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My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

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Re: My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

#241

Post by csdvrx »

jstummbillig wrote: post #114

I am mostly confused by what the author thinks the selling point is. > I can’t describe what a breath of fresh air this is compared to how bad modern smartphone music and streaming apps have become. Well, I was hoping they would try to describe it, because personally, I would have to wear my most deeply shaded nostalgia glasses to think that MP3 player UX has ever been comparable to what Spotify offers nowadays. And…

> Well, I was hoping they would try to describe it, because personally, I would have to wear my most deeply shaded nostalgia glasses to

Leaving aside the UI issues (most of which can be alleviated with hardware buttons having tactile indicators like bumps / different sizes etc), my core concern is you are leaving not just the preservation job (prey none of the albums/songs gets deleted after an IP right renegotiation) but the curation job to Spotify.

I don't want that. Curation is the most important thing even. I carefully select the albums I want to listen to. I don't ever want software to try to guess my tastes or fill in the blanks when the playlist is over.

It might be good for Spotify as they can show better stats (more tracks listened to, more engagement, whatever) but it's not for me as I'd rather have audio stop to let me take another decision about what I want to listen to: I care about my own experience much more than Spotify might.

Re: My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

#242

Post by csdvrx »

hnlmorg wrote: post #177
atoav wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but probably not applicable in general and likely worse than the market solution. Worse, for which usecase? I as a musician like to listen to full albums (as opposed to single songs) I like to manually read up on music and then listen to that specific music from that specific world region and era. Spotify can be neat to discover some starting points for that search, but it is arguably shit at the listening experien…

Having grown up in an era when cassette walkmans were new, then salivating over CD walkmans before building my own MP3 player in the mid-00's, I think smart phones are the best thing to happen to portable music. Like yourself, I do also listen to full albums. You can do that on Spotify very easily. You can listen to recommendations (either via Spotify's own suggestion engine or curated playlists) of music from genre'…

> Like yourself, I do also listen to full albums. You can do that on Spotify very easily

Can you load into Spotify a very specific recoding that's rarely available? I have a few CDs hard to source from rare live recordings.

If you just want to listen to background music, or a given song from a given bad, sure. If you want to listen to a specific recording that happened at a given date for which you have the CD, I don't think Spotify can do that.

> I think smart phones are the best thing to happen to portable music.

If they had hardware buttons, yes, but that's rarely found. Also, the DAC is rarely any good (less of a problem now that LDAC and AptXhd are becoming popular).

Are these hardware buttons and a good DAC worth $400 to $4000? Maybe not to you, but they are worth that for me.

Re: My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

#243

Post by hnlmorg »

csdvrx wrote: post #242
hnlmorg wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having grown up in an era when cassette walkmans were new, then salivating over CD walkmans before building my own MP3 player in the mid-00's, I think smart phones are the best thing to happen to portable music. Like yourself, I do also listen to full albums. You can do that on Spotify very easily. You can listen to recommendations (either via Spotify's own suggestion engine or curated playlists) of music from genre'…

> Like yourself, I do also listen to full albums. You can do that on Spotify very easily Can you load into Spotify a very specific recoding that's rarely available? I have a few CDs hard to source from rare live recordings. If you just want to listen to background music, or a given song from a given bad, sure. If you want to listen to a specific recording that happened at a given date for which you have the CD, I don…

> Can you load into Spotify a very specific recoding that's rarely available? I have a few CDs hard to source from rare live recordings.

Weirdly, yes you can. I stumbled across that option myself on the desktop client when search for a song that wasn’t in Spotify’s catalogue.

> If you just want to listen to background music, or a given song from a given bad, sure. If you want to listen to a specific recording that happened at a given date for which you have the CD, I don't think Spotify can do that.

It can, but you really don’t need to use Spotify if you don’t want to. I still keep Subsonic around for exactly this kind of scenario (and podcasts too). So I use Spotify for 90% of my listening but Subsonic for anything I’ve curated myself from physical media.

> If they had hardware buttons, yes, but that's rarely found.

All smart phone has hardware volume buttons. My Bluetooth earphones have hardware play and pause buttons. And the device we are comparing it against (the new Sony Walkman) is also touchscreen based like smart phones. So there isn’t really anything between modern Walkmans and smart phones these days.

> Are these hardware buttons and a good DAC worth $400 to $4000? Maybe not to you, but they are worth that for me.

You have no idea how much I’ve spent on audio hardware so please don’t assume I cheap out and don’t care about audio quality. In my home office alone I have an entire rack full of professional grade hardware. But I’m also pragmatic about what I buy. A £400 MP3 player isn’t going to sound any better than an iPhone when I’m listening to lossy music. The real differentiator there is what (ear|head)phones I use. However when I am sat at home my vinyl collection, I notice all the nuances of cheaper hardware much more.

Re: My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

#244

Post by csdvrx »

hnlmorg wrote: post #243
csdvrx wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Like yourself, I do also listen to full albums. You can do that on Spotify very easily Can you load into Spotify a very specific recoding that's rarely available? I have a few CDs hard to source from rare live recordings. If you just want to listen to background music, or a given song from a given bad, sure. If you want to listen to a specific recording that happened at a given date for which you have the CD, I don…

> Can you load into Spotify a very specific recoding that's rarely available? I have a few CDs hard to source from rare live recordings. Weirdly, yes you can. I stumbled across that option myself on the desktop client when search for a song that wasn’t in Spotify’s catalogue. > If you just want to listen to background music, or a given song from a given bad, sure. If you want to listen to a specific recording that ha…

> All smart phone has hardware volume buttons. My Bluetooth earphones have hardware play and pause buttons.

I don't care much about volume buttons - it's usually adjusted to what I think is right and rarely tweaked.

What I care about is buttons to control the tracks: there are no next/previous track and play button on the smartphones I tried.

> And the device we are comparing it against (the new Sony Walkman) is also touchscreen based like smart phones.

It also has actual hardware buttons.

> So there isn’t really anything between modern Walkmans and smart phones these days

Well, if you exclude the buttons I care about, yes.

> when I’m listening to lossy music

You do, but I don't!

> The real differentiator there is what (ear|head)phones

Agreed, it's often the limiting factors. I had played with FLAC files before but couldn't find much of a difference.

Now that I have proper headphones and earbuds, I do!! And it's actually why I'm waiting for proper neckbad earbuds to consider exercicing with music: just like I don't want to listen to lossy music, I don't want to be exposed to bad earbuds.

Re: My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

#245

Post by INTPenis »

leeoniya wrote: post #234
INTPenis wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I say sleep I mean that you listen until a timer runs out and it pauses whatever you're listening to automatically.

that sounds like a very niche feature, does it exist outside of ultra-tweakable firmware/OS like rockbox?

Sure, in VLC for android and audiobookshelf app for android.

Re: My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

#246

Post by csdvrx »

makeitdouble wrote: post #137
tuxie_ wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? I mean we are talking about the company that develops the Playstation. I have a very different opinion on Sony.

Yes..."Sony" is probably better seen as a group, with a lot of different entities doing their thing almost independently (not even talking about their entertainment and financing branch, really just the main bloc) For instance Sony's audio branch is probably completely separate from the camera branch, which is separate from the TV branch, which doesn't talk to the EV car branch. I don't know if financially they are s…

> For instance Sony has a NFC venture that is really good with encryption and hardware data transfers, it's even integrated in their VAIO computer line.

They also support Felica (NFC-F) on most of their hardware.

> Yet their Network Walkman was an utter pile of poop when it came to move songs from the computer to the encrypted MD disc.

The only NFC part in the walkman is pairing headphones by touching them - something I actually enjoyed!

Now I wish music could be transferred in the same way!

Re: My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

#247

Post by csdvrx »

kwatsonafter wrote: post #240

Man Rube. I really hope you never, ever have to live around working class people. They'll literally tear you apart. Thank god for inequality keeping these little anime dorks safe. God bless America.

> I really hope you never, ever have to live around working class people. They'll literally tear you apart.

?

> Thank god for inequality keeping these little anime dorks safe. God bless America.

??

Can you explain the point you are trying to make?

Is the problem the price of the unit? Or is it your opinion that "working class people" would tear apart the argument that the NW-A55 is a nice device?

If so, why do you think they will dislike about the device? Or which alternative will they prefer and recommend?

Re: My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

#248

Post by kwatsonafter »

csdvrx wrote: post #247
kwatsonafter wrote: post #240

Man Rube. I really hope you never, ever have to live around working class people. They'll literally tear you apart. Thank god for inequality keeping these little anime dorks safe. God bless America.

> I really hope you never, ever have to live around working class people. They'll literally tear you apart. ? > Thank god for inequality keeping these little anime dorks safe. God bless America. ?? Can you explain the point you are trying to make? Is the problem the price of the unit? Or is it your opinion that "working class people" would tear apart the argument that the NW-A55 is a nice device? If so, why do you th…

It's a rhetorical point about the degradation of our social economy. I shouldn't have to explain poetry.

Re: My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

#249

Post by [deleted] »

csdvrx wrote: post #244
hnlmorg wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can you load into Spotify a very specific recoding that's rarely available? I have a few CDs hard to source from rare live recordings. Weirdly, yes you can. I stumbled across that option myself on the desktop client when search for a song that wasn’t in Spotify’s catalogue. > If you just want to listen to background music, or a given song from a given bad, sure. If you want to listen to a specific recording that ha…

> All smart phone has hardware volume buttons. My Bluetooth earphones have hardware play and pause buttons. I don't care much about volume buttons - it's usually adjusted to what I think is right and rarely tweaked. What I care about is buttons to control the tracks: there are no next/previous track and play button on the smartphones I tried. > And the device we are comparing it against (the new Sony Walkman) is also…

[deleted]

Re: My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

#250

Post by NonNefarious »

layer8 wrote: post #183
voxadam wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In defense of Sony's software/firmware team I'd argue that we've also been repeatedly burned by Sony's flawed hardware full of their endless NIH proprietary BS (e.g. Memory Stick, UMD, Minidisc, ATRAC, Betamax, to name just a few).

MiniDisc wasn’t proprietary, it was available from many manufacturers: https://www.minidisc.org/equipment_browser.html And the hardware itself was great, even when it was for a proprietary standard.

But Sony is a champion of undermining industry standards. S/PDIF is a bastardization of AES/EBU. They created a bullshit version of Firewire with a rinky-dink non-standard connector that lacked power. They continued to cripple their products with Memory Stick for years after the rest of the planet settled on SD.

Their first Thunderbolt support came crammed into a hacked USB port on one of their laptops.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some other examples.

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