Exclusive ATRACLife NW-A3000 + NW-A1000 Review

[simon.giesen]

Hi everybody,

Chris, you said that the A-series walkman are not announced in the USA?

Look on the Sony Germany website and you will find them, you can even

pre-order them on Sony Style Store Germany.

Well, I own the HD-5 at the moment and I am very very satisfied.

I am not sure whether I will upgrade, these are my questions:

1.) Batterie Lifetime: My HD-5 seems just to be unbeatable. Amazing, I am

listening all the week through to music, even I plugged it to my stereo and

the batterie is just not going down. -> The A-series seem to be bad regarding

batterie lifetime. Why? Because of the OLED?

2.) Size and storage: The A-series seem to be bigger then the HD-5, yes?

Why not a model with a 40GB storage? Is this planned? Are there any G-Shock

protection?

3.) Sound quality: The HD-5 was rated by CNET, Audio and several other magazines throughout the world as the best sounding mobile player and I can confirm that it is! Have you ever listened to the A-series?

4.) ATRAC3Plus: Are ALL data rates supported?

Certainly, Sony is late, very late. But I think they only have a chance to beat the iPod in creating a product which is completely different - "like no other". A gadget. And they have to release tools for it: Several cases, special headphones, loudspeakers, desk stands...

[pata2001]

The packaging is very similar to Creative's Zen micro. Another question is the price. Creative has the Zen micro photo, with color OLED screen, 8GB, removable battery, for $250. The A1000 needs to be at $200 price point to be competitive, but my guess it will be $250. Sure, its OLED screen is attractive, but many people are turned off by the name "Sony" already, thanks to Sony's past history with MD/OpenMG/SS/HD1/Atrac, etc. Still, the A1000 will probably be the only micro HDD DAP that can do gapless (atrac).

And btw, will this packaging be universal? Japan version of Sony portables always use cardboard boxed packaging. However, US versions are always in the dreaded plastic wrap packaging.

[lindijones]

It will play more than 15 Hours in A3+ with 256 kbit/s....

come on....

CU

Tom

[Damage]

I didn't quite say this before I saw the pictures, but the design of the Walkmen remind me the Rio's design, including the backlit buttons (CE2110 has this, so I'd imagine the Carbon line would), and the general shape. The CEs are tapered like wedge though, whereas the Walkmen look like soapbars.

I wonder if Sony's Walkmen unit absorbed some of those who used to work at Denon's RIO unit? If so, it can only help, methinks.

[Rumz]

Here's what I want out of Sony's new players / Connect software, besides being competitively priced:

PLAYLISTS. I love my Vaio Pocket, but dang. The only way to do playlists is on the fly, I can't create them in SS. Playlists are what connect a MD mix maker to the HDD world. I love mixes, and I love the way playlists work on the iPod... Sony please give me something along these lines so I'm not duplicating files making custom groups. Or will groups be done away with entirely?

[szsiddiq1214]

lol, i hate to be rude, but what happened to all our questions being answered? :-p

just kiddin! thanks for all the info uve given us

[biozet]

Ok,

I will try to answer your questions:

1.Sound Quality is very good-using line out- into my reciever- the sound is great,not any different to the HD5(I tried the same track,at the same bit rate,with the A1000 vs the HD5)Using a variety of headphones I would say the sound quality is the same-I may be proven wrong here,but listening tests are subjective.

2.bit rates cover all the stated rates shown within SS 3.2(which is what I used to load music onto both the 1000 and 3000)Gapless is only applicable with ATRAC.

3.Packaging.I do not know if the packaging is international-the units I have are from Japan-The outer wrapping is not shown,it is identical between models,and consists of very attractive metalic purple cardboard,very minimal otherwise.The internal plastic part that hold the players is made up of two parts-interchangeble between each box-The internal black box is made high quality materials.

Under the white part to the left you will find several printed manuals(all very brief,stating the basics only-a pdf manual is on the CD-ROM)a AC cable,AC adaptor 'brick'very small and light with a standard usb jack.a multifunction cable to connect to the walkman(usb one end,plug with LEDon the other)The plug has two parts you press to attach and remove it from the player.A set of fontopia headphones with color co-ordinated accents,a headphone extension cable-making the total length about 1.5 meters.There is no removable battery,case,charging stand etc..etc..Thats it.

The AC adaptor can be used to charge other network walkmans via usb-I have done it with two different models and have had no issues.This is great if you have to charge without needing to have a computer nearby.

Charging is quick(faster than HD5)and battery life stated in press is pretty accurate-if not conservative.(I got about 22 hours from my A1000,using a variety of ATRAC bitrates).

Build Quality is very good,both players are made of high quality polycarbonate plastic and metal(magnesium?aluminium?)-if you have a NW-E400/500 series walkman you will find the A1000 and A3000 to be very similar.

The A3000 is 'heavy'-this is always mentioned when people first pick it up(again the E400/500 walkmans get the same comments.To me this is a plus-the players feel both 'solid' and high quality.

SoftwareI do not have it(honest)It was not in the box-Japanese software is floating around,but english language software has not been distributed yet.

Thats all for now,i hope this has helped you all.

Photos really do not give these players the justice they deserve-in the flesh they are both really futuristic and tactile to use.(with one hand..lol)

[EZero]

No FM Tuner I guess...

[yoshimail]

lol, i hate to be rude, but what happened to all our questions being answered?  :-p

just kiddin!  thanks for all the info uve given us

←

Hehe, yeah I want to know too. I am a loyal Pocket Vaio user and I love it so far. The thing that really gets on my nerves is SonicStage. I am hoping that this new Connect Player is better faster, more intuitive and best of all, I hope it works. SS is just a piece of waste in my PC, it does not even run at all and I cannot uninstall and do a clean install. Sony should hire more competent software engineers. The new player does look nice though, it will be a tough match to compare this new one with the new iPod nanos.

[haroldpark]

Ok,

I will try to answer your questions:

1.Sound Quality is very good-using line out- into my reciever- the sound is great,not any different to the HD5(I tried the same track,at the same bit rate,with the A1000 vs the HD5)Using a variety of headphones I would say the sound quality is the same-I may be proven wrong here,but listening tests are subjective.

Do you have any idea if the internal amp has been boosted relative to the 5mW per channel of the HD5. The iPod and most other daps have an output of 30mW per channel. I thought if this was the case it might account for some of the discrepancy in advertised battery life between the two models. If there is no technical cpecs perhaps a subjective evaluation of how they compare loudness wise.

[Beethovenian]

So far, nothing seems to justify it being bigger and heavier. Sony doesn't have the cool factor, nor it's cheaper. It can't go bigger when Apple is making its players smaller.

[haroldpark]

3 hours from now and Mr Apple is gonna announce the new large capacity iPods. How good these upcoming Sony players are gonna look to most people is gonna be very heavily influenced by what he has to show - smaller + more GB and/or video capabilities. We shall see.

[Coolhellfire]

Hi.

No gapless for mp3´s?, what a pity ¡¡¡. Yes, i like more atrac, but i have tons of mp3´s and i don´t understand why Vaio has mp3 gapless and others from Sony haven´t.

Un saudiño.

[bobdibest]

Are the players you reviewed the Japanese ones? I ask because Japanese models usually come with the remote included nowadays whereas European models do not. And I have noticed amazon.co.uk selling the remote separately on its website

Thanks

[Dinko]

3 hours from now and Mr Apple is gonna announce the new large capacity iPods. How good these upcoming Sony players are gonna look to most people is gonna be very heavily influenced by what he has to show - smaller + more GB and/or video capabilities. We shall see.

Thinner with a larger colour screen and large HDD capacity in a relatively decent price range.

The NW-A3000 is not an iPod killer. But the iPod is a NW-3000 killer. Sorry Sony! Get a clue already! Best thing Sony can do now is cancel the NW-A3000 and find some way of sticking a 40GB drive in the A1000.

[EZero]

So Apple's new iPod, has the same amount of memory, but has a color screen and video and is smaller than the current 20GB iPod. While Sony, on the other hand, is coming out with this new Walkman, which is bigger than the new video iPod, not to mention heavier, and has less features.

Everytime I think Sony does something right, it's really they move back two steps. They are a movie and music company, why didn't they try to do what the new Apple is doing with the new video iPod? They should have an advantage, but nope, they decide to give us the A3000. If it was just the regular iPod, I'd say Sony had a chance, but with the new iPod, Sony has lost.

[LordZero]

I still want the a3000 because of the price,probably the new ipod will be very expensive in portugal and i'm not a money maker,but if the new ipod have a great price here,probably i will buy it.

New ipod is small,black and seems more cool then a3000...but...i don't need a color screen for nothing and a 30Gb,20Gb is nice for me,and i can use atrac3plus, to get more music in hhd,and the look of a3000 is not that bad,i like it...but is all about price,and for me the only good thing of the new ipod is the size,style.

Edited October 12, 2005 by LordZero

[rocklegend_]

I was on the Apple website as I´ve been reading alot about this new announcement on the 12th of October.Well,what I found out is that the next Gen iPod will actually show movies as well as play music and have photo slides.One can download the movies and music from iTunes 6.For me this is a very sad day for Sony as I really don´t think their new players are iPod killers,in fact I would imagine that Apple are laughing all the way to the bank,in fact I think its game,set & match to Apple & F**kin iTunes unless Sony can pull a f**kin miracle out of the bag.I´ve been buying Sony Walkman´s all my life but I´m having a change of heart...I´m looking to change my NetMD player to a HDD Player...any advice...Sony´s 20GB is Fuck All and the New iPod is 80GB....Sony has missed out big time...what ye guys here in Atrac land think...Oh by the way this has been my first post...This site rules..........Rock

[haroldpark]

Sony´s 20GB is Fuck All and the New iPod is 80GB....Sony has missed out big time...

Actually the 5th gen iPod comes in 30GB and 60GB capacities - not 80GB. Seems to have internal voice recording though this is not entirely clear yet.

[szsiddiq1214]

im fairly certain people has mis interpreted the apple site...the apple site simply gives details on the codec of voice recordings on all ipods...to actually use this tho, im fairly certain u must obtain an optional voice recorder

[pata2001]

Yeah, Apple is kicking butts today. Sony has not even released the A1000 and A3000 to the market, yet Apple is coming with the new iPod in a week shipping form apple.com. What happened Sony? It seems Sony's new walkman is doomed before even it reaches market, unless Sony sells them for much cheaper.

Sony better start designing flash based thinner A1000s, bring back the Vaio pocket and put video capability ala PSP on it, or make a PSP with 40GB HDD in it. Really, Sony has potential products (eg. PSP with its excellent screen and capabilities), but nothing is done to make use of them.

[haroldpark]

im fairly certain people has mis interpreted the apple site...the apple site simply gives details on the codec of voice recordings on all ipods...to actually use this tho, im fairly certain u must obtain an optional voice recorder

Yeah looks this way now as there doesn't seem to be a builtin mic. May be that you just need a mic now rather than the other external recording hardware. Apple was quoted by ilounge as saying this model iPod would feature advanced recording and playback capabilities as compared to older models whatever that may mean.

Yeah, Apple is kicking butts today. Sony has not even released the A1000 and A3000 to the market, yet Apple is coming with the new iPod in a week shipping form apple.com. What happened Sony? It seems Sony's new walkman is doomed before even it reaches market, unless Sony sells them for much cheaper.

Sony better start designing flash based thinner A1000s, bring back the Vaio pocket and put video capability ala PSP on it, or make a PSP with 40GB HDD in it. Really, Sony has potential products (eg. PSP with its excellent screen and capabilities), but nothing is done to make use of them.

I don't think the new iPod necessarily makes the A series obsolete before it arrives. It still has advantages in battery life and possibly sound quality that some are going to prefer. The iPods can only do 2/3 hours of video playback for the 30/60GB models anyway so the iPod is hardly a PMP on the same lines as something like the Archos AV500. However I don't think Sony are going to catch the iPod anytime soon. They are too far ahead and they are a moving target. Other manufacturers try to create products that better the last iPod in key areas and they frequently do but then Apple comes out with a new model that shifts the goalposts often in an unexpected fashion, such as the way that the Nano seemed to make all micro-hdd players seem obsolete.

The PSP is another question entirely. The PSP is Sonys true Walkman/iPod of the 21st century in terms of market dominance/percieved superiority. It has enough of a different emphasis to not face damaging competition from the iPod but enough overlap that some will choose it instead. Its a much stronger suit for Sony than this quest to reclaim portable audio from Apple.

In the world of portable audio: Apple are in the drivers seat. Most people don't really care about any other dap manufacturer. Sony got into the game years after Apple and were ridiculed for releasing a player without MP3 support. They finally MP3 change their mind and produce a decent player (HD3/5) that is crippled or at least tainted in the eyes of most by software deficiencies, DRM and the lack of coordination between different branches of the company. By the time Stringer took over it seems Sony had overcome these internal problems and were now focused on creating the kind of synergistic software/hardware package that Apple has had for a long while. And it seems in the A series they have produced something that would stand up very well against the 4th gen iPod and 2nd gen mini of last year. But as Apple said they spent a year working on the new video iPod. A year in which Sony was just getting themselves into gear to produce a decent total dap package was a year that Apple spent improving an already decent software/hardware bundle and tightening their grip on the market.

[pata2001]

In reviewing the iPod photo it was never held against it in any review I saw that it had no video capability. From now on I expect every review of a new dap such as the A3000 will list as a negative the fact that it has no video playback because for better or worse the iPod is the measuring stick. More features and a player can be called cluttered and unintuitive. Less and it is clearly inferior.

Yeah, this will be bad news for all the upcoming DAPs (zen sleek photo, A1000/3000, etc). CNET already penalizes DAPs that don't have WMA playback, and/or FM radio, yet the iPods kept getting perfect scores. Now video playback. IMO the new iPod is NOT a video player. It is still merely a DAP with video gimmick (small screen, short battery life, limited codec support). Maybe it's just a test ground for Apple to release their new video content in iTunes, and then maybe release a full PMP iPod if enough people are buying the content.

As for Sony's sound quality, Apple claims the new iPod will have a sound quality as good as the shuffle. If that's true, than the new iPod will have an upper hand in SQ. Objective tests already showed that the shuffle has a superior SQ vs Apple's own regular 4th gen iPod. The only things left for Sony are battery life and gapless with Atrac (which is actually a big thingfor me personally). The HD5 had an upper hand in having removable battery, and yet Sony needs to take that out.

Oh, and regarding making DAPs at a loss, a cost analysis on the iRiver H3xx showed that companies are making BIG profits from DAPs.

http://www.eetasia.com/ARTICLES/2005SEP/C/...SEP_TEA_WK2.HTM

Apple is cutting through the market by making less profit on the hardware, in hoping people will jump for content in iTunes (the profit is still good, Apple is probably making ~$40 profit for each $99 512MB shuffle). Sony makes their own flash memory, so that should not be a problem. Interesting enough, I don't see Samsung releasing 2GB/4GB DAPs, pointing the fact that they're the one who is supplying Apple with the NAND chips.

[veezhun]

i stand by my point.. the A series will be a Sony killer and not an apple/ipod killer as some predicted and hoped..

compared the new ipod/iaudio x5, the sony A series looks f-ugly, has less features to please the common man. imagine you with the A series on a bus, a kid next to you whips out the new ipod and starts playing a music video. you whip out your OLED equipped soap bar looking A series and wonder why you did not buy an ipod.

The HD5 is an awesome device. Sony should have added a nice colour LCD to the HD5, added video playback, sold videos through connect, and then they might have had an ipod killer..

Mr Stringer, prepare yourself for another year of losses.

[Sp1n]

hmmm, grr, no Connect news...awwww

that`s the most inportant news probably...damn i hope it`s compatible with my NW-HD5

[willykyu]

This new Ipod is a shock. It hurts very bad. I still don't want to buy any ipod, for I prefer ATRC sound and gapless, and want to have all my devices interact smoothly (I essentially buy SONY... but smooth interaction is not here yet).

The Ipod problem is batteries (and doesn't read atrac heehee), and this new Ipod doesn't seem to be better, am I wrong?

But I checked Itune today, and as always, Itune store is great, and the video content, though there's not much, looks sweet!

I agree that an HD5 color version, with a bigger psp quality like screen, removable battery, 40 Gig hard drive, softer buttons and accesories would be nice at the time being.

Still, A series looks very nice to me, as a simple walkman. Then, it has to be cheaper to have success. But it would have been FAR better if teh 20gigs one had the size of A1000. It seems taht SONY has competitors for 2years ago ipods!!!

But above all, there has to be a GREAT connectpleyre, with wonderful store, as good as (better?) itune store, UNICODE, with great music/video/ebook/and so on.. contents, compatible with ALL sony devices, and PSP... then I think future would look brighter.

Ah lalaaaa.... I still cross my fingers that SONY has a hidden good surpise....however, I doubt it ....

[rocklegend_]

Sony seem to be very quiet on what´s goin´ on....maybe they have a big plan in store for everyone or maybe they are just shitin themselves...I think the big suprise for everyone will be the whole Connect thing...I dunno but I think this could be something very special...I hope.I really don´t understand the hype over iPods...I really don´t.When they first came out,everyone bought one and if I´m not mistaken in Europe the Battery had to be replaced after a year of use and the battery cost as much as the player itself but people didn´t mind and they still seemed to upgrade to news ones.I remember listening to some music on an iPod and thinking to myself "this is f**kin awful,I´ll stick to my MD Player".I really don´t think that people really give a shit on how an iPod sounds because the iPod has become more than a music player,it´s become a type of fashion a pop culture which people need to be a part of.All I can say is that "Sony,you´d better get this one right.You´d better have something up you sleve or you may lick your wounds and go back to square one".

[haroldpark]

Yeah, this will be bad news for all the upcoming DAPs (zen sleek photo, A1000/3000, etc). CNET already penalizes DAPs that don't have WMA playback, and/or FM radio, yet the iPods kept getting perfect scores.

Yeah actually it was CNET in particular that I was thinking of. They have ZERO consistency when it comes to reviews. iPods seem to have their own criteria for review as compared to any other dap.

Now video playback. IMO the new iPod is NOT a video player. It is still merely a DAP with video gimmick (small screen, short battery life, limited codec support). Maybe it's just a test ground for Apple to release their new video content in iTunes, and then maybe release a full PMP iPod if enough people are buying the content.

Yeah I have no doubt there will one day be more pmp-like pods. At the moment this new model serves to keep Apple up to date with rival players like the X5 in terms of flashy features and start another round of ipod buying frenzy. Which is not to say the players might not be pretty good. I am very curious as to these improved playback/sound quality issues that have been mentioned at iLounge but also trying not to get my hopes up given their previous track record.

As for Sony's sound quality, Apple claims the new iPod will have a sound quality as good as the shuffle. If that's true, than the new iPod will have an upper hand in SQ. Objective tests already showed that the shuffle has a superior SQ vs Apple's own regular 4th gen iPod. The only things left for Sony are battery life and gapless with Atrac (which is actually a big thingfor me personally).

Me also. in fact this is kind of a dealbreaker for me. Which is a bitch considering how many players are capable of gapless these days.

The HD5 had an upper hand in having removable battery, and yet Sony needs to take that out.

Oh, and regarding making DAPs at a loss, a cost analysis on the iRiver H3xx showed that companies are making BIG profits from DAPs.

http://www.eetasia.com/ARTICLES/2005SEP/C/...SEP_TEA_WK2.HTM

Well that article was bandied about and largely dismissed as not taking into account a huge number of other factors. A guy who worked for RIO said of the conclusions

"I can confidently say that the total there looks veeeeeery suspicious, but I'd need to see the detail of the "electronics assembly" first. The display in the H320, especially at the time the H320 came out, was a $20-ballpark item. The HDD was in the region of $90 at that time. So, we appear to be at $110 without adding in ANY of the components in the player, and there are quite a few in there - CPU ($8?), RAM ($6?), two USB controllers ($8?), DAC/HP amp ($2?), bootflash ($1?), PCB/connectors/switches/flex cables/battery/ etc etc etc.

Also, saying that there was a $190+ "profit" seems to totally ignore the margin given to the distributor, reseller, and costs involved in import (duty, shipping, etc).

I'd have expected better from an EETimes article, to be honest..."

and you can see other comments here:

Based on the head of Rio saying that the dap market was one of shrinking profits where it was only really Apple who was enjoying huge financial success and the horrible financial losses of Creative

since they launched their war on Apple I would say that it is a pretty cut-throat industry right now.

Apple is cutting through the market by making less profit on the hardware, in hoping people will jump for content in iTunes (the profit is still good, Apple is probably making ~$40 profit for each $99 512MB shuffle). Sony makes their own flash memory, so that should not be a problem. Interesting enough, I don't see Samsung releasing 2GB/4GB DAPs, pointing the fact that they're the one who is supplying Apple with the NAND chips.

Samsung may be hoping that Apple will help weed out some of their smaller korean rivals before they make their own big push in the industry (They declared they wold be the number 1 dap manufaccturer by 2007 or something equally implausible). Nevertheless many have predicted that in a few years the only companies seriously involved with daps may well be Apple, Sony and Samsung based on market share and deep pockets.

[Starduck]

Hi Guys,

Am new here so go easy with my post.

I'm a huge fan of Sony, and I guess like alot of people here I am unsure where to go and what to do. I hate to be blindly loyal to a brand, but it seems like I am when it comes to walkmans/HD players. Sony are a good brand and I own alot of Sony products which i love which would explain my 'loyality' to Sony. However, I find myself questioning why I am thinking of buying a sony HD? THis new range depending on what mood I'm in seems to be a great alternative, or just a complete flop that was thought up by my mum.

My first HD player was a creative zen, and the only reason I got that was becasue it had a replaceable battery. WHere as the Ipod of the day didn't (still doesn't) and had bad press interms of replacing the internal battery(from my view this still hasn't changed). Then, oh mumma the NW1 came out, it was amazing 20gig in a credit card size box with nearly triple that of the ipods! I loved it apart from lack of playlists, and the 'all track' random was 100% awful! This was stolen a short while after so I was looking to upgrade, I ended up getting the Viao Pocket because it had playlists, colour screen, ok battery life and 40gig. I really thought I was making the right choice but I hate it, the playlist functionality sucks and must have been a shoe in. The battery life isn't that great, the colour screen is no use to me (its a gimmick) and its huge!

Now getting to the point (sorry for the long post, I kinda feel like I'm on a Psychologists couch). I want to upgrade, I want the best which to me is 1-Sound Quality 2-Battery life 3-Playlists. The new range will meet these requirements but I'm just not satisfied that this is the best Sony can offer, they look great....but they are much bigger than they need to be. This for me is the sticking point, I don't care much for the new software, I'm sure that it is better than SS, But SS does what I need it to, as for the new artist links etc....sound great but I bet I wouldn't use them! Also, 6 months time, they'll bring out another set I'm sure, so its not only that I'm unsure about the products being released now, I don't want to get screwed if Sony are just using this as a gap stop till they bring something truely decent out. The news that Ipod are doing movies etc doesn't interest me, I want a portable music player. Surely Sony can do a great portable music player either HD or flash based and allow the excellent PSP be the movie/game (with option to save music) device?

I can get a 30gig HN5 which is nice and small looks cool, has better battery life, replaceable battery, playlists.....is there really any reason that I should concider the A3000 instead, I just feel that I'm being blindly loyal and not buying on merit.

There seem to be poeple on this forum who either know things going on in sony, or get info from mates in sony. Can they offer any more info about Sonys strategy for future releases? Will they be looking to the flash market?

Again, sorry to go on, I just needed to get it off my chest...I'm off to see how much I can get the 30gig HD5 for!

[Dinko]

The Ipod problem is batteries (and doesn't read atrac heehee), and this new Ipod doesn't seem to be better, am I wrong?

New new 60GB iPod has a claimed battery life of 20 hours per charge. I'd consider that pretty decent in the market, even if below Sony levels.

[pata2001]

New new 60GB iPod has a claimed battery life of 20 hours per charge. I'd consider that pretty decent in the market, even if below Sony levels.

←

Yeah, that IS good battery life for a music player. The downside is only 3h for the 60GB video playback. Also, iPods are battery drainer, since they don't completely shut off, so regardlerss of battery life, you probably would have to charge it in 2 or 3 days anyway.

[szsiddiq1214]

well, this seems like the end of the Aseries...sony shud have released their vaio pockets that played video outside of japan....the Hmp? or something of that sort...had that gotten here it cuda developed into something, along side its content database connect

Edited October 14, 2005 by szsiddiq1214

[rockphantom]

I would still buy an A3000 for $200 MAX if it included all of the proper accessories in the package. Otherwise forget it. I've always resisted iPod. I even cancelled an iPod order last February and bought a D-NE920 (which just died). However, considering the short life of my D-NE920 I am very tempted to give the new 60GB iPod a shot, depending on SQ reviews.

Milan

[elt]

Dear Kurisu:

Can you tell me:

1,Does the connect fit for NH1!?I want to know whether the 320kps bitrates can use to hi-md

2,Does the A3000 support the pcm bitrates such as hi-md?

Sorry for my ugly english.

Thanks a million!

[Jimmix]

Does anybody think the wma upgrade scheduled for december will allow for wma lossless?

[Ascariss]

Ok, I am curious to where those people who have pre-ordered one are doing this from?

The only place I have found it is here:

http://cgi.ebay.ca/BRAND-NEW-SONY-NW-A3000...1QQcmdZViewItem

and it is rather expensive. I am tempted to skip the HD3 and HD5 and go with with the A3000 since it can handle playlists and the newer atrac bitrates. I also found it on amazon.co.uk but I am not sure if they will ship it to canada.

So where are you guys ordering this and for how much?

[beanjam]

A few things stopped me from nearly buying a hd5 from reading peoples reviews and complaints about it. I wondered if they had fixed them up yet...

I was wondering if a user could answer these questions...

1. People were saying that the hd5 could only be used on ONE computer, preventing the transition between work computers and home computers. Is this the case with the a3000 series? Or did Sony learn from its mistake?

2. Reports were made that between SS and the player, track orders got jumbled without any advice as how to change them. Now should I want to be a play a live concert recording on the A-series, do they play in order???

3. How are the tracks categorised? Apparently the tracks were ordered by artist or something, so what hope is there for a compilation cd to work properly?

4. I don't know if this has been asked or not, but is there a SLEEP TIMER function on it?

5. What is the 'visible battery status' like? Does it show more than 3 bars or something? So that we know the difference between 8hrs and 1hr left?

I always wanted a replaceable battery, and there are always the weight and size issues.. BUT I will accept these should these (in my eyes) more essential 'features' be fixed... And if they are, Sony will have me won.

[haroldpark]

Does anybody think the wma upgrade scheduled for december will allow for wma lossless?

←

Was curious about this one myself but I don't suppose so.As far as I know no other player with WMA support plays back WMA lossless.

[Ascariss]

So I am on the Sony UK site checking it out when I ran across this:

Data compression

ATRAC3 66 kbps

YES

ATRAC3 105 kbps

YES

ATRAC3 132 kbps

YES

ATRAC3plus 48 kbps

YES

ATRAC3plus 64 kbps

YES

Atrac3plus 256 kbps

YES

I am guessing it will be play the other atrac compression right? price is 199 pounds on the Sony UK site with vat, which is 417 can. That is rather expensive, I paid that for my MD 2 years ago, I am hoping when it arrives here, it will be cheaper. at least in the 350 CAN range.

[Ishiyoshi]

So I am on the Sony UK site checking it out when I ran across this:

Data compression ATRAC3 66/105/132 kbps and ATRAC3plus 48/64/256 kbps

I am guessing it will be play the other atrac compression right?

←

Yes, the upcoming NW-A3000/1000 can playback the listed ATRAC bit rates and with these new additional ATRAC3plus bit rates: 96/128/160/192/320/xx. *xx new bit rate to be announced accordingly.

*Note: ATRAC3 66/105 is only for playback; cannot be ripped by CONNECT Player.