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87 of 87 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A superb Walkman--but with a few minor disappointments, February 22, 2007
This review is from: Sony DNF430 MP3/ATRAC CD Walkman Portable Compact Disc Player with AM/FM/TV/Weather Digital Tuner (Electronics)
This Walkman by Sony offers serious music lovers the opportunity to listen to MP3 files stored on a CD, a regular CD (of course); AM and FM radio and seven TV stations. It even sports a weather digital tuner! The remote comes in handy if you don't want to carry the actual player in your hands as you walk about town. Moreover, it only uses a single AA battery at a time and you get lots of play time out of that single battery. Even better still, this portable CD player weighs in at only one pound--this very lightweight machine poses no hindrance if you use it as you walk through the streets. Great!
At first glance the controls on the Walkman itself appear intimidating but after about ten minutes tops you learn all the important and most commonly used functions. The controls also make it easy to adjust the levels of bass and change equalizer settings. Other functions, including listening to a TV station, require more concentration and time to learn. However, the instruction manual is fairly clear and if you have questions you can always contact Sony customer support by phone or Internet.
The product description on this page indicates that software for making "ATRAC" CDs comes packaged with this player. However, when I bought this just last week there was no such bundled software. Instead, the product manual indicates that I need to download the relevant software from the Sony website. However, there remains no extra charge to download the relevant software to make an "ATRAC" CD. The advantage of making an "ATRAC" CD is that you can fit much, much more music onto an "ATRAC" CD than you ever could otherwise when making your own CDs. Indeed, the owner's manual for this Walkman states that you can fit about 30 CDs' worth of sound onto one "ATRAC" CD. Excellent!
However, I noticed some disappointments. First, Sony advertises this Walkman as being for the music enthusiast--and they are right. This means that the average layperson like me will have to spend a couple of hours learning how to use ALL the functions of this Walkman. The capabilities of this little machine impress me greatly; but there will be a learning curve for persons like myself. I did not anticipate that. In addition, the buttons are rather small so you need to be careful of how you touch them with your fingers. Finally, the earbuds hurt my ears almost from the very start of listening to a CD on this Walkman. I strongly suggest you purchase a better quality headset or earphones that will be more comfortable.
Overall, music enthusiasts will be thrilled with this Walkman. The abundant features amaze me and I believe you will be impressed, too. The quality of the sound is excellent; you can even make the sound constant at a certain level at which the product manual indicates that you won't hurt your hearing as you listen to music or talk on this CD. The shockproof memory and "skip-free G protection" impress me, too. I highly recommend this portable CD player for music lovers everywhere. In addition, if you have the time to learn how to use this machine to its greatest potential, any layperson like me will also come to cherish this Walkman.
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51 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
SUPERB SOUND, 1 AA BATTERY, REMOTE, I LOVE IT!!!, August 22, 2006
This review is from: Sony DNF430 MP3/ATRAC CD Walkman Portable Compact Disc Player with AM/FM/TV/Weather Digital Tuner (Electronics)
Bought this from Amazon and I am very, very pleased! Why? (First, I have owned and still do the 420 model Atrac). I bought this model because of the ONE AA battery, remote, TV, AM FM, Weather and resume. Here are the wonderful reasons I love this:
1) Only uses ONE AA battery! And it will last a long time(I have had it last over 40 hours on MP3! (Suggestion: Go with re-chargable batteries when at home, however on the go, then keep an extra AA battery handy).
2) Receives, TV, AM, FM, Weather, and CD, MP3 all just perfectly. This is the only model that I found with FM, AM, TV and Weather.
3) Resume feature--I listen to a lot of CD Audio books and MP3 Audio books and love the fact that I can turn the player off and a few hours or days later, just turn it on and pick up just where I left off! This is one of the few players with RESUME.
4) Does not skip! I walk around a lot with this in my purse or in a waist pack and it does not skip!
Great earphones!
5) Remote is easy to use!
6) Love the easy to use ON button in the center.
7) This is one of the few CD players that the AM works, I love my TALK NET RADIO!
7) The sound quality is so much better than the other MP3/CD cheap models that I had before. (I hear bass and treble sounds on my CD's and MP3's that I did not hear on the cheap models).
8) I also own the DNF420 MP3/ATRAC CD Walkman Portable Compact Disc Player with AM/FM/TV/Weather Digital Tuner, which is the older model and love it as well. (This model does not have a a remote). And since I have loved and still do, my DNF420 Sony Atrac, I knew I would love this model. In fact, I give it a 5 because I love it even more than my Sony Blue Atrac Psyc with AM, FM, Weather, TV. Note that to listen to weather if you are far from a weather station as I am, go outside or near a window and then you can hear it. All in all, I am just thrilled so far with this model. I highly recommend this to anyone who is active, travels or listens to alot of Audio books. To me, this is the very BEST of ALL the CD/MP3 made. I wish I would have bought this first. (Before I wasted my money on 8 cheapie MP3/CD players that did not have resume and had a not that good sound).
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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What Else Plays CD/MP3/Atrac/AM/FM/TV/Weather???, August 13, 2006
This review is from: Sony DNF430 MP3/ATRAC CD Walkman Portable Compact Disc Player with AM/FM/TV/Weather Digital Tuner (Electronics)
This is a very elegant appearing player. The large center section is pearl-white, and the outer ring is silver-grey. There are many ways to play (all, group/folder, 1 track, shuffle (all), group/folder shuffle, bookmark, playlist, program (up to 64 tracks), intro (first 10 seconds of each track), repeat on/off).
It works well for audiobooks; resumes mid-track and can fast forward or fast reverse within a track (although it really isn't very "fast"). You can also place multiple bookmarks over several CDs, however, when you return to a bookmarked track it starts at the beginning of the track, rather than mid-track.
There is an optional remote included, but it has no display. It is handy to set the "hold" button on the player (so no buttons are accidentally pushed) and use the remote to play, pause, skip forward or backward a track, or within a track, or to a group/folder, adjust the volume or stop (if you use the player in a pocket, purse, pack, etc.). There is also a hold button on the remote.
In additon to standard CDs, it will play a CD of MP3s, or you can compress your CDs or MP3s with Sony's proprietary Atrac format, using Sony's Sonic Stage software. Oddly, the Sonic Stage software did not come with the player, as it has with previous models. MP3 format is more universal and I would imagine that most people use that format rather than converting to Atrac.
Another thing I noticed about this latest Sony player, is that it uses one AA battery rather than two, as it did in previous models. I wish they had stuck with two (up to 80 hours of play time vs 31 hours with one).
The preset stations are maintained after a battery change, however bookmarks are lost as well as "resume". I guess you can get a 3V (+ tip) charger to plug into when changing the battery, in order to prevent this.
Is this player perfect? No...but what is? It is a GREAT value! It is a very good choice unless you need something small, like when exercising...then a flash player would be your best bet. I use rechargeable batteries and 32X Verbatim CD-RW discs (650MB). I can get 2-3 audiobooks plus some music on each CD. It takes less than 5 minutes to quick-erase, then burn a CD.
My wishlist for the next version:
Bookmark w/i a track, not at the beginning
Maintain bookmarks and resume when changing batteries
A larger display screen which is backlit
Two AA batteries rather than one, for longer playing time
Charger, for internal battery charging
The manual can be viewed/printed from the Sony website.
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