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 brought these to replace my nwz-w273s this was the previous model before the ws414. I have been using the w273 for almost 3 years and it was time for a change so brought the new model ws414. I have to say its a big improvement to the previous model.1st the sound quality is a lot better very detailed ,clear and has more definition. The Volume seems to be a lot louder than my old pair ,but do make sure you put the correct buds in, this will get you a better fit in your ears, Sony provides several sizes. The band that fits around your ears is defnitly more secure and sticks to your ears perfectly, there is no drop or movement whilst jogging. The build quality is also better being more sturdy and I prefer the matt finish.The button placements are improved the play button is now on the left corner instead of next to the forward and rewind buttons this would cause you to press play instead of the forward button. I like the fact you can fast forward songs now instead of skipping to next track.The battery life is also better and the charging dock has a better design.I have written this review to let people know who had the previous model the differences between them. I would strongly recommended the ws414 its better built, sounds clear and it is designed better, if you are a serious jogger or like something that doesn't get in the way whilst at the gym purchase these. I took them with me on the Birmingham 10 k run, I didn't have to worry about wires dangling or strapping a phone to my arm like the other runners. These are also great for swimming as long as the correct ear buds are used. I normally use these in a 30 metre pool and swim for about 40 lengths, they stay tightly fitted in your ears and sound quality is good while doing front crawl and back stroke. You will see a slight drop in volume this is because you have to change the ear buds to water proof buds.Overall these are probably the best all rounder sports mp3 you can get.

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.