SonyNW-WS623 4 GB Waterproof Walkman MP3 Player with Bluetooth - Black

I think I've had every generation of these types of Sony MP3 Walkman's and not every iteration has been an improvement on the last in terms of usability or fitment. I'm pleased to say that these are definitely better than my previous generation which, is a real relief given the cost uplift.That being said I got these for under £100 which, is less than a pair of half decent buds alone and you do clearly get more for you money. And a lot of packaging. And that's not entirely a good thing today - see photo.Firstly, sound quality. Good. Not superb but perfectly decent for gym use or swimming if that's your bag. The sound is not base heavy and is slightly bright which of course suits some music better than other types. I'm a metal fan and I like a bit more low down to get a good chug going which, I find is the perfect accompaniment to heavy gym lifting. It's perfectly acceptable but I found my Bose Soundsports better in that regard.The sound is perfect for voice though, and as I'm an Audible fan this is a real plus point. Speech clear and legible at all sound levels.One of the selling points is the ability of these to be used in water and in the spirit of investigation I have done so using the supplied ear buds that have a fine seal over the sound emitting orifice. The sound quality is in no way reduced as far as I can tell. It's still good overall. What is noticeable is that the volume level is lower which, is acceptable as long as you crank the volume up.Fitment and security of fit is brilliant. Absolutely superb. I'm not sure what sport you would have to be doing to get these to come loose but you would probably be at risk of your head coming off first. And despite the very good fit they are comfortable for long term use.The design is similar to all previous similar Sony players. Whilst not as small as Bluetooth only earbuds they are well crafted to sit flush to your head and stick out less than the likes of the aforesaid Bose Soundsports. In other words you won't look like an extra from the Star Trek bridge.Controls are easy to use once your memory muscle has kicked in and your fingers learned where they need to go.Where these are an upgrade in cost over the cheaper version is the addition of Bluetooth which, means you have options. You can stream media from your phone or suitable player as well as use the integrated MP3 player.The MP3 player is what I need for the gym because the gym I use is large and using Bluetooth earphones or buds results in dropouts if I leave my phone on a shelf. And I hate having to carry an MP3 player or phone in a pocket.One thing to note is that all my previous Sony MP3 Walkmen carked it suddenly after 18 to 24 months. This is irritating because I've had other players and wireless earbuds that work well past that point. However the convenience of these Sony's is enough for me to accept that every couple of years I'll need to replace them.Overall, I genuinely don't believe there is a better active MP3 player. Some alternatives sound better, haver better battery life or options but none come close to covering all the bases as much as these do.

I so much wanted to like this, and there’s so much to like about them, but, unfortunately, they came up short in some critical areas for me.My intended use for these were to be for running and walking. I can’t comment on the swimming aspect, many other reviews in regards to this.The good:I really liked the hard, tactile buttons. As with many devices like this, there’s a learning curve regarding placement, feel and what button does what. After a few attempts over a day to get it right I was confident using it on-the-go, the buttons were easy to find from feel and performed remarkably well, especially when compared to cheaper alternatives. Some of the dual-purpose functions of a button worked well, as long as you’re familiar with it from experience. After a few frustrating botched attempts I knew what NOT to do.The 3-level sound environment/ambient settings are exemplary - it worked like a charm and I could hear the difference between the three settings. I didn’t pick up any wind noise using this as I do with other devices with this feature. I could hear traffic coming from far behind me easily, as well as conversations clearly coming from people I passed - even with the music at a not-so-quiet volume.Of course the onboard storage is great and frees up needing to have a secondary device to serve this purpose.One interesting thing to note for audio geeks like me is that when paired with an iPhone via Bluetooth the volume on the headset works independently from the source device, which is not always the norm. This means you can set your source device to a pre-determined volume level and use the headset for on the fly adjustments as usual. This allows for personal gain structure preferences. Maybe this is also the reason some have reported low volume even though not using the swimming ear tips - the source device needed turning up if using BT?It’s well-built and solid, but that also has a negative side to it - fit.The not so good:Fit. I struggled with these. For one, I could never achieve a good solid and consistent fit no matter what size ear tip I used. Sure, if sitting still I could, but when I started walking and running the seal would work loose out of my ears eventually. This, of course, had an adverse affect on bass response and ended up hearing mostly higher frequencies with little to no bass. I think the pure size, design and bulk of these cause this to happen - to gradually drop and pull from your ear, even with the ear loops and attaching the back headband accessory. They look absolutely huge on the ear, even on big ears, perhaps the size of these is to allow fitting all the buttons on them without it feeling cramped. Be prepared to look like you’re part of some SWAT team or Robocop with these on your ears.Annoyingly, if I were perspiring and used the buttons to skip tracks or adjust volume this movement of the earpiece was enough to slightly pull on the ear tips and for sweat to work it’s way into my ear causing what little there was of the ear tip seal to release, and unable to re-seal. It was a constant struggle on the go to try and get it right. I could never get the earbuds to sit in and stay like with other earbuds. This, first and foremost was the deal breaker. Maybe if they had included foam ear tips it might have been a different story, perhaps a better seal and less likely to work itself out. The thin silicone ear tips would also frequently collapse on themselves quite annoyingly when trying to get the fit right by pulling the bud out slightly and pushing back in. I’ve never had this type of struggle before with earbuds, previously. It was frustrating.Also, after a short period of time the ear loops became annoying as did the headband part, it always felt like there was something wrapped around my head and was unnerving. I never got used to it like a few other reviewers seemed to.Sound-wise, these were just above average…maybe. Granted, I’m an audio guy, but not overly concerned about sound quality when working out - though it would be nice - but I expected more from Sony. I’ve used one of their portable MP3 players and provided earbuds and was shocked at how good it sounded, this experience had me think twice about Sony sound quality and how they got it right, at least with portable audio devices. I was hoping for the same quality, or near. Unfortunately, it didn’t come close. And as there is no on-board EQ presets for the locally stored sound files, you live with what it’s giving you. Having an onboard EQ may have helped with the lack of bass from the aforementioned fit issue (along with foam ear tips).And while the Fast Forward and Fast Rewind work with files stored in the onboard storage, it does not work via Bluetooth, so if that is an important feature to have available for BT use, this feature will not work. The skip forward/back does work via BT, though, as expected.I was ok with transferring files with a MacBook - quite straight forward - the files go into the Music folder - but, you cannot transfer a playlist via the now-called Apple Music app, even with the provided Sony content transfer software if you do not have an older Mac version installed with iTunes, nor can you create a playlist on the device itself. It seems to play songs by album alphabetically by default (I think) if tagged with this info and you can select songs rather than albums for the default- which seemingly also plays back songs alphabetically which is annoying, at least for me. I had to resort to creating a ‘playlist’ in the order I preferred with the files in the Music folder by numbering the file names like 00, 01, 02, etc., before the song title. Rather labour intensive and for these days rather surprising to need to resort to such nonsense.Sony is a good company and I hope they take on board these criticisms and look at updating this device physically and feature/sound-wise. It’s a good idea in practice, and oh so close, a few more tweaks and they could have an excellent device. It’s not quite there yet, though, especially at this price.