Rating: 
Summary: Awsome!!!
Review: my girlfried bought this for my birthday, at first i was secptical why use an MD when you caould just use CD's, however i soon learned how great this product was, i have aboiut 5 cd's on one MD, its fast simple and easy to use, ripping Cd's and buring them on the min disc is awsome, not to mention its easyier to run with a mini disc player then a cd player it dosent skip!!!, also the controll pannel on the head phones is worth the buy it self beascue you dont have to reach in your packet to avance the song...raelly good buy get one!!!...
Rating: 
Summary: I love it and I hate it
Review: I use my MD player every day so, obviously, something is right about it. I actually own two!But I also want to write a cranky email to this engineer at Sony signed off on the software! It is AMAZINGLY bad! SonicStage (1.5 is my version) is SO counter-intuitive that I just can't use it... and I'm pretty savvy with computer stuff. LITERALLY -- I can't use it. I can't figure out any way to just drag-and-drop songs to the player in the SonicStage software. Why in the world not? It's baffling. Instead Sony makes you go through this ridiculous "check in check out" process. (or is it "check out - check in"?) It makes no sense to me. Maybe if you grew up on right-brained computer games like Mario Brothers, you could just let go of the need for logic. FORTUNATELY, you can get a plug-in for RealAudio which is better but still not that great. The SimpleBurner isn't too bad either -- it's just limited to copying your CDs. The Sony MD player is terrific at recording stuff off the radio for time-shifting. However, Sony won't let you transfer it back on to your computer for safe-keeping. The only way to do this is real time dubbing through your sound card. How FRUSTRATING! The MD could be one terrific tool for ripping your old LPs, or whatever, but Sony has made this impractical. This crippling of functions by Sony makes it useless for lots of people, I'm sure. The compression and audio quality are terrific and it sounds great to my ears, even at the highest compression rates. One terrific thing you can do with the MD is record off you favorite radio stations and then edit out the commercials and even move the songs around. This is so easy to do, that I do this while on my evening walks! You end up with a custom "best of" tape. But, then it's a pain-in-the-neck if you want to get that back on your computer. The price is a deal for such a great piece of hardware and the MD disks are cheap, sturdy and hold a lot. I take mine on trips all over the world and even 5 MDs is plenty. I take my MD places that I would be nervous to take an IPod or some other higher-priced MP3 player. Also, battery life is great and it uses just normal AA's which you can buy anywhere -- a big advantage for travel. Even though it is marketed as "speedy" it doesn't seem that fast to me. I haven't' actually timed it, but I think you could burn an MP3 CD quite a bit faster. So, if you want to time-shift NPR or Rush, it's a great little machine. I havne't seen anything around that can beat it. But I wouldn't recommend it for listening to MP3s. If Sony had just written better software and hadn't crippled it, the MD player would be killer. But, it's good for some functions like time shifting.
Rating:
Summary: Great Product
Review: I waivered between the ipod route and this sony mini disc. Since I wasn't certain of which I wanted, I decided that $129 spent was better than $250 spent. I have been able to put 6 CDs on one mini disc at the LP4 recording rate-about 5.5 hours of music. The booklet tells you to use LP2 (half as much data per mini disc) for the best sound quality, but after listening to both recording speeds, I can not distinguish between the two. The sound quality is excellent and burning a CD onto a mini disc is a total no brainer that only takes about 5 minutes to accomplish with the software included. You can get a ten pack of the mini discs for only $15, so discs are very cheap. The single AA battery is rated to play 56 hours, so powering up is no sweat either. A really nice find for the money.
Rating:
Summary: the best one on the market
Review: I bought this player a few weeks ago, and I think it's great. You get more than you expect for the Price and the Player has all you need! Who seriosly needs an FM radio for $50 more? The Player is small and durable and has a great sound (his headphones are actually very good when you consider that they were in the kit (usually bad sound!). But you should still get some noice cancelling (like the ones from Koss which are cheap) and the sound quality will blow you away. So if you consider buying one, buy this one and you won't be dissappointed and you also safe money!
Rating: 
Summary: If you're up to mp3s, stay out of it.
Review: If you think that with a 70 minutes MD, you can have 700 mbts of a normal cd would have, forguet it. It says that it suports mp3s, not that it reads mp3s, so, it will lower the quality of the sound. Audio Cd: 320 kbts
Below 192 kbts, you will notice the diference In this MD you can transfer at 132 kbts, 66 kbts, or no compression. So, if you want to keep the quality of your sound, you have a regular MD instead of one that reads REAL mp3s. Sincerily, i'm totally frustated! If i knew this at the start, i would never buy this piece of crap... And for Sony, keep on doing dancing robots instead!
Rating:
Summary: Software is the only problem with this awesome product.
Review: Aside from being a little too big for some to hold in their hand comfortably (not a problem for me) and the software being a little confusing and freezing up at times, this is the perfect mp3 player. First of all, its not very expensive when compared to Ipods or even Mini Ipods and it has unlimited copacity. When one has filled up one 5 hour mini disc, one may just buy a new mini disc and begin recording. This system is nice because with other mp3 players, when you run out of capacity, you must either delete songs or just live with what you have. With mini disc (MD) players you can switch MD's -- similar to switching CD's--- and have a whole new set of songs. This baby is extremely durable. I've dropped mine numerous times from various heights and it still works fine. I've even dropped mine from about 4 feet in the air onto pavement and it bounced in a puddle. It still works. My friend also has one and he dropped his from the school bleachers and his still works. Sony obviously designed this player with active lifestyles in mind. Although it may be a little too big for some people to palm comfortably, it is light weight and fits comfortably in most adult sized hands. IT comes with a car kit, remote, usb cable, a port for a power cord (if you plug this in it adds battery life) and head phones. I recommend using different head phones if you want maximum musical enjoyment. The standard headphones are the old design --the kind that go over the head-- and provide only marginal sound. A pair of $20 Sony Earbuds have worked for me. A major highlight of the Net MD player is it's battery life. With one AA battery, one can enjoy up to 56 hours of nonstop life. To make sure you get maximum listening time, the player turns off when it has been paused for too long (about 3 minutes), but when turned back on, it resumes where it was previous playing. The software is the only downside. It is confusing when one first looks at it but after a while one gets used to it and enjoys it's use. It sometimes freezes on me, but I'm sure I have a few viruses and a slow computer so my account doesn't accuratly represent the numbers. Recording a song from the computer or Cd takes about 30 seconds. This is a great, cheap and durable MP3 player with unlimited capacity. With blank MD's only costing 2 or three bucks, it is cheap to purchase new ones and record. Buy one of these and it will last quite a while.
Rating:
Summary: Question for all you minidisk officionados
Review: This unit sounds very good. I need some help, though.
I am looking for a minidisk recorder that I can record MYSELF onto, as well as my singing group. Is there a mic jack on this unit (MZ-R37) that will enable me to plug in a microphone without having to send it through a mixer? Additionally, I'm conducting research in which I have to conduct several in-person inverviews (conversations) in various locations throughout the states, so it has to be VERY portable and easy. I'd like to buy ONE unit that will serve both functions for me. I need it to be uploadable to my computer.
Anyone know if the MZ-R37 would fill these two needs? Or, is there something that would work better for me (note: I'm looking for affordability, too)?
Please email natalie_wilson_98@yahoo.com. Thanks for your help.
Rating:
Summary: so cool
Review: i like this thing so much i use it all the time snowboardin and in the car all the time.
get this it records fast and really good sound get this thing
Rating:
Summary: Don't Let Fears Keep You From Buying This!
Review: When I set out to find a good, portable music system. I checked into getting an MD. I read the reviews, and from what I read, I almost decided to go with something else. I read that it wasn't very durable, and the software was horrible. But, after talking to some of my friends and how satisfied they were (and after seeing how much they wanted me to get one) I bought this model. It was a cool $130. I plugged it in and made a whole minidisc of pure red hot chili peppers. I came close to putting every song ever made by them on one red minidisc, but I decided to split them up to fit the last few songs I had on there. (Some were downloadable mp3's I just downloaded from the internet. Believe me, you can put any music on there. I haven't seen anything about a "3-cd limit" or any crap like that.) Then, I pressed play, expecting the worst sound quality for having so many songs on one disc. I was amazed to hear NO difference between listening to the audio cd itself and my minidisc. This thing at first does feel a little breakable, but after all of the crap I've put it through, it's still running at 100%! I believe that this is the future of music software. Already, minidisc prices are starting to drop. Get this model. It won't let you down, and it has almost everything that the $170 model has. It's easier to operate than an i-pod (that I had a horrible experience with when it's rechargeable battery died, but that's a whole other review), and it's way smaller and more durable than an MP3-CD player. My only complaint is that it was a little hard to figure out how to record, but after one quick read in the manual, I was an expert. This thing is, in a word... cool. BUY IT NOW!
Rating:
Summary: Not good for downloaded music
Review: This product is fine if you want to transfer music copied to your PC straight from a CD, but it will not transfer any files downloaded from the most popular music services - Napster,MusicNow, etc.. Even music purchased from RealOne cannot be transferred, though the player is compatible with RealPlayer software. I don't understand the point. The software is cheesy at best, very frustrating at worst. My recommendation is to buy an MP3 player compatible with MS Media Player. I've used these and they are painless and there's no dealing with under funded proprietary software.
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