3. SonicStage

While Connect's existence can be traced directly to SonicStage's awkwardness, SonicStage is at least reliable. Though Connect was ushered in quietly as a replacement for SonicStage, it never quite lives up to the task.

While it might not be a perfect replacement, it would appear that the guts of an NW-A series Walkman bear close enough resemblance to the more recent additions to the NW-HD series for SonicStage to work on the newer platforms. For the less discerning user, the most recent builds of SonicStage have very little difficulty accommodating our NW-As. SonicStage still suffers from issues of its own, but it remains far more stable than Connect and completely capable of copying music between itself and the attached device.

SonicStage: a little garish but usable underneath it all (click image to enlarge)

While it might be a little cumbersome to load, SonicStage is still reasonably user friendly and, far more to the point, seems less inclined to delete an installed device should it encounter any problems. This means that you're less likely to lose everything ever exported should you decide to update your library or add music to the player from another machine.

SonicStage is available for download from Sony. As long as you use Internet Explorer 6 or higher, installation is relatively painless.