Customer Reviews

Sony Headphone-Style Walkman MP3 Player (Black)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Background: I have been looking since what seems forever for the perfect headphone/mp3 solution for the gym. I exercise mostly at the gym for strength training (use my own music) and for cardio (I use guided interval training mp3 workouts). I use cardio coach (www.cardiocoach.com) my absolutely favorite cardio option, and itrain (www.itrain.com) which is pretty neat too.
Traits I look for in the perfect mp3 player for the gym:
- Should be light, unobtrusive and rugged. I do not want to worry about scratching, dropping or damaging the player.The player should not get in the way when I workout.
- No headphone wires. Headphone wires get in the way and sometimes I have even yanked them accidentally out of the player while working out.
- Should be easy to navigate to and find what I want to play (exact Cardio Coach Volume, or playlist for my strength training)
- Decent sound quality

I dont mind not having a whole lot of storage-capacity because I am OK with transferring music/workouts frequently to the player. About a couple of weeks worth of content is all I expect it to hold.

About the Sony W202: This is an incredible idea. A pair of great sounding wireless headphones with a 2GB mp3 player integrated right into the headphones.

Overall impressions:
- Better than jaybird gear, the previous bluetooth wireless headphones (for use with ipods or any mp3 player) I had reviewed here (http://www.amazon.com/review/R2VP6138TP6JQ6/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm). But the perfect gym mp3 solution has not yet been invented. (I used the jaybird gear headphones with an ipod nano. Wireless freedom and no need to wear the nano on my person either...it can be kept in a corner of the gym....was quite happy...I am dumping them now and switching to this Sony W202.)

How it scores over jaybird gear:
- I have come to realize that with in-ear style sport headphones (headphones that are sweat resistant, comfy and wont come out when you are active), fit has a lot to do with shape and size of the ear canal. I was lucky to get decent fit with jaybird gear. They dont work for my husband as they keep falling out when he runs. From online reviews this is what I gather too. Either they fit you or they dont. Sony has a less ear-shape dependant construction and is likely to fit more people, though it is by no means universal. It has three sizes of ear bud adaptors to provide flexibility for ear canal size.
- Sound quality is better than jaybird. Jaybird uses bluetooth - bluetooth compression affects clarity of sound. Jaybird sounds decent ( better than a lot of regular, non-bluetooth, cheaper headphones) but is not on par with higher end headphones.

The good:
- Meet the need so well on being comfortable, unobtrusive and secure-in-fit (the last being for me...your mileage may vary based on your ears). I did a 40 minute elliptical workout, a ten minute treadmill run and some core training on the stability ball and they stayed put and out of the way. I did not have to as much as touch the headphones to adjust the fit except once in the first five minutes of the workout when I fiddled for a better angle in the fit for a few seconds. They then stayed completely out of the way and secure. (For me, the fit is more comfy and secure than jaybird.)
-The controls seem difficult when you look at the player, but when you actually use them they are surprisingly easy to operate. I had no learning time. I did not fiddle. I could very easily control the player during the very first time.
- I like the Zappin feature for ease of operation. When you press the jog wheel and keep it depressed, you hear "Zappin in" and then the player scrolls through all the music on the player by playing brief snatches of each song, When you find the song you want you just press the jog wheel again and it will play sequentially from that point on. To exit "Zappin" mode all you do is press the jog wheel lightly again and you hear "Zappin Out".
- For $ 69, they are very cost effective. That is less than a high end pair of headphones and less than quite a few mp3 players as well.
- It has a optional shuffle mode if you want it to play music in random order.
- Great battery life and a 3 minute charge option for 90 minute playback.

What could have been better:
- You can use two modes to transfer music to the player. The first is with the inbuilt software called "content transfer". Content transfer works with iTunes or Windows Media player. After you install Content Transfer on your PC, you can drag and drop music from iTunes or Media player on to Content Transfer. It will analyse each track to recognize the chorus as it transfers music to the player. Then, should you use Zappin during playback of the player, it will play the most recognizable bit. Issues with Content Transfer:
a. Not eactly as easy to set up and use as itunes. OK for people who are techno-patient and dont mind reading manuals, but not as intuitive as itunes.
b. The auto-recognition of the most recognizable bit may not work very well for workouts (workouts tend to have longer mp3 tracks some of which reuse music). It works most of the time but not always for music. I could not recognize most of my workouts and a also few songs using this feature.
c. The "announce" track-name feature to overcome lack of a screen in the latest iPod shuffle is a better way to navigate a screenless player. Too bad that the Shuffle still needs wired headphones. (Except for the navigation ease, I consider W202 a better sport option than the shuffle).

- You can also simply treat the player as if it were a detachable hard-drive on your PC and manually copy songs. Whe you use "Zappin" it will then play a snatch from the 45 second mark within the track. I think this feature is better because it allows you to organize the music exactly as you want within folders on the player, unlike Content Tranfer mode that organizes its own folders on the player. However, there is no way to scroll from Folder to Folder during playback. The player will go through your music in alphabetical sorting order - by folder, and within each folder by track name. You can easily organize the music so that you put in a preceeding number (like 01., 02., 03., ...etc) before each Folder name or track name to ensure it plays in the right order. The ability to scroll not just through tracks, but also at the folder-name level whould have created the equivalent of playlists on the player and brought it pretty close to perfection in my opinion.
- There is no way to mark tracks to exclude them in shuffle mode as you can with ipod models (I can mark workouts, audiobooks and podcasts to be excluded in shuffle mode on my ipod and just listen to my music in random order).


The bad:
- You can skip to the next song or the previous but you cannot forward or rewind within a track.
- The USB connecter on the player is not covered. During active use that represents an issue because sweat could get in and cause damage. The positioning of the mini-USB connector port isnt exactly where sweat is likely to reach, but still...if you work out hard, the player coud be at risk.


Should you get the player?:
- Only if you are thinking of getting a new player specifically for the gym or for active use. Otehrwise get something with a screen to help navigation.
- If you already have a player or wireless bluetooth headphines, wait for the next Sony Walkman W202 version which (based on how vendors release upgraded models of popular mp3 players) should be about April 2010. I bet the player will overcome many glitches in its next avatar.
- If you buy, make sure you buy from a place that has a return policy in case the player does not work for you during the first couple of exercise sessions.

When I first saw this headset, I knew it was a great idea, and something that I really needed. My only question was how it would fit. From the look of the product in the two video reviews I saw prior to it's release, I thought that the cord that connects the two earbuds would fit over the ear holding the earbuds in place. In one of the video reviews, the woman reviewing the headset did jumping jacks, and the headset stayed securely in place.

Well with my headset, the right side stays puts, no problem. The left side is the one that keeps falling out of my ear. I have tried all of the earbud sizes, I stuck with the largest size, but it still slips out of my ear.

What I have found that seems to work somewhat, is to wear my glasses and on the left size, put the frame on the outside of the cord the connects the earbuds. This works better than than just wearing the headset. It still will not hold it in place if the workout involves a lot of movement. If I am just using the weight machines, I am fine, I just need to push the left earbud in from time to time.

I would be interested in hearing if someone has found a fix for this, I am still trying to find a better way to keep them from slipping out.

The features, sound quality and ease of use is great. If the left side earbud would stay secure like the right side, they would be perfect.

Unlike the earlier reviewer who claimed it's not sweat/water resistant, mine works just fine. The sound quality is excellent. The jog dial control is very easy to use. And the battery life is truly amazing! The only thing missing here is the FM tuner but I don't listen to radios when work out so I have no problem with that.

I read some reviews about how this MP3 would fail -when wet- once you start wearing it during workouts. However I thought the people who had experienced that were soaking wet with sweat. I bought it for my wife, who is a novice runner and after a couple of weeks of light training found that IT REALLY FAILED!

On the other hand, the product has this zappin feature that is intended for you to listen briefly to the first part of a song so you can scan and search for the one you want to play. The problem is that, having only two controls for the entire operation (the other one is for volume), it's annoying trying to turn off the zapping mode without turning the player off or passing through all the zapping menu("Zapping In, Zapping Out, Zapping Long, Zapping Short").

Once the player starts to fail, as it happen to mine, the zapping mode turns on and off, even touching the volume control! Then it sometimes gets locked so it's impossible to listen to a full song.

I strongly recommend to purchase any other player and wait for Sony to develop a more sport enduring, flawless, and friendlier version.

This product is a great idea. It sounded great while it worked, however, the first unit arrived defective and would not operate. Amazon was great about replacing it. The second unit worked for about a month and a half, and then it also died. Sony customer support was easy to use and they promptly sent me a third identical unit. The third one stopped working after 2 weeks again.

The headphones were used during normal gym workouts, and they were not mistreated in any way. I would strongly discourage anyone from buying this product until Sony can work out the problems. Now I am stuck with it since Sony will only replace them instead of refunding my money. I can try a fourth pair, but I have my doubts they will work. I should have listened to the reviews I read prior to purchasing it.

To start I am a Sony fan. Owning a Bravia TV, Playstation 3, 2 sony camcorders and many other sony products too long to list. I thought this player would be a more comfortable and cord- free version than my apple nano. After going to the gym the first time and doing my normal weight lifting routine the player worked well. The second night I was in the gym I took the player out of my bag and put it in my ears and it was dead. no power. I immediately thought that the player had inadvertantly turned on in my bag and played for a 22 hour period since my last workout. I went home and hooked the sony back up to my computer and recharged it. 2 nights later in the gym it was working fine and all of the sudden went to the "zappin short" feature. The volume control didn't affect the volume of the player and when I depressed the jog dial switch to turn off the zappin feature it did nothing. Upon arriving home I reset the unit using a paper clip ( reset button is hidden as to prevent accidental depression of it) and still the same "zappin " problem. Recharged it again on the computer and it worked fine till tonight when the same problem occurred. Called Sony Customer Service and Andre told me that he would be more than happy to help me however Sony has a limited warranty policy. For the first three months your player is covered fully, however after 3 months to 1 year the player is covered for parts only but not labor. Which Andre told me would be $29.95. Although the player is just a little over a month old I cannot find the receipt which I need to obtain warranty work on the product. I would recommmend to all to stay away from this product if you SWEAT AT ALL. I believe Sony to be a great company and their electronics to be superb, but this model they got just plain wrong. I am amazed at how no testing could have been done on this product. Read more reviews at CNET or Epinions and save your 70 - 90 dollars till they work out the bugs on this one. The player is being toweled down and given to my 9 year old to listen to his favorite songs while sitting on the couch in our air-conditioned house.

I loved running with this device, for the first 4-5 times I used it. Then, it started crashing on me. I tried re-setting it, but things just got worse. Based on other reviews, it seems there is an issue with this unit getting wet (or being used in humid conditions). It's a shame, because this was a real winner in my book. Very lightweight and relatively easy to use. Just broke beyond repair after less than a month. Luckily Target took it back. The Zappin software is a waste for me since I listen to AudioBooks. Wish there was a way to disable or remove the Zappin software entirely.

Maybe Sony will release a "sports" edition? Hope so. Otherwise, stay away from this if you plan to use it for anything that may make you sweat.

I am a mac user and I was planning to run this MP3 player on virtual Windows via VMware Fusion.
But guess what? This works fine on my Mac!
Jut plug in and drag-and-drop MP3s from iTunes to MUSIC folder inside this MP3 walkman.

The control's very simple, NO sound setting (not even sony's Mega Bass), two buttons to control volume, a jog dial for play/stop and previous/next track, NO fastforword/rewind. ZAPPIN function gives short 4sec (by default, 15 sec option's available) clips on each track.

The sound quality lacks in bass, but it feels pretty clean and certainly good enough for loud fitness center and indoor rock climbing gym.

Some may have difficult time putting this on your ears. This type of earbuds exists in sony for awhile and this is how you do it:
You either pull your ear lobe as you put it on
OR
as you put it on your ears, rotate the earbuds piece so it's vertically oriented instead of horizontal as shown on photo. It should fit securely if you did it right.

for a sony it has it's issues like stops running loose fit but the sound is good

I bought this about a week ago and so far, its absolutely PERFECT! I don't listen to music, but what I listen to is audio books. I always have my MP3 player while I'm running errands, cleaning house, folding laundry, grocery shopping, etc. (Can you tell I'm a mom!) I have often been very frustrated and irritated when my cord on the earphones/MP3 player gets snagged on something and either yanks out of my ears or yanks out of the MP3 player. This little Sony solves all those issues! Its light weight, comfortable to wear, great sound quality - and most importantly - its wireless! I love being able to walk around the house and not have to tuck my player into a pocket or fumble with wires. This is now my favorite MP3 player and I think I'll be too spoiled to go back to a corded set of earphones! The only drawback over traditional MP3 players is that you can see any kind of read-out. You can't see what track you're on because there isn't any kind of screen. But with audio books, it isn't that important if they're properly formatted. The pause/off button is super easy to use and to find. I really think this is a great product and will recommend it to all my friends who are looking for a new MP3 player! :)