Sony NWE394/B 8GB Walkman MP3 Player (Black)

I don't get the complaints about this product. I owned a previous Sony mp3 player model about five years ago. It lasted years and eventually died because I love my music to death. I am rough on these things. I need to have my music everywhere, especially when working or in the car. I tried a tablet for a couple of years after that but it wasn't nearly portable enough, nor did it have the tactile buttons that are really needed if you are going to navigate music menus in the car safely, So a week ago I bought a real piece of junk trying to go cheap, specifically a Thor MP3 player, and it made me realize that there are some things you can't go cheap on (you can find my one-star review on that page). So I spent a bit more and returned to Sony, this wonderful new version of their old player. It comes with a PC music organizing program page link (Media Go) that helps keep the loading process organized and will keep the music on your PC when you're done, which is handy. My only complaint is that it could not keep up with how fast I dropped my music files on it (transferring from iTunes) so I had to work with it over two sessions to get all the music on it I wanted. I have a considerable collection, and culled it down to my favorites from the 80s through today, Currently listening to Taylor Swift on a portable speaker connected via a wire as I write this. I have now listened to music through headphones, a car cassette adapter, and the speaker in my office, The sound is terrific. I simply don't get the complaints. Turn off the bass boost, set the equalizer, and go. The capacity is considerable, and nothing much has changed as far as the scrolling menus go. Sort through the music alphabetically by artist or album. You can use the control disc to tap through the menus to choose music or the radio, set the equalizer, etc. It has photo and ebook functionality that I don't use. I just know that it is easy to use and sounds great, and it's about $50 cheaper than the iPod Shuffle equivalent. The device had trouble reading the tags on some iTunes music and in some isolated cases, I had to reload it from the account or re-rip some CDs, which corrected the problem. I attribute this to Apple, which does not like to play well with others. Bottom line: I had to work with it a few hours to set it up but now I'm ready to rock.I love it, like I loved the one before it.

I got this Sony Walkman (16 gb) to replace my older model that was only 4 gigs. That and I think that the battery was failing on the old one as it would only hold a charge for half the time it did when it was newer. That being said, it was a little workhorse that I used at work and doing yard work that never let me down. So when it started giving up the ghost a few weeks ago, I knew that I would replace it with another Walkman. Like the previous one, it has easy to use controls even though the volume control is on the side as opposed to being on the front as with the last model. Some reviewers have complained that the face is plastic and not metal, but honestly...how much abuse is this thing supposed to be put through? It is an mp3 player not a sledge hammer. So that was not an issue for me. Second, I think that the sound quality is just fine. This is another point of contention in some of these reviews. Again, this is a small mp3 player...not a high fidelity sound system with EQ's and a 15,000 dollar built in mixing board. With a good set of ear buds or head phones, you will be pleasantly surprised. The one issue I did run into was when I tried to upload my playlists to the player. Using Windows Media Player, I did the usual click and drag into the "sync with device" routine. My music was on the player but not in playlist format. When I went to "Playlists" on the player it said something to the effect of that there are no recognized playlists. After some searching online, I ended up downloading the Media Go app which is compatible with all Sony devices and after seeing and using it, is far superior to WMP in my opinion. I don't know if others have has this issue or just me or is it my WMP being problematic. Either way, Media Go solved that problem. In summary, I am happy with this purchase as it fills my need to have music and only music on the go. I don't want to use my large and expensive phone while at work around chemicals or working outside in my yard with dust, dirt and debris flying everywhere. If you have or have had a previous Sony Walkman and are looking for a replacement, I think that you will be satisfied with the latest incarnation of this device. Some of the controls have moved and maybe there's no pig iron on the face to stop bullets, but you'll find the same great battery life, ease of use and ease of loading music into it...and that's exactly what its supposed to be. Happy listening.

I already have one MP3 player, one of those SanDisk Clipjams. I love that little thing! I mostly use it at night when I need to listen to specific things to help me sleep. Listening to podcasts is motivating for me when I walk. I wanted to keep my podcasts separate from the bedtime stuff. I haven't had a Walkman since the first caseet walkmans came out! I think I spent $270 for that thing, and it was a fine piece of metal and machinery. It felt so good in the hand. This mp3 player is nothing whatsoever like that. It doesn't give you the feeling that you're holding a quality piece of Sony gadgetry, one that gives you the feeling of listening adventure ahead! Instead, this Walkman is a cheap piece of light Chinese plastic. The photo screen is exactly the same quality as my 1990's Creative Zen (which passed away long ago). I think this Walkman is a poor piece of equipment for $50. Even for $25; you expect the Sony name to be quality. This is not. With that said, this player is very light. I bought it because I cannot use Bluetooth - the wireless stuff hurts my ears with extended use, which is why I can't use my phone for podcasts outside the house with a headset, even wired it just hurts. People that complain about " this player has no Bluetooth!" need to pick a Bluetooth option - there are so many. The wired headsets are for people like me, with sensitivities to the signals against their heads. I specifically only wanted that feature. One this I really needed is an ability for the equipment to keep it's place on a podcast. I have this 3 hour podcast I'm trying to get through. My walks are about a half hour. The player keeps the place if I turn it off and back on. But if I'm even the slightest bit clumsy, fat fingered or slip to one of the other areas of the arrow circle instead of hitting Play directly, my place will be lost. I have fast forwarded to my place only to have it reset to 0 about five times. You have to FF and then only touch play. Touch anything else and it's back to 0 again. Pretty darn annoying. I absolutely have to pay attention to how far I am in to the podcast before I shut the player off. This may cause me some issues in usage that make me reconsider this player. But, I'm not sure how this will work on another player without me trying things and sending back. I still may shop for a nicer player before my time is up to send this one back. If I could get one that felt better in my hands and didn't look like it came out of the Dollar Tree, I still might upgrade. Hope this helped if you are considering this. I don't mean to be negative about this. It is a good basic player and the sound is good. The radio works just great (my SanDisk Clip picks up zero stations). Don't buy this if you like to look at photos. But if you want a basic player with simple wired headphones, with good capability to drag and drop at the computer, fast charging, very light, and the Sony name, consider this. If you're looking something that feels good in the hand with a bit more refined look and features, maybe look elsewhere.

***Review Update*** Well, Ordered on October 8, 2022 Was very happy as you can read below. Not even a year later, and pffffft. It's toast. It only plays one song, and restarts. I reset the unit back to factory. Nope. I erased all the songs, restarted. Put only a couple of tunes on there. Nope. I would have thought that for $62.50, the unit would have lasted 4, or 5 years? Nope. Buy another one? Nope. -Heavy sigh- the search for a replacement begins again. Recently, my old music player (an older Galaxy S4) finally gave out. Whenever I am in my workshop I always have music playing, makes projects get done faster. I looked around to find an MP3 player that I could leave plugged in, without relying on the batteries. This unit fit the bill perfectly! The unit arrived today, and I loaded it up with my favorite MP3 files. At first I was surprised at how small the unit is, but don't let that fool you. It packs a big sound wallop! The interface is simple and efficient in design. When plugged into a computer via usb (windows 10) the screen on the player defaults to the computer, and doesn't let you control the player. This is for file transfer, and a good thing. When plugged into a usb wall charger the unit runs the same as on battery power. I do have an older set of (thumper) computer speakers that I use for in the workshop. they run on a standard 3mm input jack, the same size as the headphone jack that came with the unit. So, what's my take away? Excellent! Very happy, and impressed with the purchase. I want to give an extra special THANK YOU to those who answered my questions: LTC LDD · chris cochran · Michael Blair · Old Kid · You're answers were spot on! Thank you again.

A few things are absolutely essential to me when it comes to an MP3 player: 1) simple file transfer, for example via drag and drop, without requiring any software installation 2) buttons that are easy to find by feel, so that I don't have to pick up the device and look at it every time I want to skip to next track or adjust the volume. (Since I'm usually walking or running while using the device.) 3) respects the folder names and track sequence from the original album (or the names/sequences that I programmed into the ID3 tags). Other off-brand MP3 players I've tried, as well as Kindle Fire, screw up the order for some albums, for reasons that I've never been able to understand. If a device doesn't have these capabilities, then for me it's not an MP3 player, it's a joke, and the joke is on the consumer. But this device, fortunately, has all those things. I was worried, as a former owner of older model MP3 Walkmans, whether this would hold up in comparison to the old ones, and it does. (The older models all had good longevity but they were accidentally destroyed in the washing machine over the years.) The sound quality holds up favorably to any other MP3 player I've ever used. (Note: I haven't ever used HiFi MP3. Also note: in assessing the sound quality, I'm referring only to the MP3 device itself, NOT to the headphones provided, which I haven't tried.) Navigation of the software is very easy. My only complaint about the software is that I wish the track names and folder names could be smaller so that more characters could fit on the screen. (It only displays about 15 characters at a time ... if you highlight a track name, it will slowly scroll to let you read the whole thing, but this is slow and annoying.) As for the buttons on the device, the only flaw is that the "hold" switch doesn't prevent you from accidentally powering on the device, which is happening a lot while it's in my pocket and not in use. Overall this is, it seems to me, the only acceptable MP3 choice out there right now. And it's great, it meets all my needs very well. (I'd like to give HiFi a try, but they all seem to be touchscreen which, for me, is totally unacceptable, especially for a portable media player.)

There's a way to headline a review. I got this to try and replace my old Walkman that has served me fantastically from 2009 until the end of summer 2020 when all button input ceased and wouldn't let me do any selections. So after messing around and testing it out for three months, how does this one stack up? Things I like -I almost forgot what it was like to have a player with some actual battery life for once. Age-related battery drain struggle aside, I can take this thing with me to work for designated times and places during my shift to listen to music and still have battery to last me through the weekend before needing to charge it again. It also charges quickly, so that's a plus (usually within an hour when the battery has been completely exhausted). -You want bass? This thing has you covered. I find it better to use the bass boost when the music is at a very low level (such as if I'm doing homework) though the headphones you use might have a different effect as well, so keep that in mind. Minor Nitpicks -Sound volume profile doesn't seem as strong. Where a comfortable listening volume with little to no outside noise on my old Walkman was 10, this one I have to set to 15 to get a similar volume. This is with bass on and off. "What the hell were they thinking?" Issues aka User-Unfriendly features that can be deal-breakers -Buttons. Either they're stupid easy to input from BARELY TAPPING (I'm looking at you, front buttons) or stiff to the point you almost have to SQUEEZE the whole unit to get a response (hello, volume buttons). If the battery is drained by the time I get to work, it's because the thing was turned on and playing after something in my bag pressed against it. On a similar note, the only way to deter rogue power-on from bouncing in your backpack is to power the thing off and just turn it back on when you want to use it. -The playlist feature is a lie. I've tried formatting the device and re-syncing a playlist of Sonic music for a test and while the computer properly registers the sync, the device does not recognize ANY playlist synced to it as a playlist. The music will still be on there but there's no way in hell you're going to get the thing to properly register a playlist on it. -This applies to albums as well but more in the sense of spotty registration. On my Gorillaz album (the 2001 album), all songs can be found but Tracks 1, 2, and 3 (Re-Hash, 5/4, and Tomorrow Comes Today) are not properly registered with the correct information, relegated to Unknown Artist and Track _ labels. Hope you enjoy your music library being a total mess because trying to format and re-sync everything is only going to give you an aneurysm in the quest for proper labels and information. If you're a hard-core music fan and want the top of the line portable music player, this ain't it chief. If you're looking for a reasonably affordable music device that you can just plug your music in and go, you might like this but try out other players in the price range first. This MP3 player is functional and can be used as an introductory player, but that's about it and there are far, far better ones for the price that are more user-friendly.

I had a Sony Walkman 10 years ago that worked well enough, but I was smitten with iPods which all my friends had, so I eventually got one of those when my Walkman went through the wash (no really, it was an accident. I was going to get the iPod anyway and hand off the Walkman to my dad. He was disappointed). My iPod died recently, so I thought I would try out a Walkman again and save some money. After receiving my new Walkman and starting the music syncing process, I remembered the frustrations I had with my Walkman the first time and discovered a couple new ones. 1. The Walkman doesn't always transfer cover art properly (and the graphics are pretty low-res, but I know that's not super important) 2. It takes forever to sync music onto it. You have to individually select everything you want to sync and drag it to the 'Sync list' box. Then, you hit sync and it just takes a long time to copy the files. 3. *New/Uncertain Problem* I was driving to visit family. I set up the Walkman ahead of time, but when I was ready for different music, the buttons didn't work properly. I'd been driving for maybe an hour? The device felt pretty hot and I noticed a thermometer symbol in the top right corner of the screen. I've never had a device overheat like that. Maybe it was just because the sun was beating down on it through the window. However, I've taken long trips before with my iPod playing the whole time just fine. My husband has also used his iPhone on long trips. Maybe we unconsciously kept those devices in the shade? I let the Walkman sit in the same place my husband's iPhone sat though... At least the Walkman told me what the problem was. 4. *New Problem* It didn't transfer everything properly. I copied my Hamilton soundtrack over. When I went to listen to it, I could only find the second CD. I tried searching every category to find the first CD (artist, genre, files), but no success. I plugged my Walkman in and checked the files on my computer. The computer claimed that it was all there. I removed those files and re-synched them. When I checked my Walkman again, I still couldn't find Hamilton Disc 2 under Albums, Artist, or Genre. I finally found it under "Files," but the songs were out of order. That was the last straw. PS - Sound quality is acceptable

I hope this isn't the height of tech and music storage. I stopped listening to music some twenty years ago. I am of the Walkman (AM/FM) generation. I need something to keep me entertained while hiking. If you know the items I bought (a tight fanny pack for keys, etc; Water carrying system and now the MP3) I have prepared for some serious hiking for fun and exercise. Well, this will be a deep analytical look at this device. It has positives and negatives. Negatives: uploading; how do I buy Music off the internet? Sites are so user-UNFRIENDLY. Negative: algorithm to play any item (photos, Radio, saved music) Feels like 'Pong' in time of XBox. Positive: All my CD's are on this device. Let's start at the negative beginning. Sony must think an XBox user kid would buy this product. ZERO instructions to how to Upload my CD's or buy music. My dad would have cussed his ass off giving up on it working. I have Gamer Experience from the 80's to now. I pushed to upload my stuff onto the device. I've forgot how, but an hour or so, I can upload an album in a couple minutes. I Cannot GET THE INTERNET to load a pic of said album. Thus, the album is listed with songs in an algorithm list without a visual reference to the album. Beatles White album with a list of music, no picture. Negatives are you must be experience to load music on it; no pictures of albums loads up. Algorithm list is primitive list. Mind you, I have not covered how the machine remains on the last thing you were listening when you charge the contraption. It isn't like your phone where you get 98% Charged displayed while it is off. Bar being low, I've a good three feet of CD jewel cases. All my music are on the machine with some more space left over. If my grandmother with her 1930's Radio heard me hook up my MP3 to stereo speakers, she'd scream WITCH! WITCH! I've vinyl records and Tapes. I know BOOM Boxes. this tiny thing could play a big, clean sound with the right ports to go from small to huge sound. However, I bought it to replace that SONY Walkman (AM/FM) that slips on the shoulder. Song doesn't have a band or pouch to hang about the neck. I know how to sew, so.. I will be making a cloth pouch with a simple string that will let it hang like a cop badge on NYPD or some police badge show. Nothing fancy. But, like this MP3, it will do the job when Hiking is my priority. For a person with uploading experience with a low-tech feel to just do the job, I recommend it. For the tech challenged like say grandma, you will get frustrated. Those, I would look for something more "User Friendly." I'm sure that the fancier ones will be very pricey. For a person that barely listens to music anymore, give it a try. The Sony Walkman kept slipping off my shoulder. The armband wasn't ever tight enough. It effected my workouts in the gym or out with nature. I wanted something LIGHT. I needed it to not obstruct my activity.

Este producto vence en comodidad, simplicidad, tamaño y calidad de sonido a cualquier reproductor Apple o de cualquier otra marca. Es super sencillo de utilizar, el menú es intuitivo y la batería dura bastante. Lo recomiendo ampliamente en su versión de 16 GB, ya que con eso puedes escuchar infinidad de música y basta con usar MP3 a 128 kbp para escuchar la mejor calidad posible.

海外仕様の WALKMANです。Bluetooth機能もなく使い勝手は悪いです。逆にシンプルな構造で丈夫な感じです。

I like the knowledge that I am using a safe site, the product was easy to source and the price was really good, plus the Walkman isn't sold in shops anymore and I was lost as to what I could do, so a bonus for me that you sell the item. Also the time you have taken to show that I am valued as a customer, I will be sure to use you as my needs arise. Also prompt the chance to give feedback and attention to detail are second to none.

Feel the retro vibe

Muss mich meinem deutschen Vorredner und ein paar amerikanischen Rezensionen anschließen. Der MP3 Player sieht genauso aus wie mein alter Sony, hat sogar die gleiche Menuführung - aber: es ist definitiv nicht möglich, damit Playlisten abzuspielen. Auch mir geht es so, dass ich nahezu meine gesamte Musikbibliothek auf dem Windows Media Player habe, und selbst mit einigen Tricks (Playlist als Album abzuspeichern usw) nichts zu machen war. Player sortiert die Songs willkürlich und legt sie unter den einzelnen Interpretennamen ab, wo immer er die herhaben mag. Das Sony-Musiccenter, mit dem dies möglich sein soll, ist unübersichtlich und grottig. Hatte mehrere billigere Player, die allesamt das gleiche k.o. Kriterium hatten. Jetzt mag ich nicht mehr. Seufz.