Customer Reviews

Sony NW-E505 Network Walkman 512 MB Digital Music Player with FM Tuner Blue

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

If you are like myself and like things as simple as possible, do not install the enclosed CD, do not use SonicStage software, by far one of the most unfriendly players I have seen. You may fit up to 300 or so atrac3 files in this player, but you have to go through all the hassle of converting your mp3 files and once in the player they are copy protected meaning you can't do any further copying plus the quality isn't as good as that of 160kbps or 192kbps mp3 files...the solution: the most simple there is:

go to the Sony asia pacific website at:

http://www.css.ap.sony.com/consumer/template/DDSummary.aspx?Id=44358&Category=Personal+Audio

to download the NW505/507 driver (do this step first) and MP3 File Manger software which installs right on your player in seconds. Then is just a drag'n'drop game from iTunes player with no hassles whatsoever. The downside: you'll only be able to fit 80-100 songs in a 512Mb player or 160-200 songs in a 1Gb player, but if you are like me that keeps a music library in iTunes in my home PC and just uses this portable MP3 for trendy music this shouldn't be an issue and the sound quality is unbelievable!

One more tip - Plan to spend $15 more on headphones (Sony's MDR-E827G are the best) as the headphones included with the player are useless.

My purchase of NW-E505 is one of the best investment I purchased this year. If you are in the market for a mini-flash media player, especially compare to iPod shuffle, I would highly recommend this player over the iPod. Here are the reasons. 1) Sony player has about 50 hours of battery life. Basically, I don't know what it means to be low on battery. 2) it has a very stylish screen that tells you the song title, artist, mode (shuffle, repeat, single play), duration of the time. 3) It has a clock, 4) you can change the treble and base setting to maximize performace. 5) diffenerent colors (black, silver, dark blue, light blue and pink). 6) very sturdy material (just take feel test between sony and iPod). 7) It has a FM radio tuner. I am not a radio person but it's nice to have FM just in case. 8) The sony compuuter program is easy to use and it can convert songs to smaller storage files without changing the integrity of the song.
I hope you'll enjoy your player as much as I do.

I've had this player for about 2 months now and use it primarily while bike riding, working out and mowing the lawn. While the player sounds great, the cheap clip and earphones make it not worth the money if you are going to use it for anything other than sitting. The clip just pops off where you attach it (and it does not take much) and the ear pieces just fall out (replaced those).

Many other users have focused their reviews on the positives of this player and as true as their points are, they fail to address two major shortcomings:
1. The player comes with a flimsy clip for portability when it really should come with a neck lanyard instead/in addition to. I tried using the clip for about a day and immediately I was shopping for a neck lanyard. A suitable lanyard was hard to find because the hole to fasten one to the player is very small. I finally settled on a $4.00 cellphone lanyard I found at a T-Mobile store.
2. Despite the fact that I'm running Windows XP, the SonicStage software which came with the player WOULD NOT WORK on my computer. I ended up downloading an alternate program (Mp3 File Manager) on to the player itself in order to facilitate file transfers. The program works good but it takes up space on the player's memory and it only supports files in mp3 format. . .
Besides these two flaws, it seems to be a decent mp3 player.

I've had the NW-E505 for close to a year I think. This is the 4th Sony MP3 player I've owned (3 different models). I really wasn't too impressed with the others, other than the size.

The main gripes I had with my older Sony players were 1) no belt clip; 2) had to pay extra for memory cards; 3) battery life/reliability was horrible; 4) SonicStage software sucks. Well, they took care of 3 of the problems at least with the E505. It has a belt clip attachment, internal memory (twice what I had with the others too), and the battery life is incredible.

I generally only use it when I'm at the gym, so I'm using it 3-4 hours a week. Still...with other electronics I've owned, even if I wasn't using it the battery would eventually run down. Not so with this. I think I've charged it a grand total of 4-5 times since I bought it. It's also got a couple of different display modes you can set to save battery power. I have my display stay turned off unless I hit buttons. I really don't need it to scroll through the song name constantly.

SonicStage still sucks. It always will. But I'm willing to deal with it in order to load more songs. I've never had any problems with the software or drivers.

Many people prefer the iPods. I owned one for about a week before I returned it. Here's why I think this MP3 player is better than the iPods:

1) If you want music at the gym, the iPod is a major pain. You have to look at the screen to do anything, and personally I hate that wheel control. It's too sensitive. On the Sony MP3 players, you've got buttons and switches...you can switch songs or albums, and change the volume without even looking at it. I find that extremely convenient when I'm working out.

2) The sound quality is SO much better. I didn't realize how good it was until I purchased the iPod. When I returned it, I told the sales person that was one of the reasons. They told me I should invest in some new headphones...of course that would be another $50 for the good ones. The Sony players sound great with the included headphones, although I'm sure they would sound better with $50 headphones too...I just don't want that extra expense. Plus on the iPod you've got a bunch of presets to choose from for bass & treble...and they all stink! On the Sony you can adjust both separately.

3) It's simple. I don't need a datebook and a phonebook. I've got a Palm for that.

4) I like the shape better (like a small pack of gum) and it feels more sturdy to me. The iPod I purchased was a mini, so it was a lot bigger than the Nanos...but even those feel a bit flimsy to me. I would worry about it getting damaged in my gym bag.

5) Battery life is much better. Again, I'm referring to the iPod mini...maybe they have made improvements with the newer models.

To summarize...this is the best portable music player I have ever owned or seen, hands down. I can't imagine any other changes they could make that would make me want to replace it or upgrade with a newer model.

I've had this MP3 Player for 4 days now; I purchased it after reading ALL the reviews for this model (special thanks to JKCORNELL). I went through an extensive test with this one. Firstly, the sonic stage program isnt all that great, but its not 100% horrible. Its only inconvenient if you previously purchased and stored your music with another program such as ITunes or MusicMatch. If you never used any music management program you shouldnt have a problem and may even prefer to use Sonicstage for ease and compatibility with your player. I used SonicStage to download my 5 free ATRAC format songs from Connect that came with purchase and they were fairly easy to add. I use ITunes as well, so I followed the advice of JKCORNELL (see that review) and downloaded the MP3 manager program to my player from the Sony Asia Pacific Site. Drag-and-drop from ITunes was a breeze. Open the MP3 player from the MY Computer section of your PC (must be connected by USB cable), click on the MP3 manager and you can drag songs from your ITunes library. I noticed that I could not download the free songs I received from ITunes onto the player becauce of the AAC format, but this can be cleverly averted (assuming you have the patience and a CD-RW) by burning the files to CD then copying them back into your PC! I only had 3 AAC ITunes songs so it took no time at all. FYI: make sure that your ITunes is set to importing CD files with MP3 encoding, not AAC. This trick also works with MusicMatch. Many complained about the clip not functioning, so I went jogging for 5 min on the track and 5 min on the treadmill, and it didnt pop off. If you clip it to a thin waistband, this may help out. Accessories for this model are practically nonexistent. There's just 1 little case at the Sony Store online and it just didnt look worth it. The good thing is that fingerprints wipe off easily with a DRY napkin (or your shirt, if thats all you have handy). I HATE all earbud headphones, and the included are somehow contoured to fit your ear differently that other earbuds, but my ears are very small so these feel more painful than others. If you use the little silicone earbud covers that are sold for covering your cell phone earpiece (I use JABRA brand) it will be a tight fit to get the earbud into because of its different shape, but you will feel much better. Too much work? You can simply replace them with standand headphones. I like the Automatic volume control feature because it presets the level you hear music (you can even adjust to your own liking!) into 3 categories: low medium and high. Need to cut down your music to hear an announcement? Instead of pushing a button 13 times to cut it down from the high preset, you simply push twice, and the sound is lowered completely. I personally had a bit of trouble operating the jog dial function until I realized there were 2 positions. Pulled out partially, you can skip to the next track, fast forward or rewind a song. Pulled out all the way you can skip tracks and complete albums. You can avoid this hassle by reading the manual a bit before operation (I was being lazy at the time). Setting the Clock and tuning the FM radio was easy, but I again suggest reading the manual briefly when learning to Preset your favorite stations. This player does not have a built in USB like the 'Bean' versions of Sony MP3 players; it attaches by the included cable and also charges this way. Sony makes an AC charger for those who travel a bit, and may have no access to a PC. I rate this model at 4 out of 5 stars total because of the hassle with converting file formats from AAC (or other Protected File formats) and the lack of a drag and drop setup within the SonicStage program.
If you want a quality MP3 player with a stylish design, easy functioning (once the music had been downloaded) and a full display, then this is the one for you. Hope this helps out ! -Evelyn

This product is totally awesome. So compact! Very illumniscent! Very easy to use. As a consumer, I couldn't ask for anything better. Sony has really outdone itself. If you purchase from Amazon.com or Sony, you get 5 free songs. Installed radio is to die for. Now I can listen to the radio at work. Only issue with this item is that it does not have a protective sleeve made yet. Great item to use at the gym!

The Network Walkman pretty much highlights the problem Sony has right now as a corporation. The hardware is phenomenal. The screen, controls, battery life, displays, etc. The player itself gets 5 stars easily and I'd say is the best flash player on the market. Several people recommend better ear phones -- no big deal.

The problem (and you knew this was coming) is software and DRM. I'm a MusicMatch user and this is a big problem. Songs I buy on Musicmatch (protected drm) can't be downloaded and played by this hardware. You would first need to use 3rd party sw tools to convert the songs legally (!) purchased to mp3 so they could be then converted to Sony's proprietary format and played. Strangely I've also had the player refuse to play standard ripped MP3s from my CD collection -- not sure what's going on with that. In a word, "Aargh!!" If Sony doesn't become more market driven they'll die a slow death. I'm debating whether to keep this player with all the "drm strings" attached or to sell it on Ebay and pick up a MuVo player.

While this device does have it's drawbacks, it pluses far outweigh any of those. Because of those drawbacks, though, I couldn't bring myself to giving it 5 stars.

-- The drawbacks --

The LED display is not visible in direct sunlight.

The software is somewhat of a pain to use. Follow J Cornell's advice on this and get the software from Sony's website. It's much better but there's still a few issues with that software. Mine locked up a couple times and the transfer rate seems slow compared to drag and dropping songs directly onto the device (you'll spend roughly 10 seconds per song with the Sony software). Some tracks also copy over with garbled information (though, they played fine). I assume it was a track that had no IDv1 or IDv2 tag and one that winamp would display using track file name.

Somewhat of a steep learning curve to learn to use the device.

Had some problems using this device with 1 hand as my fingers couldn't really grip the tuner when sweaty.

The shuffle option has a tendency of resetting when the device is powered down for a long time so you'll need to check to make sure that's on each and every time you run. I'm not sure if this is true for the other options.

The headphones that come with this device are not good. They fall out alot in my ears. I bought a pair of these to go with my mp3 player - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000067G0J/ref=cm_rev_emailcr_p1_c1926450_dp_1_h/102-0844418-7083341?n=172282 .

-- The pros --

Exceptional battery life.

Charges VERY fast.

Great sound quality.

Once you get over the learning curve, the menus are easy to navigate.

The belt clip, while some were complaining, has never been a problem for me and I found the location to be far superior than storing it on my arms.

FM player mixs it up a bit giving you something to listen to. The device gets relatively good reception using your headphones as the attenae.

The LED display is very visible in all indoor lighting and in the dark and outside away from direct sunlight. Very bright and uses very little battery power.

-- Conclusion --

Overall, the drawbacks are few and far between and mostly nitpicking stuff. The pros are what set this player apart from other players on the market. I'm happy with my purchase here.

Bought this in Target.com. After 3 days' trying, frankly to say, I like it.

pros:

1). body well-built;
2). superb sound;
3). Superb battery life;
4). beautiful display;
5). easy control. (much easier than most of sony's previous mp3s)

cons:

very hassell sofware for music transfer. either SONY's managing level or scientists who are in charge of sofware designing for portable audios are a bunch of stubborn guys - after hearing so many many complaints on their almost worest softwares for mp3/ Net Walkman, they still insist that they must go their own and special way. Well, that is fine, but SONY loses money and market for the portable audio. I almost return this manchine if it is not because of the SUPERB sound for music.

If SONY can improve their software and firware of the machine to enable 1). drag and drop; 2). direct mp3 playing without file converting. This series of mp3 will be the terminator for the mp3 market.

SONY, SONY, listen some feedbacks from your customers. Their opinions are important for your success.