Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I Have To Refute These People Before Me!, December 29, 2003
By A Customer
I normally don't review electronics, but so many people before me have knocked this great player down and I have to correct the myths. First of all, this is NOT a MP3 player. It's a CD player that plays MP3 cd's that you burn yourself. It also plays ATRAC and ATRAC+ cd's which is Sony's version of MP3 that compresses files to 1/2 the size of MP3's and retains the quality. Most of these people before this review are not well versed in MP3/CD players as evidenced by the one that thinks this is an simply a MP3 player and doesn't know how to hook it up to "get music" (why do these people bother posting and skewing the reviews is beyond my imagination). I'm reasoning that most of these people never bother to read directions and simply jump to a negative conclusion when they can't figure something out. Let's face it, technology today is complicated and learning how to read is the first step so READ THE INSTRUCTIONS IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!!This is a great cd player for the money. The sound is loud and crisp (when you use the first bass setting) and I'm really picky about bass. However, buy a good pair of headphones. Sony "mega-bass" is the best. As with all players, the ear-wear is always poor quality and the player WILL sound poor no matter what. The software is so completely fool-proof that the people complaining about it probably aren't running a system that's up to date and don't understand the problems with Windows 98 or never defragmented their system. It's simple to use and runs EXACTLY like the software that came with the Intel MP3 player from a few years back. I used the ATRAC+ conversion at 64 kbps (equivalent to 128 kbps for MP3) and was able to get over 300 songs (26 cd's) at an average of 4-5 minutes each. If I used ATRAC (not the + one), I'd probably get 50 less. The sound was not compromised at all. I WAS SHOCKED! Keep in mind I have a $20 pair of headphones and I haven't listened to it in my car or home stereo (or with the cheap headphones that came with). The file compressions to ATRAC+ did take a while but only a fraction longer than regular MP3 converting. There is one problem though, when you already have a MP3 file to convert to ATRAC or ATRAC+, the software doesn't allow you to cancel and you need to control+alt+delete to abort if you change your mind. SONY should patch this problem and I intend on letting them know about it on their support page (which is very good by the way!). The buttons are easy to use and I have no complaints except for the fact that you can't shuffle play the first track in each file you create on the CD. The player will only randomly select so you may get up to 2 tracks from the same file played after each other (a very minor issue and I never had more than 2 songs from the same file play together). The instruction manual is a little vague in some spots but I was able to easily figure things out by simply play around with it. I wanted a player to bring to work that had all my favorites songs on one disc. I was able to achieve this with ATRAC+ technology. This way I can bring double the amount of music with me. I cannot recommend this player enough!! I usually buy small electronics made by Phillips because I've had good luck with them. This is not the first Sony cd player I own. I've not been happy with other Sony items I've bought (5 disc cd player, portable cd player a few years back and an amplifier) so I hesitated when buying. I have a SONY Vaio PC and have had no trouble with it. I also like my Sony Cybershot camera so I thought I'd give them another try. I'm glad I did!
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best Portable Audio Player For Your Money, January 21, 2004
You cannot make this thing skip without breaking it, and that's not an easy feat either. It's a tough, skip-free, stylish, great sounding, battery efficient, feature-packed and, to top it off, AFFORDABLE CD player.Just imagine, having 450 of your favorite songs, 25 to 30 of your favorite albums, all on a single CD, and have the ability to organize them by album, play them in random order, play the ones you chose to bookmark, pause, fast forward, or rewind in mid-song (rare in non-Sony Mp3 CD players), and be using next to no batteries as you do so. Atrac 3 is a must have, it's so nice to be able to put your favorite books, nearly 25 hours of stand-up comedy, or just all your favorite music, on 1 CD, and have it sound as good as high bitrate Mp3s. If you don't get this model, get the $99 model with the 3-line display. Though really, so long as you organize your tracks by folder, 2-line is plenty. I bought this for a vacation to Orlando, a 15 hour ride. After using it the entire trip there, entire trip back, 30 hours, I still have all 4 bars left on the battery meter, it's amazing. This is one of the best purchases I've -ever- made, of any kind, and the only one I felt deserving enough of a positive online review.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
wonderful MP3/ATRAC3-CD player!, February 19, 2004
By A Customer
I recently bought this Sony D-NE510 player to replace an older Panasonic SL-SX460 that I've had for a number of years, and I've not been disappointed by my purchase. This player has a slew of really awesome features that make it worthwhile, especially its support for ATRAC3+. The sound quality of the player is fairly good, although not quite as clear as my old Panasonic (the difference is quite negligible). The first bass boost option is okay, but the second option distorts the sound too much. No bass boost at all sounds a little thin though. The headphones that come with the player are pretty much junk, so I've been using a pair of Sony earphones that I bought a while back, and the quality is much better. MP3 navigation is extremely easy with the jog-dial, especially if you organize songs into folders. When I tried to play an MP3 disc without folders, it took me forever to find the songs that I wanted, but now that I have everything organized into folders for each album, I can almost instantaneously find the songs that I want to hear. There is a slightly annoying pause between each song, maybe about 1-2 seconds but enough to break the flow of a mix CD, although for regular CDs with individual songs, this is less of an issue. I used the bundled software to compress 28 albums worth of songs onto a CD in ATRAC3plus format at 64 kps, and now carry around 50+ albums on just two discs. Each disc took me about 2 hours to make, without a hitch, although I did not attempt to use the MP3 conversion feature. I figured it would be useless to convert from one compression format to another...and burning an MP3 disc is faster than converting it to ATRAC anyway. ATRAC quality is much clearer than MP3 at 64 kps or even 96 kps and is certainly very listenable, but isn't quite on-par with CD quality. When you turn up the volume and listen closely, you can hear the limitations of the lower bitrate. However, I usually listen to music at low and "regular" volumes, so the quality isn't that big of an issue with me (it's easier on my hearing too). Besides, I figured that being able to carry around that many songs (approximately 350) on a CD makes up for the slight decrease in sound quality. The player also has incredible battery life-Sony claims 80 hours with ATRAC discs, and 50 hours with regular CDs when using alkaline batteries. I have been using the unit with Rayovac rechargeable NiMH batteries (more environmentally friendly) and these give me about 45 hours of play time (MP3 CD) per charge, which is usually enough for 3-4 weeks of regular use for me. And I used to think that the 12 hour rechargeables for my Panasonic were long-lasting! The D-NE510 is also fairly stylish. It's rather large but has an attractive gray exterior and clean design. The plastic shell is cheap and fragile feeling, but seems durable enough. I've actually dropped the CD player from my desk a number of times (onto hardwood floor) and it was not yet skipped or had any problems. Overall, Sony has made a wonderful product. Some would probably complain that the ATRAC software has problems but keep in mind that even if you don't use this feature, the player is still a great deal. The Sony reliability, the excellent MP3 support, the jog dial and the incredible battery life make for a pleasurable and convenient music listening experience. True, you can buy a cheaper MP3 CD player, but if you consider long term reliability and battery costs, then the Sony D-NE510 is really a wonderful buy.
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