iPod or Sony Walkman

Techy Geek

Daemon Poster
Messages
1,320
My goddam iPod broke as I was trying to fit a new battery from eBay, and the Molex connector from the keypad to the mainboard broke, so now I have a useless iPod :(.
I (think) I'm going to send it off to be fixed, and then just sell it 'cos I'm just fed up with c*** battery life and not having enough space for all my music.
So the decision boils down to this:

Buy a new iPod (specs:http://www.apple.com/ipod/features.html)

or the new Sony Walkman (specs:http://www.sony.co.uk/view/ShowProd...ageType=Overview&category=PAW+Network+Walkman)

As far as the possibilities of playing video on the iPod are concerned, that means little to me as I don't really have many video's that I would put on it, it uses space that I need for music, and I have a portable DVD player anyway, so ignore that feature.

What do you guys (gals) think?
 
imo, the ipod would be the best opinion becuase im sure you know how they work, and have got programs like itunes itstalled on your laptop? or is it broken lol?
 
lol, its broken again, so I'm just getting a new one from my company (so its free for us :D). I have iTunes, but winamps WMP and others as well, to get the sony walkman to work, I need the Connect software, but apparently its absolute c***, I might wait a few months, but I figured for only a tad more than the price of a 2gb Nano (I would never get a Nano, way too fragile) I can get 10 times more space and a much much better battery life than any of the iPods. Has anyone got the new Sony Walkman, I have read some reviews and a lot of people are saying that they're better than any of the iPods.
 
Hey, i'm going to get one hell of a slating for this from iPod lovers (the world basically)...

(I'll get to the point in the end i promise, i've used both the players in question and their software so i can give a good point. I just want to rant first):

I think iPods are s**t. I've been looking at HDD players since the summer and got mine this Christmas. When looking i considered two things; style (because we all care what we look like really) and functionality...which is which is more important 'really'.

I think iPods suck because they, i admit, looked cool...emphasis on "looked" because they now so common than they're neither cool, or not. I find it phenominal how iPods are now items which literally everyone has and therefore they're not even noticed anymore. When i go back to 6th form after the holidays, everyone'll have got the new video iPod for Christmas, and...ironically, despite buying the 'coolest' toy around, no-one'll bat an eyelid cos everyone'll have one anyway!

...What i find even more impressive about the iPod is how no-one seems to have noticed the fact that it's really not that good technically. There's a lot of players out there which'll do the same, with better audio quality, and...the major point; for a longer period of time as the the iPods battery is nothing but a joke. My mates all come to 6th form and moan about how their iPods have run out of battery by the end of the day and i want to slap them and ask them why they keep buying bloody ipods, every time they break, because...As you've shown; they do. I swear everyone who has an iPod eventually has a problem with it!

Besides the point of video playback, which you've said doesn't matter...I just feel that when analysed sufficiently, there is nothing good about the iPod. It makes me feel physically ill how that little cuboid has managed to take over the world...cos they're everywhere.

...I actually have nightmares about iPods.

Right, now i've got all of that out...Sorry, i don't quite know how many people i've offended)...I'll move on to the 'point'.

Right, i used an NW-A3000 which i borrowed of a friend for a couple of days a month or so ago when i was choosing my HDD player.

It's a really neat player. It's built nicely; solid as a rock and looks the bees knees in a kind of retro-but-modern sort of look; it's like a blob which i think is cool. I can't remember the exact battery life but i used it pretty intensely for a couple of days and it was still on full power. That's the main thing i love about Sony players; the battery life in them is awesome and the CD players, MD players, etc etc i've used all work longer than even specified.

My only issue with the NW-A3000 is it's screen, which is good, don't get me wrong. But it's not colour and high resolution and all that. It's a basic black and white screen which is crisp and tells you what you need to know. So, it just depends on if you like a colour screen. What is quite cool about it though is that you can't see the edges of it because it blends in with the coloured shell on the player, so, it kind of looks like the text etc is floating there...I like that. The navigation is simple and easy to use, no fancy scroll wheel. It, once again, just depends on if you want features like that or not.

Finally is software which, i honestly think is good and comparable with iTunes which is a very nice program. I believe the player works with SonicStage? I've not used or heard of "Connect Software". If you go to the Sony Connect Store site, the only software there SonicStage, which is what Sony've always used for all their players. Anyway, you'll have to check that out.

Right...Sonicstage. Everyone says it's bollocks and, it was. I've used it since my netMD (Sonicstage v1.5) and it really was appauling. It was slow, faultly, and just really nasty. However, 2.0 was a little better, and now Sony have released 3.0 which i honestly think is great. It's actually 3.3; the latest version and i use it for the HDD player i got. You can download it to take a look at http://www.connect-europe.com/ if you want to see what the software's like...I really really like it now and have no complaints, despite hating the origional versions of the software.

The main thing i've come to love about Sony's new players is the file formats. Atrac3, Atrac3plus, and the new Atrac3-lossless; the formats sony develops for it's players, seriously rip it out of MP3's. Sonicstage gives a collosal amount of formats and bitrates to suit everything, and the compression is great. I use Atrac3plus at a bitrate of 192kbps and it sounds crisp with great bass, no issues with the highs and lows either. It all depends on balancing size with quality, obviously the lossless format is ridiculous for a player as it uses so much space, but an average 4min track using Atrac3plus at a bitrate of 192kbps sounds brilliant and compresses to under 2mb a track, you've got to give the formats a go to realise how great they are.

Anyway, that's about it i believe. I'd seriously suggest that, or any of Sony's new players as they're awesome and lightyears ahead of the ipod in the audio department, especially with their formats which is important as you said size for music was an issue.

...Finally wanted to say that the player i actually chose in the end, which took me a hell of a lot to get one, was this:
m242_03.jpg


It's a Vaio Pocket VGF-AP1L. If you can get one i'd recommend it as i reckon it's the best player ever made...20hr+ battery life and all. Makes the iPod look a joke.

Hope all of that helped Techy Geek, actually quite enjoyed writing all that!:)

Appologies to anyone with iPods too btw, i just don't like them! (bet you'd guessed that).
 
im thinking of getting the other one with the floating text thingy going on, yea i wont buy another ipod again considering the price they charge for how little you get and how cheap and flimsy they feel. plus battery life sucks. how much is that VAIO?
 
RRP for the Vaio is something ridiculous like £400-£450...But, most places sell the 40GB version for like £300, which, was still out of the question when i looked for one.

I think they're out of production now as Vaio are making a new one or something...I don't know, i think that's why they're so hard to get hold of.

I found mine eventually on Ebay, brand new; £150. Made me happy! If you can get one i'd highly recommend it. There's a firmware update which is now available with more skins for the player, plus MP3 playback (if you really want that, Atrac3plus is way way better), and easier interface. It's such a sweet player, i'd definately give it a go to get one if i were you.

...If not, the Sony A3000 thing is awesome, i'd go for that.
 
Hey,well I'd never go for an ipod...

And I did have that A3000 sony player for 2 hours...
I then took it back to the shop, because the volume didn't go high enough, and even with the equaliser set to full, the bass was too low :(

i did find a hack on the internet though after to fix this,and its not illigal so should be fine to say here.

The battery life on that player is great though at 30+ hours, and the attrac format isn't bad either, though I still haven't had a sony player for more than a couple of hours :p

Anyhow though, between those two, i;d choose the Sony player again,though for price vs features, it is pretty horrible, and the 20gig version is actually rather heavy and definietly noticable in the pocket, though it offers great battery life, and good features in the way of DJ. Its just a shame the sound didn't get more work :(

Its an audio player so should have offered bass options,and more sound features... i mean there sony!!! They have all this bass reflex stuff,and didnt put it into the player, and also a few features from the HD5 (the same player basically but lighter, but the only thing it doesnt have that the new one does is the DJ feature, which matters to me, otherwise the shuffle isnt defined enough)

If i'd of known about the hack though,i probably would have kept it, and wouldn't have found out about the Creative Zen Vision M coming out in a few weeks, though that does have problems of its own.
For instance, a 14hr battery life for audio,and a 4hr battery life for video... but on a non removable battery... That sucks, when its basically the same type of player as the Zen Micro...
Though 14hrs isn't too bad,if it does actually last that long,but your more likely to get 11-12hrs at 192kbs MP3 and with equaliser/bass on.

But that will cost about £230 when it comes out which isn't bad really (except the ipod video costs £219 but doesnt come with an adapter to rexcahrge on the wall,and also wont offer the 14hrs of audio for very long... plus, with vey poor audio quality, its not for me), so if you want features (30gb music/photo/video which supports Divx, etc, go for that), if you want a battery life and dont care about video or photo (like i dont, though i have other reasons^) go for the Sony :) Though, if you want it to feel good in your pocket and still offer the same features, find a HD5 from the internet which will be alot cheaper, but just the same ;)

Kage, Over and Out.
 
Back
Top Bottom