NWZ-A82x-series (4, 8, 16 GB)

[Ascariss]

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/22/sony-nw...dp-hit-the-fcc/

That is the link.

Reading one of the pdfs, it states from january 12th

"the applicant requests the following documents contained in this certification application to be temporarily withheld from public disclosure for an initial period of 45 days:

external photos

internal photos

test setup photos

users manual

Meaning that february 26th might be the day we get more information regarding the new unit or perhaps earlier. There is an image of the back of the unit and it seems to be similar to the current 81x series with some differences.

Mainly that the reset button is on the back of the unit, using the diagram as reference, the device should be 86 to 87mm tall and 46 to 47mm wide. give or take half a mm. In addition it seems that the head phone jack is on the side now? now the bottom.

There appears to be 3 models on the way:

826 - 4 GB

828 - 8 GB

829 - 16 GB

headphones appear to be the same EX82 with an extension cable of 1.5 m, it also appears to have bluetooth. That's all I could get out of the documents.

link to FCC site

http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/reports...'AK8NWZA820

[EZero]

Sweet, I wish Sony would give more attention to their Walkmen players, as its now correct to say that they are some of the best out there. Walkman Touch and I'd be there Sony! (Or the A91x series from Japan, did anybody review it?)

What's happened to ATRACLife, are we no longer getting early sneak peeks into the Walkman world?

[navsimpson]

Cool. Seems like a sensible upgrade. I hope that there's some sort of phone integration using the Bluetooth. Anyway, will be cool to see the pics.

[T.W.G_]

Hi,

why do they stop on 16GB?

I hope for a 32GB Version! I would buy it even for 400 Euros!

My vaio pocket is dead (it felt down to the floor) and as a replacement I bought an A818 yesterday: Sweet sounding device which make me smile :-)

And come on guys: A native touch screen base player is simply crap! You can't operate them blind in your pockets as you can do with Sonys Minidisc-remotecontrols, vaio pockets remote, S7xx or A8xx.

Physical buttons etc. are necessary!!

[Ascariss]

no 32 gb since sony only has a 16 gb mem stick which it just released. Maybe later on in the year. who knows. maybe the device will have memory stick expansion

[Zizone_]

Hi,

why do they stop on 16GB?

I hope for a 32GB Version! I would buy it even for 400 Euros!

My vaio pocket is dead (it felt down to the floor) and as a replacement I bought an A818 yesterday: Sweet sounding device which make me smile :-)

And come on guys: A native touch screen base player is simply crap! You can't operate them blind in your pockets as you can do with Sonys Minidisc-remotecontrols, vaio pockets remote, S7xx or A8xx.

Physical buttons etc. are necessary!!

I also prefer buttons over touch screen. Touch screens is just not practical e.g. accidently changing tracks and hard to carry it around without careful attention. Most importantly, my hand is in my way from viewing the screen.

Anyhow, I am going to get this A820 series because I just broke A810 series by dropping from great height, accidenlty...

[gotthat]

nowdays Sony has so much success with Walkman phones, but the Walkman player becomes much quiter compare to before. last year people were bitching about Sony is unable to release a 16GB Walkman until 2009 (what about NW-A900 and NW-A82X?) and Sony doesn't have a touch screen (buttons design is better and who knows that they may have a touch screen eventually), now right after the great Walkman NW-A900 series, they have the new Walkman ready to be released soon and it's nice to have a 16GB space with the best sq around

[Zizone_]

by the way, since NWZ-A820 series is going to support bluetooth, I really hope they will see MD remote size bluetooth receiver WITH 3.5mm connector... as an accecessary...

HBH-DS980 looks nice but no 3.5mm support, only works with built-in headphone...

Edited January 23, 2008 by Zizone

[LG1_]

I wanted to be the one to post it but guess you cant have everything.

This player sounds sweet. I am happy with my s618 with bluetooth dongle works great and i dont see anything this will offer besides 16gb. They release new players too frequently.

I still wouldn't have waited as i have got lots of enjoyment out of it so far, and bluetooth moto earphones with 3.5mm jack work great.

[thefanboy]

I dont think a82x will sport same looks as a81x, if it is so why should sony protect it ? and for the same reasons it may not look like a91x either.

anyone thinks that makes sense, only me

[Old skool D]

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/22/sony-nw...dp-hit-the-fcc/

That is the link.

Reading one of the pdfs, it states from january 12th

"the applicant requests the following documents contained in this certification application to be temporarily withheld from public disclosure for an initial period of 45 days:

external photos

internal photos

test setup photos

users manual

Meaning that february 26th might be the day we get more information regarding the new unit or perhaps earlier. There is an image of the back of the unit and it seems to be similar to the current 81x series with some differences.

Mainly that the reset button is on the back of the unit, using the diagram as reference, the device should be 86 to 87mm tall and 46 to 47mm wide. give or take half a mm. In addition it seems that the head phone jack is on the side now? now the bottom.

There appears to be 3 models on the way:

826 - 4 GB

828 - 8 GB

829 - 16 GB

headphones appear to be the same EX82 with an extension cable of 1.5 m, it also appears to have bluetooth. That's all I could get out of the documents.

link to FCC site

http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/reports...'AK8NWZA820

The following is one of the comments from the engadet link: ' " The three desperate Sony fanboys out there waiting for a new Walkman "

what is wrong with u ppl.....Only love apple and hate sony policy is seriously affecting the quality of this site. Have u guys ever even noticed the amount of apple related posts specially during your steve jobs keynotes.

P.S Sony Walkman sound quality kicks the ipod in the apples.''

Couldn't have put it better myself

[mdsjack]

I'd like to see an OLED on this new thing.

[markey]

I'd like to see an OLED on this new thing.

No thanks! I would prefer a colour LCD.

[Zizone_]

what is wrong with u ppl.....Only love apple and hate sony policy is seriously affecting the quality of this site. Have u guys ever even noticed the amount of apple related posts specially during your steve jobs keynotes.

P.S Sony Walkman sound quality kicks the ipod in the apples.''

Couldn't have put it better myself

Well, ever since Sony entered gaming market, they gained a lot hatred from fanboys of other brands.

I guess we can't expect everyone to behave with least amount of manner; besides, it's engadget keeping its tradition of biased reports. Remember when they criticized Sony's NW-A1000/12000 series about its HDD was fragile? while they praised Toshiba Gigabeat??? I mean NW-A1000 series used Toshiba's HDD... Personly, I think Gigabeat is a nice player. What I am saying is that Sony products get a lot of criticisms for having Sony logo on it (not that all criticisms ill intended but there are a lot of them which are).

About the player, I really do hope Sony will improve it's sound quality even further. e.g. like reducing hissing noise (though they have been reducing noise with newer players).

About OLED... if Sony manages to produce their new OLED TV quality then yes. If not, I'd rather have LCD as well.

Edited January 23, 2008 by Zizone

[Ascariss]

I can't see OLED being used on these devices, one due to cost and second if applicable still, the lifespan of the blue colour on the screens. Still never know, the chinese mp3 player Sony CE-P has a 1.5 inch OLED screen, so it is feasible but I'd rather see a 2 inch screen, even a larger screen would be appreciated, this all depends on the final size of the units. If my calculations are correct from the image that sony provided, then the device won't be much larger than the current A series.

One thing that might bottom me is the fact that the headphone jack is now on the side of the unit, not sure why this change, maybe for better internal organization but then it might be for the new orientation of the units? ie on its side rather than top down? Probably unlikely.

Price will be also important here, with the 8 gig model going for 200 bucks still on sony's site, it worries me that the 16 GB model might easily be near the 300 dollar mark. In addition I am sure sony will add extra features which they might then demand more money for. Sound quality is already fine for me, don't need any improvements in this area.

Things I'd like to see sony improve for this new model:

-more codec support, divx, wmv, flac, ogg

-on the go playlists

-ability to delete songs via the player

remove the video software and make video also drag and drop and open like audio.

[kino170878]

gapless gapless gapless

sony take all my money and give me gapless

[Ascariss]

I knew I forgot something! gapless!

[Zizone_]

considering it's NWZ, it will allow drag-n-drop and support for WMP11 and other programs. But... I wish Sony will release their software as well, as another option, not something like media manager for walkman, which is really bad software. It will be nice to have a program dedicated for Walkman, that is good one, in addition to other programs and drag-n-drop if people wishes to use others. It probably won't happen but it will be nice to see a good software from Sony for once (if I may name something... Walkman Player 1.0).

[T.W.G_]

So my wishlist for a new Sony-Walkman:

- 32GB flash

- reflective display (like the one on the vaio pocket) for easy reading even under sunlight!

- physical bigger than the current A8xx-series as they are a little bit too thin for my fingers

- the same good physical controls like A8xx or high quality as on the very old NW-E3 (do you remeber that alu thingy? Great!)

- Drag&Drop with MP3, AAC ...

- Customization options (screensavers, themes, fontsizes ...)

- timer function

- alarm function (like on vaio pocket)

- interchangeble batttery

- high sound quality (minimum like nw-s7xx-series or vaio pocket!)

- line-out-option for audio in menu

- fast menu and system response (like on the current A8xx and S7xx)

- perhaps a remote control like on minidisc walkman

- those little jingles, beeps and menuanimation toys that we love the japanese for

- USB 2.0 Highspeed!

I know I'm dreaming but perhaps we have very very very much luck :-)

Edited January 23, 2008 by T.W.G

[z-iron]

I wish for...

gapless

time

changeable battery

more codec support.. especially video

line-out!!!

longer battery life (even though it is good already)

Can anyone guess how long it will be before this comes out?

[juli_]

Well I just ordered a Zune 80 to go alongside my Sony A808. (The iPod was not in the equation!)

I was fast running out of room on the Sony and was too impatient to wait for a 16GB player to be released outside of Japan. Now it seems as if they might be bringing one out after all, in which case, I'll sell the Zune and buy the Sony. I don't need 80GB (probably won't need it in a lifetime) - but I was interested in the good reviews about the sound quality.

As for SonicStage - well, it seems it has competition in the form of Zune software, which (according to other people), deletes music FROM the player (if you've dared to delete it from your computer.) In its infinite wisdom, it decides that if the song is not on your hard drive - then you don't want it on your player, so as soon as it's connected - it deletes it for you??? How very 'helpful'.

So you have to keep ALL the music on your hard drive (a problem for people with too little space.)

Say what you like about SonicStage, but at least it never had the nerve to delete songs from my player unless I authorised it myself!! Unbelievable. I have at least 100 songs on it that are not on my hard drive. I would be really annoyed if SS decided to delete them for me! Anyhow, I imagine people will soon stop slating SS once they've used the Zune software!

As for my beloved 808, it plays gapless and the sound is amazing. I love it to pieces. It is my 'music' player. The Zune will be my 'storage' unit as I like the thought of storing all my photos on it as well as music. It's not gapless of course (huge oversight) - but it doesn't matter since the 808 can take care of that.

I definitely want a 16GB Sony. I'm salivating over it right now, and I don't even know what it looks like!

And I sincerely hope they bring back gapless????

[Old skool D]

Well I just ordered a Zune 80 to go alongside my Sony A808. (The iPod was not in the equation!)

I was fast running out of room on the Sony and was too impatient to wait for a 16GB player to be released outside of Japan. Now it seems as if they might be bringing one out after all, in which case, I'll sell the Zune and buy the Sony. I don't need 80GB (probably won't need it in a lifetime) - but I was interested in the good reviews about the sound quality.

As for SonicStage - well, it seems it has competition in the form of Zune software, which (according to other people), deletes music FROM the player (if you've dared to delete it from your computer.) In its infinite wisdom, it decides that if the song is not on your hard drive - then you don't want it on your player, so as soon as it's connected - it deletes it for you??? How very 'helpful'.

So you have to keep ALL the music on your hard drive (a problem for people with too little space.)

Say what you like about SonicStage, but at least it never had the nerve to delete songs from my player unless I authorised it myself!! Unbelievable. I have at least 100 songs on it that are not on my hard drive. I would be really annoyed if SS decided to delete them for me! Anyhow, I imagine people will soon stop slating SS once they've used the Zune software!

As for my beloved 808, it plays gapless and the sound is amazing. I love it to pieces. It is my 'music' player. The Zune will be my 'storage' unit as I like the thought of storing all my photos on it as well as music. It's not gapless of course (huge oversight) - but it doesn't matter since the 808 can take care of that.

I definitely want a 16GB Sony. I'm salivating over it right now, and I don't even know what it looks like!

And I sincerely hope they bring back gapless????

I can quite understand the reasons why you purchased the Zune. I too have been tempted to get a Ipod. But with news of a 16GB DAP, I've already started to save my pennies.With 16GB I can store my music at 320 Kbps for better quality. No doubt it'll be expensive. I reckon about 250 GBP and upwards. I hope I'm wrong.

[ceres]

I can quite understand the reasons why you purchased the Zune. I too have been tempted to get a Ipod. But with news of a 16GB DAP, I've already started to save my pennies.With 16GB I can store my music at 320 Kbps for better quality. No doubt it'll be expensive. I reckon about 250 GBP and upwards. I hope I'm wrong.

Hi bud,

I am sure you will be wrong on the price point. By the time a 16gb unit hits the shelves it will be only a bit more expensive (if at all) than the NWZ 8gb unit was when it was introduced. Prices for flash memory have come down immensely the past few months. Sony has also effectively abandoned selling at a premium vs. other dap manufacturers. Both Apple and Samsung are pricing aggressively so I don´t think Sony will charge too much. Of course, if Sony was to come out with an entirely different design and/or feature set things could be more expensive. Sony usually debuts new stuff in March/April at the IFA Trade Fair. It wouldn´t be terribly wrong to consider selling whatever you own right now before that happens.

[ceres]

Well I just ordered a Zune 80 to go alongside my Sony A808. (The iPod was not in the equation!)

I was fast running out of room on the Sony and was too impatient to wait for a 16GB player to be released outside of Japan. Now it seems as if they might be bringing one out after all, in which case, I'll sell the Zune and buy the Sony. I don't need 80GB (probably won't need it in a lifetime) - but I was interested in the good reviews about the sound quality.

As for SonicStage - well, it seems it has competition in the form of Zune software, which (according to other people), deletes music FROM the player (if you've dared to delete it from your computer.) In its infinite wisdom, it decides that if the song is not on your hard drive - then you don't want it on your player, so as soon as it's connected - it deletes it for you??? How very 'helpful'.

So you have to keep ALL the music on your hard drive (a problem for people with too little space.)

Say what you like about SonicStage, but at least it never had the nerve to delete songs from my player unless I authorised it myself!! Unbelievable. I have at least 100 songs on it that are not on my hard drive. I would be really annoyed if SS decided to delete them for me! Anyhow, I imagine people will soon stop slating SS once they've used the Zune software!

As for my beloved 808, it plays gapless and the sound is amazing. I love it to pieces. It is my 'music' player. The Zune will be my 'storage' unit as I like the thought of storing all my photos on it as well as music. It's not gapless of course (huge oversight) - but it doesn't matter since the 808 can take care of that.

I definitely want a 16GB Sony. I'm salivating over it right now, and I don't even know what it looks like!

And I sincerely hope they bring back gapless????

Hi Juli,

I have tried the current Zune software myself and I am very impressed by a few things Microsoft has done. I am also impressed with the very aggressive development of this software. i know what it looked and handled like a few months ago. I have to say that MS has gone to great length in designing some really unique elements. What I don´t like is the back to the roots / dumb it down to itunes 4.2 approach. One thing is for sure, though: It´s a great performer. I have loaded an excess of 100gigs in mp3 and navigation was ultra quick. MS is very serious about Zune.

[Old skool D]

Hi Juli,

I have tried the current Zune software myself and I am very impressed by a few things Microsoft has done. I am also impressed with the very aggressive development of this software. i know what it looked and handled like a few months ago. I have to say that MS has gone to great length in designing some really unique elements. What I don´t like is the back to the roots / dumb it down to itunes 4.2 approach. One thing is for sure, though: It´s a great performer. I have loaded an excess of 100gigs in mp3 and navigation was ultra quick. MS is very serious about Zune.

Ceres

what's the SQ compared to your Sony A8xx?

[Old skool D]

Hi bud,

I am sure you will be wrong on the price point. By the time a 16gb unit hits the shelves it will be only a bit more expensive (if at all) than the NWZ 8gb unit was when it was introduced. Prices for flash memory have come down immensely the past few months. Sony has also effectively abandoned selling at a premium vs. other dap manufacturers. Both Apple and Samsung are pricing aggressively so I don´t think Sony will charge too much. Of course, if Sony was to come out with an entirely different design and/or feature set things could be more expensive. Sony usually debuts new stuff in March/April at the IFA Trade Fair. It wouldn´t be terribly wrong to consider selling whatever you own right now before that happens.

Ceres: I do hope your right. As for selling whatever I own before the IFA Trade Fair: I think I'll keep what I have and start saving

[shaft69]

I wish a return of ATRAC & SonicStage and that they keep MP3 drag & drop like they do with PSP System but it won't happen :-(

[JNCA]

I hope it has spdif line out and memory stick slot.

Edited January 24, 2008 by JNCA

[ceres]

Ceres

what's the SQ compared to your Sony A8xx?

Hi,

I just dled the software, didn´t buy the hardware. To dl zune software I had to mimic a US Vista OS

[juli_]

Hi Juli,

I have tried the current Zune software myself and I am very impressed by a few things Microsoft has done. I am also impressed with the very aggressive development of this software. i know what it looked and handled like a few months ago. I have to say that MS has gone to great length in designing some really unique elements. What I don´t like is the back to the roots / dumb it down to itunes 4.2 approach. One thing is for sure, though: It´s a great performer. I have loaded an excess of 100gigs in mp3 and navigation was ultra quick. MS is very serious about Zune.

Well it will be here on Monday so I can check it out for myself. I didn't know I could download the software first and start loading up. That's useful to know. I can start doing that over the weekend.

It turned out to be extremely expensive - about £180 with express postage from the US etc so it had better be good!

But I'm beginning to feel it was an impulse buy while I was waiting for a new Sony to come out!! I just have no patience waiting for new products to come out, but I really really want a 16GB Sony.

Anyway, if anyone's interested in what the Zune sounds like compared to the Sony, I'll be happy to provide a quick comparison.

I already heard it lacks the dynamics and fullness of the Sony, but people still seem to like it a lot. Well, we'll see.

Ceres, I don't have a US Vista operating system - I'm assuming I'll be able to use the software anyway, or I just wasted £180!

[rocklegend_]

Well it will be here on Monday so I can check it out for myself. I didn't know I could download the software first and start loading up. That's useful to know. I can start doing that over the weekend.

It turned out to be extremely expensive - about £180 with express postage from the US etc so it had better be good!

But I'm beginning to feel it was an impulse buy while I was waiting for a new Sony to come out!! I just have no patience waiting for new products to come out, but I really really want a 16GB Sony.

Anyway, if anyone's interested in what the Zune sounds like compared to the Sony, I'll be happy to provide a quick comparison.

I already heard it lacks the dynamics and fullness of the Sony, but people still seem to like it a lot. Well, we'll see.

Ceres, I don't have a US Vista operating system - I'm assuming I'll be able to use the software anyway, or I just wasted £180!

Pñease if you could give a review or comparrison that would be great.I´m thinking of gettin a Zune myself...16GB just aint enough for me...although if it ain´t as good as my A3000 I might just hold onto that......

[Old skool D]

Anyway, if anyone's interested in what the Zune sounds like compared to the Sony, I'll be happy to provide a quick comparison[/quote]

Juli, I'd be interested in a comparsion. Sond & Software wise.

Edited January 26, 2008 by Old skool D

[juli_]

Juli, I'd be interested in a comparsion. Sond & Software wise.

No problem. As we're all in agreement about the Sony SQ - you can bet I'll be judging the Zune quite harshly!!

Re: the software. Well, I downloaded the software already (you can use it without having the hardware.) I've heard horror stories of it replacing all your album art with its own version, which is a bit concerning.

But I found a way to stop it by going into the settings and disabling the 'update artwork automatically'. So now I can force the Zune to chose my own artwork and not the measly 200 x 200 default it uses. But we'll see the 'reality' of this when I get to connect the Zune and watch all my album art replaced by a big shapless blob!

I also heard that a compilation album will split itself up into as many albums as there are songs - so a 20-track comp will be split into 20 albums. Nice. I read there's a way round that too, but as I'm not adept with software, I plan to look for as much info as possible.

One thing I do know is to get all the info correct before you rip anything as it's evidently quite awkward to change certain info afterwards.

And it seems it's a bad idea to rip CDs using the Zune software, mainly because it will try and force all its onw info on it, which is invariably wrong. Of course, I don't know any of this for sure until I try it.

It makes me realise that SonicStage was actually user friendly compared to the Zune software! And I never thought I'd use the words 'SonicStage' and 'user friendly' in the same sentence.

[shaft69]

SonicStage was going better and better. It was (for me it is) a good software

[mdsjack]

No thanks! I would prefer a colour LCD.

Hey, of course I mean a full color oled...

[Ascariss]

ok I saw this,

http://www.pmptoday.com/2008/01/28/pasen-f...uced/#more-4449

sony needs to add these specs!!!

Support for MP3 (8~448kbps), WMA (32~348kbps) , APE , FLAC and AAC.

Support for AVI/XviD/Divx/RMVB movie clip (no conversion required for most movies).

Support for images in JPEG,BMP,GIF format.

E-book reader with support for Txt

:/

[juli_]

Having had the Zune for 2 days now, I have still not succeeded in transferring my music over.

After 5 attempts, the Zune has loaded incomplete albums - eg, out of 23 albums, they all have at least 7 tracks missing from each one. No logic in it at all and I yearn for SonicStage at this point. And ALL my tags are correct.

Haven't had much of a chance to analyse the sound yet, having spent so long trying to get the music over

But at first listen, for someone like me - who uses the Sony normalizer, I find it sounds much emptier.

While I don't need the EQ on the Sony, I like to have the option to add bass if I want to and so far, I feel the Zune bass is lacking. It may be that my ears need to tune into a different sound to the Sony, or it may be that I'm used to the Sony sound after all these years, because I just prefer it?

I will say there's no hiss whatsoever with the Zune, and I mean none at all - but then I was never bothered by Sony hiss because I didn't hear it.

I'll update this when I've listened some more. It's not fair to judge it after such a short time, and having had so much stress trying to load my music. But initial impressions are that it lacks the fullness of the Sony, and I think that's probably what I'm addicted to!

With the normalizer 'OFF' on the Sony, they do sound more similar, but the Sony just has extra punch.

Someone suggested not listening to the Sony for a while to let my ears adjust so I'll do that for the next couple of days and see how I feel after that. It could turn out I grow to like it.

After all, I was one of those who preferred my 706 to the 808 - and yet now, my opinion's the complete opposite, so we'll see. . .

[Weaves_]

A note about Gapless in WMP 11:

I can rip a CD to gapless in Windows Media Player 11, even plays back gapless on my pc. However, WMP does NOT allow a gapless burn of that same CD. I wonder if this may have to do with why the new Sony's and Zunes do NOT play gapless?

[juli_]

I know there was a thread about the new Sony's coming out - and I wanted to put this in there, but could I find the thread? NO! And I did search for it, but I'm not very good at getting results. Anyway, if this can be moved to the other thread, it would be better!!

This was posted at head-fi:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/19/sonys-n...ding-to-europe/

I'm assuming (sadly) that there will still be no gapless facility which is a real shame. But I like the idea of a bigger screen (even though it's only a small increase) - and even longer battery life

[markey]

Why are we finding this out from Engadget and not this site? Has ATRACLife now become defunct?

I wonder if this player will look like the A80x/A81x series or is a new design lined up?

Edited February 19, 2008 by markey

[juli_]

Why are we finding this out from Engadget and not this site? Has ATRACLife now become defunct? I wonder if this player will look like the A80x/A81x series or is a new design lined up?

I know. It seems Atrac members have to find out all the news!! I think it will look a tiny bit bigger than the 800/818 series because it's got a bigger screen. I found more info here:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/2/prweb707084.htm

I don't care about Bluetooth, I'd rather have gapless - but still. . . a 16GB player is just what I need!!

Edited February 19, 2008 by juli