Customer Reviews

Sony NW-HD3 Network Walkman 20 GB Digital Music Player (Black)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

In NW-HD3, Sony finally added native MP3 support to its tiny hard disk-based digital music player, so no conversion to its proprietary ATRAC3 format is necessary. This makes the player much more attractive to users already with a large collection of MP3 files. Styling-wise, this new player comes in five color choices: red, pink (looks purplish to me), blue, black, and silver. Backlighting color is also different depending on the exterior color. Plenty of eye candy, for sure. (FYI, mine is red.)

Internally, other than the added support for MP3, the HD3 is exactly the same as the HD1. In fact, even the dimensions and weight (4.5 oz.) are the same. It's also the same 1.8" 20GB hard drive inside. It has the same SUPERB sound quality as the HD1. (Seriously, before listening to ATRAC3 on the HD1, I hadn't known compressed music could sound so good.) Both models claim up to 30 hours of battery life when playing back ATRAC3Plus files. (On my HD1, I routinely got over 25 hours of playback on a single charge.) For MP3, Sony claims "up to 20 hours." As I write this, I've been playing a mixture of 128kbps and 192kbps MP3 files for about eight hours on my last recharge and the battery is at the half mark. Of course, if
you turn on the equalizer, choose shuffle (random) play, or press the buttons a lot, the battery will run down faster. (Hard drive spinning and backlighting consume the most power.)

BTW, the LiIon battery in the HD3 *can* be user-replaced in theory; see p.39 of the manual. The only question is where can you and I get a spare battery. I wouldn't buy a generic battery on ebay because 1) there are reports that these "fake" batteries don't work, and 2) if improperly charged, they can explode, just like with the exploding cell phones. Like the HD1, the HD3 has just a few buttons. The menu and mode buttons on the top seem easier to press than the HD1, which is a welcome improvement. The play/stop button is still a bit too small for my big thumbs. The four-way arrow buttons are responsive and I personally prefer a simple linear control scheme like this over other "weird" interfaces such as scroll wheel or touch-sensitive strip. I also like the hold button on this thing; it's very easy to slide. Backlighting on the HD3 works well and the monochrome LCD is small but sharp.

Some nice touches of the HD3 include the ability to choose "line out" instead of "headphones" when you want to run the output through an amplifier. ("Headphones" output is pre-amped and will sound distorted and harsh if it goes into an external amplifier.) There're also a six-band equalizer and virtual surround sound settings.

Overall, the HD3 feels very solid physically and the player itself is pretty easy to figure out. Most audiophiles will like the superb sound quality they'll get if they rip into the ATRAC3Plus format. I've used this player in the gym, and it never skips a beat.

Now, the not-so-pleasant side of this little wonder...

Even though HD3 is a HUGE improvement over its predecessor HD1 due to the native MP3 playback capability alone (well, a lower introductory price is also a big plus), its user interface and music transfer interface haven't been improved at all. The updated SonicStage software (now at version 2.3) is fine some of the time, but a nightmare other times. There are a number of nagging issues:

1) You cannot simply copy your MP3 files to the HD3 and expect to play them later. The HD3 does appear on Windows desktop as an external drive, and you can copy any files (including MP3 files) to its hard drive. Basically this allows you to use the HD3 as an external disk drive. But, in order for the MP3 files to play back as audio, they must be transferred using the included SonicStage music management software. (Internally, SonicStage places all transferred music tracks, MP3 or ATRAC, in a proprietary database on the HD3. You cannot access these tracks directly from Windows Explorer.)

2) While you can charge the HD3 using the USB cable via the small USB adapter (it doesn't have a docking cradle a la the HD1), which is a cool thing, you cannot transfer music without plugging in the AC adapter. This is just plain stupid and it means if you want to transfer music on other PCs, you must carry the AC adapter with you. The AC adapter is small and one-piece, but it's still a pain to have to remember carrying it with you.

3) You still must "authorize" the HD3 with the Sony Connect music service. This is pretty straightforward -- when it works. The whole music rights control system Sony forces upon us is so freaking convoluted and stupid and irksome. To the dumbheads at Sony marketing: we users want a simpler way to manage and transfer music! Even Windows Media Player 10 is way better at these than SonicStage 2.3.

4) You cannot rate music like you can in Windows Media Player. Creating playlists (called "groups" by Sony in the HD3 manual but known as "albums" in SonicStage -- go figure!) in SonicStage is a bit of a pain. You cannot create playlists on the HD3 itself. It only has a feature called Bookmark which basically combines ratings and a rudimentary playlist into one function. You can bookmark up to 100 songs.

5) Shuffle (random) and repeat plays are ridiculously complicated and require lots of button presses; and you cannot activate them when a song is playing! Take a look at pp.25-28 of the manual and be prepared for an anxiety attack. Once again, Sony introduces some totally stupefying concept to make their American users' playback experience miserable: this time it's something calld "play unit" which involves where you start playback. Anyway, it just makes no sense whatsoever. In a nutshell, it's almost impossible to get consistent shuffle plays on the HD3. Sometimes it shuffles the entire collection of your music, other times it does just a folder or artist. Totally bewildering.

6) Native WMA playback is still not supported. You can convert non-copy-protected WMA files into ATRAC using SonicStage, a time-consuming process. If you have WMA tracks bought from an online store (MSN Music, Walmart, Musicmatch, etc.), you cannot convert them.

7) Sony just has to come up with a better name than "Network Walkman NW-HD3." And you call that POS a case???

In short, like the earlier HD1, the HD3 is an amazing piece of hardware with terrific sound quality, amazing battery life and a solid feel (but not heavy in weight) not found on any other MP3 player. If only Sony would improve the player's interface as well as the scary SonicStage software (esp. in the copy protection department), this would simply be the best MP3 player, period.

"But," you ask, "is the NW-HD3 right for me?"

The answer depends on what you want. If you want great sound quality *and* the best hardware form factor, the HD3 is your top choice. If you can, rip to ATRAC3Plus for top-notch sound quality and prolonged battery life. If you want a tiny yet solid MP3 jukebox and don't mind studying the electronic manual (in PDF), the HD3 is also a good choice, and you get long battery life as a bonus. If you prefer linear scrolling (like I do) to alternative methods, you'll like the HD3's simply four-way controls. If, however, your cup of tea is simplicity (esp. on the desktop software side) over sound quality, you'll be better off with an iPod; if you want something with lots of bells and whistles (FM, recording, calendar, etc.), you'll be happier with something from Creative Labs.

Here are a few tips that I hope will help smooth your HD3 experience:

1) You must use the version of SonicStage on the HD3's CD-ROM (v2.3, but somehow more "special" than the updater you can download on Sony's website). If you have any older version installed, be sure to uninstall it first. Reboot, then install the new version.

2) If you run into any problems with transferring music -- and many users do sooner or later -- call the Sony Connect/SonicStage's toll-free support number. They are much, much better and more competent than the hardware support people, who are clueless and useless on anything other than which button you should press to play music. E-mail me if you want that phone number. (It's on Connect's website but a bit hard to find.)

3) Don't bother with getting a remote control. The two that are Japan-only but can be special-ordered are just way over-priced for the simple functions they have. There's been consistent talk in user forums that Sony will probably introduce one of the remotes here, in which case it'll certainly be much cheaper than what you'll pay right now. But if you really *need* a remote, e-mail me and I can tell you which one you should get (and which one to avoid) and which legit source to get it from.

Got this great little hard drive mp3 player couple weeks ago and overall it's pretty nice. Some things to keep in mind if you're considering getting one:

1. Battery life
Touted as 30 hrs, but that is only if you play 48kbps mp3s which are extremely low quality. For 128kbps quality (close to CD quality), it officially lists 22 hrs. Of course, these estimates assume you never use the backlight and don't raise the bass. Many of my mp3s are 192kbps, and playing those with liberal use of the backlight and bass boosting and the battery only will last about 4 hrs or so. No "removable battery," but there are instructions on how to remove the internal battery for disposal. Don't know if you can order new batteries and replace them yourself or if you have to send it in to do that (like the iPod).

2. Sound quality
Hey, it's a Sony, and yeah it sounds good! No "base boost" bottom, per se, but you can adjust bass and treble in two presets, but bass cannot be increased very much, unfortunately. You can also adjust equalizer settings.

3. Size/Design
Awesome, so small and stylish and light, perfect for holding in your hand while jogging. However, note that the hunk of glass that covers the display is not that sturdy. I dropped my player from about 2 ft high on the bottom surface (opposite the side with glass) and the glass got cracked. Don't think that hunk of glass was a very good idea.

4. Skip protection
Great, never skipped while held in my hand and jogging for 30+ min. Never could happen with CD or MD players.

5. Accessories
No remote control, but I'm told that many Sony MD remotes will work for basic functions (obviously, not the menus), but in practice, I've found that I don't miss it or need it since it's always in my hand so that I can flip through the menus. The USB/AC adaptor attachment is flimsy and looks like it could easily snap. Unfortunately the nice cradle, that was included with the NW-HD1, is not provided. Still, it's functional so I don't really care too much. Nice that Sony AC adaptors are compatible with 100-240V power supplies, so that you can use it other countries with no problems with a cheap plug adaptor (not included). The carry case is weak and there is no supplied hand strap (but an attachment is present). Headphones are of the standard ear plug variety.

6. Functionality
There are some functionality problems/deficiencies with this simple mp3 player. First, the backlight brightness cannot be adjusted at all, leading me to leave it off since it drains power so much. Also, the light will turn on when you change volume, giving another reason to leave it turned off. Second, the "direction pad" that is used to navigate menus is fine but slow when you have a lot of stuff in your player. The iPod's wheel is more useful perhaps. The player can also function as a, well, hard drive to carry around non-music files. It will show up as a drive on "my computer" and you can drag and drop files into it like any other windows folder (mp3 files will not play when transferred like this).

7. Software
This is the worst part of this player. You MUST use this terrible software to manage all your files and transfer them, etc. If you've ever used this before, you'll know how annoying and aggravating it is to use. On the other hand, it's not as bad as before because the NW-HD3 fully supports mp3s and therefore it's not necessary to convert all your files to Sony's proprietary Atrac format. Still, it is a cumbersome and slow program with a very sucky interface that makes transfering files onto your player a hassle. Most annoyingly, you can not drag and drop files to your library. Also, files must also be entered into your library before they can be transferred from your PC to your player, which is a hassle and waste of time. The functionality of the software also sucks, as there is no ability to create playlists, and so if you want to make mixes, you need all the mp3s in a certain folder. And if you have a song in more than one mix, that means the song will have to be duplicated on your player, which is obviously dumb and wastes hard drive space. And forget about the software arranging folders in alphabetical order for you, that's up to you!

Anyway, in summary, I am rather pleased with this nice player and much prefer it to the iPod.

Player grade: 4.5 stars
Software grade: 2.0 stars
Overall grade: 3.75 (heck let's round it up to 4) stars

If you spend some time with this player it is equal to or better then the ipod. I've used an ipod before and its great. But when researching to choose which player I wanted to invest $300 on, I downloaded the manual from each of the players respected manufacturers (apple, sony, iriver, creative). When directly comparing the HD-3 to the ipod (the "most popular player") they both have the same annoying features. Ipod uses only itunes to transfer music and sony uses sonicstage. Sonicstage version 3 was pretty simple to figure out. I loaded up my library from my pc and then transfered album by album to the hd3. It was the same procedure the ipod manual describes.
The HD3 does have a playlists option in which you bookmark songs. Ipod calls it "on the go something" but both have you hold a button to add the track to a my favorite playlist which is a few menus away from the opening screen. Its no problem.

Shuffling is also easy to figure out. It's about the same explanation you would see with any sony audio device. I mean the manual came from Japan but its written in english. So stop whinning. The HD3 actually gives you more shuffling options than ipod. You can shuffle all the tracks, or all the albums, or all the artists, or choose to shuffle tracks within an artist or album group.

Overall the HD3 has way better sound and a much longer battery life than any other player including ipod. Plus if the battery dies YOU can replace instead of paying someone to do it. The HD3 is also smaller, sleeker, and looks cooler. Plus when do sony products break? I still use a six year old cd player.

So don't let U2 convince you to buy an ipod. Buy a freaking awesome player that is unique and much cooler.

No I don't work for sony, I work at Publix. Its a grocery store.

I'm not going to get into tons of detail, as other people already have. I just got my Sony NW-HD3 a few days ago. A brief comparison with the Ipod Mini:

1. Size: The HD3, on it's side is the same height as the Mini and just 1/2 inch wider than the Mini. Impressive give the Sony is 20GB (5x more than Mini) and the Mini is 4 GB.
2. Sound: HD3 had better sound than the Mini. I played Snoop Doggs Drop It Like It's Hot on both players and it has a slight echo on the Mini. Suburb on the HD3.
3. Interface: The Mini's click wheel is the winner. It's just easier to find songs.
4. Software: ITunes wins for sure. This SonicStage software is horrible. Took forever to load and once you get it up, you have to authorize your player if you want to buy music. It crashed 3 times. I finally got all the songs loaded. Wish the HD3 had firewire connection.
5. Arm strap. There is none for the HD3. The Mini's strap rocks. I love it for running. Hope Sony gets one for the HD3.
6. Battery: The Sony wins for sure. Even when I don't use my Mini, the battery runs dead fast.
7. Overall: I'd chose the HD3, simply because it's 'prettier' and had better sound. I'm all about the sound. Once you get your songs loaded, the Sony rocks! However, Sony can still learn from Apple. They need better software.

Initial review (April 2005)
I don't like Apple and neither understand nor want to participate in the iPod mania. My experience with Sony walkmans (I've got two MD walkmans before plus MD hardware) has always been positive, and the choice of NW-HD3 was obvious.

Here are my impressions:

+ Sound quality in incredible (I don't have the background noise some people are complaining about);
+ Navigation is convenient; I'm able to control the device when it's in my pocket;
+ Native MP3 playback is nice: I've got my previous collection of 300 CDs encoded into MP3 because I couldn't take all of the CDs with me when I moved; NW-HD3 didn't require me to decrease the already decreased quality of the music by converting MP3s into ATRAC.

* The battery lasts for 14-16 hours, not 30 (I'm mostly listening to ATRAC3Plus-encoded music);
* The charger is inconvenient but seems to be hard to break :)
* The screen is large but long song names get scrolled just once.
* Sony's HD-CASE1 hard carrying case became available just recently; it's still hard to find. It's a must if you don't carry your HD3 in your pocket (as I do).
* SONY Connect music store is a joke. It doesn't have what I like (various kinds of metal and rock). I downloaded a few songs from it and they seemed to be in ATRAC3 132 kBps - could've been ATRAC3Plus 256 (I didn't find a way to switch the format).

- The software takes getting used to. I tried SonicStage 2.3, 3.0 and 3.1. Upgrade requires you to re-authorize your player (kind of inconvenient). The latest release of SonicStage (3.1) occasinally terminates with some error.
- The player sorts music by album name, not by the release year. It's a bit confusing.
- The most annoying feature is that the player forgets the song that was played before charging it, and you have to look for it again.

It should be noted that I don't need some features many people find extremely useful: playlists, genres, games, organizers, etc. I know all the albums I record on my player (so far I've put 12 Gigs into it), and thanks to the fast navigation I can access any of them in a matter of seconds.

Buying this walkman was my conscious decision which I didn't regret.

Update after 2006-01-31. The walkman freezes for 20-40 seconds every 3-4 hours, and SONY suggested me to pay them $83 for figuring out what the problem is. Next time I will think twice before buying their harddrive-based gadgets.

IF you are considering this you might want to wait until may when sony releases the NW-HD5, it has an even longer battery life (40 hours ATRAC, 30 hours Mp3) and a user-replaceable battery. Pictures are on engadget.com

The best thing about this player is the four way navigation buttons. If you find wheels and touch-sensitive strips irritating, this is the mp3 player for you. Simply press the ^ and v buttons to scroll, > to skip or select, < to go back, play to start or stop, menu to change the settings, and mode to switch the browser between artist, album, genre, etc.. The whole thing is very intuitive after just a few minuets of use.

The display is very clear and informative, the exception being that the battery display has only three sections, making it not that usefull.

The whole thing is rock solid yet very light, and the on/off switch is so flat and sunken it will NEVER be turned on by accident. One time I dropped it and it just hung on the end of the cord without hitting the floor it's so light.

The earbuds that come with it are strangely shaped and hurt my ears so I dont use them. The so called 'carrying case' is just a felt cover to prevent scratches, not padded or anything(but still nice to have).

The sonicstage software is a bit sluggish, but if you just want to transfer files and use a different program for listening, I think it's fine.

I am confident this thing is going to last a long time beacause i got my sony cd player about five years ago and after much hard usage it still works great.

Also, this thing can playback and charge at the same time so you can plug it in when it gets low on power without skipping a beat.

One of the best things is that if you set playback to random you can shuffle all songs, one artist, one album, one genre, etc. just by selecting it.

Also don't listen to the guy who complained about the scroll speed. First of all, there is no comprehensive list of individual songs, so there could not even be 3000 items to scroll through. Secondly, even if there was, the menu is wrap-around so it would only take half that long. Due to the multiple categories to organize tracks by, it could only take about 30 sec. tops to find the song you want.

Overall the only three petty complaints I have are these: the AC/DC power adapter partially covers the on/off switch, so you can't turn on or off without taking the plug out(a minor annoyance), artists are organized alphabeticly even if they start with 'the', which I know is silly but it gets on my nerves, and thirdly, the shuffle algorithim is a little sketchy and seems to play some songs more than others. But belive me, if you can find a seller, buy it.

P.S. The battery is user-replacable, and you can probably find a new one at Batteries Plus.

A few days ago I finally got my first ever real, full-featured portable music player, a beautiful red Network Walkman and I love it. The thing I like the most is that it ISN'T an iPod (which is for ultra-chic, wannabee-cool-people, music loving lemmings) and it does a good job at what it's supposed to do! Here's a quick bullet-point review:

+ Great battery life!
+ Beautiful red design...neat "sideways" format
+ Simple and easy to use
+ Sonic Stage tranfers files fast, does a good quick & dirty job

- No WMA support
- Atrac3 encoding necessary for quick transfer of music to player
- Compilation CDs have messed up track orders in SS & on the Walkman
- Recharging / USB connection is messy and overly complicated
- Included Earbuds kill your ears (hard plastic!...ouch!)


Overall, I think this is a B+ product. I gave it five stars because as a music player, it does a great job at that. I see many places for improvement---but since no current music player does everything I want right now, I'll be happy with my Walkman for the next couple years. It's a good 20gb backup drive as well and shopping through [...] (even amid all the controversy of Sony rootkit files, etc.) is very easy, very fast and practically painless.

What is everyone talking about? If they just read the manual they could work it better. The software for this player is not brilliant but it DOESN'T crash your computer... it depends if you're computer sucks. It:
1. Holds up to 13,000 songs and this theory is TRUE
2. Has more shuffle options than the I-Pod shuffle
3. Is the smallest mp3 player out there for it's memory
4. Has better sound quality than other players
5. Can search for songs by name of song, album and artist. Also searches by Genres and you can form groups.
6. Can have one playlist that holds 100 songs.
7. Is extremely small and good looking
8. The 7 line display is very clear and informative.
9. Many different sound options with an equaliser.
So there.

A lot of other reviews have posted all important points, but I'll sum up with the best qualities in this player. All players have flaws in them, but it depends what you are looking for.
1) A 30 hour battery life is great if you play it a lot. Plus you only need to charge it for 2-3 hours to get it fully charged
2) The sound quality is superb for an mp3 player, with its own equalisers, custom and pre-set. You can set your own treble and bass quality.
3) Lots of shuffle options. You can shuffle by groups, singers, albums, and songs (basically track shuffle and unit shuffle).
4) You can't exactly have playlists but you can 'bookmark' up to 100 songs, which acts like a playlist.
5) You can search by artist, groups, genre and album
6) The player is very very small (smaller than an i-pod) and can hold up to 13,000 tracks. It is really thin and can easily slip into a shirt pocket.
7) Lots of useful little things that makes the player great, such as a measure bar to indicate how much time of one song has elapsed.