Golden NW-S703F,Noise Canceling Walkman.

[Guest Stuge]

Golden |NW-S703F NOISE CANCELING WALKMAN®

I present you all my new NW-S703F(Gold)

NW-S703F(Front )

NW-S703F(Back[Different Angles])

MDR-NC022 bundled earphones

NW-E505 & NW-S703FG

Review :

Hi Everyone.

I got this player Two days back and all I can say I'm really enjoying .

Before planning to buy this player, I had planned to buy an I-pod(yeah an I-pod{I'm not kidding } ,but somehow sound quality of NW-S703F(Bought the golden one )

Series saved Sony & I bought this player. I got this player for Rs 11990(About US$277).Since NW-S703F was quite costly(For me Atleast & I know It will for most of the Indians ) that’s why I dropped the idea of buying NW-S706/S706F. In US NW-S703F

It came in a shiny purple box (Like then one in Which NW-1000 or A-series was supplied)

Now I will discuss about this player:

Pros:

Shiny,Looks Solid(except for the earphone plug ,Sturdy

-Noise Cancelling Feature

-Clear ,Crisp & Booming Bass

-Good earphone supplied(MDR-NC022)

-Charges Quickly(Takes about 115min to charge fully (When the is fully discharged) -Jacket Feature (It is like Cover art of MZ-DH10P){Small album art looks very cute ,otherwise it is useless as one cannot read anything )

Cons:

-No Case Provided

-Very Costly

- Recording Features need additional Cable

-Wrong position of Play mode & Sound button

,Slow Fast foward & Rewind (Only Cue /Rev)

1.Body (Durability):

Most of the body of the player is made of metal Back, sides (Except for Front screen & Button), but I couldn't make out from which material Jog Dial is made of. Front Screen, Which is made of plastic (They have used the same material for the front screen that they used in A3000/A1000) & Button are also made of plastic .Player Does look Stylish, Solid and Sturdy.

--Headphones plug moves little bit .IMO it should not be moving.

Marks: 4/5

2.User Friendly (Ease of Use).

Player is quite easy to use once your get familiar with it .Like the previous E4xx/5xx/A6xx series it also has a Bright 3 line somewhat Colored OELD display, but again it has a disadvantage it is not easy to view OELD display in Sunlight.

-Jog Dial make life easy, I’m mean with Jog dial it is very easy to access albums, Songs etc.

-Most of the buttons are positioned well (Except for the Play mode & Sound button).It is very difficult to press Play mode & Sound button (Which is on the backside ) when the player is playing & you want to change sound settings etc b`coz of the position on the back side .Most of the time I ended up Pressing Play or Cue/Rev button (Placed on the front side ).Play mode & Sound button should have been placed little lower on the backside (like E5xx series ).

Marks 3.5/5

3.Carrying outside or Portability:

Player is very portable .

Dimensions are: 87.2X27.4 X 14.9(w/H/D) & Mass: 47gm .I doesn’t think I need to say anything else.

Marks 4.5/5

4.Transfer Rate:

Sony NW-S7xxseries manual says HI-Speed USB (USB 2 Complaint).

Transfer rate of transferring songs via sonic stage is Just Ok; it is neither too fast nor too slow.

Marks: 2.5/5

5.Media Files Supported

ATRAC3, ATRAC, MP3, WMA (*1), AAC (*1), ATRAC Advanced Lossless (*2) and linear PCM (*2).

*1 Except copyright-protected files

*2 During direct recording

Still it doesn't support many file formats (like FLAC), but many of use either use single file format so it doesn't matter .Like I most of the time use Atrac 3Plus 192kpbs.

Marks: 3.8/5

6. Sound Quality.

Sound Quality of NW-S7xx series is of Top notch quality..It's great (I don't have words to express myself).Sound Quality of NW-7xx series (NW-S703F) beats the previous walkmans in every way, whether it is in bass or in the treble department.

-It is much fuller & richer when compared with NW-A1000.

-Clear Bass feature Produces clear & booming bass .It is improved version of Mega Bass.

-According to Sony "Clear Stereo" feature delivers crisp, clear stereo sound, but I didn't find any difference whether it is ON or OFF.

-VPT features produces surround sound of different environment Live ,Arena ,Club ,Which I find very useful .

-It also has 5 band Equalizer (Heavy,Pop,Jazz,Unique,& Two Custom Equalisers )

one can use all the features like Clear Bass ,VPT,5 band Equaliser at the same time .

Another New feature called Dynamic Normaliser has been added to this walkman .Basically It reduces the volume level b/w the songs. works well when it is used during shuffle mode

The Most Highlighted feature of this Walkman is NOISE CANCELING FEATURE (Cost of this player is higher b`coz of this feature) which only works with the supplied earphones .Its NOISE CANCELLING feature is quite useful during traveling, especially while traveling in the metro. This features reduce outside(Ambient ) noise by about 75%, but Not all noise is cancelled out .Earphones supplied with the NW-S703F have high sensitive microphone & its sensitivity can be controlled using Noise Cancel Control in the advanced menu of the main unit.

Earphones Used to Test the Sound Quality: I tried Different Earphones to test the sound quality. The Earphones (MDR-NC022) that came with the box produced very good sound.

I was amazed that MDR-E931 also sounded good with this walkman. Other Earphones that I used are MDR-E808, MDR-E10LP, RP-HV288 .Remember If NC feature is used battery life is shortened.

Audio File Used: Atrac 3 Plus 192kpbs. Atrac Advance Lossless 128kpbs sounded good, but I was unable to find much Difference b/w AAL & Atrac 3 Plus 352kpbs...If we need to use AAL, then we need 80 GB space At least (IMO).

Marks: 4.5/5

7.FM-Tuner:

Like NW-E4xx/E5xx/A6xx, NW-S703F also has FM tuner.FM Reception is just good.

FM Auto Preset (When Scan Sensitivity was on High) tuned 14 channels instead of 9(Delhi only has 9 FM channels).The other 5 channels tuned when selected using Jog Dial made background /awful noise only (I had to manually delete those unwanted Channels)

& When Scan Sensitivity low was selected it only tuned 4 channels .SO FM auto Preset functioned poorly.

Marks: 2.5/5

8.Headphones:

They are the best ever supplied (Bundled earphones) that I have ever seen. IMO MDR-NC022 needs a separate review, but I will still describe it briefly here .Since Earphone jack of the supplied earphone is different from the normal one, so it cannot be used with other mp3 players.

NC022 produced good sound .Sony provided three Different Ear fit rings or tips.

(i)Small, (ii) Medium, (iii) Large.

-Lows & Highs are quite clear, but mids are not. Also they are good for listening POP/Rock/Dance music songs

Marks: 4/5

9.Supplied accessories:

1. SonicStage CP Ver.4.1" application software (CD-ROM).(I’m using SonicStage 4.2,I didn’t had the courage of uninstalling SS 4.2 the previous one to check SS CP 4.1)

2. Headphones (MDR-NC022)

3. Headphone extension cord,

4. Quick start guide (In Different Languages .but I need the English one only

5. USB cable

6. Attachment (I can be used only when connecting the player to the optional cradle (BCR-NWU3).So it is useless otherwise.

NO Cover/Case for the player has been supplied by Sony.

Also Cover for NW-S703F is still not available in India.

Marks: 3.5/5(As they have not supplied cover)

10.Recording Capabilities:

I couldn't test this feature b`coz I don't have the Recording cable (WMC-NWR1) which is required. This cable is needed to be attached to the WM-Port. According to manual Recorded Songs which are recorded on the player can be imported to PC using SonicStage (I think for that we will have install Sonic Stage CP 4.1 .It might have some additional utility for that ,but I cannot guarantee ).

11.Optional accessories :

( One will have to buy these .At the same time they might not be available in your country .At least in my country they are not available.

1. Clear Case | CKH-NWS700

2 Genuine Leather Carrying Case | CKL-NWS700

3 Clear Case with Back Clip | CLP-NWS700

4 Leather Strap | STP-NWN3

5. Charging Cradle | BCR-NWU3

6.Recording Cable| WMC-NWR1

[

For more Information Pl read Atraclife Blog

Optional Accessories

Marks :3/5 (They are Imp ,but They are not available in all the countries & At the same time they are costly )

11. Battery Life:

Sony Rates that one can get 50hr when media Format is Atrac 3 132kpbs & any the additional features are off (Like Clear Bass etc).

Battery life is good .One can easily get 35-40 hr of battery life depending whether NC is on or off .

Mark:4/5

12.Software :

I don’t want to comment much about SonicStage b’coz most of us know about it ,but one thing I have to say SonicStage CP4.2 did hang up for about 15 min(I have no CLUE WAY).

Marks: 3.5/5

Marks.40.8/60

Rating on one to Ten scale: 6.8/10

[markey]

Thanks for the review Stuge! A very good write up with some excellent pictures. The SQ on this walkman I think has surpassed previous models like the A3000/A1000 and the HD5. I tried my EX71's on the player and they really did sound good, The best I have ever heard them. Obviously not as good as the supplied phones though.

[kerfuffle]

Ooo, I want one. xD (I'll probably have to wait until my NW-HD1 breaks or something before my parents will buy me a new one.) Nice pictures!

Your earphones look a bit dusty, though.

[AntiPod]

Nice review with great pictures Stuge!

I really like the 2 snaps comparing the S7xx with the E5xx, i was wondering how they differ in size for a long time lol

Your earphones look a bit dusty, though.

ya i'll agree with that

[Guest Stuge]

Thanks for the review Stuge! A very good write up with some excellent pictures. The SQ on this walkman I think has surpassed previous models like the A3000/A1000 and the HD5. I tried my EX71's on the player and they really did sound good, The best I have ever heard them. Obviously not as good as the supplied phones though.

Thanks ,Yes that was the reason to buy S7703F instead of an I-pods

Nice pictures!

Your earphones look a bit dusty, though.

Thanks .

Yup,Earphone got dusty while I photographing them .

I will soon change those dusty one with a better looking photos .

Nice review with great pictures Stuge!

I really like the 2 snaps comparing the S7xx with the E5xx, i was wondering how they differ in size for a long time lol

Thanks

[madleet3]

oh Stuge also got ti

will u get the line-in cable?

i am curious if after u record from line-in the files atrac lossy can be transfer to another player like older model to play or its only 706 can be plaued?

[Zizone_]

Nice review Stuge. By the way, do you also get a static sound every 15 seconds (very faint but still noticeable with soft songs)?

[bogon07]

Stuge,

Thanks for sharing pictures of your Gold S703. It really looks nice.

A well thought out and detailed review.

I really agree with your comment "It is much fuller & richer when compared with NW-A1000."

Do you think that the E40x & E50x sound better than the A1000 too?

Oddly I've noticed that the supplied earphones fit much better with the mid size buds instead of the small size which I use for all my other earphones.

I didn't realise how heavy it feels which makes it such a shame that Sony didn't include a lanyard with it. Anyone who sees mine will think its an Imation player as I'm using an Imation flashdrive lanyard. It also lives in one of those soft draw string bags that Sony used to supply with its players. Sony Australia has the Leather Case & ClearCase with belt clip and are as Stuge says expensive at $59AUD & $29AUD.

Unfortunately Sony has decided to invent yet an other unique player connection for the USB cable for these players.

Edited January 15, 2007 by bogon07

[navsimpson]

Thanks for the review Stuge... Looks very nice!

One question - that part where it says that is supports lossless, but only during direct recording: does that mean that it doesn't playback lossless files transferred from Sonicstage, only ones recorded on the device?

-Nav

[Guest Stuge]

Thanks guys

@madleet3: I'm not sure .I hope Sony India releases that cable here as well otherwise I will import it .

@Zizone :I did here static noise only when listening in quite environment with NC on .

@Bogon:A1000 does sound better than E50.

I'm also using the mid size bud with NC022.

It would have been nice If sony would have included more accessories .Instead they have stopped giving that grey/Black pouch with their walkmans .

Are you planning to buy leather or Clear case?

That unique player connection is called WM-PORT or Walkman Port.They have changed it b'coz so that different accessories like Recording cable can be used witht the walkman .

@navsimpson:I does play Lossless files in walkman when they are transffered via SonicStage .I have tried Atrac Advance Lossless 128kpbs

[DSP]

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

[bogon07]

Thanks guys

@madleet3: I'm not sure .I hope Sony India releases that cable here as well otherwise I will import it .

@Zizone :I did here static noise only when listening in quite environment with NC on .

@Bogon:A1000 does sound better than E50.

I'm also using the mid size bud with NC022.

It would have been nice If sony would have included more accessories .Instead they have stopped giving that grey/Black pouch with their walkmans .

Are you planning to buy leather or Clear case?

That unique player connection is called WM-PORT or Walkman Port.They have changed it b'coz so that different accessories like Recording cable can be used witht the walkman .

@navsimpson:I does play Lossless files in walkman when they are transffered via SonicStage .I have tried Atrac Advance Lossless 128kpbs

Stuge,

I prefer the sound from the E407 to the A1000.

The pouch I use is the soft drawstring one that came with the E407, it is also good to polish the S706.

I'm thinking of getting the clear case as it is about half the price and also perhaps Sony will sell the leather one cheaper at some later stage like they did with the leather A1000 case ($5AUD SonyStyle special offer).

[Guest Stuge]

@DSP:You live in Eesjde(right )? Secondly If I'm right that place is in Holland.

Sony Nederland does show Accesories for NW-S706F

Click here

@Bogon:I find the sound quality of A1000 more balanced than E505.

If I'm right Sony did drop the price of NW-S7xx series in Australia ?

[bogon07]

Stuge,

Yes, Sony did drop the price of S706 & S705 just after Christmas (and a week after I bought the S706) by about $30-$40 AUD. It was only out for 2-3 weeks before they changed the prices....bastards. That's what you get for not waiting.

They've updated SonyOz to now show the clear plastic case $49.95AUD as well as the belt clip and leather case.

[Guest Stuge]

Bogon,

Oh,So Your were Unlucky.Sony will have less loss b'coz you have made them richer by $40

I'm amazed to see that Sony is not selling Recording cable in Australia as well .

http://www.sony.com.au/walkman/catalog/pro...ategoryId=34471

[bogon07]

Stuge,

I guess you always expect the price of electronics to fall but I just didn't expect it so soon.

And to show what a complete fool I am went and got an S705 for my wife from the SonyStyle e-auction at a very good price so I sort of came out ahead Pity hers black too not pink or gold.

The Recording cable may pop up here eventually.

I'm enjoying using the S706 on the train as I it really helps block out the loud talkers and iPod owners

Hope you're still happy with your gold S703.

[Razorback]

Stuge, i thank you very much for the great review...

and i want to ask a question.. Which ones volume is higher? a3000 or s700 ? (a3000 volume limiter disablED)

[bogon07]

Stuge, i thank you very much for the great review...

and i want to ask a question.. Which ones volume is higher? a3000 or s700 ? (a3000 volume limiter disablED)

The S700 seems to sound louder due to the Noise Cancelling earphones.

[zaobz]

Hi,

I'm planning to buy this player, since I just lost old one..

After reading some reviews, I notice that the device will run longer on ATRAC format (50hours?), because of the hardware implementation of it.

How does the battery life compares when used for playing mp3 formats though? And how about when the noise cancelling feature is on? Just a rough guess based on usage would be great-!

TIA!

[Guest Stuge]

<br />Stuge, i thank you very much for the great review...<br />and i want to ask a question.. Which ones volume is higher? a3000 or s700 ? (a3000 volume limiter disablED)<br />

<br /><br /><br />

Thanks:)

In addition to what Bogon has said:Since NW-703f produces more bass as compared to A3000/A1000,then you might hear 703F producing higher vol at the same volume setting .

[sumit_gulati]

YA STUGE...GOOD REVIEWS...KEEP GOING...BUT I WAS NOT ABLE TO GET CLEARLY WHAT PROBLEMS U FACED WITH THE FM...LET ME KNOW MORE...

[Laws]

I got the 706 yesterday.

The sound is by far the sole shining becon for the player. Overall, the drawbacks from the software, cumbersome mp3 naviagation and uneasy feeling of the earphone jack on the player leave it far behind from the competition.

So uptill the ear phones pack it in, ill be fine...

Ah, just remembered the 50hr batterly life, also one of the main reasons for my purchase. Im happy with it, and only intend to use it for a year, when hopefully my mobile upgrade will include a phone with my new mp3 player.

6.0 - 7.5 out of 10 seems about right for the player.

Edited January 31, 2007 by Laws

[Guest Stuge]

I got the 706 yesterday.

cumbersome mp3 naviagation and uneasy feeling of the earphone jack on the

Congrats

Mp3 Navigation is not that bad ,but half or 1 sec lag (I didn't mention this in the review )while searching the albums is quite irritating .

Also FM reception is just ok

@Sumit Gulati :

Thanks .

Welcome to AtracLife !

So Atlast you have posted here

In simple I mean to say FM auto Preset features doesn't works well .

:"FM Auto Preset is a feature which lets us to preset receivable broadcast FM stations automatically."

annual cultural festival annual cultural festival

[madleet3]

dont u feels this new sony mp3 FM is not as good as its older series?

[Guest Stuge]

dont u feels this new sony mp3 FM is not as good as its older series?

Acc to me FM is somewhat weak .If you compare it with older series .

Also , Paint that they used to mention "Vol" is scraping off or coming out .Are you also experiancing this problem .

[Guest Stuge]

Also , Paint that they used to mention "Vol" is scraping off or coming out .Are you also experiancing this problem .?

So ,No one is experiancing this kind of problem with their S700 series ?

[DSP]

I don´t have this problem with mine (NW-S703FB EU)

No paint is fading, no loose jack and no scratches.

greetz

[ppau0822]

i got mine for AU 340. pretty good eh?

[bryue]

Hey, Stuge.

Nice review but I have some questions, since you've owned the NW-E505 (as listed on your profile), does the S70X transfer much faster?

The transfers done on my E507 was horribly long and laggy using Sonic Stage CP. My father owns the S20X series and his transfer was so much faster than my E507. Can you help me confirm?

The other question is do you still need the same kind of USB cable as the E50X to transfer with the S70X or is it different? Thanks!

[Ascariss]

the speed of transfer matters on 3 things

1. is your pc USB 2.0 or 1.0

2. is the device usb 2.0 or 1.0

3. are you encoding to atrac before transfer?

[bryue]

Okay, I've done some research on Sony website for specifications today. So I'm going to share what I found out.

My laptop is USB 2.0 compliant.

Sony's website states that the S70X series are Hi-Speed USB via WM-PORT.

It also states that the S20X series are also Hi-Speed USB ( USB mini-B ).

So, I assume that they are the same speed during transfers.

Then it means that the E50X series were slow in transfers.

I heard that the E50X was using USB 1.1 or something. I'm not sure.

As for ATRAC encoding, I'm already aware that it would take a bit more time for conversions.

Anyways, I'm still wondering how does the USB via WM-PORT look like. Can anyone provide me a picture of the connectors? Thanks!

Edited February 21, 2007 by bryue

[Yoni45]

E-5xx Series are all USB 1.1, not 2.0, which started with the A-6xx series...

[Zizone_]

Hi,

I'm planning to buy this player, since I just lost old one..

After reading some reviews, I notice that the device will run longer on ATRAC format (50hours?), because of the hardware implementation of it.

How does the battery life compares when used for playing mp3 formats though? And how about when the noise cancelling feature is on? Just a rough guess based on usage would be great-!

TIA!

I don't have exact numbers to answer your questions, but the battery life is still long when using MP3; I don't believe there is significant difference in battery life when using MP3 and ATRAC.

Using the noise canceling feature will consume more battery but you will probably get more hours of music playback than other MP3 players.

[madleet3]

aww FM is weaker

actually i wna buy this one for mp3 ripping from my old MD's

well i need to put tis off

hope SONy newer mp3 c/w FM is better on it reception

[Jason B X]

Does the NWS703F require authorization for copying files into it? Is there the 5 computer limit for this player?

[Guest Stuge]

Does the NWS703F require authorization for copying files into it? Is there the 5 computer limit for this player?

I think in US SonicStage require authorization.

[Damage]

Authorization if you want to use CONNECT store tracks. Otherwise, you should be able to plug and play with 703F

[fahad2mail]

oww man i am really waiting for my this.

[RobA]

Nice review and beautiful pictorial stuge. I want one now! I think after I sell my mz-nh600d, I may pick one up. I could easily fit 500 of my favorite tracks on this in HiLP.

[Guest Stuge]

Nice review and beautiful pictorial stuge. I want one now! I think after I sell my mz-nh600d, I may pick one up. I could easily fit 500 of my favorite tracks on this in HiLP.

Thanks

I will suggest you to get 4gb if possible .