aznbro85's NWZ-A818 Review

[aznbro85]

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.

Hey Shinji Ikeda,

Thanks for the compliment, I really appreciate it

Sony already has software to help convert (unprotected/non-Connect store bought) ATRAC files to MP3. It's included in the package, but can also be found on their esupport site.

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-list....amp;SelectOS=27

[mdsjack]

I do hope they will extend the price drop to Europe, too. nwz-a818 is still €249 here... :\

[f1rick]

Sony UK just dropped the price this morning, I ordered a 818 for £129.00 (190Euro). The free case and neck strap seems good.

Edited September 13, 2007 by f1rick

[mdsjack]

190€ is a hell of a deal!! crossing my fingers...

[p0rkch0p2007]

the reason for this price drop may well be because there is no firmware update coming (supposedly). fantastic price compared to the ipod ranges (when u consider the sound quality of the ipods), after what i said in the other post about not buying sony again if they dont release a f/w update, this may have just changed my mind . nice one sony

Edited September 13, 2007 by p0rkch0p2007

[shoot2score67]

Also owner of new Sony Video Walkman 8GB (NWZ-A818). Very impressed. Nicely engineered. Some observations:

* supports H.264 so you can download many video podcasts and transfer over, including those on iTunes (as long as max resolution is 320x240)

* fast boot up times, and resume - nice!

* remembers your position in video with resume

* beautifully engineered device; small touches like small bump on play button and volume (+) aids in blind use

* excellent sound quality (I've compared vs. Cowon D2 and it holds its own!)

* love the small thumbnails of album art -> good interface (not quite to Zune standards, my favorite, but very good and FAST)

* works seamlessly with WMP 11

* also drag and drop works fine; album art also works this way as long as art is embedded into file

* volume seems fine to me

* video quality superb, if even only 2" (i compared to ARCHOS 405, granted a larger screen 3.5" but was not nearly as good as the Sony)

* intelligent shuffle = fun

* where is the Media Manager for Walkman software? still waiting for the release

* I have a Creative ZEN on order, and will also do comparison (so far the Sony beats the Cowon D2, Cowon I7, Archos 405 and the new Apple Nano)

* don't like proprietary USB cable, but I do like that the connector has very tiny cover; again nice attention to detail Sony

* I wish it would support 640x480 resolution files and also XVID or DIVX

* Does not work with Amazon Unbox, iTunes (but you can drag and drop iTunes podcasts files)

* I received $34 credit from Sony after they dropped price a la iPhone

* it's MADE IN CHINA (Designed in Japan!)... sound familiar... Apple... (Designed in California...)

Let me know any questions!!

Edited September 14, 2007 by shoot2score67

[Shinji Ikeda]

Also owner of new Sony Video Walkman 8GB (NWZ-A818). Very impressed. Nicely engineered. Some observations:

* don't like proprietary USB cable, but I do like that the connector has very tiny cover; again nice attention to detail Sony

Let me know any questions!!

Exceptional review.

I personally do not mind proprietary USB cables. I have a various array of size, and I also have several that are identical. I do know in Japan there are several accessories that can be used with the NWZ-A810 series. This is what Sony has designed the WM-PORT.

All I want is a 16GB model then I would be happy. 160GB is just overkill.

Thanks again.

[micks_address]

anyone used this with their ps3 yet? can you just plug player into ps3 and copy albums from ps3 to player?

[mdsjack]

WOOOOHOOOO!!

199€ at sonystyle Italy for nwz-a818 + case. Ordering it right away!

[thefanboy]

Hi aznbro85,

Your review is too good, I have never seen any such review even from so-called professionals like cnet.

You answered everybody's question incessantly with patience....hats off for that!! In fact, it shows your passion towards walkman.

What is your expectations on full screen video-walkman, if it will ever see the light ?

[aznbro85]

Hi aznbro85,

Your review is too good, I have never seen any such review even from so-called professionals like cnet.

You answered everybody's question incessantly with patience....hats off for that!! In fact, it shows your passion towards walkman.

What is your expectations on full screen video-walkman, if it will ever see the light ?

Dear theFanboy,

Thank you very much for your kind words, I really appreciate it

I just did a semi-review and somehow it just snowballed and spiraled into something else, haha

You are right though, I do have a passion towards walkmans [looks at list of all ATRACed devices ~_~ ]. I don't even know why i do..

Anyway, to answer your question about full screen video-walkmans... i don't know

I know they have the 8inch DVD video walkman, but as far as a "walkman" kind with video functionality, I do hope that Sony produces one that is larger (but not too huge) has a lot of storage space (20GB+), with flash ram...built in bluetooth and of course the WM-Port! They've changed the port connector between the NW-A1000/3000 series and the S700 series, and hopefully they decide to stay with this proprietary WM-port, instead of going towards yet another new connector..

[bryue]

8 inch is way too large to fit in your pockets as a Walkman. I think most people perfer something more portable than that.

The PSP itself is already too large for pockets but it has a very good screen, so I'd say the perfect video walkman would be something like the PSP, however, with Walkman audio quality.

The PSP doesn't require any proprietary cable nor does it use SonicStage for music transfers

Edited September 16, 2007 by bryue

[aznbro85]

8 inch is way too large to fit in your pockets as a Walkman. I think most people perfer something more portable than that.

The PSP itself is already too large for pockets but it has a very good screen, so I'd say the perfect video walkman would be something like the PSP, however, with Walkman audio quality.

The PSP doesn't require any proprietary cable nor does it use SonicStage for music transfers

opps... haha i re-read what i wrote super early this morning and I realized i wasn't too clear. I mentioned the 8inch dvd-player walkman, but i was referring to a bigger screen than the current 1.8inch and 2inch ones. I agree with you, the PSP size, though not 'pocketable', is a nice size for a 'video walkman'. If somebody wanted something 8inches, they might as well invest in one of those super portable laptops that are 11.1 inches

As for the proprietary cable.. i'd rather keep the WM-PORT instead of going to yet a new format. There are bluetooth transmitters, line-in audio recording cables, docks, speaker systems and probably more crap in the future that will utilize it, so if sony was smart they would stay with the same connector (sort of like how apple has kept with the same iPod connector for so many generations, so all the 3rd party docks and car adapters work for all of them)

for example, for the nw-a3000/nw-a1200, I had bought the SRS-NWM10 dock/speaker system (which was crappy, i might add) , and because of it's connector it can't be used with any other series of walkman

but yeah.. keep it light, keep it thin, keep it simple...make it large capacitied, or make it expandable via SD and/or memory stick duo

[aznbro85]

anyone used this with their ps3 yet? can you just plug player into ps3 and copy albums from ps3 to player?

hey micks_address,

I finally got a chance to try it out with my PS3. Indeed it does work transfering to and from the PS3.

There's only one quirk with it, however.. when you're in XMB, when you select the NWZ-A818 in the music section, not all your tracks might be found. When i went into folders with subdirectories, it would show "no tracks available"

to get around it, before selecting the NWZ-A818, I selected the triangle, then "Display All", which shows you all the directories on the player. From there go to MUSIC folder, and then you can have access to all the tracks in the sub-directories

here's a vid clip of it happening in action, otherwise there are pics below, LOL..

Edited September 16, 2007 by aznbro85

[tman]

opps... haha i re-read what i wrote super early this morning and I realized i wasn't too clear. I mentioned the 8inch dvd-player walkman, but i was referring to a bigger screen than the current 1.8inch and 2inch ones. I agree with you, the PSP size, though not 'pocketable', is a nice size for a 'video walkman'. If somebody wanted something 8inches, they might as well invest in one of those super portable laptops that are 11.1 inches

As for the proprietary cable.. i'd rather keep the WM-PORT instead of going to yet a new format. There are bluetooth transmitters, line-in audio recording cables, docks, speaker systems and probably more crap in the future that will utilize it, so if sony was smart they would stay with the same connector (sort of like how apple has kept with the same iPod connector for so many generations, so all the 3rd party docks and car adapters work for all of them)

for example, for the nw-a3000/nw-a1200, I had bought the SRS-NWM10 dock/speaker system (which was crappy, i might add) , and because of it's connector it can't be used with any other series of walkman

but yeah.. keep it light, keep it thin, keep it simple...make it large capacitied, or make it expandable via SD and/or memory stick duo

... and make it gapless!!!

Can anyone transfer the same gapless tracks using WMP-11 and drag and drop and report if there is any difference in the gap?

[Old skool D]

Two very different reviews on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-NWZA818BLK-Walk...9262&sr=1-1

[tman]

Two very different reviews on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-NWZA818BLK-Walk...9262&sr=1-1

The only thing the 'negative' review had a problem with was the capacity and that Sony doesn't have a large capacity player. That's not a fault of this player.

I'd still love to find out if the 'gaps' are different depending on transfer method.

[pomj]

Two very different reviews on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-NWZA818BLK-Walk...9262&sr=1-1

I lower my head in embarassment of 'Wes' ridiculous socalled review... The thing that irritates me the most is that they don't remove posts like that. Hey he is reviewing an 8GB flashplayer and compares it to the ipod. Not the nano (which would be logical) but the 80GB harddrive player. Well he's obviously not sharpest knife in the drawer... (if you get what I mean)

[aznbro85]

The only thing the 'negative' review had a problem with was the capacity and that Sony doesn't have a large capacity player. That's not a fault of this player.

I'd still love to find out if the 'gaps' are different depending on transfer method.

Hey tman,

- When I ripped a CD in iTunes AAC 128kbps and dragged & dropped it into the player, there were gaps.

- When I ripped a CD into AAC format from SonicStage, and dragged and dropped into the player, there were gaps

- When I ripped a CD into MP3 using WMP11 and synced using WMP11, there was a gap

- When I ripped a CD in WMA using WMP11 and synced, there was a gap.

- When I ripped a CD in WMP using WMA Pro in WMP11, it had to convert the tracks (to standard WMA I'm guessing) before sending them over to the player.

I haven't tried using any other software other than the forementioned ones, but in each case there still seems to be a gap between each track. It doesn't really bother me much since it's like less than a second, but there seems to be a few users on here that it being non-gapless is the single deciding factor of them not trying out/getting this player.

[Akai Kenshi]

Has anyone tried using the walkman with OSX or Linux?

Also, the little docks that they're selling, what exactly do they do and are they worth buying?

[tman]

Hey tman,

- When I ripped a CD in iTunes AAC 128kbps and dragged & dropped it into the player, there were gaps.

- When I ripped a CD into AAC format from SonicStage, and dragged and dropped into the player, there were gaps

- When I ripped a CD into MP3 using WMP11 and synced using WMP11, there was a gap

- When I ripped a CD in WMA using WMP11 and synced, there was a gap.

- When I ripped a CD in WMP using WMA Pro in WMP11, it had to convert the tracks (to standard WMA I'm guessing) before sending them over to the player.

I haven't tried using any other software other than the forementioned ones, but in each case there still seems to be a gap between each track. It doesn't really bother me much since it's like less than a second, but there seems to be a few users on here that it being non-gapless is the single deciding factor of them not trying out/getting this player.

Thanks for the report! Too bad abou the (lack of) gapless. It would be great if they fixed that with a firmware but I'm not holding my breath.

So, is the gap a split-second, like a little 'click', or can you hear a bit of silence?

[aznbro85]

Has anyone tried using the walkman with OSX or Linux?

Also, the little docks that they're selling, what exactly do they do and are they worth buying?

Hey Akai Kenshi,

I've tried the NWZ-A818 in Ubuntu Linux, and it gets detected, and you can drag and drop files onto it. check out my testing of it on page 5:

http://www.atraclife.com/forums/index.php?...4094&st=40#

And as for the docks, taken from sonystyle's website:

Dock your compatible S610 and A810 Series Walkman® Video MP3 player on the BCR-NWU3 cradle and experience fast and reliable data transfers to your PC. You can also record music from any audio source with a stereo mini plug connector. For added convenience, this dock also charges your player while in use and lets you connect to external speakers so you can share your music library with everyone.

Easy connection to Sony Walkman® with multiple-connector

Cradle function (battery recharge, AC power supply, PC connection)

Supplied AC power adaptor

Data synchronization with a PC

Playback of tracks using external speakers

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The comment regarding the recording via line-in was for the S7xx series. I *think* it will work for the S6xx series too. I tried the stand-alone line-in cable that worked on my S706F, and it didn't seem to register on the A818. Maybe that function might be re-added in later with a firmware update? Here's to hoping, haha...

@ tman,

as far as I can hear, i *think* it's more of just split-second silence rather than a 'click', but I could be wrong.

Edited September 20, 2007 by aznbro85

[Akai Kenshi]

Hey Akai Kenshi,

I've tried the NWZ-A818 in Ubuntu Linux, and it gets detected, and you can drag and drop files onto it. check out my testing of it on page 5:

http://www.atraclife.com/forums/index.php?...4094&st=40#

And as for the docks, taken from sonystyle's website:

Dock your compatible S610 and A810 Series Walkman® Video MP3 player on the BCR-NWU3 cradle and experience fast and reliable data transfers to your PC. You can also record music from any audio source with a stereo mini plug connector. For added convenience, this dock also charges your player while in use and lets you connect to external speakers so you can share your music library with everyone.

Easy connection to Sony Walkman® with multiple-connector

Cradle function (battery recharge, AC power supply, PC connection)

Supplied AC power adaptor

Data synchronization with a PC

Playback of tracks using external speakers

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The comment regarding the recording via line-in was for the S7xx series. I *think* it will work for the S6xx series too. I tried the stand-alone line-in cable that worked on my S706F, and it didn't seem to register on the A818. Maybe that function might be re-added in later with a firmware update? Here's to hoping, haha...

@ tman,

as far as I can hear, i *think* it's more of just split-second silence rather than a 'click', but I could be wrong.

Oops, I must have missed the bit about Ubuntu somehow. Cool!

As for the docking stations, I saw the SonyStyle page, but the specs page seemed rather scant. I should have been more specific with my question. I gather that the dock must have USB and AC adapter connections, and it sounds like it has a stereo mini-plug input. It says you can output to external speakers, does that mean an RCA or stereo mini-plug output with a signal optimized for an external amplifier? *gets excited* Probably a pointless question to ask though, as the item isn't in stock at SonyStyle yet and probably nobody has one.

[Shinji Ikeda]

Oops, I must have missed the bit about Ubuntu somehow. Cool!

As for the docking stations, I saw the SonyStyle page, but the specs page seemed rather scant. I should have been more specific with my question. I gather that the dock must have USB and AC adapter connections, and it sounds like it has a stereo mini-plug input. It says you can output to external speakers, does that mean an RCA or stereo mini-plug output with a signal optimized for an external amplifier? *gets excited* Probably a pointless question to ask though, as the item isn't in stock at SonyStyle yet and probably nobody has one.

The stand adds audio out and AC charging to the S600/S700/A800 series Network Walkmans. I would suspect that it would work with the new S610/S710/A810 and the S510 series. To utilize the audio out you need to connect using the AC adapter. Yes, it uses a mini plug, but of course it uses an mini-RCA cable.

I use mine as a charge stand for both my players while connected via USB. The stand utilizes all the supported features of the player. The could be the reason that the spec are lacking.

[Akai Kenshi]

The stand adds audio out and AC charging to the S600/S700/A800 series Network Walkmans. I would suspect that it would work with the new S610/S710/A810 and the S510 series. To utilize the audio out you need to connect using the AC adapter. Yes, it uses a mini plug, but of course it uses an mini-RCA cable.

I use mine as a charge stand for both my players while connected via USB. The stand utilizes all the supported features of the player. The could be the reason that the spec are lacking.

So you can hook it up to a stereo and not have to turn the player's volume all the way up to get a decent signal? Cool! That's a feature I've been missing from the walkman for a while.

Edited September 20, 2007 by Akai Kenshi

[Finn88]

Yes Akai Kenshi, you can. I've got one for my NW-s700f, and it looks great . The only problem I've had though is getting it to output properly to my speaker system. I find it doesn't work very well if it's still connected to the computer via the USB - wmport cable, but the last few times when I've disconnected it, it still has problems outputting to my speakers. It has to be something that I'm doing wrong.

It's pretty cool using it to record with the stand though, although sadly I've not much use for this function as my HiMD does such a good job.

Finn

[mdsjack]

hi aznbro85, can you please tell us something about Playlists?

[aznbro85]

hi aznbro85, can you please tell us something about Playlists?

i was asked to try out winamp playlists and that didn't work. haven't tried any other way, though

i haven't had time to try messing around with it, as playlists aren't that important to me.. i either listen to whole albums or manually select what track i want to listen to at whatever time.

i'll try out a wmp one and see how it goes. i was slightly disappointed though when i saw there wasn't 'on the fly' playlist creation though..

[Ascariss]

what about playlists from windows media player?

[tman]

I got the A818 the other day. Great player, but CAN YOU REALLY NOT DELETE FOLDERS ON THIS THING?!?

I fixed some tags and retransferred, and deleted the misnamed folders. They don't show up in WMP 11 but they are still on the player (without the songs). This is somewhat annoying, esp since some are duplicates. Is there any way to delete empty folders?

[socom1]

Can anyone tell me how the headphones included with the A81X deal with noise cancellation/blocking out noise? I know they don't have the active noise cancellation like the headphones that comes with the 70X unit, but I usually listen to my player in noise environments (train, bus...) and this is a deal breaker.

[bryue]

What is the real difference between a DAP with built-in Noise Cancelling technology and the same DAP with only an earbud (noise blocking) earphones? Should they sound really different?

I've been using the famous EX71 from Sony for more than 2 years for daily purposes. (Btw GREAT earphones! Who said these breaks so easily???).

It blocks exterior sound incredibly when you use it for the first time but after a long term usage, you become used to it and you somehow develop a way to hear noise again, at least for me.

[Shinji Ikeda]

What is the real difference between a DAP with built-in Noise Cancelling technology and the same DAP with only an earbud (noise blocking) earphones? Should they sound really different?

I've been using the famous EX71 from Sony for more than 2 years for daily purposes. (Btw GREAT earphones! Who said these breaks so easily???).

It blocks exterior sound incredibly when you use it for the first time but after a long term usage, you become used to it and you somehow develop a way to hear noise again, at least for me.

I had the same experience with the MDR-EX71 when I first purchased it. What was the most noticeable is that it reduces sound leakage.

With the Noise cancellation technology surround sounds are sampled and canceled. The technology is not perfect, since it required to sample external sounds then created an inverse wave. In simple terms the technology can only cancel simple sounds that are repeatative. However, the technology works quite well.

The sound should be different between noise cancellation headphone and other headphone. Artifacts will be added, and under extreme circumstances the noise will be amplified (this only is encountered in very windy environments).

The real difference is that DAP with built-in Noise Cancellation eliminates the need to worry if the noise cancellation head phone are full charged.

It should be noted that several manufacturers make noise cancellation headphones, which include Sony, Targus and Boise.

[socom1]

So can anyone answer my question?

Can anyone tell me how the headphones included with the A81X deal with noise cancellation/blocking out noise? I know they don't have the active noise cancellation like the headphones that comes with the 70X unit, but I usually listen to my player in noise environments (train, bus...) and this is a deal breaker.

[juli_]

So can anyone answer my question?

If they are the same EX82 headphones that come with the A808 - then isolation is pretty weak. The headphones themselves are very good in quiet places, but when I tried them on the train, I got very very little isolation from background noise. They way they fit into the ear means there's quite a lot of sound leakage and not a lot of isolation.

Edited September 23, 2007 by juli

[tman]

I got the A818 the other day. Great player, but CAN YOU REALLY NOT DELETE FOLDERS ON THIS THING?!?

I fixed some tags and retransferred, and deleted the misnamed folders. They don't show up in WMP 11 but they are still on the player (without the songs). This is somewhat annoying, esp since some are duplicates. Is there any way to delete empty folders?

[NEVER MIND - THEY SEEMED TO HAVE BEEN ERASED NOW. OOPS!]

Edited September 24, 2007 by tman

[Shinji Ikeda]

Can anyone tell me how the headphones included with the A81X deal with noise cancellation/blocking out noise? I know they don't have the active noise cancellation like the headphones that comes with the 70X unit, but I usually listen to my player in noise environments (train, bus...) and this is a deal breaker.

So can anyone answer my question?

As stated by Juli, the headphone include with the NWZ-A810 series are noise isolation headphone. If you are concerned about blocking out sound in a noisy environment you will need to get noise cancellation headphone. Noise isolation headphones do not work in noisy environment. The design of the headphone used with the correct size silicon earbud, can work well in reducing external noise. However, if your major concern is to reduce noise then you are better with getting a player with built-in noise cancellation or dedicated noise cancellation headphone.

My advice is to go to your local Electronics store and try some noise cancellation headphones. Noise cancellation headphones start around $49.00 US.

[bryue]

I was wondering...

The A810 has an clock display right? How accurate is it?

Because on my old E507, the clock becomes slightly off after a while (eg. 2 minutes late compared to, let's say, the computer time).

[ceres]

I was wondering...

The A810 has an clock display right? How accurate is it?

Because on my old E507, the clock becomes slightly off after a while (eg. 2 minutes late compared to, let's say, the computer time).

I´d rather think your computer time is off

Re-sync your computer time via the internet and see if it´s correct.

[cliffster115]

Thanks for such an indepth review! My A818 should be coming in next week and am really exited. I'm coming from the ipod and decided to ditch it because of it's poor customization with sound and general soudn quality. Of course, I am also currently working on converting my iTunes Library to Windows Media Player with the help of this program called MusicBridge. My library is about 105GB, and I still think iTunes in terms of organization is much faster than WMP.

I use playlists and lot, and I have already seen and read that playlists from WMP can be transferred and synced to the A818. My question is: Can the A818 make playlists on the fly? The manual did not mention this, and I am very curious if the newer A818 can do this. Prior to this, I have read that the older A800s that still support ATRAC have the ability to create playlists on the fly with teh player.

So in all, can anyone please confirm if the A818 (drag and drop, or corresponding series) can indeed create playlists on the fly?

Thanks so much guys, much appreciated, cheers!