- Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 31 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
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16 out of 31 people found this review helpful
0.5 stars
"No whiz-bang features are worth Big-Brother's Sonic Stage"
Pros: Nice look -- for a paper weight
Cons: Sony and Sonic Stage
Summary: Anyone that has ever suffered through Sony's overbearing, ridiculous DRM (remember the rootkits?) know that no incredible futuristic design can ever compensate for such absolute disregard of user rights. You can spend countless hours to extract those thousand(s) songs from your hundred(s) of valuable, legally owned CDs, only to find you can't copy them to your portable Sony media player. They have magically become Sony's property in "their" media library which requires you to "check out" the tracks from one Sony device to the other. Suppose you want to listen to a CD on your way to work then continue playing it while at work with the other 30GB of music?
1. Boot your Vaio
2. Connect your Sony "i-Pod wannabe" to your Vaio via the USB cable.
3. Check out the tracks you want to listen to from the Vaio to the wannabe.
4. Shut down the devices.
5. Disconnect & pack the Vaio and cables.
6. "Enjoy" the 20 minutes of tunes.
7. Unpack your Vaio and boot it.
8. Connect the 2 Sony devices.
9. "Check-in" the tracks from your "envy of i-Pod owners" back into your Vaio.
10. Spend the rest of your life warning humanity not to support Sony - in becoming their pet Aibo - walking and barking for their pleasure!
Assigning an appealing name like "Sonic Stage" is analagous to the Nazis calling the gas chamber a "shower."
- 12 replies to this review
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Sonic Stage wastes so much time and the file structure does not reflect the directory structure I have in windows explorer making finding some music impossible. Why can't I just click and drag instead of loading slow software that uses resources on my machine is is at lest 5 times slower than clicking and dragging from Windows explorer. It's my music, let me do as I please in the most efficient manner.
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I read the reviews before buying.After that,I went to use sonicstage with all that in mind.I have to say that at first I thought it was hateful,but that is because you expect the usual file transfer software,and SS works differently.If you free from your paradigms,SS deserves a chance,when you understand the way it works,the way it is thought,you can live with it.Strange software,based on music libraries,but you get used to it,and,what i believe most important, the gadget has great sound. And nice weight, touch and look.I dont regret, despite SonicStage.After all,with 2GB,one load,many listenings.
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sonicstage is not that bad. yes i have downloaded it i dont see the problem its just like any other music player. you dont need to comvert them to atrack anymore unless you want to. atrac give better battery life and more songs. but if you dont wanna waste your time them use click and drop into the player.
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I know the hassles with Sonic Stage and its horrible user interface and its DRM the hardware is fine, great actually with all their products, but their horrible software usually ruins it
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First of all, Sony allows your DRM music to be on 5 players (not sure if computers are counted). At that point you have to remove a device to add another, but even if you have 3 computers (2 desktops, 1 laptop?) and 2 music players (hus and wife?) then your within terms, so licenses can cover an entire family.
Next, the music you rip in sonic stage can be set to different formats, if you don?t like atrac3, then use mp3. If you don?t trust sonic stage, then rip in another program and import them. Any of these ways will make it DRM free, your ?experience? with sonic stage is incorrect, and I doubt you ever even used the software. -
Whatever happened to Atrac3plus? Can one play this kind of mp3 tracks also on NW-S205 ? Or will I have to buy me jet another sortof Sony-breed player?
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manual plz =/
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Comparing Sonicstage with the Nazi gas chambers tells probably more about your lack of brain cells as it tells about your knowledge of SonicStage. Although it may not be as user friendly as iTunes (and that's again very subjective) it does what it needs to do and gives me great value for money.
Also, DRM is not something invented by Sony, or exclusively used by Sony. Ask any iPod user about DRM and iTunes, that's a nice lock-in also. I have nothing agains Apple or iPod, but when I compared their players with the Sony ones the hardware and sound quality of the Sony players was for me far better as their respective iPod counterparts (which, I admit, is again very subjective).
Guess you don't like Sony because somewhere in the past their sister company (yep, it wasn't even Sony itself) made a mistake with the rootkit, and it's cool to keep bashing them ? Guess what, it's not, it's boring and stupid. But hey, keep stealing music, and then wonder why companies wan't to protect the their artists ... -
this place is for users to see how other users reacted with this product, not to criticize the company or its program. i do agree that Sonicstage is crappy software, however. this mp3 player is supposed to be simple and easy to use. its not like every mp3 player is made to go up against ipods.
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Just the fact that you said it's an "apple wannabe" makes me think lowly of such an opinion. Your vagueness and bluntness makes it repulsive to even bother with what you've said.
If you want to say "apple wannabe" to this product then why don't you say it to all mp3s? I mean, sure alot of mp3s look different and work differently from the Apple but it seems that that doesn't matter to you because maybe you're just an Apple lacky, who thinks nothing is better than that?
Eh? Before you make an opinion, try to be more settled and mature. -
First off, comparing Sony to Nazis - highly, highly inappropriate and, I think, just a touch exaggerative.
Secondly, the reason I think you're having so much trouble is that you forgot to uncheck the 'Add Copy Protection' option when importing the tracks. Otherwise, they're just files like any other - copy them to another computer like you would a word document and then import them into Sonicstage like you would with any piece of software like iTunes or WMP.
Although I do now regret buying my Sony Walkman, most people seem to have condemned Sony partly because of their own deficiencies in understanding the software. Now if we could just get *Sony* to understand the defincies in their software, we'll all be set... -
dude!.. i'v been there. lol
i have one of those sony walkman models from around a year ago.
not sure if i used it wrong or wut.
but i get a lot of songs from my frds, they just send them over as mp3. i tell ya, it takes u HOURS.. literally! trying to find the songs by author or album or date-added. cuz i keep my songs by folders, but u cant search for it like that... and (not sure about this model, but mine's) upload rate is sllow. and the types of format supported is not worth mentioning.
oh.. and did i mention, if u had uninstalled ur sonic stage, or tried to switch versions with a clean install? u have to format your player? losing all ur songs, and (=| OMG!!) re-upload ur songz!??? =_*
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