(Originally posted on http://community.sony.com/)
I have been using the NWZ-A17 for a couple days now and although I am pretty satisfied with the player, I found it to be lacking certain features that would make it even better.
1. Album Shuffle
As I have commented in another thread, it would be great to have an option called "Album Shuffle" under Play Mode, so that when the last track of the current album finishes playing, the first track of another album that has been selected randomly starts playing. The Ipod Classic had this feature and I found it extremely useful.
you just change the playback range and when an album has been entirely shuffled, the player goes on to the next folder. you can also get a shuffle all, or a shuffle only inside one folder with of without repeat. I actually don't know that many DAPs with all those options.
2. Screen should stay off at all times during hold
This might be subjective, but I would prefer the screen to remain turned off at all times during hold so that even if the player is in my pocket and a button is pressed by accident frequently, the screen doesn’t turn on each time and lead to loss of battery life.
why not. I really can't say it would change my life.
3. SensMe
This is a great feature that I instantly fell in love with, although it did take several hours to analyze all the songs and then rebuild the library. What I also found annoying was:
a) Why does the first song start at the 45 second mark? Although this does sound cool for the first few times, it wears off quickly and ends up feeling like a gimmick.
b) Is there some way to integrate this into the normal playback screen instead? This could easily be another feature in the list that pops up when you press the option button in the playback screen. Or at least don’t stop the songs when you exit from SensMe.
the 45sec I never got why ^_^. I'm guessing they placed the sense me stuff in a seperate place as not to have people whine that some option doesn't work and just return the DAP without reading the manual.
4. Greater volume increments
I am not sure if this would an easy fix, but I certainly would have liked more volume increments (eg. up to 50). When I use sensitive IEM’s, I often ended up with the volume at 2 (which is a bit too quiet) or at 3 (which is a bit too loud).
the reason why I bought my first amp. often on DAPs the lowest values can be +6db per step, real annoying when you're used to listen to music very quietly with sensitive IEMs.
the pico slim had 0.5db steps, and my uha760 has 1db steps. so its much better than the sony(on the sony the amplitude of the steps changes, it can be more or less of a problem depending on how loud you listen). but yeah while I don't need 255steps, I could do with 60 to 100steps, or a gain switch.
5. Speed of Fast Forward/Rewind needs to be exponential instead of linear
Basically what I mean with this is when I am fast forwarding or rewinding when long pressing the left and right buttons, the seeker needs to move faster and faster with time. Currently, it is a pain to navigate through lengthy songs as the seeker moves at a constant speed. An option to adjust the acceleration would be even better.
fast forward while playing for precise movement, and just pause, then fast forward for fast movement
6. Shorter intervals for Sleep Timer
Not a major gripe at all, but I think there should be an option for shorter intervals (eg. 5 min, 10 min, 15 min) for the sleep timer. I think this would be the preference for most people as the NWZ-A17 wakes up almost immediately from sleep anyways.
never used that on a DAP, I just disable repeat, and let the DAP stop at the end of an album.
I think the above are the main shortcomings that I can currently come up with. This would absolutely be my dream player if these issues are all addressed, but I can only hope.
