Customer Reviews

Sony NW-MS7 Memory Stick Walkman

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

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.

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

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.

I own this and I really wish I had not purchased it at all. I use windows ME with Media Player and have a fairly extensive collection of MP3 files recorded from my own collection of CD's. I purchased this for use while traveling due to its size and storage capacity. The box and advertising is extremely deceptive with respect to its use of the ATRAC3 format instead of MP3. Even the windows Media Player site would lead you to believe its compatible with MP3 directly - it is not. Sony's OpenMG software is very primitive and hard to use compared to other Juke Box software packages. I really dislike having songs taking up my hard drive in both formats. I own a lot of great Sony products. This is one I wish I never purchased.

I have been a proud owner of the Sony NW-MS7 for a couple of weeks now and it is one of the most beautiful and best sounding portable audio machines I have ever used.

Before I bought the NW-MS7 I researched the product on the web and in the stores (Tottenham Court Road, London) for about 2 weeks. I wanted a player that can use MP3, WAV and also record my CD collection. It was also important to have playback without skipping (unlike portable CD players). However, during this time I became concerned about the conversion to atrac3, memory storage and battery life.

It has to be said that there is alot of confusion on the web about the atrac3 conversion. The NW-MS7 is not a mp3 player. So you will have to convert all your mp3's into the atrac3 format. If you have alot of mp3's then it will be very time consuming and once converted you cannot play the atrac3 files in anything other than the software provided with the walkman - so the chances are you will have two copies of your mp3's.

When you have converted your favourite tracks you will have to go through a process of checking IN and OUT the music onto the memory stick. This is a very simple process. Some (over-reacting and panicking) reviewers seem to think that you can only check out a song four times and after that you have to go through the hasstle of re-sampling the music. This is WRONG. Yes, you DO have to check OUT the songs and you do have the limitation of checking them OUT FOUR times BUT as long as you check them back IN when you change the music on the memory stick then you're not going to run into any problems because this will restore the count back to four.

Also, this product will only work on one computer running ONLY Windows 98 ( Windows 95 upgraded to Win98, Windows NT and Windows 2000 are useless with this product) - so you can't update the memory stick on a work or friends computer - This limitation could be a real disadvantage. Sure, some music may need to be copyright protected but what will happen if you decide to upgrade to a new system or operating system or if the computer you currently own has a major meltdown. As far as I can tell the NW - MS7 will not work on software re-installed onto another system.

The sound quality is awesome. It has the same sound definition as a CD player but at a fifth the size and weight. This unit will not skip as everything is stored on a chip with no moving parts. One 64 MB memory stick will hold approx 80 mins of music at the default setting of 105 kbps. At this setting you're not going to be dissapointed - especially if the sound is converted from a CD ( the converted sound quality can only be as good as it's source ). Initally I did have a problem with the music ripped from my CD's. The converted files skipped slightly when I played them back with the atrac3 software player and NW-MS7. I worked out that this was because in the setting for the Open MG player I was using an 'optimise cd drive' ( in this case it was a creative encore DVDx2) option. When I reverted back to the default settings the skipping stopped.

If you make your own music on your PC this is one of the best ways to listen to your creations. The sound is breath taking. It's converted with depth and clarity.

The unit is very easy to use, you have the opportunity to upgrade the memory and above all it has a rechargable lithium ion battery. This will only give you 4 hours of playback but you can use it with the AC power cord connected. So it will recharge as you listen to your music or check in/out your next compilation. I have found having another 64 MB memory stick around an advantage. I have one memory stick with my favourite music and I use the other for daily re-arranged compilations - just for variety. This works out a little expensive for 160 mins of music EXPENSIVE - but - this is new technology - remember the price of VHS films when they were first released in the early eighties.

It wouldn't have hurt for Sony to install an FM radio into this unit. I think it would have been a nice touch considering the limited storage space. And the headphones - while excellent for listening to music - I had people staring at me while I was walking down the street. Not because they're cool but because the tips of the earpieces are so shiny they looked like a pair of dangly earrings. Not cool! especially in Hackney Central, London. I replaced them very quickly.

Overall this is an amazing player. I was going to go for the newer NW-E3 but the ability to upgrade the memory and rechargable battery won it for me. In terms of sound reproduction I could not tell the difference between the NW-MS7 and a CD player (even on the default setting) and it looks veryattractive. However, there are a few niggles with the software and compatibility with other Windows Operating Systems. Most of which, I hope, will be sorted out with upgrades and patches in the future. But, if you have the full installation of Win98 on your system and abit of surplus cash you will be in for a glorious audio experience.

What a useless piece of junk. Impressively cool looking, it requires you to jump through Sony's copy-protection hoops to play music that you legitimately own. It also requires special MagicGate memory sticks, which are much more expensive per megabyte than other storage media.

If you want an expensive toy that forces you to endlessly convert files and pay homage to a technology that will disappear in a year you should by this player.

Can you say Betamax?

I concur with many of the views expressed already: The hardware unit itself is very much in the tradition of "Sony" quality, which means excellent. The buttons, especially the jog dial, are easy and intuitive to use, for instance. It comes on instantly with a press of a button and it also remembers where I left off the last time, both of which I felt were desperately lacking in Creative Nomad II, which I also own. On Nomad II, it takes at least two push of the Play button (once to turn it on and again to play music) to hear music and it does not have memory function like Sony's MS Walkman, so every time I turn it on, I have to scroll down the list of song titles (which is abbreviated and thus hard to figure out) to get to the last song I heard. Just by comparing these two features, you can see how I came to regard Nomad II as a computer peripheral (as perhaps should be, considering it is from Creative), while MS Walkman is clearly a portable AUDIO device (again, because it is from Sony). The new MS Walkman (announced in Japan) that has magnesium body casing looks even better.

As for the software: Again, as many reviewers have pointed out, OpenMG Jukebox 1.2 needs a lot of improvement. However, I might point out, it is not so bad when compared to the software that came with Nomad II (Nomad's has problem handling long file names, for instance). OMG Jukebox Ver 2 (also announced in Japan) seems like a lot of improvement. I think Sony should distribute this new version for free to existing users.

My biggest complaint is its use of copyright protection technology. I don't have problem with ATRAC3 per se; I think it actually sounds better, even at lower bitrate (I usually use 66 bitrate to store around 25 songs on 64M Memory Stick), than MP3, though it does not do any better job at compressing (I think WMA and TwinVQ does much better job at making smaller file sizes for similar sound quality than either ATRAC3 or MP3). The problem is OpenMG, which is Sony's proprietary music copyright protection technology that makes this player SDMI-compliant. Only the mad scientists participating in SDMI can come up with a stupid idea like "check-in & check-out" for transferring music between PC and portable audio player. This concept severely limits copying or moving of music, which I suppose is good for music labels and artists, but terribly flawed in context of everyday PC usage. After ripping from CD, OpenMG-enabled ATRAC3 files cannot even be moved from one harddisk drive to another, let alone copied. Whereas MP3 file is very much a computer data like any other, OMG ATRAC3 is untouchable as far as your normal computer operation is concerned. Realizing its limitations, Sony belatedly came up with a backup tool for OMG, which only allows backing up the entire collections (no selective backing up is possible), and only onto a local drive (no network drive). Since I received MS Walkman, harddisk drives of my notebook PCs (both of which are Sony VAIOs, incidentally) crashed twice, instantlly destroying my entire collection of OMG ATRAC3 music files (just before the second crash, I was thinking about doing a backup but could not get to in time) which were measured at around 4 GB (a few full days worth of ripping CDs...). Through these crashes, all of my MP3 files survived because I had them backed up in other places (which is easily done).

To sum up, MS Walkman (along with its cousins, Netwalk Walkman and Vaio Music Clips) are excellent digital portable music players that can potentially wipe out in one swing all the pretenders and look-alikes from the likes of Creative and Compaq (those are thinly disguised computer peripherals, not audio devices), only if Sony stops fooling around with SDMI and OpenMG (there is nothing OPEN about OMG) and produces straight-ahead "MP3 players". Until then, I will stick to my "computer peripheral", a newly-acquired Nomad Jukebox.

I have had my memory stick for around 7 months. I normally do not write reviews, but I think the reviews on Amazon are unfair to the product. True, it is not an MP3 player. True, it takes some time to change files from MP3 to sony's format (the only reason I give it 4, and not 5, stars). I am not a computer guy, nor am I an electronics guru, and I have no problem converting my music with the sony software. The rechargable battery, size, weight, ease of use and plethora of features completely outweigh the two cons from above. So what if it is not a "true MP3" player. It has operated flawlessly, travels like a champ, is a perfect companian at the gym and gets tons of use. The magic gate memory stick is a huge plus. Add more sticks and it's like bringing multiple cd's or mixes with you. I could go on, but like I said writing reviews is not my thing. This NW-MS7 is. If you are in the market for a portable music player of any kind, check this one out. It truly is awesome.

Like many Sony products the MS-7 is a study in top-notch industrial design. The MS-7 fits perfectly in the hand and pocket, the controls are intuitive and it has the feel of a rugged piece that will take some abuse. Unfortunately all the efforts put into the superb design are lost by the proprietary SDMI memory sticks and clumsy software. The music files loaded into the MS-7 are not MP3 rather ATRAC3. While ATRAC3 has a bit better compression ratio, approximately 12:1 vs. 10:1 for MP3, it is hardly worth the nuisance of having to re-rip your MP3 files after downloading from your computer to the player 4 times. Had it not been for the fact that mine had a bad left channel I probably would have kept it just because it is so cool. I wound up with a Nomad II, which I like very much. The Nomad II cost less, comes with a 32 preset FM tuner, nice headphones, not ear buds and uses a replaceable AA alkaline battery. If Sony reissues the MS-7 sans SDMI and ATRAC3 I'll be the first in line to buy one.

Lets face it, almost 95% of prospective buyers of a digital music player are in the market because they are downright cool gadgets. With Sony's MS7 walkman you definitely get a cool gadget that would make all of your friends quite jealous.

ATRAC3 WHATS THE BIG DEAL?

As you have read in earlier reviews this "walkman" uses the ATRAC3 format over MP3. Technically there are many differences between the two formats but audibly they are one in the same. The big deal with the ATRAC format is not the sound but rather the convenience issue of the player. For those of you who simply want to be able to drag and drop your MP3s onto this player you may want to double think purchasing this model. Though dont be fooled, the Jukebox software that comes with this player allows you to convert your MP3s into the ATRAC format (as well as your CD's)

CHECK IN/ CHECK OUT

Once converted, the jukebox software will display all of your songs originally with three musical notes next to them indicating the amount of "rights" that song has to be transferred. Once you select an ATRAC file that you want to send to your player you then must continue with the check out process. Once stored on your player you now only have two notes, indicating that you only have "rights" to that song two more times. The only way to get your "right" back is to check the song back into your hard drive. When you think about the system it is quite ingenious and would make any Sony lawyer happy.

MEMORY STICKS If you are buying this player thinking that you are going to stock up on Sony MG memory sticks think again. 64MB MG MS are over $100 a piece. If you are looking for a player that would allow you to keep separate "mixs'" on different medias that you can interchange in your players, look to Iomegas new Clik player.

SLEEK STYLE As seen in the picture this player is very ergonmically built. It fits well in your palm and has a very intuitive menu. A "rocking" scroll bar on the side of the unit allows you to scroll up and down between your checked out songs and also allows you to FF and REW. There are also options to change display types of your song readouts and time counter playback options. The look and feel are truly state of the art and worth the price tag.

ACCESORIES The player comes with a very tiny (and easy to lose) cradle that recharges the units LITH battery and also is the specially designed input of the included USB cable. (The input on the cradle almost looks like an 1394 port)Also easy to lose is the adapter for the headphone jack. The headphone input is not your standard 3.5" mini plug but rather a 2.5". The included headphones are 2.5" and comes with the aformentioned adapter. Also included is a very hard to install strap to hang the player around your neck.

All in all this is the most sleek and best looking player on the market. Purchasing this all comes down to looks over convenience, shes very pretty but a definite pain in the arse.