WTB: sony A845,sony X series

pm'ed

Haha this is like my second post on this forum and I already feel useful ^^

So, I had the exact same doubt as you do, on either the Sony A845 or the cheapest sony X. Well I own the Sony A845 now, that should tell you something. It all depends where you get it from, but as far as I've seen, the price diference is about 100€, and that's not really something you want unless there's a significant diference.

Sound quality: The A845 and the X series all have the same amp and basically the same Sound Quality. I think the X's have 1 or 2 tools to improve sound, but nothing worth paying 100€ more for. The sound quality is awesome on either player, especially if you turn on this function called Dynamic Normaliser, which recreates the high frequencies lost on sound file-compression - yes, it makes a diference. Also turn those Clean Bass and Clean Stereo on, it can only get better =)

Headphones: The bass isn't punchy at all on the A845 with the stock headphones (I tried it with some Senn CX300-II in-ears and it got a lot better), but it's still really good, the headphones are expensive on their one already. However if you take the stock headphones you can't really enjoy the Noise Cancelling. And that's what I'll talk about next

Noise Cancelling: Like before, the noise cancelling is the same on the X's and the A845. I was expecting to just turn it on and be amazed at how I could hear nothing. Well... not really. First of all, it blocks off some noises better than others. I turned the "Train" option of the NC on and I could barely hear the subway coming, I took them off and it was sonic chaos all around. But when someone calls me from like 10 meters away, I hear it very well. The noise cancelling can be very helpful, and I use it all the time, but it also eats up a lot of the battery.

Other Funtions: Well here the X's shoot the A845 in the head. You can surf the web on that thing, go to youtube, probably facebook (srsly, what doesn't go to facebook these days? My toaster probably does).

So, all in all: IMHO the price diference is big, and it doesn't justify the sound quality or the noise canceling, which are the pretty much the same in both players (just a few tools away, and those don't change it noticeably). The big difference is just the fact that the X's are touchscreen (did I mention that? shoot) and they surf the web, while the A845 is more of a music/movie player. I wouldn't pay the difference, but maybe you find that important.

I haven't heard the A845 but wifi on the X is for the most part useless. The You tube functionality is good but other than that, Sony bungled its implementation.I did see a comparison a while back between the A845 and the X that indicated a slight difference in favor of the X. The X has a very nice SQ, I must say.

Edit

Here's a link to a brief comparison done by FenderP: http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/445530/new-sony-64-gb-dap-nw-a840/135#post_6199365

You can probably PM him for further details.