SI: Sony Walkman B Series Gets Zapped

[Christopher]

Sony will be introducing into the markets a refreshed Walkman B series that will have this famous Zapping feature firstly acquired by Walkman W202. Other features are pretty straightforward, however I do like the new look. It would be a nice recorder for lectures, however with 2 Gigs on board you won’t get too much of that boring speech anyways…

“ZAPPIN™” function to easily find the songs you want without having to view a screen.

2GB built-in memory

Direct USB connection (Hi-speed USB (USB 2.0 compliant): USB A plug)

Multi audio codec support (MP3/ WMA (*1))

Transfer music files with the ease of Drag & Drop (*2) -No dedicated applications required.

3-Line LCD Display

Quick charge completes in about 3 minutes for up to 90 minutes playback (*3)

Up to 18 hours of battery life (*3)

Powerful BASS sound by just pushing “BASS” button

“Power illuminator” flashing Red LEDs with music

FM Tuner with 30 presets function

Voice recording and FM program recording function

Incorporates an equalizer feature for flexible adjustment of sound quality

View the full article

[Strungup]

Chris , The statement , " No Special Apps needed , Just Drag and Drop " will that make this on Mac Compatible ?

That would be Very cool . Right now the Cowon D2 , is the Main non iPod ,.......... Mac utility ..... but if this would recognize as just a Drive , to drop onto , then Very cool indeed.

[tds101]

It will show up as a removable drive on a MAC, so it's great for your needs.

[aafuss]

It's available in Australia for $129 (same price as a Apple iPod shuffle 4GB),

No info on a US release though.

[Avrin]

Got myself an orange NWZ-B143F. What a nice toy, after all that minidisc seriousness!

Edited September 11, 2009 by Avrin

[Sony_Fan]

A button that enhances BASS is the best feature. Why oh why it's not on the MZ-RH1 is beyond me.

[Ascariss]

you can force the new walkmans into UMS in windows since they run as a UMS device on other operating systems.

[Strungup]

A button that enhances BASS is the best feature. Why oh why it's not on the MZ-RH1 is beyond me.

It is on the RH1 .......... In the Menu , it is called "Equalizer "

[Avrin]

And now for some undocumented stuff.

In spite of all SONY efforts to make loyal customers unhappy, the unit has gapless WAV playback. Many thanks go to radmonday, a member of the Russian www.player.ru/talk forum, for discovering that. You can't make it play WAV files in the usual way, by putting them into folders where you put MP3's or WMA's. But you can put ordinary uncompressed 44.1 kHz/16 bit WAV files to the "reserved" Record\FM or Record\Voice folder, and use the respective playback function to enjoy full quality gapless playback. It is more convenient to put files to the Record\Voice folder, since the playback function is the first item in the respective menu.

Despite what I said before, the unit does work as a USB Mass Storage Device. You may simply change the driver in Windows Device Manager. If you still need to use MTP mode, but don't want to install the huge abominable mess called Windows Media Player 11, you may do so. The only component you need is Microsoft User-mode Driver Framework Feature Pack 1.0. It is not available as a separate download, but you may extract it from the WMP 11 distribution package. After you have downloaded the package, either use WinRar to open it and extract the UMDF.EXE file, or run the package, wait for the first screen to appear, and then go to the "C:\Documents and Settings\[your_username]\Local Settings\Temp" folder. There you will find a newly created folder named IXP###.TMP, where ### is a random number, usually 000. Open it, and copy the UMDF.EXE file from there to a safe place, then cancel Windows Media Player 11 setup. After that, run the UMDF.EXE file, and follow the Wizard, which installs the required components. Then go to Device Manager, and update the driver for WALKMAN, and it will install successfully.

Edited September 11, 2009 by Avrin

[Sony_Fan]

It is on the RH1 .......... In the Menu , it is called "Equalizer "

Sorry, I see no where in the owners manual or on the unit where it says, "Digital Megabass" as was available on legacy MD units.

[Avrin]

The BASS feature is only useful with the supplied mediocre-quality 'phones. If you connect good 'phones, you won't need it.

[sfbp]

A button that enhances BASS is the best feature. Why oh why it's not on the MZ-RH1 is beyond me.

Cmon Chris, that's enough.

[Stuge]

Sorry, I see no where in the owners manual or on the unit where it says, "Digital Megabass" as was available on legacy MD units.

Well,6 band equaliser allows you to set both bass and treble feature .

in b/w new Audio walkmans from Sony usually have Clear Bass (it has less distrotion in comparision to digital bass )

[Strungup]

Sorry, I see no where in the owners manual or on the unit where it says, "Digital Megabass" as was available on legacy MD units.

Dude ---> you have TWO custom EQ settings available in the Sound Menu , which are saved , You set them the way you want them , That becomes your MEGABASSSSSSS

YEs folks The Mega Sonic 2000 , ...( who knows that reference ???? he he he he )

[Avrin]

Does anyone have a service manual for the B140 series?