Sony NW-HD5H 30GB Network Walkman / MP3 Digital Audio Player - Silver

This is an amoazing piece of equipment that sounds really clear and has a decent amount of storage in the 30gb drive.

I had the usual problems with Sonicstage but having spent the best part of 12 hours sorting out the listings it transfered smoothly on to my PC. With Sonicstage I would recomend that you take your time as it is not as intuitive as other pieces of software and if you treat it as such then things will go better.

The volume limiter is a bit on the low side but this is easily unlocked by going in to a hidden menu and switching it off.

To unlock the volume limiter follow the following steps:

 Start the player. Start playing a song. Turn the HOLD function on by sliding the swich at the top. Then, Hold the SEARCH/MENU button and enter the button sequence:
 Right, Right, Left, Left, Right, Left, Right, Left, Up, Down.
 Let go of the buttons, and put the HOLD switch back to its original position.
 The backlight will cut out and you'll be in the service menu with "POWER" displayed.
 Press DOWN a few times to select OTHERS and press Right to get into the menu.
 Keep pressing down until you get to SP SET (Sound Pressure Setting).
 Press Play/Pause to get into change the option.
 Then press SEARCH/MENU to toggle the option on or Off (obviously, Off is for louder sounds).
 Then either hold STOP or remove the battery to get the player out of the
service mode.
 For some reason, you'll have to go back into the player's options to manually turn the backlight on again after doing this.
(Note that the attachments below apply to the original HD3 instructions.)

I have done this on my own new HD5H with no problems but I take no responsibility for any problems people may experience as there are a lot of other options in this hidden menu that could have a detrimental effect on your player.

I have experienced no problems loading tracks onto the player and after what seems to be most of my music collection loaded, I still have masses of space left.

On the negative side, I bought a black leather flip case which does a good job of protecting the player because the silly bag that comes with the player really lets it down. I'd have paid a little bit extra for a decent case to be honest. I'd also like to see Sony bringing out a docking system with speakers for people on the move but hopefully Sony will see to this sometime in the future.

All round, it was money very well spent and has the feel and look of a bit of equipment that is going to last.

A point which was making me doubtful regarding this initial purchase, was all the negative reviews about SonicStage 3.1.
Well, I use Windows 98 SE, and its the first time I have used the SonicStage environment. I havent experienced any problems with it at all. I read the instructions that came with the software, and everything performed exactly how I wanted it to do - no problem, so Im not sure why others have a problem.
The instructions that came with the device(PDF File) were very good, and quite consise - theres plenty of information there.
I didnt mess with the ATRACplus options, this device will play normal run-of-the-mill MP3's which is exactly what I wanted.
Theres also a nifty free feature in SonicStage; when you connect to the internet, press a button in SonicStage and the software connects to a server and fills in all the track details off your CD in seconds, which saves you doing an awful lot of typing of CD track details.
All in all, if you are looking for a decent sounding quality player, which is very compact for a 30G player, then this would be a good place to start, and compare other products.