The MP3 player I've been waiting for

I bought this in May to replace a Sansa e260 that had suffered the"Blue Wheel of Death" via a corrupt database because I had the audacity to attempt to delete some music from it.

The Sony does everything that the Sandisk unit did but the intervening years have made it faster and sound better. I simply dragged and dropped my WMA/MP3 collection straight on to it and it worked a treat. The supplied headphones are very much better than expected, but using other after market headphones make the sound even better.

Battery life is excellent. The only negative I can think of is that you should buy a case to protect the unit - but with the new lower price that's not a deal breaker. Buy one and bask in not being locked to that other well known music player's software.

Well impressed,

Received this yesterday and couldn't be happier with it. Charged in 3 hours, intuitive to use, sound quality is superb and the headphones are incredibly well designed and unlike any i've ever come across. PC recognised it without installing software, and i had 750 track on it within an hour. Menus are easy to navigate, the equaliser is a great tool and it automatically levels out the track volumes so my Billy Holiday sounds as loud as my Arctic Monkeys. I didn't buy it for video but the sample one pre-loaded looked amazing. Only negatives really are the headphone jack going into the bottom and the headphone cable comes in 2 parts with a jack to join them which seems daft but doesn't cause any problems. Would have been good if it had a clip to attach it to yourself but am sure they can be bought. Overall a great little thing and i love it.

Sony NWDB105BC 2GB drag & drop Mp3 player

Nice dinky little device with painfully slow file transfer and woeful little earbuds .I have no idea what this device sounds like through them as they absolutely refuse to stay in my ears.It has taken me about 25 minutes so far to tranfer about a dozen albums,irritating.

WOW! Great buy.

I just wanted a small, easy to use mp3 player that I could use on the move. This mp3 player has easy menus and fantastic sound quality. The photo quality is also amazing. Drag and drop also makes this product very easy to use. The battery life is outstanding and although this only has usb charging, I have found it ok to charge. BUY THIS. You won't be dissapointed.

Who needs an iPod?

I have purchased a number of Sony items over the years, including other Atrac CD/MD/ Network Walkman products, and had no reservations about buying this particular model. For the price, it is a superb performer, with a very clear and detailed sound, which belies the Atrac compression. To be able to get 30+ CD's worth of music on to one blank CD-R is a major bonus, particularly for motorists- obviously without the need to keep changing discs every few hours. It's far better than a CD auto changer in that respect. Coupled with a cassette adaptor kit and cigar lighter connection (or even using rechargable batteries) it couldn't be simpler to install and use.
Although many people have criticised Sony for the way that the Sonic Stage software works, I have to say that I have had no problems with it, ever since Version 1 came out and including subsequent updated versions. Yes, it can be a pain uploading all the original CD's to start with, but the Library soon fills up with albums and from there any number of compilations can be put together. I can't recommend this model enough and am well pleased with it. Excellent value for money and another winner from the Sony stable.

Superb sound quality, crystal clear display... so simple!

I've had my new toy just a couple of days and it's so brilliant I can highly recommend it to anyone looking for alternatives to the ipod nano. Sony have completely revitalised the Walkman brand and done themselves proud with this one.

This A series is supremely easy to use when it comes to music & mp3 files. No special software required... it's plug & play. You just hook up your new player to your PC (no idea how easy this is to use with a mac) with the supplied USB cable and your player will start charging straight away. Once you're connected, you can either synchronise your music with files in your Windows Media Player if you use it (you'll need v.11 supplied with the player on CD or downloadable from the net) - just click a button and away you go - or you can drag and drop files from your C drive directly onto the player. Couldn't be easier!! So, when it comes to music it is fool proof.

There is a BUT... I'm still trying to work out how to get DVD files onto the player. The player doesn't come with conversion software to convert your DVD files into MP4's compatible with the player so you'll need to find (and buy if you want something reliable) the software to do this. I have the software now and have converted some files into MP4's successfully, I've put them on my player but it's coming up with"file not recognised" messages. I'm clearly doing something wrong but I'm not a novice at this kind of stuff and it's not simple to work out. Sony really should have supplied some help here with the player - some software would have been nice, and some simple set up guidelines. After all, it is a"video" Walkman.

That's my only grumble. I primarily bought my player for music (replacing my much out-dated iriver mp3 player). This is world's apart. It sounds fantastic. I'm not so keen on the earphones supplied as I don't find them that comfortable but have some other Sony in-the-ear earphones I bought just a short while ago. I've put 100 CDs on the player so far & still have 2.5GB of space left to play with. You can use it for storing photos too if you want. The Spiderman movie trailer that comes installed on the player is crystal clear. I'm sure I'll get my video files to work soon...

As an mp3 player I can totally TOTALLY recommend it. So easy to use & such fantastic sound quality. What more can you want? Super sleek and slim and the battery seems to just keep on going at the moment - just a brief plug into the PC tops it up for hours. I went for a deal where I got my player with a free leather case and neck strap - I can recommend these. In fact, I don't see why they don't come with as standard, as they're kind of essential of you're using it on the move (and who isn't?!).

Walkman have proven that they're"back" with this!

Good, but not perfect

This is a good little MP3 player. Good points include:

- Very quick charge time
- Decent battery life
-Same amount of hard drive space and price as iPod Shuffle, but you get more flexibility in how the songs are played back
-No annoying Sony Sonic syncing software
-Good sound quality
-Looks good.

There is only one bad point:

If you use Media player instead of simply dragging files to add music, the player can only play the album songs in alphabetical order. If you drag and drop them the player recognises the number prefix to the track name and thus plays them in the order they were intended by the artist.

I was initially really pleased to discover that the device was recognised by Media player as I thought it would make syncing easy and allow purpose made play lists.

The fact that when using media player the track order is different from thast intended by the artist might seem like a minor point (and, to be fair, it is), but for a musical purist, it is really annoying to not be able to hear the album in the correct order when using media player to sync.

I have searched the web but not found a way round this yet, if I am missing something obvious I would like to know!

NWDB103BC charging off PC

I bought this for a relative who doesnt have a PC - thinking the readily available USB chargers would do the job.
NO WAY - for some reason all the chargers I have tried so far will not charge this excelent player - odd indeed, as they will charge cheaper supermarket MP3 players !!
Oh well I may have to keep this one and order one that comes with a charger
The player its self, when used with decent ear phones is excellent has a whole day playing time (assuming you have a PC to charge it on !)

great mp3

went for this because its sony, got an ipod nano too but has nothing on it compared to this in terms of sound quality & bass, good quality product from sony once again (jus lacks an fm tuner)

Mediocre sound, crashes constantly, and broke after just 2 months.

I loved the old sony minidisc walkmans for their great build and sound quality. This mp3 player no longer supports sony's own atrac codec, which is annoying for people who have a lot of their collection encoded in this format, but that could be forgiven if this player was up to the job. But it isn't.

Poor sound quality - I had to encode using lame at 320kbps to get good sound on mp3, and you can forget about wma (supported up to a max of 192kbps) on complex music. So, with everything at such a high bit rate, you can't fit a whole lot on with only 2 gb to play with.

Unstable - the damn thing had to be reset with a paperclip regularly when it crashed/froze. At other times it would 'forget' two thirds of what was on there, necessitating a refresh of the folder by connecting it to the PC again - very useful when you've already left the house and want to listen to it on the train.

Poor battery life - just 3 hours max, but more like 1.5-2 hours at higher bitrates, so you have to charge it pretty much every night or risk running out of power. I still ran out at least once a week, and it's no good trying to go out hiking with it even for a day - just leave it at home!

USB charge only - fairly useless really, but depends on your lifestyle i guess. I'm sure this is fine for a lot of people.

And finally, the bloody thing just plain broke. Computer no longer recognises it and it won't boot. But it WILL charge, which is amusing really.

Frankly, Sony have a lot of changes to make to their business plan before I buy their products again. I am not impressed.

Portable, yes, but convenient, no.

This CD player is certainly portable, but not very convenient because there is no belt clip or means of attachment to clothing. In other words, you can be stationery with it on a surface near you or moving provided you hold it!

Unfortunately, this deficiency cannot be seen without cutting open the firm plastic packaging, which then voids the conditions for return to Amazon.

The sound quality is satisfactory but the"mega bass" does not do much for my hearing.

super piece of technology!

i am delighted with the product and was delivered on time,many thanks for a great service,John.

It's amazing, but...

i love this mp3 player, superb sound and everything that the buzz generated was true. I am pleased with this product except for the earphone that comes with it. the quality is superb and the design is sleek, but i found that only the right earphone is long enough to go from one's ear to one's side jeans pocket (where i normally put the mp3 player). the length-difference between the right and left earphone is the same as the length of my computer keyboard, so it's quite substantial. i personally feel that Sony has either tricked me into buying unnecessary set of earphone/earphone extention or into making me look like a fool wearing an mp3 player as a necklace.

great unit from sony

in short, this is a great unit due to easy installation and operation, very powerful sound (even with unamped speakers), brilliant usb feature (works well with my sony NW-E016 walkman, as well as simple flash memory drives), ease of use (sony systems always have simple controls and menus),pretty cool styling, good value for money, useful 7 preset equaliser settings, and remote control (why not?! useful if youre working on your car). great peice of kit in my opinion, especially if you dont intend to amp your speaker as it delivers a very powerful sound (if your speakers are any good).

Music To My Ears!!!!!!! :-)

I am so in LOVE with my PINK delightful walkman.
I ordered it in the morning and got it in the afternoon - hmm yes I did - and it is fantastic! - Amazon rocks!
The little box contains loads of instructions - so many languages - you could set up your own language school!

However be patient dear reader you do find the quick set up booklet very fast indeed.

A bit of a tip here just put the cd into your pc and it automatically sets up everything for you just do as it says on the tin oops computer screen.
Also there is a pdf file with the instruction manual that you can store on your computer - I actually used that - far more easier as I do not have fantastic fine finger movement.

So within 10 minutes of receiving the parcel I was up and running and downloading a playlist for my lovely PINK friend. In actual fact it took longer to open the door sign for the parcel and open the packaging etc than to start the set up and start creating a playlist!

Be prepared to wait 3 hours to charge up the battery via a cable and usb port on your computer. (Bright idea! While your waiting your own unique playlists you will be absolutely amazed at how much music this little wonder will hold. I used windows media player 10 - *faint* it is all drag and drop and that's it - really? - Yes! What a relief I am really a technophobe!

Setting up the Walkman was a breeze via just three buttons and a direction ring surrounding the pause play button - arrows are there to guide you up down left and right to set such things as time date and personal preferences.

The screen text is very clear and understandable too! (why other electronic products cannot be as simple I do not know)

The picture quality of the CD covers are wonderful (haven't put any video or pictures on the Walkman as of yet)

The walkman comes supplied with medium ear buds fitted (the soft rubber type) indeed in your bag of goodies there are small and large buds as well so your sure to find a pair that fits your own ears. They are comfortable - I know because I tried them - however I personally do not like buds they flop out of my ears each time I turn my head frustrating as hell!

I do have a pair of lightweight around the neck ear phones I am sure there is a technical word for those but I cannot remember!

So to the real test what does it sound like? Absolutely fantastic!!!!!!!!!!! You can alter the sound to sound like its live - in the studio or arena there are some other settings but I cannot bring them to mind at the moment.

This wonderful PINK slim and thin player is a WOW!!! and I would recommend it whole heartedly to anyone it's available in various colours as you can read I chose PINK! (like the lips of your lover!)

I would suggest you do purchase a case or cover for this lovely product as I have this morning - I just do not want to scratch or damage it in anyway - part of me feels it has a lovely personality already!

The function buttons albeit small are user friendly i.e. small enough to not look odd but large enough to be functional Sony have done a lovely job on this walkman and I bought it on the recommendation of the previous review and his comments are so right!
It is not rocket science to set up and use this MP3. Small is truly beautiful!!!!!!!
Buy one for your Husband - Lover - Mother - Brother - Dad - Daughter - Sister - and indeed yourself and swing ya pants!
Happy Listening !

Fantastic piece of kit

This is probably the best mini music player i've ever brought, its a fantastic little piece of kit
+ Fantastic Sony sound quality with plenty of ways to adjust sound output
+ Amazing long battery life, 33hours with 3hours charge
+ Crisp, well lit screen is easy to see even in bright sunlight
+ No more Sonicstage! Easy transfering with just drag and drop, easy-peasy
+ Great design, no larger then a credit card and nearly as light
+ The Earphones are much better then the normally rubbish ones you get bundled with a MP3 player

Only a few negative points i can think of really...
- difficult to create custom soundtracks, everything stored in one folder
- Quite expensive for just 2Gb....
- Earphones are'nt as good as anything over the £15 range

Still overall i have to say this is a fantastic bit of kit, small and brightly lit with fantastic sound, its perfect for a student (like me) whos constantly on the go and whats something little that he can slip in his pocket for great sounding on the go music! Buy without any worries