aznbro85's NWZ-A818 Review

[lindijones]

Hello!

As is said:

Sony has to start from the beginning.

The new ipods rock.

Again and again. And the battery life is also no problem anymore in the ipods.

Sony has lost all their key features. Including gapless.

The only thing is now the Equalizer which is much better in the sony.

But this is no more interesting for me when the maximum Volume is so low.

The Sony time is over for me.

Apples gonna rock the house.

Bye

[juli_]

The only thing is now the Equalizer which is much better in the sony.

But this is no more interesting for me when the maximum Volume is so low.

Funny, volume is the one thing I have absolutely no problem with. I listen at around 60% of maximum, which is loud enough and leaves plenty in reserve, at least with the 706 and 808.

I could complain about lots of other things, as I'm sure we all could - but I think the volume output on these units is amazing, and definitely one of its strengths along with the sound quality. If my Sony daps didn't excel in this area, I'd have looked for another player a long time ago

Edited September 6, 2007 by juli

[lindijones]

I had so many Players from Sony and the HD1 was a joke according to the maximum volume.

And this sucks. I don´t want to buy several players to have it good in only one of them.

Sony pisses me off.

In an iPod all these fundamental things work fine.

The Audio Quality is not the problem of the sony but also not in my iPod video 5.5 G.

So anyway. Everything else is not interesting anymore at a Sony.

And 299 Euro für 8GB flash is a little joke when the ipod costs 249.

They have to bleed for all this until they learn.

bye

Edited September 6, 2007 by lindijones

[LuLu]

Hi, great review!

One more effort: did you manage to play videos and pictures?

Will you please upload some close-up shots of the screen when viewing videos and images? (you may Pause the video)

Is it detailed enough to read subtitles? (thinking of Death Note anime and such) I'd like to have such information before buying one.

I've downloaded some video clips through iTunes that were from NASA. They had subtitles and I could read them no problem (I have the A-806, which has the same screen size). You have to turn off the information that appears across the bottom of the screen (the progress bar, the battery indicator and the running time), which is easy enough to do.

[Rens]

Hello!

As is said:

Sony has to start from the beginning.

The new ipods rock.

Again and again. And the battery life is also no problem anymore in the ipods.

Sony has lost all their key features. Including gapless.

The only thing is now the Equalizer which is much better in the sony.

But this is no more interesting for me when the maximum Volume is so low.

The Sony time is over for me.

Apples gonna rock the house.

Bye

(mind if I change your into something more readable, don't use that much empty spaces...)

You can't compare sony's to Ipods if you look at the soundquality. You can say a lot about Ipods, but not that sound as great as Sony's/Irivers/Iaudio's and so on. An Ipod is more stylish (although I prefer the looks of my a808 over every Ipod, especialy the new Nano looks really ugly) and it has an userfriendly interface, but in my opinion you pay for too much for what you get.

About volume, I don't get your complaining, usually I listen at 30% of its max and sometimes up to 50-60%. Else it would blow up my ears

Edited September 6, 2007 by Rens

[lindijones]

The iPod Video 5.5G sounds much better than my Sony HD5 Walkman.

Thats a fact.

The new players from Sony increased sound quality a bit but anyway iPods do not stress me with bullshxt.

The 8GB Flash player from is 50 euro more expensive than the old nano.

And the new nano with 8 GB costs 199 Euro.

The iPod is in fact cheaper than the Sonys.

The advantages of the Sony shrink more and more.

But anyway i was the same Sony freak as you but i woke up.

bye

[maggior]

A freeware firmware called rockbox can implement gapless, so if they can do it, a big company like Sony should be able to do it.

Lame MP3 already contains tags needed for gapless playback (used by foobar and rockbox). How hard is it for Sony to support that?

The S70x series can play AAC gaplessly, so Sony already have something done, yet it's not implemented on the new walkmen?

I agree - not supporting the gapless tags in LAME mp3s now is rediculous. The iPod and iTunes both make use of the LAME tags if they are present. If they are not there, it does some analysis of silence to remove the gap.

Another piece of hardware that supports the LAME gapless tags is the SqueezeBox made by Logitech (formerly SlimDevices). They introduced this feature after Apple introduced it in the iPod.

There is PLENTY of music out there that is gapless: any live album, classical music, a lot of progressive and classic rock, electronic music. Maybe not a lot of "mainstream" music is gapless, but gapless music doesn't all fall into the esoteric category. Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band, and Dark Side of the Moon are classic examples of widely appreciated albums that require gapless playback to be fully enjoyed. Many folks just learn to live with it because they don't know any better.

Gapless playback was one of the reasons that I was a staunch fan of Sony DAPs and ATRAC and fought against the iPod tide. If I hadn't bailed ship already, these latest developments certainly would have sent me over the edge.

Sorry to rant, but it really annoys me when companies like Sony ignore that gapless feature. The technology has been around enough that there is no excuse anymore.

Edited September 6, 2007 by maggior

[juli_]

The iPod is in fact cheaper than the Sonys. The advantages of the Sony shrink more and more.

But anyway i was the same Sony freak as you but i woke up.

Price isn't always a consideration if SQ is valued above all else, and I don't see any value at all in buying an iPod if the SQ is inferior just because I can save some money. How long will it be before the extra money is forgotten about and all that lingers is the nastiness that pumps through my ears every day? And I don't know what a Sony 'freak' is. . . but I can't see I'll ever 'wake up' and discover I now enjoy inferior SQ. If that makes me a freak. . . then I guess I'm a freak

Edited September 6, 2007 by juli

[ceres]

The iPod Video 5.5G sounds much better than my Sony HD5 Walkman.

Thats a fact.

The new players from Sony increased sound quality a bit but anyway iPods do not stress me with bullshxt.

The 8GB Flash player from is 50 euro more expensive than the old nano.

And the new nano with 8 GB costs 199 Euro.

The iPod is in fact cheaper than the Sonys.

The advantages of the Sony shrink more and more.

But anyway i was the same Sony freak as you but i woke up.

bye

funny thing is apple caps their products way too low here in europe and there is absolutely no need for that as all other vendors demonstrate.

also, there is no current sony hdd product on the market so i don´t see your point. ipod rules the hdd realm.

besides, this is a review thread so please open a new thread to compare hdd players.

i can´t see your point with pricing. nano fatty comes in at 199, sony 249 suggessted retail price. howver, you get a leather case, 40 euro ear buds and a leather lanyard for the price so there is no advantage to nano 3g.

[Ascariss]

the headphones that come with the ipods are some of the worst I've seen and used.

[sharklover]

I just received my NW-A808 and E016 and the sound on both of them is incredible with music in atrac 64. I live in the US and bought the A808 because I love Atrac. It makes the A808 like a 16GB player. I have 3400 songs and still have 1GB free. Its a real shame that Sony will not make any more players with Atrac. I also have no problem with SS. If anyone has music in Atrac I would highly recommend getting the A808 over the A818. I doubt someone could hear the difference between Atrac 64 and MP3 at 192 exept you can have 1/3rd of the capacity. I compared the sound of the A808 to the Iphone and the Iphone sounded like the radio compared to the A808. The A808 even sounded great with the crappy iphone earphones. I actually also bought a apare A808 so they will last me a few years. I am not sure what you could ask for more in a player than the A808. Its sad something so great will soon be no more.

[DannyB37]

it's coming in late september I believe, or early october.

That would be so cool, I suddenly want to sell my iPod to some sucker, if the time comes lol If I can find it I so want it!!!!

Edited September 7, 2007 by DannyB37

[lindijones]

funny thing is apple caps their products way too low here in europe and there is absolutely no need for that as all other vendors demonstrate.

also, there is no current sony hdd product on the market so i don´t see your point. ipod rules the hdd realm.

besides, this is a review thread so please open a new thread to compare hdd players.

i can´t see your point with pricing. nano fatty comes in at 199, sony 249 suggessted retail price. howver, you get a leather case, 40 euro ear buds and a leather lanyard for the price so there is no advantage to nano 3g.

Apple is still the loudest i ever heard with a europe cap. ;-)

There is no current HDD Product from Sony, but there was. AND they were not cheaper than the iPod.

The iPod fatty works. That´s the difference. And as you said: the earphone costs about 40 euro extra. That´s the point.

Anyway don´t feel agressive to me. ;-)

I know all the situations as a fanboy.

I bought all the stuff from Sony including the first MemoyStick Walkman and the second and.... I don´t know how many Minidisc Players.

And they were good. No Question.

But at the moment nothing can bring me back to Sony except there is a better "iTunes" from Sony and a better Support of Firmware updates.

In the 5G iPod Video you also got the Firmware update to get gapless playback.

If you had a Sony the´ll let you die with your walkman.

Conclusion: I just have ripped my CDs too often because of an Atrac crash.

I have learned a lot and i hope that Sony will come back on track. But I think that they don´t have the taste like apple.

And the click wheel is one of these tasty things. It´s just a phenomenon.

I think that and many other users also like this kind of browsing through music.

Sony just don´t have the taste for a simmilar volume regulation like in the iPod.

It´s just amazing.

I think that and many many people too.

So far. Enjoy your Sony players!

Bye

[mdsjack]

I've downloaded some video clips through iTunes that were from NASA. They had subtitles and I could read them no problem (I have the A-806, which has the same screen size). You have to turn off the information that appears across the bottom of the screen (the progress bar, the battery indicator and the running time), which is easy enough to do.

Thanks, could you please post a close-up screen, I'm just curious to check if it is worth to buy a video player...

[pomj]

You have to turn off the information that appears across the bottom of the screen (the progress bar, the battery indicator and the running time), which is easy enough to do.

Where is that setting. I have searched but (obviously) not found...

[Akai Kenshi]

Apple is still the loudest i ever heard with a europe cap. ;-)

There is no current HDD Product from Sony, but there was. AND they were not cheaper than the iPod.

The iPod fatty works. That´s the difference. And as you said: the earphone costs about 40 euro extra. That´s the point.

Anyway don´t feel agressive to me. ;-)

I know all the situations as a fanboy.

I bought all the stuff from Sony including the first MemoyStick Walkman and the second and.... I don´t know how many Minidisc Players.

And they were good. No Question.

But at the moment nothing can bring me back to Sony except there is a better "iTunes" from Sony and a better Support of Firmware updates.

In the 5G iPod Video you also got the Firmware update to get gapless playback.

If you had a Sony the´ll let you die with your walkman.

Conclusion: I just have ripped my CDs too often because of an Atrac crash.

I have learned a lot and i hope that Sony will come back on track. But I think that they don´t have the taste like apple.

And the click wheel is one of these tasty things. It´s just a phenomenon.

I think that and many other users also like this kind of browsing through music.

Sony just don´t have the taste for a simmilar volume regulation like in the iPod.

It´s just amazing.

I think that and many many people too.

So far. Enjoy your Sony players!

Bye

Do you work for Apple Marketing or something? You're starting to get really annoying.

[tman]

So it looks like the new players can browse by folders, but are not gapless, or, at least not using drag and drop - it looks like it may still be possible when syching with WMP 11. Also looks like there could be some issues with album art when not using WMP 11:

So, if you use WMP 11, does this mean that you can't add albums individually, but have synch each time and only the music on that computer will end up on your player each time? (I wouldn't like to have to do that, especially since I have music on two computers that I would like to add to the player).

[doclloyd]

After coming back from a two week vacation, it looks like a lot has happened in the DAP world. It's making me wonder how I should handle my future portable music needs... wait for this supposed firmware update for the A80x series mentioned at http://www.atraclife.com/forums/index.php?...c=4116&st=0, start converting all my free (with coupon) tracks from CONNECT to mp3 and start re-ripping all my music to mp3 or aac for the future... so much time. So much music. The open world is a better one to be sure, but it's a hard way to go for long-time Sony fans to switch from ATRAC. But, I suppose I could have all my music ready for use with a new Sony DAP or my SE Walkman phone (yes, big Sony fan here... PS3, HDTV, headphones, etc...)

I've browsed this now long thread and nobody's asked or mentioned the transfer speed with drag and drop or with WMP. How fast is it? Is it like the S-70x or A80x series "Hi-Speed USB 2.0" but really runs at 1.x speeds? Or did it actually get an upgrade?

[doclloyd]

Also, on the video front, do the new models support the same videos I've been encoding with PSP Video 9 for... you guessed it, the PSP? I've been using the AVC format for video encodes, but the A80x currently doesn't support those videos. Let me know. Thanks!

[Dinko]

it's coming in late september I believe, or early october.

They better fix the pricing though. With the Fatty selling at 220$ for the 8 gigger (not to mention the 199$ Creative Zen V and the occasional Sandisk rebate which can decrease the Sansa's price below 200$), a Sony product can clean the house and do your homework and it's sales numbers still won't register on anyone's radar if they price it above the competition. Sound quality and higher-end earbuds only matter to a very small minority of people. Not to mention the 4GB NWZ-A8** Sony gadgets selling for 30$ above the 4GB Fatty and an even greater price discrepancy between Sony and Creative/Samsung/Sandisk/RCA 4GB players, all in the 130$ range.

Hope they fixed the transfer speeds too. Given their lame transfer speeds, Creative probably uses the same cheap second rate flash memory, but at least they sell their players at a discount relative to iPoos.

[Ascariss]

ipods are not drag and drop, and the older nano was at the same price point as the current A800 series.

[lindijones]

They better fix the pricing though. With the Fatty selling at 220$ for the 8 gigger (not to mention the 199$ Creative Zen V and the occasional Sandisk rebate which can decrease the Sansa's price below 200$), a Sony product can clean the house and do your homework and it's sales numbers still won't register on anyone's radar if they price it above the competition. Sound quality and higher-end earbuds only matter to a very small minority of people. Not to mention the 4GB NWZ-A8** Sony gadgets selling for 30$ above the 4GB Fatty and an even greater price discrepancy between Sony and Creative/Samsung/Sandisk/RCA 4GB players, all in the 130$ range.

Hope they fixed the transfer speeds too. Given their lame transfer speeds, Creative probably uses the same cheap second rate flash memory, but at least they sell their players at a discount relative to iPoos.

No need to say more.

@ascariss:

The A-Series with 8GB was at 299 Euro at the beginning. 50 Euro more than the iPod with 8GB. Okok with worthless video....because of some nice software.

hehe.

Drag and drop is nice, but without software to sync it is not that nice as the i-solution.

Anyway: Enjoy your Sony players!

;-)

Edited September 9, 2007 by lindijones

[Ascariss]

No need to say more.

@ascariss:

The A-Series with 8GB was at 299 Euro at the beginning. 50 Euro more than the iPod with 8GB. Okok with worthless video....because of some nice software.

hehe.

Enjoy your Sony players!

I meant in canada, the price points for the 8 gig nano and 8 gig a808 were the same. the price points were identical to all apple products, 4 and 2 gig models.

[kino170878]

Is it just me or do Apple supporters seem to be getting a little worried now about Sony's drag and drop capability? To me this is such a significant new move that I think Sony might finally be able to steal some of the market share back, or is it too late now? Interesting times ahead that's for sure.

[aob9]

Is it just me or do Apple supporters seem to be getting a little worried now about Sony's drag and drop capability? To me this is such a significant new move that I think Sony might finally be able to steal some of the market share back, or is it too late now? Interesting times ahead that's for sure.

Sony need to release a series of WALKMAN, stick to it ( not a ridiculous 4 month run), and aggressively advertise and promote it to get it stuck in peoples minds. Give the bloody thing a name not, NW*&^$££"%%; Imagine calling a car a RV ( road vehicle) S ( sports) 1998( faster model)....nonsense.

If they have any hunger for the DAP market a few simple policy changes could make all the difference....Oh! and one other thing occurred to me. In companies like COWON, APPLE and SANDISK there are probably hungry young professionals with their fingures on the pulse, somehow I don't think you could say the same for SONY.

[Old skool D]

Sony need to release a series of WALKMAN, stick to it ( not a ridiculous 4 month run), and aggressively advertise and promote it to get it stuck in peoples minds. Give the bloody thing a name not, NW*&^$££"%%; Imagine calling a car a RV ( road vehicle) S ( sports) 1998( faster model)....nonsense.

If they have any hunger for the DAP market a few simple policy changes could make all the difference....Oh! and one other thing occurred to me. In companies like COWON, APPLE and SANDISK there are probably hungry young professionals with their fingures on the pulse, somehow I don't think you could say the same for SONY.

I think APPLE are way out the picture, in terms of Sony competing with them. The drag & drop does open up the market. Sony will always have a fan base. If Ipod lovers want to diss, Kool. let them. As long as you are happy with what you have, then that's all that matters.

[aob9]

I think APPLE are way out the picture, in terms of Sony competing with them. The drag & drop does open up the market. Sony will always have a fan base. If Ipod lovers want to diss, Kool. let them. As long as you are happy with what you have, then that's all that matters.

I AM a SONY fan, but I want a high capacity player and SONY doesn't have one. APPLE,COWON and CREATIVE,( to name a few), do have these players. Surely, they are missing on on market share there.

[Steve-]

After coming back from a two week vacation, it looks like a lot has happened in the DAP world. It's making me wonder how I should handle my future portable music needs... wait for this supposed firmware update for the A80x series mentioned at http://www.atraclife.com/forums/index.php?...c=4116&st=0, start converting all my free (with coupon) tracks from CONNECT to mp3 and start re-ripping all my music to mp3 or aac for the future... so much time. So much music. The open world is a better one to be sure, but it's a hard way to go for long-time Sony fans to switch from ATRAC. But, I suppose I could have all my music ready for use with a new Sony DAP or my SE Walkman phone (yes, big Sony fan here... PS3, HDTV, headphones, etc...)

I know exactly what you mean, I'm a big Sony fan as well and worried about my future portable music options.

Yesterday I decided to rerip all my CD's to WMV (day by day...) and start getting used to WMP11. I'll wait for the firmware update for my NWA-808 (I really hope it will actually come!!). In the meanwhile I'll continue using SS, by importing the reripped WMV into SS and put it on my NWA 808. If the firmware comes I'm ready to go over at once! If it doesn't come, I'll wait for a year or so and then get another (Sony!) walkman (who know what kind of DAPs they'll have by that time!) which will of course support WMV (I cannot imagine them ditching that again....then again, I never imagined them ditching Atrac...)

Regarding my bought Connect DRM ATRAC files, I think I will eventually burn them onto a CD and rip them into WMV. But I'll just postpone that as long as possible.

The worst problem I have now is that I'm very limited in buying tracks online at this moment. But I'll get over that...

[lawrenceg_51]

According to ENGADGET:

Sony cuts prices on A810, S610

Sony's new A810 and S610 series Walkmans have just barely made it out the door, but it looks like the company has already decided to shave a few bucks off the price of 'em. According to the Sony Style website, the A810 now starts at $120 for the 2GB model (as opposed to the $140 launch price), while the 4GB will set you back $150 and the 8GB demands an even $200. The S610 series, on the other hand, now starts at just $100 for the 2GB model (down from $120 before), with the 4GB and 8GB coming it at $130 and $180, respectively. The Walkman B100 series, introduced around the same time as the other two, looks to be the only one unchanged, costing $60 for the 1GB version and $80 for the 2GB.

Sounds great to me

[aob9]

I know exactly what you mean, I'm a big Sony fan as well and worried about my future portable music options.

Yesterday I decided to rerip all my CD's to WMV (day by day...) and start getting used to WMP11. I'll wait for the firmware update for my NWA-808 (I really hope it will actually come!!). In the meanwhile I'll continue using SS, by importing the reripped WMV into SS and put it on my NWA 808. If the firmware comes I'm ready to go over at once! If it doesn't come, I'll wait for a year or so and then get another (Sony!) walkman (who know what kind of DAPs they'll have by that time!) which will of course support WMV (I cannot imagine them ditching that again....then again, I never imagined them ditching Atrac...)

Regarding my bought Connect DRM ATRAC files, I think I will eventually burn them onto a CD and rip them into WMV. But I'll just postpone that as long as possible.

The worst problem I have now is that I'm very limited in buying tracks online at this moment. But I'll get over that...

Actually, your post has posed a question for me steve. Will WMP11 transfer MP3 to the A81*( A80* with firmware) or will it convert it to WMV on the way? I know MP3 will transfer via D'a'D, but I would like WMP11 to do the same...........I don't fancy WMV and the thoughts of re-ripping would lead me to stay with SS for my A805, now there's a development.

[Dinko]

According to ENGADGET:

Sony cuts prices on A810, S610

Sony's new A810 and S610 series Walkmans have just barely made it out the door, but it looks like the company has already decided to shave a few bucks off the price of 'em. According to the Sony Style website, the A810 now starts at $120 for the 2GB model (as opposed to the $140 launch price), while the 4GB will set you back $150 and the 8GB demands an even $200. The S610 series, on the other hand, now starts at just $100 for the 2GB model (down from $120 before), with the 4GB and 8GB coming it at $130 and $180, respectively. The Walkman B100 series, introduced around the same time as the other two, looks to be the only one unchanged, costing $60 for the 1GB version and $80 for the 2GB.

Sounds great to me

Wise move. Better player than, but at the same price as the iFatty. Now we're talking.

[doclloyd]

Not to bring this topic more... well, on-topic, but can anyone comment to my questions about transfer speed and video codec compatibilities? It seems like the thread went into comparing it to the Nano and discussing its features, etc... I'd like to hear more impressions about the NWZ-A818 itself! Thanks!

[Akai Kenshi]

According to ENGADGET:

Sony cuts prices on A810, S610

Sony's new A810 and S610 series Walkmans have just barely made it out the door, but it looks like the company has already decided to shave a few bucks off the price of 'em. According to the Sony Style website, the A810 now starts at $120 for the 2GB model (as opposed to the $140 launch price), while the 4GB will set you back $150 and the 8GB demands an even $200. The S610 series, on the other hand, now starts at just $100 for the 2GB model (down from $120 before), with the 4GB and 8GB coming it at $130 and $180, respectively. The Walkman B100 series, introduced around the same time as the other two, looks to be the only one unchanged, costing $60 for the 1GB version and $80 for the 2GB.

Sounds great to me

What?! The one I ordered last week hasn't even arrived yet, and they're already cutting the price?

I know you pay a premium to be an early adopter, but Jesus Christ.

[Ascariss]

same thing happened with the A3000, I got the difference refunded.

[Akai Kenshi]

Did you buy it through the SonyStyle website?

[aznbro85]

Not to bring this topic more... well, on-topic, but can anyone comment to my questions about transfer speed and video codec compatibilities? It seems like the thread went into comparing it to the Nano and discussing its features, etc... I'd like to hear more impressions about the NWZ-A818 itself! Thanks!

Hey doclloyd,

The transfer speed of this player is much faster than when using sonicstage, i think. Since you're able to just drag and drop items into the player, the speed is comparable to transfering onto a USB flash drive, and the player doesn't rebuild the library until you unplug it from the computer.

I just tried and sent a ~495MB movie file over to the player, and it took about 2min, 50seconds. Not as fast as a SATA harddrive, but i have a few usb sticks and they seem to transfer around the same speed. By the way, I'm using windows vista, which might still ahve that slow transfer prob going on, so it might be even faster on non-vista, i'm not exactly sure, heh..

As far as video codecs go, here's some info from the manual:

File format: MP4 file format, "Memory Stick" video format

File extension: .mp4, .m4v

Video:

~ AVC (H.264/AVC) Profile: Baseline Profile, Level: Max 1.3 Bit rate: Max 786kbps

~ MPEG-4 Profile: Simple Profile Bit rate: Max. 2,500kbps

Frame rate: Max 30fps

Resolution: Max QVGA (320 x 240)

AUDIO:

~ AAC-LC Channel Number: Max. 2 channels / Sampling frequency: 24. 32. 441/. 48kHz / Bit rate: MAx. 288kbps per 1 channel

File Size: Max. 2GB

The number of files: Max 1,000

To me, the sound quality is awesome, and asthetically it looks better than the new iPod nano. But i guess i'm a tad biased, me and my sony love (check out my stats) ~_~

And I too, just read on engadget about the price drop on the player. I don't mind much though, since I was thinking about importing the NW-A808 from japan a while back, and that would have costed a LOT more than the original price i paid for the NWZ-A818, so it's all good for me.

Hopefully the price drop will make the walkman somewhat competitive in the markets.

Here's to hoping, haha

[doclloyd]

Thanks for the reply! That's great news that the speed is faster now. I'm sure it's the same for the S61x series as well. Here's hoping they make a more official announcement regarding the firmware update on the A80x series, unlike the current phone calls and emails some have received.

[Akai Kenshi]

Mine just arrived in the mail today. Awesome little player, my experience mostly echoes that of aznbro. I copied over some Nero-encoded AAC files, and they indeed do not play gaplessly. A minor annoyance, but hopefully it can be rectified. We'll see what develops with the Sony Media Manager software. There are a bunch of sound enhancement setting that I have yet to toy with.

EDIT: And SonyStyle just sent me an e-mail saying they'd credit me the difference for the yesterday's price drop, without me even having to ask them! w00t!

Edited September 12, 2007 by Akai Kenshi

[Shinji Ikeda]

Mine just arrived in the mail today. Awesome little player, my experience mostly echoes that of aznbro. I copied over some Nero-encoded AAC files, and they indeed do not play gaplessly. A minor annoyance, but hopefully it can be rectified. We'll see what develops with the Sony Media Manager software. There are a bunch of sound enhancement setting that I have yet to toy with.

EDIT: And SonyStyle just sent me an e-mail saying they'd credit me the difference for the yesterday's price drop, without me even having to ask them! w00t!

Good for them. So it seems the release of the pod has one good effect on your wallet.

[Shinji Ikeda]

So, after finding out about the new Network Walkman and the discontinuation of SonicStage and the ATRAC format, I had an itching to try out one of the new players.

Being the Network Walkman whore that I am, after finding out that they were released on Wednesday in the US, I gave my local Sony Style store (San Francisco, California) a call, and indeed they had these new players in stock!

So the next day I made it a mission to go check out these players. And check it out i did!but other than that, i really love this player. Good work sony!

...

EDIT: I forgot to mention, the player indeed does NOT show up in SonicStage. It shows up in WMP11, and in Windows Explorer, but again, it does not register in SonicStage.

Thank you for the review. I wonder if Sony will release a tool to enable the conversion from ATRAC to one of the NWZ-A810 series supported formats.