$320! Ouch...

[Skinjob]

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/...ategoryId=3690

Holy Crap! Anyone else think the A829 is about $100 more than it should be?

The 16GB View and Zen are both $200. Admittedly, the Sony is better in most respects than both those players, but come on! Heck, even the 32GB Zen is only $300! I'm willing to pay a premium for the sound and build quality, but that seems pretty steep.

[CrowdAds]

[Andreas]

http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archi...s-in-march.php

The weirdest is the miniscule $20 difference between the bluetooth and non bluetooth version... But yeah, its pretty steep. Im guessing it will go down pretty fast though

[WalkGood]

Agreed, if the price doesn’t drop … they’re going to have a tuff time moving a lot of them

[ian miller]

The weirdest is the miniscule $20 difference between the bluetooth and non bluetooth version...

Seriously, the price difference between the 8gb versions is $70. This is one screwed up pricing pyramid. Plus memorizing all the alphanumeric models names is giving me a headache.

These things better have at least basic OTG playlisting and on player file management(mainly deleting files without a PC) or I wont be able to cough up the cash for Sony

Im guessing it will go down pretty fast though

Any reason you might say that? just wondering

[Andreas]

Originally Posted by ian miller

Any reason you might say that? just wondering

16GB flash memory is still "new"... prices will drop once its not so new anymore

[Wings]

6 Weeks after release it will be $200. I paid $180 for the A816 in Sept 07 and less then 4 weeks later it was $139. Now it is $109 and it has not been a year. I learned my leason. When this hits the Sony Store near me I will buy it a few months later. It will $200 or less.

You can bet on it.

[AHQ]

The 8 GB A828 is $70 more expensive than the A728 because it includes not only BT, but a pair of Sony BT headphones as well.

The 16 GB A829 is only $20 pricier than the A729 because it adds just BT, but does not include the BT headphones.

I'd personally prefer to see Sony exclude the BT headphones as part of the A828 package. For example, I'm very interested in having a BT audio setup at some point, but not necessarily with BT headphones. I'm more interested in compact/portable BT speakers or perhaps a wireless link to my audio system with a BT receiver. Others might be interested in using an A828 with a Sony BT car stereo.

Maybe a $50 mail-in rebate toward the purchase of a Bluetooth component on SonyStyle.com would have been a better choice... at least consumers would have the flexibility to select BT headphones, speakers, boombox, micro stereo, etc. of their choice.

In any case, I'm happy to see that the new Sony Walkman players have nicely sized 2.4" screens... seems like these will be the players to beat.

[emfa]

There is a new S618 clone model called S718

http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum...ad.php?t=26773

[Skinjob]

Originally Posted by Wings

6 Weeks after release it will be $200. I paid $180 for the A816 in Sept 07 and less then 4 weeks later it was $139. Now it is $109 and it has not been a year. I learned my leason. When this hits the Sony Store near me I will buy it a few months later. It will $200 or less.

You can bet on it.

Man I hope you're right. I've been ready to buy something for a while but have been holding off since I saw the announcement for the A820 series. I might pay $250 (might), but there's no way I'm paying $320. Kind of stupid on Sony's part. If the A829 came out $225 they wouldn't be able to make them fast enough. Typical Sony though, I guess.

[ian miller]

6 Weeks after release it will be $200. I paid $180 for the A816 in Sept 07 and less then 4 weeks later it was $139. Now it is $109 and it has not been a year. I learned my leason. When this hits the Sony Store near me I will buy it a few months later. It will $200 or less.

On the other hand the A818 has been going steady at $200 on amazon since release up until just recently when the A820 was announced. This doesnt count the bizarre blip a few months back where Sony lowered their msrp's than raised them again randomly.

Just saying $200 or less seems optimistic for a 16gb bluetooth DAP, maybe if Apple comes out with a $200 16gb nano.

[Skinjob]

Originally Posted by ian miller

Just saying $200 or less seems optimistic for a 16gb bluetooth DAP, maybe if Apple comes out with a $200 16gb nano.

Yeah, I agree (despite my bitching). I think you can always expect the 16GB Sony to command a premium over 16GB Zen or View. So as long as those are at $200, I'm sure the Sony will be well over $200. I was just kind of hoping the premium would be more like $25-50, not $120.

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by Skinjob

Yeah, I agree (despite my bitching). I think you can always expect the 16GB Sony to command a premium over 16GB Zen or View. So as long as those are at $200, I'm sure the Sony will be well over $200. I was just kind of hoping the premium would be more like $25-50, not $120.

I think they’ll find out fast with a $120.00 premium they’ll lose a good percentage of sales. I'm confidant they'll get more competitive...

[ian miller]

not an official sony price drop but J&R cut $40 off the 16gb bluetooth model. Might indicate an official price cut in the works http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4218046

[Wings]

Originally Posted by ian miller

not an official sony price drop but J&R cut $40 off the 16gb bluetooth model. Might indicate an official price cut in the works http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4218046

Nice. Maybe by Summer it will be $250? Hope so.

[Ascariss]

regardless of price now or later, the player doesn't advance too much on my 818 so I will hold out on getting this, plus in my opinion the 81x series looks better, even the 600 series looks better.

hopefully sony will release a new player this fall.

[Rob S]

How much advance do you want?

[Skinjob]

Originally Posted by Rob S

How much advance do you want?

Yeah, I'd say 16GB, Bluetooth & a bigger screen are pretty significant advancements. And I guess it's personal preference, but I think the new design is very cool. More sophisticated looking than the current models.

But back to the price topic:

Might be old news, but I just noticed Amazon is selling the 16GB Sansa View for $168. Hopefully that will put some serious price pressure on the other 16GB players. Heck, that's almost half what Sony's asking. Now, if only the View sounded like the Clip...

[Ascariss]

16GB is fine, but 32 is appearing from competitors, costs more but still 32 gigs. a bigger screen, I don't watch movies nor images on the device, so have no need for it. plus the video codec support is too limited, if it had divx support, and a 3 inch screen, perhaps this player would be worth my money.

next, no gapless playback, no on the go playlists, no ability to delete songs off the player with using the player only. no flac or ogg support, wav is fine, but I'd rather see flac. I'd also like to see wmv supported for video.

plus as mentioned 320 is too much to warrent me changing a brand new 818, which I paid $210 canadian back in nov, which is hell of a deal, considering that we only had the 4 gig version here on sale.

[The DarkSide]

They need to lower the price point, go to 32gb, and really,......... bring out a player w/a 3" screen! 32gb & 3" screen and I'd PAY the premium price (sorry to admit it). For now I'll just stay with my S618 and enjoy till they (hopefully) get with the shizzle!!!

[Aevum]

the thing is, isnt it $320 bundled with the bluetooth headset ?