I was in Singapore Airport a few days ago on my way back to my home in New Zealand and was surprised to see that the sonystyle store there had just received a few x series walkmans (when I had looked at the same store a few days before they were not there and I was told would not arrive until July). The shop assistant I spoke to was very helpful, knew all about the walkman and told me they had received about 30 units the day before and were now down to about 6 units. The price for the 16GB version was about $70 less than in NZ and they were happy to load all my music from my A818 onto the new unit so I made the purchase.
I know there have been other reviews and comments but for those that are interested here are in my thoughts, comments and experience with the new player so far...
Sound Quality: At first I was not overly impressed. The sound seemed less warm and more clinical - I guess that's the digital amp coming into play. But over the period of a few days and after playing around with sutle EQ changes I realised that the overall sound was much better. To my ear the main improvements are with the treble tones which are considerably clearer. On the A818 I couldn't tolerate too much treble but with the x series you can increase the treble and it really adds to the sound. It all results in a much clearer/detailed/vibrant sound. I love it and the improved SQ makes the purchase worthwhile on its own.
Noise Cancellation: This was my first experience with NC. I was lucky as I received the player just before boarding a 10 hour plane flight so got a good chance to test the NC. In short the NC does work very well - a major bonus for any future flights. Another bonus which I didn't realise before buying the player was that you get a cord that allows you to "input" music into the player and therefore use the NC feature on the music coming through the player. In other words I was able to listen to the sound coming through the plane system (from movies etc) through my player and therefore utilise the NC. Worked very well and an added bonus.
Album caching: Not sure if "album caching" is the right description but one annoying thing with the player is that if you select album search and are presented with all album art/covers, instead of simply being there, they all have to load. In other words you have to wait while each album art loads. If you have over 100 albums as I do then the wait is annoying. Once loaded it will remain in memory but I have noticed that if on the now playing screen you hit "list" then if you go again to album search they have to re-load. I don't tend to search by album anyway (usually by artist instead) but given this is a premium player I would have thought they would have ensured that the speed of the processor or the RAM (or whatever it is that determines the speed??) was sufficient to ensure no lag time...
UI Experience: I was surprised at how much better the UI experience is compared with the A818. My expectation was that the touch screen interface would be cool to use but more difficult. But with out a doubt it is hands down much easier to use. There is the obvious advantages such as on the grid screen only having to press one button to get to the bottom right icon rather than the "down and right" two clicks with the A818. But also, when presented with the Artist list, the ability to either flick the screen and let it flow quickly down or to use the A.......Z search at the top, make it much quicker than using the A-C, D-E etc process with the A818. I also like that from the now playing screen when you access the options menu you have alot more options such as changing the dynamic normalization etc. Also I like that when you are scrolling through songs you are given more information. I have heard others complain about the lack of the "now playing" button and lack of a "back" button but there is often a now playing button and back button and in any event, now you can simply hit "home" at the bottom then hit the music button to take you to now playing - which is the same amount of clicks as per the A818 where you had to hit the option button and then select now playing... The coverflow thing where the album arts scroll vertically etc is, when you have a large number of albums, just a gimmick and you also run into the same album caching issues as mentioned above. That said it does look very cool.
Build: The player feels very solid and nice to handle. I like the fact that on the side you have the textured surface as this makes it easier to keep hold of. In other words a lot less slippery and less prone to being dropped. However the player does feel a little too heavy and big for my liking especially after coming from the A818.
Other General Comments: (1) As others have already commented on, the web browser is so bad that I will never use it. It connects to wifi fine but the web browser itself is awful. My new sony ericsson w715 is better. (2) compared with my A818 there is a longer startup time when the player has gone into sleep mode. (3) If you are playing a track and want to go back to the previous track you have to hit pause and then back - but this doesn't apply with the physical buttons on the top.
Suggested Improvements: (1) I can't believe that with such a premium player we still do not have gapless playback and nor do we have the ability to delete songs on the player or create playlists on the player. (2) I would like to have the ability to customise the menu structure or be able to specify what happens when you press the "Home" button - eg I would like it to take you to the now playing screen as I don't use the photo or video functions. (3) I might be alone on this but I would like a dedicated button for changing between EQ settings or maybe changes between two EQ favourites.
Conclusion: I don't have a need for internet, photos or video on a portable music player so for me this player is all about sound quality and ease of use. On both of those I think the player is excellent but still has some room for impovement
Happy to answer any questions as there are a lot of other functions etc.
Question
bob123
I was in Singapore Airport a few days ago on my way back to my home in New Zealand and was surprised to see that the sonystyle store there had just received a few x series walkmans (when I had looked at the same store a few days before they were not there and I was told would not arrive until July). The shop assistant I spoke to was very helpful, knew all about the walkman and told me they had received about 30 units the day before and were now down to about 6 units. The price for the 16GB version was about $70 less than in NZ and they were happy to load all my music from my A818 onto the new unit so I made the purchase.
I know there have been other reviews and comments but for those that are interested here are in my thoughts, comments and experience with the new player so far...
Sound Quality: At first I was not overly impressed. The sound seemed less warm and more clinical - I guess that's the digital amp coming into play. But over the period of a few days and after playing around with sutle EQ changes I realised that the overall sound was much better. To my ear the main improvements are with the treble tones which are considerably clearer. On the A818 I couldn't tolerate too much treble but with the x series you can increase the treble and it really adds to the sound. It all results in a much clearer/detailed/vibrant sound. I love it and the improved SQ makes the purchase worthwhile on its own.
Noise Cancellation: This was my first experience with NC. I was lucky as I received the player just before boarding a 10 hour plane flight so got a good chance to test the NC. In short the NC does work very well - a major bonus for any future flights. Another bonus which I didn't realise before buying the player was that you get a cord that allows you to "input" music into the player and therefore use the NC feature on the music coming through the player. In other words I was able to listen to the sound coming through the plane system (from movies etc) through my player and therefore utilise the NC. Worked very well and an added bonus.
Album caching: Not sure if "album caching" is the right description but one annoying thing with the player is that if you select album search and are presented with all album art/covers, instead of simply being there, they all have to load. In other words you have to wait while each album art loads. If you have over 100 albums as I do then the wait is annoying. Once loaded it will remain in memory but I have noticed that if on the now playing screen you hit "list" then if you go again to album search they have to re-load. I don't tend to search by album anyway (usually by artist instead) but given this is a premium player I would have thought they would have ensured that the speed of the processor or the RAM (or whatever it is that determines the speed??) was sufficient to ensure no lag time...
UI Experience: I was surprised at how much better the UI experience is compared with the A818. My expectation was that the touch screen interface would be cool to use but more difficult. But with out a doubt it is hands down much easier to use. There is the obvious advantages such as on the grid screen only having to press one button to get to the bottom right icon rather than the "down and right" two clicks with the A818. But also, when presented with the Artist list, the ability to either flick the screen and let it flow quickly down or to use the A.......Z search at the top, make it much quicker than using the A-C, D-E etc process with the A818. I also like that from the now playing screen when you access the options menu you have alot more options such as changing the dynamic normalization etc. Also I like that when you are scrolling through songs you are given more information. I have heard others complain about the lack of the "now playing" button and lack of a "back" button but there is often a now playing button and back button and in any event, now you can simply hit "home" at the bottom then hit the music button to take you to now playing - which is the same amount of clicks as per the A818 where you had to hit the option button and then select now playing... The coverflow thing where the album arts scroll vertically etc is, when you have a large number of albums, just a gimmick and you also run into the same album caching issues as mentioned above. That said it does look very cool.
Build: The player feels very solid and nice to handle. I like the fact that on the side you have the textured surface as this makes it easier to keep hold of. In other words a lot less slippery and less prone to being dropped. However the player does feel a little too heavy and big for my liking especially after coming from the A818.
Other General Comments: (1) As others have already commented on, the web browser is so bad that I will never use it. It connects to wifi fine but the web browser itself is awful. My new sony ericsson w715 is better. (2) compared with my A818 there is a longer startup time when the player has gone into sleep mode. (3) If you are playing a track and want to go back to the previous track you have to hit pause and then back - but this doesn't apply with the physical buttons on the top.
Suggested Improvements: (1) I can't believe that with such a premium player we still do not have gapless playback and nor do we have the ability to delete songs on the player or create playlists on the player. (2) I would like to have the ability to customise the menu structure or be able to specify what happens when you press the "Home" button - eg I would like it to take you to the now playing screen as I don't use the photo or video functions. (3) I might be alone on this but I would like a dedicated button for changing between EQ settings or maybe changes between two EQ favourites.
Conclusion: I don't have a need for internet, photos or video on a portable music player so for me this player is all about sound quality and ease of use. On both of those I think the player is excellent but still has some room for impovement
Happy to answer any questions as there are a lot of other functions etc.
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