Customer Reviews

Sony NW-E507 Network Walkman 1 GB Digital Music Player with FM Tuner

5 star:		(52)
4 star:		(37)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(24)

 

 

This player is fairly small, although it may be confused with a shiny lighter. I actually kind of like that kind of camouflage since it makes it less likely to be stolen. There is no mistaking it for a lighter once the bright OLED display comes alive.

The controls are well-thought, a Sony trademark of sorts. There is a large play/stop button, two paddles on the "shoulders" for volume, and a sliding joystick control around the headpone jack. The joystick works like a watch crown. Pushed down, it puts the device in "hold" mode. It has two other positions. To skip to next/prev song, you rotate the joystick a bit (when not in "hold" mode). The bottom hides the mini-USB port. Minor gripe: the device stops playing when the USB cable is plugged in.

The OLED display is a very nice touch and it integrates quite well with the player's design, although I wish it were a tad longer to be able to display more text without scrolling. The fixed font makes it hard to read sometimes. A proportional font would work better (probably fixable with a software upgrade).

Which brings me to the reason why I gave it only 4 stars. And why I am going to return it. There is simply too much hassle associated with putting music on the device and copying it back from it. The software insists on controlling what I can and cannot do with my own files. You can only upload mp3s by using the included SonicStage software. But, regardless of the original source, it will not let you download the files back unless you perform an "authorization" with some remote site I don't care for, presumably because it assumes you're a "thief". That, my friends, I cannot have.

Sigh. The recipe was simple and easy to follow. The mp3 player is a USB storage device, with a universal driver, you plug it in, you copy files to/from it, it plays whatever it can from your folders. It would have worked everywhere, even with a Mac or Linux, or even years after support for the actual player had lapsed, without any extra effort. But no. Not with this one. You can certainly upload files to it, it will just ignore them if you didn't put them via SonicStage. You can look at it as having two areas on the drive, one for the encoded music that it will play, and one for your files, that it will not.

To recapitulate: it is My computer. My mp3 player. My music. I find it odd that Sony thinks I will pay them money so they can POLICE my own computer. Nuh-huh. Not me. I guess I'll just have to put up with a clunkier interface of Archos, Iriver, or I don't know, Lexar, that at least give me the FREEDOM to do what I want with my own stuff.

This is a great player, supurb sound, great FM reception. I used mine for running and after running with it two times, the shiny metal coating over the OLED display wore off. It's still readable, but looks crappy. I have no idea how it happened. I'm wondering if the salt from my fingers wore it off as I turned the knob. I'll be returning it to Sony for a replacement. Disappointed with the quality though, so 3 stars.

Update: What happened is when I pressed the display button, the salty sweat from my fingers got into the player causing the screen to be coated with a salty substance. So, word of warning: Do not operate controls with wet hands.

If you are like me 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 650 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.

Before I start with my mini review, let me first clarify some things:

1. This device support MP3 drag-and-drop without using Sonic Stage using a program provided by Sony. See the following links:

Sony: http://www.sonydigital-link.com/DNA/common/asp/details.asp?l=en&v=mp3installer_2_0&m=mp3
How to make it auto-launch:
http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=11234

2. This device works as a regular flash drive. It lets you copy non-audio files.

Mini review:

Having used a Sony miniDisc player before, I'm used to Sonic Stage already. One thing I don't like about it is, there's no Mac support. Sonic Stage is not really hard to use. I look at it as, it's not as easy as iTunes.

It comes with 5 free songs (gift cert) at Sony Connect. The upload of the songs to the device was a bit slow since it's USB 1.1. A good thing about Sonic Stage though is, you can choose what songs to upload to your music device (Apple added this feature when the Shuffle was released).

Although just one color (light blue), the OLED screen is great. Think of an LCD screen but brighter (it makes me want to get the Sony Clie VZ90). All devices with screens should use OLED! :D

The metal controls require getting used to. It reminds me of the small dial at the side of an analog watch -- pull once and twist up or down to scroll through the songs, pull it one more time and twisting up or down scolls through the albums, push it in and it's on 'hold' and controls are protected from accidental pushes or twists.

On power saving mode, when a song is playing, after a few seconds, the screen turns off. Every after a few seconds thereafter, an animation - like four "(" - runs to show you that something is playing.

Battery life - I have no plans of testing it but the box says it will last 50 hours of continuous playing. The box also says that a 3-minute charge is good for 3-hours use (wow). Charging is done via USB through the computer by the way.

As for weight, it's slightly heavier than the Shuffle.

There is an option to adjust bass and treble. Using good earphones makes it sound really better than the Shuffle.

Purchased music are in ATRAC3 format, though it can play MP3, WMA, and WAV files if you upload them via Sonic Stage.

Earphones, USB cable, belt clip, a black pouch, and a 5 free song Sony Connect coupon are included in the box.

As for the cost, the E507 (which has 1GB) is $199 - the 1GB Shuffle is $129. Is the $70 difference worth it? Knowing that Sony included an 3-liner OLED (not just a regular LCD) screen is well worth it already. It also comes with an FM tuner and a clock. While it says at the the back that it was built in China, the build is solid. I highly recommend this device.

Some images side-by-side with the iPod shuffle (see third reply):
http://www.1src.com/forums/showthread.php?p=834041#834041

In the past Sony was synonymous with superior audio products with innovative design. Up til now their mp3 products have being disappointing and frustrating.
I had my 64 meg mcp10 for 5 years now and it's time for an upgrade.

If you're like me, I don't understand the whole Ipod hype. The product (design, and functions) does not justify the cost. I was about to get an I-River when I heard about the new NW-E500 series.
It has all the features I want and it excel in some area.

Design:
Finally a mp3 player that looks more like an electronic device than a computer device. The size is about a slim version of most jump drives.
The jog dial seems odd at first but the it's a 5 min learning curve and very intuitive. You can perform all the functions such as volume, track forward/rewind, album forwarding without looking. In the end, the ergonomic is great.

Display
The biggest gripe I have with the shuffle is the lack of a display. The NW-E507's organic EL display is sharp and shows the artist and song title.

Battery
It uses a rechargable lithium battery via your USB connection. Surprisely, the quick charge feature does work. They claim it's about 40 ours of playing time using standard mp3 format. So far, it looks promising after a couple hours of playtime.

Software:
I think the biggest issue I had in the past with Sony is their ATRAC format. I had to format my mp3 to that format in order to transfer it over to the mcp10. Well that's finally changed!!!
You can transfer normal mp3, wma without any conversion.
The new Sonic stage software isn't bad but could be improve upon. Right now I have one issue , it doesn't allow you to transfer songs from mulitple computers without deleting your existing content on the nw-e507. urgh another Sony lame anti-pirating feature. I'll have to look more into this.

I haven't try downloading songs from their Connect network. so I have no comments on that.

Storage: It's plug and play, shows up on your computer as a removeable device.

Summary:
For $199 you get a good all around mp3 player with a fm tuner and a display. Compare to the Shuffle, there's no comparison.
Compare to the I-river... pretty much same features but better styling. Hoepfully they offer other colors in the future.

The player is superb. It is small yet comfortable, flash-based so there are no moving parts- excellent for jogging or commuting, and the design is the best I have seen for a flash mp3 player. It is probably smaller and sleeker than the Nano, it gets 4 times the Nano's battery life, and it is apparently much more durable and less likely to scratch.

There are complaints about SonicStage software, but it is not so bad, it seems as easy to use as Itunes. Besides, you can download the MP3 file manager update here, for easy drag-and-drop support, and then you don't have to use SonicStage at all- http://esupport.sony.com/perl/model-swu.pl?mdl=NWE507

My only significant complaint is that there is no support for .wma drm playback- But you should be able to find what you need in .mp3, and if not, you can always burn itunes or yahoo music store tracks to CD, then rip to MP3-

I would recommend this player-

-Joel

After reading reviews I was little concerned about sonic stage software, it was a total non-issue for me. I have purchased music from 5 major sights and ripped music from personal collection and there was NO ISSUE. Others who encounter sonic stage issues may be trying to interchange formats and/or have other sources of music formats.

Take the time to load and learn software as it works very well and is rather painless, as you can really organize your music.

Software will install operation manual on your computer, take the time to read them as paper copy does not cover a lot of features.

GOOD FEATURES
1) 1GB - NOT 1.5GB+ when you use sonic stage software and still great sound quality.
2)Display - COOL with lots of choices ex: date, time, artist,song etc which you set.
3)Battery Life/Charging- WOW, no one beats about 50 hours per 45 min charge.(3min charge = 2hours)
4) FM radio - included, good sound with 30 present channels, no extra cost.
5)Sound Mode- 3 settings 1 factory, 2 personal sets(you set bass and treble from 0 to 3) limited but yet adds greatly to sound quaility better sound that most MP3's.
6) Volume - 2 volume control setting A)manual volume increases/decreases by 1 step intervals B)Preset volume which has low, med, and high sets(which can be changed)so volume up/down buttons jumps between 3 quick steps when using this feature.
7) AVLS- limits volume (helps police my love for loud tunes)
8)Repeat Mode - 3 repeat modes(They are a little trickly to figure out but convenient depending on personal styles)
9) Hold - holds settings at current state so bumping of buttons does not change during play or off.
10) Shuffle - mixes it up -great.

Organize + organize + organize = sweet!
Take time to organize your music on sonic stage software before transfering to E507.
The software automatically organizes by artist-album-song.
I created playlist folders with song groupings on the software and then transfered my playlist folders, well worth the effort.

The controls allow you to jump between folders in one setting and then in another setting you jump between individual songs within that folder. (Your folders will either be by Artist or playlist depending on your organization choices.)

The controls can be operated with one hand, tricky to learn but work very well. BEWARE OF SWEAT/SALTY HANDS AS CAN DAMAGE DISPLAY AS PER OTHER REVIEWS, THANKS FOR ADVICE.

POOR FEATURES
1) Ear buds - not great but already have good earphones, worth investment, for sound quality.
2) Clip - could have been better but really a non-issue, pockets work.
3) Surface can get scratched but other reviews helped avoid, THANKS, again.
4) DISPLAY + SUN = HARD TO SEE! use hand to shade display, that works for me

E507 takes a little bit of time and effort to organize, set and learn the controls but well worth the effort, your effort or lack of effort will help to determine your view of the E507, all of these features working together create great harmony...( I know BOO HISS, just throw the eggs at next guy's review)

This is prefect for exercise and taking your music on the go.

Lives up to my expectations after all what else is expected for $100 USA without having to buy extras. And it rates pretty high on COOL scale for looks and display screen, sure beats a flat checkbook style with boring black font....

[Update on Dec 14: Positive- FM tuner is sweet. You can preset 30 stations. Negatives- The screen is worthless in direct sunlight and the shuffle turns off when you manually select a song from the track list. If you are hard of hearing, this player may not be for you, since the max volume is not as loud as my last flash player (a AA-battery powered i-river). To be sure, I have never had to max out the volume. Still worth noting. With these caveats I would drop my rating to a four and one-half stars, but that is not an option, and five stars is closer to the mark than four stars in my opinion. I don't even use my 5gb hard-drive based h10 anymore.]

Original review:
My girlfriend got the 512mb version for using at the gym and I was very impressed with it. After getting her feedback and fiddling with it myself, I decided that I wanted the 1gb version. The price tag was a bit of an issue for me but I found a good deal on a refurb and sprung for it.

I am thrilled with this purchase. Some background: my first mp3 player was iriver's first 128mb flash player. Loved that thing, but obviously storage capacity became an issue. I have since gone through an I-pod (the first pc version) and iriver's h10 player (untimely purchase since the nano came out shortly after I bought that thing!). The workhorse of a flash player (the 128mb) finally died on me (well, not really, but I need rubber bands to hold the battery in), and I've been searching for a replacement for cycling/sports/working out ever since. I have loved the design of the ipod shuffle (thin/sturdy/rechargeable battery -- rare with the smallest flash players) since it came out but never bought it because it annoyed me that you were just stuck with shuffle and no display.

Well the nw-e507 provided the answer. It has a superlong battery life that charges lightning fast. It only takes 2 or 3 minutes to charge it enough to last a few hours!!! This is a great feature when I realize I forgot to charge it right before heading out. (Fully charged it lasts a LONG time. I haven't counted but I'd say 30 hours at least.)

The sound is great (the headphones it comes with are not -- I'm using the ones that came with my original iriver). But it helps to fiddle with the bass and the treble, because the out-of-the-box settings are sort of dull. The controls are well thought out and simple to use. The player is light and feels real sturdy (though I fear that the clip it comes with won't last being attached and removed over and over again).

Then there is the maligned software. I didn't bother installing it after reading the reviews, but my girlfriend already had it installed. I've tried it out, and quite frankly, I'm not sure what the fuss is about. It seems pretty intuitive. It works well with playlists etc. Granted, it hasn't asked me to convert anything -- that seems to be a big complaint people have. I also imagine that if one is used to i-tunes or some other software it may be annoying to have to use sonicstage. But as is well documented among these reviews, the solution is quite simple --> there are available downloads that allow you to drag files from i-tunes right on to the player. (And though that gives you "reduced storage capacity," in fact, you are getting the same capacity as you would putting mp3's on any other 1gb player.)

Bottom line: if small size, light weight, good sound, simplicity (but not at the total expense of functionality -- see the i-shuffle), and a LONG battery life are virtues for you, then you might want to consider this sleek player.

I almost did not buy this player based on the product reviews, but I decided to give it a chance anyway because its Sony. All of the complaints that I read about this product said that the sonic stage software is impossible to load songs onto the player because sony assumes that you are a music pirate. All you have to do when installing the software is read, it asks you if you want your music validated, JUST SAY NO! I think the sonic stage software is better than crappy itunes, it easier to use it does everything for you automatically once you tell it how you want it to convert your files. This is a great player I am replacing my Nano with this, I prefer the music quality its nice to actually hear some bass and it looks really nice. All you have to do is read while your installing.

I think that buying an electronic device is kind of like getting married: you should do a LOT of homework before making a commitment, based on your needs, preferences, price range (okay, well that *shouldn't* apply to *marriage*), etc. So, when I was looking for an MP3 player to use while running, I looked at a lot of reviews and compared features before finally selecting the NW-E507. I agree with those who found the software limiting, but I knew about that going into the purchase and felt that the huge memory, amazing battery life, compact size and easy functionality were a fair trade.

So . . . my first year of marriage to NW-E507 was everything that a blissful honeymoon should be. It worked exactly as it was supposed to, and I loved it and took very good care of it. Then, just a year after purchase (and long after the 90-day warranty expired), its personality changed. Well, at least the electronic equivalent of that--all of the buttons stopped working properly, it began to fast-forward sporadically, the battery wouldn't last longer than a couple of hours. It was an MP3 player possessed. I tried erasing its memory and reinstalling my files, scoured the owner's manual for troubleshooting ideas, cursed, prayed and finally decided to write a scathing review.

If I could give this product zero stars I would, because $200 (alas, I bought this when it first came out and paid retail) is WAY TOO MUCH (even $139 is too much) to pay for a poor quality product that is designed (I believe purposefully by Sony) to break so that it has to be replaced. Sorry, that's just bad customer service on Sony's part, and I will not be purchasing their products again.

So please, learn from my mistakes, vote with your dollars for a better product, and teach Sony to not be so disengenous with its customers.