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"Stylish superb sounding WALKMAN" on by lil-yankee
Pros: Amazingly crisp sound plus top of the line headphones
Cons: No Itunes like program to sinc and go
Summary: I have tried this new walkman and I was very much pleased by the sound. Dont get me wrong, the thing sounds like nothing else I heard before, only that I was pleased to see that sony kept in track with their usual amazing sounding walkman legacy. It also has fantastic battery life, I didnt' get to waste it of course (I have a life) but it appears that it gives 10 hours of video and 36 of music. The user interface was for my amazement very easy to use as far as to say that it was faster to find things as compared to my ipod-touch. I would really buy this if i DIDNT have a touch only because of the sound. It also looks pretty good but it cant touch my Ipod-Touch in that department and also in the internet ability. If sony could make something that competes with itunes in ease of use they would get back some of the music chunk they used to have. I mean, the thin is very very portable and pretty and not so expensive and its arround 1-2 in best sounding mp3 players ever the first being another walkman. Is only that is boring having to drag music from folder to folder it doestn feel like 2008. If sony gets that right i SEE many people buying that even myself. The video I forgot to mention was very crisp and the layout of the GUI was very well placed.
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"Great audio quality, good value" on by TrevorK
Pros: sound quality, convenient interface/button controls
Cons: missing features, no fm, no podcast directory
Summary: Great player for music, bundled headphones put the ipods and most other competitors bundled units to shame. interface is simple and easy to use, buttons are responsive and conveniently placed, hold button and volume controls on the side can be controlled without having to look at the thing. Battery life is excellent, video quality is good with great battery life. it can be hard to figure out how to encode the videos at first since it doesn't come with software. Jodix free ipod video converter will transcode into mpeg4 and is about simple as it gets. handbrake and media coder will give you more control and encoding speed. Handbrake is free and will transcode dvds. Media coder also transcodes videos of many formats and is free. h264 support is more tricky. it requires that level=13:bframes=0:cabac=0 be placed in the advanced tab of handbrake. similar settings required in media coder. after you figure that out the videos turn out quite well and are very watchable and smooth on the screen. the h.264 lets you get away with quite low bitrates and still retain a very crisp and smooth video. using at least 128kbps audio and you get perfect audio from the included headphones, you even get a surprising amount of bass which is nice if you've encoded a film. no audio quality sacrifice needed when it comes to video on this unit.
and unlike some other players..the eq and other sound settings actually are quite effective.
the only downside, no podcast directory. So even if you separate with a directory structure within music, you cannot shuffle music very well if you are carrying audiobooks/podcasts. it also suffers from a lack of on the fly playlisting or ability to manage files on the go...delete etc.
i've found that it is cheap and easy to protect this player using a do it yourself transparent screen protector from bestskinsever which is the same material as the invisible shield stuff, and a cheap silicon skin to protect the rest. after that its pretty rugged and easy to take care of.
and the drag and drop capability is nice. if you want you can use winamp, wmp11, MediaMonkey, or J.River Media Jukebox instead to manage your content.
its a good practical player with top notch sound quality that beats more of the competition out there. even very expensive headphones are justified for use with this unit. and the headphones that come with it are far above average and will make most people quite happy. i know many players use touch screen or touch controls. after you get past the gee wiz factor those are a chore to use in real life. tactile controls you can manipulate within a pocket without looking make this player a winner. -
"The greatest MP3 player on the market" on by riddion
Pros: Totally magnificent sound. Can use my Bluetooth handsfree if I choose to. Menu is easy to use. The "Now playing" screen is really lucid with clear big letters. Great battery life.
Cons: It was bit of a clutter to make use of my huge iTunes library, going from iPod to the Walkman. The album art have to be importetd in JPEG format into the track to be shown in the player. It has small gaps between the tracks
Summary: All in all I am hugely impressed with the Walkman NWZ-A829. It is has the best sound of any player I have heard, having bought every iPod since the first with a touch wheel. I have a huge music library in iTunes (around 35 000 songs) and all of stereo tracks are encoded in 256 kbps AAC and the mono tracks are 128 kpbs single channel AAC (the same compression rate with one audio channel instead of two). All of my files sound so much better on the Walkman than on any of iPods. The iPods sound flat and boring by comparision. I still use my 160 GB iPod, which holds much of my music, and I use it only when a playlist (album) isn't transferred to by Walkman and the difference is staggering. Even my really old stuff with bad sound (live recordings from the 30s and 40s) sound better on the Walkman.
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"Best player not on the market" on by stevem5000
Pros: Superb sound quality...Bluetooth connects very easy... BT sound is every bit as good as wired phones...I use JBL 610 BT headphones..just have to find the right equilizer..
Small...I have a silicon cover and it does NOT slip out of my shirt pocket...Cons: Touch screen like iPod, extra memory would be nice...
Summary: I looked at the A829 a few years ago, decided it was too expensive...After I got a pair of JBL 610 BT headphones, paired to my laptop and found out how good the JBL's sounded, I started my search again...Was gonna get the classic iPod, but at the last minute decided to look for the Walkman again...
VERY dissapointed to find out it is not longer sold in the US...I think it's still available in Canada and Europe, but not sure...I tried all the big sellers, 47th St Photo, Amazon, speciality audio stores, nobody is carrying it...
Found 3 A829's on ebay...got a used one at 1/2 the price of new....
And I am so TOTALLY HAPPY with the Walkman I could just spit...:)
Hardest thing was finding a video converter...I tried several recommended by other users from various fourms, only the video converter from cucusoft.com worked...
Vdeo image is very good, strong saturated colors, good contrast, bright...easy to see...
The screen size is only 2.4"...so I don't watch movies on it...but since I put in a lot of butt time in airports, I do watch music videos...and for this the screen size is just fine...
Seems like everyone talks about the sound quality as being the best of any mp3 player...After 3 weeks of listening I would have to agree...believe it...it's true...
Choose your phones, BT or wired... then you have 5 equalizers to try out...or set your own...
I think Sony made a mistake taking this off the market...if that's in fact what they did...
Yes, doesn't have a touch screen like everyone else is doing...but take this player and price it lower and I think Sony would have a big winner...
If you're looking for an A829...and if you can find one on the used market...get it...you won't be dissappointed... -
"Wonderful Player Man What a Sound" on by faz
Pros: Excellent Sound mean I do have iPod Touch 2nd Gen but dude still I have to agree man for this Player specially with the sound no body can compare .
Cons: its not a Big deal does not have FM / Voice Reorder
Summary: These Player are still very Hard to Find you cannot get them everywhere and easily most of them are all Sold out and who ever got these they never sell itback . Believe me its worth every Penney
Sony Walkman NWZ-A829 user reviews (16GB, black)
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