DSP

hello guys , I´m about to sell my beloved sony NW-A1200 black. As some of you might know I´ve bought an Creative Zen vision:M and I´m afraid my walkman will end up sitting in it´s dock, begging to be used again. I don´t want such an ending for my too young Walkman. The walkman Is in absolute outstanding condition. Always carried it in a pouch wich I´ve purchased and been very carefull with it. I´m (as you might expect) the first owner, I bought it in the store brand new. The walkman comes complete with it´s purple box and all the accesorries that come with the device. You als get a little pouch (from sony, so no 3rd party) and the official sony brand Dock (the round one with the light). If any-one is interested, please let me know. it´s this dock: this device (not mine though, I have no camera at hand now. If any-one wants real pictures, please PM me) http://img.clubic.com/photo/00307240.jpg in this box http://blog.so-net.ne.jp/_images/blog/ctec2/2084167.jpg and finally this pouch: http://img.clubic.com/photo/00212374.jpg greetz

well, I´ve played around with the zen for an hour. I can say that overall SQ is indeed on par with NW-A series. The A-series does have a bigger bass and a bit more warm sound. the zen has a nice warm sound too, but it can sound cold if it has to. The bass is good, though not as heavy as on A series. he zen des have 25 Mw per channel whereas the A series has only 5 Mw. the SNR of the zen is really good, and it´s quite noticable using the sennheiser CX300´s. Therefore the zen sounds much clearer and sometimes ´´spacier´´. So all in all, as far as I can say for now, the zen sounds really good. Sometimes I kinda miss that tight bass of the A series but I tend to get used to it´s bass as I enjoy the zen´s crystal clear sound. (the nw-a series have a little distortion and hiss in the sound occasionally) If I keep in mind that the zen has some sort of normalizer and an apart bass boost function, plays various video formats on a gorgeous 2.5 inch 265K QVGA LCD screen and has FM radio wich you actually can record and many more features I have to say that the zen is just a bit better than my beloved NW-A1200. greetz

@ navsimpson: yeah, no problem! I´ll do that. personally i think it´ll be on par with nw-a series, but it won´t come close to nw-s700 series. But i could be all wrong. I´m expecting it to be here round 3 PM. so I´ll be able to give a quick review by tonight. stay tuned @ beethovian: NW-A series UI is indeed very good. That´s true. But Ipod´s UI is just more simpel and more easy. If you give the ipod and a NW-A1000 to an old noob, I think he´ll figure out the ipod first. see what I mean. Personally I like Sony´s UI better, for the exact reasons you´ve just mentioned. But i´m just trying to say that the UI is the only strong/good point about that whole ipod thing. And that very same UI will be on my zen too!! But the zen features much more and better features! greetz

I really had no DAP plans for 2007. I don´t usually ´´plan´´ my purchases. But I did order a Creative Zen vision:M today. I noticed I´d like to watch videos on-the-go and that it was the only thing I used my PSP for. So I sold my PSP and bought this one. videos on 30GB is mor conveniet then on a 1GB MS. greetz

well, I think UI on S700 series fair enough. OK, sony hasn´t got the best UI designers in the world. That´s the only thing where ipod scores points from my point of view. The NW-A series UI is pretty neath, but it could be better. I will do a comparison in ease of use of the UI between Sony NW-A1200 and Creative Zen Vison:M. I ordered a zen today and I think it´ll be here tomorrow. he UI of the zen is pretty neath too, so I´m very curious how user convenience is since I don´t like touchpads that much. we´ll see about that by tomorrow. greetz

honestly, I don´t really like the silhouet on the german site.It looks a bit odd to me. I hope they come up with a better design. Otherwhise you´ll get the same thing as with ipod. Practically the same design for years. I hate that. Sony has always had the power to come up with a special design time after time. I hope sony is really preparing to go and fight the ipod. I mean, good codec support, good battery life, drag n drop, nice screen, good navigation and what aout 16GB flash?! It´s possible, so if the could do that it would really sell!!! And release the damn thing 1 week after anouncement in stead of 1-2 months! but I guess we´ll just have to wait 2 weeks and see what the big S bringing to the battle field: a soldier with a hand gun or an armored tank with a real big gun on top. @ biozet: where did you get that information from???? greetz

seriuosly?? damn, that means that the NW-S700 does support lossless!!!! Great news!! greetz

I´m listening to: Good charlotte - the chronicles of life and death and Good charlotte - the young and the hopeless both albums in WMA @ 192 Kbps.,cause I downloaded them form a legal music site. Listening on NW-S703FB with sennheiser CX300 or MDR-NC022. greetz

I think sony has to watch out. We haven't seen the new sony nano player. It could turn out to be a great device. You never know. It's an unpredictable market. On the other hand, as said, this design is outdated. Sony will have to add extra value to this device. Otherwhise it won't sell. They also have to do something about the software. Why can PSP have drag n drop and the walkman not???? Secondly, Sony has to make a good big capacity player. Apple is coming with Iphone this year, and probably with some sort of touch screen Ipod in the second half of this year. So sony has to come with a device that beats that ipod before apple releases it! For example: release: somehwere in the summer capacity: 16GB/32GB flash screen: BIG colour LCD/OLED (maybe even touchscreen) transfer: drag n drop support for many popular formats, good video quality, easy navigation, great battery life and a compatitive price! otherwhise sony will lag behind apple again. It's very simple in some way. Just do what people ask, and release it BEFORE the competition does. greetz

okay, so this is a flash based video walkman with a max of approx. 8GB, right? I hope the screen is good for video. So not too small. I can't really imagine this in an ipod-nano like design, But we'll see. This menu in colour would be awsome. Hope it's not a rip of of the sony china's CE-P series. Would it have clearstereo, clearbass and VPT? 8-10 hours video playback is awsome!!! If the screen is good enough, It'll slap the ipod and many others in the face!! What about codec support? Will it support AVI, MPG, DIVX, MP4, WMV or (just like PSP) only MP4? How do you transfer these files? By drag 'n drop or with sonicstage. If so, would sonicstage 4.3 have this video support allready? I think it's a good move for sony to go this way, but I hope a larger Walkman wit larger capacity comes out. Maybe with a bigger screen. It'll be a good player, if those 8 Hrs. video playback on a decent screen are true! I can't wait to get my hands on this, or to see the first pictures of it!! greetz

hmmm..... too bad..still no news. I can't wait. I'm getting a little unpatient please guys, update!!!! greetz

hi guys, I am the proud and excited owner of a sony NW-S703FB. In the manual and on the information site it says that it doesn´t support WMA with DRM. Well, As some people may know, I´ve purchased a Samsung YP-K5 a while a go. You get a voucher wth it. It lets you download music form www.surf2music.com for free! This music is in WMA (with DRM). I thought I´d give it a go with SSCP 4.2 and my Walkman (nw-s703). I was schocked and stunned when I saw SSCP transferring these WMA files to my walkman with absolutely no errors or malfunctions of any kind. It went flwalessly to my walkman. Now the fun part: I turned on my nw-s703, and slected the songs wich I´d transferred. Guess what, I was shocked once again. When pushing the ´´play´´ button on the player it started to play the song , with sound and everything!!!! Does any-one know how this could be possible? Or does any-one have the smae experience? I really don´t mind! It was a very pleasant surprise! way-to-go sony!!! greetz

you use atrac @ 256 and LAME @ standard. I guess standard means 128?? If so. you should compare at same bitrates. Personally, I think atrac sounds overall better than mp3. Though lame is very good! If you realy wanna know wich codec sounds best to you I´d recommend you to compare 1 song (from an original, recent CD) in the formats ATRAC3+, AAC, WMA, WAV. All @ 160/192 Kbps (except WAV off course). Use CBR (constant bit rate) WAV is the best, but way to big. Just do this test, and see for yourself. It´s very personal. I use atrac3+ at 160/192 kbps. greetz

damn, now I'm really curious about saturday. I can barely wait greetz

first of all, welcome to atraclife. I know a player that meets all your demands from your wishlist: samsung YP-K5.There's just one point. Soundquality. Soundquality of YP-K5 is really good, but I like my NW-A1200's soundquality a tad better. If you've never heard a NW-A1200, you probably won't notice it, but otherwhise there's a noticable difference and I like Sony's SQ more. I have both players. ( you could wait for the YP-K3, coming in march this year. It's the same player but without speaker) personally, I don't like cowon players. I think their sound is a bi ''screamy'' and not as warm as Walkmen. But that's my opinion and I have to say I haven't heard much of them. as for your questions about sony players: - How they compare to cowon's I don't really know (read above) - I think modern Sony (NW) players are really better than your 909. SQ is just better. on the NW-S706: (I own one) - Yes, the supplied headphones are better then EX70. (from my experiences) - On the NW-S706 EQ is always available, as far as I know. - I didn't notice a big drop in battery life If I only play MP3's. I'd mind you that SQ is something personal. Try to compare players in real life, so that you can make your own judgement. hope it's helpfull. greetz

MP3, atrac, AAC (compression) normal book vs. E-book greetz

OMG, new walkmans. I can't wait. I hope they'll present the new High capacity walkman a.k.a. ''the video walkman''. I'm very very curious what sony will give us this time and if they can make up for their mistakes. I think clearbass and clearstereo will be in it, and the dynamic normalizer since this is available for PSP too!! But I hope for some more innovative functions, and sound enhancements! ohh yeah, don't forget VPT and an HD digital amp. would be awsome! greetz

well giki, you've got it exactly right! sony is one of the most innovative manufacturers in the world. Sony is a beautifull company with a long history rich of remarkable achievements. They are among the best and greatest comapnies ever. Just because sony is having some troubles doesn't mean that they're losing their strengths and reliabilities. For me, sony will always be one of the best companies ever to exist. People tend to exaggerate a lot when companies are having some troubles. Sony is a big firm and will get over this. If you compare sony to other companies, you'll see that sony is almost the perfect match between all the aspects that make good companies: Philips: good, reliable company. But advertising skills lack big time. They can't sell their products to their audience. Microsoft: well, they make decent stuff. but their atitude is disgusting. nuff said. Apple: they make great products and perfect software (apart from ipod/itunes imo) but since the succes of their ipod they tend to get a little arrogant imo. samsung: I've always had very good experiences with samsung products. They make cool, clever and smart products. just like sony. But their products are just not as ''high quality'' as sony's imo. But they'll get there, I'm shure that's just a matter of time. I just picked a few companies randomly for example. I'd mind you that it's my opinion. greetz

Damn. I'm getting a little bit scared when reading this. I will be getting a brand new laptop with Vista on it for my birthday. I hope SSCP 4.2 works on it. Otherwise I'll be very very pissed off. I have a NW-A1200, PSP, NW-S703 and NW-307. So I defenitely need sonicstage very bad!!!! It's the final version, and official retail version of vista, so I assume that SSCP 4.2 will work. But We'll see about that in six weeks from now. Then I'll be getting my laptop. greetz

I also think the video walkman will have an OLED screen. many of the asian manufacturers are swapping to OLED technology for their devices. Look at samsung and sony for example. I think OLED is great. You can really ''hide'' an OLED screen behind the surface of a device. Look at the sony NW-S700. The color OLED looks great. But I've recently bought a samsung YP-K5 wich has a bigger color OLED screen and that one is even better. It's way sharper and very vivid. Beats sony's OLED screen (form the NW-S700) in every way. So just imagine (and I don't mean the samsung slogan) how the video walkman would look like with one of these at (for example) PSP's resolution. I can't wait :) kick in Clear stero and clear bass, NC, VPT and a HD digital amp and decent codec support and I'm very happy greetz

@ guardian of death: PSP indeed has low volume, But I think that has something to do with EU restrictions. But the volume is not my point of discussion. It's soundquality, pure soundquality. And that's where PSP scores points. That the volume is low is correct, and especially with those damned ''ear-friendly'' buds supplied. But the soundquality is very good. It's crisp and clear and surprisingly natural, warm and full but never overdone. So volume level is no point of dicscussion here. greetz

I've had a SHARP GX30 mobile phone for 3 years, and it rocked. Never failed on me. now I bought myself a brand new SHARP 902SH. So damn nice phone. And it has a MP3 player onboard, with reasonable SQ. Can you believe that?! from a phone, that wasn't even music-orientated. greetz

Intel. CCD vs. CMOS (in camera's) greetz

hi guys, does any-one know when those accessories are coming out (in EU). I want a dock and a recording cable. maybe some protection too. I must say that NW-S700 is very durable. I use it like any MP3 ''stick'' player, throw it in my pocket etc. But still no scratches at all. I have one of those little bags (grey with orange sony label) that they once shipped. It's a small one, I think it came with the NW-E307. It's perfect for the NW-S700. greetz

WTF?! how do you know iPhone doesn't run OSX?! is apple making this up? then I'd be very very angry. And why no extra apps? I think it's logical if you launch a device with such capabilities you are going to make extra apps for it? or let others do it for ya. okay, I still think it's a great device (as shown on macworld) but if it doesn't run OSX and there are no extra apps coming, yeah, then it's useless. As I said, as a phone it's not that handy at all. But those animations and the UI are pretty sleek. But indeed, If you can't use it properly it's no use at all. In that case you'd better stick to a SE walkman phone. greetz