Anyone got a Sony NWA3000 and can tell me about it?

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I want to get one but I'm hearing the usual complaints about Sony software (I think this one is Connect or similar) so I'm just wondering whether anyone on ILX has used one of these (or its little friend the NWA1000) and if they would recommend it.

I love the look but the whole software thing worries me because I'm so technologically challenged!

So. Any help available out there?

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Thursday, 12 January 2006 16:30 (twenty years ago)

http://www.jefflin.net/images/dre.jpg

― Rumpie (lil drummer girl parumpumpumpu), Thursday, 12 January 2006 16:46 (twenty years ago)

ihttp://usuarios.lycos.es/caraturap01/caratulas/Nwa_-_100_Miles_And_Runnin-front.jpg

― Rumpie (lil drummer girl parumpumpumpu), Thursday, 12 January 2006 16:47 (twenty years ago)

bah

― Rumpie (lil drummer girl parumpumpumpu), Thursday, 12 January 2006 16:47 (twenty years ago)

Now I have straight outta compton stuck in my head. Could be worse...

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Thursday, 12 January 2006 16:58 (twenty years ago)

The software requires a couple of updates before being useable; the firmware has one. The software tool sucks ass, it's slow and for some reason a resource hog.

The player itself works just fine and has brought me much happiness. The fact that the headphone plug can be set to lineout is handy. The only complaint I have is when you charge the the player the line out/headphones goes silent unless you use a docking station.

― Rufus 3000 (Mr Noodles), Thursday, 12 January 2006 17:47 (twenty years ago)

Cheers man. Could you tell me, is it possible to keep your MP3s seperate from the players software only dragging and dropping certain things and removing them without any change to the actual file? The reason I ask is that if it is easy to move files on and off the player then I might just get the smaller ones. Or does Connect just go through your computer and take every MP3 and convert it to its system?

Also what exactly is firmware?

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Friday, 13 January 2006 12:03 (twenty years ago)

The software doesn't re-arrange the files at all. I'll double check when I go home just to be sure but my winamp media library was unaffected. Whatever you do, don't let it scan the system. When you start it up the first time it asks to 'scan all disks' which is a waste of time and you'll have to deal with all the inane windows .wav files. Just choose the 'import directory' option and it whirls away for a few hours. Took a 2 or 3 hours for 6000 files or so.
You need to use their software program to transfer files to and from the player, but it doesn't seem to get involved otherwise.

Firmware: Best to think of it as software for the walkman itself.

― Rufus 3000 (Mr Noodles), Friday, 13 January 2006 14:37 (twenty years ago)

I won't. I had a rather scary experience like that with a downloaded media player. If it imports does it leave the original files behind and just copy them into the player? Or will I have to sacrifice the originals in order to prevent a doubling of RAM used?

Thanks for this Rufus. Would you recomend a move towards Winamp in tandem with this or am I okay just sticking with Windows Media?

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Friday, 13 January 2006 15:06 (twenty years ago)

It leaves the original files behind, and it just stores the details/location of the files in a database for use when it copies the files to the walkmen player. You're okay sticking with Windows Media player if you want. I just happen to use winamp myself.

― Rufus 3000 (Mr Noodles), Friday, 13 January 2006 15:31 (twenty years ago)

Alright! That's class, so basically it won't take up all my RAM. I think i'm sold. Do you need a protective case or anything? I take it that there isn't a remote control included. There rarely is!

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Friday, 13 January 2006 15:37 (twenty years ago)

No remote control included, you can buy one integrated with headphones but I forget the price. I saw two cases available from the Sony store, a leather one retailing at about $30CAD and a cheaper felt one at $10CAD. The docking station was $50.

The only important part is to install the updates before you start importing the files. It can be a little tricky to fix otherwise.

Apparently if your in Europe/UK there is some sort of tie in to an online music purchasing site. But it doesn't work in Canada and I didn't even see an option for the US.

― Rufus 3000 (Mr Noodles), Friday, 13 January 2006 16:00 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, I'm not really that comfortable with the whole tie in to anything sony after the whole spyware on cds thing. Really my concern is that the player will prevent me transferring things I might have purloined from nefarious webistes or that it would prevent me using my files as I want to.

I'll check online here and see what I can get accessory wise. I'm thinking remote as I would want to keep my shiny baby clean. Cheers for all the answers.

Now to find the money :)

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Friday, 13 January 2006 16:09 (twenty years ago)

Really my concern is that the player will prevent me transferring things I might have purloined from nefarious webistes or that it would prevent me using my files as I want to.

Phear not about that.

― Rufus 3000 (Mr Noodles), Friday, 13 January 2006 16:18 (twenty years ago)

Ah good. Now the ultimate choice: 6G or 20G. I'm absolutely torn. The only thing that gets me is the size of the 20G. Does it fit in jeans? It seems to be about the size of a long digital camera.

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Friday, 13 January 2006 17:08 (twenty years ago)

I use a coat pocket so I couldn't tell you.

― Rufus 3000 (Mr Noodles), Friday, 13 January 2006 17:12 (twenty years ago)

Then I'm afraid it is up to me now. Oh dear, why can't I be more decisive. Where did I put that coin...

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Friday, 13 January 2006 17:18 (twenty years ago)

it is kind of cool looking.

― Kim (Kim), Saturday, 14 January 2006 04:03 (twenty years ago)

I know! I was looking at the HD5 a few moths ago and then of course the whole thing about the cracking buttons happened so I got scared off! It's weird but I don't really like iPods, they just look so NICE and seem a bit too userfriendly(!) which makes no sense I know I know!

The great thing about this player is that it looks like it could take a couple of bangs which is necessary whenever I'm involved. I'm ridiculously lacking in coordination and have learned the value of Sony and how long they last in adverse conditions.

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Saturday, 14 January 2006 14:43 (twenty years ago)

I've had it a week now and a question: why did it only have 18gigs memory and what the hell has happened to all of it? I'm not even on 2,000 songs and I appear to have only 7 gigs left. Have I been doing something wrong?

Otherwise I lurve this baby. It DOES fit in a trouser pocket even in hideous silicon Sony cover I bought. Sound is amazing. Menu a bit slow going between artists etc which is a bit irritating as it can basically freeze up at times. Transfer of albums is incredibly fast if Connect is a hideously slow program when opening. I'm very happy I bought it!

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 12:57 (twenty years ago)

Calculator: 20 Gb divided by the advertised 13000 songs = 1.5 Mb per song. That's a very short and very badly compressed song...

(or: you've been had by the small print)

― StanM (StanM), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 13:10 (twenty years ago)

"songs"

― senseiDancer (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 17:52 (twenty years ago)

Sony claim that ATRAC3plus at 64kbps is the equivalent of MP3 at 128kbps, so, at that rate, you could squeeze a 3min track into 1.41MB. Hence 14,500 songs in 20GB. You'd have to be a bit mental to store all your music in 64k ATRAC3plus though.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 18:07 (twenty years ago)

Check the Walkman's version number under the Settings/Unit Information and make sure it's 2.01 or whatever the highest is there.

Otherwise try installing the latest
patch on that sight.

I've got a little over 700 songs on 4 gigs but that could be GYBE filling up space.

― Rufus 3000 (Mr Noodles), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 18:30 (twenty years ago)

"ATRAC3plus at 64kbps is the equivalent of MP3 at 128kbps"

That may be true but this definitely doesn't mean you can compress a 128kb MP3 to a 64kbit ATRAC3plus without loss of quality.

― mei (mei), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 13:45 (twenty years ago)

I presume Sony expect the user to encode all their music in ATRAC3plus as they rip their CDs; the fact that many users will already have vast archives in MP3 format on their hard drives is kind of a side issue for Sony.

(Couldn't you expand 128k MP3 to WAV and then back to 64k ATRAC3plus without any audible damage? The WAV, at least, should sound identical to the 128k MP3. This, I suspect, is not how the transcoding is done however).

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 13:55 (twenty years ago)

Yeah I figured that they wanted me to encode all the music to their thing, fat chance! Ah well, it's not a problem really as I've basically put on what I need for the moment. So glad I didn't go for the 6 gig! I'd be totally screwed.

Again, Rufus: cheers man, I'll give that a try, it is 2.01 tho. I'm just a bit disappointed at the 'loss' of 2 gigs from advertised size.

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 14:18 (twenty years ago)

It's the same for iPods: a 20 Gb iPod has about 18 Gb useable space.

― StanM (StanM), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 14:29 (twenty years ago)

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