Customer Reviews

Sony Walkman E-340 Series 8 GB Video MP3 Player (Black)

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

The E-series walkman has really good sound quality, long battery life, easy to use UI and classy look all combined. Also, it is a really open system (specially considering it is from Sony): A. simple drag-and-drop is all that is required to transfer music (though you can create a traditional sync partnership with Windows Media Player 11 if you want to) -- not having to deal with a bloatware like iTunes is pure bliss; B. no special port/sync/charging cable -- the player has a mini-USB port, and a (supplied) mini-USB to USB cable does sync and recharging the battery. Only one gripe: there is no way to create on-the-go playlists from the walkman; you must create the playlists beforehand in Windows Media Player and sync. Oh, and the 2" LCD screen is bright and has nice contrast.

I have owned many of the high end tape and cd players sony has offered,
including the most recent ultrathin DNE20 cd player, a mini-disk player
and the original silver-blue metal walkman.

The sound quality on the E series player is exceptional, qualitatively
exceeding all previous offerings. Listening to a good recording of,
say, classical piano music, you may get the impression that the piano
is in the room, and even be able to make out some level of structure
( for instance, how far away the piano was during recording ).

The user interface is self explanatory and very adequate for listening
to cd's. If you have a pc with the right windows operating system
and media player, it is easy to transfer disks to the player using the
few printed instructions that come in the box.

The actual execution of transfer still has some problems : If your disk
was sold by a distributor not linked to microsoft's ( proprietary? )
database, you may find that the cover photo and track titles have been
replaced by the closest thing microsoft can find in its online database.
Although I could type in the right titles myself, I couldn't find a
simple way to insert the right cover photo and occasionally ( once or
twice ) cover photos did not get transferred into the player.

On the other hand, windows media player is supposed to 'rip' the whole
content of the cd, which does appear to get transferred into the player.
This, along with the onboard 5-channel equalizer may account for the
difference in sound quality compared with the ipod.

If your main interest is listening to music, and have regular access to
a windows pc, the E-344 is very well worth the ~$75. Sony also offers to
replace the player after 2 or 3 years for an up-front payment of ~$11
( 2 years ).

I wanted a cheaper MP3 that I could use for the Gym and in the plane, still wanted to have a way to scroll to my music library but still have a portable device that played my ACC itunnes files,

Well I find it all, this device is smaller and ligher than a ipod nano, play ACC, sycn easily with the windows media player or a light sinc apllication included, browsing files was easy, and sound is good, I have not test how long battery last so I can not say about that

Cons:
-I have not been able to play my itunes videos, but that was just nice to have, no big deal for me
-headphones included are cheap, I bought a 10 dollar phillip headphones that sound decent but are more confortable.

Bottom line, is an excelent alternative to ipod nano.

Got this player about a month ago, and while it seems very solidly put together, it doesn't seem like much thought was put into the "software" that runs on the player. Examples:
- fast forward and fast rewind feature is pathetic; holding down the button for a longer time doesn't increase the speed of the ff/fr search, it just continues to search at the same slow speed. Pathetically slow, for any track longer than a minute or two. <<UPDATE: ff and fr go much more quickly if you first pause the track!>>
- When you're listening to a track, total track length isn't displayed, nor is a countdown to the end of the track. All that is shown is how much time has already passed on the track.
- Can't create playlists on the fly. That is, there's no way to "add to playlist" when you're listening to a different song.

Ridiculous shortcomings, in my opinion. No excuse for any of them.

On the plus side, I have to say that I like the option of searching through music as it's organized in folders on the device, rather than having to use the tag structure. It's nice to have both options available, which, as far as I know, is not an option on ipods.

I'd give this 4 or 5 stars if I had any confidence that Sony would issue a firmware update addressing the shortcomings described above, and others listed in other people's comments. It's well-priced, feels solid, looks flashy. But internal design is poor...

I've owned all the Ipod Nanos, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generations. I returned the 4th generation due to poor battery life and an oversensitive click wheel and opted for the Sony Walkman instead. This review is a comparison between Ipod Nanos and the Sony 8g Walkman.

Pluses compared to Ipod:

1) Sound quality is noticeably superior--crisper, more defined, cleaner sound.
2) The Sony Walkman can be used as a portable device, i.e. it will carry documents and other files it can't play just like a flash drive.
3) The battery life on the Sony Walkman is superior to the 4th (current) generation of Ipod Nanos but not the 3rd generation nano, which in my experience was the best Ipod Nano.
4) The Sony is about $70 cheaper than the Ipod
5) I believe the Sony supports a few more file types than the Ipod

Minueses compared to Ipod:

1) The Ipod's interface Apple Itunes is the most intuitive and easy to use music file management system I've ever used. The interfaces that work with the Sony all pale in comparison. I avoid them and just click and drag files onto the Sony without using a file management software. This has a couple of drawbacks. You can't create playlists, certainly not while you're "on the go." You can't edit file genres so that for example all your hip-hop and R&B are categorized together.
2) The lack of a click wheel makes searching between and within (large) files a hassle. If you're listening to a book you can only skip forward with the Sony in 5 second increments. The Ipod's click wheel allows much faster skipping and/or searching within a large file (such as a 1 hour podcast) and between folders as well.
3) The design of the Ipod is superior to the Sony even if the 4th generation Nano's click wheel was too sensitive for me and the battery life too weak. Again, the 3rd gen. Nano was the best!

I purchased this Sony Walkman after searching endlessly for an IPOD. I did not really want to spend the amount of money the IPODs were going for and did not feel I needed all the extras the IPODs offered. Some of the features such as video shooting on the IPODS is useless to me, because this feature is on my cell phone, so I didn't feel it was necessary to spend the extra funds on a music device that offered features I did not feel I would use. I am very practical and I just want to listen to good music and clearity, crisp sound. The Sony Walkman E-340 Series provided me with exactly that, amazing clear sound and the ability to upload my music from my PC onto my device. It also comes with radio capability, which I was looking for as well. Some of the other features, such as the video & photo features I have not tried yet (for uploading videos onto the device not recording as with some of the IPODS), but these were not the features that brought me to purchase the devise either, as I stated above, it was the simplicity of the device itself. I may find it useful at some point, but for now I am enjoying what I purchased the device for, to listen to music! The device is user friendly and I purchased it in black which looks very sleek! It is lightweight and easily fits in any small purse or pocket. I purchased the 6 piece set and it came with an arm band that you can use when working out, and a protective rubber cover (although could only use about 3 peices out of the set?). I am even able to use my Garmin AC/DC adapter with it, as one did not come with it. The device did come with some nice headphones, however. The organizing of your music may not be as A+ as with the more expensive IPOD brands, but I knew this from reading one or two of the reviews before I purchased the device, so this was not an issue for me, i just click the back button on the device, which takes you to the home menu, scroll to the center using the arrow in the center of the device, then click on the music note icon in the center,and I m able to locate a song or artist from my music library. I am enjoying this device as it was well worth the price I paid for it!

I got this as a gift. The moment i laid my eyes on this i was totally under-whelmed. Such a small basic design and the screen was rather crude to look at. No fancy dials like the cool ipod. The revelation came when i plugged in my headphone after loading music. Sweet Jesus, did this have awesome sound. The depth of sound, the clarity, the rich bass. Its got all here. I use a Nokia X3 which has 16GB of music in it and I also tested it in my sis' ipod touch. (The same source audio file - a 320 mbps rip of Fleetwood Mac's The Dance, and same Koss Portapro headphones for player comparison) and The Dance never sounded so good. I could hear Mick's drums kicking in with true authority and the bass drum kick even hung around for about one second with this. The vocals, acoustic guitar and bass all had such clarity.

Now the cons. The screen is pretty small. I can't get the video to run on full screen. The unit also comes with pretty standard headphones which has no capacity whatsoever to unleash half the potential of this madman. I expected a bit more from Sony. Get a pair of Koss Portapros or a decent Sennheiser and you will appreciate this baby for all her awe.

Having said that, don't expect too much from this unit. It is what it is. You can't use this for movies (You won't see much for sure) and won't do half of what a comparably priced ipod would. But let the cool kids play with their iPods. If you really care about the sound you hear, this is the gadget for you!

No one has noted this and it's important because I use my MP3 player to play both music and audiobooks. This one is NOT compatible with Audible or any other player--it has no file space set up for books.

This is disappointing because from what I can see this is otherwise a terrific player. And now I will have to go back to Sansa, which in recent times has been troublesome for players.

Pros:
1) Long lasting battery.
2) Excellent sound quality, however the earphones that come with the player are not that good and buying a qualitative earphones may be a good idea.
3) Does not require any special software to upload music. Unlike i-pods, this player plays all kinds of music files.

Cons:
Well, there are no huge cons actually.
1) However, the plastic it is made of is super-easy scratchable.
2) To erase a file from the player one needs to hook it up to the computer.

Overall I am using thiis kind of player for about half of a year and I am very happy with it.

I love my new Walkman. I've had it about 2 weeks and it's been great. I can't say I'm a techie, but I do know how to use electronics and this has been pretty easy. The product works as advertised and is a great price to boot. The battery seems to have a good life and the media player syncs with the Walkman easily and quickly. The only drawback is finding accessories. DLO has a decent case with a clip, but I have found little from Sony at this point.