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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."
...A special kind of sadistic bastard to make a portable music player that doesn't play MP3 files (as most previous Sony products did). Sadistic bastards generally don't make stellar products when their main concerns are pushing file formats.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
Now I've done it; I've doomed the thing to be wildly successful!
The CB App. What's your 20?
it is possible to charge a 4G ipod off USB, I did it last night. It's likely a problem with your USB port.
Hmm. The iPod puts out fairly accurate low end when its hooked up to a stereo. Sounds to me like mavis had a problem with the headphones and decided to fix it in a rather too drastic manner. Ah, the curse of the early adopter who is influenced by the lure of the shiny new toy.
The poster does mention trying new headphones with the iPod (near the end of the "review"), but fails to say if they made a difference. The implication is that they didn't. Maybe this is because the iPod is missing a simple "bass boost" button (something which is far from lacking, between equalization and the desire for many people to listen to music without significant alterations)? Then again, this was written by a self-proclaimed bass-head non-audiophile...
Hmm. Sounds like a pretty solid vote for "not recommended" to me...
You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
I wonder if the reviewer made an honest mistake and actually received a genuine Sorny product. Anyway, I would have went with a Panaphonics.
You want to know who isn't running Firefox 2.x? They spell it "definately" and "rediculous".
I originally acquired a minidisc for one main reason: Battery Life. It would last around 50 hours on a single AA and that was the only thing I cared a year ago. Eventually I discovered all the issues with the technologies involved into this portable media.
Minidiscs (Net-MD and HI-MD) do have many issues such as:
- ATRAC only.
Compress your compressed mp3s into Atrac. Noticable Quality Loss. If you want to preserve the quality, then record LIVE (SP-Mode) like a cassette but do we really have time to do that?
Compress = lose time = quality loss = why?!?
- Cheap built quality.
Sony tends to make the higher-priced models built to last longer using material like magnesium unlike plastic of the lower-end models. It makes some sense I guess since it costs more but for a company like Sony, the company who ruled in the era of Walkmans (god those things were solid), I find it sad how the tables have turned. Walkmans used to take major beatings and they'd still function.
- slow transfer.
because of conversion and because it doesn't mearly use the potential of usb 2.0. Very abysmal on NET-Md's. On HI-Md's, they try to impress you with "100X" when in fact that's 500kb/s of burning speed.
I'm glad that Sony at least understood that it will take mp3 playback capability to at least compete in the market of portable audio players but they are already behind, way behind in the western countries and have a long way. They have to improve the software these players use (SonicStage has a horrible interface and barely enough features) and built quality of these players.
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.
The post mortems of this and other so-called "iPod Killers" are beginning to expose the difficulty of creating:
1) a sleek, feature rich MP3 player;
2) sleek, intuitive software to run on the player; and
3) sleek, intuitive software to interface with it.
(and optionally a sleek music store to interface with it)
For those who belittle Apple's achievement or dismiss their market success as "clever marketing," the failure of Sony and others to basically get their engineering shit in order should be more than telling: apparently, creating a great MP3 player really is hard.
No, it will charge off USB, just not as fast....
Just be sure you dismount the thing or it will continue to run and suck juice.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
But then again, how often does one swap out that many songs on and off a DAP?
Every time I go to a friend's house.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
"Oh, here is another over priced piece of Apple crap", I thought. And that time, I might have been right. I am not an Apple fan by nature.
I bought a 20 GB player from another company, and liked it well enough.
Earlier this year, I had the chance to get $100 off one of the new 4th gneration iPods. I decided on the 20 Gb to replace the brick that was my MP3 player.
I have never looked back.
My iPod is easily the best gadget (or maybe even technology item, period) that I have ever purchased. I love it. My life is now filled with music and audio books.
What I really don't get is how a company like Sony can fall on its face over, and over, and over. Seriously, can't Sony, f@cking Sony, figure out how to make a cool gadget to compete with iPod? Seriously, nothing I have tickered with at WorstBuy (tm) or CircuitCrapy (tm) from Sony even comes close to the ease of use and pure coolness that I have with my iPod.
As a software developer, I really don't get how a company that is often on or ahead of the curve like Sony and continue to f@ck it up!
Apple is in strange territory. Many times the first to market is also to far ahead of the market that they fail. This is not the case with the iPod, and Sony needs a huge shift in engineering and attitude if they want to even attempt to catch up.
Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds. - Albert Einstein
this is a prime example of how a product fails because of it trying to control the consumer.
... they tried to tell their customer base what they can't do. You can't have decent playlists on radio stations anymore, you can't buy singles anymore, you can't copy discs ... you get the picture. That's not the way to make sales, you make sales by empowering your customers and giving them what they need or want, and you do it for the right price. That's just good business. Sony is making the same mistake here: you, the customer, will do what we tell you, play the files we tell you, and because we're Sony you will obey. Phooey on them. If they keep that up all they'll have left is their media business and Playstations. Maybe that's all they want.
I might add that your comment also applies to music industry in general. The RIAA can point fingers in various directions as to why they aren't making the growth numbers to which they've become accustomed. But it's the same story
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
-- A Sony Employee
Ah, the NW-HD3; so easy to remember. I can hear it now:
"Mom and Dad, I really really want a Sony NW-HD3 this holiday season!"
Never mind sending Mom and Dad to the mall with that kind of information just invites holiday disappointment. The real problem is that Sony makes ten trillion different pieces of consumer electronics, all of which are named just as idiotically. KD-36XS955, HDR-FX1, DSC-F828 -- these are all real products I pulled off the Sony website. Do you have any clue what they are?
Contrast this with the branding Apple pulled off after Jobs returned: they went from having a confusing line of Performa 5200s, Performa 6300s, PowerMac 7200s, Powermac 8500s, PowerBook 1800s (etc. etc. the list goes on) to having three easily explainable product lines: iMacs, PowerMacs and PowerBooks and now iBooks and iPods. Easy. "Mom and Dad, I want an iPod". Done.
Granted this creates another set of problems (for tech support and repair shops especially) but overall the effect dramatically reduces consumer confusion dramatically. Why can't Sony and other electronics manufacturers learn from this lesson?
~jeff
I think the MP3 player industry is just crazy. Seriously, its just run by loons. My original Archos 6 gig was a very simple device. I would *gasp* make folders and put songs in them. Every other device I've owned had some special client software with some fancy synch crap.
It blows my mind that mp3 player developers think the user is so stupid that a simple copy and paste is beyond them, thus they must help them will these badly done client apps.
The worst is the Neuros. If an mp3 doesnt have an ID3 tag, it wont even show it in the damn "mp3 browser" part of the client software. Its exactly like the file doesnt exist. You have to find that file and manually edit the ID3. There's not even a n "unknown songs" category so I can do this in the client by looking at the filename. Not to mention, the only way to add songs is to use the client. If you copy a file over via USB, the device can't see it until the client updates its little database.
I hear people complain about their client software all the time. Crashes, too slow, etc. Do they even still make devices that act like hard drives?
Sony's hardware has fallen short of claims so much that when I see this I just think 'here they go again'
It's always the software portion. First it was the customized software drivers on their PCs which did less than the generic drivers. Then there was the net MD crap they forgot to tell you they had to convert all the files to atrac on your HD first and that up to 64X speed meant everyone got around 1.3X speed. Then their memorystick format didn't support sizes over 256mb - hence the 'pro' version. Funny NO OTHER flash format needed any upgrades from the first 8MB card to the 4GB cards.
His device was defective. There is no background hiss with this device, but unfortunately, most people will not see my comment and believe the aforementioned review. It's truly idiotic how the internet can be at times..
Use Minidisc? Join the Minidisc.org forums.
- Copper wire connecting 2 tin cans, which is limited by geographic proximity to external broadcasting device (approximately 5 feet) and subject to external interference
- Flintstones-style singing miniature Pterodactyl, which is known to develop an attitude over time and make gut-busting wisecracks in place of music
- 'Space-Time Continuum' abnormality actually linking listeners with original performance, which occasionally disintegrates the listener
- 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
- Ghosts of the band, which have a penchant for telekinetically elevating the listener during emotionally charged tracks and sometimes becoming visible to young children
- 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
MHave you checked out the iRiver HDD players? I can't speak for the 300 series, but I have the 140... and well let's go through the list...
1,2,3,4,8 it satisfies.
5 I spose you can do, but it's not a standard HD.
6 Not by ethernet, but if you connect via USB it just shows up as a normal harddrive, so you can do what you want from there
7 No, but it has standard mini out (obviouslly, plus optical out... so really you're all set there)