I for one agrees with the guys here! The hd5 has great sound properties, Mp3 at 320kb/s is as good at Atrac 3 plus at 256kb. I use the sonic stage software through applocale which can be downloaded of microsoft.com. This program resolves all character issues as I have Tradition/Simplified Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai tunes. Even though I can't read any of the language mentioned.
After using the HD5 for 1.5 years the battery is still going strong, I admit it doesn't play as long as it used to however It still out runs my 2nd gen nano and most certain my 1st gen 2gb black nano. I highly recommend the HD5's Sound Presets especially the ''Dgtl. Snd. Presets'' with bass and treble mushed all the way to the top. I use a pair of Ultimate ear triple Fi 10 and it sounds terrific, much clearer though, theres a few tracks i'd use a mind blowing bassed Sennheiser Cx300
. Though I rather use the UE.
I forgot to mention I bought 2 more batteries just incase my battery suffered from over charging, however I think it'll take another year till the battery will have it's time.
Also I can safely say that this Sony is probably one of a handful of players that has 30gb and it's the fully black version only because I went out of my way and sourced a 1.8" toshiba hdd, though I was so tempted to buy a 40gb luckily I didn't as it was 2.5mm thicker and wouldnt of fitted into the aluminium magnesium housing.
So many Mp3 players would want the stamina of the Hd5, Removeable Hi-ish capacity battery, Self Righting Screen (viewing angle), G-protection and most importantly the output sound it generates. And after all that, it's packaged into a neat credit card sized dimention.
Dr.
