gregtherotter
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2005
- Posts
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Review of NW-HD5
My review of the hd5:
Well at this minute im using the ‘line out’ connected to my HIFI. The sound is more than acceptable. Its also kinda cool to have 450 songs (at present, have used up 3 gigs) at your fingertips without having to change disc and switch to a usually abysmal radio , or have to plug the ‘line it’ of the HIFI into the headphone out of the computer.
first up, what you get in the box:
-'quick start' instruction manual
-adapter
-usb cable
-stock buds blagh!
-sonic stage 3.1
-carrying case(material:felt)
-1 lithium battery- was i the only one who was thinking it would be a gumstick battery?
SIZE:
ruler (sorry-didnt have a rules woth inches on it):
compared to n910:
hd5 upright again.
h5d on side:
TIME FOR SOME FRONTAL ACTION:;P
mz-n910 & nw-hd5
Build quality: first of all the unit is made in Malaysia. Uh oh, I hear you say. The finishes may not be perfect but they come close to it.
-The unit is made out of aluminium, all except for the part that is the hold button and top part of the dap. I always liked the feel of a cold md player, but now, as the hd5 does tend to generate small amount of heat, you find yourself sweating a bit and making the unit look not so matt black, haha. The screen unfortunately does scratch like butter so when you get it I would suggest buying a plastic adhesive, the kind you use on covering palm top screens. Haven’t seen them around but mi9ght invest
in one.
-Battery door: the battery door is a rather large thing, and has a big hinge on it. On top of that there is a hole where u push a pin into to release the door. Nice touch I think. I don’t think we’ll be having battery door problems anymore hopefully.
-Battery: I myself thought the battery was going to be a gumstick battery but no, it’s a lithium one. And the million dollar question on everyone’s mind is? ‘Does it charge as soon as you connect it to the computer?’ Answer? Yes. I know, it does sound too familiar. (ipod) Obviously the battery is easily replaced so I don’t think it’s going to be the end of the world.
The cover , of the USB port and DC in:
Unfortunately, it is extremely flimsy. (see video-warning-20 megabytes) The door is just kept secure by closing the flap and sliding in like the old battery doors except the flap here is apprx 1 mm thick. I doubt it will last more than a few months.
Corners: ok, by this I mean where the top of the unit , the plastic part has been put on. There is a 1/5 of a mm or so of a gap. I’m not concerned but I thought id mention it.
Finishes: the embossed walkman logo is a nice touch, as always, as is the engraved ‘sony’. There is also a hole to loop a cord or whatever to hold the hd5, not sure how to explain but I am talking about what you have on the mz-n910 to thread a string though. Also a nice touch.
The case you get is a felt jobbies and is not bad although id worry about crap getting into the case around the unit, as the case doesn’t close completely.
Sound: as most of you may be aware of, the hd5 can play MP3’S natively with one catch, or two. First is that it uses more battery life, Secondly, when using mp3's you dont get the hd5's e.q i.e rock, heavy etc, you get a the basic trebble and bass settings like on previous md units. Just to point out, obviously if you are using earphones like the schure e2c’s (cough cough) you wont feel this is the case. I am using the ex81’s and have no complaints, and you all know why. They bring out less of the flaws, or detail whichever way you want to see it.
One thing, it doesn’t play gapless, or wav files natively. So no lossless for you or me. There is still 256 kb/s atrac which still pretty good considering we all use md’s which use atrac (sp having not much higher a bit rate anyways).
Display:
The screen is great quality I would say. The song titles scroll across like on md units. I find it is not that easy to distinguish the titles when using the white background titles and black lettering.
The black screen and white letters work a little better with the scrolling text, but both work well.
Menu:
One small gripe I have is that, when you are listening to a sing you must click
-menu
- then if you are scrolling though artists and want to go back to where you were, you must click menu again and choose ‘ playback screen’ which essentially takes you back to the ‘now playing’ screen. I.e. there’s no cancel button like on the md units to take you back to where you were.
If anyone was wondering the device does have the super-fast forward thingy. And when you are navigating through artists/tracks etc you just press the button down for 2 seconds and it cycles down very fast too. There is also a function where you can search through a sort of alphabet, its called ‘initials search’ obviously this might be a bit useless if you have hundred songs with the letter ‘a’. but its still a nifty feature. There is the play list option also.
On a final note, the hd5 is well crafted, has decent features, and sounds just as you would expect such a device to sound. Like an md, haha .
video clip i made:http://designportfolio.ca/~graf2024_b122/hd51.avi
My review of the hd5:
Well at this minute im using the ‘line out’ connected to my HIFI. The sound is more than acceptable. Its also kinda cool to have 450 songs (at present, have used up 3 gigs) at your fingertips without having to change disc and switch to a usually abysmal radio , or have to plug the ‘line it’ of the HIFI into the headphone out of the computer.
first up, what you get in the box:
-'quick start' instruction manual
-adapter
-usb cable
-stock buds blagh!
-sonic stage 3.1
-carrying case(material:felt)
-1 lithium battery- was i the only one who was thinking it would be a gumstick battery?
SIZE:
ruler (sorry-didnt have a rules woth inches on it):
compared to n910:
hd5 upright again.
h5d on side:
TIME FOR SOME FRONTAL ACTION:;P
mz-n910 & nw-hd5
Build quality: first of all the unit is made in Malaysia. Uh oh, I hear you say. The finishes may not be perfect but they come close to it.
-The unit is made out of aluminium, all except for the part that is the hold button and top part of the dap. I always liked the feel of a cold md player, but now, as the hd5 does tend to generate small amount of heat, you find yourself sweating a bit and making the unit look not so matt black, haha. The screen unfortunately does scratch like butter so when you get it I would suggest buying a plastic adhesive, the kind you use on covering palm top screens. Haven’t seen them around but mi9ght invest
in one.
-Battery door: the battery door is a rather large thing, and has a big hinge on it. On top of that there is a hole where u push a pin into to release the door. Nice touch I think. I don’t think we’ll be having battery door problems anymore hopefully.
-Battery: I myself thought the battery was going to be a gumstick battery but no, it’s a lithium one. And the million dollar question on everyone’s mind is? ‘Does it charge as soon as you connect it to the computer?’ Answer? Yes. I know, it does sound too familiar. (ipod) Obviously the battery is easily replaced so I don’t think it’s going to be the end of the world.
The cover , of the USB port and DC in:
Unfortunately, it is extremely flimsy. (see video-warning-20 megabytes) The door is just kept secure by closing the flap and sliding in like the old battery doors except the flap here is apprx 1 mm thick. I doubt it will last more than a few months.
Corners: ok, by this I mean where the top of the unit , the plastic part has been put on. There is a 1/5 of a mm or so of a gap. I’m not concerned but I thought id mention it.
Finishes: the embossed walkman logo is a nice touch, as always, as is the engraved ‘sony’. There is also a hole to loop a cord or whatever to hold the hd5, not sure how to explain but I am talking about what you have on the mz-n910 to thread a string though. Also a nice touch.
The case you get is a felt jobbies and is not bad although id worry about crap getting into the case around the unit, as the case doesn’t close completely.
Sound: as most of you may be aware of, the hd5 can play MP3’S natively with one catch, or two. First is that it uses more battery life, Secondly, when using mp3's you dont get the hd5's e.q i.e rock, heavy etc, you get a the basic trebble and bass settings like on previous md units. Just to point out, obviously if you are using earphones like the schure e2c’s (cough cough) you wont feel this is the case. I am using the ex81’s and have no complaints, and you all know why. They bring out less of the flaws, or detail whichever way you want to see it.
One thing, it doesn’t play gapless, or wav files natively. So no lossless for you or me. There is still 256 kb/s atrac which still pretty good considering we all use md’s which use atrac (sp having not much higher a bit rate anyways).
Display:
The screen is great quality I would say. The song titles scroll across like on md units. I find it is not that easy to distinguish the titles when using the white background titles and black lettering.
The black screen and white letters work a little better with the scrolling text, but both work well.
Menu:
One small gripe I have is that, when you are listening to a sing you must click
-menu
- then if you are scrolling though artists and want to go back to where you were, you must click menu again and choose ‘ playback screen’ which essentially takes you back to the ‘now playing’ screen. I.e. there’s no cancel button like on the md units to take you back to where you were.
If anyone was wondering the device does have the super-fast forward thingy. And when you are navigating through artists/tracks etc you just press the button down for 2 seconds and it cycles down very fast too. There is also a function where you can search through a sort of alphabet, its called ‘initials search’ obviously this might be a bit useless if you have hundred songs with the letter ‘a’. but its still a nifty feature. There is the play list option also.
On a final note, the hd5 is well crafted, has decent features, and sounds just as you would expect such a device to sound. Like an md, haha .
video clip i made:http://designportfolio.ca/~graf2024_b122/hd51.avi
