Cons: no backlight, no mic. input, would prefer a volume wheel over buttons, uncomfortable headphones.
The Bottom Line: Player is inexpensive (about $100 now), as well as the media($2.00/ disc). Excellent battery life, basic functions are easy to learn. Does not skip.
An excellent value.
eskuc's Full Review: Sony Net MD Walkman MZ-N505 Personal MiniDisc Play...
I have tried almost all of the available portable music players, including CD, mp3CD, mp3, and hard disk based players. Overall this is an excellent player.
My biggest concern was about the anti-shock protection. Being that the minidisc is an optical media format, i figured it would have the same anti-skip technology as many portable CD players do. I was surprised when i got it set up that i could not make it skip. Not even shaking it vigorously for over one minute!
My next concern was with sound quality and clarity. Again, I was amazed by this player's frequency range. The lows are present and sound the way they were meant to, and the highs make it though without any annoying hissing from the conversion to the ATRAC3 format.
Battery life was outstanding. With only one AA size battery you can enjoy your music for over 30 hours(provided you are not recording to the minidisc in that time). If you are recording, you can expect about 9 hours on one AA battery.
I had not had any experience with the minidisc media before I bought this player, and after a couple of months of using it, I am impressed. At about $2.00 a disc, you can fit about 70 songs on one disc. Not only that, but you can also rewrite that same disc 1000 (claims sony)times. Another advantage this presents over mp3 and hard disc players is that you can interchange the minidiscs, just as you would a cassette tape. NOTE: it is possible to fit over five (5) hours of music on one minidisc by using the LP4 compression setting.
I was disappointed when i realized that the display was not backlit, but this might not be a big deal to you.
The player's size is small enough that you can comfortably fit it in you pocket, and it doesn't look bulky.
The software interface could use some improvement, but it gets the job done. It has proven itself unstable at times, but for the most part it is OK. You probably wouldn't want to use it as your main computer media player, because the interface is difficult to comprehend.
Transfers are fast taking 15-30 seconds to convert the file to ATRAC3 AND write it to the minidisc.
The supplied headphones are not very comfortable, and lack accurate low and high end reproduction, but are easily replaced.
Record MP3s or CDs at up to 32x speed on affordable MD media for over 5 hours of music per standard 80-minute disc Easy Skip group/folder navigation i...More at Amazon Marketplace
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