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NWZ-A818 VS. NWZ-A820

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Jeroen_HD

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Hi,

I'm new here so if this topic is at the wrong place. Sorry.

I had a question. About 1 year ago I bought myself a Sony NWZ-A818. I love this device but now I see that there is a new one, the NWZ-A818.

Is it worth to buy that one or are they just the same?

Greetz,

Jeroen

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Hi,

I'm new here so if this topic is at the wrong place. Sorry.

I had a question. About 1 year ago I bought myself a Sony NWZ-A818. I love this device but now I see that there is a new one, the NWZ-A818. Is it worth to buy that one or are they just the same?

Hello! You typed the A818 twice so I assume that was a mistake. I don't think the A818 was available a year ago. Do you mean the A808 with SonicStage/Atrac? Which model do you have - and which model are you referring to as the 'new' one?

It will be easier to help you once we know that. :)

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Hello! You typed the A818 twice so I assume that was a mistake. I don't think the A818 was available a year ago. Do you mean the A808 with SonicStage/Atrac? Which model do you have - and which model are you referring to as the 'new' one?

It will be easier to help you once we know that. :)

Sorry for the typo. For the new one I meant to say NWZ-A829. And the NWZ-A818 I have about 1 year, a bit less.

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Sorry for the typo. For the new one I meant to say NWZ-A829. And the NWZ-A818 I have about 1 year, a bit less.

I only know that the 808/818 are exactly the same, except for the software they use. But if you search the forum you'll find a review on the 829 by Zizone, and it does appear to sound slightly better than the 808/818 series.

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I only know that the 808/818 are exactly the same, except for the software they use. But if you search the forum you'll find a review on the 829 by Zizone, and it does appear to sound slightly better than the 808/818 series.

And is it worth the price to buy the new one when my 818 still works fine?

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And is it worth the price to buy the new one when my 818 still works fine?

I doubt it; speaking strictly for myself I would be paying €300,- for an extra 8 Gb, and getting a plastic back-device (I love my A808 esthetically); if there are SQ advantages, i suspect they'll be small, more differences then large steps forward.

So as long as my A808 still going strong (it looks like new despite the fact I just put it in my pocket without any protection) I'm not interested, and nowadays A818 can be bought cheap on f.i. amazon.

But if you like to watch video's the bigger screem is a plus of ocurse.

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I doubt it; speaking strictly for myself I would be paying €300,- for an extra 8 Gb, and getting a plastic back-device (I love my A808 esthetically); if there are SQ advantages, i suspect they'll be small, more differences then large steps forward.

So as long as my A808 still going strong (it looks like new despite the fact I just put it in my pocket without any protection) I'm not interested, and nowadays A818 can be bought cheap on f.i. amazon.

But if you like to watch video's the bigger screem is a plus of ocurse.

I only use it for music.

Then I'll just keep my 818 ^^

THanks for the info guys.

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I agree with Dura. The 829 doesn't appear to be 'leaps and bounds' better than the 808/818. And a plastic back???

Well, I've decided (after much deliberation), to keep my Zune and 808 as my only players. I was very excited about the new models initially, as were a couple of others as I remember, oldskool :lol:

But my enthusiasm has waned a lot. If I was to upgrade my 808, (and pay those extortionate prices) it would have to be for a much-improved model, and it seems the 82x is not, at least not improved enough for me to lust after it any more.

My 808 is in perfect condition, plays gapless, and has great battery life. The Zune has the extra capacity I need and sounds pretty good too.

So I'm 'set' for now, but I will always be interested in another Sony player, just not the new series.

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I doubt it; speaking strictly for myself I would be paying €300,- for an extra 8 Gb, and getting a plastic back-device (I love my A808 esthetically); if there are SQ advantages, i suspect they'll be small, more differences then large steps forward.

So as long as my A808 still going strong (it looks like new despite the fact I just put it in my pocket without any protection) I'm not interested, and nowadays A818 can be bought cheap on f.i. amazon.

But if you like to watch video's the bigger screem is a plus of ocurse.

I second the comment about the PLASTIC backed player. I returned mine within 15 mins of opening it. Heck, I came home, opened it, thought "damn", and then returned it to Best Buy. I really wanted the extra memory, but not at the expense of downgrading the exterior from the metal A818 or A808.

There is ONE THING that would have convinced me to keep the A728; recording capabilities like my S703F has. Sure I had to buy the cable ( and NO Sony doesn't sell it int the U.S. - idiots) in Japan but I can do simple recordings in PCM just like my old minidiscs could (maybe not as well, but it works for me). If Sony keeps this up I may just have to jump ship someday.

Edited by lamewing
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I agree with Dura. The 829 doesn't appear to be 'leaps and bounds' better than the 808/818. And a plastic back???

Well, I've decided (after much deliberation), to keep my Zune and 808 as my only players. I was very excited about the new models initially, as were a couple of others as I remember, oldskool :lol:

But my enthusiasm has waned a lot. If I was to upgrade my 808, (and pay those extortionate prices) it would have to be for a much-improved model, and it seems the 82x is not, at least not improved enough for me to lust after it any more.

My 808 is in perfect condition, plays gapless, and has great battery life. The Zune has the extra capacity I need and sounds pretty good too.

So I'm 'set' for now, but I will always be interested in another Sony player, just not the new series.

Stay strong Juli, please. For if you fall and buy it and then start juicy threads about it, I'll probably give in too. And my wallet is not in a good condition after I bought that plasma tv last week (BTW, plasma tvs give incredible color, really beautiful).

Edit, just saw this

machinetranslated from French:

Here is the paragraph long awaited by many… The A820 has Does the same or better sound quality than the A810?

We will make unfortunate, but to have had two players during our tests, the sound quality of the A820 is a little below that of the A810! We even say it is between the A810 and S615…

Sony does not seem to have changed audio chip, then perhaps it is due to the introduction of hardware, the way it is organized in the box, but we have seen a slight breath on the A820. This has been noted with headphones intra upmarket very sensitive (Westone UM2 with tip molded Earsonics and Earsonics MS2-IFI).

But worry then, the sound quality of the A820 is still excellent! The distribution of the instruments is done well and with the severe acute are balanced.

So, SQ seems slightly worse then the A80x/81x!

Edited by dura
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Stay strong Juli, please. For if you fall and buy it and then start juicy threads about it, I'll probably give in too. And my wallet is not in a good condition after I bought that plasma tv last week (BTW, plasma tvs give incredible color, really beautiful).

Edit, just saw this

machinetranslated from French:

So, SQ seems slightly worse then the A80x/81x!

I'll have to agree with you there re the Plasma TV. Bought a Samsung 42" Q97 a few months back. What an amazing warm and vibrant picture. Much better than any LCD I've seen. Re upgrading to an A82x. I wouldn't bother if it's plastic and it probably has the same SQ as the A80x/A81x.

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I agree with Dura. The 829 doesn't appear to be 'leaps and bounds' better than the 808/818. And a plastic back???

Well, I've decided (after much deliberation), to keep my Zune and 808 as my only players. I was very excited about the new models initially, as were a couple of others as I remember, oldskool :lol:

But my enthusiasm has waned a lot. If I was to upgrade my 808, (and pay those extortionate prices) it would have to be for a much-improved model, and it seems the 82x is not, at least not improved enough for me to lust after it any more.

My 808 is in perfect condition, plays gapless, and has great battery life. The Zune has the extra capacity I need and sounds pretty good too.

So I'm 'set' for now, but I will always be interested in another Sony player, just not the new series.

Hi Juli

I'm still excited about the 16GB, and I still plan to get it. I've read the comments regarding it on different posts: most seem neutral to negative. I'll take my time & save up. Hopefully by then there may be a price drop :D

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Taking a closer look at my NW-A806, I must say that I don't believe the casing to be metal. It is built extremely well but not made of metal. I think the HD1, HD3 and HD5 were the last to have metal casings.

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Taking a closer look at my NW-A806, I must say that I don't believe the casing to be metal. It is built extremely well but not made of metal. I think the HD1, HD3 and HD5 were the last to have metal casings.

Funny, I was wondering about the same thing last week.

I agree it does not feel like metal, but not like plastic either.

Kind of ceramic material perhaps?

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Funny, I was wondering about the same thing last week.

I agree it does not feel like metal, but not like plastic either.

Kind of ceramic material perhaps?

May be a plastic with some sort of metallic paint.

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To be honest with ya'll I'm not bothered if the new Sony DAPs have a plastic covering. I would like to have 16GB of space to play with, ref my music. I'm not bothered about Videos, gapless or on-the-fly play lists. The joy I have on my daily commute is listening to my Library of Songs on Shuffle, not knowing which song will play next. For my needs 16GB will be enough. Once I get this 16GB, that will be it for now. But then again I'm always saying that :)

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To be honest with ya'll I'm not bothered if the new Sony DAPs have a plastic covering. I would like to have 16GB of space to play with, ref my music. I'm not bothered about Videos, gapless or on-the-fly play lists. The joy I have on my daily commute is listening to my Library of Songs on Shuffle, not knowing which song will play next. For my needs 16GB will be enough. Once I get this 16GB, that will be it for now. But then again I'm always saying that :)

You may be right. I thought about this for a while and if someone uses a hard cover for the player (like the one for the A800 model) then the point is pretty moot as to what the A820 is made of. I don't think there are any plastic cases available yet...maybe in Japan.

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You may be right. I thought about this for a while and if someone uses a hard cover for the player (like the one for the A800 model) then the point is pretty moot as to what the A820 is made of. I don't think there are any plastic cases available yet...maybe in Japan.

Exactly. I currently use a plastic see through cover for my A808. I've only taken it out of said case 3 or 3 times. Looks brand new.

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I would like to have 16GB of space to play with, ref my music. For my needs 16GB will be enough.

Old skool, you'll definitely have plenty of space with 16GB. Having converted my entire library to wma lossless, (so much space on the Zune, I figured why not!) I wasn't too happy with the battery hit, so I encoded all the lossless files to lame 320kbps mp3, variable bitrate, using the free 30-day-trial of dbpoweramp music converter, and I couldn't tell the difference between those and the lossless.

So I went with the mp3s to save battery, and I've now filled up 12 GB with 88 hours of music. So that gives you an idea how much the 829 will hold (at 320 bitrates). If I had the Sony now, I'd still have 4 GB left, enough for another 30 hours on top of the 88 . . 118 hours in total. Would you need more than that in the near future? I know I wouldn't. And I'm adding CDs much more slowly now, since all the bulk was done in one hit! But I can't honestly see that I'd ever need more than 100 hours of music with me at any given time, so 16GB should be way more than enough for a very very long time!!!

Edited by juli
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You may be right. I thought about this for a while and if someone uses a hard cover for the player (like the one for the A800 model) then the point is pretty moot as to what the A820 is made of. I don't think there are any plastic cases available yet...maybe in Japan.

TBH I couldn't care less if it was made of rats' crap. As long as it's well built, feels nice in the hand and nice to look at but most of all it must sound good too :)

Edited by markey
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TBH I couldn't care less if it was made of rats' crap. As long as it's well built, feels nice in the hand and nice to look at but most of all it must sound good too :)

That sort of is the point. The plastic on the backside of the player doesn't provide the feeling of "well built" say compared to heavy plastics used in other products. it is very lightweight (too much so) and sound very hollow and weak when held.

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