I have my hands ON the Sony X1000 Walkman - Impressions / Discussions - Page 217

shigzeo, what about application X?

does this thing support any kind of lossless files? wav lossless, apple lossless?

Only WAV I am afraid. But 320 kb/s MP3 sounds so good on the X that you won't be craving for lossless audio. I sure don't anymore.

I've had my Sony X for 12 days now and here are some general impressions.

I come from 7 years of using only iPods: 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, and the 6G & 7G Classic models (160gb) plus 2 Nanos (2G & 4G).

Music:

Basically, the clarity in sound reproduction on the Sony X is what really stands out; music sounds closer to the real thing, it doesn't sound congested or muddy. The only enhancement I have on is the DSEE, but even without it, SQ is noticeably better on the X than on the iPods (6 & 7G Classic & 4G Nano -- haven't got older models anymore, so can't comment on those). Won't go into all details such as highs, lows, mids, soundstage, and so on, but suffice to say that with my ES3X the Sony X delivers fantastic sound along the whole frequency spectrum. Yes, there's hissing with such sensitive custom IEM's but that's a non-issue for me. The iPod hiss level is considerably lower, BTW.

The EQ on the X works brilliantly, though I hardly use it as I generally prefer a flat EQ, but it does the job of a proper EQ when needed unlike that of the iPod, in my view. And, of course, having 2 custom presets is just perfect.

The physical buttons are just fantastic, this being something I often wished for on the iPod, and to have both physical and touch screen buttons is simply a serious added bonus.

Although there's no gapless playback, the gaps between songs are quite short - much more so than when iPods didn't offer gapless playback - so, it's not as worrying/ annoying as I'd expected.

On the subject of Playlists, I managed to find a way to eliminate all possibility of duplicate songs, though every time you sync a playlist using Media Go, the same playlist always appears as a duplicate on the X -- all you have to do is delete the earlier playlists on the Playlists folder on the 'WALKMAN drive' using Windows Explorer since you can't do so directly from Media Go; you'll have 2 playlists files, eg Jazz.pla & Jazz(2).pla, so deleting the former will keep the latest playlist just fine; once deleted you can remove the '(2)' bit from the file name. I insist on using Media Go as it's the only software I know of that will allow me to create AAC @ 192kpps playlists (I prefer these over mp3's @192 kbps)

And something perhaps of no interest to most which I've noticed, is that if you rewind a particular song, The X will not only take you to the very beginning of said track as all DAP's will do, but if you keep the rewind button pressed, it will carry on rewinding even the previous track, from the very end of it, as if there were no gap between songs/ tracks. This certainly wasn't available on the iPod - useful feature when you have concept albums or live performances. If an album has, say, 10 tracks, it will even do the same, ie going from track 1 straight to the end of track 10.

Web browsing:

Before installing the latest firmware (released on 9th Feb 2010 for US models X1061/ X1051), browsing was practically useless, really, as everyone had mentioned on this thread. I didn't really care about this particular feature as I bought this DAP 99.99% to listen to music with my ES3X, but I did try the browser at first and, as expected, it was simply a waste of time - only YouTube seemed to work well, but I'm not really into watching videos and that kind of thing. However, checking emails and the latest news would have come in very handy.

Then I discovered the latest firmware and browsing is actually quite good now. FT.com/ BBC.co.uk/ and other websites -- not just mobile (WAP) enabled websites -- opened fairly quickly. And although there's no QWERTY keyboard which would have been ideal, it is not quite the same as a mobile phone keypad. Unlike before installing the firmware update, there's now no need to type in http:// every single time; there's a 'URL' key you click on which offers you plenty of choices once you start typing, making it even faster, thus saving you time having to type in every single character. Also tapping the screen is faster than pressing keys on a mobile phone.

Radio:

I think most people haven't bothered/ cared to mention the FM radio on the X -- this one is excellent, with 30 presets (more than enough, I think), and stations are picked up instantly, with excellent signal & brilliant SQ.

Video & photos:

As everyone knows picture quality is simply fantastic, though again I don't really use the video or photo features on this DAP.

So, there it is -- Yes, I'm very happy with my Sony NWZ-X1061!

And just for the record, although I prefer the SQ on the X, I haven't turned into an Apple basher/ hater. I still think the iPod offers excellent value for money, great design and excellent features all round. In fact, I've kept my 4G 16gb Nano which I use at work constantly and in the car all the time.

^ You've accurately summed up the X there, it's nice to read some impressions that mirror my own...

Had mine for 9 months now and I can honestly say it's been a joy to use, easily the best gadget I've ever owned. It simply delivers effortlessly in the sq department, I'd be lost without it.

Hi,

at first - great forum. Discovered it some months ago and as a 'hobbyaudiophile' it is impressive to see how much effort and money you can put into that beautiful hobby. If the whole text/review is to long for you and you want to switch it, I would ask you to scroll down and ready question 3 (help appreciated!)

I've been using the X1050 (amazon germany had a special christmas offer where they cut the price for one day from 260€ to 180€, lucky me) for 3 months now and it's such a great pleasure listening with it, that I'm still drooling everytime I look at it. It's rather hard for me to compare it to other players since I went in the last 6 years from a sony MZ-N1 to a VGF-AP1 and now aquired this gem. At first I thought about buying the iPod Touch (because the features besides playing music are pretty awesome imho), but stumbled upon the outstanding SQ of this gem. Since I was using sony gear for the last years, was looking for the 'ultimate portable listening experience!' and avoided the iPodmania successfully the decision wasn't hard.

What I got was indeed an overpriced player, the features besides the SQ taken into consideration (when I read the canadian prices here I was pretty shocked ), but I don't really care. Since I don't have Wi-Fi access at home and don't need access to the internet while commuting I tested those features just a few times. The youtube feature is nice to have (especially for showing videos/music to friends) the browser seems crappy to me, but I don't like mobile internet (except using a laptop) in general, so I won't be using it. Videoplayback is 'ok'. Indeed it is an eyecandy because the display is so vivid, but for me the display is too small. Just using it for watching movies at a boring night shift.

The design of the player itself is classy (the feeling in your hand with the granite effect is awesome), only the sparkles around the display might be a bit annoying, but imho hardly noticeable. Only thing I don't like is that the display is sometimes hard to read, cause it seems to be pretty "reflective".

So I'm using it basically for it's main purpose - listening music. And as I said/drooled before, Sony convinced me. Navigating works intuitive for me, the display responds good, only the buttons at the bottom (tracklist, navigating back e.g.) is sometimes a bit unresponsive. The second hit usually does it. I was really happy that I could load the player simply via drag & drop. Being bound to SonicStage for years it really feels good to be 'free' now . Having about 6Gigs of music now creating album/tracklists is starting to get a little bit slow, but I can live with it (20Gigs on my AP1 where horribly slow). Transferspeed seems to be terribly low, so take some time getting your collection onto the X.

Lacking of gapless playback is a bit of a nuissance. Sony fixed it at the AP1 and now a step back? I think it heavily depends of your musical preference how you are affected by this behauviour. Listeners of electronic music might be upset because a mixed album/sampler with a small gap between each track just sucks. Merging the tracks and having a 80 minute file is a work around.

When I was listening to it for the first time, my stupid smile said all I guess. An until then unknown intensity of bass, covering all other frequencies with the emphasis they deserve. I discovered details in Albums/tracks I knew and loved for years that I never heard before (musical background: I'm primary listening to psytrance which put's emphasis on harsh basslines (4/4 bassline combined with another 8th/16th/32th bassline, so the lower frequencyspectrum is pretty vivid) often mixed with strange/beeping/crackling/bubbling ambience/sounds/samples besides the usual trance composition - so it often 'feels' like being hit by the full spectrum of possible frequencies ). I loved discovering the possibilities of the EQ and tweaking the sound the way I liked. Clearbass 0 - 3 is imho enough to meet the demands of a wide range of preferences (listened a while at 3, switched down to 2 recently). No matter at which volume I operate the player, it always performs well.

As I already said, I can't really compare it to other players. But it's hard to imagine how the sound on a DAP could get better experiencing that warm, detailed and colourful soundperformance.

If you want an allround device, the X might be rather disappointing for you. If you're aiming at a powerful SQ it really seems to be worth to me, even if it's overpriced.

At one side I don't like Sony especially for their support policy (firmware upgrades!), at the other side I simply love them for giving me such a great pleasure.

Finally, I got some questions.

1. I read that the operating system of the X is open source. Is that true and if it is - how are the chances that we might see something like rockbox on the X one day?

2. Being rather lazy I just started a few days ago linkinh covers to all my albums. Isn't it possible to edit the albums while they are on the player, or do I have to do it before copying them (and of course, recopying the material that is already on the player)?

3. I'm still using the buds that came with the player (really surprised btw. - all retailbuds I got so far always sucked), but I want to switch to headphones since I don't really like IEMs despite their advantages. As already mentioned I'm not really familiar with the materia, but I don't want to waste my money. I looked up some models and listened to them in a local store (with incompetent staff). Having a rather limited budget, I liked how the AKG 518 DJ performed for me, but it was just to silent (ofc it was better with every sound improvement being turned off, but then everything sounded to flat for me). I guess an amp would be the solution, but not the right one for me since I don't want to have my pockets filled up with extra gear.

Reading here it seems that most user swear upon using IEMs and I can hardly remind a user using unamped headphones (which doesn't mean that someone didn't post here sth like that, haven't read everything yet). Is it so hard to find good headphones (that transmit the SQ the way it deserves to be transmitted) that can be driven at higher volume levels? Am I looking for the impossible, even more if I have such a limited budget? (thought about spending maximum 100$)

Since I'm lacking knowledge I don 't know if there is a model that fits my needs. If there isn't I'll stay with IEMs.

DOH! Double.

Yes, forgot to mention that -- very useful indeed; in my case specially so when you have, say, a one-hour-long podcast, listen to half of it, then later go back, FF 30 minutes and you're there in just a second, literally. You don't need to press pause, though, to get this fast.

However, if you press pause, then press rewind/FF either on the screen or physical buttons, rewinding & FF'ing become much, much faster - about 8 times faster - than attempting the same whilst on play mode. This is particularly handy when on the same podcast you get 4 - 6 minutes of advertising (not BBC podcasts, of course) or simply want to skip a segment you're not interested in. Using the other two rewind/ FF options becomes either too slow or too fast (& innacurate).

I use the external buttons all the time. It's very useful when using it blindly

Sorry I wasn't sufficiently clear. See below -- No 3 is quite different from Nos. 1 & 2.

Ok, there's 3 ways to rewind & FFW:

1- The slowest: Only while on play mode, press rewind or FFW either on screen or external buttons.

2- Faster - about 8 times taster, in fact, than No 1: Hit pause, then rewind/ FFW buttons either on screen or externally.

3- Fastest - This one is quite different from 1 & 2 above mainly because it has more to do with the total time of any particular track rather than rewinding/ FF'ing at a set speed, and also because it's only available on screen. It's equally fast whether you have a 3-minute track or a 60-minute podcast, ie it takes the same time to slide across (from start to finish) the bright dot for either a 3-minute track or a 60 min podcast! And it can only be done one track at a time. So, in the case of the latter, forwarding 30-40 mins is done literally in a flash. Works either in pause or play mode; the bright dot --seen at end of green horizontal line only when on screen buttons are activated-- is found under elapsed & total times.

I use No 3 when I need to rewind/ FFW 10+ minutes. This is so fast that even when you make very slight finger movements it's innaccurate, but gets you close enough to desired spot VERY fast. I use No 2 for advertising breaks or shorter segments, between 2-8 mins approx. I use No 1 when I want to rewind / FFW less than 1-2 mins.

Hope that makes sense.

Good to know, I was wondering what to do about that...

I had 2045 songs in my playlist, but they kept repeating. I formatted the X, re-synced the playlist... Now my X has 2034 songs, *sigh*.

Same issues with my eReader - Duplicates, etc... urgh

Sony is great with hardware but poor with software.

LOL. You have made my day. I had no idea you could do that. Previously I would fumble around with my big hands on the touch screen trying to drag the slider back and forth, the odd bit of cursing and general giving up. I spend 80% of my time listening to mixes/podcasts so this is very helpful.

Hope this helps someone:

I made my first playlist by copying all the songs from my X into a single directory on my computer. I then added that directory to WMP's media library, then proceeded to create a playlist (still in WMP).

Synced that first playlist into the X.

Once you have at least one, making more is quite easy. In Windows explorer, copy and paste the playlist file into the same directory (while the X is plugged in). Double-click on the new file (the copy) and the songs in it are displayed. Delete all the songs in it. You are then free to drag songs from your X into that now-empty playlist, after which do NOT forget to click Ok. Instant playlists, and without having to sync (well, at least not after the first one).

Rinse, repeat.