Customer Reviews

Sony D-NE510 ATRAC3/MP3 CD Walkman

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I normally don't review electronics, but so many people before me have knocked this great player down and I have to correct the myths. First of all, this is NOT a MP3 player. It's a CD player that plays MP3 cd's that you burn yourself. It also plays ATRAC and ATRAC+ cd's which is Sony's version of MP3 that compresses files to 1/2 the size of MP3's and retains the quality. Most of these people before this review are not well versed in MP3/CD players as evidenced by the one that thinks this is an simply a MP3 player and doesn't know how to hook it up to "get music" (why do these people bother posting and skewing the reviews is beyond my imagination). I'm reasoning that most of these people never bother to read directions and simply jump to a negative conclusion when they can't figure something out. Let's face it, technology today is complicated and learning how to read is the first step so READ THE INSTRUCTIONS IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!!

This is a great cd player for the money. The sound is loud and crisp (when you use the first bass setting) and I'm really picky about bass. However, buy a good pair of headphones. Sony "mega-bass" is the best. As with all players, the ear-wear is always poor quality and the player WILL sound poor no matter what. The software is so completely fool-proof that the people complaining about it probably aren't running a system that's up to date and don't understand the problems with Windows 98 or never defragmented their system. It's simple to use and runs EXACTLY like the software that came with the Intel MP3 player from a few years back. I used the ATRAC+ conversion at 64 kbps (equivalent to 128 kbps for MP3) and was able to get over 300 songs (26 cd's) at an average of 4-5 minutes each. If I used ATRAC (not the + one), I'd probably get 50 less. The sound was not compromised at all. I WAS SHOCKED! Keep in mind I have a $20 pair of headphones and I haven't listened to it in my car or home stereo (or with the cheap headphones that came with). The file compressions to ATRAC+ did take a while but only a fraction longer than regular MP3 converting. There is one problem though, when you already have a MP3 file to convert to ATRAC or ATRAC+, the software doesn't allow you to cancel and you need to control+alt+delete to abort if you change your mind. SONY should patch this problem and I intend on letting them know about it on their support page (which is very good by the way!).

The buttons are easy to use and I have no complaints except for the fact that you can't shuffle play the first track in each file you create on the CD. The player will only randomly select so you may get up to 2 tracks from the same file played after each other (a very minor issue and I never had more than 2 songs from the same file play together). The instruction manual is a little vague in some spots but I was able to easily figure things out by simply play around with it.

I wanted a player to bring to work that had all my favorites songs on one disc. I was able to achieve this with ATRAC+ technology. This way I can bring double the amount of music with me. I cannot recommend this player enough!! I usually buy small electronics made by Phillips because I've had good luck with them. This is not the first Sony cd player I own. I've not been happy with other Sony items I've bought (5 disc cd player, portable cd player a few years back and an amplifier) so I hesitated when buying. I have a SONY Vaio PC and have had no trouble with it. I also like my Sony Cybershot camera so I thought I'd give them another try. I'm glad I did!

You cannot make this thing skip without breaking it, and that's not an easy feat either. It's a tough, skip-free, stylish, great sounding, battery efficient, feature-packed and, to top it off, AFFORDABLE CD player.

Just imagine, having 450 of your favorite songs, 25 to 30 of your favorite albums, all on a single CD, and have the ability to organize them by album, play them in random order, play the ones you chose to bookmark, pause, fast forward, or rewind in mid-song (rare in non-Sony Mp3 CD players), and be using next to no batteries as you do so. Atrac 3 is a must have, it's so nice to be able to put your favorite books, nearly 25 hours of stand-up comedy, or just all your favorite music, on 1 CD, and have it sound as good as high bitrate Mp3s. If you don't get this model, get the $99 model with the 3-line display. Though really, so long as you organize your tracks by folder, 2-line is plenty.

I bought this for a vacation to Orlando, a 15 hour ride. After using it the entire trip there, entire trip back, 30 hours, I still have all 4 bars left on the battery meter, it's amazing. This is one of the best purchases I've -ever- made, of any kind, and the only one I felt deserving enough of a positive online review.

I recently bought this Sony D-NE510 player to replace an older Panasonic SL-SX460 that I've had for a number of years, and I've not been disappointed by my purchase. This player has a slew of really awesome features that make it worthwhile, especially its support for ATRAC3+.

The sound quality of the player is fairly good, although not quite as clear as my old Panasonic (the difference is quite negligible). The first bass boost option is okay, but the second option distorts the sound too much. No bass boost at all sounds a little thin though. The headphones that come with the player are pretty much junk, so I've been using a pair of Sony earphones that I bought a while back, and the quality is much better.

MP3 navigation is extremely easy with the jog-dial, especially if you organize songs into folders. When I tried to play an MP3 disc without folders, it took me forever to find the songs that I wanted, but now that I have everything organized into folders for each album, I can almost instantaneously find the songs that I want to hear. There is a slightly annoying pause between each song, maybe about 1-2 seconds but enough to break the flow of a mix CD, although for regular CDs with individual songs, this is less of an issue.

I used the bundled software to compress 28 albums worth of songs onto a CD in ATRAC3plus format at 64 kps, and now carry around 50+ albums on just two discs. Each disc took me about 2 hours to make, without a hitch, although I did not attempt to use the MP3 conversion feature. I figured it would be useless to convert from one compression format to another...and burning an MP3 disc is faster than converting it to ATRAC anyway.

ATRAC quality is much clearer than MP3 at 64 kps or even 96 kps and is certainly very listenable, but isn't quite on-par with CD quality. When you turn up the volume and listen closely, you can hear the limitations of the lower bitrate. However, I usually listen to music at low and "regular" volumes, so the quality isn't that big of an issue with me (it's easier on my hearing too). Besides, I figured that being able to carry around that many songs (approximately 350) on a CD makes up for the slight decrease in sound quality.

The player also has incredible battery life-Sony claims 80 hours with ATRAC discs, and 50 hours with regular CDs when using alkaline batteries. I have been using the unit with Rayovac rechargeable NiMH batteries (more environmentally friendly) and these give me about 45 hours of play time (MP3 CD) per charge, which is usually enough for 3-4 weeks of regular use for me. And I used to think that the 12 hour rechargeables for my Panasonic were long-lasting!

The D-NE510 is also fairly stylish. It's rather large but has an attractive gray exterior and clean design. The plastic shell is cheap and fragile feeling, but seems durable enough. I've actually dropped the CD player from my desk a number of times (onto hardwood floor) and it was not yet skipped or had any problems.

Overall, Sony has made a wonderful product. Some would probably complain that the ATRAC software has problems but keep in mind that even if you don't use this feature, the player is still a great deal. The Sony reliability, the excellent MP3 support, the jog dial and the incredible battery life make for a pleasurable and convenient music listening experience. True, you can buy a cheaper MP3 CD player, but if you consider long term reliability and battery costs, then the Sony D-NE510 is really a wonderful buy.

addition on December 04
going on pretty smooth and trouble free .. no problem + very long battery life..

review written on May 11
i bought this mp3 player after searching through a large number of mp3 players ...ranging from panasonic and rca to iriver etc... there are some important things that i came to know about the product only after buying and listening to it...i am listing some pros and cons for this awesome product by sony

PROS
1. sound quality very good
2. great bass
3. intelligent search for folders and within folders using the jog dial ....its one of the features that is missing in some models of panasonic and others .... u can search for folders and songs without playing them ...and once u find them, u can either play or skip them (with a different song still playing) ...
4. good battery life
5. very light weight headphones
6. resumes from the very next second of the song at which u have paused / stopped completely ...
7. player slim and light weight

CONS
1. takes longer time to load mp3s than panasonic ...i have tried both with same battries and with the same cd, compared to the panasonic sl-mp-70 and found sony taking longer time to load ...not only for 1 cd but for all the cds that i have
2. wire length too short for the headphones ...its about 1 metre only.
2. headphones supplied are the ones that come for $6 (from Sony at Walmart) .....if u use some other good noise cancellation headphones u can easily notice the difference ..but the sound is alright with this too ...
3. wires for the headphone separate in front of you (for your ears). This is irrittating at work.....
4. u have to compromise on the sound quality for compressing more songs on a single cd with altrac technology(quilte obvious).
5. play/pause, stop, forward, rewind; all are on a single button. pressing the wrong one accidentally is quite frequent even after long use.
6. i got a carrying bag free with these...but the design of that is is too compact and u can't increase/decrease the volume easily because the headphones get into the set from another slit provided in the bag ..and the volume control remain inside the bag ...so if u want to change the volume u have to detach the headphone, take the player out, change the vol, place it back and attach the headphones ...but its not a problem if u do not use the carrying bag

overall the sound quality is very good and that is why i gave it a 5 star ... i have listened to RCA, PANASONIC, DURABRAND, and IRIVIER of the same price range ...but this sounds the best among those...lets see how long it goes trouble free..

This CD Walkman plays audio CDs, and MP3 CDs just fine. The biggest complaint I have about it is that the controls are designed such that when you intend to hit play, you can accidently hit next track. On the whole it has good sound reproduction and is fairly easy to use.

I almost didn't buy this unit because I read another review which stated "Sony's ATRAC3 CD players ... require the user to convert MP3s to their proprietary ATRAC3 format". I am glad to report that this unit DOES PLAY MP3 with NO CONVERSION REQUIRED. This is the second MP3/CD player I have tried. I find it to be much better that the Audiophase Sports unit that I returned. I am also happy to find out that "ID-3 tagging" actually displays/scrolls the directory/file names from my CD created by Musicmatch on my PC.

I tried out a few different cd/mp3 players and didn't find any one that was completely satisfactory. However this one was better than the RCA RP2450 and Panasonic MP70 I tried in terms of sound. However, in order to get that sound, I had to get just the right headphones. The ones that came with it, like many players, are worthless. Sometimes the bass boosting can sound distorted, but the headphones I bought have more than enough bass for my liking. The MP3 capabilities are good, and it doesn't take too long for it to load an MP3 disc up.

The battery life is also good, I have had it for a few weeks and haven't had to change the batteries.

It's not the best one out there, but for what I want, which is to occassionally listen to it on the bus or while reading on the bed, it is more than sufficient.

I was looking for a cheap CD player with good quality, and this is it. I can store almost 25 HOURS of music on one CD, or up to 490 songs. It is AWESOME!!! I am in the school band, so I travel a lot, and I bring my CD player and a lot of CD's with me on the bus.. It can be a hassle changing all of my CD's all of the time, but not with the Atrac 3 plus. I put 65 of my favorite songs on one CD, and it fits FIVE HOURS of music, more than an MP3 CD can fit. The quality of music is also great. The headphones it came with are very good, but not excellent. (What do you expect?). The program it came with to put all of the songs on one CD is very simple to use, you just select which songs you want to put on the CD, and it burns them. When I burned my CD, which had 5 hours of music on it, it was done in ten minutes. This CD player also looks good and is rather small. Believe me: looks ARE important. You don't want to walk around with some ugly CD player, do ya? It is also small and lightweight, and very portable. Another cool feature is, when you are listening to a CD, you can see through the CD player in a small, clear space. For about 30 seconds, you see the CD spinning around, but then it stops spinning. I think that it takes all of the data it needs off the CD and plays it from a type of hard drive. This prevents skipping (There is none at all!). Another cool thing: I love to download music on Kazaa. If you do too, then you know that sometimes the songs get cut off when you put them on the normal CD's. For example, I downloaded Sweet Emotion by Aerosmith, and it got cut off 30 seconds into the song. But when I put it on my Atrac CD player, it played the entire song! This made me very happy. It did this with every other song I had downloaded and had gotten cut off. This is VERy COOL!!!This CD player is Well worth your money, and I reccommend it to anyone who is looking for a good, quality CD player for cheap. AWESOME!!!

OVERALL SCORE:
Quality of Sound: 9

Ease of Use: 9.5
Program Ease of Use: 9.7
Looks: 9.4

This Sony CD player is the first MP3 CD player I have ever owned, and it has suited me very well for the last six weeks.

PROS
- AWESOME battery life - 60-70 hours
- NO Skipping
- Jog Dial is excellent when it works
- Good sound quality
- Display shows useful information, you can edit this info in Musicmatch
- Burning just MP3s is extremely simple

CONS
- Feels sort of flimsy
- No backlight on display
- My jog dial worked well for a few weeks, but it started malfunctioning to the point of uselessness, and sometimes even became a hindrance when using the normal track selecting buttons. This was my biggest problem
- Fairly unattractive design
- You can't fast forward/rewind quickly through a track
- ATRAC burning software is terribly designed and slow, and you lose some sound quality with that compression

Because of the loss of sound quality and overall bad design of the burning suite, I only burned MP3 CDs, which still hold 150+ songs and don't lose sound quality. It was not a problem to me to carry around a few CDs, which could hold my whole collection; however, it would probably be an annoyance to those with larger amounts of songs. To people who have over 1000 songs that they would like to carry around with them, I would suggest that they invest in a MP3 player. To everyone else, I reccomend this very good bargain CD player.

In response to another review, I used an old MP3 CD from my other MP3 CD player and it worked. I created that CD with Roxio and didn't need to change the files using the software that came with this product.

So far I have had no trouble with it and it has much better skip protection then my old MP3 player. Overall I would say it gives you all you need in an MP3/CD player.