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Rating: 
Summary: Exactly what I was looking for
Review: A great sounding unit, I was surprised. The volume is louder than I expected. There are 5 selections for equalizer: normal, soft (has less highs and lows), active (more lows and highs), heavy (even more lows and highs). I have not turned on the anti-skip feature, since it hasn't ever skipped and that feature uses more battery life. Turned off the LED. The front panel controls are great. The remote can be added between the headphones and the unit, or left off, your choice (just what I wanted). The FM receives fine. AM didn't try much. TV has channels 2-13 (VHF, UHF). Weather, I don't think the local weather here uses that band, none showed up. There is a shell clip that covers the unit for attaching it to your belt. I instead have the Sony belt and CD holder which is well padded in case it falls or I bump into something. I've used $160 headphones, this unit is not that level of sound quality, but it is equivalent to $200 PC speakers with subwoofers in the typical room, good bass, good treble. I was suprised to find that it uses only 1 AA battery and gets 30 to 40 hours of play time with MP3's, amazing. As for the anti-skip, it never skipped while riding 10 miles a day and lifting weights without the antiskip on. The CD played has MP3's, 320Kb/sec recorded without any track ID tag stuff, and it read them in fine. There are a LOT of options in the main menu for how you want the songs played. I set it for repeating, and shuffle. The headphones are light, fit well and are comfortable. The jack for them is a standard 1/8" stereo plug. There is also a 3v power input if you want to run the unit on a desktop long term, or in a car with an adapter. The long play time on one AA battery and great sound with relatively low price, no fuss with standard MP3 recorded CD's, and both remote and controls on the unit, makes this one nice. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Hands down, the best.
Review: I've used the RioVolt CD/MP3/FM Player, Panasonic CD/MP3/FM Player, and this is now the third and I can safely say this is the best CD-Player EVER.
Pro's:
01. It just doesn't skip. Given the number of activities I do like jog-climbing 40 flights of stairs daily, running around campus, and driving, I've never had this thing skip on me ONCE.
02. The remote control is excellent, with easy navigation.
03. It is loud. I was so impressed with the volume on this model. The other two, I could crank it all the way up and still feel like it was not loud enough (and honestly, I'm a metalhead here). This one, half-way up is louder than the RioVolt or Panasonic models. I also get no pops, snaps, cracks, or hisses and I also listen to classical music.
04. The display is nice even though it has a limited screen and character limit but it helps cause you can see most song titles on it. Unless you have something absurd like Seventh Son of a Seventh Son for the song title *cough*worst Maiden song ever*cough*.
05. The Radio is perfect and I'm not sure where the other reviewers are coming from about it having poor/low reception. Maybe it's their location. I really love being able to listen to the news and The Simpsons with the audio tv receiver during my 1 hour break between classes. This is the only aspect where the audio comes in quite low.
06. Small, can fit in a pocket, though it's not recommended given the model controls, more in cons.
Cons'
01. While the remote control is nice, the controls on the actual model are... less than perfect. Imagine if you will, the smallest possible joystick in the world on this thing. Not too impressed.
02. Belt-carrying-clip. Wow what is this crap? It has not face protection but it's acceptable. This is just an overall criticism but why can't anyone come up with a decent belt-carrying-clip. Heck, they could have just use what they give you as the skeleton added some nylon a couple of holes for the ear/remote jacks, and a zipper and you'd have a much safer belt-carrying-clip.
Still, it is the best player I've used and believe it or not, the headphones are also very nice too.
Rating: 
Summary: One-of-a-kind features, less-than-perfect execution
Review: Reasons I bought this unit:
Needed AM/FM reception for professional reasons. Wanted MP3 capability for personal reasons. Wanted remote control capability of all functions. (As a mass transit rider, I appreciate not having to pull an entire CD player out to fiddle with the controls.) This is, as far as I can tell, the only portable CD player on the market that meets all those criteria. (jWIN makes a similar unit, but its remote doesn't control the radio.) If an iPod could be tricked out to deliver AM as well as FM, I might well have gone that route instead.
Comparing this unit to the trusty Panasonic RQ-V520 AM-FM/cassette-with-remote player I've used for years, here are the Sony's pros and cons in brief:
AM reception is better than the Panasonic; FM reception is worse. The Sony receiver has a local/distant function, but, sadly, it's not invocable by remote, and it's not easy to navigate via the on-unit controls, either. My commute takes me from an inner-ring Chicago suburb to the heart of the city -- only about 11 miles -- and neither setting is good at both ends of the ride. On the other hand, with dozens of presets, the radio can bring in at least one AM or FM station most of the time.
Battery life -- one AA! -- is remarkable. Contrary to another reviewer's observation, a quick change will preserve almost all the machine's preference settings -- except for those related to playing a CD. If the unit can set a default order of "random" for each new disc, I haven't figured out how. And the manual's "troubleshooting" section doesn't address this or many other situations.
The remote is versatile, but confusingly intricate. It would have benefitted from Panasonic's design, where one relatively large button controls many functions via a series of taps (for instance, 1= play cassette/change station; 2=fast forward/change band; 3=rewind, hold=on/off). As it is, I expect the Sony remote's tiny buttons will frustrate users wearing gloves.
Unfortunately, too, the slightest pressure can turn on the remote, making it easy to turn on inadvertently and cutting the useful battery life substantially. A better remote would have a "hold" switch similar to that on the CD player itself.
The unit's LCD screen is cute, but too small to provide much useful information. Won't hold the full title of most songs, although the scrolling text is amusing. And the carrying "case," really just a fancy frame-style belt-clip, doesn't seem secure enough. I'd recommend a fully enclosed belt-mounted case instead.
Disc capability is largely as advertised, and generally satisfying. As a Macintosh user, I haven't tried Sony's (Windows-only) proprietary Atrac software. But the unit reads regular CD audio and MP3 tracks burned from iTunes on an iBook without problem. And I've found it to be skip-free even without turning on skip protection. But be careful not to burn non-MP3-compressed files, like Apple's proprietary AAC format: The D-NF600 seems to choke on those files -- buffer overload? -- and scrambles or hiccups through the MP3 files it plays afterwards. Only way I've found to resolve the problem is to change discs and/or remove the battery.
Bottom line: Idiosyncrasies aside, this player provides versatility unavailable elsewhere on the market. If you want AM/FM/MP3 capability with a remote, you have no other choice. But it's not a bad one at all.
Final note: It pays to surf the Web for a lower price and then click Amazon's "Let us know" button to seek a price match -- which can amount to substantial savings if the competitor charges delivery fees and Amazon doesn't. But be patient; Amazon doesn't respond directly. In my case, the lower price didn't show up for a couple of weeks.
Rating: 
Summary: Sexy CD player with tuner, but the love doesn't last...
Review: Sometimes one can only wonder what the engineers at these consumer products companies are thinking when they design and test these things. Finding a quality portable CD player with tuner these days is like trying to find a quality digital alarm clock radio. Neither exists because they are frequently made by the same company. Another mystery solved...Pros: - Yes, it has a radio tuner!!! - Lightweight because it can only take one battery, but battery life is therefore half of last year's Sony models. - Plays MP3 files more reliably, even @ 320kbps - Atrac3plus specs have been improved to 256kbps to improve audio quality - The included OpenMG SonicStage software is a huge improvement over last year's buggy and very limited SonicStage Simple Burner software that was included with the D-NE710. Now you can record your CD collection to your hard drive for later listening and transfer to Atrac3/MP3 CD's as needed. It appears that Sony made some nice changes to the burning software based on customer feedback. Thank goodness! - The Seamless playback feature eliminates the annoying one second gap between tracks on an Atrac CD. Yay! - Parametric equalizer is nice for a portable - Can charge rechargeable battery in unit Cons: - Radio reception is terrible compared to just about any other portable radio. I have no such problem in the same location when using a cheap five year old Sony cassette walkman with tuner. Perhaps this is due to the D-NF600 having only one AA battery instead of two to have enough power to pull in a signal. FM/TV signal reception is poor for all but the closest local stations no matter how you contort the headphone cord, and no, this is not with the Local setting turned on. AM reception is satisfactory only when the unit is horizontal; when held vertical, such as is the obvious case when the unit is on one?s hip at the gym, the orientation of the internal ferrite bar antenna is totally inadequate to pull in a signal for all but the strongest local stations, and susceptibility to nearby interference is extreme. WB reception is not even worth trying. Reception quality defeats the purpose for having a CD player with built in tuner. Why would a new model tuner be designed and built to be worse than previously proven technology? - During audio CD playback, *SNAP*, *CRACKLE*, AND *POP* make their introduction at about 30 seconds into the first track and about every 15 seconds thereafter. It's subtle but annoying, particularly if you're listening to quiet classical or new age music in a quiet environment. If you're listening to loud heavy metal or thumpy poppy songs and/or you're in a noisy environment, it won't be much of an issue since the volume of the music will drown out the audio artifact that happens every 15 seconds. Playing a test CD track with 0 DB output displays no audio artifacts, so there is a presumption that the silly cackle during regular music playback is due to a flawed design with the anti-skip protection circuitry, which unlike CD player models from years ago, cannot be turned off for your inconvenience. I would have gladly given up other nice bells and whistles on this unit in exchange for consistent quality sound, but that still seems to be asking for far too much in this "modern" era of consumer product hell. At least the D-NF600 doesn't chirp with this audio glitch bug like last year's dreadfully birdy D-NS921F did, but the problem still hasn't been successfully addressed by the Sony engineers. If it was just the drive motor spinning up and down, that would be more obvious with the 0 DB test playback, and trying different CD's with the same results rules out any disc surface defects such as scratches, dust, or fingerprints. If only one could turn OFF that awful anti-skip junk feature!!!
(It really begs the question why last year's excellent D-NE710 with no tuner does not have any obvious regular audio artifacting like the tuner models. If only one could have the CD audio quality of the D-NE710, but with a built-in AM/FM/TV/WB tuner!!! Sony, are you LISTENING??? Please???) - The AC adaptor is not included in the package. The printed paper manual supplied accessories list states in regard to this fact: "Not supplied with the USA model". Who did we tick off at Sony this time to deserve this? Furthermore, AC adaptor model # AC-E30HG is not listed at the Sony Style website, so you have to call the Sony parts 800 number to order it. - Using a rechargeable battery with the AC Adaptor (not included in the package - was this already mentioned?) is practically a requirement, since removing the AA battery from the battery compartment results in an immediate loss of all stored memory (e.g. all radio station presets, default annoying button beep deactivator setting, silly red/green/orange light deactivator setting, equalizer sound configuration, etc.). - The included remote is a downright weird departure from last year's remote model, which could only be ordered separately from the Sony parts 800 number for $42, but at least it had an alligator clip that could easily attach to clothing, case, etc., and stay relatively put. The keyring-type remote included is dubiously useful for working out at the gym, unless you've been looking for a material justification to yourself or your significant other for finally getting some trendy body jewelry to hold on to this silly remote. Still, thinking of the Sony engineering interns who must have installed nipple rings to test the usefulness of this aspect of the product is potentially disturbing, if only on the basis that they could have better put their time into ensuring that the CD player had consistently clean sound output and not a hidden gnome inside crumpling up the latest audio quality test reports. - The included carry "case" is nothing more than a plastic spider web snap-on that allows you to thread your own belt or luggage strap through it to wear around your hips. At only 6.7 ounces, a sturdy belt clip would have been a whole lot more useful. By the way, if you lose or break that plastic snappy thingy, it's $15 to replace direct from Sony. - Parametric equalizer only works on CD playback, not on the tuner. Ummm, why??? - The flimsy plastic lid does not inspire confidence for longterm durability, especially using the odd snug fitting plastic web snappy. So, Sony still has to work on resolving some hassles on this unit. After three weeks of striving to put up with the significant downsides, it got returned. Let's hope next year's model is hugely improved!
Rating: 
Summary: Sexy CD player with tuner, but the love doesn't last...
Review: Sometimes one can only wonder what the engineers at these consumer products companies are thinking when they design and test these things. Finding a quality portable CD player with tuner these days is like trying to find a quality digital alarm clock radio. Neither exists because they are frequently made by the same company. Another mystery solved... Pros: - Yes, it has a radio tuner!!! - Lightweight because it can only take one battery, but battery life is therefore half of last year's Sony models. - Plays MP3 files more reliably, even @ 320kbps - Atrac3plus specs have been improved to 256kbps to improve audio quality - The included OpenMG SonicStage software is a huge improvement over last year's buggy and very limited SonicStage Simple Burner software that was included with the D-NE710. Now you can record your CD collection to your hard drive for later listening and transfer to Atrac3/MP3 CD's as needed. It appears that Sony made some nice changes to the burning software based on customer feedback. Thank goodness! - The Seamless playback feature eliminates the annoying one second gap between tracks on an Atrac CD. Yay! - Parametric equalizer is nice for a portable - Can charge rechargeable battery in unit Cons: - Radio reception is terrible compared to just about any other portable radio. I have no such problem in the same location when using a cheap five year old Sony cassette walkman with tuner. Perhaps this is due to the D-NF600 having only one AA battery instead of two to have enough power to pull in a signal. FM/TV signal reception is poor for all but the closest local stations no matter how you contort the headphone cord, and no, this is not with the Local setting turned on. AM reception is satisfactory only when the unit is horizontal; when held vertical, such as is the obvious case when the unit is on one's hip at the gym, the orientation of the internal ferrite bar antenna is totally inadequate to pull in a signal for all but the strongest local stations, and susceptibility to nearby interference is extreme. WB reception is not even worth trying. Reception quality defeats the purpose for having a CD player with built in tuner. Why would a new model tuner be designed and built to be worse than previously proven technology? - During audio CD playback, *SNAP*, *CRACKLE*, AND *POP* make their introduction at about 30 seconds into the first track and about every 15 seconds thereafter. It's subtle but annoying, particularly if you're listening to quiet classical or new age music in a quiet environment. If you're listening to loud heavy metal or thumpy poppy songs and/or you're in a noisy environment, it won't be much of an issue since the volume of the music will drown out the audio artifact that happens every 15 seconds. Playing a test CD track with 0 DB output displays no audio artifacts, so there is a presumption that the silly cackle during regular music playback is due to a flawed design with the anti-skip protection circuitry, which unlike CD player models from years ago, cannot be turned off for your inconvenience. I would have gladly given up other nice bells and whistles on this unit in exchange for consistent quality sound, but that still seems to be asking for far too much in this "modern" era of consumer product hell. At least the D-NF600 doesn't chirp with this audio glitch bug like last year's dreadfully birdy D-NS921F did, but the problem still hasn't been successfully addressed by the Sony engineers. If it was just the drive motor spinning up and down, that would be more obvious with the 0 DB test playback, and trying different CD's with the same results rules out any disc surface defects such as scratches, dust, or fingerprints. If only one could turn OFF that awful anti-skip junk feature!!!
(It really begs the question why last year's excellent D-NE710 with no tuner does not have any obvious regular audio artifacting like the tuner models. If only one could have the CD audio quality of the D-NE710, but with a built-in AM/FM/TV/WB tuner!!! Sony, are you LISTENING??? Please???) - The AC adaptor is not included in the package. The printed paper manual supplied accessories list states in regard to this fact: "Not supplied with the USA model". Who did we tick off at Sony this time to deserve this? Furthermore, AC adaptor model # AC-E30HG is not listed at the Sony Style website, so you have to call the Sony parts 800 number to order it. - Using a rechargeable battery with the AC Adaptor (not included in the package - was this already mentioned?) is practically a requirement, since removing the AA battery from the battery compartment results in an immediate loss of all stored memory (e.g. all radio station presets, default annoying button beep deactivator setting, silly red/green/orange light deactivator setting, equalizer sound configuration, etc.). - The included remote is a downright weird departure from last year's remote model, which could only be ordered separately from the Sony parts 800 number for $42, but at least it had an alligator clip that could easily attach to clothing, case, etc., and stay relatively put. The keyring-type remote included is dubiously useful for working out at the gym, unless you've been looking for a material justification to yourself or your significant other for finally getting some trendy body jewelry to hold on to this silly remote. Still, thinking of the Sony engineering interns who must have installed nipple rings to test the usefulness of this aspect of the product is potentially disturbing, if only on the basis that they could have better put their time into ensuring that the CD player had consistently clean sound output and not a hidden gnome inside crumpling up the latest audio quality test reports. - The included carry "case" is nothing more than a plastic spider web snap-on that allows you to thread your own belt or luggage strap through it to wear around your hips. At only 6.7 ounces, a sturdy belt clip would have been a whole lot more useful. By the way, if you lose or break that plastic snappy thingy, it's $15 to replace direct from Sony. - Parametric equalizer only works on CD playback, not on the tuner. Ummm, why??? - The flimsy plastic lid does not inspire confidence for longterm durability, especially using the odd snug fitting plastic web snappy. So, Sony still has to work on resolving some hassles on this unit. After three weeks of striving to put up with the significant downsides, it got returned. Let's hope next year's model is hugely improved!
Rating:
Summary: The new king of the hill?
Review: THE GOOD
================
Top 3 Features that beat my Rio Volt SP250
1)Battery life >30 hrs (maybe 40+)
Much better than my RIO 250 of 10 hrs
2)Shake proof
Light years ahead of sp250
3)AM radio
excellent reception
-Sound quality is great
what were other complaining about?
-275 songs to a CD in ATRAC
120 typically with MP3s
-Uses 1 standard AA battery (no gumstick battery)
Who is the moron who thought it was so important to make the player thinner? Its the width thats the problem and Sony did a great job trimming it.
-Small and light
Just a little thicker than slim models but still uses a std AA battery (big plus for me)
-Reasonably loud
Seems louder than 5mw feels the same as my 7mw rio sp250
-FF/RW in mp3 or ATRAC
No Panasonic can do it
-Decent 4 line display
Not as good as the rio
-Starts up from song where it was turned off last.
only if you dont open cover. SP250 tracks the last 10 cds or so
-Useful little remote control
-Seems much, MUCH, MUCH tougher than the brittle plastic of my rio sp250
THE BAD
=====================
-FM, TV and Weather bands have very bad reception
my rio FM reception sucked also. Is a radio so hard to build?
-Firmware not upgradable
-No display on the remote
-Jog dial not nearly as helpful as it seems if you make a disk properly with subdirectories
-Doesn't remember where you left off of last disk let alone last 10 or so like the iriver.
-Not nearly as many config settings as riovolt / iRiver products
-No WMA support
THE DETAILS
=====================
After trying a number of low and midlevel units and owning the best model of its time, the Rio SP250, I have to admit this sony really rocks. I started with my 1st mp3 player, the Koss cpd 3100. A shockingly good unit for its time and price. I still have it and would use it in a pinch. It lacked only in ID3 support, battery life and handling R3MIX mp3s. My second unit was the excellent rio SP250. For the right price I would probably buy it again but it was time to move on.
My new choice seemed to come down to a contest between a sony and an iriver. The only other possible competition at the moment seems to be Phillips or Samsung. Never got my hands on the samsung but the one phillips I tried seemed to have potential but it was a lower end unit.
The real question is how good is this model compared to the competition? I wish I had some personal time with the new iriver units but instead I read all the reviews I could find on them. Comparing them with my knowledge of other models plus my 2+ years experience with my very excellent rio sp250 I think I have good feel for the market.
I loved my rio/iriver sp250 but it has a delicate case, is bump sensative and has been taking a beating. Reviews tell me the newer iriver units still have the same problems. They add to the battery problem because of those stupid gumstick batteries. The plus side showed the upgradable firmware was better than ever
and you could play with settings for hours. Is that really the reason for music or a CD player? In reality I stopped playing with settings years ago so uber congurability wasn't a hot point.
When my wife told me she had sony credit points I could use, that made my decision for me. I bought the D-NF600 and so far am very happy. It fits in the pocket well, takes a shaking better than anything I've ever even heard of and the battery really lasts. I'd rather have 2 batteries and 80 hours but its still 3-4 times my rio. It has an LED that is supposed to be able to shut off but I can't find the setting. I may also have to return it because my backlight doesn't work on this unit but I have a trip coming up soon and so at the moment you'd have to pry it from my cold, dead hands. If you could have the best of this unit and the best of the iRiver it would make the perfect player. Next stop is a unit that can use DVD media. 9GB here we come.
I hope this review has been helpful. I made it long because I was so tired of reviews that said players were either excellent or sucked with no reference or comparison. I hope this puts things into perspective and please add any corrections or additions.
Damon
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