Sony MZNH900 Hi-MD Mini Disc Walkman Digital Music Player

Rating:
Summary: My first MD recorder, maybe I'm easily amused, but...
Review: ...this thing has worked for me from the beginning, with no hitches. All software installs, including Sonic Stage updates, have gone smoothly. For just ripping CDs onto the MD unit, Simple Burner works perfectly and quickly. Sonic Stage is a little clunky, but it hasn't failed on me yet. USB transfers have been seamless and fast.

The rechargable battery life is excellent for just playing music, and if you know you're going to be using it a lot on a road trip, just bring a spare AA or two and you'll be good to go for a lonnng time. I find the screw-on battery gives much greater flexibility. It adds about 3/4 of an inch to the length of the NH900 when it is attached.

Live concert recordings made with binaural stereo microphones are just amazing. Just don't use the automatic gain control (AGC), and DO set the mic sensitivity and recording levels according to what kind of mics you use and what kind of music you are recording.

The newly-released Sony wave converter utility improves upon the Hi-MD's overall usefulness by allowing you to convert material recorded on the MD unit into wave files for editing, CD burning, etc. It works perfectly.

Some improvements I would make if I were King:

1. The NH900 unit's display should most definitely have a backlight, as it is awkward to read under anything but ideal lighting conditions without turning it to get the best view.

2. The headphones Sony ships with this should be much better. They are just plain uncomfortable. They do, however, have a shortened cable which makes them better for use with the remote. I use Sennheiser PX-100's with mine.

3. Navigating the menus, both on the MD and on the remote, takes a little practice, mostly because of the very small display (i.e. one line on the remote).

4. Speaking of the remote, this one is nice and sleek and works well enough, but there is another one Sony sells overseas, the model RM-MC40ELK (Google that and you'll find it at several online sources for about $80) that has a larger, 3-line backlit display.

Rating:
Summary: A couple clarifications
Review: 1) Hi-MD discs are expensive... compared to what? $7 for 1 GB of removeable media? How much is a 1 GB flash or SD card?

2) Hi-MD discs are unavailable - actually, you can order them from trusty Amazon.com (mine ended up coming from Circuit City). Took about 4 days. But they aren't really available at any stores except some Radio Shacks.

3) The DRM thing - Sony claims that they will have a wave converter "in the Fall" that should resolve the DRM issue on uploaded self-recordings.

Rating:
Summary: Must have for MD fans
Review: Built:
It is certainly thinner than my MZ-N707 but wider. The anterior half is metallic but the posterior is plastic. I find this esthetically pleasing to the eye to my surprise unlike the pictures on the website. It feels lighter than any portable I have and yet it feels solidly built.

Accessories:
Headphones
Dedicated USB cable
AC adaptor 3V
Battery charging stand
Remote Control
NH-10WM Nickel metal hydride rechargeable battery
Dry Battery Case
Battery Carrying Case
CD-ROM Sonic Stage 2.0/MD Simple Burner
Optical Cable
Clamp filters (large and small)

Functions:
It does function as a removable drive. This was the clincher for me why I upgraded to Hi-MD. Good bye zip discs..... The transfer may not be as fast as a CD Burner but I still like the idea of the external protection of its casing. The method of writing I think is more reliable since it is a magneto-optical device. I was almost tempted to buy a Fujitsu MO drive because of the long wait for its released but instead I found myself buying a portable Toshiba DVD player instead. You can defragment using the windows XP's tool however the .hma files seem impervious to it. I always thought that you have to format the regular MDs to Hi-Mds first in order to use it as a storage device.
Suprisingly, once you drop any file to your sony hi-md removable drive, it automatically creates a management folder thus no intentional "formatting" required.
As a music device, for me it is far better than the NetMD. Transfer is a lot faster and the sounds better. Although I have used: Hi-SP and PCM using the sonic stage 2.1, the transfer seems flawless and much faster. Simple Burner transfer is easier to use however. The sound thus far is better than your LP2- 132kbps, but then again it is not fair to compare Hi-SP with LP2. The HD amp has so far delivered for me. The music is far clearer and life-like, in fact for me, music in MD is better than the CD maybe the HD amp plays a role in it. As far as display, the Hi-MD shows the title and the artist unlike NetMD.
The separation of each musical instrument is distinct enough, sensurround if you will, that you'll think the performance is right there in your room.
Home made recordings can be uploaded to your computer. If you want your uploaded recordings unrestricted convert them to wav using Marcnet's HiMD renderer. Sony will release its wave converter sometime this fall.



Rating:
Summary: Get the MZNHF800 instead
Review: Even though the 800 doesn't have a backlight, it has a radio, and uses a single AA battery instead of the dorky proprietary Sony NiMH + screw-on single AA battery adapter on the 900.

Rating:
Summary: Everything about this product was disappointing !!
Review: I bought this Sony HI-MD Walkman as a digital recording device. I wanted to record outdoor events as I biked around France.

I installed SonicStage on my Sony Vaio. I charged the battery, hooked up my microphone, and started recording. I pressed the stop and the display says "Writing System File". Huh? It stays like that for 10 minutes. I push buttons until it stops. I reconnect to my PC and use SonicStage to reformat the disk. It hangs, never comes back. I kill it and restart it. I download one of the samples to the disk. That works, but _so_slow_! What is that about? I attempt to delete the files I just put on. SonicStage hangs, the disk spins and never stops. I push buttons until it stops spinning and gives me another cryptic error. Argh. I have had the product for < 24 hours. SonicStage has hung on me 4 times, almost on every operation that I ask of it. The disk has spun endlessly. The error/warning messages are useless. The displays are too small. The product simply does not work well for me!

Rating:
Summary: Realy Amazing
Review: i dunno why people complain about this item. this is truly an amzing item for a very cheap price. compared to sony's website ( where this is 300$) i got this for 240 at amazon. it has a lot of capabilities and the new software can, i repeat can convert the format into mp3 or wav. or you can also use (hi md renderer)<-------i use this. it also has a bunch of acceseroes and a carrying case with it. lot of capabilites and built in digital amp. I highly encourage this product and would recomend this instead of an ipod. yes, this is better than an IPOD.

Rating:
Summary: Great recorder/player, there is a learning curve
Review: I have owned this MZ-NH900 for about a week and I have been quite impressed with it since day one.

I purchased this model after much research both here and on other websites. There were a lot of negative reviews however most of them pertain to SonicStage software that I had already decided I would not be using. As someone else stated this is not an MP3 player it is a MiniDisc player and there are major differences. If you have wav files get an MP3 player. If you have CD's that you want to be MUCH more poratable then buy an MD!

I had a Sharp MD player for 5 years and have probably about 25-40 74 minute discs. I just replaced 6 or 7 of those old recorded discs with ONE due to the HI-LP transfer that is available with the "MD Simple Burner". I recorded 11 CD's on one 74 minute disc. I decided on HI-LP because the player runs longer according to the manual in this mode.

Someone complained about the lack of "bass boost" on MD's. There is more to life than Bass. This player has 4 options to choose from in the Surround Sound module. Take a look, fool around a bit you'll be amazed! I am loving the "Club" setting, it's as if you are in a Jazz Club listening to a live performance. There is also Studio, Live and Arena settings in the Surround Sound module. There is also a 6 band Graphic Equalizer and there are 4 pre-sets for:
Heavy metal
Pops
Jazz
Unique
And there are 2 Custom settings available so you can make your own settings. Read the manual it only takes a few moments to figure it out and play around.

I'll admit that I am normally not a manual reader but with all this thing can do you MUST read the manual to learn how to use it. If they put buttons on the remote and player to do all there is to do you'd have a box with nothing but buttons all over it.

Someone complained about the controls on the remote being "counter intuitive". Turning the knob down to increase volume, or vise a versa... Read the manual... you can change that. Also the clip on the remote is reversable so that would be an even easier fix.

Someone complained about the player beeping when paused. Again, read the manual... you can turn that off.

The thing I'm loving about it is that I am going to be able to re-record all of my CD's and go from a drawer full of MD's in about 10 or 12 boxes to probably one box with 6 discs in it. And when I'm flying I won't have to pick and choose only a couple of discs to take along because with about 12 CD's on one disc a box of 6 means I've got 72 CD's at my fingertips.

Another thing I love about this model as opposed to the old Sharp that I owned is that the Album, Artist and Track information transfers across from the CD to the MD right along with the music when using the MD Simple Burner. Does THAT ever save time!!! I did noice one CD where a track was mispelled so I changed it. It's quite simple just wait till it's done recording and double click on the name and make the necessary change and hit enter and you've just edited the track name. Also there were a couple of CD's that I transferred and the artist info said "Various" because it's either a sound track or a compilation disc. Being one who can be a bit "anal" at times again I waited till it got finished transferring and double clicked on "various" and typed in the actual artist's name.






Rating:
Summary: amazed!
Review: i was inspired to write this after reading people's negative reviews about this wonderful little minidisc player.
yes, the font and contrast on the small screen is small. that's the point. it is simple and elegant. i never need to look at that screen unless i am screwing around with my menu, and even still i have no trouble seeing what i am doing, even if i have nothing but streetlight. the remote control is backlit and does everything the unit does. i guess sony just assumes that their customers appreciate a screen that hardly takes up precious battery life. this is the greatest unit on the market; it has all the best features of the other hi-md players and makes the ipod look like an antique. I am removing a star because of the need for an external battery pack if you want to be portable.

Rating:
Summary: An under-rated product *5 STARS*
Review: This MD is truly the best out of the 11 MD players i've had. I dont know why people dont like it. Here are some fixes that other people are having trouble with;

*The new version of the sonicstage is out (easier to use)
*The display is fine (try opening your eyes)
*The new wav converter is out (enables you to upload your recording onto the comp)

All the other functions and stuff make this earn 5 stars

Rating:
Summary: If you can't see it, how can you use it?
Review:  
(...)

I'm sure the MZ-NH900's recording quality equals or surpasses the previous models, and a host of other improvements lie within, however I'm returning a recently purchased MZ-NH900 because I find it impossible to use. (Amazon was most gracious about this return!)

I couldn't get past the nearly unreadable display. Most lettering in the display is less than 1/10 of an inch tall. Some lettering is about 1/3 that size! My eyes are good, but this display is terribly hard to read. Consider the low contrast problem of grey letters on a light grey background. The contrast improves lightly if you angle the unit away from you, but then you see LCD shadows! Add to this a serious glare factor -- a sheet of non-glare plastic would have improved readability. When I try to read the display straight on, mostly I see a reflection of my ugly nose. Granted the lettering on my old MZR-70 was only slightly larger, but it was ten times easier to read. I don't care how many "great" features lie within the MZ-NH900, if I can't easily read the display, forget it.

Also I didn't like the layout of the controls, and the lack of labels. The MZ-NH900 is sleek and cool looking, but equally cryptic. Sure I could memorize all the functions, but what if I want to low the recorder to someone. Little is obvious or easy to read.

Perhaps I've become set in my ways, but for me and my music students it's goodbye to Sony's new line of products. I can no longer recommend them. I believe Sony has missed their last chance to open up and give users what they've been asking for -- the option of uploading of files in an open audio format to their computer. If I ever need another Minidisc recorder I'll buy an old model.

When I find a good Wav or MP3 recorder, I'll say goodbye to a clutter of Minidiscs. Then all my recordings will be organized on my computer --something Sony has never offered in a viable form.

(...)