Jam out to your favorite music, watch crystal clear full-motion video and enjoy your photos on a beautiful color-rich screen with the NWZ-A818BLK Walkman(R) Video MP3 player. The slim-line player lets you see it all on its high-resolution 2″ QVGA LCD screen. It supports playback of MP3 and WMA DRM and non-DRM audio files downloaded from multiple sources, as well as non-DRM AAC content, giving you multiple options for downloading music the way you want. Small enough to slip into a bag or pocket, the 2GB NWZ-S818BLK Walkman(R) Video MP3 player can store up to 5,050 songs, over 30 hours of video or hundreds of photographs, giving you the delight of multimedia entertainment anytime, anyplace. MP3/WMA/AAC Audio Codec Support 4 Clear Audio Technologies Utilizes 4 Clear Audio Technologies to reproduce crystal clear, CD-quality audio Time Machine Shuffle plays among songs from a randomly selected year Bi-Directional LCD Display

Customer Reviews: Read 74 more reviews…

5 out of 5 stars Superb sound quality in a nice small package

I was looking for an mp3 player to replace the iPod shuffle that was a gift. I like the shuffle. It has nice sound quality but the UI - if there’s any - is just not good for use in a car. I narrowed my choices down to nano, classic, and this walkman. Evetually, I decided to get this sony because I am not a big fan of iTunes and this new walkman finally gets rid of SonicStage so I can play wma and drag-&-drop files into it. Besides, I read that the sound quality is pretty good from various users’ reviews.

However, I wasn’t expecting sound quality this good. It’s at a totally different level from iPod.

The first thing I notice is that the walkman produces an amazing level of details. No matter how complex the song is composed of, the player never falls into ambiguity and always handle it with an authoritative feel. In addition to the resolution, the walkman reproduce songs with a sense of dimension that expands not only in breadth but also in depth. I find that the walkman especially good at handling vocals. I can easily visualize the singer singning in front of me, to the level that I can feel how he/she uses his/her mouth… IMHO, I think this mp3 player would sound better than usual portable CD players, let alone mp3 players….

However, it’s not all-conquering. I find the player in its default setting not so remarkable at classical music. The player handles Sonata well. However, the sound can feel a bit artificial and has a processed feel, a bit like DG’s 4D effect. It doesn’t seem to suit larger pieces, like Symphony or Concerto, well. I find the response a bit slow and the sound lacking power. It’s a bit disappointing because usually a setup with high details and clear dimension should be good for classical… I also try it with iPod’s earpieces (which sounds brighter and lighter.) Unfortunately, the music still doesn’t sound that attractive. I eventually dig into EQ and bump up treble. It sounds more favorable, but still not as wonderful as when playing pop music.

Talking about EQ, I don’t know why the range of adjustment is only +/- 3. I find that a bit limiting. There are a lot of “gimmick” sound enhancing modes in this player. I don’t care about surround effect. Sony’s implementation is decent but still induces broken sound sometimes. DSSE really works. It’s a bit like a tuned-down BBE. I can do without it just fine. ClearStereo is less obvious… it seems to me for DSSE it works better on files with average bit-rate (like something in the 100-200 range), but for ClearStereo it works better on high-bitrate (200+) files. The effect is minimal and again I can do without it just fine. I like these two options this way because they are flavors that would not spoil the good base sound that the walkman can produce. The last one is the ClearBass. Well, it simply works. This kind of bass enhancement always work so there’s not much to talk about. One thing to note is at its default setting with the supplied earphones, I find it not necessary to turn on ClearBass for pop music. It is more useful to boost classical.

Sony almost always have good UI and the one on this unit follows the norm, though it can be better. For example, Sony should learn from Sony Ericsson and enable the ability to go into/out of options by pressing right/left button. I find that having to move your thumb away from the 5-way controller to reach the “BACK” button can be slightly annoying at times. I am being critical, though.

Overall, this walkman is definitely worth considering. It has no extra functions but it does what it is supposed to do exceptionally well. I don’t want to give out five stars but there’s little to find fault with. It might sound like sony paid me to say this, but after listening to this mp3 player, I can’t help wondering how much is left quality-wise in mp3 playback… for this fact alone, I gave it four stars. Plus good UI, long playback, and solid build quality, it has to be a five-star recommendation. Unless you are into buying accessories, you can’t go wrong with this model.

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