a heck of a difference. The Apple price looks like the US price converted plus our 10% GST rounded up from $217 to a regular price of $219. Sony's pricing well who knows....maybe buyers keep away until they discount them down to a realistic level.

The marketers would like us to think we can't just compare but we can. They charge what they think the market will bear; often they are wrong. Sony should realise by now that we are all in a global economy. I understand there maybe price differences between countries in real terms but anything more than 10-15% is ridiculous. Maybe they're just sacrificing the units to try and recover lost ground in the US. Actually the UK price of about 120GBP converts to around $299AUD. Why would anyone expect an Australian consumer pay an extra $100AUD eg for an S205F costing $150USD (= $199.88AUD) in the USA ! When the gap become too great then it makes ordering from overseas very attractive. It certainly helps internet and e-bay businesses and Sony will never know how much is being imported by them. Wouldn't the US market be affected if it was priced equivalent to the Aust price $220US instead of $150US ?

Life's too short to spend hours of it trying to get badly programmed and/or designed software to work so I'm all for user friendliness.

Andrew, I found the E407/E505 & A1000 very similar in sound quality. The new E003/5 also has the advantage of plugging straight into a USB port without needing a cable. Go for the highest capacity you can afford. It is amazing how quickly you can fill it up. Also more capacity gives you more flexibility if you decide that you want to encode at higher ATRAC rates which take up more space but give better sound quality. You may also like to have a look at the earphones section of the forum for suggested replacements for the player supplied ones as that is another way to improve sound quality and comfort.

Thanks Stuge. $119US = $159AUD and Sony charge $249 that is a nice $90AUD profit. Interestingly the new 2GB iPod Nano is $149 US (=$197AUD) and in Australia $219 AUD only a difference of $22AUD compared to the 2GB NWS205F @ $299AUD. And for $299AUD you can now get a 4GB iPod Nano. That's a great way to kill whatever market or brand loyalty they had in Australia. What's wrong with Sony don't they realise that we can compare overseas prices.

2ndGen iPod Nano has a thinner anodized aluminum body. Also some models are coloured liked the iPod Mini: silver (2GB/4GB), green (4GB), pink (4GB), blue (4GB), Black with a black Click Wheel (8GB). Also higher capacity HDD iPods 80GB with many incremental improvements, including a brighter screen and better battery life, and better designed earphones. Has Sony anything new planned ?

$150USD = $199.88AUD !!!! Gee the US Sony style offer is much better than the Australian one, looks like we're expected to pay an extra $100AUD : NWS205F SRP$299AUD - 2GB Black NWS203FS/B SRP$249AUD - 1GB Silver or Black Out of interest how much is the 1GB model in the US ?

Congratulations lodore, And a nice black one too. How many song do you have on it already ?

Whoops, eating rather than colouring momentarily crossed my mind I agree with you on the rest, the silver knob looks too dark. And you'd think Sony would have plenty colour-coordinated ear phones from their A1000 and other lines. What features make these worth $100AUD more than the E003/5 series ? Surely not the Shake & Shuffle.

Yeh nice pictures Stuge. The close ups came out well. Interesting, your silver one has black lettering on the buttons, my blue and my wife's pink both have white lettering. ***** doh, the lettering is black when the unit is off and white when turned on or sometimes an orange glow when artist link pressed**** The A1000 is a bit of a capacity drop from your other HDD players.

That salmon pink is a weird colour. Kerfuffle, you're "Strawberry-obsessed" what do you think of it ? So it is not too upsetting that Australia is only getting black and/or silver.

Kbadone, Congratualtions on your purchase. The apparent colour of these depends on the light conditions and surrounding reflections. My wife has a pink A1000. It varies between a pale frosted pink to dark cherry. My Blue A1000 could be any sort of blue/green shade.

kerfuffle, All the best with your purchase. Experiment with the different size earbuds for comfort, sound quality & sound isolation. It is a matter of personal preference. I found the medium buds give good isolation & bass sound but were uncomfortable after 20-30mins unlike the small buds which are good to wear for a couple of hours. In retrospect you only want to use the MDR-NX1 with a light weight player. The E400/500 alright but I'm not sure of your HD1 as it's weight may become annoying hanging from your neck.