How Sony's HD Audio Player Falls Short

Mr_Silver writes "Sony's new MP3 based HD player (the snappily titled NW-HD3) is reviewed over at head-fi.org. Unfortunately it can't remember where you last were located when browsing, you can't list all the songs by an artist, 1.5 hours to transfer 2100 songs (instead of the iPod's 15 minutes) and a wall of noise in the output. Final conclusion? 'If there was a way I could return this thing, I'd do it in a second.' So close, yet so far." Update: 12/14 00:35 GMT by T : Not quite so fast: As forums.minidisc.org Administrator Christopher MacManus writes, it turns out that (as the threads below this review reveal), "The reviewer discovers that the unit he had is defective as someone else employs one and there is no hiss issue. Furthermore, the software woes he experienced are related to him employing JAPANESE software on an English operating system. Sonicstage 2.3, which he needs to use the unit, is now available in English."

Comments

Uh-oh

[bennomatic]

Too slow to load, can't list songs by artist, wall of noise. Lame.

Now I've done it; I've doomed the thing to be wildly successful!

ipod killer?

[atlaz]

Sounds like a real ipod killer there. I can just see the legions of fans marching through the streets, screaming at the top of their lungs, I want my NW-HD3, I want my NW-HD3!

I can't wait to get one and throw my Ipod in the trash. Listing songs by Artist was overrated anyway.

sarcasm is deadly

Did he actually get...

[gordgekko]

Unfortunately it can't remember where you last were located when browsing, you can't list all the songs by an artist, 1.5 hours to transfer 2100 songs (instead of the iPod's 15 minutes) and a wall of noise in the output. Final conclusion? 'If there was a way I could return this thing, I'd do it in a second.' So close, yet so far."

I wonder if the reviewer made an honest mistake and actually received a genuine Sorny product. Anyway, I would have went with a Panaphonics.

Re:How do things like this make it past q&a?

[wastingtape]

On the outset it looks odd, but if you consider your own job, it begins to make sense. I don't think i've ever had a job, regular or contract, that invovled all of the following: 1. Talented Management 2. Financial Resources 3. Clearly Outlined Plan or Goal I've noticed that typically at least once is missing, if not all three. I think we look at it the opposite way. With the massive-sized companies of now-days how is it that they manage to actually get a compelted product to the shelf and still make all those fluff meetings and play office politics?

Re:In case it's /.'ed -- ugh ugly

[momerath2003]

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Stop spamming slashdot.

Translation:

[Gothmolly]

I want to be über-pimp and get an iPod, but I want to be avant-garde, so I bought a Sony, which sucks, compared to the iPod. Did I mention that my wife is Japanese? That gets me gadget-geek points, doesn't it?

Re:Sigh...

[Anonymous Coward]

In the meantime, I'll wait for the "SONY SUCKS! APPLE RULES!" posts to suck up more internet bandwidth and database server space.

Thanks very much for waiting. We've been a little distracted, because most of us are camping out at Steve Jobs apartment so we can kiss his feet when he walks by.

We'll be along presently to overwhelm with our posts. We just have to log it in our Newtons.

Love,

Fan Boy Brigade.

Re:minidisc much worse than sony's hdds.

[stratjakt]

I'l sum this up by saying that I just wish Sony could build their future players like they used to with the Walkmans: Built to last.

I had a really nifty Walkman my old man got straight from Sony in Japan when he toured their facility for some big B2B deal.

It was no bigger than a cassette tape holder, had built in retractable headphones, one touch fforward and rewind.. Really really slick and packed with features. As high-end a portable product as Sony made at the time.

And it broke into a million pieces when it fell out of my hand into my lap. My lap, not the hard floor, it fell about 8 inches and landed in my lap and fell apart.

Built to last my ass. The two dollar knockoff walkman I got at radio shack ran circles around that high-end piece of shit.

Re:what were these guys thinking?

[Anonymous Coward]

Get a life. And take that penguin out of your ass.

Re:what were these guys thinking?

[Anonymous Coward]

But the BOSE line is right on, you know "Buy Other Speakers Eventually" and "No highs? No lows? It must be BOSE." Sorry... I have friends that work in big box electronics.

Re:That's HDD, not HD

[techsoldaten]

HDD - That's hard disk drive, which is a useful and important feature the Sony device possesses over some of it's competitors. Oher devices make use of more primitive, potentially dangerous playback and storage mechanisms, including:

1. Copper wire connecting 2 tin cans, which is limited by geographic proximity to external broadcasting device (approximately 5 feet) and subject to external interference
2. Flintstones-style singing miniature Pterodactyl, which is known to develop an attitude over time and make gut-busting wisecracks in place of music
3. 'Space-Time Continuum' abnormality actually linking listeners with original performance, which occasionally disintegrates the listener
4. Shrunken city whose sole purpose is to exactly recreate tracks on penalty of death, which is limited by lifespan and extremely sensitive to shaking and tapping on the device
5. Ghosts of the band, which have a penchant for telekinetically elevating the listener during emotionally charged tracks and sometimes becoming visible to young children
6. Specially trained M&M Minis forced to sing, which are hard to keep housed within the device and nearly impossible to reinsert when the device's housing is breached

M

Re:An iPod Convert

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously, nothing I have tickered with at WorstBuy (tm) or CircuitCrapy (tm)

CircuitShitty (tm), surely?

Re:Sony originality draught

[Indy Media Watch]

Hey you forgot the Aibo...Everyone tries to duplicate that.

With sometimes tragic consequences as I found out when attempting to insert four AAA cells up my late dog's behind.

Re:How could this biased article be posted?

[jdawg]

You must be new here.

Judging on the update to the story...

[kernelistic]

Egg, meet Face. Face, Egg. :)