leonyuhanov Posted October 27, 2005 Report Share Posted October 27, 2005 PrefaceRecently i was burgled, the @#$%heads stole my guitars and my 2 most favourite MD recorders, so i was left with hundreds of MD's and all my music on my computer! So i go into my local Sony shop and pick up the Sony NW-HD5:(more pics below)It looks pretty damn good, its a bit heavy for its tiny size but its thin and very cnfortable to hold and operate. I know there are heaps of you out there who are goign to ask the saem old question "Why shoudl i buy one of these vs say an iPod?". Firtsly let me say that i detest, and im using that workd mildly, iPods and the people who say things like, qoate, "Because everyone has one! duuhh!?".(no offence to anyonw who actualy owns an ipod, if you saw any of my posts on the minidisc forums you would hate me)The Good-Looks AWSOME, a true work of art by Sony-Small very comfortable and very solid, much like all of sonys high end walkmans-Easy to use, whilst the menu system is a bit strange at first, i got used to it very quickly. There are 2-Volume buttons, Back+Foward, Up and Down for navigation, Pause/Play, Stop/power, Menu/Search and the Hold slide. -Is compatible with Sony Remote controlls, that is walkman remotes, my friend lent me their MD remotes to test out on this and they both worked perfectly, even the backlite went on BUT it does not come with a remote, nor is it mentioned anywhere(read The Bad below)-The start up time is not bad, 4.88 seconds from a cold start, what i mean is that when the player is completely turned off, as soon as you press PLAY it takes 4.88 seconsd for the music to come on.-Seek time is under 1 second, and about 1.5 when using the Shuffle option-The hold slide is BIG and very easy to slide across bt not back(bonus for beeing a hold slide)-Has an self orientating screen, depending on which way you turn the walkman, and then turn it on(read The Bad below) the screen will re-orientate itself to the right position-Plays for 40 hours, although thats not quite true(read The Bad below)-Has an interchangable LiON(Lithium-Ion) rechargable battery, which is cheap compared to their MD conterparts. This Battery goes for soethign like $75AUD-The sound quality is great, i have tried both mp3's and Atrac files and even 128k mp3's sound good.-Comes with powersupply, usb cable, software(read The Bad below), GOOD long headphones and a cary pouch(read The Bad below)and now...The Bad-Bit overpriced, for $459AUD its not the cheapest 20gig player around-Sonicstage, Sonicstage, Sonicstage...wow what a piece of c##p, the DRM placed by sony once again makes it shoot itself in the leg. I heva alot of music, just onder the 20 gig capacity of the player, it took me about 10 crashes of the software before everythign worked ok.-The 40 hour batery life is only good if you are playing Atrca encoded music, for me this meant reencoding over 15 gig of music!(NO WAY) so playing MP3's alone i think i get abour 20 hours maybe a bit more-The Player has really good sound efefcts built in, from the Acoustic engine, to a 6-band graphics equalizer..BUT gues again, u cant use them unless u encode your files to Atrac, u can use the bass treble equalizer for mp3's though, its not bad but i feel like ive paid for a feature i will never use.-The Cary case, well its moer like a little piece of rag to wipe your glasses with, it wont protect the walkman from anything but a babys breath, besides that its awkward to insert the player into, and just uselss for finding the buttons when its in the pouch-Whilst its compatible with a Sony Walkman remote(MD/CD/HD), it doesnt come with one, doesnt say anythign about it beeing compatible, doesnt mention it anywher ein the manual, adds, store people didnt know about it untill i showed him you could do it... etc....-Whilst the screen can re-orientatte itself, it only does this after a power on(not really a bad but somethign which shoudl be improved upon)-Whilst using Shuffle, there is no way to go back to the previous track, now i understand this is a very anali-retentive thing for me to discuss but its so bloody easy!! im not saying have a record of every random track played but just the previous track!!Over allOverall i have to say this unit is great, 20 gig, looks great, sounds good, really easy to use, REMOVABLE LioN battery(take that iPods), and remote controll support. I fyou can pick it up for $400, like i did, go for it! Here are some more pics:Hope this helps anyone out there who is plannign on buying one!Leon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ishiyoshi Posted October 27, 2005 Report Share Posted October 27, 2005 Thanks for taking the time to share your impressions and thoughtful pictures.thread moved to "Equipment Reviews + Pictorials." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sade.duo Posted October 31, 2005 Report Share Posted October 31, 2005 I just got mine days ago, i brought it from ebay.It's used but in excellent conditon, $90 USD, Great player, Great deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leonyuhanov Posted October 31, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 31, 2005 I just got mine days ago, i brought it from ebay.It's used but in excellent conditon, $90 USD, Great player, Great deal.←WOW thats cheap! good find!Leon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Stuge Posted November 3, 2005 Report Share Posted November 3, 2005 Really a X-LENT review.But sorry to hear that ur guitars & MD recorders were stolen .Hope u can beat those thievies one day with adam gilchrist bat....................................................... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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