Performance
Sony's signature of prominent bass was immediately noticeable, as were
punchy, clear mids and razor-sharp highs. Dream Theater's excellent Stream of Consciousness
-- an 11-minute track with a tight and progressive mix of complex
instrumentation -- was superbly reproduced, with sonic accuracy across
the board. Petrucci's powerful twin guitars were driven superbly
alongside subtle, yet complex, keyboards and pianos. These were all
undisturbed by the deep rumble of John Myung's bass guitar lines.
Your ears can be slightly protected by an automatic volume limiter, and a whole bunch of EQ presets and audio 'enhancements' will help you customise your music's feel. It's worth noting that there's no gapless playback option, so a split second silence is audible between tracks.
Video playback is top notch and videos with up to 320x240-pixel resolution are supported. We tried a widescreen video podcast encoded with a 320x180-pixel resolution and a data rate of 340kbps. The results were terrific and watching this short video on the small screen was perfectly enjoyable. We can't guarantee watching the Lord of The Rings trilogy would be quite as easy, mind you.
Battery life is rated at 33 hours for audio, eight for video. Check back soon to see if these estimates match what we achieved in our tests.
Conclusion
Sony's NWZ-A81x series is certainly
impressive. It's easy to use, sounds great, looks great and -- now
there's no SonicStage -- it's a delight to manage. The significantly
lowered price tag should make this very capable player even more
attractive to consumers, and a great alternative to Apple's new iPod nano.
If you'd prefer even more extensive control over your sound quality and a greater choice of codec support, consider Cowon's superb iAudio D2.
Available from AdvancedMP3Players.
Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday
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User reviews2
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stuboy 5 November 2007
Good: no software & effortless using
Bad: headphone leakage
Comment: have the 8gb version nwz-818, brilliant sound best ive heard on a mp3 player & i have owned a few? just got rid of new nano 8gb video as sound was awful even with sennheisser cx 300 headphones in? the standard headphones on this player i would give about 8 out of ten, but just a little too much leakage for my liking.use the sennsheissers sound awesome no sound leakage. this player is a must buy can't be pleased more with the sound, looks, build,video is a sharp as the new nano but the sony somehow feels a little bigger? same 2" screen but you can turn video around, any ipod future buyers listen to this first as sound reproduction is A1. if sound is the foremost in your mind.it's also nice not using sonicstage ? using my mates music is so much better as all you do is drag & drop. you can also customise the sound also by changing the bass mid & treble as well as just using the presets.build is a nice metal,feels like quality not plastic.the only critisysm is no video converting sofware? hope you found this useful
Strange Visitor 22 October 2007
Good: Menu system; build quality; bright, high definition screen; sound quality
Bad: non-standard USB connection; cannot create playlists "on the fly"; no bluetooth
Comment: I finally got frustrated with the "touch-sensitive" navigation of the Samsung YP-Z5, so decided to purchase another MP3 player.
I've had MP3 players since before the advent of the iPod, and decided I would again avoid following the masses and look for a non-Apple player.
My first "personal stereo" in 1985 was a Sony Walkman cassette player, and the brand has always been associated with quality personal audio, so this was the first brand I looked at.
What has put me off in the past is that my wife had an A1000 and I put the songs / playlists on for her and I found the bundled software so frustrating to use.
Given that this software (SonicStage) is no longer necessary on these new models (A815,6 & 8) and the review on CNet was so positive, I decided to purchase the A816.
The screen is bright and sharp. Photo's look excellent on it. The menu system is simple and intuitive with many tweaks to customise the settings.
The 3.5" jack is in an unusual place (bottom left) but this doesn't cause a problem.
The buttons are clearly labelled and set out. I find this system much better to use than the touch sensitive ones of the Samsung YP-Z5 and the iPod range.
Tracks can be dropped directly into the "Music" folder using Windows Explorer. However, the only way I could get the player to accept a playlist was to sychronise the whole library and playlists using WMP11. I tried using MediaMonkey and an old version of MusicMatch, but found WMP the most reliable method.
There doesn't appear to be a way of creating playlists on the player (I was able to do this on the Sony Walkman w810i phone, that I had last year, so I was surprised that facility was missing on this MP3 player).
This player is attractive, has excellent screen and sound quality. It's light, robust and easy to use.
It would have been nice to have had bluetooth on this machine (similar to the new Samsung YP-T9) but this omission doesn't detract from what is an excellent media player.
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