aznbro85's NWZ-A818 Review

[aznbro85]

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!

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BEFORE I START:

I noticed that people here on Atraclife wanted to check out the user's manual, and it wasn't on sony's e-support site.

I extracted the one off from the software CD and here it is to anybody who is interested in it =)

http://www.mediamax.com/aznbro85/Hosted/A810_GB.pdf

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Ok, let's let the games begin!

the new sonystyle bag... looks so cool to me for some reason.. that HDNA campaign they have going on is getting to me...

The box

Manual and other papers, Software CD

Headphones, Extension Cord, WM-Port USB Cable, Cradle converter for those with the dock

And the NWZ-A818 in Black

Bottom view, WM-Port and Headphone Out

Side view, Volume controls and lanyard hole

The back of the player

Home Screen

EQ Settings

Shot of the Music Settings

Shot of the Video Settings

Shot of Photo Settings

Brightness settings... i had the screen at "1" brightness earlier.. this is full brightness

Shot of Common Settings

Shot of Language Settings

Time and Date Screensaver..

Walkman at work!

Walkman at rest.

Plugged in the Walkman, and Windows Vista detected the player and installed the drivers for it, no problem

Player in the Control Panel

File structure of the player

The music folder. All the album folders I DRAGGED AND DROPPED INTO THE PLAYER. The individual files were the pre-installed sony ones

Windows Media Player 11 discovers player, wants to sync

Song I transfered via drag and drop. Lost album art and year

Song I transferd via WMP11.

YES! IT SUPPORTS UNICODE / NON-ENGLISH CHARACTERS!

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I also scanned all the documents that I thought you guys might be interested in...

The software cd

Napster trial card, with 14-day free code on back..

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Sound Quality: Great!

I'm using MP3 files @ 192kbps ripped from WMP11, and it sounds a lot better than my usual 64kbps ATRAC3plus.

Battery Life: Great!

I've used it for a few hours, and the battery indicator still shows as full bar.

Build Quality: Good

The player feels sturdy, but it feels kinda small and light in my big hands (haha)... The NWZ-S6xx series seems a tad heaver and more 'rugged' when i tried them out in-store

Misc:

- Finally, it reads kanji without the use of AppLocale!

- I don't know if I'm tripping or not, but I feel that the player seems "quieter" than the other ones I own.. when I blast it at max volume it doesnt seem as loud as my old ones.

- GAPLESS? Not sure [sorry you guys ] I couldn't tell if this player played MP3 gapless or not. I have some tracks I thought were gapless, but i couldnt tell if it was truely gapless or not. There didn't seem to be an 'obvious' gap, but i think i might have heard like a split-second 'gap'... i'll have to look into it, i guess, haha

- WM-PORT

- The bluetooth adapter WLA-NWB1 does indeed work with the player. I used it with my DR-BT50 bluetooth headphones, and sound quality was excellent.

- The recording cable that was released with the NW-S7xx series WMC-NWR1 DOES NOT work on this player. I plugged it in, went to home menu, and looked around, and found nothing to allow me to record onto the player directly

- VIDEO: The quality of the included Spiderman 3 trailor looked really well. I tried to convert my own file to put onto the player, but I still haven't been able to have one that worked yet.

Having fiddled around with this for about a day and a half now, I really am enjoying this player. It looks nice (Looks like a PlayForSure version of the OpenMGed NW-A808 that I was about to get imported)

It supports drag-and-drop, so people other than those who use windows can finally enjoy Sony's Network Walkmans

But, when you use software, you get the album art and 'more functionality' out of the player, haha..

I can't wait til that "Media Manager for WALKMAN" software comes out, maybe that will help me out with the video transfer problem.

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.

Edited September 3, 2007 by aznbro85

[metal]

Thanks for the review and the user's manual

I've checked the manual but unfortunately it didn't mention it can playback gapless. If possible, please check this again as gapless playback is really the only reason for me to stay with Sony.

[aznbro85]

Thanks for the review and the user's manual

I've checked the manual but unfortunately it didn't mention it can playback gapless. If possible, please check this again as gapless playback is really the only reason for me to stay with Sony.

Hey metal,

like i had stated, I rip all my own music from cd, and from what i could hear i couldn't hear obvious 'gapped' playback. Before when it was gapped it was very noticable, but when i tried it now, i couldn't hear an obvious pause between tracks, but i *think* i might have heard a split-second break, but i could be wrong though..

can you point me to a cd or some files that has continous playback?

[sdfzz_]

Hey, thx for a great review..

I see u listening korean songs

Can u check one thing for me? I wanna check if it can display the letter 桜

Old walkmans, such as A1000 or e500 supported korean, but not some of Kanjis, such as this one

[aznbro85]

Hey, thx for a great review..

I see u listening korean songs

Can u check one thing for me? I wanna check if it can display the letter 桜

Old walkmans, such as A1000 or e500 supported korean, but not some of Kanjis, such as this one

Hey sdfzz,

thanks for the compliment, i really appreciate it

here's your answer:

@ metal:

I tried another CD that is continuous with mixed results. When I played it back on the player, there was an obvious gap in between the tracks. This gap showed up when I tried playing the files in Winamp as well. However, when I played it using WMP 11, the gap wasn't there..

so can somebody school me on this... is it the file or some sort of header that tells the program/hardware to play it continuously or what?

[RobA]

I would like you to check something for me, if you don't mind. Hook the a818 to your computer and open sonicstage. Does it pick up the walkman?

[AntiPod]

great review aznbro85! im interested to see the sound quality of A818 compared to that of the A800 series. If you get a chance to compare the two, plz tell me if they sound the same, thx.

[alpex]

i picked one up too.

I've had no problem with the videos. I've put some ipod mp4 podcasts and some avc-mp4's i made in nero-recode and it's played everything so far. even mp4's that my iphone barfs on, this has had no issues so far.

sound wise i think it is comparable to the s705 which i also own. the menus don't fell as polished and refined, but it certainly gets the job done. bluetooth audio is the same(as you would expect) and not as great as using proper headphones.

overall glad to be rid of sonicstage. Happy to be able to finally buy a well built drm-free player.

[aznbro85]

I would like you to check something for me, if you don't mind. Hook the a818 to your computer and open sonicstage. Does it pick up the walkman?

@ Rob A

oh! my bad, I can't believe i left that big important thing out of the review!!

No, sonicstage does NOT see this player when connected. It appears in WMP11, and inside the windows explorer, but it doesn't show up as a device inside of sonicstage.

@ AntiPod

Sorry, I don't have a A800 nor do I have access to one. I can say that the sound quality *didn't* get worse though (compared to all my other sony walkmans), haha

@ alpex

Thanks for the heads up... i'll go try out nero re-code then. I was trying out Slysoft's CloneDVD Mobile, and i was trying out different device profiles with no success, but i will go ahead and try out nero recode... Thanks for the input!

And which BT headphones do you use? I have sony's DR-BT50 and I find that the sound quality is great

Edited September 3, 2007 by aznbro85

[sdfzz_]

thx a a lot aznbro85

I really appreciate it

[alpex]

for bluetooth i have dr-bt50. they are good, but not great.

the bluetooth spec for audio reencodes the audio to somewhere between 96 kbps to 512 Kbps.

I read somewhere that the sony goes for 128kbit, but i think it's probably higher than that.

even so, you're still reencoding as you stream to the headphones, so there is an audible difference

if i use my sennheisers or plug it into my staxx preamp a whole new world opens up.

before splashing out on nero, give winmenc a try(in 'ipod' mode). it's free and i've always found that with a bit of patience i can get it to support Everything!

http://winmenc.blogspot.com/

I would add that i bought mine in SF also, they had hundreds of these in stock, i guess they think they'll sell well!

Edited September 3, 2007 by alpex

[aznbro85]

for bluetooth i have dr-bt50. they are good, but not great.

the bluetooth spec for audio reencodes the audio to somewhere between 96 kbps to 512 Kbps.

I read somewhere that the sony goes for 128kbit, but i think it's probably higher than that.

even so, you're still reencoding as you stream to the headphones, so there is an audible difference

if i use my sennheisers or plug it into my staxx preamp a whole new world opens up.

before splashing out on nero, give winmenc a try(in 'ipod' mode). it's free and i've always found that with a bit of patience i can get it to support Everything!

http://winmenc.blogspot.com/

I would add that i bought mine in SF also, they had hundreds of these in stock, i guess they think they'll sell well!

Thanks alpex for all the wealth on the info about BT and encoding of videos, i really appreciate it!

I guess to me the DR-BT50s sounds awesome because the only other things i have to compare it with are MDR-EX71SLs and the stock headphones for the NW-S705F, which are the two other ones that are my 'regulars'

Yeah, I called them on wednesday morning right before they opened at 10am, and I went and got one the next day on thursday.

All the sales representatives there don't know %^*&, but I must say there was one that was there that looked new and knew what he was doing. I asked him some stuff about this player and he knew his stuff... lol

[Akai Kenshi]

So you can't get album art without syncing through WMP? That kind of blows...

If this is the case, I hope Sony Media Manager takes care of it. I just ordered a NWZ-A818 and have been gradually re-encoding my music into Nero Digital AAC.

[aznbro85]

So you can't get album art without syncing through WMP? That kind of blows...

If this is the case, I hope Sony Media Manager takes care of it. I just ordered a NWZ-A818 and have been gradually re-encoding my music into Nero Digital AAC.

Hey Akai Kenshi,

I don't know if that's the only way, as I only tried drag & drop into the "MUSIC" folder and using WMP11 to sync it automatically. I don't know if there is a way to get album art in other manual ways, sorry

If that's the case, I too, hope Sony Media Manager takes care of it... I heard something that it should work with the PSP as well. But time will tell, so I guess for now we just have to wait...

[Ascariss]

do you know if winamp playlists work on the device?

[metal]

@ metal:

I tried another CD that is continuous with mixed results. When I played it back on the player, there was an obvious gap in between the tracks. This gap showed up when I tried playing the files in Winamp as well. However, when I played it using WMP 11, the gap wasn't there..

so can somebody school me on this... is it the file or some sort of header that tells the program/hardware to play it continuously or what?

Thanks a lot.

It seems that the player can't do gapless. Very disappointing indeed.

I presume you ripped the CD to mp3.

[aznbro85]

do you know if winamo playlists work on the device?

Hey Ascariss,

I never tried doing something like that. Mind giving us a crash-course on how that works? I would love to try it out for you to see if it works.

Thanks a lot.

It seems that the player can't do gapless. Very disappointing indeed.

I presume you ripped the CD to mp3.

Yeah, I ripped it into MP3 192kbps via WMP 11.

[Ascariss]

open up winamp, drop in x number of mp3s in it, save the playlist somwhere, its in the playlist, bottom right hand corner, list opts, press it, save the list and then drag the mp3s and the playlist over to the device, and see if the playlist will work, if it does, then it means the files will play.

also trying ripping gapless using itunes into aac.

or rip the cd to wma gapless.

[metal]

@aznbro85

If that doesn't mean too much trouble to you, please try to rip CDs to formats suggested by Ascariss to see if the player can support gapless.

[pata2001]

Finally somebody bought it. Thanks a lot for the pdf manual! So it is an MTP device, not UMS, not usable outside XP/Vista.

And man, Sony USA just cannot hide their hatred towards Kanji (in this case Japanese).

Taken from the manual:

What is that supposed to mean? So even if the device supports it, they still have to put a disclaimer like that.

[matty84]

Great review! Does album art work when drag and dropped if it is embedded in the file rather than as folder.jpg or album.jpg?

Cheers,

Matt

[aznbro85]

open up winamp, drop in x number of mp3s in it, save the playlist somwhere, its in the playlist, bottom right hand corner, list opts, press it, save the list and then drag the mp3s and the playlist over to the device, and see if the playlist will work, if it does, then it means the files will play.

also trying ripping gapless using itunes into aac.

or rip the cd to wma gapless.

@ Ascariss,

ok, i followed your instructions, and it looks like the player does not support winamp playlists. I dropped the playlist file into the 'Playlists' folder in the directories, and dropped the music into the "Music" folder, and I got a message that said:

The file 'testo.m3u' may be copied to the device for storage or transport use only. It is not supported for use on the device itself. If possible, use a media program that can convert the file before copying it. If you copy the file now, it will be stored on the device, but may not be presented in the device user interface. Do you wish to copy the file to the device anyway?

Yes | Yes to All | No | No to All | Cancel

I tried with both 'M3U playlist' and 'PLS playlist' and got that pop-up. When I selected 'M3U8 (Unicode) Playlist', the file transfered without that warning pop-up, but when i went to the playlist part of the player, the playlist did not show up.

as for trying out the other formats that you suggested, I will try that out tomorrow. I do not have iTunes installed on this computer, and it's 1:07AM local time, and i'm beat, lol...

[pata2001]

Several suggestions for gapless codec support test:

-AAC ripped via Sonicstage (.3gp)

-AAC ripped via iTunes (.m4a)

-MP3 encoded with Lame

-standard WMA (so far, there is no hardware capable of playing WMA gaplessly, only WMP does, so highly unlikely)

[aznbro85]

Finally somebody bought it. Thanks a lot for the pdf manual! So it is an MTP device, not UMS, not usable outside XP/Vista.

And man, Sony USA just cannot hide their hatred towards Kanji (in this case Japanese).

Taken from the manual:

What is that supposed to mean? So even if the device supports it, they still have to put a disclaimer like that.

@ pata2001

LOL

you and your theories of sony USA hating on japanese/kanji, haha...

yeah, i saw that in the quick start guide and i was like wtfux? lol

and I'll take your suggested codecs and add it to the list to try out tomorrow

@ matty84

What do you mean by when the album art is encoded in the file? When I ripped it in WMP11 does it encode into the file? I don't see an actual .jpg file in the folder

[aznbro85]

Several suggestions for gapless codec support test:

-AAC ripped via Sonicstage (.3gp)

-AAC ripped via iTunes (.m4a)

-MP3 encoded with Lame

-standard WMA (so far, there is no hardware capable of playing WMA gaplessly, only WMP does, so highly unlikely)

So, I had sonicstage open and a few minutes to spare, so I was like oh, what the heck, I'll go try out "AAC Ripped via Sonicstage (.3gp)" before heading to bed..

Unfortunately, no dice. The CD I ripped did not play gapless on the player (within Sonicstage is it gapless? When I played it within sonicstage it was gapped too) I ripped AAC @ 192kbps, if that makes a difference.

[metal]

And man, Sony USA just cannot hide their hatred towards Kanji (in this case Japanese).

Taken from the manual:

What is that supposed to mean? So even if the device supports it, they still have to put a disclaimer like that.

It may mean Sony does not want these non-atrac players be imported into Japan, thus disabling display of Japanese characters. Need to see if the player purchased from other countries also disable Japanese characters as well.

[matty84]

@ matty84

What do you mean by when the album art is encoded in the file? When I ripped it in WMP11 does it encode into the file? I don't see an actual .jpg file in the folder

I'm not sure about WMP11 but I know when you get album art automatically in iTunes it saves it in a database type thing. I was wondering if WMP11 did something similar or added the album art as a JPEG in the album folder. It is possible to embed album art inside a track as a tag. I was wondering if tracks embedded with album art would display the album art on the device when dragged and dropped.

Cheers!

[Ishiyoshi]

Thanks for taking the time to share with us your thorough review. Topic moved to "Equipment Reviews + Pictorials" section of the forum.

[gotthat]

good non atrac walkman mate, 2007 is only the starting year of non atrac walkman, there will be plenty of cool walkman to come for sure, no doubt on the SQ and speed of transfer, enjoy mate

[Ascariss]

thanks for the effort aznbro85, really appreciated, any idea what playlists work on teh player? if it will be wmp ones, then that will suck bad.

[riceb0i87]

Wow great review aznbro85! Now I really wish there'd be a firmware update for us A800 users

[pomj]

Several suggestions for gapless codec support test:

-AAC ripped via Sonicstage (.3gp)

-AAC ripped via iTunes (.m4a)

-MP3 encoded with Lame

-standard WMA (so far, there is no hardware capable of playing WMA gaplessly, only WMP does, so highly unlikely)

The only format the A808 plays gapless is atrac advanced lossless (If I'm not wrong). Now that they've removed the atrac support I don't think there are any gapless support anymore.

[Guest Stuge]

Great review |

so the player needs firmware update to retify drag & drop issue

[aznbro85]

Several suggestions for gapless codec support test:

-AAC ripped via Sonicstage (.3gp)

-AAC ripped via iTunes (.m4a)

-MP3 encoded with Lame

-standard WMA (so far, there is no hardware capable of playing WMA gaplessly, only WMP does, so highly unlikely)

So as I posted last night, I tried out AAC ripped via Sonicstage (.3gp)

- Did not play gapless

I installed iTunes onto my computer and ripped a CD via iTunes AAC @ 128kbps (.m4a)

- Did not play gapless

And I also think i figured out *THAT LINE* on the sonystyle spec sheet..

MP3/WMA/AAC Audio Codec Support3

Supports playback of MP3 and WMA DRM and non-DRM audio files downloaded from multiple sources. Also supports non-DRM AAC content, giving you multiple options for downloading music the way you want.

The NWZ-A818 plays back MP3 and WMA, and PlayForSure WMAs. It ALSO plays back non-DRMed AAC files. HOWEVER, WMP11 DOES NOT 'support' then natively, as if you try to drag and drop it into WMP, it won't register, and if you go file => open an .m4a file, it will give you the file format error and asks you if you want to continue, and when you hit yes, it actually plays.

I haven't tested it out on other "PlayForSure" capable programs yet, (nor do I want to add more useless clutter to this computer, heh..)

as long as you DRAG AND DROP AAC files onto the player, the player plays them natively, no need to convert into WMA or MP3.

[ceres]

So as I posted last night, I tried out AAC ripped via Sonicstage (.3gp)

- Did not play gapless

I installed iTunes onto my computer and ripped a CD via iTunes AAC @ 128kbps (.m4a)

- Did not play gapless

And I also think i figured out *THAT LINE* on the sonystyle spec sheet..

MP3/WMA/AAC Audio Codec Support3

Supports playback of MP3 and WMA DRM and non-DRM audio files downloaded from multiple sources. Also supports non-DRM AAC content, giving you multiple options for downloading music the way you want.

The NWZ-A818 plays back MP3 and WMA, and PlayForSure WMAs. It ALSO plays back non-DRMed AAC files. HOWEVER, WMP11 DOES NOT 'support' then natively, as if you try to drag and drop it into WMP, it won't register, and if you go file => open an .m4a file, it will give you the file format error and asks you if you want to continue, and when you hit yes, it actually plays.

I haven't tested it out on other "PlayForSure" capable programs yet, (nor do I want to add more useless clutter to this computer, heh..)

as long as you DRAG AND DROP AAC files onto the player, the player plays them natively, no need to convert into WMA or MP3.

when importing via itunes, did you tick gapless album in file properties?

[aznbro85]

when importing via itunes, did you tick gapless album in file properties?

@ ceres,

Thanks for the question. It was my first time using iTunes in a few years, and at first I didn't choose the gapless setting in the file properties. I did find it and I selected it, and I retransfered those tracks onto the player, but the playback is STILL gapped

--------------------

i DID figure out yet another thing that might help other users (an answer to matty84 question a few posts up)

I added artwork to all the tracks of one cd within iTunes, and I dragged and dropped those files into the MUSIC directory of the player.

The AAC files worked, AND the album art was retained. So I guess in iTunes they do embed the album art into each track?

But yeah, when I imported the whole album folder and played it on the player, the album art did show up when i loaded it into iTunes.

Oh, and before anybody asks, the player does NOT show up in iTunes

Edited September 3, 2007 by aznbro85

[Ascariss]

Oh, and before anybody asks, the player does NOT show up in iTunes

lol if it did, that would be a kicker for apple.

[pata2001]

Unfortunately, no dice. The CD I ripped did not play gapless on the player (within Sonicstage is it gapless? When I played it within sonicstage it was gapped too) I ripped AAC @ 192kbps, if that makes a difference.

Sonicstage cannot play AAC (.3gp) gaplesly, but the S70x series can.

Bummer huh, no gapless. Sony took 1 step forward, and 5 steps backward, as always. It is ironic that in the beginning, iPods are heavily criticized for not having gapless playback ability. Now, it is one of the few that support gapless playback. Can't wait for September 5th.

Thanks a lot for doing the tests.

[pata2001]

when importing via itunes, did you tick gapless album in file properties?

The gapless properties in iTunes has nothing to do with gaples playback. It only disables crossfading. Gapless on iTunes and iPods are automatic. When you import tracks to iTunes, it will scan the track's length (showing as "determining gapless information").

[ceres]

The gapless properties in iTunes has nothing to do with gaples playback. It only disables crossfading. Gapless on iTunes and iPods are automatic. When you import tracks to iTunes, it will scan the track's length (showing as "determining gapless information").

okay I see. when I tick gapless when I import can I force gapless playback?

How many gapless albums are out there? As far as I can see gapless applies mostly to live albums and classical music, no?