Introduction
Sony A720/820 series are one of the best sounding mp3 players in market, with a 2.4" QVGA screen supporting Photos and Video Playback. It comes in Many flavors with capacity ranging from 4GB to 16GB, with or without Bluetooth.
A820 series are very similar to the A720 series with the exception of bluetooth. You can stream audio to your bluetooth headset in this device, but can't transfer files :bleh:
What is in the box?
1. Sony A728 player
2. EX -082 earphones
3. A docking stand. (plastic one)
4. Lanyard cable which will double as a stand ( explained later)
5. Other size of ear buds
6. Software CD
7. User Manual
[BREAK=Build, Screen and Buttons]
Design
The design of this player is more or less like the other walkman video players, but this one has square buttons. The player feels metallic and not plastic like others in its class. It feels sturdy, but haven’t drop tested it yet
hyeah: the player is very slim and fits nicely into your palm.
Screen
It has a 2.4†TFT screen, with 262k colors :S . This was not mentioned on the website and I had assumed it had a 16M color screenïŒ. The screen reproduces color excellently though. The brightness can be set at different levels, and I am not facing any problems using the player at its lowest brightness setting though. Make sure you get a screen guard for this. You can use buy a good quality one that is used for Cameras for about a hundred bucks.
Buttons
It has a up/down/left/right, play/pause, option, back and hold. The Play/Pause button is depressed and is very comfortable to press. I personally feel the placement of the buttons could have been better. In one hand operation, you will feel the player is going to fall. Not a big problem though.
[BREAK = Menu Options/Features]
• Intelligent Shuffle
• Initial Search
• Rhapsody Channels
• Pictures
• Music
• Video
• Settings
• Playlists
• Now playing
What's missing?
Though Sony Walkman series are feature rich players with a lot of Audio Enhancements, they definitely lack some of the common features found in competing products.
It has a Time Machine Shuffle, which when enabled plays all track from a particular year.
FM Radio, Audio recording, Expansion slot and TV Out would have made this player incredible.
[BREAK=Sound Quality]
This is where Sony outperforms everyone. I must admit, this is THE best mp3 player I have ever listened to. The stock earphones are good too, the bass is as good as EP 630, but I felt the Sony ones had better spacial effect, which is important if you are listening to concert audios.
If you like loud and more bassy music like I do, EP-630 is the way for you.:hap2:
edit : May be the stock EX-082 needed a bit more burn in. It sounds excellent now. Clear bass, no whoosh whoosh sound with clear treble. The noise isolation is not as good as EP-630, but in a quiet environment, Sony's earphones are much better than EP-630
It has really good Sound Enhancements too .
1. VPT Surround
Virtual Phone Technology is a proprietary sound processing technology developed by sony.
You can select Studio, Live, Club, Arena, Matrix or Karaoke to simulate different environments. Frankly I didn’t find anything worth trying. Enabling Studio mode made songs sound quieter which may be desirable by some.
2. Clear Stereo Sound :
This features if enabled, supposedly separates processing of left and right stereo sound, thus minimizing leak.
3. DSEE: Enhances high frequency range.
4. Equalizer
It has 5 preset and 2 customizable equalizer settings. The customizable equalizers are 5 band equalizers. You can also set the level of Clear Bass in Equalizer settings
We can also tweak the sound to a very nice degree by entering the firmware menu. More on this, later.
[BREAK = Video]
Video Quality
Picture Quality :
The Video Quality is commendable for a walkman series. It is a huge improvement from my old Transcend T 840. The movies have to be encoded in either mp4 format or AVC before playing on the player. Sadly it doesn’t support divx/wmv formats. That is not a big problem as most of the videos have to be re sized and encoded anyway, and ipod quality videos are abundantly available online.
The videos can either be watched in Vertical mode, or Horizontal mode. Sony has made it very handy for left handed and right handed people to use the player by giving an option to change the Horizontal Orientation to either left or right.
The Videos can resume playback.
A very unique option where in you can only listen to the audio of a video is provided under the video settings menu, which can be useful to many who store both the video and audio version of a song.
[BREAK = Battery Performance]
Sony Claims the player gives about 36 hours of audio, and 10 hours of video on a single charge. I am yet to verify this, but I have been listening to music all day, and there is more than 75% battery life. So battery life won’t be a problem.
However, I came across this when I was going through the manual:
The number of times the battery can be recharged before it is used up approximately is 500 times.
I was really shocked seeing this. I hope Sony batteries are available for cheap and replaceable easily
edit: They are replaceable and are available for around $12 .
Can someone please confirm the same? I know I am being too paranoid, but I want to keep this player for long
Also, the player is always in standby mode when you turn off similar to the iPod. Only when the player is in standby mode for more than a day that the player switches off completely. The player draws some power from the batter when it is in standby mode too. I wish Sony had given us option to switch it off completely manually :no: , but, all is not lost. Since the player is always in standby mode, switching on the player is really really fast.:tongue:
[BREAK = Firmware Tweaks]
Sony has a hidden firmware menu which can be used for testing the player and also to tweak some settings.
courtesy : head-fi forums
To access it, first go to the main/Home screen. Enable Hold, keep the option key pressed and then press the following key sequence
up, up, down, down, right, left, up , down, up ,down, right, play/pause
Set Bass and Treble gain under DAC settings. Up/Down changes the Gain, whereas option key changes frequency.
My Optimum Settings :
B-Gain : 0 @ 50 Hz
T-Gain :-7.5 @ 15Khz
This little tweak greatly improved the performance with mine, you can play around with it till you hit the right spot.
[BREAK = The Bad]
It has all been good so far for the Sony Walkman mp3 player. It has some minor drawbacks compared to similarly priced competing mp3 players
1. No Radio
2. No Voice Recording
3. Only 262k color screen
4. No Expandable memory
5. Proprietary USB connector
6. No on the go playlist creator
7. No Text viewer
8. No Calendar
9. No Sleep Timer
PS: As a pseudo sleep timer, you can select an album, and choose playback range as Selected Range. This will play an album,artist,folder, genre or playlist completely.
[BREAK = Conclusion]
The Good sound quality by itself outweighs the minor bads about this player. It is expensive compared to others. You can get a re-certified one from KMD for 4450/- plus tax. A brand new one costs 9.5k+ in India. Since you are getting a good pair of earphones too with this, and the price is sorta justified when you consider excellent sound quality.
If you want a feature packed mp3 player, with all the features missing in the sony, Creative Zen is Highly Recommended. If Sound Quality is your prime concern, don't listen to radio much and can live without reading books in text format go for Sony eyes closed. :clap:
Sony A720/820 series are one of the best sounding mp3 players in market, with a 2.4" QVGA screen supporting Photos and Video Playback. It comes in Many flavors with capacity ranging from 4GB to 16GB, with or without Bluetooth.
A820 series are very similar to the A720 series with the exception of bluetooth. You can stream audio to your bluetooth headset in this device, but can't transfer files :bleh:
What is in the box?
1. Sony A728 player
2. EX -082 earphones
3. A docking stand. (plastic one)
4. Lanyard cable which will double as a stand ( explained later)
5. Other size of ear buds
6. Software CD
7. User Manual
[BREAK=Build, Screen and Buttons]
Design
The design of this player is more or less like the other walkman video players, but this one has square buttons. The player feels metallic and not plastic like others in its class. It feels sturdy, but haven’t drop tested it yet
hyeah: the player is very slim and fits nicely into your palm.Screen
It has a 2.4†TFT screen, with 262k colors :S . This was not mentioned on the website and I had assumed it had a 16M color screenïŒ. The screen reproduces color excellently though. The brightness can be set at different levels, and I am not facing any problems using the player at its lowest brightness setting though. Make sure you get a screen guard for this. You can use buy a good quality one that is used for Cameras for about a hundred bucks.
Buttons
It has a up/down/left/right, play/pause, option, back and hold. The Play/Pause button is depressed and is very comfortable to press. I personally feel the placement of the buttons could have been better. In one hand operation, you will feel the player is going to fall. Not a big problem though.
[BREAK = Menu Options/Features]
• Intelligent Shuffle
• Initial Search
• Rhapsody Channels
• Pictures
• Music
• Video
• Settings
• Playlists
• Now playing
What's missing?
Though Sony Walkman series are feature rich players with a lot of Audio Enhancements, they definitely lack some of the common features found in competing products.
It has a Time Machine Shuffle, which when enabled plays all track from a particular year.
FM Radio, Audio recording, Expansion slot and TV Out
would have made this player incredible.[BREAK=Sound Quality]
This is where Sony outperforms everyone. I must admit, this is THE best mp3 player I have ever listened to. The stock earphones are good too, the bass is as good as EP 630, but I felt the Sony ones had better spacial effect, which is important if you are listening to concert audios.
If you like loud and more bassy music like I do, EP-630 is the way for you.:hap2:
edit : May be the stock EX-082 needed a bit more burn in. It sounds excellent now. Clear bass, no whoosh whoosh sound with clear treble. The noise isolation is not as good as EP-630, but in a quiet environment, Sony's earphones are much better than EP-630
It has really good Sound Enhancements too .
1. VPT Surround
Virtual Phone Technology is a proprietary sound processing technology developed by sony.
You can select Studio, Live, Club, Arena, Matrix or Karaoke to simulate different environments. Frankly I didn’t find anything worth trying. Enabling Studio mode made songs sound quieter which may be desirable by some.
2. Clear Stereo Sound :
This features if enabled, supposedly separates processing of left and right stereo sound, thus minimizing leak.
3. DSEE: Enhances high frequency range.
4. Equalizer
It has 5 preset and 2 customizable equalizer settings. The customizable equalizers are 5 band equalizers. You can also set the level of Clear Bass in Equalizer settings
We can also tweak the sound to a very nice degree by entering the firmware menu. More on this, later.
[BREAK = Video]
Video Quality
Picture Quality :
The Video Quality is commendable for a walkman series. It is a huge improvement from my old Transcend T 840. The movies have to be encoded in either mp4 format or AVC before playing on the player. Sadly it doesn’t support divx/wmv formats. That is not a big problem as most of the videos have to be re sized and encoded anyway, and ipod quality videos are abundantly available online.
The videos can either be watched in Vertical mode, or Horizontal mode. Sony has made it very handy for left handed and right handed people to use the player by giving an option to change the Horizontal Orientation to either left or right.
The Videos can resume playback.
A very unique option where in you can only listen to the audio of a video is provided under the video settings menu, which can be useful to many who store both the video and audio version of a song.
[BREAK = Battery Performance]
Sony Claims the player gives about 36 hours of audio, and 10 hours of video on a single charge. I am yet to verify this, but I have been listening to music all day, and there is more than 75% battery life. So battery life won’t be a problem.
However, I came across this when I was going through the manual:
The number of times the battery can be recharged before it is used up approximately is 500 times.
I was really shocked seeing this. I hope Sony batteries are available for cheap and replaceable easily
edit: They are replaceable and are available for around $12 .
Can someone please confirm the same? I know I am being too paranoid, but I want to keep this player for long
Also, the player is always in standby mode when you turn off similar to the iPod. Only when the player is in standby mode for more than a day that the player switches off completely. The player draws some power from the batter when it is in standby mode too. I wish Sony had given us option to switch it off completely manually :no: , but, all is not lost. Since the player is always in standby mode, switching on the player is really really fast.:tongue:
[BREAK = Firmware Tweaks]
Sony has a hidden firmware menu which can be used for testing the player and also to tweak some settings.
courtesy : head-fi forums
To access it, first go to the main/Home screen. Enable Hold, keep the option key pressed and then press the following key sequence
up, up, down, down, right, left, up , down, up ,down, right, play/pause
Set Bass and Treble gain under DAC settings. Up/Down changes the Gain, whereas option key changes frequency.
My Optimum Settings :
B-Gain : 0 @ 50 Hz
T-Gain :-7.5 @ 15Khz
This little tweak greatly improved the performance with mine, you can play around with it till you hit the right spot.
[BREAK = The Bad]
It has all been good so far for the Sony Walkman mp3 player. It has some minor drawbacks compared to similarly priced competing mp3 players
1. No Radio
2. No Voice Recording
3. Only 262k color screen
4. No Expandable memory
5. Proprietary USB connector
6. No on the go playlist creator
7. No Text viewer
8. No Calendar
9. No Sleep Timer
PS: As a pseudo sleep timer, you can select an album, and choose playback range as Selected Range. This will play an album,artist,folder, genre or playlist completely.
[BREAK = Conclusion]
The Good sound quality by itself outweighs the minor bads about this player. It is expensive compared to others. You can get a re-certified one from KMD for 4450/- plus tax. A brand new one costs 9.5k+ in India. Since you are getting a good pair of earphones too with this, and the price is sorta justified when you consider excellent sound quality.
If you want a feature packed mp3 player, with all the features missing in the sony, Creative Zen is Highly Recommended. If Sound Quality is your prime concern, don't listen to radio much and can live without reading books in text format go for Sony eyes closed. :clap:
