Sony NW-WS414 Waterproof All-in-One MP3 Player, 8 GB - Black

After a lot of research - and already owning and using a variety of other Sony headphone and earphone products - I opted for these waterproof earphones to use when swimming and to help deal with the boredom of going up and down the pool, and also to drown out the bellowing voices of young chaps at the David Lloyd club, including in the showers where the earphones effectively block out the disgusting sounds of snorting, nasal and throat grunting and coughing up phlegm. Not by me, from other members!! With these earphones in and your favourite music playing the disgusting sounds of the shower room and changing area are drowned out. These Sony earphones are perfect for the job. They fit well, are durable, are waterproof of course, easy to operate once you've spent a bit of time with the instruction sheet and have practised using the variety of buttons on the earpieces, and the sound quality is good. Other users have reported issues with reduced volume when using the earbuds for in-water use (the unit comes with changeable earbuds - one set for normal use out-of-water and one set for in-water). If they had only read through the operations manual that comes with it they would have known that when using the waterproof earbuds the max volume will be less than when using the standard earbuds due to the membrane in the earbud for preventing water getting into the unit. This is perfectly understandable and the earphones when using waterproof buds provide a perfectly adequate volume level for listening to most modern music. I think it would be difficult for listening to an audio book or to some classical music as perhaps too much ambient sound especially from swimming strokes/splashing etc would get through. Also, loading music is easy. Just connect the unit to a PC or Mac using the USB connector that comes with it, and the unit appears in the file menu as a seperate drive, then just drag and drop your music files whether whole albums or single tracks, into the music folder on the device. I've got more than enough music on my device to fill the hour or so I spend three times a week in the pool and wet-spa area at the club, and the showers too. I think I have around 35 or so albums on it and have only used up around half the available storage space (8gb version). Navigating through the MP3 player to find a specific album or track is a bit tricky as there is no screen to show what is being selected but once you get the hang of it its not too difficult, but I just put the unit on shuffle and let it play randomly. It's very easy to forward tracks or go back.A good device for listening to music in water, well-built, very good battery life, decent sound quality even with the reduced max volume level from the waterproof earbuds. I'm very happy with these earphones.

I was looking for a way of listening to music when going for walks or at the gym without any fuss. I didn't want to have to deal with headphones tangling and I abhor wireless / bluetooth stuff in general because the sound quality is usually quite awful and you end up waiting years for your devices to connect to each other, if they can even find each other. I don't like carrying my mobile around either, and other gimmicky stuff like mini MP3 players you attach to your finger or arm have always seemed fiddly and annoying to me.Especially with the advent of all the streaming services and what have you, finding a decent MP3 player you can still load your own music onto seems rarer and rarer these days. I wanted something I could load MP3 files onto - not necessarily just music, but podcasts, movies, self help manuals, anything that could go on an MP3 really - and this is perfect for just that!They're easy to understand and use. You open the box and attach your size of earbuds, you plug the charger into your PC and slot the MP3 into it, and then you can transfer any files you want into it, easily enough, like any data transfer device. I tried using a FitBit Ionic before this, and it was awful - not only was the bluetooth quality absolutely trash, but you had to pair your device to transfer files onto it as well rather than just plug and transfer, it was an awful inconvenience for something that is usually easy and straightforward - I hate "fake innovation" myself.They hold a charge for a long time, I've worn them to bed when I've decided to play something relaxing and they've still been on in the morning, and I've worn them for two weeks worth of 30 minute gym sessions and they only ran out of charge on the third week. Battery life seems good - I'm making this review a year after my purchase and they don't seem any worse for wear. Pricing is decent too - I bought the 8GB version which is a little pricey, but the 4GB version is affordable especially for what you get, and honestly 4GB is enough for most of your needs I've realised down the line.I haven't used them for swimming. I've heard bad things about them not actually being very waterproof in the actual earbud department - major design flaw in my opinion, they only stay waterproof if you keep them in your ears or something while swimming? No thank you! I haven't tried. Can't give an opinion on if they're good for swimming with or not, but in my opinion if you cared about that you would buy a different MP3 player in the first place - one that was entirely specialised for swimming, not for general purpose usage.Comes with a shuffle play feature, which remembers the last song you were on, even what part of the song you were on, even when turned off, and even alerts you if you're putting your music too high that you could potentially cause damage to your ears - this combined with the anti noise pollution setting (whatever it's called) will definitely help you reduce the risk of getting tinnitus in the long run - plus it helps you totally zone out in the gym, wahey!Otherwise the only flaw I can really point out is how annoyingly fiddly they are to put on, because of how they like to bend and twist into an awkward shape. Having the "L" and "R" markers on them is useful because without them I'd be completely lost when trying to figure out how to put them on, even a year after purchasing them.Anyway, a fantastic purchase. Easy to use, does the job well, doesn't dictate what I can and can't put onto the MP3, doesn't require any additional third party account creation or software to be used, and does it all neatly and discretely!

Quick review;Way too quiet with waterproof earpieces fitted. Okay volume level with regular earpieces fitted.Very hard to use if with an iTunes library. Have to download software to load player and also software to convert files into .mp3 format as doesn't play .m4a files as standard (you can do file conversion inside iTunes as well) All time consuming and you have to be careful with what oi convert as there is no way to search tracks other than move forward and reverse.I used in the gym for a weights session, thought I had right fit for earpieces but unit constantly moves around, hanging sound and needing adjusting.I suppose the only redeeming feature would be using in water but I haven't done that yet and am unlikely to tbh.

I had the very old one (like 8 years ago) 2GB Sony Walkman NWZ-W252 and finally got broke two days ago. Great product, best gift ever. Saved my life in so many ways when I arrived to London and needed some entertain during the journeys and movings of the beggining.... and was actually pretty, jet black, I've being using it almost everyday and felt even elegant. Black goes good with everything, specially if you have a very dark beard... ; I'm expecting great stuff about these new ones on sound quality (much more volume!! I was missing that already) and durability and Is also more confortable and tight as I could imagine, great performance on that making the device flatter... BUT the black version is actually grey and I'm thinking about spraying it because I find it annoying. Apart from that I'm happy.