DSP

ok, Thx for the reply dura. I'll do a review as soon as I have time and the unit arrives. You say A3000 has more smoothness. For listening to smooth and relax music I think A80x does a very good job too, since it has clearbass. I listen to that kinda music too, and I like the way clearbass enhances the warmth of the sound and the strengthening of for example the violins. What do you think? greetz

well guys, As usual I'm always on the look and in the market for better or different soundquality. I've read a lot about Cowon ''iAudio'' players. So I've been looking around for a while and came across a good deal on a Cowon iaudio F2. I couldn't resist and ordered one. I'm expecting it to be here any moment. It has a whopping 95Db SNR, many sound enhancement functions by BBE and a whopping 60mW output. Along with features like text viewing, photo, video, FM, line in etc. But I just care for the sound....... My question to you guys, looking to the interests in My previous comparisons, is if you would like a comparison between lets say NW-A805 and Cowon F2? Don't want to bother you with anything, but just thought it'd be interesting. Since many people here care for SQ and it's a fun way to get to see how sony really does compared with other players. Greetz

I'm listening to Fort Minor: The rising tied. also on a NW-A805B!!! greetzz

I didn't find SQ on NW-A1x00 range not that good actually..... it was good.. but could be better. greetz

I'm not sure of the 3mins charge fucntion. I can say that batery life is excellent. The claim 30Hrs. But this is always under ideal circumstances. Take an averag 25Hrs and you'll have a good idea. NW-S70x have 50Hrs battery life. So they're not in the same range. NW-A80x series use larger screens too. greetz

About the battery life: You noticed very good that I didn't mention that. I didn't because most people (especially the people I wrote this for) know the story about battery life and sony. Creative Zen vision:M's batery life is very acceptebale. It never disturbed me. But NW-A80x's batterylife is indeed way better. Though you have to keep in mind that the zen uses HDD rather than Flash and sony uses it's advanced VME. But you're rght in saying that sony is kng and master if it comes to battery life. But then, every product has its strenghts, and weaknesses. And so do The NW-A80x and Creative zen have. greetz

Dura, congrats with your new purchase!! @ above: Is the screen really made of glass? isn't it just plastic? greetz

Hi guys, as promised here's my comparison review between NW-A805 and Creative Zen vision:M. Since I was busy anyway I thought I'd be fun to take in NW-S703 too. I'll start of with saying that these are my opinions and that soundquality is a sucjective matter. So one could totally disagree with me. First some pictures: (they are of low quality. Sorry for that) Thickness comparison between Zen and NW-A805: The supplied earbuds; (from left to right) Creatives', NW-A805s' and NW-S703s'. Since most people here know the devices I'll keep the talk about devices in general short and just give some main features. Creative Zen vision:M - 262K QVGA LCD screen - 30GB HDD - 25mW output per channel - 97Db SNR - Video (DivX, XviD, WMV, MPEG, AVI) audio (MP3, WMA, WAV) Photo (JPEG, BMP) - Built-in voice recorder and FM tuner. Touchpad and tactile button interface. Sony NW-S703FB - ''Full color'' OLED screen - 1GB flash - 5mW output per channel - SNR?? - Audio (MP3, AAC, WMA, WAV, ATRAC3) - Built-in FM tuner, Noisecancelling and intelligent functions Sony NW-A805B - 262K QVGA TFT-LCD screen - 2GB flash - 5mW output per channel - SNR?? - audio (MP3, WMA, AAC, WAV, ATRAC3) video( MPEG4, AVC) photo(JPEG) - Intelligent functions. Now we'll go on to the exciting part: the comparison. Media features: the media features on both NW-A805 and Zen are very well integrated into the whole package. allthough the Zen has a slight edge here. You can just Drag&drop various formats to the Zen and it plays without complains. The Walkman only accepts MP4 and AVC and has crippled drag&drop support. You'll end up using image converter 3 all the time. Wich is a very good piece of software I must say. Video quality on both devices is very good and smooth. Though its seems that NW-A805 has a bit better CPU. It's faster in some things. This could also be due to the difference in memory type (HDD vs. Flash). Screens are both very sharp and vivid but NW-A805's screen is sharper since it hase the same amount of pixels on a much smaller surface. On the other hand Zen's screen is brighter. Photo features are about equal although the Walkman loads the thumbials much faster. Overall I can say that the media experience on both devices is excellent. I don't have a favourite. It could be the Walkman since it's lightening fast (i'll come back to this later) but it could also be the Zen due to easier transfer and larger screen. But If you buy the device only for video I'd recommend the Zen. More space, bigger screen, easier transfer. Soundquality: Here comes the exciting part. Soundquality. I teste SQ on all three devices with the very same pair of Sennheiser CX300's and The very same tracks: - Ilse Delange / Great escape - Lilly Allen / smile both ripped from an ORIGINAL retail CD with EAC in LAME 3.97 MP3 @ 320Kbps/44.1Khz FLAT: I'll start with a flat comparison. So ALL additinal audio functions OFF. No EQ, clearbass, clearstereo, NC, DSEE, VPT, normalizer or anything. It's a way to see what the audio technicians really have to offer back at Sony's or Creative's. Who ranked last? Sony NW-S703. Its sound compared to NW-A805 and Zen is way to muddied. Just too much bass, or too little trebble. And that without EQ! Nothing more to say about that. End of story. The zen and NW-A805 are close to each other but I have to say that NW-A805 has an edge over the Zen. The zen sounds very good. Nice trebble, good mids and clear lows. But The walkman is a bit more vivid, just a tiny bit. And is somehow brighter. The soundcharacter is brighter. It also has a bit better bass. I must say the Zen is better in transitions in songs. If a sony really kicks in, for example after the intro, The transitions with the zen goes smoothly. With the walkman it can sometimes be harsh.. but it's not often, and not really disturbing. But it's one pont for the Zen. But all in all I must say that The NW-A805 wins this test. Zen comes close, but not close enough and NW-S703 dissapoints a bit.... TWEAKED: As you know we all use the sound enhancement funcions on our DAP's. So I'll now set the sound the way I like it best for that player and compare the three DAP's again. It's more like real-life, so a better test for possible future owners of one of these devices. What did I turn on? NW-S703: - EQ - Clearbass - clearstereo NW-A805: - EQ - Clearbass - Clearstereo - DSEE Creative zen: nothing. Who ranked last? The Zen. It sounds very good, But since the EQ sucks you can't really adjust the sound. So it stays the same sound. It's quite good though, But just no competition for the Walkmans. NW-S703 came in 2nd. As you could read in my earlier comparison between Zen, NW-S703 and NW-A1200 it's relatively close between NW-S703 and the Zen. But You can adjust the NW-S703 so much that the sound comes out how you like it anyway. It has a good bass and enough trebble. the sound is a bit wider and stereo separation is better. NW-A805 on the other hand Beats both the Zen and the NW-S703 hands down. NW-A805 sound much moe vivid, clearer and richer with more detail. It also sounds wider. DSEE actually works very well and the other functions are imo a bit better then on the NW-S70x series. But this could also be due to another DSP/audio chip. I'd mind you that the Zen has one unbeatable feature: a stunning 97Db SNR. It's ALWAYS noticable. The Zen is just DEADsilent. Both walkmans have a background noise/hiss probably due to bad SNR. It's not really disturbing but noticable. Now I'd like to come back to the fact that the NW-A805 is lightening fast. When you stop your song, Power off the walkman (so no standby) and then push the ''play'' button you get the idea that the music starts playing even before you've touched the damn button. And it starts with no distortions or anything like that. This really caught my attention. I've never had a DAP (flash or HDD) that started op this freakin' fast even not in standby mode. I really like this. Maybe anybody else with a NW-A80x could explain a bit better to the people what I mean? Well, after all we can say That the NW-A805 beats both the Zen and NW-S703 hands down. S703 is very good, especially the NC and due to the adjustement possibilites and the Zen is still a pleasant surprise to me and shines in silent areas with its 97Db SNR. If you have ANY questions feel free to ask. I'll be happy to answer them. I hope this was usefull to you. greetz

well, GQ Smooth and Dura, I'll do a comparison with pics today. Since you're both nearby I can say it'll be here somewhere this evening. Thx for the positive replys! edit: I have posted the review. I hope you like it. COMPARISON REVIEW greetz

as you all might know, I did a comparison review between NW-A1200, NW-S703 and Creative Zen vision:M a while ago. (http://www.atraclife.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=3245) I was wondering if anybody here would be interested in a comparison between, let's say, The Zen and The NW-A805? NW-A805 is somehow similar to the Zen because it's a media player too. It doesn't have a HDD, but the idea stays the same, right? I thought it might be interesting to see how sony has done with the NW-A80x series in terms of media integration and soundquality. Especially since that comparison review didn't work out very pleasantly for sony's earlier NW-A series. And NW-S70x wasn't a really strong competitor to the Zen either. just let me know, and I'll be happy to do a review. greetz

@ aob9: nice!!!! That cradle looks sweet. I once bought a cradle for my NW-A1200 but it was way too expensive..... The expenses I have for purchasing the cradle are imho better spent if I'd purchase the 4GB walkman. greetz

Nice dream though....

The NW-A80x screen indeed performes better under direct sunlight then both PSP and Creative Zen vision:M. I must say that speaking out of experience this is a common phenomenon, that smaller displays perform generally better under direct sunlight then bigger screens. But in dark areas PSP and zen are brighter. At first I thought of video playback as a gimmick. But now I have used it I must say I'm surprised with the way Image converter 3 performs. It works very smoothly. So this resulted in me actually using the video function on my Walkman more than on my Zen. I still think the main strength of NW-A80x is music playback since it performs great in this matter. But video playback (for me) turned out to be very usable. So I use it regularly. It's just good integrated in the whole package. how about you? Do you use it or is t just a gimmick to you? greetz

''But it's usable for what it was aimed for.'' With this I mean that DSEE actually works for the purpose it was designed for. So overall it's a gimmick (since many people have High quality trakcs) but it works. The screen is very sharp. The brightnes is very good, but could be better. Note that this would eat up battery time. I think it's a good balance between brightness/battery time. I;ve compared to PSP and Creative Zen vision:M and both are much brighter. But since the image quality is superb (76.800 pixels on a 2'' screen surface) I can get over this. colours are very vivid and the display gives a very juicy image. greetz

@ Stuge; In general it can be considered a gimmick. But If you use badly recorded tracks (like old music) or low-bitrate tracks DSEE is noticable. It gives more sparkle and vividness to the tracks. But since most users use >128K files and listen to modern music I think you could consider it a gimmick. But it's usable for what it was aimed for. greetz

Hi guys, I've editted the first post due to a little something I discovered along the way....(yesterday when listening music before going to sleep) ''edit: after listening in more quite environments I have to say the hiss due to low SNR is still there. In daily use it's not noicable and sounds very clear, but when (for example) I'm lying in bed and listen to quiet track like some of U2 for example the hiss is still there. It's not very disturbing, But I think it's just a shame. A dark smudge on an almost perfect Walkman.'' As said, it's not something you should depend you're choice for buying it on (@ GQ Smooth) but I just tought I'd share this with you. Note that I compare this to my Creative Zen vision:M with a 97Db SNR. If only the SQ could match up with the Walkman...... If any questions come up, Feel free to ask!! greetz

I think we should be a bit carefull with that drag&drop dream of ours.... No big company did this so far.... so Sony would be revolutionairy there. And we all know sony is only late with everything... So be wise and be carefull. greetz

Hi guys, your welcome!! I have tried the player with other phones (sennheiser CX300) and it's louder withthese phones. The stock phones are surpsisingly clear. There is more treble then for example the stock phones of the NW-S70x series. when zompared NW-S70x phones sound a bit muffled. Bass response on NW-A80x phones is very good, but not as much as on the NW-S70x stock phones, they are clearer. greetz

well, volume on NW-A80x series is equal to the NW-S70x series. Compared to NW-A1x00 series volume is loud. I must say that the supplied earphones are a bit low volume. But it's fair enough. I think that sony hasn't put the volume cap on their walkmans since the realease of the NW-S70x series. greetz

yes, but they are just too expensive. I have a litlle bag that came with my MZ-NH900 Hi-MD unit. It's great protection!! greetz

well, I got home with a NW-A805. So as promised, here's my little review. http://www.atraclife.com/forums/index.php?...ic=3501&hl= greetz

well guys, I went to the local Dixons store this afternoon and couldn't resist the NW-A805 staring at me from it's place in that big vitrine.... So I went home with a brand new NW-A805. As promised I would post a review of it with some pictures. note that the pictures are not of high quality. sorry for that. first, we start of with the box: it's a very small box, even smaller that that of NW-S70x series and in totally different style. then we get the CD, earbuds and USB cable: and then the walkman itself: general overall the player feels very sturdy. It's very lightweight and feels small, yet sturdy. Not like you're gonna break it anytime soon. the display is of very high quality. Picture quality is crystal clear and bright enough. The spiderman trailer that comes on it is spectacular. The icons and animations look very sleek too. The WM-port on the downside is protected against dust and dirt by a little ''flap''. On the back side there's only a walkman logo, 2 screws and the hold switch. The volume is placed on the side like on the NW-A1x00 series, but it are 2 buttons. I think this is a plus. soundquality The soundquality is (as you might've epected) outstanding. I have both NW-S703 and NW-A805 and NW-A80x sounds brighter, with a little bit more detail. The earbuds that come with NW-A80x are not very loud, but do sound much clearer than MDR-NC022 (supplied with NW-S70x). NW-A80x comes with VPT, DSEE, EQ, ClearBass and Clearstereo. all thes funcions work very good. DSEE is actually noticable with low quality tracks. the disturbing hiss noise on NW-S70x doesn't exist anymore in NW-A80x. I was very pleased to notice this!! edit: after listening in more quite environments I have to say the hiss due to low SNR is still there. In daily use it's not noicable and sounds very clear, but when (for example) I'm lying in bed and listen to quiet track like some of U2 for example the hiss is still there. It's not very disturbing, But I think it's just a shame. A dark smudge on an almost perfect Walkman. Don't know the SNR number, but tryin' to find that out. I leave it here for now, I'm running out of time. Hope it is a bit helpfull. If you have ANY questions just ask them in this thread or PM me. I'll be happy to answer them. greetz

@ zizone: Yes, I use my NW-S703 mostly with my trusty Sennheiser CX300's. But I still find that there's a hiss. Especially when compared to my Creative Zen vision:M. I'm going to the shop this afternoon and have a look at the NW-A80x. Maybe I'll decide to buy one, maybe not. We'll see tonight if I came home with another Walkman or not... If so, I'll report my opinion on the new walkman series in a review with pictures and everything. greetz

@ wagas: hat's exactly what I'm interested in... How is the SNR of the NW-A80x series? can you find the exact number in the manual or something? I know that it was written in my old NW-A1200's manual (84Db ). As I read, you're familliar with the hiss problem in sony walkmans. Especially in my NW-S703 it disturbes me.. compared to my Creative zen vision:M it's one noisy bastard... How does NW-A80x compare to NW-S703 in the case of that hiss. Or maybe even compare it to the Creative? That's just deadsilent. (SNR = 97Db ) Thx in advance!! greetz

no, that's not the problem. The problem is that the HDD is broken and I'm experimenting with CF cards and HD's But I need those files and the file ormat of the card.... So if some-one could help me..... I ould appreciate that very much!! greetz