Rating: 
Summary: A Perfect Product
Review: I recently bought the net md mz-n505, and it's great. The software is easy to use works well. After reading other reviews of this product I was concerned about the simplicity of putting MP3's I have recorded off the net onto the player. Well they must be stupid because it couldn't be easier. What I love most about the unit is its size. It is so small and easily fits into your pocket. I highly recommend this product for everyone who demands quality and performance.
Rating: 
Summary: Too little, too late, but still worthwhile
Review: I'm starting to wonder whether Sony is even on the right track in trying to remain relevant in the mp3-centric digital music world.I think something like NetMD would have been utterly fantastic three years ago, when USB-enabled computers were starting to gain mainstream adoption, and before hard disk and cd-r burner prices hadn't dropped low enough for more people to rip and burn their music collection. Then, I think, the ability to transfer up to five hours of music onto a single, (relatively) inexpensive minidisc would have held greater appeal. Regardless of timing, the NetMD technology is still pretty neat. You are able to transfer digital content, either imported mp3/wma or audio CD's, directly to minidisc using one of three compression settings. SP, the full-bore setting, allows up to 80 minutes on one disc, and is the best sounding of the three. It is "lossy" compression, like mp3, but to my damaged ears, they sound at least as good as CD's. LP2 doubles the storage time, but the increased compression makes the resulting recordings sound like... well, ALMOST as good as a 160kbps cbr mp3. Almost. LP4 quadruples storage time, but as you might guess, the sound quality is pretty dodgy, comparable to a poorly ripped 128kbps (or lower) cbr mp3. LP4 is pretty much a lost cause as far as most rock goes, but it is surprisingly passable for hip-hop and spoken word (and probably for most electronica, but I have yet to test this). As far as transferring existing mp3/wma content goes, I wouldn't recommend it (I know, it pretty much nulls the hype of NetMD, doesn't it?). I've tried converting a batch of 160kbps cbr mp3's to SP and LP2, using the included OpenMG Jukebox (or as some folks call it, the OMFG Jokebox). At SP, the sound quality is comparable to the original, but the transfer to MD takes almost as long as the length of the content. Transfer in LP2 is faster, if you disregard the processor-hog conversion to ATRAC LP2 mode, but the sound quality takes a nosedive. From what I've read, OMFG Jokebox is notoriously unstable. Or so I've read. I've been able to successfully install it on two separate Windows 2000 Pro machines, and I'm feeling so lucky, I'm going to buy a lottery ticket once I'm done with this review. That said, once you fast forward to 2002, where more people than not have gigabytes of existing mp3's on her or his hard disk, you have to wonder whether it's more convenient to rely on a solid state mp3 player to take small sections of this content without any further format-shifting, or dump them en masse to CD-R/W's for use with 3" or 5" disc-based mp3 players. If NetMD handled mp3's and wma's natively, I think this product would have much more relevance today. However, due to intellectual property concerns, I think Sony hamstrung itself with its convoluted content management system. In the meanwhile, I've been using the Net MD Simple Burner program to transfer audio CD content directly to MD (mostly in LP2 mode, with some LP4, but for some weird reason, SP is NOT available as a transfer mode with Simple Burner!). I have started amassing a usable variety of discs packed with songs for the gym or for walks in the park, and from there on, it's straightforward MD goodness. Compact form factor, high skip resistance, durable media, high battery life. Basically all the things that most CD-R/W mp3 players (especially the 3" units) aren't. I'm inclined to think that Sony munged the Minidisc yet again, this time with questionable software, but the good news is that I am still able to make use of NetMD. Drop me a line if you have any questions or war stories to share.
Rating:
Summary: My Best MP3 Player!
Review: I have bought both an MP3 player and a minidisc player, but this surpasses both. Basically I can hold 70 songs (from either my CD or MP3) on a single disc. You can take off/add songs to the disc, or just get more at only two bucks a piece. There is much more memory than flash, and its much cheaper. The only better players are the 5 and 10 gig MP3 players, but they are about 3 times more expensive than this player. It is extremely small and compact, and I have gotten great battery life, about 40 hours on one AA battery. I run with it, and cannot make it skip no matter what I do to the player.
This model has only a few minor flaws. The headphones aren't great, but you can always get another pair. There is no random shuffle for changing tracks, and there is no belt clip. I had to buy a case to use while running. But overall, I highly reccomend this product if you want to take your MP3's, CD's, or any other music on the go.
Rating:
Summary: it's goooood!
Review: what can i say - u can record up yo 5 h of your favourite music on this sony's mini disc it's better then a mp3 and it's easier to use .that's all
Rating:
Summary: Great Mini Disc Player
Review: I just bought one of these units on Friday and I must say I've been pretty happy with it.
The first thing I noticed about it, was that it didn't have a belt clip, since I was going to be using this unit while running, I was concerned. In practice, it turned out just fine. Even while slipped in a pocket, the unit is so light and small that it wasn't uncomfortable at all.
The unit comes with one Mini Disc, and as for recording I took mp3s and sent them via the USB cable (also provided). The recording process through the software provided wasn't necessarily a no-brainer, but if you have been able to burn your own cd's, I'm sure you can figure this out. The USB port also supports USB 2.0 which is great if you can take advantage of it since this method transfers data much faster.
It has a good variety of recording sources, since it can also take analog input (tapes, albums, whatever) when recording directly from the player itself.
Recording length seems good also. The discs hold 80 minutes at a normal rate, but you can record in two levels of compression doubling and quadrupling the record time respectively (also with a lessening of sound quality).
Controls are everything you'd expect. Standard controls that would be on any cd player as well as some advanced track grouping controls that I haven't even delved into. Display gives you encoded artist name and track time. It runs off of one "AA" battery (battery meter is also on display). In two half hour sessions the first battery I put in hasn't drained much.
All in all I'm very happy with this unit and would recommend it to someone looking for something smaller than a traditional portable cd player that has more flexibility than a standard mp3 player.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Product until no sound
Review: I bought this minidisc player about one year ago and have liked it very much. I would have rated it 5 stars until about a month ago when the head phone jack began to make a poor connection. Now it is almost impossible to get clean sound from the unit. Now it is useless. I would not give it even one star now. I checked with Sony's website and they will only replace with a refurb for $80!!! A brand new unit is only $100 and I only need the headphone jack replaced or fixed. I can't believe that Sony would include this junk into such an otherwise fine product. I'm not the only person in this section that has had this problem with a Sony Minidisc player so WAKE UP SONY and offer a cheaper fix!
I mostly used the Simple Burner which worked fine for me. The Open MG software is a nightmare requiring a real computer geek to figure out. Most people consider me a computer geek but frankly, this piece of software seems to have been written by a team from Microsoft that didn't speak to each other.
Rating:
Summary: Great Little Guy
Review: If your trying to decide if you should get this or not. I say yes. I personally bought one of these used, one of the refurbished ones, about 2 years ago. Since then I have bought an IPod, but when I travel I still use this thing. Why is this? Because the single AA battery on this thing (Yes, its AA not AAA) will last for a very very long time. I beleive the number they say is 50 hrs and this sounds about right. A single minidisk will also hold a lot, maybe 70 to 90 songs. If you need more space you can simply buy more minidisks which are fairly cheap, and are quite durable. The device definately deserves a 5 star review, but the software that comes with it is a little weak. By comparison to most mp3 player softwares it is very bad software, and after using ITunes it certainly is a pain. You can basically do everything you want with the software, but it will take about two or three times as long as it would with ITunes for instance.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic, convenient, economical, great sound, bad software
Review: The Type-R upgrade to ATRAC3 adds better sound and LP modes along with compatibility with your older minidiscs. Power management is better than anything else out there: the minidisc only spins when data is read from it, so most of the time the device is idle while playing music. This achieves enormous battery life of over 50 hours per single AA battery. That's right, a single AA battery powers this unit for over 50 hours. I don't even have portable radios that can last as long.
The sound is pleasant with the in-ear headphones that Sony makes, but not the throw-aways that come with this product. There are two "mega-bass" levels which make up for ambient noises in an office or subway train. Artifacts from the ATRAC3 recording are not as noticeable as they are with MP3, but are more noticeable than Apple iPod's AAC. Even the older ATRAC minidiscs from my older minidisc player sound better on this machine. I'm not sure how Sony managed to do that.
One of my two chief complaints with all the Sony minidiscs is the rather lousy software used to transfer CD, MP3, WAV, and WMA music to the unit, but luckily you can use RealPlayer from www.real.com to record minidiscs.
The second complaint is the use of "folders". In order to listen to your minidisc all the way through, which is how I think most people listen to music, you need to record your songs at the root level. If they are in folders the device requires you to "navigate" out of the sub-folders using, of all things, the "Group/Cancel" button on the front bezel. There is no way to remove the group feature if it's recorded already without re-recording your disc. Again, luckily, the RealPlayer can avoid this silliness.
Transferring songs via USB takes about 5 minutes for an entire 5-hour minidisc. As for the copy-protected rules that control copying data to and from a minidisc, I will leave that to other reviewers; a similar scheme is in place for Sony Magicgate and other Sony portables and I won't discuss it here. See www.minidisc.org for more information on how Sony tries to protect copyrights.
If you want to record 5 hours of music per two-dollar disc, then this product is the right one. Per hour, that cost is a tiny fraction of any portable music player that uses flash memory. If you're really into music but don't enjoy wasting money on players with bad sound and horribly expensive memory storage then you must get a minidisc!
Rating:
Summary: Not recommended for travellers, but great otherwise.
Review: There are a lot of great reviews of this product, so I'll keep this one short:
Pros:
- Excellent, Super, Outstanding battery life.
- Tiny profile and footprint.
- Software is easy to use.
- CD's compressed with Sony's native encoder sound fantastic.
- 2 years old and still running.
Cons:
- Can only compress music 2:1 before sound quality degrades noticeably.
- MP3's and WMA's converted to the Sony format sound awful.
- Player menu is a little confusing.
- Player will randomly skip in the middle of a track, even if no bumping of the player has occurred in over 10 minutes.
Basically, I bought this a couple years ago because I thought it was an economical way to port around a music library. iPod's were more expensive at the time, but I think if I'd figured out how many minidisc's I'd have to buy to fit onto one of the iPod's of the day, I probably would have gone with the more expensive iPod. I ended up buying an iPod anyway, because I got sick of lugging around a stack of minidiscs. However, if you're sold on the minidisc format, it works really well, and is a steal at the price.
Rating: 
Summary: Good while it lasted
Review: I have had this player for a little over a year and a half and it has just stopped recording. I called Sony and they said it can be replaced for $109 (not including tax and shipping & Handling) which is clearly not worth it. I tried to search for a fix online and found that a lot of other people have the same problem with the player. Not only that but the problem occurs at around the same time, a year and a half to two years. Before the problem occured the minidisc was a great player. I would buy a five pack of minidisc and be able to record and carry 25 to 30 cd's worth of material in my pocket. The player is so good that after it broke I still thought about going to get another one, but after reading the other people who have had problems with the system I think I'll be moving back to cd's. It was good while it lasted.
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