 "It's okay for what it does" | 2006-01-10 |
| - Reviewed By User: AU6YS9SOOB28H |
A step up from CD players but not up there with mp3 harddrive players.
It uses MiniDiscs which is a bonus for being small while also holding more than cds. But again it's not part of the player and it's just like any other cd: Limited amount of songs. Mp3 players will always store more, and it'll be there anywhere with you.
And like cd players you have to fast forward if you want to listen to one song that fits your mood at the time. Fast forward will kill the battery and just drive that disc crazy.
For the price it is nicer than say a small flash drive space mp3 player. ANd it does have the possibility of having more music than flash drive players and cd players.
So it is nice to get this for the price if you're not a huge music lover. If you are a music lover, and you have music in the thousands like me then I would go for the 20 or 60 GB harddrive mp3 players.
And that might sound bias, but I use to have this MD player but just recently upgraded to an iPod because my music was just too big to fit on so many MiniDiscs, and it was a huge hassle to want to listen to some Led on the train when the disc that it was on was at home. |
| |
| "Say no to MD" | 2005-03-12 |
| - Reviewed By disway2 |
| It's a great and stylish product but I won't buy one again. I know MD is very popular in Asia and other parts of the world, but I just don't see how is that better then MP3 players especially when the price on the MP3 players are getting cheaper by the days? I used to own 2 SONY MD players and got rid of them all!!! The sound quality is good only if you record the tracks in MD standard format and in real time. Anything other than that, is gonna sound crappy. I am sure many reviews have already covered that aspect. And the SONY software sucks too when it comes to copyright laws. They remind me a bunch of old guys trying to enforce the old rules. Do yourself a favorite and get a MP3 player like iPod or something. |
| |
 "The software brings down the overall value" | 2005-02-10 |
| - Reviewed By v_raajkumar |
Though the sound quality and other hardware features are good, I would seriuosly recommend users not to buy this product. The software is such a big hassle that you stop using it as a MP3 player. It is a big pain to check in and check out songs and the user interface of the sonicstage software needs to be improved by leaps and bounds.
Besides the discs cost high (5 discs for $8), typical SONY strategy of making money by selling high-priced accessories.
You can rather buy an IPOD, if you can afford it, since it has much more value for money. In case your budget is low, any standard mp3 players should do the trick rather than going for the NET MD player from sony. |
| |
 "Art's MD unit" | 2005-01-15 |
| - Reviewed By artlogan |
| Very impressed w/ this little Sony MD unit. Great sound in a small pkg. This is my 1st minidisc player so I don't have a reference for comparison. Haven't tried to dnld music or record yet. I understand from some of the other reviews that the software can be fustrating to use but as long as I stay within the capabilities/limitations of this MD Net unit It should function ok. The learning curve for me to get up to speed will be long & slow but I'll get there. |
| |
 "Very Impressed.." | 2004-12-28 |
| - Reviewed By jbarbier_mc |
First off, I'm only going to comment on the HARDWARE, because everyone knows that the Sonicstage software leaves much to be desired. Moving right along, this is a great entry-level minidisc player. I wanted a HI-MD player, however the prices are very high right now. I'm going to wait for the next generation players to come out because prices should come down considerably. With having said that, Atrac, as a codec, is far superior to MP3. My ripped Atrac LP4 tracks (highest compression, thus more music on a MD) sound considerably better than 128 bit MP3. Likewise, the LP2 sounds magnificent as compared to mp3. Overall, sound quality is typical Sony quality. Very good. The menu takes a while to get used to, but works well once you get the hang of it. This is my first Minidisc player, and I'm suprised that such an old technology can be soooo good. I was considering buying an mp3 player (hard drive player,) but I remembered that years ago I really wanted a minidisc player, so I decided to research them. Minidisc media are very cheap, and can be rewritten up to a million times (as Sony claims.) The discs are very small and fit in a pocket painlessly. Using LP4 on an 80 minute disc, you can have 5 hours of music. Pair that with an additional disc in your pocket, and you can have 10 hours of music within easy reach. Be honest, do you really need THAT much music close by? The price is a lot better than MP3 too. You can find this model new and online for under 70.00 shipped. Would you rather run or bike with something 70.00 or an Ipod for 300.00? Also keep in mind Minidiscs are very durable. Again, do you *really* need to have your WHOLE music collection with you while you're excercising? Minidisc is a viable alternative to mp3 for this purpose. The small size of this unit is also nice for running. Sonicstage isn'tas bad as a lot of people make it out to be. I "burned" 5 hours of music in LP4 on a disc and it took less than 15 minutes (my mp3 files are on another computer that I'm wirelessly connected to, so your time will be much quicker.) Overall, this is a pretty basic player/recorder that will be more than enough for most needs.
In regards to recording with this unit, it is possible, and sounds good too. You will need a powered mic, however, and keep in mind that to upload back to your computer, you'll have to do it in real-time via your line-in on your soundcard. Also, keep in mind that by doing this, you lose all advantages of recording digitally as the connection through line-in is analog. But, the sound quality is still VERY good. In fact, it is very hard to tell the difference b/w the analog recording and original digital. If ALL you want to do is record, I'd reccomend getting and older model with a mic-in. |
| |
| "Accessories List is Wrong!!!" | 2004-08-08 |
| - Reviewed By speedisyourfriend |
Hi,
The mic listed as an accessory will only work with higher priced MiniDisc recorders. If you're looking for an MD recorder that you can record analog with a stereo microphone or line in, check out the Sony MZ-N10 or comparable instead. For a comprehensive comparison of all MD recorders including the all important "Which jacks does this box have?" question, check out:
http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_MZ-N10.html |
| |
| "GREAT DEVICE" | 2004-07-14 |
| - Reviewed By justin_79135 |
| I love my new MD I take it every where I have put music on my MD from every source I know of NO PROBLEMS I had 4 cd players 3 mp3 players and 1 MD player I never use anything else. Why would I? 50+ hours on one battery and I bought rechargeables so now I use one throw it into its charger and grap a charged. Here is a tip for all those complaints about sonic stage umm UPGRADE YOUR SOFTWARE!!!! The new sonic stage solves many problems and you can transfer back to pc burn time is fast with a nice PC if you have a P1 or P2 you might like burn time but my 1.8 P4 will burn a song in under 8 sec a songs about 3sec to convert to Atrac and 2-3 sec to burn.(you have the option to convert all tracks to Atrac so they are easier to transfer). And by the way I have transferred more than one track more than ten times so I have no clue what they are talking about. I still have no problems with this MD player (I didn't like the headphones so I used my Sony MDR-EX51LP Fontopia Headphones which I love) |
| |
| "This is a great deal, too bad it's on clearance and not ava." | 2004-05-23 |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| This is a good deal! Too bad it's on clearance at Best Buy, and no other stores in my area had this in stock, so go get it while it's still here! Overall, the player is really neat and a great thing to have if you don't want to carry around a lot of CD's. With this, you can put a lot of your CD's onto one mini-disc-minimizing having to always switch CD's. Also, you can download songs(MP3), erm, "illegaly" from the most popular sites (Kazaa for example). The only problem is the software: It is a little confusing, but you'll get the hang of it soon. What stinks is that the software only allows you to "check out" and "check in" songs. So, if you transfer a Beyonce song onto the player then you are "checking out" the song. But, in order to not exceed the 3 "checking out" song limit you have to "check in" the songs back to the computer. |
| |
 "Poor Reliability" | 2004-05-10 |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| I bought this thing about a year ago now. At first I really liked it, the music played well, and it never skipped or anything. After a little over 4 months of use it broke. I had to take it to the shop where it took 2 months for them to fix it. After talking to my friends and other people who had them, all I hear is things like "what a piece of crap", etc. Everyone's seems to have broken at one point or another, and even after it gets repaired in several months it breaks again! In my case it was the headphone jack, and apparently a transistor. This caused it to only work in one ear of the headphones and it skipped because of the transistor. I think the best advantage to this product over everything else in this category is the length of the battery power. One battery lasts me something like 52 hours. That's great. The software is sort of annoying, it tries to make it so you can't copy music more than three times, and you cant transfer the songs back onto your computer! But if you just keep it on your computer it no real problem. Bottom line: Don't Bother. |
| |
| "Just to add more into what the other have said" | 2004-03-22 |
| - Reviewed By kt_leohart |
Like everyone has said, this MDplayer is really great.
Durable - Extendable - Great value - Intuitive
Compare to other Flash player, it is the best to me. The colorful MiniDiscs makes your players stand out from the rest of the crowd. Also, you would love a new headset since the one that comes with it is a bit obsolete. Like one of the reviewer has said below.
Other than that, the only thing that hinder this MDplayer to obtain its 1st position is Sony anti-piracy policy. You can only check out a track 3 times. This does not happen with other brand, such as Apple iPod. The tracks checked out would have to be checked in as you cannot manually delete it. Well except delete the whole disc. A way to circumvent this is to buy a male-male audio cable (or a USB-male audio cable: Xitel MG2) and record the song from your computer output to the disc. Or you can use another software: Musicmatch Jukebox for example to transfer the songs, but it is not fully compatible and may cause your computer to crash.
The newest model of MDplayer does not have such limitation anymore. :-0) which is a good news. I would go for this player if I do not need to carry a fully loaded (try-to-stuff-me) library like the hard-drive-based player can do. It is good to listen to a specific set of songs and then move to another, this helps me feel refreshed by the songs and what else I can organize the theme by color (:-) my favorite is black : MEDITATION) -> always cool me down everytime i feel hyper. |
| |
Expedited Available
