Customer Reviews

Sony MZ-NE410 High Speed Net MD Walkman Recorder

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(30)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

After browsing hours and hours for a cheap alternative to buying an mp3 player and something I could run with I spent about 2 hours in Best Buy and reading reviews on Amazon.com to find what I wanted. I paced back and forth through the aisles constantly going back to the mp3 area only to find myself so close to buying this open item iPod... it was 269 for a 10 GB old style iPod, however it was kind of beat up.

I realized its really not practical to buy that thing or any other flash mp3 player for that matter... if you ever wanted to change songs you'd have to head back to your computer to add or remove songs on to your flash mp3 player. I knew about the Sony MZ-NE410 and it was on sale for 99 dollars. I use to own a MiniDisc player and hi-fidelity is a plus for a minidisc player vs. an mp3 player. Ignore those SNR (Signal2Noise Ratio) numbers on mp3 players nothing compares to a minidisc player.

Last but not least LP4... I was afraid it was going to sound horrible like a 64 kbps mp3 or even worse... LP4 is freaking amazing let me tell you. There is a quality difference but the difference is hardly noticable to the average ear. I can hear flaws but there's no distortion and its very clear. Amazing product! 99 Dollars and CHEAP MEDIA! Each minidisc holds about 320 minutes (LP4 Mode), 160 (Lp2), and 80 min (SP NEAR CD QUALITY). It is about 1 ounce lighter then an iPod and MUCH MORE PRACTICAL. Stop throwing away your money... the iPod's Hard Drive is more likely to fail since there are moving parts in a Hard Drive. I listen to about 5 or more CD's on one minidisc. I am still using the one that came with mine. Its not as thin or as small as those keychain mp3 players but its great for jogging and small enough.

The minidisc player also plays just like Sony's recent mp3 products. It buffers music into its memory while it's playing and stops spinning the minidisc after gaining filling up its buffer space. This increases battery life (about 56 hours with E2 Energizer Batteries) and the actual players life and of course for movement protection (G-Protection). Most mp3 players only play for about 10 hours. Technically an mp3 player is suppose to last longer then something with moving parts but many forget that an mp3 needs to decode the music which is like processor power in your computer and translate it to a sound unit in your player just like sound cards in your computer. YOU CAN'T GO WRONG WITH THIS! There's no pretty LCD but you're listening to music not watching equalizer bars go up and down and see the lapse time of the song, screw the LCD.

After quite a while of wanting an MD player, I bought my MZ-NE410 at the local electronics superstore yesterday. I'll start with the bad. The included software is almost totally useless. I have never encountered such a buggy program past its alpha stage. It crashed four times trying to catalouge my media. After I got about 20 MP3s in my list, it alerted me to the fact that all but 6 were unsupported, and couldn't be converted!. That was enough, so I went online, and downloaded Real One player. It works like a charm. I've been using Musicmatch to make playlists, then importing em in Real One.

As for the good, this player is tiny, light, and has a cool matte black finish much like that on a B-2 or F-117. The amazing sound quality lets me hear things I never heard when listening to music through my computer, and I have a high quality home theater system connected to my comp. The player seems to excel with classical and soundtrack background scores, but everything else sounds incredible too. One unusual thing is that the included headphones actually sound great too. The display is tiny, but easy to read. It does only show track name at the beginning of a song, but you can switch to a mode that always shows the title quickly, with only a few clicks, so you can just switch back and forth if you really want to.

In closing, if you're in the market for an MD player, go with this unit, just make sure to download RealOne. I'm sure the newest high end models are great too, but they cost twice as much, and still have the same enraging SonicStage software.

I bought this unit hoping that I can do the audio recording the traditional way(in the sense that the audio is picked up by a microphone which hooked up with the unit. And sony calls this 'Walkman RECORDER') Amazon also lists(at least as of until today 02/04/2004) Sony ECMDS70P Digital Recording Microphones(miniDisc) as the accessory of this unit. So I thought I got a great deal and I anxiously waited for the package to arrive.

When I open the box I finally received, I did not find any jack that I can plug a microphone in. So I read the manual and only find something talking about recording with a computer. After several more hours of finding and reading manual/spec on the sony site, I realize that most other Sony minidisc walkman/recorder has optical input(which happened to be able to be used for analog line level input also) and some high end unit has mic input also.

And right now I have hard time to get a full refund which I believe that I am entitled to due to Amazon and Sony's 'false advertisement'. Amazon said that they will at most refund me 50% to 80% if I return. I am even willing to buy another sony model from them!.
I will let you know how it goes. But at least the future buyers won't fall into the same 'traps' as me.(Of course, you will still be in the same situation if Amazon somehow block this review from showing up)

There are so many great reviews for this product. I don't want to be repetitive but this unit ROCKS!

PROS:
First of all, the price can't be beat. Compared with other Minidisk players, it performs fabulously and is easily the best value around.

Second of all, everything you've heard about battery life is TRUE! I've gone over 150 hours at a time without changing the battery. I'm talking about playing it every day at work for 3 weeks, not to mention when I get home at night. This alone makes this MD player head and shoulders above the more advanced models. Invest in some rechargeable batteries for digital electronics and you won't be disappointed.

Disk storage is good at the highest quality. You can still get several hours on a disk and the sound is awesome.

CONS:
I really want to give this unit a 5, but a lot of the criticism can't be dismissed. TRUE: The software is bad. Sony's proprietary ATRAC3 music format ads an extra annoying step. There are limits to how many times you can record music on a disc. The display really does not give you any useful info. The panel controls are pretty bare (notice, no "Record" button) and you cannot record voice directly with this unit as with other MD players. Also note, this unit does not have the car-kit or wireless car radio play options of other Music players. Some MD players come packaged with these things, or other MP3 players like the Ipod have these features. Not to mention the Ipod will store Gigs of music; it will just set you back 3 times as much money. These cons all need to be factored in to your comparison with other units.

THE BOTTOM LINE:
Some have noted performace loss over time. Simple: get a MD cleaning disk to clean your lense. This unit is very durable and has a long play life. Software updates can also solve a lot of recording problems.

The cons pale in comparison with the pros. The sound quality is great. The unit is THE BEST VALUE in digital music. The battery life is UNBELIEVABLE. The MDs are getting CHEAPER BY THE DAY. An added bonus: Now that the new HD standard is out, you can buy these at deep discounts. Take advantage.

BUY THIS UNIT NOW!

got this from a radio shack clearance sale for $30 whilst over in the US, was considering getting a newer Hi-MD player but a) couldn't find one b) $30 seemed a bargain, old tech or not

Main points:
Battery life is excellent - one of two main reasons i went for a minidisc player (other was physical seperation of my music from the player and computer, heard too many horror stories of mp3 players / hdrives busting and taking the music with them)

However, when transferring, it sucks the life out of batteries. Still, when just listening, I've had days out of one battery, when my wife can only manage about an afternoon on her iPod charge. I just don't see the point in a music player that can hold thousands of songs but only play a few hours worth before needing to be taken back to base for hours of recharging (or you need to drag the charger around with you as well).

Software - it came bundled with Sonicstage 1.5, but being an upgrade compulsive, I downloaded the new 3.3 version straightaway and it seems workable enough. On a par with iTunes 6.

headphones - the headphones it came with hurt, cutting in just above my ears and wouldn't stay in place. Get some new ones.

Capacity - 70 songs on 1 80-minute disc in max compression. Can hear noise at this level, (but not as annoying as the stutter my rubbish cd-drive added in when i was ripping songs in the first place)

File formats - only takes in atracs (converts mp3/wma to atrac)

All in all, a decent player, especially for what i paid, sound quality is ok, battery life great

I bought the MZ-NE410 as a secondary player since I already own an Archos Jukebox. The NE410 is small, light and has great sound w/ ATRAC3-132kbps. The minor inconveniences are that the display is tiny (you won't see a multi-line display of track name, lapsed time, and/or total length) and it's not backlit, which renders it nearly useless in low light conditions.

The MAJOR drawback with the player, however, as other reviewers have pointed out, is that you have to use either the bundled software (SonicStage 1.5, Simple Burner, OpenMG), download Real Audio Player, or use some homegrown, freeware apps to upload/download music to the NE410. You are thus restricted from using multiple PCs to transfer/share music and God help you if a Windows XP system restore hoses your audio files - you'll most likely have to start rebuilding the music library from scratch, unless you regularly do backups. As compared to a non-proprietary, drag-and-drop player like an Archos, these limited use restrictions are very, very chafing.

On a positive note, the player is great for audiobooks or language tapes/cds. You can upload about 5 hours to the player at 66kps and with a generic car kit adaptor, use it in the car. The automatic resume function lets you stop the player, pop into a store, then resume your place in the file when you get back in the car, SO LONG AS you don't eject the disc (which will reset playback from the beginning).

The NE410 can't compete with the storage capabilities of jukebox MP3 players (Megabytes vs. Gigabytes) and the software restrictions required by Sony Music (vs. Sony Electronics) certainly turn off potential buyers. But if you want a second player for your morning commute or you don't want to transfer all your music to one device, I'd recommend you pick up this player.

In the land of musical choices, Sony's MZ-NE410 rates among the best.

Pros: cheap, fast, long battery life, easy to use
Cons: no microphone option, buttons feel cheap, max volume may not be loud enough for some individuals

system review

Speed: The mini disc player has easy to use software that worked flawlessly with Windows ME. This mini disc player is only compatable with a computer and transfers at the rate of 32X. It is a NetMD so it is capable of handling many musical formats including MP3, WAV, and WMA.

Use: This player lacks a microphone and can only be used to play and record music. It has G-protection so it will never skip. G-protection is an anti skip device invented by Sony. Instead of saving music onto the devices in system memory the laser inside the player moves while you move, preventing skips from occuring. The player is light and easy to carry around. It fits in a pocket snuggly unless you enjoy wearing tight jeans. According to the box, this mini disc player has a battery life of 54 hour. It runs on one AA battery... not included in the package. The headphones given are good but they don't look cool. I wish Sony would have included a pair of their stylish street headphones. Other than that I have noticed that the control buttons on this player feel cheap. I wish Sony would have made this player with sturdier buttons but you get what you pay for.

mini disc vs mp3: This player is the same price as an mp3 player but it holds more music. One mini disc holds up to five hours of music. Mini discs cost $ whereas memory for mp3 players cost large amounts of money ranging from $ to $. An mp3 player with 128 MB can hold about 2 1/2 hours of music. The advantages of MP3 players is the removeable memory used in mp3 players can be used for other devices such as digital cameras.

Conclusion: This mini disc player is well worth the money I paid for it. Go get one unless you need microphone capabilities. Microphone capabilities can be used to create bootleg music at concerts, and record personal voice memos. If you can forego those options you can save yourself $50.

This net md player is not a bad little unit, but there are some misconceptions that need to be cleared up (based on some of the reviews). First, this unit in fact does NOT play any other file format other than ATRAC3 (uncompressed, LP2, or LP4). The packaging, advertisements, etc, all claim that it supports mp3, wma, wave, etc. This is NOT really the case. Basically, the SOFTWARE will let you use any of those file types as SOURCE files, but when you 'burn' them to MD, it will convert everything to ATRAC3 (using the compression format you specify, one of three options: miminal, medium lp2, or high lp4 compression).

Second, it's unfortunate that Sony has to install so many different software components on your computer in order for this thing to work. I do not like to have my add/remove programs cluttered with extra junk, and this will do it. There is no real custom install, it's all or nothing. When it's done you'll have about 5 extra software pieces in your 'add/remove' programs list. Grrr. How annoying. Also, do yourself a favor and download the free realplayer program (and sony devices plugin). I've never been a fan of real player, but after you experience the included SonicStage software, you will think that RealPlayer is code Nirvana :)

All in all, a very good deal. It's a high quality piece and the highest ATRAC3 compression (LP4) sounds as good if not better than 128kbps mp3. But make no mistake, this is NOT a device that can play mp3s (or wave files, or wma files for that matter), it can only play ATRAC3, a proprietary alternative. Prepare to sit through some re-encoding periods (about 30 minutes to "burn" 50 tracks from mp3 format because of the re-encoding to ATRAC3). Would I recommend? Definitely, but only to someone who wants a personal music player for themselves. You can't really use this unit to transport files back and forth between PCs, or share mp3s with friends, you'll need a 'real' mp3 player to do that. . .

When my fragile Rio 800 finally passed away this past winter, I thought I'd die too. Once you've experienced the freedom of a small portable player for all your music and audiobooks, it's pretty hard to go back to lugging a regular CD player around with you. My husband tried to console me with a new blue Sony Psyc with an intriguing belt-pack rig for sort of wearing it around--nice for the gym and walking and all--but it still seemed kind of cumbersome. It didn't seem possible that this minidisc thing could possibly do all it says it does for the price, but my son wanted one so I bought it for him; in less than five minutes we'd installed the software and recorded a couple of cd's onto it. This was yesterday early afternoon; the sound was so fantastic that we immediately ordered a package of minidiscs from Amazon so we could, like, theoretically, SHARE the player, you know? Note that the minidiscs are RE-recordable; you can use them over and over, but of course it would be nice to have several. Incredibly, the discs arrived this afternoon, not twenty-four hours after I'd ordered them, and I did not even pay any extra shipping. Amazon, your service is incredible. In the meantime, I went out and bought another player for myself to use, since my son seems to be permanently attached to his, and at this price, we can each afford to have our own.

If you are on the fence about ordering this item, our advice is for you to go for it--you will be very happy with the sound quality (depending on your headphones of course). The headphones that come with it are not the greatest, but we didn't expect them to be; the NetMD easy burn software is indeed amazingly easy to use. We haven't fooled with the other software because we don't seem to need it. Chances are you already have software that will work fine. All we've done so far is copy onto the minidiscs CD's we've made from iTunes etc. and it all works great. Note each minidisc holds a lot more music than a regular CD. The player uses only one plain ol' double AA battery, which will last a long time. None of this ridiculous rechargeable battery-only setup like my poor Rio (snifff) which I suspect was the source of its trouble. That also means you can use the player right out of the package because you don't have to charge it up in advance.

There's only one thing missing, and that's the availability of a case with a belt clip. There isn't one available. But the player is so small you can easily fit it in your shirt pocket or somewhere. I'm knitting a little case with a strap for mine, but I'll be on the lookout for something with a belt clip, because I know I'm going to want to use it when I'm out in the garden this summer...if summer ever comes, that is.

Treat yourself to this player. If you have been through MP3 player heck, you deserve it.

Ever since my cd player had broken, I had been quite distraught and had asked my mother continuously for an mp3 player. Naturally, at first she refused to get me one. However, after weeks of pestering, she finally realized I was serious. She showed me a few mp3/cd players which interested me, but just didn't strike that interest cord hard enough. Then my mom showed me this Sony mp3/mini-disc player. I was ecstatic when she said she'd buy it for me. When I got home with it, I hooked up the program and was completely amazed!!! The mini-discs burn faster and better than cds (not to mention you can rerecord and erase any songs you don't want). The player itself is small and easy to carry. It's absolutely wonderful!!! This is possibly one of the greatest things I have ever received, and it seems sturdy enough to last quite a long time. Just buy and enjoy!!!!