Customer Reviews

Sony D-NE518CK ATRAC3/MP3 CD Walkman with Car Kit

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This player does what is advertised. I do not enjoy playback of MP3s at 48kbps, but I am satisfied with getting 170 songs at 132kbps at 4 min. avg. song and 700MB CD (their claim) rather than the unbelievable number of 490 per CD. The small print on the back of the package was in blue and very hard to read. Thus, beware a 300 MHz Pentium II is a minimum requirement for the Atrac3Plus compression software. I am not going to list all the other computer requirements, but would encourage you to find those out before buying, if the Atrac3Plus feature is important to you. By the way, that format will only play on the CD players that can read that format, obviously or not so obviously. You are likely going to love this player, if you need one for your car and/or home. It finds mp3 songs fairly fast (faster than my old Rio player) and continues play where you left off unless you hold down the play button. One problem I am having with my model is that the forwarding and rewinding through a track does not work as said in the manual with the mp3s on my CD-RWs, but works fine with my CDs, hmm. One other feature I would love to see to make this player even better is a carrying pouch with beltclip. While it does come with velcro adhesive for play in the car, eventually I usually manage to have the player knocked about accidentally. A carrying case would provide additional protection against damage. Hope this helps.

All you have to do to retain your settings and have the music start up where you left off when you turned off the car is to keep batteries in the CD player. Apparently the power supplied by the batteries (even though you're not using the batteries to power your CD player while your car is running) is enough to retain the settings, etc. This is probably true of any CD player, not just this particular one.

This MP3/ATRAC/CD player with car kit was what I needed to play MP3's in my car. I keep the player in the glove box and leave the "remote" outside to swap songs. It's cheaper than buying a MP3 head unit for the car.

The first (and so far, only) MP3 CD burned with Musicmatch Jukebox worked great. I have the stock stereo in my car so sound quality is "fine", as I'm not an audiophile. I usually listen to news radio any way. :-D

With a bit of volume adjustment on the CD player and the stereo, the optimum volume was achieved. And with a set of batteries in the player, the settings are saved (and even the last song played) to be easily resumed next time. People who complain about the player losing settings should just keep a set of batteries in the player itself. One pair lasted a very long time, esp. when most of the juice is delivered by the car adaptor when it's being used.

Sony COULD have made it better though... Just a few nits to pick...

1) the "switch song" beep was way too loud, and it's either all on or all off. I wish they had a way to choose 3-4 different volumes.

2) The power adaptor should include a pass-thru so I can still plug in my cellphone adaptor or something. It's not as if this little CD player would draw that much power, right?

3) The cassette adaptor should also tell the CD player to "stop" when the adaptor is no longer being played (like when the stereo was turned off or adaptor ejected) instead of having to use the remote to stop the player.

4) the cassette adaptor could have been quieter, as it does make a bit of creaking sound while in use.

However, these are minor nags when the core functionality is fine, and cheaper than buying a real MP3 head unit for your car, while maintain portability. If you need to play MP3's in your car, consider this MP3/CD player which delivers on all its promises, and comes with features such as bass boost, remote commander, and more.

Contrary to the stated in another review, this is a great MP3 player. It supports 16 - 320 kbps MP3 files and also VBR (variable bit rate) encoded MP3 files. Atrac3plus is the SONY's proprietary audio compression format and the included software is a bonus. It is not necessary to use it, unless if you wish to try the Atrac3plus compression technology (be aware that standard MP3 players cannot read Atrac3plus files).

The G-PROTECTION function works extremely well for both audio and MP3 CDs. Using the player in the car, even in off-road conditions it had never skipped a track. The battery life is surprisingly long (about 75 hours of continuous MP3 playing).

Sound quality is very good: headphones are decent and three-level bass control is provided. Operation is easy: the JOG DIAL simplifies the MP3 group/file selection; P MODE button allows shuffle tracks of the entire disc, only in the selected group or play only tracks with bookmarks. It is also possible select m3u play lists. The two-line LCD display is not large but is quite legible. The display shows the information contained in the ID3 tag for MP3 files or the CD text if available.

Certainly this player is not perfect, some minor deficiencies are pointed in other reviews, but for $80 the Sony D-NE518CK ATRAC3/MP3 CD Walkman is a incredible value.

I couldn't be more thrilled. I bought this unit after admittedly too much research and it frankly blew my mind! I fell for the concept of converting up to 490 high quality audio tracks onto one CD with the ATRAC3PLUS format and also the "all in one" value of getting the AC adapter, the DC adapter, the remote control and the software for one low price. (I really wanted to believe that the 490 songs would sound great or close to great but in truth I was a bit skeptical. Still I went for it.) I took the included software and converted about 1,600 existing MP3s (on about 10 cds) to 3 ATRAC3PLUS at the highest compression. On average, I got about 560 songs on a cd. It took about 3 hours to burn one disc which is a bit of a downside (@ 8X CD-R). However, when I put in the freshly made CD, I was in awe. It sounds great. Please know, I'm not an audiophile. But in my company issued Ford Taurus (2003), through the stock speakers, it sounds incredible. The provided remote control is awesome. It mounts really solidly onto the dash with this super firm velcro-type adhesive. There is only one negative I can discern thus far. When you turn your car off, if your DC outlet does not maintain power flow to the unit and all power is cut off, the Volume on the unit resets back to ZERO (the lowest level). Because the Volume control is really hard to get to, especially with the remote control plug right next to it, this is a major inconvenience (again, only if your car cuts off all juice to the unit while your car is turned off - mine keeps the current flowing thankfully.) But if it didn't, every time I'd start up the car, I'd have to reach down and find the volume button and hold it - this, basicallly, would be a pain. Let's review, though - the unit rules and presents great value and sound quality.

The reason I bought this was for the ability to play my mp3s while driving my car and didnt want to spend money on a new stereo for the car. Being a sound buff that I am, I was quite pleased with the quality of my mp3s (usually min bitrate of 160). It connects within a minute via the car kit. I havent used the ATRAC mp3 software that came with the product because I dont want any funky junk software on my computer when I already have Nero and Roxio to do all my burning. So I burned all my mp3s to CD-R's and the CD player read them all without a problem. The only complaints I have were the play and forward button. All the major CD controls are on one button so you have to hit it just right to play or fast forward and it can be disconcerting when it doesnt do what you want while your trying to drive. But it also came with a rotary commander which I didnt use cause its just more wires laying out there by my shifter. Overall for the price of $79.99 and the sound quality and the ability to finally play all my mp3s on CD, you can't beat it; plus its quite thin and has a black face so its hard to spot if you wanna tuck it somewhere while your cruising

This player has many nice features and I highly recommend it as long as you don't need to be able to play CDs with more than 400 MP3 files. There are other MP3 players that support much larger numbers of files such as the Panasonic SL-MP80 which supports 999 files. If you use SONY's proprietary ATRAC3 format for the files the limit magically increases from 400 to 999. I'm not sure whether there is a technical reason, or it is intended as an 'incentive' to use their proprietary format, or an arbitrary decision based on what they thought was a reasonable limit given the differences in compression rates of MP3 vs. ATRAC3. I expect that the 400 file limit isn't a problem in most cases, but it is for at least one set of MP3 recordings I have.

The player comes with auto adapters include what the call the rotary commander which allows you to control the CD player without needing to touch the player itself. Mounting the rotary commander where the driver can easily access reduces the distraction factor when wanting to pause or switch between files or folders.

Pros:
-Plays Mp3 Files
-High Quality Sound Output
-Comes with everything you need for automotive playing
-G Protection
-Jog Dial
-Wrist Band Compatible
-Long Battery Life
-Main Play Modes Available
-Slim
-Durable
-Dial is easy to read

Cons.
-Remote has no volume control
-Takes a while to load mp3 cds
-Jog Dial can become a pain
a. Mine is hard to push in (which acts as an "enter" action) in certain areas of the wheel.
b. There is no hold command on the jog dial, and tracks cannot be changed when it is activated (feel free to email me with questions about this as it is a complicated subject). This causes problems when it is activated accidentally.
-Play/stop/track change button hard to navigate in the dark as it is one button.
-Adjusting the play modes takes some getting used too

This review has been stricly pro con with little of my oppinion or specific experience in any areas of this cd players performance. The above mentioned are simply the most outstanding pros/cons. I would be happy to answer any questions you have about this player via email. My address is Litdboy@yahoo.com.

I got it in 1st week of Jan' 04, especially for my car. It's working great with good sound, and no issues, including skip, etc. since last few weeks. Car remote is really very handy, and works as expected. After putting the batteries in it, it remembers the songs in your car, and starts exactly at the point, where you left it.

I'm really happy with this CD player. It muddles through skips VERY well and most cds that are unplayable in all other cd players play flawlessly in this one. It produces great sound and the car kit that came with it works better than all others I've found. Some people complain about the ATRAC thing . . . I just don't bother and listen to a CD of mp3's instead and I have never had a problem getting them to play. I've had other sony's that have died quickly, but this one has been very resillent. I bought this one to replace my rio cd player (I had a good one, followed by one that didnt work after the first two months and was 150 dollars more). SPEAKING OF PRICE . . . this cd player is amazingly well priced and does plenty of things. I'm really very pleased that I picked this one.