Questions about the new nw-a808

[Zephir]

I'm seriously in love with the design and functionality of the nw-a808. However, there is a few question that i want to ask before buying:

1) how is the transfering music file from the computer to the player. The play supports mp3 format, so does this mean that i can drag and drop file easily, or does it need to go through sonicstage? (i'm using vista, which is not compatible with sonicstage so it's a big deal for me)

2) how is the equalizer? if i understand correctly, the player has a 5 band equalizer. is there any other sound enhancer tool come equiped with the player? also, for those of you who have a cowon d2, how does the d2 sound quality compared with the nw-a808?

3) how do you view video files? can you drag and drop files with compatible resolution and bitrate, or all video files have to go through image converter conversion?

4) how do you make album art appear on the player? can the player sync with windows media player 11 to get all the album art easily?

thanks for all your future input!

Edited May 14, 2007 by Zephir

[Shinji Ikeda]

I'm seriously in love with the design and functionality of the nw-a808. However, there is a few question that i want to ask before buying:

1) how is the transfering music file from the computer to the player. The play supports mp3 format, so does this mean that i can drag and drop file easily, or does it need to go through sonicstage? (i'm using vista, which is not compatible with sonicstage so it's a big deal for me)

2) how is the equalizer? if i understand correctly, the player has a 5 band equalizer. is there any other sound enhancer tool come equiped with the player? also, for those of you who have a cowon d2, how does the d2 sound quality compared with the nw-a808?

3) how do you view video files? can you drag and drop files with compatible resolution and bitrate, or all video files have to go through image converter conversion?

4) how do you make album art appear on the player? can the player sync with windows media player 11 to get all the album art easily?

thanks for all your future input!

Hello Zephir,

1) The current version of SonicStage is compatible with Windows Vista, contrary to what you might have heard. The current version is 4.3.

SonicStage is designed to manage your music library. SonicStage transcodes only to ATRAC, but it supports WMA, MP3 and other audio formats. Audio files can be drag and drop to add them to SonicStage's library. SonicStage does not store your music files, but refers to the location that the files are on your computer.

You can download the current version of SonicStage.

2) The NW-A808 has 4 Present and 2 custom equalizes, which include Clear Bass. There are other sound enhancement funtions, such as DSEE and Clear Stereo. I am unaware of the sound quality of the NW-A800 series compared to Cowan D2, but other can comment on that.

3) You veiw video by going to the Video Library. Videos can be previewed through Quick Time. If the video files are in AVC (H.264/AVC) do not need to go through image converter, but the files must be correctly named.

4) SonicStage supports drag-and-drop for adding album art to tracks or albums. SonicStage relies on the ID3v2 information for album art, and this information can be updated using SonicStage. The NW-A808 can not sync with Windows Media Player, but it does support WMA files.

[Zephir]

Hello Zephir,

1) The current version of SonicStage is compatible with Windows Vista, contrary to what you might have heard. The current version is 4.3.

SonicStage is designed to manage your music library. SonicStage transcodes only to ATRAC, but it supports WMA, MP3 and other audio formats. Audio files can be drag and drop to add them to SonicStage's library. SonicStage does not store your music files, but refers to the location that the files are on your computer.

You can download the current version of SonicStage.

2) The NW-A808 has 4 Present and 2 custom equalizes, which include Clear Bass. There are other sound enhancement funtions, such as DSEE and Clear Stereo. I am unaware of the sound quality of the NW-A800 series compared to Cowan D2, but other can comment on that.

3) You veiw video by going to the Video Library. Videos can be previewed through Quick Time. If the video files are in AVC (H.264/AVC) do not need to go through image converter, but the files must be correctly named.

4) SonicStage supports drag-and-drop for adding album art to tracks or albums. SonicStage relies on the ID3v2 information for album art, and this information can be updated using SonicStage. The NW-A808 can not sync with Windows Media Player, but it does support WMA files.

thanks for the quick reply! sonicstage really does support vista on my computer. guess i heard it wrong. the nw-a808 seems like a very decent mp3 player for me. and only thing left is how the nw-a808 compared to other recent mp3 players of other brand in term of sound quality (the yp-k5 of samsung, the clix of iriver, the d2 of cowon, etc.) can anybody comment on that?

[DSP]

Hi there,

I own NW-A805 and Cowon F2.It's no D2 but SQ is roughly the same.

I also owned a samsung YP-K5.

The samsung sounds very bad compared to the walkman.

How the cowon compares is something I'm testing right now. Keep the ''pictorials & reviews'' section in sight for my comparison review between NW-A805 and Cowon F2. It's coming probably tomorrow.

greetz

[Zephir]

I'll look forward to it, thanks. One more problem i have identified: my nw-e75 is not recognized in vista (the driver does not install). Does Vista recognize the nw-a808 and install the driver automatically so that the player is recognize and you can copy music file via sonicstage as well as drag and drop music file into it?

[Shinji Ikeda]

I'll look forward to it, thanks. One more problem i have identified: my nw-e75 is not recognized in vista (the driver does not install). Does Vista recognize the nw-a808 and install the driver automatically so that the player is recognize and you can copy music file via sonicstage as well as drag and drop music file into it?

Hello Zephir,

Which version of SonicStage is installed on the Vista computer? Was Vista factory installed or an upgrade? What device are you attempting to connect to Vista? I am not aware of a NW-E75.

The drivers for NW-A808 should be included with SonicStage CP 4.3.

Music files can be dragged-and-dropped into the NW-A808, but will not play. SonicStage must be used to transfer music files to NW-A808.

Using Windows XP all devices Devices are automatically recognized as WALKMAN. This should occur with Vista also.

[Zephir]

Hello Shinji,

I have just solved the problem with my nw-e75 right now. It turns out that i need to insert the original installation CD that comes with the nw-e75 for the player to be recognized with Windows Vista. You mention that the driver for nw-a808 is also on the installation CD that comes with the player, so there is no problem then. Vista some how doesn't recognize your Walkman automatically so you have to manually install the driver by putting in the installation CD that comes with every Walkman. Thanks for your insightful reply though

[hoakerk.]

Hi,

Does walkman nw-a808 is compatible with drag-n-drop? And WMP11?

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores...552921665224910

[thefanboy]

Hi,

Does walkman nw-a808 is compatible with drag-n-drop? And WMP11?

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores...552921665224910

the video in that link clearly says a810 is drag and drop, donno how ?

Edit: A810 is drag and drop, no surprise in it. Coming back to your question a808 is not drag and drop.

Edited December 14, 2007 by theFanboy

[hoakerk.]

Thanks.

I hope there will be some firmware update..

Little unfair to people who paid 250€ for his media player.