Interesting news/reviews/deals from the portable audio market
CNET review: Sony NW-A1200: gets a 7.3/10. Stylish design, smart features when it comes to browsing/finding your music, excellent sound quality, wide format support (MP3/AAC/WMA/ATRAC3)—these are the good things. Unfortunately, the scratch-prone monochrome screen and the lack of extra features such as FM and recording, plus the ever-dreadful SonicStage kinda break things. [via]
Sony launches new Walkman line (NW-S20x), targeting the athletic crowd: the device comes in the shape of metallic cylinder that sports a 1-line OLED and a collar knob for music navigation. On-the-fly playlisting, FM tuner, G-Sensor functions, resistance to water and a pedometer complete the nice package.
The NW-S203F comes with 1GB of memory and goes [...]
According to a WSJ story (registration req. to read the article—ATRACLife has republished it), Sony admitted to reporters they failed to meet the initial sales target for their new line of models introduced over the past year. Sony president Ryoji Chubachi, who was quoted saying “We miscalculated with the Walkman”, declined to point out a [...]
Grado Labs has started shipping the GS1000: The new flagship of their headphone line, introduced at the International Head-Fi Convention in New York, where it gathered some rave reviews. Bass, mids, highs; it seems it does all equally well and the new cushion design is supposed to be very comfortable. Is this ideal pair of [...]
The first installation of reader-contributed reviews kicks of with a review of the Sony NW-A3000 from HiFi Blog reader Morgan Smario. Please note that we don’t necessarily endorse the comments included herein—these are reviews contributed by our readers, and we’re just here to give them a stand to voice their opinions. Without further ado:
“The NW-A3000 [...]
Sony Japan announced a price reduction last week for its A1000, A1200 and A3000 Network Walkman (NW) series. According to ATRAC Life:
WALKMAN A1000 Series
NW-A1000 (6GB)—22,800 yen (2,000 yen price reduction)
NW-A1000/B [Limited Ed] (6GB)—20,800 yen (2,000 yen price reduction)
NW-A1000/N [Limited Ed] (6GB)—20,800 yen (2,000 yen price reduction)
WALKMAN A1200 Series
NW-A1200/B [Limited Ed] (8GB)—24,000 yen (2,000 yen price [...]
John Borland, with an excellent story (via) on how Sony’s Connect (the supposed answer to Apple’s iTunes) came to be such a crappy, bug-ridden app. So bad that the US branch of Sony refused to release it in their market.
By early summer, the Connect programmers were saying they had no way of meeting plans to [...]
BusinessWeek runs a piece on Tim Schaaff, Sony’s Senior VP of Software Development: the man who left Apple to undertake a huge task—make Sony’s software work. That means bringing the various departments closer, giving more power to software developers and keeping a low profile so as not to collide with the rather autonomous hardware engineers.
Review: [...]
Hey-hey, Sony’s own version of the Hi-Fi: well not really, but they do look alike—other than that, we’re looking at a glorified speaker+FM tuner combo. “The Radio” features an FM/AM digital tuner, a headphone jack and comes with a cable to connect your portable music device. The black-textured cabinet gives home to a monaural base [...]
A report on the Korea Economic Daily, quoting an unnamed Samsung official, speaks of a contract that is to be signed during the first half of this year and exceed Samsung’s sales contract with Apple. Sony will be using the chips for its MP3 players—The Inquirer speaks of a 8GB one.
Samsung said the flash deal [...]