Well guys,
I stumbles upon one of the most amazing looking DAP's of all times last month.
I was in a store where they had a NEW HD1 and HD5 lying around. I bought them both at a bargain price of 65$ but already sold the HD5.
The HD1 was just so stunningly awsome that I had to keep it. Mind you, I'm a Mac user now but there was a time when I was a BIG TIME Sony fan and bought all their walkmans. From The Minidiscs to Hi-MD to the Walkmans and everything!
This hobby ended when I got my mac. I installed XP on the Mac especially to host this beauty.
Let me go back in time a bit. It was fall 2004 and I was looking for some new player to replace my Good'old Sony MZ-N707 type R Minidisc. It was at that time that the new Hi-MD format was announced and along with it came a so called ''Network Walkman''. I wasn't very much interested in that one. I'd rather have a look into the MZ-NH1 or MZ-NH900. When at the store though, I stumbled upon this amazing beautifull brushed aluminium bodied player with a 20GB HDD inside and half the size of the iPod's. It had a great sense of style over it but so had the price tag. at something around 400 - 450 euros (500$ or something) it was a pretty high price tag and so I went for the trusty MD format.
I never forgot that beauty though. I've never seen one ''in the wild'', on the streets or in public. It was a bit exclusive in the sense that you'd never run into a person sporting a NW-HD1. You'd see the ipods all the time though. It was partly because the reputation it had amongst the cirtics of being delivered with bad software. But still it had some kind of magic around it.
Now, 4 years later, I just bumped into one of these. I just walked past a shelf in a store here and my eye caught a black box. NW-HD1 slipped through my mind in a second but I thought that was impossible. When I decided to go back and have a look just to be shure I couldn't believe my eyes. There it was. A brand new HD1 for just 65$. I didn't hesitate and immediately bought the unit. I unpacked the box like 5 mins later in the car. I HAD to see that thing now!!
And it was worth it.
Now you'd be thinking right now, why am I reading this?! Well, it turns out that the SQ of this thing was pretty underestimated too. Because it hasn't sold mhuch it hasn't been reviewed mhuch so there ws little known about the SQ. At the time a was afraid it might be bad SQ because it was sony's first ''MP3'' player. Know that I finally have it I'm glad to notice that this thing has stunning SQ. The sound is really nice. Beats my ipods in all respects and even tops the current walkman line imho.
The internal amp is extremely powerfull when unlocked.
My Triple.fi's work very well with this player. They do pick up a tiny bit of hiss, but it is very reasonable for a player this age. Hell, it could even compete with the modern day players. The SQ is just special. all the modern day DAP's have a certain sound signature that they all have in common. They sound digital. This HD1 has a somehow ''less digital'' sound. If this has to do with the DAC, the internal amp or the ATRAC3 is a mystery to me, but there's no doubt on my mind that this thing is one of the best DAP's ever to be made concening both SQ and design.
If anybody is interested in an in-depth review I'll write a review on the device itself in a little while and post it here in this thread.
Rgds,
ric
I stumbles upon one of the most amazing looking DAP's of all times last month.
I was in a store where they had a NEW HD1 and HD5 lying around. I bought them both at a bargain price of 65$ but already sold the HD5.
The HD1 was just so stunningly awsome that I had to keep it. Mind you, I'm a Mac user now but there was a time when I was a BIG TIME Sony fan and bought all their walkmans. From The Minidiscs to Hi-MD to the Walkmans and everything!
This hobby ended when I got my mac. I installed XP on the Mac especially to host this beauty.
Let me go back in time a bit. It was fall 2004 and I was looking for some new player to replace my Good'old Sony MZ-N707 type R Minidisc. It was at that time that the new Hi-MD format was announced and along with it came a so called ''Network Walkman''. I wasn't very much interested in that one. I'd rather have a look into the MZ-NH1 or MZ-NH900. When at the store though, I stumbled upon this amazing beautifull brushed aluminium bodied player with a 20GB HDD inside and half the size of the iPod's. It had a great sense of style over it but so had the price tag. at something around 400 - 450 euros (500$ or something) it was a pretty high price tag and so I went for the trusty MD format.
I never forgot that beauty though. I've never seen one ''in the wild'', on the streets or in public. It was a bit exclusive in the sense that you'd never run into a person sporting a NW-HD1. You'd see the ipods all the time though. It was partly because the reputation it had amongst the cirtics of being delivered with bad software. But still it had some kind of magic around it.
Now, 4 years later, I just bumped into one of these. I just walked past a shelf in a store here and my eye caught a black box. NW-HD1 slipped through my mind in a second but I thought that was impossible. When I decided to go back and have a look just to be shure I couldn't believe my eyes. There it was. A brand new HD1 for just 65$. I didn't hesitate and immediately bought the unit. I unpacked the box like 5 mins later in the car. I HAD to see that thing now!!
Now you'd be thinking right now, why am I reading this?! Well, it turns out that the SQ of this thing was pretty underestimated too. Because it hasn't sold mhuch it hasn't been reviewed mhuch so there ws little known about the SQ. At the time a was afraid it might be bad SQ because it was sony's first ''MP3'' player. Know that I finally have it I'm glad to notice that this thing has stunning SQ. The sound is really nice. Beats my ipods in all respects and even tops the current walkman line imho.
The internal amp is extremely powerfull when unlocked.
My Triple.fi's work very well with this player. They do pick up a tiny bit of hiss, but it is very reasonable for a player this age. Hell, it could even compete with the modern day players. The SQ is just special. all the modern day DAP's have a certain sound signature that they all have in common. They sound digital. This HD1 has a somehow ''less digital'' sound. If this has to do with the DAC, the internal amp or the ATRAC3 is a mystery to me, but there's no doubt on my mind that this thing is one of the best DAP's ever to be made concening both SQ and design.
If anybody is interested in an in-depth review I'll write a review on the device itself in a little while and post it here in this thread.
Rgds,
ric
