Sony Walkman NWZ-E436F 4GB Comments

Why is it that mp3 players these days often have the headphone socket on the bottom of the case rather than at the top?? Am I the only one who finds that annoying?

Any chance of the s series getting reviewed soon. That seems like the one to go for. More of a direct competitor to the nano, with its bigger capacities.

@ Dave_doubledecks
Because generally people place pockets upside down in their pockets with the back of the gadget facing outwards simply because that's the easiest thing to do, so naturally they put headphones jacks on the bottom because that's what will be facing upwards while in a pocket.

I just realized how incomprehensible I was :P

I really should make a habit of reading what I'm writing...

LoL that's where 'm going wrong! I put mine in the top pocket of my jacket. Who puts their mp3 in jeans for goodness sake? It must get pretty uncomfortable when you sit down??

I bought this DAP one month ago to replace my 2 GB Clip, and i was so disappointed by its audio performance... compared to the Clip this Sony suffers from a lack of detail and clarity, but the worst point is no doubt its terrible output power... i could barely feed my Denon D1001 full-size headphone (only 32 ohm impedence). I'd say the Clip is about 50% more powerful... it changes a lot of things. EQing makes things even worse as adding bass or highs lowers even more the output volume... Since then i sold it and bought a 4 GB Clip.
Please not i have also a Sony Vaio Pocket which is great (much better than the E436), i love Sony but they desappointed me on this one.

Which player would you say is better (especially minded the sound quality with the pair of earbuds in the box, because i actually dont want to spend money on buying earbuds)

this one, or the Iriver Lplayer?

@mobbaddict

"i was so disappointed by its audio performance... compared to the Clip this Sony suffers from a lack of detail and clarity,"

Really? I can't help but to be suspicious. Even a hearing impaired person like me could hear the distinct difference between the E436F and the Clip. (For the record, the Sony outputted much more clearer and clean music than the clip. Much more detailed, too.) I gander you were using stock headphones for the Sony - Or your ears are much more damaged than mine.

@mobbaddict

Spot on! The volume output -- or lack thereof -- of the NWZ line is ridiculous. I have the 8gb version, and while it's ok with the provided earbuds, with anything larger (i.e. Grado SR60's or even Senn PX100's) the sound is not even low-fi quality. It's just LOW, period. I added a headphone amp and it's totally night and day. I tried my g/f's Shuffle with the PX100's and it didn't need an amp for volume, although the total SQ of those cans was increased by using the little headphone amp.

Also, since there's no easy option in the Walkman's settings to switch back and forth between MTP and UMS, there's a little trick to un-do the MTP drivers so that the unit becomes a straight USB Mass Storage drag/drop unit. You have to go into Device Manager (Windows XP), find the Walkman in the Portable Devices group, right click, then select Update Driver. Then select "No, not this time", then Next. Select "Install from a list or specific location (Advanced) then Next. Select "Don't Search, I will choose the driver to install", then Next. (Be sure to check the box beside Show Compatible Hardware) Highlight USB Mass Storage Device, then Next. (To revert back to MTP, just do the same thing but choose MTP instead of USB Mass Storage Device.) Personally, I'd never go back to the MTP mode. Having the Walkman seen by the computer as just another USB mass storage device allows the drag/drop transfers to go much faster, and I can defrag the Walkman now, whereas that was not possible before in MTP mode.

Also, a proprietary USB cable is just a dumb, unnecessary, all too typical Sony idea. And the fact that there's no free software bundled to convert avi's and mpg's to the necessary video format is just another reason this unit is, at times, a royal P.I.T.A. All in all, it's a relatively well made unit, but because of the low volume, proprietary USB cable, lack of bundled software to convert videos to the accepted format, and the limited number of recognized audio formats, I'd definitely choose another brand the next time around.

The most annoying things is that NO media software is included. Media Manager is SO outdated and the Content Transfer software is only meant for file transfer!

HELLO, PEOPLE! Do you really enjoy having that darn Sony logo appearing instead of the album art?! I certainly do NOT!

Quit saying "use drag n drop"! I guess many of you don't care about album art or creating playlists But I certainly do!

I have many compilation "playlists" which the player does NOT support. It'll spread the underlying music to each artist's folder while the playlist is NOT transferred! You'll have to use "folders" to listen to EACH darn artist manually unless you "SHUFFLE ALL" files! What a Pain in the A**!

No wonder Sony priced the devices Lower than the Nanos? It does NOT sell that well and can ONLY compete on price alone!

I returned mine and will NOT buy another Sony mp3 player until Sony wakes up and makes GOOD media software for their players (and SE phones, which I also own) that CAN rip music, edit files (i.e. album art tag) and 3) create playlists especially compilation playlists!!

At least Sony, FINALLY, adopted the universal standard for their phones (and mp3 players?) in that it will start using Mini-USB ports. The newer E-440 series (or E-430 in Americas) are now shown with those ports!

Now, if Sony can only include media software similar to iTunes!

Despite many iPod haters, iTunes is very good in ripping music, editing files and creating playlists! AND.... It's F-R-E-E!

iTunes is still considered one of the Better (if not The Best) media software to beat!