Sony D-NE520 MP3 / ATRAC CD Walkman (Black)

by Sony

Product Details

• Item Weight: 5.9 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0007PO3H4
• Item model number: DNE520
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

With the Sony DNE-520 MP3/ATRAC CD Walkman Portable Compact Disc Player (Black), Sony extends the Walkman's leading reputation by offering several new features that allow you to have an even more user-friendly experience than ever while listening to your favorite CDs.

A 5-line negative/positive backlit LCD allows you to select the display properties of the LCD, providing a unique way to view track, title, album and artist information of ATRAC or MP3 CDs you're playing. Sony has also provided a highly intuitive file navigation system -- the new Vertical Jog Lever Control -- and a new digital amplifier that is much smaller, uses less energy to produce the same signal, and is 80 percent more efficient than traditional analog amplifiers. And to top it off, Sony's thrown in a new stylish custom carrying case and clip remote that can be clipped onto your bag or belt and fits naturally into your hand, allowing you quick and easy access to essential playback operations.

The player's Skip-Free G-Protection technology provides quick recovery from both horizontal and vertical shocks, so hitting those unexpected pot holes or making sudden stops won't ever interfere with your listening while you're on the go. Playback options include 18 playback modes and a bookmark function that offers a wide array of listening choices, including hearing one track repeatedly, hearing a selection of tracks in a desired order, or listening to tracks randomly.

Compatible with Sony's ATRAC3plus technology, the Sony DNE-520 Walkman is loaded and ready to play the rewritable CDs of albums and tracks you download and burn from Sony's Connect Music Store. The player also comes bundled with Sony's SonicStage CD Simple Burner software. Compatible with most CD burners, this application transfers songs from CDs or MP3 music files from your PC's hard drive and burns them to recordable CDs using ATRAC3plus compression.

ATRAC3plus is Sony's high-quality audio-compression technology that reduces the size of digital audio files while preserving much of a track's original sound quality (similar in concept to MP3 or Dolby Digital sound formats). With ATRAC3plus, music can be burned and compressed at 132, 105, 66, 64, or even 48 kbps (kilobits per second), letting you select the right balance between fidelity and storage space, and allowing you to burn up to 490 songs to a disc at 48 kbps.

Other features include Sony's Digital Mega Bass Sound, which produces rich, deep, bass tones with extremely low harmonic distortion; a five-direction control key, which means that you control five individual functions from a single button; a three-line LCD that provides fast and easy identification of track, title, album and artist information along the location of specific songs; and an automatic shut-off feature that powers the player down when it's not in use, helping to further conserve battery power.

About Sony Connect Music Store and ATRAC3plus
Sony's Connect Music Store (http://musicstore.connect.com) offers one of the most extensive music collections online. Customers can choose single tracks or entire albums from independent and major-label artists for purchase and download. Sony's proprietary ATRAC3plus is an advanced audio compression and Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology offering multiple bit rates, allowing you to create music compilations tailored to your listening preference with the ability to get up to 490 songs on one CD-R/RW disc at 48 kbps. Songs downloaded and burned onto CD-R/RW media using ATRAC3plus technology can be played on any device that supports ATRAC3plus.

What's in the Box
Sony DNE-520 MP3/ATRAC CD Walkman Portable Compact Disc Player (Black), MDR-027LP Stereo Headphones, SonicStage Software on CD-ROM, and clip style remote control.

Product Description

Take over your CD player with finer controls and sharper sound with the D-NE520 ATRAC CD Walkman(R) Portable CD Player. It supports multiple CD formats, multiple playback modes and can be controlled remotely. The digital amplifier and Parametric Equalizer give you sharp, clear sound while you travel. Skip-Free G-Protection(TM) Digital amplifier Clip remote Off Timer and Auto Rank Includes SonicStage software

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent design, excellent sound, August 10, 2005

By 

Mister P - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony D-NE520 MP3 / ATRAC CD Walkman (Black) (Electronics)

In reference to the below feedback, the user either had a bad unit or did not know how to use the player (reading the manual before using is a must). I previously used the SoulPlayer portable mp3 player and was 100 percent satisfied with it. After over 3 years of daily use it bit the dust. I was forced to look for another brand as SoulPlayer no longer manufactured a disc type MP3 player. I decided on the Sony, mainly by name recognition. I am glad I did. Sound quality is excellent with many user defined EQ settings. The display is a little small but does show everything you would need to know: Album name, Artist name, song title, etc. You can flip through the different setting to show the bit rate of the MP3, time left, etc. Actually, there are more settings then most people would use but for my money, more is better than less! Oh, and it only uses 1 AA battery which seems to last forever. Use rechargeables and forget it. Highly recommended for people looking for a disc type MP3 player.

4.0 out of 5 stars Sound is great!, January 27, 2008

By 

R. D. Hoag (Carmel by the Sea, Ca United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sony D-NE520 MP3 / ATRAC CD Walkman (Black) (Electronics)

I disagree with the earlier comments. I bought this for my wife last year and I think the sound is great, it compares favorably with other units I have tried out that were more expensive then this one.
If I were to fault anything it would be the very small controls on the unit, or on the headphone control cord, but once you get used to using them they are good.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Buyer Beware, July 27, 2006

By 

Cyrus B. Hall (Ewa Beach, HI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sony D-NE520 MP3 / ATRAC CD Walkman (Black) (Electronics)

Sony invented walkman. So this expensive walkman ought to be great, right? Wrong. The people who have written negative reviews got it right. Whoever thought it had great sound, well, I might suggest ...

I thought that perhaps the negative reviews were just a couple of people who, for whatever reason, don't like the Sony brand. Such biased criticism, unfortunately, is quite common. So I ignored their negative advice and bought it. After all, over the years I have been happy with my various Walkman products. Further I wanted something that would play a compressed format that had considerably higher quality than I can get with MP3s. After trying Atrac3plus at high bit rates on my PC, I decided that this was a good solution for my jaded ears.

I produced five Atrac CD's of classical music and slipped the first one into the Walkman. To save power, the player's motor only kicks in whenever it needs to refill a buffer. It then shuts the motor off. The motor noise, however, is as loud as the music at the maximum safe dB level! Very annoying. The problem doesn't go away when playing CDs either, but since the motor is almost always on, you can hear it all the time and must "tune your brain" in order to ignor the noise.

I thought it might just be that the motor needed "breaking in." No such luck. It has just gotten worse over the last two months. I then called Sony. After several somewhat inane "non-starters," they admitted they had a problem with a lot of these units, and to send it, along with the original sales slip, to Sony for repair or referbishment at their option. Unfortunately, even though I had registered the product with their web site, this did not seem to be enough to get Sony to act. They wanted the original sales slip, which, of course, I have not been able to find.

A second problem that Sony needs to resolve is the boot time. It takes about 30 seconds for the player to decide if the disk is a CD, and MP3, or an Atrac and load its album/track database. You wait and wait before the music can begin. Then your patients is rewarded with even more motor scrapings and screechings.

At this price, I can buy a very good universal DVD player. So why did Sony allow this noisy thing to come onto the marketplace? I don't know. I'm just thankful I didn't make more Atrac CDs before I tested it out. At least now I only have to find a good solution and reproduce five disks at this point. The replacement, however, will not be Sony.

If anyone doesn't mind the noise, I've got one for sale. Cheap.