Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony NWS705 - 2GB Walkman MP3 Player - With Noise Canceling Headphones - Black

The sound from this thing is amazing. There are so many options to alter the bass / treble equalisation settings that you definitely will be able to get the sound you want. These are all available by navigating to the settings menu on the excellent display screen, but within direct access from the "sound" button are two preset equalisation setting which are fully customisable. I've just heard a song I thought I knew well and wasn't even aware there was such a low growling bass underlying the whole thing like a drone - it just doesn't come through on my budget hi-fi at all. Being able to pick out all of these things makes it interesting listening to recordings you thought you knew well. I'm sure no one really wants to use the flat sounding "Jazz" setting with echo like it was in a church hall, but the option's there if you want to!

The rechargeable battery life will be really important to me when I'm on holiday so I tested it. On a 90-minute charge from Flat to Full I managed to get 26.5 hours of play from it over a period of 13 days. This was at reasonable volume levels (typically 20 out of the max 30 depending on the recording level of the album) with all of the power saving features activated and the noise-cancelling feature switched off. I think when Sony state a 50 hour battery life they must be using really low volume levels, but the true battery life should cover most of my "away from base" needs.

Many of my songs seem to compress to 2MB using the ATRAC format, so the 2GB model could hold 1,000 songs as a very rough estimate. I've crammed the thing with all of my favourite albums plus a large "Various" folder, and I've only used three quarters of the capacity. I probably could've managed with the 1GB model by being a bit more selective, and the 4GB model would definitely be too big for my needs. Adding and deleting is so easy I don't foresee any problems at all with the capacity.

I might consider getting replacement headphones in the future, as the heavy cable and bulky interconnection plug to allow different lengths of cable to used cause all sorts of vibration to be picked up as the cable brushes against collars etc. I'd like a nice symmetrical "Y" shape cable, but Sony seem to insist on this business of wrapping the right phone behind your neck. I could live without the noise-cancelling feature that I'd lose by using another brand of headphone. This is just a personal gripe on a brilliant piece of kit.

IMPORTANT check around on amazon - I don't know why, but it's listed at £119 on amazon from Niche toys (very fast delivery), and I paid £75 4 days ago (including delivery) for this player from amazon via Niche toys. So maybe it is elsewhere on amazon at the reduced price? It's also cheaper on argos and play.com

Superb mp3 player, and noise cancelling works well with steady background noise (eg train). Works well with an expensive pair of full size hi-fi headphones as well.

Having bought my first mp3 player I am very impressed with this small compact player. It has amazing sound quality and is very easy to use and install. I was impressed as to how easy it is to transfer music onto it.

all i can say is technology where would we be without it !!!!
an excellent piece of kit , i remember my very first sony walkman back in the 80's i thought that was the best , but time's change and we all have to move along with the new technology we are given .
mp3 is excellent and this little sony mp3 is just the best !! so easy to use and the software is so easy to use as well. my husband put endless cd albums on to this mp3 walkman and you can put lots more on as well, the battery power is excellent 50 hours out of 2 hour charge and you can charge it up through your usb socket on your pc.

this walkman has won awards from PC ADVISOR ( GOLD AWARD )

anyway if you do choose this you wont be disapointed we were not at all.

100% for a 100% company sony make such good stuff..

see you from kerry...

I've had this Walkman for a few months and I'm very impressed:
- The noise cancellation really works where there's constant background noise.
- The sound is rich and clear; the headphones are of excellent quality. They have good bass and help to block out external noise.
- The player is light, looks good and is resistant to knocks and scratches.
- Charging is quick and and lasts for days.
- The interface is easy to learn and it's easy to navigate tracks and options

The only negative is the SonicStage software needed to transfer MP3 files to the player. It's slow, clunky, somewhat buggy and is generally a pain.

You can't copy MP3s directly to the Walkman or use Windows Media Player. Or rather you can, but the player is deliberately blocked from playing files that have not been processed by SonicStage first.

I tried other Sonicstage alternatives suggested on the web:
- Sony's MP3 Manager tool doesn't work with the newer Walkman models
- VoidMP3fm crashes too frequently to be useful
- The most recent version of the ml_sony plugin works very well with the WinAmp player.

I thoroughly recommend the Walkman itself. I would really like to use WMP to transfer tracks but I will use WinAmp and ml_sony. This is far faster and more reliable than the SonicStage software shipped with the product.