Sony MZ-N505 Net MD Walkman Player/Recorder (Gold)

by Sony

Product Details

Product Manual [1.36mb PDF]

• Item Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000065CE1
• Item model number: MZ-N505
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (111 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #23 in Electronics > Portable Audio & Video > Minidisc Players
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 30, 2002

Product Description

Color: Gold

Amazon.com Product Description

Sony's MZ-N505 high-speed Net MD Walkman player/recorder records MP3s or audio CDs directly to minidiscs at up to 32x speed using a USB connection. Now, affordable minidisc media can store more than five hours of music per standard 80-minute minidisc. A single AA battery provides up to 56 hours of playback (in LP4 mode), and the player's easy-skip group/folder function lets you navigate minidiscs with ease.

In addition, this recorder supports multiple Internet audio formats, including MP3 and WMA, and enables ATRAC3 playback. ATRAC (Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding) is the data-compression scheme developed for minidisc, and ATRAC3--the format used by Sony's Memory Stick--offers even greater compression while maintaining near-CD quality. The Net MD Simple Burner QuickRip CD-dubbing application facilitates fast transfer of CDs to minidisc without the need to store files on a hard drive as an interim step. Simply launch the application and select the tracks you want to transfer to the player. (Actual transfer speed depends on your PC.)

The player records in standard mode for the richest sound quality or two different long-play modes for the most effective use of space. The bundled OpenMG Jukebox management software supports secure music downloads (including tracks from pressplay.com), organizes playlists, and titles tracks. As with all minidisc products, this Net MD player records from various sources and offers flexible audio editing tools. Minidisc media is affordable, durable, and re-recordable up to a million times without degradation.

Sony's ultra skip-free G-Protection technology reduces or eliminates skipping for active users who want uninterrupted music. The package includes OpenMG Jukebox software, QuickRip CD-dubbing application, one blank 80-minute minidisc, headphones, and a USB connecting cable. Net MD Walkman players are compatible with Microsoft Windows 98 SE, 2000, Me, and XP operating systems.

Product Description

ThereM-^Rs not much more you could ask for with this high-speed Net MDM-^Y player from Sony. Besides looking good, it can dub MP3s or CDs at up to 32x when recording in LP4 mode. With the G-ProtectionM-^Y anti-shock system you'll never hear a skip, and the Digital Mega Bass« provides deep bass. Plus, the power consumption technology allows for a single M-^SAAM-^T battery to last for up to 56 hours of continuous playback! Now you can listen to your own mixes anywhere while doing just about anything.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Small, durable, light and long-lasting., July 17, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Sony MZ-N505S Net MD Walkman Player/Recorder (Silver) (Electronics)

The unit actually does run 50 or 60 hours on a measly AA battery. Using a NIMH battery, it runs longer. Taking the battery out of the unit makes the unit feel almost weightless. Unit is smaller than a standard man's wallet. Place it into a ziplock bag for protection. Software has complicated interface but it is not insurmountable; there is a learning curve; it could have been optimized better for friendliness. Biggest problem is when file transfer lock ups occur due to incompatible bandwidths of source media, but such error may not be immediately recognized because the software does not throw an error message. MP3 conversion is not difficult. CD conversion is not difficult but eats up disc space on host computer; solve this by finding "storage" files and deleting them. Using a third party music conversion program may be useful to generate lots and lots of WAVs repetitively if that is what you want to do. Sound is excellent in full stereo recording mode; it is acceptable in LP4 compression mode; compatible with MP3. Holds about 1.5 CDs per minidisc at full stereo mode, and about 5 to 6 CDs at LP4 mode. Unit does not skip with lots of jostling around. Can't figure out how to record in the usual manner because all my hardware is non-optical. Better than MP3 in my opinion because you can pop the data disc OUT. This unit/system is not well suited to the technologically challenged; proper use of it is demanding. Can't believe its this [price]; must be threat of MP3 players. USB in, optical ins and outs, headphone, pseudo-holographic colored display, weird plug in thingey next to headphone jack, more supporting documentation than I've seen in a long while. Turns your notebook computer into a recording studio. Don't know how they crammed this much technology into something this small. Much much sexier and more intriguing than MP3ers.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Value, software needs revision, August 27, 2002

By 

"jlawrence9" (Rocklin, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony MZ-N505 Net MD Walkman Player/Recorder (Gold) (Electronics)

Pros:
1) Amazing battery life
2) Great sound in SP, LP2 modes
3) Good sound (and 5h20m recording) in LP4 mode
4) Will not skip.
5) For fast CD to MD ripping via USB, Simple Burner software is quick and easy.
6) Flexible editing features (change track order, erase tracks, rename, combine, and delete tracks.)
7) very small and lightweight
8) Inexpensive, re-recordable media

Cons:
1) OpenMG software is restrictive (check-in, check-out) and slow. It has to convert all file types (wma, mp3, etc.) to ATRAC, and leaves copies of these converted files on your computer.
2) No upload capability. A bummer for live music and field recordings in particular.
3) No true SP support (Simple Burner has no SP or SP-mono option at all, and OpenMG software converts all files to LP first, so you don't get true SP quality.) The only way you can record in true SP is real-time.
4) No microphone input and no remote for the headphones. No big deal -- if you need these features, buy the MZ-N707. You can also upgrade to remote headphones at www.minidisco.com.

Overall, I really like this player. I'm thrilled with the fact that I was able to fit the entire 4-CD studio recordings of The Police on one minidisc. It's flexible, easy to use and sounds great. If you are heavy into mp3s downloaded files, this may not be the most flexible solution, but it works. If you're like me and you just want a portable means of carrying music from your CD collection around, Net MD is perfect.

Sony could make this into a home run by
a) giving full SP and SP-mono support to Simple Burner and OpenMG
b) allowing for uploading (at the very least, for non-copyrighted material).
c) speeding up OpenMG file conversion.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Close to what we really want but..., May 31, 2002

By 

P. J. Neligan (Philadelphia, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sony MZ-N505 Net MD Walkman Player/Recorder (Gold) (Electronics)

The ideal portable digital player would have the following properties: 1. can easily fit into your pocket, 2. have generous and inexpensive storage capacity, 3. be rewritable, 4. allow movement of material back and forth from the computer to the player, 5. have a microphone for recording, 6. have excellent battery life, 7. play all kinds of media files.
I have been a mini disc user for many years. Prior to the MP3 era this was unquestionably the best portable format. Unfortunately it has, to date been stymied by low storage capacity per disc, slow recording times and file incompatibility.
This new mini disc walkman is fantastic value for money...As a mini disc player, it records with the superior atrac R format, and as recording can also be done from the CDROM of your computer, the CD database can be accessed, and the names of the songs downloaded (no more fiddley track naming). Interestingly, this does not access the built in CD database in the windows operating system, by which programs such as Musicmatch "remember" CDs. The sound quality at standard recording is excellent, at LP2 it is marginally worse than 128kbs MP3 and at LP4 there is considerable quality dropoff, which is often unnoticable when walking around with the player. LP4 allows you to record up to 5 CDs to one $2 minidisc.
So far so good. The software is rather tempermental. Although advertised as a "NetMD", MP3 files have to be first converted to Atrac 3 before they can be imported into the player. This is painfully slow. The conversion program is OpenMG jukebox. This program recurrently crashes on me when I try to convert MP3s. I have given up with this process and use my MP3CD player. Furthermore, the net burner software is not great either. It grinded to a halt, in the midst of recording at LP4, several times. Overall, as a media converter, this is not great, and I would recommend this more for re-recording your own CDs than MP3s downloaded from the internet.
The slower play function is a major advance for minidisc. One of the great things about this format is that you can record virtually anything. For example, last week I plugged mine into the audio out plug of my TV and recorded a concert at LP2 (150 minutes). You can subsequently insert track tags, and delete the ads (the tracks then squish together without a gap).
It is a pity that this walkman does not have a microphone socket...Being able to record for 5 hours on a single disk through a microphone and upload the recording to your PC would make this the ultimate voice recording device.
The battery life on this unit is awesome. I have used my MD walkman daily for the past 3 weeks on a single AA battery.
I would strongly recommend obtaining the wonderful fontopia ear bud headphones to add to this device...
This is an exceptionally good product, let down by mediocre software, and Sony's obsessional attitude to digital rights management (why can't I make as many copies of my own personal recordings as I want?). 5 out of 7 criteria ain't bad

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