Sony NW-MS7 Memory Stick Walkman

by Sony

Product Details

Product Manual [391kb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004UE8S
• Item model number: NW-MS7
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #185,011 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 4, 1973

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Sony's stylish NW-MS7 MP3 Walkman fits in the palm of your hand and weighs just 2.36 ounces. Aside from its compact and catchy design, it boasts plenty of features. Its 64 MB removable flash memory stick stores up to 120 minutes of music. Memory can be added by purchasing Sony's MagicGate memory sticks in 32 or 64 MB sizes. Though you're limited to Sony MagicGate memory, a plus is that these sticks can be used with Sony's digital cameras. The NW-MS7 transfers via a high-speed USB port, so download time is fast. It connects easily to a PC, and Sony even includes a USB cable. A unique design element of the NW-MS7 is that its USB data-transfer adapter also doubles as the AC adapter.

This player is easy to operate. Its three-line LCD comes with a range of brightness levels for easy viewing in dim rooms or bright sunlight. With no moving parts and a solid-state memory chip, the NW-MS7 truly is skip-free. Although it is MP3 compatible, be aware that the OpenMG Jukebox management software runs a nonstandard format, meaning current files will likely need to be re-encoded. The NW-MS7 is SDMI compliant and compatible with Microsoft Windows 98 only, not NT or 2000. It comes with a lithium-ion battery and recharger that are built in. Each full charge provides four hours of continuous playback. The Sony NW-MS7 Walkman comes with earbud headphones, a neck strap, a soft carrying case, a user's guide, and Sony's one-year warranty.

MP3newswire.net

The first thing that we need to say is very important. The Sony Portable Memory Stick Player is a digital music player, but it is not an MP3 player. Instead, Sony uses a proprietary compression scheme called ATRAC3 (Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding 3) that is a competitor to the MP3 format. The unit comes with software to convert MP3 files to the ATRAC3 format, but many users don't know this. Once they are aware, they can move on to this solid player with open eyes and no surprises.

Hardware

The Memory Stick player comes with 64 MB of memory on a proprietary flash card called appropriately, the Memory Stick. Actually, there are two versions of this card; the Memory Stick and the MagicGate Memory Stick. The latter includes the first of several encryption technologies called MagicGate used to protect music copyrights. Only MagicGate Memory Sticks will work with this player, so owners will have to pay attention when they purchase additional ones. The Memory Stick player uses a USB connection to download tunes from the computer. Power is supplied by a rechargeable lithium battery, the best feature about this unit and the only one that rises the Sony above what it is, a basic digital music player. The physical unit itself is pretty nice. The slim case easily fits into the pocket and feels solid and dependable, as one comes to expect from a Sony. That's the best news about this player. The unit retails for $399.00 for the 64MB unit, pricey when compared to competing units.

Getting started:

OpenMG Jukebox is the software package Sony provides with the player and from what we have heard on from around the Net, a great cause of consternation. In an effort to protect its copyrights, Sony Music thrust upon Sony Electronics what many feel is an unwieldy and awkward upload process. You don't upload the tunes per se. Instead, Sony makes the user go through a check-in/check-out process when it comes to transferring songs to the unit. The user cannot check-out a song more than three times before checking back in a song. You also can not check-in songs to a different computer than the one you checked it out of. That goes for your work computer too.

Controls:

The controls on the Sony, which surround the perimeter of the unit are excellent. The rocker switch deftly handled switching and scanning through the song list. The recessed buttons were out of the way without being vague or difficult to activate. The hold and eject switches were large worked well. They are among the best we have tested to date.

The Display:

The display was clear and, despite its small dimensions, excellent when the back-light was on. Take the back-light off and the screen was a more difficult to read. Contrast controls make it better, but the lithium battery offers plenty of power so we simply recommend just leaving the back-light on.

Sound:

Excellent. Sony claims that the ATRAC3 format is superior to the MP3 format, but from what we can tell it sounded pretty much the same as the better MP3 units. Realize also, if the ATRAC3 file is created from an MP3 original, the best it can be is equivalent to the source and in the real world there is probably some degradation though it may not be perceptible. Recording from CD is another matter as the source is of higher quality.

Conclusion

If we just focus on actual box itself, the Sony Memory Stick Walkman is a damn good player that gives terrific sound. It's when we go beyond that box is when we start to have reservations. First, the player's $400 price tag is high, even by Sony's standards (prices will come down though as with all new technology). Second, the check-in/check-out protocol that the user is forced to comply with seems like too many hoops to jump through to get a song uploaded. A burden Sony Music forced on Sony Electronics because of copyright fears. Finally, there is the ATRAC3 format itself. Sony has every right to use its own format, especially if it is a good one. If it is indeed a viable alternative to MP3, it's because it sounds great and Sony has committed to the format for its mini-disc line. The thing is, if you already have a couple of hundred songs in the MP3 format on your hard drive, isn't it just easier to buy an MP3 player? Even Sony's most loyal consumers have asked this question.

Final Score: B

-- Richard Menta

--Copyright 2000 MP3newswire.net All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of MP3newswire.net is prohibited.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars MPWhat?, July 19, 2000

By 

Raymonde B. Wert III - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony NW-MS7 Memory Stick Walkman (Personal Computers)

The Sony MemoryStick would and could become one of the best portable MP3 players on the market...if it weren't for the fact that it isn't an MP3 player!

Technically, because Sony only allows its proprietary ATRAC music-compression system on its player, it isn't an MP3 player. Thus, any MP3's you might have already on your computer would need to be converted to the ATRAC compression system first. Unfortunately, this causes a lot of hassles, and if you already have a huge amount of MP3's (legally, of course) on your system, you might want to look at another of the player's out there.

However, if you are looking to digitally manage all of your music on your computer, and you have a huge hard drive, then this is the best player on the market for you.

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Trashware, July 15, 2000

By 

Gregory Scott (St Petersburg, Fl USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony NW-MS7 Memory Stick Walkman (Personal Computers)

I bought the music clip version of the sony players. These products are a total waste of money. True, they have a sleek, compact design but are functionally worthless due to the multiple limitations of the software (open MG jukebox) which must be used to download or convert files. As best I can tell they are not really MP3 players but only play reformatted MP3 files. As a result you must clog up your hard drive with all of the converted tracs in addition to the original MP3 files. To make matters worse, you can only check out a song from 1 computer to one music clip player. But wait, it gets worse. You can only check a song out to that specific player 4 times. This is SONYs effort to protect copyrighted music for which it has a vested interest. But the ads are misleading and the product worthless to me. This is SONYs next Betamax. I've gone back to my prior, somewhat chunkier player which is convenient if slightly larger

61 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Expensive and Useless, July 16, 2000

By 

"ynr325is" (Moraga, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony NW-MS7 Memory Stick Walkman (Personal Computers)

Sony has made a nice piece of hardware, but you can only get music onto the thing using their sites when downloading emusic. And, if the song is fairly popular, chances are, you will have to pay to download it. The real surprise is that you do not get to keep the song, you have to check in and out of Sony's mainframe to "check in" and "check out" the songs, plus, they will erase your song if they decide you have had it too long. Basically, its an MP3 player that is expensive, and you can not even get the music you want. I bought mine, and returned it furious 3 hours later.