Sony W-Series Walkman
I’m one of those people that enjoy music blasting into their ears every waking moment of their life. I’m not kidding – it’s ridiculous. My buddy, Pat, had to convince me to leave my headphones in the car for a hike, and I agreed, but it wasn’t because he told me it was a bit trashy, and spoke to a lack of appreciation of nature. I convinced myself to do so because I knew I’d somehow lose them in the woods.
Even if you’re not like me, slappin’ da bass to your own tunes in the gym is a welcome alternative to a screaming ten-year-old’s birthday party top-roping behind you. Also, when a gym rat tries to spray beta at you, you can ignore them without a lengthy explanation of why their advice is not welcome – simply turn up the volume and avoid eye contact.
When I reviewed a bunch of headphones a while ago, I noted that the Sony W-series Walkman was the cat’s pajamas of sports headphones, since they integrated the mp3 player right into them. However, as many otherwise happy customers noted, when a one sweat on them, the music ended, so to speak. During a long run in the beautiful city of Worcester, I was surprised and deafened by a short-circuiting volume control, causing me to angrily tear the player off my head and throw them to the ground, as if they had just bitten me. After a few days of problematic usage, they completely quit…
… but I missed them. So much, in fact, that I went through the trouble of posting my review on Sony’s blog, noting that if they were to redesign them to be sweat-proof, I’d purchase another pair.
Well, they did, and instead of making me pay again, the editor of the blog offered to send me a pair for free. Needless to say, I accepted the generous offer, surprised that there are actual humans working for Sony. I had them out of the box and playing music in about 10 minutes, five of which was spent cutting through packaging.
Since then, I’ve worn them hanging upside-down, falling, running, hiking, biking, and walking my dog. The fit is very secure, and they include three different-sized silicone earpieces that come with the player. I’ve also sweat all over them, with no short circuit to cause a skull-exploding volume increase.
As far as the controls go, my grandmother could probably work them just fine out of the box. A rocker switch moves between songs, or folders if you hold it for a second in one direction. Pressing the rocker switch inward pauses/plays the music, and a sexy female voice lets you know when that happens. Is that a slight foreign accent I hear? Oh, yes, it is.
The “Zappin” system is basically like a scan/shuffle thing that can be fun when you have a bunch of random tunes on it (or neglected to properly organize your music into folders), and don’t really know what you want to hear. The sexy voice also lets you know when you’re using that. Volume is controlled using another, equally-easy rocker switch.
Never again will your headphones be painfully pulled from your ears by a tree branch or flailing hand… because there are no wires. When you want to remove them, they hang securely around your neck by a flexible, rubbery plastic connector that joins the earpieces. People keep asking if I have bluetooth headphones, and then I force them to sit through my shpeel about how awesome my mp3 player is. Oh, and you get an 80% charge by plugging them in for five minutes.
