HD1 vs A1000

[cauldron]

Hello, new to the forum here... thought this might make for fun discussion.

I currently have the opportunity to get a new NW-HD1 for a similar price as a new NW-A1000.

You read this, you wonder out loud at your computer screen "why would anyone want the thingy Kunitake Ando held upside down at a press event, over the thingy Howard Stringer held upside down at a press event? Is he high on couscous?" Please, do hear me out.

The HD1 is still THE smallest 1.8" HDD player on earth. Archos may claim otherwise, but IMO the HD1 it is. It's a measly one gram heavier than the A1000, thinner, with better battery life. Being ATRAC-only doesn't bother me so much as navigating with that contorted "mode" button - cycling through album-group-genre-other-artist enough times could make my hair fall out.

The A1000 is great too. Easily the best Sony design in a few years (the designer used to work for Karim Rashid). Feels awesome in the palm, the GUI is very good. With SS-CP arriving in ten days it'll work well with my mixed mp3/wma/aac library. On the down side, the battery life makes me go meh, and I foresee paying for a remote in the interest of saving both the battery and my fingers. Ouch that volume slider!

I don't mind converting everything to atrac because I'm always re-encoding to fit more stuff on the player. But that's only me.

Which would you guys pick, sheer capacity, machine intelligence, rosie o'donnell (I mean, the A3000), or something else?

[Beethovenian]

I have the HD1 and the A3000, and both are flawed in their own ways, so it's hard to give a recommendation. But let me try to consider each one's advantages and disadvantages:

- In terms of hardware, the HD1 obviously wins in size and weight, though the A series' specs are very misleading, since they don't feel as big as their numbers suggest. The HD1 is also less prone to scratches. The magnesium case is very resistant. The aluminium back cover of my A3000 got scratches the first time it went into the pocket. Also, the screen of the HD1 is in general more useful, for being available all the time. It's smaller, but actually gives a little more information. The volume controls work well for both. I don't think the slider of the A1000 would cause you pains. The design of the A series is a little unwieldy, though, because its shape puts most of the weight in the fatter center, but the controls are on the bottom, so when you hold it you don't have the best grip. (Plus, the position of the volume slider makes it more difficult to use it when you're browsing your music.)

- In terms of battery life, the HD1 and the A3000 are supposed to be equivalent. My HD1 doesn't last the advertised 30 hours anymore (actually, I think it never did, since navigating shortens the battery life considerably), but my A3000, which is much newer, seems to offer much less too, though I haven't done any testing.

- In general, I prefer the interface of the A3000, because of the browsing options and the fact you don't need to deal with mode buttons. And the alphabetical and page-turning method of browsing both vertically and horizontally through long lists is a very smart alternative for a device that doesn't use a scroll wheel. The problem is that the interface of the A3000 is also slower than that of the HD1. Both have their databases in the HD, which means every time you activate the menu, it spins up the disk to retrieve information, wasting 3 or 4 seconds. The difference is that once you're on the menu of the HD1, everything works instantaneously. With the A3000, it's not uncommon to have more "accessing" waits when you move to genre, or to artist, or to tracks. Jumping between tracks is also slower with the A3000. Database caching is much more inefficient with the A3000 (and I assume the A1000 would be the same, though the smaller capacity may help by diminishing the caching requirements).

- Of course, the A series has the advantage of more formats support (and more Atrac bitrates, one of the reasons I bought it for). But if you don't mind converting, that's not an issue.

- As for features, I find ArtistLink and Intelligent Shuffle useless, but that's me. ArtistLink actually seems to offer reasonable suggestions (meaning, they're logical), but I don't see why that thing would justify a whole button for it.

[Guest Stuge]

cauldron,

You can`t compare a HD1 & A1000 .HD1 is 20gb whereas A1000 is 6 gb ..

Do you want more memory or 6gb is enough for you ??

[cauldron]

Beethovenian,

Thanks, great comparison piece. I saw the A3000 in person and it's really a lot smaller than the specs suggest. The A1000 I saw didn't cache nearly as much as my old HD5, but that's probably because the demo unit only had 30-50 songs inside. I don't see myself building a music library on the hard drive, so artist link might be useless for me, but I quite fancy the shuffle features.

Stuge,

you're no fun

In this case they cost the same, and for me a bad user interface would render capacity useless, so I give those two the same consideration.

[Guest Stuge]

cauldron ,Indian Computer Mag says(Digit )that A1000 has Better sound than HD5 ..will amazes me .

[cauldron]

I've seen reviews that say the HD3/5 have stronger midrange, and the A1000 is closer to neutral.

The HD5 and E400/500 play tracks slightly faster, a 4-5 minute song would finish a second or so early. This might have something to do with the sound...

By the way, which atrac3plus bitrates can the HD1 play, on top of 48/64/256?

Edited May 16, 2006 by cauldron

[kerfuffle]

192 . . . I'm definitely sure about that one. I think 352 is playable too, but I'm not sure.

[Guest Stuge]

HD1 can play Atrac 3 plus 48,64,192,256,352kpbs & Atrac 3 105,132kpbs but it will not play new Bitrate such as 96,128,160,320kpbs .

[cauldron]

Thanks for the replies, guys

[MDX-400]

The HD1 is still THE smallest 1.8" HDD player on earth. Archos may claim otherwise, but IMO the HD1 it is. It's a measly one gram heavier than the A1000, thinner, with better battery life. Being ATRAC-only doesn't bother me so much as navigating with that contorted "mode" button - cycling through album-group-genre-other-artist enough times could make my hair fall out.

Which would you guys pick, sheer capacity, machine intelligence, rosie o'donnell (I mean, the A3000), or something else?

I see that Archos is calling their Gmini XS 202 the "smallest music player that offers 20GB capacity"? Well let's test that claim out:

HD1 = 89mm x 62.1mm x 13.8mm

Footprint = 5526.9mm^2

Total volume = 76271.22mm^3

Archos Gmini XS 202 = 76mm x 59mm x 19mm

Footprint = 4484mm^2

Total volume = 85196mm^3

So the Gmini XS 202 does have a smaller footprint but in overall total volume that the player occupies/displaces, the HD1 is definitely smaller by a bit. Depends on how you look at it I guess. The XS 202 is not as wide/long but it is definitely thicker than the HD1.

Out of the HD1 and the A1000, I would easily pick the HD1 given the HD1 has had it's f/w updated for MP3 capability. Otherwise, I'd pick the HD3 (which I know isn't a consideration of yours) as it is only 1mm wider and 1mm thicker than the HD1; looks better IMO; available in more colours than the HD1; and is otherwise the same as the HD1.

Just my $0.02