Review: Sony W-Series Media Player

June 1, 2010 | By Admin In Technology |

I love music, especially in its digital, portable form. Those of you who have been long time fans know that I have spent quite a bit of time here reviewing higher end headphones and a myriad of media players. No matter the quality of the player or the headphones, one problem has always confounded me…headphone (or earphone) entanglements. You have all been there, you are getting set to enjoy your favorite songs or playlist. You reach for your earphones, and there it is. A tangled mess where the cord used to be. Now, instead of relaxing with your music, you need to spend the next five minutes untangling this mess, and getting more stressed instead of less.

41HME5M85AL. SL500 AA300 Review: Sony W Series Media Player A number of companies have tried to solve this problem with different methods, such as sturdier material for the cords, wireless systems, and more. But I have to say that no system I have come across has been as intriguing as the Sony W-Series. Basically, Sony has ditched the cords entirely, combining the media player and earphones into one small unit. Now, this is not exactly an innovative idea. Those of you who lived through the ‘80s probably remember the Sony radio headphones (which are surprisingly still available, and extremely overpriced). The W-Series builds on this concept, replacing the FM radio with a portable media player. Not too shabby. Sony was nice enough to loan me a unit for this review, so let’s take a closer look before I have to send these back.

Form factor: The design of these should come as no surprise, they consist of two units, one for each ear. Each unit is pretty much the same relative size and shape as a Bluetooth headset, which really felt a bit bulky to me. Maybe I am a bit too spoiled, but I have grown pretty accustomed to a very light feel on my ears, and these bulky units just felt heavy to me.

Connecting the two units is a nice, heavy cable. What is great here is that this is not a normal earphone cable. It is much heavier and thicker, which works fantastically well for a few reasons. First, it hold its heart-like shape. This is the perfect shape for it to wrap around your ears and behind your neck. This means it has the same consistency of shape as a plastic band, but is pliable enough to conform to the size and shape of your head. Sony also did a great job with the length of this cord. In the past, when I have reviewed earphones with a wrap around cable like this, I have often found the cable to be too small and hence, too tight. Not this one. It wrapped around my head and fit comfortably, with room to spare (I may have a big ego, but I have a pretty small head). Finally, the cable wraps over the top of your ears, meaning when you are listening to your music, the earphones are held securely and snugly against your ears. Of course, since this is a flexible cable and not a hard plastic band, there is no need to worry about the normal ear fatigue which over the ear style earphones can often cause.

The result of this all was a very secure and comfortable fit. I could wear these all day with no fatigue or soreness in my ears at al from the cord.

Controls: All of the controls are on the bottom of the two ear units. I was pretty impressed that, although the controls consisted of small buttons, they were easy to indentify using feel alone, and not difficult at all to use. On the left earpad is the shuffle toggle.

The rest of the controls are on the right. Two buttons control the volume, up and down. The third button is your media controller. Press it once quickly to play or pause. Press and hold to enter Sony’s own Zappin mode (we will get to that in a minute). Slide the button forward or back to navigate through the music stored on the device.

Storage and transport: The W-Series also does a nice job of making itself compact for easy storage. Two magnets on the ends of each unit allow the two sides to fasten together and be easily transported as a single unit. In order to ensure they remain connected, there is a small plastic case which fastens around the two ends. The only thing I did not like here was that the plastic case does not cover all of the controls. This means that although the unit stays folded into its compact form, it is all too easy to bump one of those buttons, especially the play button, hanging off of the bottom of the device. Also, despite the ability to fold the unit up and connect the plastic holder, it will was not very pocket sized. I ended up dropping the unit to the bottom of my bag, where it was quickly lost. It would be nice if Sony would include some kind of additional case or clip so you could hold this on your belt or pocket when not in use.

Loading music: Loading music is easy. You can sync your tunes from Windows Medial Player, or just drag and drop the files onto the device. Sometimes, I have found that dragging and dropping causes the player to drop album art. With no screen on this one, however, that is not a problem.

Zappin: OK, I said we would get here…so let’s talk about Zappin. Zappin is a new feature invented by Sony, which allows you to quickly navigate through your music. Zappin is basically the same as using the scan feature on your car radio, and I thought it was fantastic. With no screen, there is really not an easy way to navigate to the specific song you want to hear. Once activated, Zappin will play a few seconds of each song until you find the one you want. Just press the play button when you find the song you want to exit Zappin mode and listen to the whole song. I did wish, however, that Zappin had its own button, possibly on the mostly empty left side. With Zappin and play/pause sharing a button, I found myself often confusing the sequence of button pushes, and entering Zappin inadvertently, or just as easily missing my song when I wanted to leave Zappin. Other than this problem with the controls, however, I though Zappin was absolutely perfect for this device.

Sound quality: At last, we reach the part in the review where the real hybrid nature of this media player comes to light. This is so much more than just headphones which can control your music. This is your music. These headphones don’t just allow you to listen, they are the player as well. This means that the sound quality must be absolutely perfect. Unlike most units, you cannot just unplug the headphones and use a different device….or swap to a better pair of headphones, as most devices would allow. Since the headphones and media player are so intertwined, if one component does not sound good, the whole unit will be useless.

Fortunately, these concerns proved to be short lived with the Sony W-series player. I loaded an assortment of songs into the unit in order to truly test the range, and I have to say that I was very impressed by how well it held up. Whether it was a rockin’ Van Halen guitar lick, or the bass pouring from a Black Eyed Peas, the sound quality was excellent. Highs and lows were were both vibrant and crystal clear. And the fact that these earbuds were noise isolating served as a little added bonus, blocking out some of the surrounding environmental noise always makes for a much cleaner listening environment.

Memory: If there was one area in which I felt Sony really had a miss with this one, it was the tiny storage capacity. I own over 30 GB of music, this media player gives me 2GB of storage. that is going to be a real problem. Memory is dirt cheap these days, and I thought Sony could have done a much better job of acknowledging that. Even a measly 8GB would have been better…or even better yet, they could have added an external memory card slot, giving you virtually unlimited storage. Alas, Sony chose neither of these options, and the resulting limit of 2GB feels woefully inadequate.

Battery: The last thing I wanted to talk about here is the battery, which is superb. Sony claims the unit can last 11 hours, and though I did not track it thoroughly, I would not be surprised if my total listening time exceeded that. Additionally, I know there was one day in which the play button got bumped in my bag, causing it to remain powered on for an extended period of time (probably several hours) and the unit was ready to go when I found it.

In addition to the incredibly long battery life, the W-Series also features a quick charge feature. Sony obviously recognizes that you often do not have all day to charge the unit before listening. Sometimes, you may only have a few minutes or snippets of time between appointments. The quick charge feature allows you to plug-in the unit for only three minutes in order to listen for 90 minutes. Not too shabby.

Conclusion: I have been using Sony media players for years…well over 30 years, in fact, and they never cease to amaze. Despite its inadequate storage capacity; the long battery life and lack of wires make this the ideal setup for anyone with a long commute, quick run, or, for that matter, any form of exercise, yardwork, and…well, pretty much anything else in which you do not want a tangle of wires getting in your way.

The Sony W-Series is portable media player is available from Sony.com for $59.95.

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