Sony Announced NWZ-A820 series.....finally 16GB Sony DAP's

[moseboy]

I would be very interested to hear about sound quality differences between each Sony series (if there are any). The only Sony player that I've heard is my friend's A818 that I listened to with my Shure SE530s and LOVED the sound. Just fantastic. I was very close to pulling the trigger right after I tried out his A818, and I'm glad I didn't, because now the new Sony players are out. If I were to get one today, I would probably get the A729 (16GB, no BlueTooth). It looks amazing.

Does anyone know of differences between the A720/A820/A810/A800 series?

[soozieq]

Originally Posted by novasol

Weird, I didn't notice a difference at all between the 829 and my 818. Did you listen to an 81x series?
Perhaps the sound sig is different between the 808 and 81x?

I haven't tried the 818 since it's simply the SS/Atrac free version of the 808.
Sony even stated that on its website when the 818 first went on sale.

But I can absolutely hear a difference between the 808 and 829 and I really wasn't expecting to. Like I said, the sound signature is very similar but it's just pushed out over a larger area. Perhaps it's slightly more neutral (more like the Zune), but it's definitely enough of an improvement for me to get rid of the Zune! When I go back to the 808, the difference in soundstage is quite noticeable. Having said that, the 808 still sounds fantastic, but the 829 just seems to sound a little better.

[soozieq]

Originally Posted by moseboy

Does anyone know of differences between the A720/A820/A810/A800 series?

The 800/810 are identical. The only difference is the software. One uses SonicStage and Atrac, the other is drag and drop. I'm not sure about the differences between the 720/820 other than the 820 comes with Bluetooth, which I have no need for, but as the 729 isn't available in the UK - I bought the 829.

[breezy_amar]

Does anyone know how i can sync this with a mac? i own a mac, and as this sony does not work with itunes im using drag and drop to put my songs onto it, but the problem is all of my .wav files are all under the artist 'unknown'. this made searching for a artist, then a song very dificult. to solve this i organised all my songs into folders for each artist. now i can only use 'folders' to serach properly, but i still want to find an easier way to manage my music on a mac. Any ideas?

[dscans]

Originally Posted by breezy_amar

Does anyone know how i can sync this with a mac? i own a mac, and as this sony does not work with itunes im using drag and drop to put my songs onto it, but the problem is all of my .wav files are all under the artist 'unknown'. this made searching for a artist, then a song very dificult. to solve this i organised all my songs into folders for each artist. now i can only use 'folders' to serach properly, but i still want to find an easier way to manage my music on a mac. Any ideas?

Well, I detailed the steps in an earlier post in this humongous thread :

1. download a simple mp3 tag editor like mp3tag here: Mp3tag - der universelle Tag Editor (ID3v1, ID3v2, APEv2) It's a great, simple tool to clean up or edit your ID3 tags.
2. search for album art covers on Amazon or here: Albumart - CD and DVD cover searchengine (unless you have really obscure albums, these 2 sources should suffice for most users)
3. download your album art, and preferably save them in the respective song directories. (makes it easier to sort and organise)
4. use mp3tag to save the album art into your mp3 ID3 tags.

It's a bit more work, but the pay off is that your album art is properly saved along with your mp3 files, and is useable for ALL music managers and mp3 players that support ID3 tagging.

Obviously, you have to download an mp3 tag editor for the Mac. A Google search revealed plenty of choices....just download some and give them a whirl....

[moseboy]

Originally Posted by soozieq

I'm not sure about the differences between the 720/820 other than the 820 comes with Bluetooth, which I have no need for

I'm glad to hear about soozieq's comment about the A829's improved sound quality, but I would really like to know if the same applies for the A729, as that's probably what I'm going to get. Anyone heard both the A720 and A820 series?

[ads1107]

@moseboy
the only difference with the a729 and a829 is the inclusion of bluetooth on the a820 models. So the sound will be the same. Again, the a720 series are only lacking the bluetooth

[Loc13]

For those who don't need bluetooth and 16GB, Bestbuy is selling the Sony A728 for $160. If you search on FatWallet, you'll find a 10% off coupon, and 12% off if you have Bestbuy Rewardzone membership. That's $144 and $140.8, respectively before tax, for the 8GB version, which I think it's a fantastic deal. I had the A728 before but returned it and pre-ordered the A829 from Vanns, but haven't received it yet. I may just jump on the A728 again b/c the price is very tempting!!

[soozieq]

Originally Posted by ads1107

@moseboy
the only difference with the a729 and a829 is the inclusion of bluetooth on the a820 models. So the sound will be the same. Again, the a720 series are only lacking the bluetooth

Sony like to confuse people about what are essentially the same models. Same thing with the 800/810 series which were exactly the same bar the software. And now with the 720/820 it's even more confusing as one would assume they're totally different! Couldn't they just have called them the 829-BT and the 829?? Maybe not, that would be too simple, and there's enough letters in the names as it is!

moseboy: A couple of people over at Atraclife bought the 829 (both 808/818 users like myself), and also thought the sound quality was better. I listened to mine for 3 straight hours tonight, and then went back to the 808. Soundstage was noticeably smaller on the 808 after listening for so long to the 829.
BUT the 808 doesn't have a small soundstage, it's just smaller by comparison.

[Aaron5604]

I just wish the Sony's had better lossless support. There's still no compressed lossless is there?