Sony D-NF400 Psyc ATRAC Portable CD Player with Digital Tuner (AM / FM / TV / Weather)

by Sony

Product Details

Data Sheet [373kb PDF]

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Product Manual [720kb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0001M2FVE
• Item model number: DNF400PSGRY
• Batteries: 2 AA batteries required.
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #102,337 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Spin your commercial CDs, your homemade music CDs of almost any stripe, or listen to the radio, TV, or weather-band transmissions with Sony's versatile, full-circle D-NF400 Psyc-styled Walkman portable CD player. The snazzy player includes SonicStage software, which lets you take full advantage of ATRAC3plus (Sony's proprietary music-compression technology) when making custom MP3 CDs on your computer. Playback options include 32-track programming, repeat (track, disc, or program), random play, and--thanks to Sony's great work in DSP efficiency--more than 85 hours of ATRAC3plus CD or up to 50 hours of audio CD playback from 2 AA batteries (not included).

The D-NF400 Psyc offers a 2-line dot-matrix display, full ID3 tag recognition, and bookmark playback (which lets you program your favorite songs from multiple CDs and play them back at the touch of a button). CD Text support displays artist and title information with compatible commercial audio CDs.

ATRAC3plus is a 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 (you'll get around 490 songs per disc at 48 kbps).

Compatible with ID3 tagging and most CD burners, SonicStage CD Simple Burner software transfers songs from CDs or MP3 music files from your PC's hard drive and burns them to recordable CDs using ATRAC3plus compression.

The D-NF400 Psyc offers a whopping 51 station presets, which works out to 30 FM, 10 AM, 4 WB, and 7 TV stations so you're never far from your favorite channels. You can hook the player up with your home system through an optional analog stereo "Y" interconnect.

Skip-Free G-Protection technology boosts the laser pickup's shock protection to minimize read errors that would otherwise interrupt your music, providing quick recovery from both horizontal and vertical shocks. The D-NF400's heat-resistant lid helps protect the player against high-temperature build up, especially when you're using it outdoors or in a vehicle.

Digital Mega Bass Sound boosts your music's low end without high clarity and low distortion, and there's also a built-in equalizer with 3 preset curves and 1 customizable setting. Sony's automatic volume limiter system (AVLS) conserves batteries--and guards your hearing--by capping your listening level at either of two settings. The player works with an optional AC/DC 4.5V power adapter (AC-E45HG or -E45A).

What's in the Box
CD player, MDR-027LP stereo headphones, CD-ROM (SonicStage software), a user's manual, and warranty information.

Product Description

SONY D-NF400 -- Whether you're commuting, working at a desk, or working out at the gym, the D-NF400 PSYC series CD Walkman(R) Portable CD Player will keep you entertained and informed right up to the moment. 2-Line Dot Matrix Display Supports ID3 Tagging and CD Text Customizable Equalizer Up To 80 Hours Continuous Playback with 2 AA Batteries (Not Included) for ATRAC3plus Playback -- Up To 50 Hours CD Audio Playback Off Timer Auto Shut Off Feature to Conserve Battery Life Skip-Free G-Protection(TM) Technology CD-R/RW Playback 18 Playback Modes Auto Ranking Playback Function Bookmark Playback Function for Easy Programming Digital Mega Bass(R) Sound System Digital Volume Control Heat Resistant Lid 2 Position Automatic Volume Limiter System Color - Gray Area

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great for Audio Books, October 19, 2004

By 

Derek Hofmann "traal" (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sony D-NF400 Psyc ATRAC Portable CD Player with Digital Tuner (AM / FM / TV / Weather) (Electronics)

I needed an mp3 player for listening to an mp3 CD made from an audio book. Therefore, the player had to be able to resume from the middle of an mp3 track, and it had to be able to fast-forward and rewind within a track. It also needed a built-in radio so I could listen to it while I'm at work.

After some research, I settled on this one. It had everything I was looking for, and it also is very frugal on batteries. Sony claims "more than 85 hours" of playback on two AA's. It caches some of the mp3 data to memory and only spins up the disc when the cache runs dry. So the designers definitely thought through a few things. [Edit: I've now had this for at least a month, using it for about an hour a day five days a week, and my first set of batteries is still only half depleted.]

One feature I wasn't expecting was the ability to play m3u play lists (if you put it into a special play mode--read the manual to figure out how). Unfortunately, as I learned through trial and error, the player only supports two playlists per mp3 CD. My best guess is that this is to try to make mp3's look less attractive than Sony's proprietary ATRAC format, which this player also supports. But anyway, the player also supports playing individual folders as "groups" and you can always use the hack of numbering the tracks as the player by default plays tracks in alphabetical order. And since the player reads ID3 tags, you don't have to worry about the number in the filename showing up on the display.

Another minor issue is that if you pause an mp3, the player will use that time to load more mp3 data from the disc, but during that time (about 2 seconds), the controls will be unresponsive. So you can't pause and then immediately resume an mp3--you have to pause, wait 2 seconds, then resume. (I notice this because I frequently pause my Pimsleur language CD to give me time to formulate the answer to a question.)

For anyone researching this player, the D-NE300 player is pretty much the same as this one, but without the built-in tuner.

While the D-NF400 isn't perfect, it seems to be the best player out there for my needs, at a reasonable price.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great player but few irritating problems, November 16, 2004

By 

Navin "always want new stuff" (Hartford, CT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony D-NF400 Psyc ATRAC Portable CD Player with Digital Tuner (AM / FM / TV / Weather) (Electronics)

I got this player just yesterday (Nov 15th, 2004) after checking one that a friend had. I wanted one with a tuner and there were very few in the market. I trusted SONY, so brought this model.
It is a great player and does what all other reviewers before me have written.
But my first problem is with the so called CDCASE4 model CD Player Case that is supposedly designed for D-NF400. Even though it is designed for this model, the player fits with great great difficulty. And after it fits in, it has no opening for you to use the CD Player control buttons, but an opening for the LCD display, now what good is that !! This model does not come with a remote, so they should have thought about that. Do they expect someone to load the CD and just keep listening like a radio and not be able to forward thru the CD.

Second is a wierd problem. After looking at the player for some time, I noticed that the text display in the LCD was not horizontal. It was tilted a bit downwards at the right end of the sentence !! It bugged me so much that I decided to look at my friends model, to make sure mine was not a defective piece.
And lo behold, in his piece the text that was shown was tilted down from the left (or beginning of the line) end of the sentence.
I am wondering how no one ever reported this. My friend brought the player a month before me, so surely they couldn't be from the same lot to have the same problem. The player works fine, but it just bugs me that I shelled down the price for a brand new player and what I got was not upto Sony's brand name.

I am not sure if I return it to Amazon and get another piece, it will not have the same problem. I could not find any user groups for this player to find out if others have found this problem.

The picture of the player on both Amazon's site and Sony's site is not the exact way the player looks. The picture has a little pearl shaped white button below the LCD display which controls the Radio and Radio bands. But in the piece I got, it is not a pearl shaped button, but rather a 3 cm long horizontal button.

Finally, I got confused between two models with the same model number. Only difference was that one was Psyc and other was not. The Psyc one was $7 more. From the picture it looked to me like the Psyc model had a larger LCD display and I thought the green background of the LCD should be easier to view than the blue background that comes with the non-Psyc model.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A lot of functionality in a neat package!, November 12, 2004

By 

Michael C. Chan (Midtown Manhattan, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sony D-NF400 Psyc ATRAC Portable CD Player with Digital Tuner (AM / FM / TV / Weather) (Electronics)

Here we are, in this progressive era of the iPod. Those little white pillboxes that keep the audiophiles and the fashionistas happy. Technology that has advanced the most important underlying requirements to designing a portable music player: "Design" and "Features". We all want it to work great and look pretty at the same time, but what about the cost?

If you can't part with the money just yet for a new iPod, or you are like me, wary of having to interface with your computer for listening to all your music, the Sony Psyc D-NF400 Portable CD player might be the best alternative. There are so many features that come with this Discman! The basics are what you would expect; it plays all my discs, including CD-R/RW & MP3s, it has AM/FM radio that has better than fair reception, and it has a very good anti-skipping "G-Protection" system that doesn't drain the 2 AA batteries. The additional features are really useful as well, you can access audio from local TV at the push of a button, and get the local weather band as well. For the occasional CDs with ID3 tags, the Discman will recognize the artist and name of the track and display it. The most important thing is that the Discman is reliable. It never has noticeably skipped, interestingly I found that it plays most of my scratched CDs clearly when other home stereo equipment did not (maybe it's a new CD player lens thing...), it can run on the same fresh batteries for an astonishingly long 85 hours.

One of the better add-ons is the Atrac3plus file playback feature. When I first bought this CD Discman home, I really wasn't interested in the enclosed software regarding Sony's file compression technology. However, this tool provides this Discman package with a measured amount of what the iPod boasts, namely substantial music file storage. The D-NF400 is built to work seamlessly with this technology. I think that this tool would be the best for the listener who wants to be able to enjoy their original CD pressings and their downloaded music files, without having to go through the tedious task of putting their entire CD collection on their computer.

Finally, the "Design" aspects. The unit is just a few centimeters larger in diameter than your CDs. It is not bulky at all, in fact I would consider the smooth exterior to be streamlined. It has a minimum amount of buttons, which makes it look clean, but may give you a little grief in figuring out how to work the menus for sound quality and such. It fits in my coat pocket snugly and has a secure release button that will prevent the Discman from opening accidentally. The only design flaw is the ugly hairband-looking headphones it comes with, other than that the D-NF400 is comprehensively modern in form and function.