I was also wondering if the 829 works with Vista 64. I still have mines on preorder from vanns but I also have vista 64 on my lappy. It would be great if any 829 owners with vista 64 could chime in.
Thanks.
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"Trance flows through my veins."
any of you canadians looked in a sony store recently?? do they have them in stock? and do they have white? thx
I'm in the Montreal area & bought my NWZ-A829 almost 2 weeks ago at the Sony Style boutique in Laval. They only had 1 black in stock & another black in a showcase. Was looking for the 729 model (16GB without BlueTooth) but the store clerk told me it was not available in Canada (verified Sonystyle.ca & it confirms what I was told). You can only have the non-BT (716 4GB & 728 8GB) models in Canada at this point in time.
Having all my music compressed in WMA Lossles, I was looking for a 16GB model since WMA lossless uses up more space than MP3. After looking at different options (Creative, Samsung, Ipod, Cowon), I decided to bring my Sure SE-420 earphones to different stores in order to try different players. I found the Sony was leaps ahead of the competition in sound quality (at least to my taste). The #1 element I was looking for was sound quality, so the 829Walkman was an obvious choice for me, even if I don't need BT.
One big problem though: I was assured by the store clerk that I could use my WMA Lossless files on this and it turns out I cannot. You can only use WMA compressed at 192 kbps (the package & the website are unclear on this , only stating the Walkman is compatible with WMA). So this forces me into having to convert the albums I want to put on my Walkman back into WAV...or to sacrifice a bit of sound quality and convert them to MP3 320 kbps (CBR): big waste of time. I hope Sony realizes their mistake & gives us a firmware update to allow at least one format of Lossless compression to use on the Walkman (even if it was not WMA, I would happily convert to FLAC if Sony decided to support it).
The software included with the Walkman only supports conversions to MP3 256 kbps or WMA 192 kbps. On top of it, the software does not support video conversion unless you pay to upgrade it to the "pro" version. So I can say it is pretty much useless for me. I just drag & drop from Windows Explorer.
Still, if sound quality is the most important factor for you in the purchase of a DAP, I recommend the Walkman very strongly. I just love it!
P.S.: Can anyone recommend a good freeware to convert AVI or MPEG to MP4?
Interesting find, Novasol. Guess no using the 716s unamped with the Sony DAPs. If I do use the Minibox, I will keep Clear Bass off, and use the bass boost on the amp.
With my Hornet I set the volume to 20 and and clear bass to 2, this setting solves the issue regarding the clear bass (decreasing SPL level during the passage of low freqs). I just cant imagine why others still looking for true line out where the headphone out sounds good as it was amped.
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Portable Rig: Sony HD5-> UE mini to mini > RSA Hornet->UE TripleFi 10
Desktop Rig: HP DV2000-> *Stello DA100 -> *Stello HP100 ->Silver Dragon > Sennheisser HD650/Grado RS1/MS2i *Audio Plus Interconnects & Optical Cable
Home Rig: Rotel RCD-1072->RC-1070->RB-1070-> EPOS M12i (soon) / Velodyne SPL1200R
Hi there, I've had a keen interest in music for years now but for some reason this is the first time I have really thought about, and subsequently become enamoured with the idea of, taking my music experience into high-end audio (phile), listening in terms of sound and listening. Its fasinating and I cant believe its taking me this long to seriously think about it and take such a dormant and fairly unrealised interest further and into new realms; its like taking something you're familiar with in 2-D and suddenly finding it and exploring it in 3-D. Love it! Safe to say, I think the transition to audiophie is nearly complete. Anyway, lyrical waxing over, and down to my reason for this post.
Basically, my idea was to aquire a DAP/PVP and a top quality set of portable headphones (which after a bit of exploration into the market quickly became an IEM), as I needed an update in such kit (nothing since an old MD player!) and was planning on starting up at the gym again and had this nice idea in my head of getting fit whilst requainting myself with and expanding my music collection and palette. Attracted to this idea as I was and being the thorough and enthusiastic person I am about things that really get me, I really researched/read up on and digested the market for both items all the while forming my idea of what I was after (using the community and facilities at head-fi included). Eventually, I settled upon the sony NWZ-A829K, which I pre-ordered off play.com, and the SA6 IEM, which I ordered and have recieved off hi-fiheadphones.co.uk. I still havn't gotten my dap yet- its listed as temp out of stock but I suspect they may still be awaiting the product from sony as it was listed as this as soon as it was meant to be in stock on the day of release- and I am now really starting to gain a understanding of my iem's (and also my own ear anatomy) hwr I have come across a point commonly reiterated on these forums that I didnt come across before ordering- that sony daps are great for powering low impedance iems but poor at driving high impedance iems, hissing badly as a consequence. My SA6's are, unless my understanding of quanitfying impedance is back to front, high impedance iem's with an impedance of 50 ohms. Therefore, naturally, this possibility is deflating my anticipation a little and has been slightly wounding as I was rather proud of selecting, with the info I had gleaned about the dap market prior to ordering, the best dap available with no obvious deal-breaking flaws but conversely tons of prasie and commendments. I realise everyone's idea of 'perfection' in something is gona differ, but every dap out there, if this is true, now sony included, cant seem to shake having a potential purchase deterring drawback or two, at least to me, that arent just little irritants but actually things quite major that could tarnish your music experience with said product. I know these little things are all in all fabulous demonstrations of manufacturing finesse, that I could never begin to imagine creating, but, all the same, from the spoilt consumer perspective, I cant help but be irritated by this- its like watching preofessional footballers play but knowing they can play better, theres more in them.
Anyway, onto my queries....
Firstly, I have had a quick scan of wikipedias page on it but it looked too 'specifically' complex, can someone explain to me electrical impedance and then how that relates to the dap/headphones situation? If possible, I would appreciate someone with the knowledge explaining the science of it etc cos I am interested to understand it properly. Cheers.
Secondly, can anyone categorically affirm that sony daps are poor with high impedance iem's such as my sa6 and that the combo will hiss?
Soz for long post Thanks in advance!!
Last edited by BloodSugar00; 04-21-2008 at 07:42 PM.
My experience with the 829
Thanks in advance!!
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