Sony NW-HD5 Reviews

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Sony NW-HD5
4.4 stars
Average rating for this product is: 4.4 out of 5

From 4 ratings and 30 reviews

Thumb up 83% of users recommend this product

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Average Ratings for Sony NW-HD5

  • Sound Quality4.5 stars
  • Battery Life4.9 stars
  • Features3.9 stars
  • Value for Money4.1 stars
  • Reviewer Ratings4.4 stars
  • Overall Rating4.5 stars

30 Reviews For Sony NW-HD5

  • Guest 23rd Dec 2008

    Reviewer rating: 5 stars


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    Love the thing BUT...
    When i search a song on 'initial search' you have to skip tracks by pressing the button on and on OR it starts running extremely fast through the whole alphabet when you keep the button pressed...but that's TOO FAST
    An 'initial search' with more letters might solve this issue which is of course a luxury problem
    Next to that i miss the 'editing possibilities the 'old' md players had like, recording, deviding, combine, deleted, replace etc....on the spot then that would really make it a blasting machine...
    Of coures if one would add a tuning possibility to that next to a chord diagram then me as a guitarist would be in heaven on earth.
    Meanwhile i'm still very content with the nw-hd 5
    Especially now i cracked the volume limit in the service menu.

  • harveyjd 22nd Feb 2007

    Reviewer rating: 4.5 stars


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    Affordable Portable MP3 Players with loads of memory capacity, good looking, but delicate in places I would recommend the Sony NW-HD5.

  • colinsrea Rank: Lance Corporal 6th Dec 2006

    Reviewer rating: 2 stars


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    I purchased The NW5 for the wife so she could listen to her music without me having to and if she can use it anyone can. However after 10 months the unit just suddenly cut out in mid song and switched off, after blaming the wife saying she must have accidentally switched it off, the unit would not boot back up, I returned the item back to the retailer who said that they would have to send it back to Sony for them to look at it, after 4 weeks of badgering the retailer Sony said they would replace ...

  • ragingtwister 27th Apr 2006

    Reviewer rating: 5 stars


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    Here 2 weeks ago my quest begins... my old i pod broke and I wanted to get a new one, though i was at Boots and the assistant said try the Sony NW-HD5, his hard drive on his old i pod died twice. So he gave the Sony a go and said it was great. "Right" I thought, I'll put some research. I heard all the remarks about the software, though the unit itself was deemed fantastic. I've been using computers for a while now, and have high end audio equipment at home.
    The ipod is a big let down, and a ...

  • eviepvie Rank: Lance Corporal 9th Apr 2006

    Reviewer rating: 5 stars


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    I bought my Sony NW-HD5 in September last year, so I've had it for more than half a year. I use it regularly, for about 2 hours every day. For 3 months, everything was blissful, but then, my HD5 broke down, and started only playing in one ear. I sent it back to Sony, who fixed it, although it did take around 2 months. The Sonic Stage software is quite annoying. It is slow and is quite hard to navigate. It takes a longish amount of time to put songs onto the HD5, as songs first have to be importe ...

  • macc Rank: Lance Corporal 23rd Jan 2006

    Reviewer rating: 4.5 stars


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    Sonicstage has a mind of its own. It mixes up some of my tracks and places them in the wrong location on my Sony NW-HD5 MP3 player.

    Other than the Sonicstage software, the Sony NW-HD5 is a great little device which seems to be very well thought out.

  • llukeblyth 23rd Jan 2006

    Reviewer rating: 4.5 stars


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    I purchased the Sony NW-HD5 MP3 player after researching a lot of MP3 players.

    I have not had any problems with it, and the battery life is amazing (I left it on for 2 days by accident and it was still playing). The size, weight and feel when you use it are all amazing, making it a pleasure to use.

    The only problem I have is the scroll to fins things is not the best, and you can miss the item that you are looking for, but this is a minor fault on an overall amazing product. You do not rec ...

  • paul45 11th Jan 2006

    Reviewer rating: 4 stars


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    I like the Sony NW-HD5 MP3 player. It's compact, well laid out, and it is easy to navigate through the menu options.

    The sound quality is good, and now that I have disabled the EU volume preset restrictions built into the UK models, I can turn the sound up sufficiently to drown out the sound of traffic when I am cycling.

    If you don't mind Sony dictating how you will handle/transfer your music, then this device is a solid and compact music player.

    The downside is you cannot transfer musi ...

  • evansncl Rank: Corporal 9th Jan 2006

    Reviewer rating: 4.5 stars


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    I bought a silver Sony NW-HD5 portable MP3 player at a big reduction because it was ex-display, and mine does have the telltale cracks around the centre buttons. However, I've heard this may be peculiar to the silver version and not generally the black or red models. Anyway, if a minuscule couple of cracks around the buttons freak you out, so be it, but I don't worry about it considering that the quality of every other part of this player is excellent.

    Sonicstage is just something you'll have ...

  • natedewyea 5th Jan 2006

    Reviewer rating: 4 stars


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    The equalizer on the Sony NW-HD5 MP3 player can't be adjusted if music files are in MP3 format. Some other functions are only available with Atrac format, which is proprietary to Sony. The included ear buds are not great, and I would recommend purchasing better ones. The Sonic Stage software does not upload cover art for CD's.

    In other ways the player is great. It is compact (2/3 the size of an iPod). It is also solidly built, and it produces very good sound quality. The display is not fan ...

  • olympicreject 2nd Jan 2006

    Reviewer rating: 1.5 stars


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    The Sony NW-HD5 portable MP3 player is great, but it is let down badly by the software and the user interface. The Sonicstage software is a disaster. It can't even transfer my music library to the player in one go. When it does work it converts all the files, which prevents them from being copied back to my PC.

    Before I bought the Sony HD5 I had an old creative MP3 player which had an active playlist, which I could create and save as a playlist. There is no equivalent on the HD5. Bookmarks c ...

  • mig 27th Dec 2005

    Reviewer rating: 4.5 stars


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    Firstly, when you open the box of your Sony NW-HD5 MP3 player you will be amazed by its unbelievable size. 20GB of data on such a small device! The standard headphones are slightly disappointing, and I would recommend purchasing new ones. However, the sound quality destroys that of the iPod and all competitors.

  • dan iz back 17th Nov 2005

    Reviewer rating: 4 stars


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    I found that the Sony NW-HD5 mp3 player is very easy to use. I have recently destroyed two ipods and decided to change to a Sony model.

    This is a very small mp3 player which is easy enough to fit in your pocket. I found it to be much smaller than an ipod, but have more memory than an ipod.

    The design on this player is very user friendly. the buttons are laid out, so they are easy to use, while keeping everything tidy. it has a flap which slides over the socket for USB lead which is good as i ...

  • t man 8th Oct 2005

    Reviewer rating: 5 stars


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    What can I say, I love the Sony NW-HD5 player, it can hold my entire cd selection and play them back with wonderful sound quality (I don't know what the moaning about a trac3 is all about, but it can suport mp3 as well if you wish). It's a great size for your hand, doesn't feel like it might slip out like some of the tiny players but definitely doesn't feel big (smaller than their ipod). It nice and heavy, but in a good solid way, not brick like. The only let down it has is the software it comes ...

  • shahabja 1st Oct 2005

    Reviewer rating: 5 stars


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    I just wanted to ask if any of you guys have had problem with the buttons on the Sony NW-HD5 MP3 player. I also heard that they will crack after a while. I appreciate your help with this!

  • MDDraco Rank: Lance Corporal 21st Sep 2005

    Reviewer rating: 4 stars


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    On the whole, as I say above, I can't fault the Sony NW-HD5 MP3 player at all. It's simple to use, small (smaller than a ZEN or an iPod, which are the two main competitors at this time), easy to use, however, I find that on occasion, the player has problems with fast forwarding rapidly, to the point where it will freeze for about 5 seconds, which is most annoying, and as for the software well, I don't understand why Sony have to use such an awful bit of software, it really is terrible, oooh, an ...

  • cuthbert 16th Sep 2005

    Reviewer rating: 5 stars


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    The Sony NW-HD5 mp3 player is a marvelous addition to anyone's music equipment. It's quite lightweight yet sturdy, and is easy to navigate. It's also very easy to use the Sonicstage software (included in the box), and very fast to put tracks on the player. It is outstanding, apart from the low volume and bad carry case.

  • glamionius 15th Aug 2005

    Reviewer rating: 4.5 stars


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    This player could be excellent with a little more tweaking! But anyway: I really like it!

  • Crosseyeddragon 10th Aug 2005

    Reviewer rating: 4.5 stars


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    I've had the Sony NW-HD5 mp3 player for a few months now and i still think its an excellent player, besides the problems above. It's volume is quiet to start with but if you use these commands you can turn off the EU regulation volume and let it roar...

    1. Be in playback mode (playing a tune)

    2. Press stop.

    3. Straight away, flick the 'hold' button on the top of the player.

    4. Hold the Search/Menu button down and enter the following combination of buttons in quick succession:

    R ...

  • nabilrazzaque Rank: Lance Corporal 4th Aug 2005

    Reviewer rating: 5 stars


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    To begin with, I had my eye on the older model, the sony NW HD3. I thought it couldn't get better than that, but I was wrong! I first spotted the NW HD5, whilst shopping in a window display. From that moment on, I knew that that was the MP3 player for me!

    I think people are misled by the 20GB storage. The HD5 compresses the tracks, into what is called atrac, which halves the amount of space taken by a track, so in effect we are really talking about a 40GB player!

    It is so much better ...