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A review by harmonic_overtones on Sony Network Walkman NW-HD5 20 GB December 27th, 2005
Author's product rating:
Sound Quality
Excellent
Ease of Use
Average
Look & Design
Excellent
Range of Features
Average
Value for Money
Excellent
Advantages:
Small, massive battery life, decent buttons, looks great and great sound
Disadvantages:
low resolution screen, softwares a bit iffy at times
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
This mp3 player has recieved very mixed reviews all over the internet which caused great annoyance to me, and many long nights of trawling through looking for someone that actually knew what they were talking about. I was confronted with morons giving it one star and leaving reviews such as 'DOWn WiTH SOniCSTAGE it SUCKS!!!!!!' which really didn't help me at all. In this review I will try and make the good and bad points of this mp3 player clear, to avoid undue stress for others
We will start at the beginning...
Apperance
This thing looks stylish, with its sleek design and nice lines it could be seen as a fashion accesory to rival the iPod. It is also quite a bit smaller than the iPod, about three quarters of the length and the same thickness and depth. It comes with a stupid looking fuzzy pouch thing that really doesn't look good, and isn't useful at all. It barely even fits the player in it. To be fair I just chucked it away and never gave it a second thought until now. The edges of it are concave and really give it that stylised look. I have the black version and I like it, it is matted and a nice effect.
Build Quality
This is very strange at first. I picked it up and it felt quite fragile in my hand, it felt as if the metal surrounding the player was wafer thin and I feared that it would break. The metal is soft, and suspiciously cold to the touch. There is a plastic bit at the top, where the player connects to USB wire that flicks off and is held on by a tiny little piece of flexible plastic. Don't be fooled by it's apparent flimsiness however. I have tested this through the rigours of everyday life and it is more than capable of withstanding quite severe knocks and contortions. I have unwittingly jettisoned my unfortunate player down my stairs on a number of occasions and it has remained completely unharmed. The player includes a special anti-shock feature that ensures it will not get damaged in all but the most severe of accidents. That will give you piece of mind if nothing else. The player is very pleasing to hold, it's buttons are very nice to the touch and actuate in a very satisfying and sturdy way. The screen of this player is made of thick ground glass, so is virtually unbreakable, although it is very prone to small scratches appearing through abrasion against clothes etc. These scratches will only be visible when light shines on the screen and do not bother me, but if you think this would be a problem then you can get screen protectors along with other things to safeguard your HD-5. All of the input connections are sound and there are no gaps where moisture, sand or small animals can get in which is a bonus.
The sound
This player sounds great, it is one of the most sonically able devices available for purchase as an mp3 player. The only problem for people is the volume of the player. Many people complained about it not being loud enough for them to enjoy, and when I first got my player, I couldn't believe how quiet it was. I got all worked up and angry, started making up names for the Sony salesman then I suddenly calmed down and thought rationally about it. A quick internet search revealed an extremely simple way of turning off the volume limit, it takes about a minute if you follow the instructions. With the standard earphones the sound is not bad, however it can get a bit harsh with certain songs. It is definitely a good idea to adjust the EQ when you get your player, this makes a great difference to your sound. There are several models of venues, ie. To make your songs sound as if they're live and there is a graphic EQ for your fine tuning. A good tip to make it sound good through the standard earphones is to ramp up the bass to compensate for their incompetence. I must say that the compression of Atrac and Atrac plus sounds great, you have to hear it to believe.
Ease of Use
You may have heard about the failings of the SonicStage software, and to be fair it does have its faults, but most can be overcome by simply thinking things through. You have to take care to read the manual in order to work it, and it is a bit of a chore for importing and transferring mp3 files you have that are already existing. For importing CD's it works brilliantly. The software is not as bad as it is made out to be, and does not detract from the desirability of the player at all, you get used to it.
The player itself is very easy to navigate, the buttons being dependable as they are, they can sometimes be a bit slow although with the search initial functions it is easily mastered. The screen is a slightly lower resolution than I have seen in other players. This is no real issue, but noticeable. Linking it up to the PC is easy enough and you should have a pretty stress-free time with your HD-5.
Features
The HD-5 is pretty much the bread and butter. It has no fancy recording functions, games or other frivolities. One of the best things about it is the monster 40hour battery life (the battery is also removeable), It has been designed to be an exceptionally good mp3 player that has a great sound, compatability (it plays wma) and style all in a compact package.
Overall
The HD-5 is a joy to own. It looks great, so impresses your friends, it sounds great and it feels great, which is a bonus. If you are considering buying an mp3 player from this price range then this is definitely the one to choose. If you are looking for a honest, hardworking and sonically sparkling experience I recommend it.
This player kicks major iPod behind for a number of reasons:
40 hours of battery life compared to a measly 12 hours.
It fully charges in 3 hours, and charges 70% in just one.
The battery is replaceable so you can look smugly over to the sheep who is left stranded with a lifeless iPod.
It uses the Atrack format, which holds twice as many songs at the same quality of mp3 files, thus giving it double the capacity.
It is a lot smaller, and doesn't look like some kind of toilet prduct like the iPod does.
It uses good buttons instead of a clickwheel which loses responsiveness and can lead to arthritis (it's true!).
It costs around about the same, maybe cheaper (I bought mine for £180, the price may go down with the release of the new sonys, making it even better value!)
And iPod's are so clichéd, don't you think…
Stand out from the crowd, and be eternally grateful that you chose the far superior HD-5. Now stop reading and go buy it!
The first thing you notice about this MP3 is how heavy it is, its great. I can have this monster in my pocket and feel safe in the knoledge that if it falls out or I leave it somwhere, I will know.......Instantly. About 1/100th of a second later, you notice that you are holding a brick, wrapped in silk. The satin finnish of the all metal case is so smooth and tactile that i havent had to stroke my cat for weeks.
I have always been a fan of sony, ... ...and perfect. Like all simple things, this has very little to go wrong........i have had four MP3 players in the last 3 years........all of them, very quickly developing faults, glitches or just plain breaking. I have had this MP3 for around 6 months and so far........nothing. I have lost count of the ammount of times i have dropped this machine, on concrete, on tarmac and on wooden floors and as i hold it in my hand now it now (mmmmm smooth) i cant ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: indestructible, great battery life Disadvantages: bit dated
...taken I will be buying Sony mp3 player in future, although I love this one that much I can’t see that being for a while.
Easy of use – pretty standard scroll menus, good selection of playback options, Sony also has an Artac 3 format which is more compact than mp3 format – roughly about half the size so you could technically get the equivalent of 40gb mp3 format of tracks on 20gb on Artac format. I have roughly half mp3 and half Artac and use really ... ...– If I had more time I’d change it all to Artac but could never be bothered…
The software was worse than pish when I first got it but I’ve downloaded a few software updates since then and its now works fine, no problems with it crashing (at first it always did) reasonably easy to figure it out as well.
To sum up really good sound quality as far as mp3 players go, and its completely indestructible, a road roller wouldn’t damage this thing…. ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Battery life, storage, size Disadvantages: Not a multimedia device (if that's what you're after)
Storage, Dimensions, & Use
I love this mp3 player, in my eyes, it truely is one of the best of the bunch. I rate it highly because of the high battery life (~40 hours). I don't use it everyday anymore (I don't walk or cycle as much as I was) but with heavy daily use I still only needed to charge it once a week or so. Now, I literally charge it once every six weeks or so - and I still use it a fair bit, just not every day and not on every journey ... ...getting used to and it is slow - takes half an hour on average to transfer a few albums - but of course there is always a downside to every benefit. In this case, the atrac3 conversion means the NW HD5 stores not just 20GB of music - but about ~50GB in reality (when compressed). I can store most of my mp3s on this, and of course not everyone wants or needs this, but for me it's a major plus point because I am lazy with updating and switching tracks ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: 40hr Battery, Sleek, Large Micro Hard Drive Disadvantages: Slow file conversion, Tiresome buttons
The Sony HD5 is a very sleek, expensive looking MP3 player that doubles up as a large storage device if you don't own enough music to fill its Micro Hard drive with a capacity of 20GBs, that's around 13,000 Songs! (Even more if you use less bit rate)
MP3 has been around for years and has dominated the main market of online music files for most of its life, but Sony like their own format, ATRAC.
ATRAC gives the user more control over the sound and ... ...to the MP3 player, as Sony believe its not a good thing to just drag and drop music files, after all the person who buys the songs, owns the right to have them, not for example the computer you just happen to drop them on, like your friends!
In transferring your music using this software Sony's HD5 is able to categorise all your music, into Genre, File type, Artist, Favourites, and Bit rate, which is nice in one sense, but means that your files ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
I got a Sony NW-A1000 for Christmas a couple of years ago but I ran out of space so sold it and bought this one to replace it. I have to say I much prefer this model. This is a Advantages:
- So much space. I've got over 3000 songs on it including a lot of podcasts which take up more room, and I've only used about half of the space on it.
- Good quality sound. I put songs on with an 80kbs bit rate which is low (standard is 128, 192) but the quality ... ...their scroll wheel and the Sony NW-A1000 has the alphabet letter jump. On this though you have to go up and down through all the songs/artists.
- The software that is comes with is Sonic Stage. This is not the best as it doesn't remove all the songs that you have taken off the library. You need to delete them from the MP3 itself. Still this software is ten times better than Connect Player.
- Because of the colour, scratches can look more noticeable ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Supported Digital Audio Standards: WAV, WMA, ATRAC3plus, MP3, ATRAC3
Playback Modes: Repeat shuffle, repeat all
External Hard Drive Function: Built-in, Yes
Features: Variable bit-rate compatible
Headphones
Headphones Type: Headphones - binaural
Connectivity Technology: Wired
Sound Output Mode: Stereo
Connections
Connector Type:
1 x headphones ( mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm )
1 x USB
1 x DC power input, 1 x DC power input
1 x USB
1 x headphones ( mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm )
Manufacturer's product description
Sony's worldwide reputation for creating unique, attractive, high-quality, advanced technology products rests on a long line of innovations embraced by people from all walks of life. With a diverse product lineup serving a variety of lifestyles and industries, Sony continuously strives to introduce new products and technologies to meet changing market needs. PRODUCT FEATURES: 20 GB internal Hard Disk Drive memory; Fast music and data transfer via Hi-Speed USB connection; Capable to store audio, visual and data files (Word, Powerpoint, ATRAC, Mp3, Jpeg, Mpeg, etc.); SonicStage 3.1 software for easy music management and transfers; Sony's unique G-sensor technology protects the internal HDD even if it falls from a height of 1 m; Directly playback: ATRAC / MP3; Extremely long playback time of up to 40 hours with the built-in rechargeable battery; Large 7 line (1.5 inch) LCD with various backlight colors; Ultra compact size weighing just 135 grams.
