NWZ-A818 review from iPod user

[jabbabigbut]

I've been using an iPod for as long as I can remember for listening to MP3s and Podcasts. Recently got a black NWZ-A818 but it was difficult to find in the UK, black ones were mostly sold out, plenty of white a pink ones though which I avoided. First thing I tested was the sound quality - most important for me. The Sony doesn't dissappoint on my Sennheiser HD600s, it really does sound great, much better than the iPod which sounds thin and lifeless in comparison.

I did a direct comparison (no EQ or enhancements) between my A818, iPod Video and Sony MiniDisc RH-1 with the same MP3 file through my HD600s. The RH-1 did sound slightly better than the A818, slightly clearer and a bit more controlled but these were both way ahead of the iPod. I never normally use graphic equalisers or any fancy sound "enhancing" gimicks, but I do use one notch of "Clear Bass" which adds a nice bit of subtle extra bass without spoiling the sound on my HD600s. The A818 also has enough power to drive the HD600s at a decent sound level.

The User Interface is just great. I've always been frustrated by the iPod, there's a lot of clicking to get anywhere and the touch wheel is annoying, i.e. fumble in your pocket and suddenly the volume shoots up to deafening levels by accident. The A818 has nice click able buttons that you can easily feel in your pocket, no accidental volume changes or skipped tracks. The interface works just great, the option button brings up useful options wherever you are, I particularly like the "now playing" option. One tip for moving forwards/backwards quickly, press pause and then fast forward and it moves very quickly. Also Sony have added a "Folder" option to the menus, I've wanted this for so long as that's how I organise MP3s on my PC, now you can navigate through directory folders on the A818 just like the PC.

I also like to watch video podcasts and the iPod was great for that. The A818 has a lovely screen and is very watchable despite the size. Many iPod mp4 videos work fine on the A818 but I've found a number don't which need converting with ffmpeg - a bit annoying as I can't find the reason they fail.

The other major thing for me is the automatic synchronising capability of the device and it's PC software. Previously I avoided the NWZ-A808 because of Sonicstage, which I experienced as being quite poor for the MiniDisc - at least compared to iTunes anyway. The situation is a lot better with the A818s support of Play4Sure (MTP) but why on earth doesn't Windows Media Player support MP4 and & videos files? i.e. Podcasts. The other frustration with Play4Sure is that it doesn't create a drive you can easily copy MP3 files to using batch files, you _have_ to drag & drop from Windows Explorer. I've tried WinAmp which supports the A818 and does support MP4/Podcast files but I can't figure out how to get that to work with "active" playlists that sync automatically with the A818 - Windows Media Player works well at that though. Hopefully Sony's up-and-coming MediaManager will resolve these issues.

Overall I'm really impressed with the A818 and I won't be going back to iPods for a while. For me it is all about sound quality and the A818 is superior to the iPod in that respect. The user interface is easier to use than the iPod and much more useful. The synching software still needs some work to bring it near the quality of iTunes - Sony still haven't twigged the importance of this yet.

[thefanboy]

welcome aboard walkman.

Nice review, unbiased too.

And for software, expect Media Manager soon for walkman. Hopefully it will solve synching issues.

[Old skool D]

Great review. I hope you enjoy your A818.

[skunkbro]

Does the Sony Player have a ******* hiss sound at the background of playback? my sony hd5 and the other one have a very audible hiss sound under quiet surrounding, its really putting me off in buying NW series.

[JesseB]

The player is great on all fronts...however there is a small issue!!! CD's that are supposed to be seamless mixes are not because the player inserts a break between each track. This is annoying as the CD is supposed to be heard in a seamless fashion. There are no options on the player to enable the breaks to be removed between each track. I wonder whether there is way to rectify this problem??? Sony should release new firmware to solve this problem...Can anyone help???

[jabbabigbut]

No hiss.

Does the Sony Player have a ******* hiss sound at the background of playback? my sony hd5 and the other one have a very audible hiss sound under quiet surrounding, its really putting me off in buying NW series.

[jabbabigbut]

Here's a tip for converting video files (with command line ffmpeg) to play on the A818 with decent quality, I think it should convert most video files, does VOB too, change "input.mp4" to your video file to convert:

ffmpeg.exe -y -i "input.mp4" -vcodec mpeg4 -qscale 3 -s 320x240 -acodec aac -ab 128k "output.mp4"

[uglor]

these breaks are called "gaps". A vast majority of mp3 players have gaps between tracks. there are only a handful of music players that provide gapless playback (ipod, minidisc players, etc...)

The player is great on all fronts...however there is a small issue!!! CD's that are supposed to be seamless mixes are not because the player inserts a break between each track. This is annoying as the CD is supposed to be heard in a seamless fashion. There are no options on the player to enable the breaks to be removed between each track. I wonder whether there is way to rectify this problem??? Sony should release new firmware to solve this problem...Can anyone help???

[pomj]

[...]there are only a handful of music players that provide gapless playback (ipod, minidisc players, etc...)

Sony NW-A808...

[adlanar]

Sonicstage supports gapless playback hence the feature enabled on older walkmen including MDs. Winodws Media Player doesn't supports gapless as thier wma format do not cater for this. Hope that Sony kept this feature in thier new media manager.

[Ascariss]

Why doesn't sony just release atrac as a normal codec with no drm? and add it to their players.

[jussisguy]

i have a NWZ-A818 and i dont like windows media player. do you know whether it is supported by sonic stage and when is media manager released?

[DSP]

man...

just drag and drop! It works like a USB drive.... I can even use it on my mac with no problems at all!!!

[jussisguy]

i didnt realise you could do it that way

thanks

[tman]

i didnt realise you could do it that way

thanks

yup. only problem using drag and drop is album art will not work unless it is embedded in the tag, and the year might not show up.

Then again, pretty sure you can transfer folders using drag and drop and it will keep the same configuration regardless of tags.