plays MP3 and ATRAC3 formats * converts WMA and WAV files to ATRAC3 format for playback * one-line, backlit LCD * transfers music from CD into ATRAC3 format * converts WMA and WAV files to ATRAC3 for playback on NW-E99 * up to 70 hours playback with "AAA" alkaline battery (not included) *
1 Great Device, Horrible software!
The first time I saw this player, I knew I had to have it. I read all the reviews and headed on down to the Sony Style store it get it. After having it for an hour I was so disappointed. I was replacing a Sony Mini-Disc recorder and already new of the problems with the SonicStage software, but had hoped that "native" MP3 support would get around that. My current SonicStage installation would not even recognize the new player. I have the latest version and have installed the latest driver from the Sony site. I had uninstalled and reinstalled everything and still no luck. I figured would get to that later, so I tired their MP3 Manager software which allows you to drag and drop MP3s to the flash drives. As mentioned in previous reviews, there are two separate drives, this is one of my biggest gripes. Why not just one 1GB drive???? Anyhow, it did work, but painfully slowly. I had recently purchased a Creative Muvo Micro N200 for my wife to use at the gym, and even though it is not as flashy or does not feel as well built, I will be returning my NW-E99 for the 1GB Muvo Micro. They are practically the same size and the Muvo is much easier to transfer files to and much faster at that (USB 2.0). If you can deal with the clunky software and slow transfer rates, this is a great piece of engineering, but if day to day ease of use is important, and you would like to download music from places besides the Sony Connect store, I suggest looking elsewhere.
2 A review of little effort.
I hate writing reviews, but I want my gripes this out there.
It's going to be sloppy!
It's a great little thing. If you want all the positive look below. But here are a few things to take into consideration before purchasing this player.
1. The player is very big on Repeating tracks (who uses repeat functions anyway) but not on shuffling.
I have yet to find a way to shuffle the files from more than one folder.
Meaning, You can't shuffle between Folders A, B, C, D...
Only Folder A! If I'm wrong, please let me know!
2. There are TWO flash drives in this thing.
You have to switch between drives to load this thing up.
It's annoying when you have a lot of one band you want in there under one folder -especially because you cannot shuffle between folders.
3. Worst of all! Sonic Stage is an absurd program!!
Not only is it very slow, but it sorts your files in a way I can't figure out.
I have 20,000+ songs on my computer all in separate Artist folders. When I imported them into Sonic Stage the folders were broken up. Some were put into the Alphabetical list, while most others were put in the "blank" unsearchable category.
The same artists! From the same folders!!
I entered the ID tags in myself, so it's can't be that!
4. USB 1. It's not as bad as I worried. The speed is pretty good, but it could have, and should have been USB 2 damn it!
that's that.
3 Serious about your mp3's? Buy this player now.
I was looking for a flash-based mp3 player for a while and stumbled across the sony nw-e99. I tried to find as many reviews as I could to help me decide on whether to buy it. I was a little concerned about all the complaints about the SonicStage software but decided to just buy it anyway.
Here's my review of this player:
(*note: I think this player is only compatible with Windows)
1. Software. About the SonicStage software, I honestly can't say anything about it because I Don't Have To Use It. If you listen to mp3's and don't want to bother with converting to ATRAC3 then you don't need SonicStage. The player has a built-in mp3 transfer program. Initially, the manual says you need to install SonicStage just so your computer will recognize the device even if you don't want to use SonicStage, but then it says you can just install a device driver. All I had to do was download the driver off of www.sony.com. The device show's up as a removeable drive. This is all laid out in the instruction manual. The mp3 manager is just a bare-bones type of program. It's just a simple drag-and-drop window. Since the player is 2x512MB, it lets you pick which memory slot to transfer to, and displays the available/total space. It doesn't give you much flexibility with music organization in terms of creating and renaming folders, but that's what your computer is for. The program delivers a no-frills transfer method, the way a flash player should.
2. Battery life. Insane. This is an often overlooked feature of mp3 players, but in my mind, is one of the most important. What's the use of having 1 gig of music, if the battery is going to die before playing all of the songs? The "up to 70 hours" playback is for the ATRAC3, but they claim that the player delivers "up to 50 hours" of playback using mp3's, which is still way more than any other player. The nw-e99 uses a normal AAA battery. I actually prefer this to a rechargable battery. It's simply more practical. The places where you need a nice mp3 player the most are where you can't or don't have the time to sit around and recharge a battery (travelling, commuting to work, etc.) You can always just buy a new battery from any store and be on your way.
3. Form and Function. Like most flash players, it's small. It's not so small that it's difficult to use, though. The play/stop button is in the perfect position for thumb use. The forward/reverse shuttle switch is incredibly intuitive - push forward to advance a track, pull back to reverse, or hold to fast-forward/rewind. Much easier to use than having separate buttons. The volume buttons and hold switch are also well placed and easy to use.
4. Sound Quality. I am not an audiophile by any means, and I know the quality is dependent on the quality of the headphones used (I'm using the Sony MDR-EX71's) and the quality of the mp3 file (most of mine are at least 192kbps) but the nw-e99 sounds excellent. I have not heard any distortion or any other variations in sound. While there is not a real dedicated EQ on the player, it does have bass and treble adjustments and two preset adjustable sound modes.
5. Personal Style. This is obviously very subjective, but it is still an important consideration. Basically, I wanted something different. I didn't want to be another Apple fanboy and get a ipod shuffle (*ahem* no screen, short battery life). Lots of people are going to have them though. The nw-e99 stands out, especially with it's mirror finish. This player also does not seem to be for the "I just need it to work out" type. This should be apparent by the lack of armband accessory. It does come with a neck strap, but it's rather large and looks like it's made for a camera, not an mp3 player. It also comes with a cloth case for keeping your player shiny and new.
Some concerns:
This player is not perfect, but it comes pretty close. There are some areas of improvement, but they hardly detract from the overall quality of the player.
1. It would be nice to connect without a usb cable or special drivers. However, having the usb connection built into the player might alter it's size/layout which already is perfect. As far as the drivers, it's not that big of a concern for me, since I only use one computer. But they are readily available from their website.
2. Transfer speed. Faster is always better, and I was concerned before I bought the player that transfer speeds would be slow. After reading some reviews that said it didn't use usb 2.0, I expected a painfully slow transfer, but it wasn't that bad (USB 1.1 is still 1.5Mbps). It just takes a little longer to transfer the songs. However, this should definitely be improved.
3. The mp3 manager only supports a sampling frequency of 44.1 kHz (bit rate from 8 - 320 kbps). The majority of mp3's are 44.1 kHz (I've only found one of mine that wasn't), but it can be annoying to have to re-encode a song you really want to take with you.
4. Expensive. This player is a bit pricey, but you get what you pay for (an amazing mp3 player).
5. 2x512MB format. Having the memory split among two banks is not as nice as having one large 1 gig bank. It calls for a bit more organization and management of the available space. Plus, you end up with small bits of unused space on two drives instead of just one. Granted the leftover space is small, but it could have been avoided.
Conclusion:
I have tried to present a balanced view of the nw-e99. I would highly recommend this player for anyone who loves their mp3's. I don't really use any other format of music, so I cannot speak to its effectiveness with anything else or the SonicStage software. I like to keep a well maintained and organized archive of mp3's on my computer, so using this device is so easy. This player is not for everyone though. If you are the type of person who downloads songs occasionally and then can't remember where you downloaded the file, maybe you might look for a player with a more dedicated mp3 software package. Or if you just want something to work out with, there are other, cheaper players available (so you won't cry if you drop it or crush it with a dumb-bell). But if you're like me, then buy this player now.
4 Rock Solid Work of Art
A rock solid work of art. Two internal 512MB flash memory cards, blind finger friendly controls, and crystal clear CD sound quality. The silver metalic surface is nothing like the picture on this page, it's really "mirror" colored. Sleek.
The earbuds that come with it are nice, different, a kind of ear plug, you hear nothing but the music.
The Sonic Stage software however is another story. First, as all the critics said, it crashed my new PC right off the bat. Despite the initial kinks, the software works and did everything I needed it to and it's very easy to use. Converts every media file into ATRAC. However, without asking me, the software repeatedly attempted to send information over the internet, what I'm not sure. The program monitor on my firewall caught it, and blocked it. I don't like that idea, so I set my firewall to always block Sony Sonic Stage, which worked and the program worked fine even though not connected online. Sonic Stage is also an online music store installed right on your computer if you wanted it.
5 Strange yet amazing device.
I would have to say this player is like an old fashioned audio electronics. It is shaped like a old recorder, it has the strange toggles and such, its quite an interesting player to look at. The performance is also amazing.
If you have ever used a minidisc player by sony, you will know how to use this device, it has a very similar interface. The menu options, the group options, and they have color coded backlighting too (green for group and blue for other). There are two EQ custom 'profiles' that you can set - or + treble or bass, there are a ton of unique options such as their AVLS (automatic volume limiter system) and their preset volume settings (low, med, hi presets for easy volume changing instead of hitting the + or - buttons continually), 3 display modes (show track number and time, show track name and album, show track information), a ton of repeat options (repeat group, repeat group shuffled, shuffle all albums, play A-B repeat, play sentance repeat) and even setting how many times they repeat with a count option. The audio quality beats 9 other mp3 players that I have tested this past month and the usability is easy enough that I can stick my hand in my pocket and change volume, album, track, the eq (none, 1 profile, or 2 profile), and some simpler options without looking at the player. This is also one of the only players that will show you the time and date. There is a resume feature that works incredibly quick.. you interrupt the song by hitting pause, and the player will shut off in seconds, but low and behold - as soon as you press the play button a half a second or less later the music will resume from where you left off.
Now for the problems! Sonicstage isn't a super friendly piece of software but since I have a huge cd collection, its easy for me to convert songs to their ATRAC3PLUS (64kbps) and they sound great. You can also install mp3 software (installs onto the flash memory thats strangely devided into two drives) and place mp3s with drag+drop but some mp3s arn't good enough for the program to recognize and it wont allow them to be added. I also found the mp3 software annoying to create groups, its not a 'edit group name, make new group name' sorta easy software, it just makes the groups as 'group 1' etc and their sonicstage audio files are priority so you have to search for the mp3s. For huge mp3 collectors or purchasers from online stores like itunes, this would be annoying. I dont have these problems because I buy music in cd form. Good for me, yeah. No FM radio, no recorder, no encoding like the creative muvo, but its how mp3 players should have been a few years ago, and it is great. Its too bad the new players are all turning into feature friendly circus freaks, these old simple types are rare.
Highly recommended for people who like a simple interface, good sound, and who dont mind having a 2.5 oz player in their pocket the size of a keyholder.
6 Better than ipod shuffle in my oppinion
Pros:
1. Incredible battery life(and you don't need to pay $100 for battery replacement in the future).
2. excellent sound quality,
3. ATRAC3+ format
The sound quality of ATRAC3+ 64K is as good as WMA 128K and better than MP3 128K in my personal opinion. A smaller file size in the same sound quality means you can double you songs in compare to other 1G mp3 players.
*However, if you are not using Sony for your next MP3 player, you have to convert all ATRAC3+ files into other format. Saving all songs in *.mp3 is the safest way. But I really don't like to sound quality of Mp3 at 128K.
Cons:
1. Software SonicStage sucks. (unstable, easily crash, and slow).
2. No rating for each songs. (or maybe I haven't find it).
3. No arm band.
4. Not very convenient to use it as a USB drive because you need to have a mini USB cord which is not available in every computer.
5. Can't play WMA directly. (Have to convert to ATRAC3+ or other format)
6. Mirror-like surface. Easily get finger prints on it.
7. Divided into to 2*512M disc.
*user interface better than ipod shuffle but still can't compete to ipod or ipod mini. However,you don't need to look at the bottons and you can control them because the shape of the bottons can be easily recognized by fingers.
Though I listed so many disvantages of this MP3 player, I still gave it 4 stars and recommend it.
