New Sony not worth £240 imo

[Dreamnine]

I had a good look at the Sony X whatever in a shop today- £259 for 32GB but they would have let me have one for £240.
First impressions- I really didn't like build of it. I'm sure it's well constructed and the buttons seem nice, but it felt so light, flimsy and plasticky after my P3. The S9 seems more substantial and the screen on the Cowon looks better. In a shop it's hard to tell under the light, but I wasn't impressed with the screen.
The UI beats any other player I've seen- very fast, responsive, and beats the S9 and P3 easily.
I'm sure it sounds good, being a top end Sony..but I didn't get the chance to listen as the Sennheiser Cans weren't playing what the Sony was, but some other source for whatever reason.
The browser looked dull and basic- not as good as Skyfire or Opera mini.
In spite of my reservations I nearly bought one. I think because its 32GB and a Sony and just because I could. Maybe I'm turning into Olley.
In short, imho, not worth the cash- not when you can get a Cowon or Samsung for the same or less.

[CrowdAds]

[JL3001]

My enthusiasm for the player has dulled as well, to be honest.

[bernado]

Seems a lot of money to me also when there are loads of players out there with great sound quality, although it seems to have a prettier UI than most. My s639 was half the price for the same capacity. By the few user reviews I have read, it would appear the sound quality and screen are very good, file transfer rate very slow and Wifi browsing painful. If the browsing ability was improved via firmware, it might be more appealing to me. Probably not much chance of that though as Sony generally only release bug related firmware rather than enhanced functionality.

[Ascariss]

499 canadian for 32gig is also not worth the price, and I'll probably be skipping this generation of walkman like I did the last, and go with something else or just get a cell phone and stick with the A818.

[Muka]

Well it's a lot of money for a player which can't play gapless music. :/ Sending mine back for a refund.

[Dreamnine]

I think it's a great player, but still not worth that amount.

[Olley]

At one point in time I owned a car I'd bought for $500. Used yes, but the relative price of things is sure getting out of whack. I own a netbook with a 9" screen and 16gb flash memory that was $299. The last home theater amp (7.1 surround) I bought was $249. My Blueray player was $199. I know small costs more, but explain this: Latte Cafe 32gb.

IMO Sony is out of touch with reality. They should knock $100 off the price, then leave out the $100 songs coupon. Even then we're still at $299 for 32gb. Might be fair relative to the now discounted 2nd gen 32gb ipod Touches going for $369.

[The DarkSide]

Originally Posted by Olley

At one point in time I owned a car I'd bought for $500. Used yes, but the relative price of things is sure getting out of whack. I own a netbook with a 9" screen and 16gb flash memory that was $299. The last home theater amp (7.1 surround) I bought was $249. My Blueray player was $199. I know small costs more, but explain this: Latte Cafe 32gb.

IMO Sony is out of touch with reality. They should knock $100 off the price, then leave out the $100 songs coupon. Even then we're still at $299 for 32gb. Might be fair relative to the now discounted 2nd gen 32gb ipod Touches going for $369.

Thanks for being the voice of reason, as Sony really needs to come back down to the planet and get off their high horse. They're charging such an exorbitant price because they feel that they CAN, not because the product cost all that much to manufacture. I'd rather go back to the Touch 2G, at least it's got all the little extras - and most are FREE!

Be patient, in 2 months you'll get the 32gb X1000 series player for under $300, as Sony always ends up being forced to drop their prices eventually.

[Olley]

A lower price will be too late. Now that the ZuneHD specs are pretty much known, and are better than the Sony's, my money will go to MS. Not surprising, but for much the same reason the only main manufacturer not represented in my collection is Sony.

[bibio]

Hi,depends want you want,a all singing with bells & whistles,Android or whatever OS,powerfull processor(with prob complex HW running architecture,that might degrade the audio)etc PMP.Or you want a good sounding DAP.Might be lucky & find a device that does both well.
One thing my AV amp,Yammy2500 with all many components,circuits etc(no video processing),ain't a patch on my dedicated CA840A stereo amp(even if 2500 is in pure mode,just stereo circuits live),& the 2500 ain't bad.If you have a bass boost on a HiFi stereo amp,eyebrows go up in HiFi forums ,circuit,components kept as simple as possible in some cases,to stop anything having the possibility to degrade the sound quality.
Depends what you require,if you can get a PMP that suits you & as excellent sound quality,buy that.But if you are into audio & best sound is just a DAP(unless it is a good PMP as well),get that.
Personally i have a PDA/Phone thats OK with the fancy things,so main thing for me is sound quality.Other thing my more powerful
PDA etc,sure sucks that battery etc etc.
For Video,web etc,bigger screen/device normally bigger the better i would have thought.But for audio a small device as no set backs IMO.


Cheers BOB

[The DarkSide]

Uh, WHAT??????????

[GTR Mclaren]

just wait for a price drop and a firmware update of that awful 320x240 res video

and it will be the best player

[Elandal]

Originally Posted by Muka

Well it's a lot of money for a player which can't play gapless music. :/ Sending mine back for a refund.

Like 99% of the other players...

Originally Posted by Olley

IMO Sony is out of touch with reality. They should knock $100 off the price, then leave out the $100 songs coupon.

Originally Posted by The DarkSide

Thanks for being the voice of reason, as Sony really needs to come back down to the planet and get off their high horse.

I don't want justify Sony but as always all forgot the excellent out of the box phones included which can be 50$ just them, so worth the price...

Originally Posted by GTR Mclaren

just wait for a price drop and a firmware update of that awful 320x240 res video

Again... as sayed all around this forum you can have AVC video at 480x272 too...

[The DarkSide]

Yeah, but will the super player have TV out? And I shouldn't have to convert video, it should be drag & drop to the player (unconverted) by this stage in time. Really, a waste of money. Wait, the price will fall by Sept (when the Touch & Zune HD tear it a new AZZ).

[Muka]

Originally Posted by Elandal

Like 99% of the other players...

Yeh 99% of cheapo unbranded Chinese players cant play gapless. Except the Sony Walkmans is not in that category.

Iriver, Creative, Apple and Archos have all made MP3 players capable of gapless playback. I can't understand why Sony can't do the same. Sony minidisc players are gapless as well.

I consider a player which puts half second pauses in continuous mix albums to be defective. Put it another way, would you put up with a DVD or Blu-ray player which blanks the picture every time the chapter changes? Of course you wouldn't.

[Dreamnine]

The earphones that come with Sonys -at least the S Series ones - are better than other DAP manufacturers stock buds, but still not all that great.

[The DarkSide]

Originally Posted by Dreamnine

The earphones that come with Sonys -at least the S Series ones - are better than other DAP manufacturers stock buds, but still not all that great.

I think it's a nice addition, but not everyone CAN use IEM's, me included. I did a bit recently, but they tend to cause ear infections w/me.

[Muka]

Originally Posted by The DarkSide

I think it's a nice addition, but not everyone CAN use IEM's, me included. I did a bit recently, but they tend to cause ear infections w/me.

Same with me. I can never use IEMs. Not because of infections, but because I can never get the left phone to stay in more than a few minutes, and it's impossible for me get an air tight seal on that ear. I always have to use regular headphones to get the sound I require. I did quite a lot of youth boxing when I was younger, I guess that might have caused my misshapen left ear.

[Dreamnine]

Originally Posted by The DarkSide

I think it's a nice addition, but not everyone CAN use IEM's, me included. I did a bit recently, but they tend to cause ear infections w/me.

They're good in that they're not full iems- more of a hybrid with quite a comfy twist/grip to them, but I take your point.

I can't use my cx300s anymore:they're uncomfy, the microphonics are just too bad and they sound muddy compared with my EX500s.

[Elandal]

Originally Posted by Muka

Yeh 99% of cheapo unbranded Chinese players cant play gapless. Except the Sony Walkmans is not in that category.

Iriver, Creative, Apple and Archos have all made MP3 players capable of gapless playback. I can't understand why Sony can't do the same. Sony minidisc players are gapless as well.

Ok for Apple but, ehm... are you dreaming? iRiver, Creative, Archos... gapless?!? Where on earth? Oh sure, maybe Rockboxing where possible someone of their old player or maybe some really old player (like Rio Karma)... Can I put also Samsung in the category of cheapo unbranded chinese players? And Cowon? They never maded gapless players and only with the recent firmware the S9 has got gapless... and anyway only on lossless formats. So?