ender325_

I still don't see what I would love to see...a thread comparing the E01x series vs. the S70x and A80x series. Still...I love the S70x sound, compared to the E507, the S70x series are full of detail, booming bass and clarity. It's even clearer than the sound of my Vaio!

Yeah today I read the news on Engadget, that Connect isn't shutting down. About a music service coming to the PSN...Sony could choose AAC instead of ATRAC or maybe let the customers choose which format they prefer to download. All is possible, time will tell.

Hey cswallow great post and welcome to the forums! You have the same feeling I still have -- like I said on page two of this thread, maybe something fishy's going on. All we have to do is wait some weeks for the answer. I agree with you, SonicStage is the base of a lot of their Walkman devices (there's always a chance they're cooking something new but...I don't think so just now). Sony knows a lot of their loyal people (lots I think) invest on the PlayStation and who knows...maybe Howard Stringer's Sony United thingie may bring movies and music to the PlayStation Store (after all both the PSP and the PS3 are much like media centers so why not?).

Sony's decision surprised me. At least I hope their authentication servers will not be shut off. Who knows...the staff being moved over to the PlayStation division...Sony's up to something. I know I once read (a long time ago) the company saying they were trying to unify every division - oh and they also said the PS3 was very important for the company. Doesn't this uh...(speculation coming) mean that Connect will somehow be reborn at the PlayStation Store like "hey look the store now has a music section!"? All we can do now is speculate and wait for Sony to talk......maybe at E3? Hmm...who knows.

I've tried iPods, even current generation ones..."bah" is all I said when I tested their SQ. An old friend of mine and I tested our DAPs (his Nano against my S705F) transfering a set of songs which were 320kbps MP3s. He was amazed at the warmth, clarity and bass of the Sony player -- and I got the same opinion from many people when they tested my old E507.

WAV I don't know but Atrac Lossless I highly doubt it. Players like the S70x series and beyond natively support both WAV and Atrac Advanced Lossless formats. Anything before the S70x series just support the lossy part of Atrac Advanced Lossless (for example if you chose 128 kbps bit rate for Atrac Lossless your player will just get the 128 kbps file and not the 20+MB file which is really the lossless file). Hope this clears doubt.

Hey thanks for sharing!

I agree with you. All you will do in SonicStage will be transfering songs, which isn't hard at all. SonicStage, since version 3.4 has never crashed/slowed down on me nor on any of my friends' PCs. The S70x series do have an awesome sound compared to the iPods I have tested which sounded flat. So hey Fahad go ahead and enjoy the sound.

Re-download has always worked for me. I usually relocate all Connect songs to a custom folder to ease backup (and yes I backup them on an external hard drive and they still work when I transfer them over to my PC!). So everything's smoothly here...except that SonicStage should be configured to make the default music folders in let's say...My Music folder. So yeah there's still room for improvement, I agree with you on that.

Maybe it's because the songs that gets transfered to the player have Copy Protection enabled (happens automatically) which prevents playback if you drag them from the device to your PC and that's why SonicStage is not acknowledging them. Hope this helps!

Since this thread is all about the Equalizer and I assume the difference between the A80x and the S70x's sound is not a lot (S705F owner here), here are my settings: CB+3 10113 or 20113 By the way I listen to Industrial and Rock music and yeah I agree with the topic starter, I too would like to know which settings everyone are using on their units .

Great point Shinji. I for one have been using SonicStage since version 3.2 and found it very easy to understand and manage. Even a little friend of mine (he's 13 years old) knew how to use it pretty quickly without me explaining to him how to use the program (he has the E005F). Both of my MP3 players still surprise me sound-wise (E507 and S705F) so I don't know what's the harsh treatment people have against Sony (maybe it's just the software). I remember when I was entering the digital music life and didn't know which MP3 player to buy. I saw people at my school with their iPods, but I saw its design and sound so flat, I knew there had to be a better DAP out there and after researching for months...I chose the Sony E507, no regrets since then. I find this funny as about a year ago I went to a Gamestop nearby and the cashier was looking at my E507 since I entered the store -- he even asked what it was, what functions it has, where I bought it and how much it cost, everything -- he was amazed at the sound and design. Weeks later I went again to the store, saw him along with his E507 and so I asked him about SonicStage 3.3 or 4 by that time -- he said "Pretty straightforward". So yeah Shinji I agree with you, people are way too biased about SonicStage and Sony sometimes.

I'm not too knowledgeable on the subject but the only players fully compatible with AAL are the S70x series and beyond. The players before the S70x series just support the lossy part of AAL (in your case Atrac3plus 352kbps). In terms of gapless playback you may have to ask somebody else (it could be your player). I hope this reply was of any help to you.

I was about to get the NW-E016 but ended up with the S705F. I really like the sound of the headphones it includes, what I don't like is that my other headphones that are bass-driven (MDR-Q55) sound dull with this player, yet I remember how great they sounded with my E507 . Oh well, but I never tried these type of headphones before (referring to the ones included with the S70x series) and I'm beginning to like these ones better than the open-type ones. Overall the player's sound is very vivid like DSP said and the bass is way better than the E50x series, doesn't sound distorted. I just hope these headphones don't break easily lol.

I see, so the only ones supporting that one are the S70x and A80x series. Nonetheless I'm gonna try it once I get mine, thanks for everything.

Hey bland quick question: do you know if this player natively supports Atrac Advanced Lossless? I read you normally use 352 kbps bit rate but I just want to know which file the player gets: the lossy or the lossless file?

Hey thanks for the quick reply. From what I can see, the A80x series have the MDR-EX082 headphones while these have the EX090 ones hmm...interesting. Oh yeah I already read the review over at the main page, pretty cool as it has every sound feature the A80x series have except for the DSEE feature which I don't need. So my mind is set for the E016 black one. Thanks a lot man! P.S: About the store and the main page, I sort of figured it was all about you because of the similar pictures and writing style lol.

Hello and thank you for the short review. I'm actually interested in the E016. I'm kind of novice at this but I got to ask you 3 questions: 1. Did you ordered your unit from that page? 2. If yes, do the unit's default language is English even if you get the unit from Japan? 3. Which earbuds (or headphones) do these players come with? Thanks a lot!

Hey thanks a lot for the review. All I have is the NW-E507 and I planned to buy the one you have now...until I read some threads here and convinced me to buy the NW-A805 soon these months. I was impressed with the E507's sound but then I found out that the E005's sound (which is the one I bought for my best friend) is clearer than mine. I'm all for SQ and thanks to the guys around here with the A8xx series, I finally made my mind between 3 Sony players (yeah the S705F, the E016 and the A805)...I think lol. I'm still between the 4GB E106 and the 2GB A805. I'll have to decide but I wish someone made a comparison between those two before I get the money.

My clip broke easily but I do agree with you on the scratch resistant surface. Lucky, your discoloration issue's minor, mine isn't, the Play button already lost its paint. I'm pretty worried about the lack of screws on the S70x series. I know dust will eventually get under the screen and that's why I'm worried. About Sony's accessories...I had to buy the clip for the S70x series and yeah...for a clip it was expensive ($15 US plus taxes totaled about...$17 for a simple clip...oh well.)

Whoa...sorry about that. For a high quality product like that Sony should have chosen a higher quality paint...oh well...ironies I guess.

They should've marked that below the plastic, much like the PSP's cross, triangle, etc buttons. Oh well, as long as the painting itself does not go away (my E507's Play, Volume buttons, the jog dial and the back are suffering from discoloration...must be the daily use XD!).

Yeah, I sure agree with that. Tomorrow I will buy an E005 for my best friend and soon I'll get a S705F. I would like to know if there are any issues like dust and/or discoloration on the painting with the S70x series since my E507 suffered the latter. Thank you very much.

As Stuge said, format the player from the player itself. At least you learned not to change any folder's name next time. If you do not have the songs you transferred in your PC then drag the .omg files (the songs in the player) to your PC, please note that this way you have to name each song again I think (I say I think because it's been a long time since I last used this method - now I backup everything on my external HDD lol). Good luck!

This is weird, I mean, I've been using the NW-E507 daily for a year and 3 months and I've never noticed any static noise (maybe I don't have very sensitive ears??). I've always used the Sony MDR-Q55GOLD Headphones so I don't know, really (I mostly listen to rock and industrial music, I don't know if this has an impact either).