Well folks...I've been looking at MP3 players for the past few weeks and since the stuff I like is typically too high priced and/or too specific/technical for her to shop for such items?..wifey always makes me pick out and buy my own christmas present...and this year?...since I wanted tunes for the busa for the holiday riding session?...christmas came a little early for me in the form of a Sony NW507 Network Walkman MP3 w/ FM.
Now...I (like probably many here) ain't to keen on sonys latest proprietary protection shinanighans but...after careful review of ipod shuffles, cowens, samsung, Iriver and such?...I just had to go with the Sony NW 507 and..it freaking ROX!!!
Important features to me were...
1. Big Volume: (for use while riding the Busa) and...
2. Strong Battery Life: (like a weekends worth or more)
3. Ease Of Use: (Like...Navigating with a single gloved hand)
Price Point?: $100-$200 range.
and the Sony NW507 delivered stupendously on all counts with...
1. "Near Concert Level" Volume.
2. A built in 50 Hour Ion/Lithium recharchable right through the usb port and recharges at a rate of "1 minute charge time for each hour worth of battery life"...that's right..3 minutes in the usb port gets ya 3 hours playtime...right on up to 50 minutes charge time for 50 hours of battey/playtime.
3. Very easy controls and...more...waaaay more.
For the sake of comparison?...The 1 gig Ipod Shuffle was priced at $129 and it appeared to me that you simply navigate blindly using the thumb dial shuffling through your 240 max stored songs where....
For $159 at Sears?...Sony delivered bigtime with this cool @$$ OLED (with the "O" standing for "organic"..."carbon"..to be specific) Hidden Screen which allows you to flip through playlists with scrolling text via a 3 position toggle..with the toggle in the "Top/Group" position?...you get to scroll through all your "Album/Artist Titles"..then when you click the toggle down to the "Middle/Manual" position?...you get to scroll through all the "Tracks" in that particular "Album/Playlist"....and get this...press the "Disp/FM" button for 1/2 a second?...and shazam...your listening to FM Stereo..with a Preselect/Preset Channel feature where the toggle allows you to scroll through all the stations..or?...manual tune/seek if you wish.
I'm a bit of a technodork and every geeky dads worst disappointment but I found everything...including the Sonic Stage Software very user friendly but here comes the good/bad...1st the good...while the 1 gig ipod shuffle claims to hold approx 240 songs?...Sonys 1 Gig Network Walkman claims to hold a whopping..695 SONGS!!!...and now what could be "The Bad" for some...the sony is able to hold 3 X's as many songs as the ipod because...it converts the mp3 format to sonys ATRAC FORMAT prior to "Transfering" the song file too "The Device"...so...once in the device?...the file is no longer in MP3 format to share with your friends....but....for a 1 gig bic lighter sized package that holds 50 hours of battery life, an FM Tuner with presets and 695 of your favorite custom tailored mixes with a scroll through playlist/track/FM Station O.L.E.D. Display?...ask me if I care!
Folks?...Sony may very well be a bunch of anal buttwipes when it comes to "Piracy Prevention" but...their products whoop undisputable @$$....particularly..and specifically...the Sony Network Walkman.
Merry Christmas and...L8R, Bill.
Now...I (like probably many here) ain't to keen on sonys latest proprietary protection shinanighans but...after careful review of ipod shuffles, cowens, samsung, Iriver and such?...I just had to go with the Sony NW 507 and..it freaking ROX!!!
Important features to me were...
1. Big Volume: (for use while riding the Busa) and...
2. Strong Battery Life: (like a weekends worth or more)
3. Ease Of Use: (Like...Navigating with a single gloved hand)
Price Point?: $100-$200 range.
and the Sony NW507 delivered stupendously on all counts with...
1. "Near Concert Level" Volume.
2. A built in 50 Hour Ion/Lithium recharchable right through the usb port and recharges at a rate of "1 minute charge time for each hour worth of battery life"...that's right..3 minutes in the usb port gets ya 3 hours playtime...right on up to 50 minutes charge time for 50 hours of battey/playtime.
3. Very easy controls and...more...waaaay more.
For the sake of comparison?...The 1 gig Ipod Shuffle was priced at $129 and it appeared to me that you simply navigate blindly using the thumb dial shuffling through your 240 max stored songs where....
For $159 at Sears?...Sony delivered bigtime with this cool @$$ OLED (with the "O" standing for "organic"..."carbon"..to be specific) Hidden Screen which allows you to flip through playlists with scrolling text via a 3 position toggle..with the toggle in the "Top/Group" position?...you get to scroll through all your "Album/Artist Titles"..then when you click the toggle down to the "Middle/Manual" position?...you get to scroll through all the "Tracks" in that particular "Album/Playlist"....and get this...press the "Disp/FM" button for 1/2 a second?...and shazam...your listening to FM Stereo..with a Preselect/Preset Channel feature where the toggle allows you to scroll through all the stations..or?...manual tune/seek if you wish.
I'm a bit of a technodork and every geeky dads worst disappointment but I found everything...including the Sonic Stage Software very user friendly but here comes the good/bad...1st the good...while the 1 gig ipod shuffle claims to hold approx 240 songs?...Sonys 1 Gig Network Walkman claims to hold a whopping..695 SONGS!!!...and now what could be "The Bad" for some...the sony is able to hold 3 X's as many songs as the ipod because...it converts the mp3 format to sonys ATRAC FORMAT prior to "Transfering" the song file too "The Device"...so...once in the device?...the file is no longer in MP3 format to share with your friends....but....for a 1 gig bic lighter sized package that holds 50 hours of battery life, an FM Tuner with presets and 695 of your favorite custom tailored mixes with a scroll through playlist/track/FM Station O.L.E.D. Display?...ask me if I care!
Folks?...Sony may very well be a bunch of anal buttwipes when it comes to "Piracy Prevention" but...their products whoop undisputable @$$....particularly..and specifically...the Sony Network Walkman.
Merry Christmas and...L8R, Bill.
