Sony NW-HD1 20GB Network Walkman / Digital Audio Player - Silver

2) Stop playback.

3) Set the player to HOLD immediately by sliding the HOLD switch on the bottom of the player to the right.

4) While holding down the MODE button, enter the following key combination using the navigation wheel:

RIGHT RIGHT LEFT LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT LEFT UP DOWN

5) Now as you disable HOLD, the display goes dark and says "POWER". Don't worry that the display is non-backlit - it is normal and you will reset it to backlit in the last step. Anyway, you are now inside the service menu.

6) Click UP so that the display says "OTHER".

7) Click RIGHT so the display says "G TEST".

8) Click UP as many times as needed until the display says "SP SET".

9) Click on the PLAY button. If the display says "OFF", than you might just as well leave the service menu (go to step 11) because you are using a non-throttled player. However if the display says "ON", it means that it the player is set to restricted output.

10) Click on the MODE button so that the display shows "OFF".

11) Press the PLAY button to store the new setting. Now the display should say "SP SET".

12) Hold down the MENU button until the unit performs a normal startup and displays the WALKMAN logo.

13) You must now enable the backlight again by using the normal Menu function.

I have to say that I am very satisfied with this player. It does what I want it to do and as a first time user of any software that converts CDs to another format - the software works very well. As I'm not intending to use MP3s but put my CDs onto the player, the lack of proper MP3 support does not matter to me. Sound quality does and coming from Minidisc (which gave me the quality and size I was looking for at that time) I knew that the ATRAC format should be just as good on this player. I have to say that I have not been disappointed.

The size of it is really great - I can't get over the fact that eventually I'll have about 5000 tracks on it (I'm using 132kbps).

As for the loudness of it - it depends upon the headphones. I did use a pair of SHURE e2c's and while they did sound loud enough it lacked the bass I had been used to. I switched back to my SONY ex70's and although not as loud - I think they are much better suited.

Battery life is also good. I've had the unit for three weeks now. On the first charge it only lasted about 8 hours but on the second charge it lasted around 20 hours - this was at playing it 2 hours a day. I expect that the time will increase once the battery is upto full capacity (it takes a couple of charges and full discharges to achieve this).

The lack of remote control on such an expensive unit is abit of a disappointment but then the new generation iPods don't have them included either.

As for that docking station - people do complain about this. Yes it is abit annoying that if you do ever travel you have to take it with you but it is very light and small and the same applies to the charger - incredibly light. What happens when you take a iPod on holiday with you ? Of course you have to take a charger for that too in order to charge it. Lastly I like to think you're less likely to get mugged for it as you do need these two items to charge it or do any transfers. From what I understand you just need a cable for the iPod to do these things.

These are just my opinions and I hope that it will allow you to make a better judgement of this player. Yes it's no iPod but that's probably what I like most about it. It's just as desireable once in your hands.