Anthony

I only wanted one to try out on my RH1 for a bit of fun. I can't see myself using Hi-MD as a practical method of recording/listening to music when original SP mode sounds so good. They are far too expensive to purchase for the "fun" factor.

Hi-MD is officially unobtanium. http://www.tapecity.co.uk/acatalog/info_19.html

I'm only going to offer an opinion here but Mega-Bass was/is severe overkill in the lower frequencies to the detriment of the mids and highs. The only way to force a high response from the 100Hz-250Hz area of the spectrum is to boost them to max and possibly reduce the other frequencies a tad. My MZ-R35 has Mega-Bass and I hardly ever use it. Also, as you have pointed out my newer RH1 ( no MB) cannot create the same level of flabby, boomy bass even if I wanted it to...............which I don't. As a side note you could artificially boost the lower end by using specifically bass heavy headphones. The Hisoundaudio POPO's are an example of an extremely bass orientated IEM admired by Bassheads.

I have the R35 and the RH1 and I must admit the RH1 is incredibly fragile looking. In fact out of all the audio players I have ( DAP, Cassette, MD ) it is the one least likely to be used purely because of the build quality. The R35 on the other hand is built like a tank, it really does feel like a premium product and it sounds pretty good too. MD was a massive leap in SQ in the nineties. I love cassette but the R35 leaves my WM-DC2 for dust despite it being one the best ever cassette Walkmans...............apologies, I digress.

Totally Agree. Up to now I had no way to make "usable" digital copies of vinyl. Also agree on the build quality, my earliest player, the MZ-R30, is built like a tank compared to the RH1.

It's been a long time since I posted on this forum but I can't control my excitement. I just forked out €200 for a used MZ-RH1. It's a lot of money but given some of the crazy prices on ebay I reckon I did OK. It's immaculate and working perfectly, the OLED is also nice and bright. The seller said it was barely used and I'm inclined to believe her. As a bonus the eight yr old battery appears to be holding charge very well. SonicStage is up and running with the 64bit NetMD Driver. I transferred a few music files (MP3@320) in MD mode to play on my JE-440 but I have to admit they don't sound as good as a direct CD Digital to Digital or Vinyl/RCA copy. In any case I won't be using it for music transfer. This is almost purely to add to my "vintage" collection although it will get some occasional use.

Yep, It's fast...........

McGaggs; how did you get M-Crew server installed on 64bit W7? My installation aborts because of incompatibility with 64bit OS.

I'm with you Darkside. I cannot figure out why they go to so much trouble to annoy their customer base. Especially in hard times like these when a person is not going to spend his/her cash on something that's "nearly" good enough. SONY have been "nearly" good enough for too long in my opinion which is an absloute shame given that they are well positioned to give the customer exactly what they want. 64GB in Europe Sony or I'm gone. BTW I have also shifted my loyalty from Sony Ericsson phones because of complete lack of innovation or anything that even comes close to the competition. I'm a Palm Pre owner now. On a lighter note isn't great that such trivial things are all we have to complain about.

Well I took the plunge having been generally dissapointed with the X-1060 ( apart from SQ). This week I purchased the Palm Pre as I was entitled to a cut-price upgrade on my cell phone. I have to say I have finally found a device that does (almost) everything. The music player isn't bad either, better than the fruity alternative IMO. The big deal is the apps. Generally speaking, if the device doesn't have a function out of the box there is a way to get it.There is also a nice little hacking community building up. Having been an incredibly loyal Sony fan for many years I am finally tiring of their tactics and silly decision making. Hanging off a forum to see if I can have the same device as my Japanese counterpart is a little bit ridiculous in this modern age. I would also doubt any move Sony makes to Android. There will be loads of noise and fanfare until people start discovering that certain typical android functions will be locked or removed from a SONY device, don't say they can't do that, they CAN.

I need to catch up. Are you Japanese, so English menu's aren't a problem? Is the new X-Application in Japanese also? Is X-application the only software that the A847 works with, ie no Drag and Drop?

....................makes sense to me. Isn't there money to be made out of forcing consumers to buy the next model?

Not Likely

I'm sick of SONY. Time to move on.

Company policy? Company culture? Who knows, what I DO believe is that they need to change this policy (or culture) or people will leave them. To be honest I think this "lack of updates" issue with SONY is much worse than the ATRAC debacle of old.

Needs one based on what? Sony only update firmware to remove bugs. They certainly don't add features via FW updates. If you want more ( or different) features you'll have to buy a new Walkman. I'm not supporting SONY in any way BTW, in fact I'm getting fairly pissed off with them operating closed systems in an increasingly open world. I have spent years criticizing our fruity friends on a number of points (particularly SQ on the iPod) but I have to say that I am extremely tempted to buy the iPhone next time I'm due an upgrade. I still adore SONY Walkman SQ but if you want a better multi-function device ( I think that may be what you're looking for ) you will have look elsewhere.

I also have this device, two actually. Unfortunately, as is often the case with Sony, the software is rubbish. I have all sorts of issues with it including playback problems. To make matters worse Sony has no intention whatsoever of maintaining support for either the device or the software. I cannot offer you any solution to your problem as this software creates errors so randomly that it doesn't warrant investigation. I have decided to remove the networking devices and use them as speaker cradles for my walkman. To be honest, if you can fit all of your music on a walkman it will act as a more reliable playback device as opposed to unreliable streaming device.

Amazing.................the "wonderful" X series is old already.

Maybe it's my configuration but I find W7 RC a right pain. It's slower than Vista and often hangs whilst opening applications. My PC is only 2 yrs old. As an experienced user I can only assume that the fact that I am a heavy user is the reason for this. However, you would expect a modern O.S to cope with heavy use. I would move to APPLE but for two reasons. No Walkman support and MS Flight Simulator ( my favorite waste of time) are incompatible.

How can Sony justify the logic of restricting certain models to certain markets? I know nothing about business strategy, but surely "one model fits all" would keep costs ( marketing,manufacturing etc.) down.

I agree, I'm not quite sure why I'm not too impressed the design of this one. Maybe it's because of the sharp contrast in the materials. Even though I own the new X1060 I still think the best Walkman design to date is the NWZ-A81* ( NW-A80*) series.

I might be wrong,Stuge, but I reckon they both have the same SQ specs. The difference is the design, BT22A are "over-head" ( traditional) style, whereas BT21G are the more modern "behind-head" design. BT22A also fold very neatly but they feel a little brittle and prone to breaking if roughly handled. I believe they will be discontinued shortly and can be got at really good prices now. I wholly recommend them if you can get a bargain.

..................except, of course, the minidisc based devices.

Yep, all players of this generation ( HD Based) will only bookmark a track. In fact I have yet to see a Sony device that will "remember" where you paused on an audio track in the same way as you can with a video.