Sony S series Review

The Sony Walkman has been a recognizable name since 1978 when Sony changed the way that we listened to music by allowing us to, for the first time, carry/listen to our music on the go. The first Walkman, was originally built so that one of Sony's chairmen could listen to operas on his long plane rides across the Pacific and because of this Sony is one of the biggest contributions to portable media.

Ever since 1978 Sony has been making the Walkman more and more compact. And with the first Walkman's high reputation to uphold, and with the S series Sony does a great job of balancing its features to the actual product. Let's start with the specs:

-Capacities:8gb,16gb

-Weight:68g

-Screen: 2.4 inches” QVGA 240x320 LCD

-Supported Audio Formats: MP3, WMA, AAC-LC, Linear PCM

-Supported Video Formats: MPEG-4, h.264,WMC (DRM) @ 320x240

-Battery Life: 42 hours music, 6.5 hours of video

-Media Transfer type- MTP

-Sound enhancements:Clear bass, Clear Stereo, Equalizer, Dynamic Normalizer

-Other Features: FM Radio, FM recorder, Voice Recorder, Built in Speakers, Alarm, Sleep timer.

Design: The Sony S series is a decently sleek player, with curved edges and a semi thin body, the player over all just feels cheap. It just feels too light. I frequently find myself letting is slip out of my hand, because it is so light. And that fact that the sides of it are cured contribute to it commonly sliding out of my hand. The button placement is a bit better than the rest of the body design. But they just feel like they are just a bit to close together. Another thing that kind of upset me, was the fact that they put the speakers on the back of the player, so unless that back is uncovered or sitting on its stand, the sound of the already cheap sounding speakers, sounds very muffled. The placement of the Headphone jack was fine, and unless it is in a very unusual place I'm fine with it. In this case the headphone jack of the S series being located on the bottom of the player, it just comes down to your headphone plug size, and your personal preference. And the Connector for the S series is located at the usual bottom.

Audio Quality: The audio Quality is good on the S series if you are wearing headphones. The built in speakers however delivers sound quality that is definitely less than desired. If you care about sound quality, then you will probably want to toss the stock headphones that come with this one, because they are a bit junky and uncomfortable to where. They don't have any sort of padding for the inside of you r ear and feel just all around a bit clunky.

Video Quality: The video quality on the S series was a lot better than what I would have thought. Although in very dark scenes of videos you will see a bit of that off black color (no quite true black, a little bit lighter). But this is quite normal of PMPs that aren't specifically made to be video players. The video can also be rotated between Horizontal and Vertical mode, which is nice if you get sick of holding your player in that awkward sideways position.

Alarm feature: The alarm Feature is really nice especially with the external speakers, but it got a bit annoying because you can't have the alarm set and on while the player is still in use, so you have to turn the alarm on before you turn the player on. Other than that it is a nice and nifty feature especially since you can have it use your own music instead of a default noise.

FM Radio: Does the job, not the best receiver, is sometimes a bit fussy to movement, but this mainly depends on the how strong of a signal you get by wear you live. But with me I find that it doesn't do as well as some other players. But like I said, gets the job done.

Voice Recorder: The voice recorder was nothing really special, it picks up sound that is relatively close. And what it picks up sounds pretty good.

Media Conversion: Probably one of my favorite things is the media converter that comes with the Sony S series. It is extremely easy to use especially if you are not really tech savvy. It doesn't come on a disk, it is stored right on the player. So all you do is plug in your player, drag the converter over to your computer, install it, and there you go, your all set. To convert files, you just plug in your player and open the converter. Then drag the media you want over the converter window, and bam your files will be converted and moved to you player. You can also see what is on your player and delete files using the converter. Over all probably one of the easier converters I have seen on a player. No complicated settings needed. Just drag and drop.

Summary: Over all I believe that this is a great player put out by Sony. It isn't expensive, and makes a great starter player for anyone. Although some of the features could have been developed a little bit better i.e. the placement of the external speakers, raised buttons, some software features, etc. But other than that, the S series is a well developed inexpensive player that is loaded with cool and convenient features.

Back.....................

Yes, we know what you are thinking, "This blog has not been updated since November!" Well, you're right, because it hasn't. But, it will start to be updated more often. The past couple of months have been very busy for Mark and me, but we assure you that we will start to be more and more active in the coming weeks and months. And yes there will be a review of the Sony S series, we will post it when we feel it is ready. But we assure you it is coming. That being said, I want to know what people think about the iPad that was just announced/released this past Wednesday by Apple. I want to know whether you think that it is going to be a hit, or if you think that it is going to be a big mistake for Apple? I have said in the past that I believe that it would do Apple good to release a product which is more business friendly, something that isn't so geared towards games and useless apps. Don't get me wrong, I like to play around on an iPod Touch or an iPhone, but I just think that in general, Apple would appeal to an even wider range of people if they came out with a product that is more serious about it's serious work than games. But enough of my ramblings. What do you think about the iPad? Is it going to sell? Is it going to flop? Is the price reasonable? Whatever you think, you can comment below and tell us what you think. Also, feel free to tell us how you feel about the site. Thanks for reading, and remember we will be doing more with the site from now on. We are sorry about not posting in so long, but sometimes life gets busy,and well that is just life.
Sincerely,
Mark and James.

Working on expanding.......

Sorry for not making a post in the past few weeks. This is mainly due to the fact that we are working on expanding on the site. We will still be working on reviews to post your your reading. And like Mark said, we are compiling a review of the Walkman 8GB S series. Until then, Check out some of the other stuff on the site. Thank you for reading.

Picked up Sony Walkman

We picked up the Sony Walkman S Series 8 GB Video Player today. We will hopefully get out a review on that within the next week so check back in the next couple days.
Thanks,
Mark

Sansa Clip+ review

Sandisk Sansa came into the MP3 world strong, and is continuing to stay strong with their newest addition to their line, the Clip+. The + is the 2nd generation of the Sansa Clip, which was know for it’s tiny size, and big sound. The Clip+ holds up the Clip’s high reputation.

Specs-
Dimensions: 2.16 x 1.36 x 0.6 in.
Capacities: 2GB, 4GB, 8GB
Weight: .85 oz.
Colors: Black, Maroon, Blue
Supported audio formats: MP3, WMA, WAV, FLAC, Ogg, Audible
Battery life: 15 hours
Features: Audio playback, FM radio, FM recording, Voice recording, Music Subscription support.
Expandable memory: MicroSD, MicroSDHC
Prices: 2GB- $34.99, 4GB- $49.99, 8GB-

Pictures:





Out of the Box:
Out of the Clip+ box you will receive the Clip+ itself, a pair of cheap Sansa headphones, the Clip+ quick started guide, and a very short USB cable.


Product design:

The Clip+’s design is very sleek and finished looking. At a mere .6in think the Clip+ is very small. The button placement is very good, with 6 buttons on the face, and one on the top. The buttons include: a home, on/off/, pause/play, skip/fast forward, back, music menu,select, and rocking volume button. There were only two design flaws that I found was that the headphone jack is located on the side of the player making the player’s design less than perfect. The second being that there is no dedicated record button which is not that big of a deal, but is always nice to have. The clip on the back of the player is really nice making carrying the player around very easy. The Clips USB port is located opposite of the headphone jack.

User Interface:

The Clip+ plus’ user interface is very easy to use and is similar to that of the Clip, but one thing that it has that the original doesn’t is the ability to navigate via folder view. Folder view allows you to see the files on your player the way that they are before the player automatically organizes them.


Menu:
In the Main menu of the Clip+ you will find: Music, slotRadio, FMRadio, Voice, and settings. For info on slotRadio continue reading the review.

Music organization:
The Way the Clip+ organizes music is very nice and simple. After selecting music from the main menu, your music will be organized in the categories that follow.

Recently Added: This shows the last 50 songs that you added to the player.


Artists: Pretty much speaks for itself, this category organizes your music by Artists.

Albums: This means your music will be organized by each album. Then there’s songs, which organizes your music all by song title from A to Z.

Genres: organizes your music by genre and you can set a songs genre to whatever you want and the Clip+ will use it in the organization of your music. example: If I were to set a songs genre to Podcast in iTunes. And then dragged the song onto my player, and then viewed my music library using the genre view, Podcast would show up with that song in it.

My top rated: Because of the song rating feature the Clip+ will show the music on your player that you have rated the highest.

Playlists: This just shows you all the music that you have put into playlists.

Podcasts: This is one category that will come in really handy to a lot of people because on most other players there is no real good way to organize podcasts other than in with all the other music. One thing that is really nice about having a dedicated podcast section is the ability to pause a podcast, listen to something else and then when you come back you can resume the podcast right where you left off.

Audiobooks: Any Audiobooks on the Clip+ can be found under the Audiobooks category.

Folders: This feature is going to make a lot of people who loved the Sansa Clip love the Clip+ even more. With the folder view you can view all the files on your player just like you would be able to on the computer. Making it really easy to organize files using your computer and being able to find them the way you put them.

Extra Features:

FM Radio:
One thing that is really nice about the Clip+ is the fact that along with the players great amount of storage capacity, Sound, and product design the player also comes with an FM Radio. The FM Radio allows you to surf the FM radio band and set presets of your favorite stations.

FM Radio recording:
Something that is always nice to have along with FM Radio is an FM Radio recorder, which allows you to record live Radio, which is not always essential but nice to have.

slotMusic and slotRadio:
slotMusic and slotRadio is the concept of being able to buy a microSD card that is preloaded with content. slotMusic is a complete album with extras all in one. They both just go right into your microSD slot on your Clip+ and you can play away. slotMusic is good if you want to get a ton of music by one artist, and slotRadio is good for parties and general listening because if gives your a variety of genres and artists. for more info on these to products visit: http://slotradio.com/ and http://www.slotmusic.org

Voice Recording:
Voice Recording is always nice to have on a player incase you want to record a memo to your self or something else you might need. The recording quality is decent.

Sound Quality:
The Sound Quality on the Clip+ is better than most MP3 players on the market. The sound is very rich which is something that the Clip+ has over other players on the market, like the iPod Shuffle or Nano. There have been articles saying that the audio pitch is off, but most people will not notice this, unless they have a really good ear. If you don't have a real good ear don't sweat it, you most likely won't notice it all.

Summary:
Overall if you are a person looking for a tiny player with quite a bit of storage, sturdy build, expandable memory, sleek look, great sound quality, and are looking for an audio only player the Clip+ is the player for you. With the Cheap price, for the amount of storage and features, the Clip+ sits at a high value.


-James

500 Views

We have now reached 500 views on our blog. We hope to continue growing at an increasing rate, getting more views daily. If you have any suggestions for reviews, you may e-mail James at his address in the post below, or you may e-mail myself at markdh92@gmail.com.
Thanks,
Mark

Computers are a pain.

Well I about had my Clip+ review done, when all of the sudden my Macbook decided to shut down and erase my file, computers are great aren't they? So the Clip+ review will be up within the next week. So just hold on, it'll be here soon. In the meantime, read some other posts, or send me an email at: jmanwestesy@gmail.com with any thoughts, comments, or questions.