HeadKase
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2004
- Posts
- 137
- Likes
- 10
First - my BIG disclaimer: This is my first MP3 player I've ever owned. That said, I consider myself an audio fiend (my main system is worth about $25K), and I spent quite a bit of time researching before I bought.
I ordered the red model from B&H (mostly so it can be distingued at a glance from my other silver hand held items) and have been playing with it for two days now.
My order of preferences were/are:
1) Sound Quality
2) Ease of Operation
3) Durability
4) Battery Life
5) Ergonomics
I decided to go with the Sony based on the following touted differences with the IPOD:
1) Better sound quality
2) Changable Battery
3) Much longer lasting Battery (40 hours vs 15)
Sound Quality
----------
Overall, I'm all about sound quality so this was my first concern. I downloaded one disc using ATRAC Plus 64K and it sounded amazingly better than any MP3 I've ever heard. But when I downloaded the next disc with 256K, there just seemed to more air and refinement in the sound. This takes many more times the room to store, but again to sound quality fiends its a small price to pay.
I quickly discarded the phones that came with them for the more comfortable (I hate in ear phones) and largely better sounding Sennheiser portable (something 100's). I've also listened to them through my big Sony V1000's.
So what can I say about the sound quality? Marvelous in a word. People were staring at me driving in my new Mercedes M Class wearing walkman phones. Once I got used to the sound, I just couldn't bring myself to listen to the Bose system in the Benz - I just kept the phones on it was so addictive. (People must have been thinking "Look at that dumbass, he drives an expensive Mercedes but didn't bother to put in a CD player")
So far very addictive sound and I haven't played with the EQ yet. There might be complaints about it being bass shy without EQ from some, but to me the whole presentation sounds very natural and airy.
This is not compared to an Ipod BTW since I've never heard an Ipod.
Ease of Operation
---------------
Again, big disclaimer not owning an MP3 player before. As far as navigation goes, I couldn't imagine better (though I know this is where IPOD shines). Pick Artist, Genre, Track, scroll through the list and pick. Very simple. Being new to all this, all I can say is "Damn this is cool".
The big complaint everyone has is the SonicStage software. Again, I guess ignorance is bliss, but I've easily downloaded 15 discs to the HD5, and it's been quite intuitive to use. I even bought a few $1 tracks online and they went on without a hitch. From what I hear there's better and faster out there, but this has worked pretty effortlessly for me so far. No computer crashes at all (though maybe the 1 GB of RAM on the computer helps).
Looks
-----
Obviously this is a nifty looking piece of machinery, but I WAS surprised at how cheesy the button graphics look. Most probably won't notice, but geez the > that is on 4 of the buttons looks like a pixelated cursor from an old Commodore 64. Still they're unobtrusive enough not to be noticed from the causual viewer.
Build Quality
--------
It feels very weighty and solid (though not heavy). And I've already dropped it about 4 feet without incident. The only thing that concerns me is the unsturdy feeling latch that holds on the panel that hides the USB connection. This is the same kind of unsturdy panel that has concerned me with both digital cameras and camcorders, though to be honest, none of those have ever broken on me. And even without it, it shouldn't cripple the player.
A bigger concern is a few people (mostly with the HD3) that have reported having their harddrive fail on them. We'll have to wait and see on that one.
Battery Life
--------
This is a solid winner for battery life. I charged it for a couple hours yesterday, and have uploaded to it several times, played it for probably 6 hours or more, and judging from the battery full display it looks like I've used about 10% of the life. Having the easy to remove and replace battery will keep this unit from eventually losing functionality as the IPODs do.
Overall
------
The usual disclaimer, but this has got to be the coolest gadget I've owned in quite some time. The sound quality which is all important to me is very impressive (thank goodness). Even though it doesn't make sense to me, this thing blows away any portable CD player I've ever used soundwise - I'll leave that for someone else to explain. Suffice to say the sound surpassed my expectations, and I'm now addicted to the sound of this thing (with decent cans and the least amount of compression). But heck, 15 discs and just over 2 gigabites used? I'll take the sound quality improvement however marginal it might be.
The battery life and swappability is another huge plus that makes this so much more pleasureful to use. Who wants to put on the phones only to find the battery's almost dead with hours of charging time ahead?
I also love the ease of use and navigation. The unit also feels very solid, but the jury is still out on how long this will last. If the answer is a long time, honestly I don't know what else I could ask of this player.
Highly highly recommend!
I ordered the red model from B&H (mostly so it can be distingued at a glance from my other silver hand held items) and have been playing with it for two days now.
My order of preferences were/are:
1) Sound Quality
2) Ease of Operation
3) Durability
4) Battery Life
5) Ergonomics
I decided to go with the Sony based on the following touted differences with the IPOD:
1) Better sound quality
2) Changable Battery
3) Much longer lasting Battery (40 hours vs 15)
Sound Quality
----------
Overall, I'm all about sound quality so this was my first concern. I downloaded one disc using ATRAC Plus 64K and it sounded amazingly better than any MP3 I've ever heard. But when I downloaded the next disc with 256K, there just seemed to more air and refinement in the sound. This takes many more times the room to store, but again to sound quality fiends its a small price to pay.
I quickly discarded the phones that came with them for the more comfortable (I hate in ear phones) and largely better sounding Sennheiser portable (something 100's). I've also listened to them through my big Sony V1000's.
So what can I say about the sound quality? Marvelous in a word. People were staring at me driving in my new Mercedes M Class wearing walkman phones. Once I got used to the sound, I just couldn't bring myself to listen to the Bose system in the Benz - I just kept the phones on it was so addictive. (People must have been thinking "Look at that dumbass, he drives an expensive Mercedes but didn't bother to put in a CD player")
So far very addictive sound and I haven't played with the EQ yet. There might be complaints about it being bass shy without EQ from some, but to me the whole presentation sounds very natural and airy.
This is not compared to an Ipod BTW since I've never heard an Ipod.
Ease of Operation
---------------
Again, big disclaimer not owning an MP3 player before. As far as navigation goes, I couldn't imagine better (though I know this is where IPOD shines). Pick Artist, Genre, Track, scroll through the list and pick. Very simple. Being new to all this, all I can say is "Damn this is cool".
The big complaint everyone has is the SonicStage software. Again, I guess ignorance is bliss, but I've easily downloaded 15 discs to the HD5, and it's been quite intuitive to use. I even bought a few $1 tracks online and they went on without a hitch. From what I hear there's better and faster out there, but this has worked pretty effortlessly for me so far. No computer crashes at all (though maybe the 1 GB of RAM on the computer helps).
Looks
-----
Obviously this is a nifty looking piece of machinery, but I WAS surprised at how cheesy the button graphics look. Most probably won't notice, but geez the > that is on 4 of the buttons looks like a pixelated cursor from an old Commodore 64. Still they're unobtrusive enough not to be noticed from the causual viewer.
Build Quality
--------
It feels very weighty and solid (though not heavy). And I've already dropped it about 4 feet without incident. The only thing that concerns me is the unsturdy feeling latch that holds on the panel that hides the USB connection. This is the same kind of unsturdy panel that has concerned me with both digital cameras and camcorders, though to be honest, none of those have ever broken on me. And even without it, it shouldn't cripple the player.
A bigger concern is a few people (mostly with the HD3) that have reported having their harddrive fail on them. We'll have to wait and see on that one.
Battery Life
--------
This is a solid winner for battery life. I charged it for a couple hours yesterday, and have uploaded to it several times, played it for probably 6 hours or more, and judging from the battery full display it looks like I've used about 10% of the life. Having the easy to remove and replace battery will keep this unit from eventually losing functionality as the IPODs do.
Overall
------
The usual disclaimer, but this has got to be the coolest gadget I've owned in quite some time. The sound quality which is all important to me is very impressive (thank goodness). Even though it doesn't make sense to me, this thing blows away any portable CD player I've ever used soundwise - I'll leave that for someone else to explain. Suffice to say the sound surpassed my expectations, and I'm now addicted to the sound of this thing (with decent cans and the least amount of compression). But heck, 15 discs and just over 2 gigabites used? I'll take the sound quality improvement however marginal it might be.
The battery life and swappability is another huge plus that makes this so much more pleasureful to use. Who wants to put on the phones only to find the battery's almost dead with hours of charging time ahead?
I also love the ease of use and navigation. The unit also feels very solid, but the jury is still out on how long this will last. If the answer is a long time, honestly I don't know what else I could ask of this player.
Highly highly recommend!
