Sony NWZ-A829 broke today recommend me a new MP3 player?
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My MP3 player of choice for the last several years has broken today. The headphone socket on the player stopped outputting audio to the left speaker and then this evening stopped supplying audio fullstop. Tried different headphones as a logical troubleshoot and its definitely the player.
So now need to purchase MP3 player. However I'm out of touch with todays market so can someone recommend what would be a good buy? Looking for something that has similar storage capacity (16gb) or higher then I have currently. Also would really be happy if it didn't have any Volume Limiting Crap coded into it. I'm a bit hard of hearing so need a loud MP3 player. Apart from those requirements I'm open to suggestions.
So now need to purchase MP3 player. However I'm out of touch with todays market so can someone recommend what would be a good buy? Looking for something that has similar storage capacity (16gb) or higher then I have currently. Also would really be happy if it didn't have any Volume Limiting Crap coded into it. I'm a bit hard of hearing so need a loud MP3 player. Apart from those requirements I'm open to suggestions.
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I have an old NWZ-S639F which is quite battered but it's just very good. Small though.
I did get a similar model to yours (NWZ-A729) which seemed a little bit louder/cleaner than even my S639F. But I didn't like the button placement so sold it.
Maybe get another NWZ-A829 of Ebay? Or get the NWZ-A729 which is the same but lacks Bluetooth I think.
So guess I won't be buying a Sony walkman this time around. Someone has mentioned to me Cowan/Cowen or something like that doing good MP3 players. Anyone have experience of these?
Just avoid Philips! Total junk.
Its 70% likely to need a bit of new solder on the socket..
Of course you can't go wrong with the Sandisk Clip+
16GB(8+8) for £37 via play.com. It has FM but no radio record function via the mic.
And expandable to 40GB via the SD slot..
I wonder if the clip + has the same claim?
Maybe for the sub $50 category considering prices are now one third of a year or two ago,
This no doubt gives FM recording too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockbox#SanDisk
Thousands buy it for Rockbox. Despite the fanclub it's not always better despite being a great alternative.
Its probably $2 for the SOC, $2 for the screen and $2 for the battery.
The memory is much less than $1 per GB.
£35 for a 16GB mp3 player is/was unbeatable.
And the brilliant thing about Sandisk is that they are persevering with the old high sound quality chipsets that still allow Rockbox.
Now 16GB flash costs nothin.
It was a good player, cept for the control pad design, too easy to fumble, and the fast forward..too slow.
An amazing looking device in silver aluminium but more importantly the sound rocks.
They certainly don't make them like they used to.
That was a nice wee player.
Now, of course, a quick visit to the main Sony Walkman site see's a once innovative and inspiring company, now just trying to look as much like an iPod page as possible.
http://www.sony.co.uk/hub/walkman
Same colours. . .same style. . .same layout placement just behind each other. Blurgh.
With me elected as CEO (obviously I'm joking
It smacked of 'giving up'.
With regards to others comments on sound levels most adhere to the maximum allowed in the US.
Hacks must be used to destroy your ear drums.
There were also plenty of 'copy and paste' type alternatives for some doomed Sony devices.
Its quite incredible that Sonicstage(+connect) is actually worse than iTunes.
I have a PSP and the software they bundle with it to transfer my music, video, games, online PSN store is absolutely horrific.
SO HORRIFIC that I actually just manually use the file directory to do it all.
Downloading games, and transferring them to the PSP is also so horrible that I'd rather download the game via the PSP over wi-fi. I've got this fantastic Xross Media Bar interface on the PSP. . .and the software on the computer is just a completely different mess. I just don't comprehend the designers - they mustn't actually use the products.
Sony desperately need to get their act together in order to get some kind of second wind.
They need to realise that with a portable device, the device is only half the product. The software used to control the content you transfer to the device also needs to be something you don't dread working with.
Their hardware is quite often there. . .it's the rest that lets them down.
(Well I say simple but copy and paste involves more that is beyond some users.)
However like most, their soundchips have also lost quality
General consumers won't really care about the high fidelity audio - especially when they compress their AIFF's to MP3/AAC anyway - so why bother with the cost.
The sound chips aren't really an issue either way. Perhaps audio freaks who prefer uncompressed AIFF while walking around with studio grade headphones (which are just as important in quality as the outputting chip) would be fussed - but the majority of people in the market for an MP3 player aren't really fussed on those differences.
But because of the dynamic sound Sony I prefer to give it a miss.
Ignorance is certainly bliss, so of course if I owned a portable 500GB device that played uncompressed CD's I might also give the Sony a miss.
My Pink Floyd dark side of the moon crackly vinyl LP also sounds better than my PF dsom CD.
I love my digital audio. But if I'm enjoying music, I'll be playing it through my stereo from CD at any time I can.
My portable media device (iPhone in this case) will only ever be used to listen to music out and about, in the background of my daily activities like waiting on the bus.
No doubt the video player on my Phone is fantastic and the MP3 Player side of it could do with some work, so maybe in a standalone walkman they have got this cracked.
However atrac was a main reason it had such good sound. Also being the file format for mini disc.