Hey Breezy, got mine today too. I love it so much that I'm selling my Zune 80!!
I was holding on to the Zune because it has the most wonderful soundstage, much bigger than the Sony A808. I've never heard a soundstage like that from a player before.
But the A829 (which I expected to sound
exactly the same as the 808/818 series), actually has a soundstage closer to the Zune. It's virtually the same Sony sound signature, (perhaps a tiny bit more neutral) but pushed out into a 'larger' area which makes it seem bigger and fuller. I LOVE it!
I'd say the soundstage is 50% closer to the Zune soundstage than either the 808/818. It must sound good to me or I wouldn't be giving up the Zune.
I expected it to be quite a bit bigger than the 808/818 from the pictures, but in 'real life', it's hardly bigger at all. Much as I loved the Zune, it was best listened to 'sitting down' as it's quite heavy. But the Sony is so light that I 'wore' it for most of the day and hardly noticed it at all. And of course, the menu is almost identical to the 808 so there was no learning curve thank goodness
And the Triple.fi's sound magnificent with it, much better than with the 808!
I'll take some photos tomorrow in daylight, when I don't need the flash.
Now I just have to figure why the album art is displaying incorrectly for individual songs, and I'll be set!
Off to love my Sony some more now