Sony Vaio Pocket VGF-AP1L Quick Thoughts

Since my Karma died a few months back, I had replaced it with an iAudio M3 40 GB. I wanted another gapless player that did FLAC - well, one out of two ain't bad. I've been using the iAudio solidly since October, and it started to annoy me. Why?

1. Lack of a screen. The small remote just is not doing it for me. At first it wasn't bad, but over time, the lack of a screen hurt the unit despite its FLAC capabilities.
2. Lack of gapless. This has been bothering me, but I could *live* with it.
3. Lack of ID3 tagging was no big deal for me (as I had M3U files), but long term, I may have wanted it.

The screen thing was the biggest negative. The M5 is coming out, but you know how these things go. The M5 is just the M3 with a screen essentially.

Now, I'm a pretty staunch audio guy and didn't want to give up FLAC, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Since Sony decided to support something other than ATRAC and the VGF-AP1L was supposed to be gapless with the newest firmware (the one that also adds MP3 - 3.0.0.C171F), I decided to give it a shot. I picked it up at the Sony Style store in Boston. It rang up at $449.99 ($50 cheaper than the website), and I also bought a 2 year extended warranty for $21.99.

First impressions
1. Best built DAP I've ever seen/used ergonomically. Very solid feel - far from cheap. It does not feel like it would break easily. The color screen ... well, being a fan of Sony monitors (esp. the XBRITE ones), this screen is amazing. Beats any other player on the market, period.
2. The G-sense pad seems kooky at first, but once you start using it, it makes a lot of sense. It comes with a remote, but I will avoid that probably. I'd rather use the G-sense pad.
3. More on the screen: Sony did a nice job to conserve battery. It goes dark if you don't touch it (backlight off, then totally off), and comes back to life if you touch the G-sense. This is adjustable, and so is the screen's brightness.
4. Sony really did implement MP3. I imported some with zero problem, however SonicStage didn't do all of the tagging right for the album name. May have been something *I* did, too, as I am just figuring all of this out.
5. Yes, I can hear the difference between a 320k LAME-encoded/256k ATRAC3plus and FLAC. I did A/B from my iAudio to the Vaio Pocket, and while there is a difference, I can live with it I think. And comparing a 320k MP3 to the 256k ATRAC3plus, the sound is nearly identical, so I will more than likely transcode at ATRAC3plus because the files will be a bit smaller. I'll do some experimenting.
6. SonicStage isn't horrible, and there is also the VAIO Music Transfer program if that's all you want to do. I don't find it any worse than RIO's Taxi. As long as you aren't transcoding, moving files is quick.
7. The Sony can also be used as mass USB storage, or to hook a camera into. Not a bad secondary use.
8. The ability to add album covers rocks. You do it in SonicStage. All DAPs shoudl have this!
9. If the battery life really is 20h, I'll be happy.

Gapless
Now what you all are waiting for: did Sony implement gapless properly? Yes and no. I took the FLAC files I had from the iAudio, decoded them to WAVs, and then transcoded to 320k LAME MP3s. The album chosen was the live Genesis bootleg Musica.

I also tried the the "By-Tor"/"Xanadu" medley (two separate tracks) from the Rush bootleg CD Two Great Suites. I used SonicStage to encode directly from the CD into ATRAC3plus 256kb, and not from pre-existing files.

Using my existing files for the Genesis, I would call the Sony "near-gapless". There's a short pause just like the iAudio no matter what the format of the file. The Rush encoded in SonicStage using ATRAC3plus, and then transferred to the Vaio Pocket - 100% gapless.

To ensure what I was encountering was correct, I re-encoded two tracks from the Genesis that segue into each other ("Dancing With The Moonlit Night"/"Carpet Crawlers") using SonicStage into ATRAC3plus, then transferred into the unit. Guess what? 100% gapless.

I also re-encoded ATRAC3plus files from the WAV files and transferred them into the Vaio. Not gapless, but near gapless.

So I question what Sony means is "gapless". If it means "you must encode right to ATRAC3plus from CD with SonicStage and transfer it that way", they're right. If it's using existing files, nope - at least not in my brief experience. Now, again, it may be something *I'm* doing, too. So if anyone has tips on making LAME or just Fraunhoffer MP3s to be gapless, let me know. Otherwise, I would say that the VGF-AP1L is gapless*

* only if you encode with SonicStage into ATRAC

I'll keep playing around and keep you updated on the findings. Hope this helps some of you out.