Sony Walkman NWZ-S544

Do pocket media players need built in speakers? Certainly, apart from the Touch, Apple doesn't seem to think so and let's face it, love it or loathe it, Apple knows a thing or two about selling MP3 players to world+dog. Sony NWZ-S544 8GB Walkman Sonic boon? Sony's Walkman NWZ-S544 Sony, however, begs to differ and has …

[Liam Johnson]

Apple?

Personally I like my music to be reproduced on fairly good quality equipment, but it seems the yoot o' t’day have crap ears. They seem perfectly happy to play bass heavy rap music on a bl**dy f*cking mobile phone at volumes somewhere between inaudible and just loud enough to be f*cking annoying.

Maybe Sony are on to something – but I hope not.

[Steven Jones]

audio output..

between 0.5 & 1 watt of audio output? I think not - typical MP3/multimedia players have batteries which only store about 4-6 watt-hours of energy. If this thing will work for 5 hours on speakers playing video then that's only about 1 watt to run everything. Screen, decoding, sound - the lot.

In fact you can get a clue by how long it will run on audio only with speakers. It seems that you lose 27 hours of endurance. Assuming a 5watt-hour battery (probably an over-estimate given the size of the device), then on earphones it's using about 120mw, on speakers it's 300mw. Assuming that difference ot 280mw is mostly down to the speakers, and allowing for the inherent inefficiencies of audio amps, then you might be getting 150mw. Certainly nothing like 1W.

Perceived audio volume is logarithmic in nature. A doubling of power output (about 3dB) is only just about perceptable. Guessing power outputs from perceived volumes is no way to estimate the power output.

[Bad Beaver]

Reason?

Chavs of all nations need no reason. They just want to emit their permanent cloud of noise.

[Anonymous Coward]

Good and bad...

I am always using the speaker on my iphone, its really good. This looks much better in the speaker divsion.

But the last think I want really is people playing their music on say a train or a bus... its just not good.

[Alex Walsh]

Theres a phrase...

... for what those hoodie wearing oiks do when they walk around with music tinnily pumping from their mobile phone. It's called "sodcasting". Nice to see Sony helping them :|

[Mathew White]

Oh Dear

Does is deactivate the speakers when the owner steps on a bus or any other form of public transport?

Otherwise it should come with a health warning, something about random strangers cramming the device in an orifice of their choosing.

[handle]

@Steven Jones: inefficiencies of amplifiers

Good posting; just one point: the digital amplifier it (and most such devices) uses will probably be about 90% efficient.

[Andy 70]

no.

ok, so it works. great.

any chance of adjusting the law for "public perfomances" so that monkeys playing "choons" outloud come under the ... whats the thing called where you comit suicide by waving a gun at american police? something like that, only playing muzak at commuters...

[Monkey]

@ Mathew White

Nope, the device ACTIVATES the speaker when getting on buses and trains, or entering busy shops with long queues.

[Ben Rosenthal]

"Suicide by Cop"?

and yeah, really can't wait till I start seeing these on the bus in the morning. Arse holes to the planet, I need a bloody car now!

[Gazza]

Excellent little Gadget

Just bought the 16Gig NWZ-S545R from Amazon. The Speakers run for just over 11 Hours on a full charge. Who needs Speakers?

I find earphones uncomfortable and when I'm working I cant hear the phone. So I've had a 8 Gig Sony with a plug in speaker for a while now. Its good for background music while I'm working. I also have a Zen Stone Plus with its own speaker. Excellent - but only 2 Gig. But with the 16 Gig Sony I now have all my Music to go. Plus the Comedy's I missed from Radio7. A few Audio books for when I get to put my feet up. Or just listen to the inbuilt radio (which uses the headphones for an Aerial) but sound comes out the Speakers. Limited Volume - but not anti-social. This is the 1st. one I can listen to while its ON charge. Excellent bit of kit. 8/10.

[Bad Beaver]

@ Ben Rosenthal

True words. The green revolution died due to the realities of public transportation. As long as busses and trains are crammed with coughing, noisy, scum, whoever able to afford it will use a car.

[Mathew White]

@Gazza

Please place your device on the table while i get the latex glove out. If you bend over it will make this much easier.

[Anonymous Coward]

Why so low rating

Another crock review at El Reg.

The reviewers paucity of imagination, is no reason to downgrade the rating. If the headphone audio quality is anything like my Sony when using my Shure E4Cs, then it is probably a great audio media device with a great screen to boot.

I know plenty of people for whom absolute audio quality is of less import than many other factors, so I applaud Sony for attempting to get some sort of reasonable sound quality within the limits of the form factor.

90% for the device

0% for the imaginatively challenged reviewer.

Dweeb

[Gazza]

Mathew White

Dont you think thats too much for a First Date? Bless you. You are sweet.