Rating: 
Summary: GREAT DEVICE
Review: I love my new MD I take it every where I have put music on my MD from every source I know of NO PROBLEMS I had 4 cd players 3 mp3 players and 1 MD player I never use anything else. Why would I? 50+ hours on one battery and I bought rechargeables so now I use one throw it into its charger and grap a charged. Here is a tip for all those complaints about sonic stage umm UPGRADE YOUR SOFTWARE!!!! The new sonic stage solves many problems and you can transfer back to pc burn time is fast with a nice PC if you have a P1 or P2 you might like burn time but my 1.8 P4 will burn a song in under 8 sec a songs about 3sec to convert to Atrac and 2-3 sec to burn.(you have the option to convert all tracks to Atrac so they are easier to transfer). And by the way I have transferred more than one track more than ten times so I have no clue what they are talking about. I still have no problems with this MD player (I didn't like the headphones so I used my Sony MDR-EX51LP Fontopia Headphones which I love)
Rating: 
Summary: The software brings down the overall value
Review: Though the sound quality and other hardware features are good, I would seriuosly recommend users not to buy this product. The software is such a big hassle that you stop using it as a MP3 player. It is a big pain to check in and check out songs and the user interface of the sonicstage software needs to be improved by leaps and bounds.
Besides the discs cost high (5 discs for $8), typical SONY strategy of making money by selling high-priced accessories.
You can rather buy an IPOD, if you can afford it, since it has much more value for money. In case your budget is low, any standard mp3 players should do the trick rather than going for the NET MD player from sony.
Rating:
Summary: Art's MD unit
Review: Very impressed w/ this little Sony MD unit. Great sound in a small pkg. This is my 1st minidisc player so I don't have a reference for comparison. Haven't tried to dnld music or record yet. I understand from some of the other reviews that the software can be fustrating to use but as long as I stay within the capabilities/limitations of this MD Net unit It should function ok. The learning curve for me to get up to speed will be long & slow but I'll get there.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Impressed..
Review: First off, I'm only going to comment on the HARDWARE, because everyone knows that the Sonicstage software leaves much to be desired. Moving right along, this is a great entry-level minidisc player. I wanted a HI-MD player, however the prices are very high right now. I'm going to wait for the next generation players to come out because prices should come down considerably. With having said that, Atrac, as a codec, is far superior to MP3. My ripped Atrac LP4 tracks (highest compression, thus more music on a MD) sound considerably better than 128 bit MP3. Likewise, the LP2 sounds magnificent as compared to mp3. Overall, sound quality is typical Sony quality. Very good. The menu takes a while to get used to, but works well once you get the hang of it. This is my first Minidisc player, and I'm suprised that such an old technology can be soooo good. I was considering buying an mp3 player (hard drive player,) but I remembered that years ago I really wanted a minidisc player, so I decided to research them. Minidisc media are very cheap, and can be rewritten up to a million times (as Sony claims.) The discs are very small and fit in a pocket painlessly. Using LP4 on an 80 minute disc, you can have 5 hours of music. Pair that with an additional disc in your pocket, and you can have 10 hours of music within easy reach. Be honest, do you really need THAT much music close by? The price is a lot better than MP3 too. You can find this model new and online for under 70.00 shipped. Would you rather run or bike with something 70.00 or an Ipod for 300.00? Also keep in mind Minidiscs are very durable. Again, do you *really* need to have your WHOLE music collection with you while you're excercising? Minidisc is a viable alternative to mp3 for this purpose. The small size of this unit is also nice for running. Sonicstage isn'tas bad as a lot of people make it out to be. I "burned" 5 hours of music in LP4 on a disc and it took less than 15 minutes (my mp3 files are on another computer that I'm wirelessly connected to, so your time will be much quicker.) Overall, this is a pretty basic player/recorder that will be more than enough for most needs.
In regards to recording with this unit, it is possible, and sounds good too. You will need a powered mic, however, and keep in mind that to upload back to your computer, you'll have to do it in real-time via your line-in on your soundcard. Also, keep in mind that by doing this, you lose all advantages of recording digitally as the connection through line-in is analog. But, the sound quality is still VERY good. In fact, it is very hard to tell the difference b/w the analog recording and original digital. If ALL you want to do is record, I'd reccomend getting and older model with a mic-in.
Rating:
Summary: Accessories List is Wrong!!!
Review: Hi,
The mic listed as an accessory will only work with higher priced MiniDisc recorders. If you're looking for an MD recorder that you can record analog with a stereo microphone or line in, check out the Sony MZ-N10 or comparable instead. For a comprehensive comparison of all MD recorders including the all important "Which jacks does this box have?" question, check out:
http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_MZ-N10.html
Rating:
Summary: Compatible with MP3???
Review: I was under the impression it PLAYED mp3s. After all, isn't that what the idea of compatibility should mean? Well don't be fooled. It CONVERTS mp3s to Attract format. Sounds nice except it converted my 30MB collection of speeches to 199MB and could not even fit it on one minidisc! Pathetic. If you want an mp3 player, this is NOT it. Don't make the same mistake I made!
Rating: 
Summary: Poor Reliability
Review: I bought this thing about a year ago now. At first I really liked it, the music played well, and it never skipped or anything. After a little over 4 months of use it broke. I had to take it to the shop where it took 2 months for them to fix it. After talking to my friends and other people who had them, all I hear is things like "what a piece of crap", etc. Everyone's seems to have broken at one point or another, and even after it gets repaired in several months it breaks again! In my case it was the headphone jack, and apparently a transistor. This caused it to only work in one ear of the headphones and it skipped because of the transistor. I think the best advantage to this product over everything else in this category is the length of the battery power. One battery lasts me something like 52 hours. That's great. The software is sort of annoying, it tries to make it so you can't copy music more than three times, and you cant transfer the songs back onto your computer! But if you just keep it on your computer it no real problem. Bottom line: Don't Bother.
Rating: 
Summary: Great product - lousy warranty and service
Review: I love the product itself--very easy to use and perfect for carrying around a lot of music in a small package. However, 5 months after I got mine, the external power connector fritzed in some way--both the AC and cigarette lighter power adapters wouldn't make a good connection unless I held them in the hole at an angle, and then the back of the unit would get hot. So, I sent the player back to Sony under warranty (parts only--the labor warranty runs out after 3 months). I was told that the warranty is an exchange program, so I'd need to ship mine to them and they would replace it with a refurbished one. So, after owning this for less than 6 months, I had to pay to ship mine back to them ($7 for UPS with a tracking number and insurance) and pay $29 labor for them to send me back a used one. They received mine a week ago today (UPS tracking info), and I was told today that they have no estimate of when they will have one to ship back to me. My advice would be to get one, but not from Sony directly so you can get an extended replacement warranty.
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