My new toy, the Sony Walkman S754:
The sound is wonderful: crisp, and punchy. I demoed the Cowon J3 and the Walkman side-by-side and I couldn't get over the artificiality of the J3's sound. True, the Walkman's sound may be colored but it sounds more natural to my ears. The Walkman also beat out the Cowon V5HD, A Samsung PMP (I don't recall the name, but it looks like an oversized version of the Touch), and the iRiver P100.
It looks and feels fantastic as well. The pictures may not show it but the white-looking plastic has an iridescent pearl sheen. The screen is bright where it needs to be and deep black where it should be. It feels solid with a nice heft to it (relative to its size) as opposed to the plasticky lightness of the J3. The J3's interface was responsive but the PMPs gave me conniptions with their laggy UIs.
My previous work-horse was a Walkman as well so it wasn't a difficult transition. Loading songs is drag-and-drop.
I bought my first Discman over 15 years ago in middle school, and when it crapped out on a trip to Korea (5 years after purchase, after much wear and tear) my father was gracious enough to foot the bill for a slide loading Discman (I think the D-EJ01) during a layover in Japan. Last I checked, it still runs. Sony products have never let me down and, after having owned and been disappointed by the Nano, Touch, and HM-602, I'm not sure I'll stray from the Sony brand. I walked into the store today prepared to spend up to $500, but wound up walking out with a $150 player that just sounded, felt, and looked better than the competition.
