Sony VAIO VGF-WA1/W Wireless Digital Music Streamer (White)

• AUDIO STREAMING FROM PC & WEB WHITE

Be forewarned-I was too excited about this gift until I realized its LIMITED functions:

1) Web Radio streaming capability ONLY if you are a SONY 365 subscriber and want to listen to 365 provided radio stations!!! That is correct; this radio will not access/play/stream ANY OTHER radio off the web, ie Sirius, XM, etc...Period. No Can Do.

2) PC Music Files-Ready for this one? It will ONLY access Windows Media Player versions 10.0 and 11.0..it WILL NOT play iTunes nor any other stored music files on your computer...Period. Nada.

After several hours of working with Sony reps to download software required for setup and installation, I came to the very disappointing realization that this is not the product for anyone unless they meet the above 2 specifications; additionally, as this product is brand new to the market, the Sony reps knew virtually nothing more about the product nor its limited functions than I could infer from reading the small fine print in the manual.

Back to the drawing board for the perfect wireless pc/web quality radio speakers...

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I have the WA1 and find it a pleasure to use this unit daily. The setup is fairly straight forward but expect to spend 3060 min's to set up depending on your existing system. The WA1 comes in a nicely configured black or white package that has a backlit touch panel on the top of the unit which goes into a sleep mode after one minute but wakes up when you approach the WA1. This is to save power when it is operated in the battery mode. In the battery mode you will get somewhere around 4-5 hours although I have never run it to that point. It does not have a battery gauge per se but it does have a flashing LED that begines to flash faster as the battery runs close to depletion. At that point you can always plug it in to recharge the battery or continue listening to music as the battery charges.

The two big features are the WA1's abilty to stream your playlists or folders from any computer in your house to the WA1 which has two speakers with remarkable sound quality. The second feature allows you to listen to Live365 web radio which is also streamed from a supplied wireless USB adapter or thru an existing 802.11 WiFi.

With the web radio you have the option of 100 comercial free stations from Live365 at no charge for a limited trial period. But for as little as $5.95 a month you can join the VIP membership and have access to thousands of radio stations from around the world. This also gives you the option of setting up your own favorites list on their website that you then can access from the WA1. The stations are shown on a display allowing you to scroll to your favorites,artist or by genres using the touch panel or the supplied IR remote control to surf thru them.

One of the best features is that the WA1 has RCA and optical outputs allowing you to feed a stereo system when stationary or take it to go anywhere within an average sized house and yard area. The WA1 has many adjustments and modes for the sounds and functionality to suit your own taste as well as a clock and an alarm clock feature if you want use it in the bedroom. All in all, I really like the WA1 and listen to the web radio nonstop as there is so much content to explore such as 50 60 stations per genre (with the VIP membership).

The cons: The only web radio the WA1 can access is Live365. The capabilty of the streaming music is dependent on your ISP and you could experience interuptions in your streaming web radio music if you are on a dial-up connection. There is no USB inputs to listen to music on flash drives but you can input MP3 and Ipod players. There is a 128Mb internal memory which allows you to capture songs that are streamed from your library/playlists but not from the web radio. Unfortunately there is no way to expand the internal memory size. Tech support is nearly non-existent as this product is too new to have a knowledge base for the tech support people to search thru. This unit is considered part of Sony's VAIO computer product line and therefore you end up speaking to a computer technical person.

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Good quality music streamer out of the box, but with limitations. Excellent device when updated to firmware version 1.2 that allows connection to networks with no SSID broadcast (with the original firmware I had to change my access point settings to SSID broadcast each time I wanted to use the WA1, even with the SSID entered manually in the device settings), and also allows to create your own list of web radios using the companion software WA1 Enhanced Settings tool(installed on a computer on the network and transmitting infos to the WA1 thru wifi). You're no longer limited to built-in services.

Strangely, Sony does not offer the firmware revision on the US site. You have to download it from the Japanese site. Look for a file named SOFOTH-01589600-UN.exe and follow instructions.

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One week in, I'm satisfied with my Vaio digital music streamer. I was intrigued by the product when it first came out but scared away by the cost; recent price reductions made me snap it up as the perfect sound system for the bedroom and this summer's outdoor entertaining. Setup was simple enough; had it up and running within a half hour through my 2Wire router/Windows XP SP2 setup playing nothing but MP3s that I've ripped or downloaded myself. Sound is more than adequate; very nice to have the EQ, bass boost and other options. The radio through Live 365 and onboard storage capability are both more like toys than robust features, but I didn't buy this unit for these abilities. Biggest negative for me is the inability to scroll through folders more rapidly; would be nice to have a "skip 10/skip 100" feature or something along those lines so I wouldn't feel limited to playing music from playlists or artists that begin with an "A." But in all, this unit does what I want it to do -play my music anywhere in my home or yard, without leaving me paranoid that my precious iPod will get misplaced or broken while we're entertaining. Hope to see Sony refine this product in a future iteration.

A) Three great features that make it worth it I'm satisfied

The setup is very easy with the USB Cable. Found the networks without any problem

Good design overall : battery, look and feel, ease of use

GREAT sound

B) Two big misses ( disappointed , but forgiving given A!):

NO CLICK-WHEEL nor ANY way of picking music in a long list ( unless you call pushing the "down arrow" 499 timesa way of selecting a track, which seemingly Sony does). They should upgrade the Firmware and allow a new remote to do it. THIS IS SURPRISING. So I use it with playlists made on the computer.

Limited radio access... so it cannot be called fully an Internet Radio

C) Recommendations for Sony for next version

Check the compatibility with many UPnP servers... works fine with Windows Media Player, but not with a Linux UPnP server that is on my NAS. Cannot read playlists then.

Add a website for the device to configure remotely, change the name, etc. See Roku's Soundbridge as an example

Think of a large display on the front... so you CAN use the remote and see the titles

Display should show title + artist, not filename!

Selection by Notation (x star and above )would be g