watch out mp3 players, md's are here to stay!
Written: Jun 08 '02 (Updated Oct 21 '03)
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Pros: long battery life up to 5 hours on each disc
high speed uploading
Cons: none
The Bottom Line: Cheap small portable device that works. Disc are cheap to which mean you could have 15 hours of music with you on 3 discs.
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| ribcookie's Full Review: Sony Net MD Walkman MZ-N707 Personal MiniDisc Play... |
This machine really rocks! With 5 hours capacity on each disc, 50 plus battery life, high speed uploading, remote control, what more could you ask for.
As an avid on the go type of person I love being able to have lots of music with me everywhere. The Net Md allows me to do this, 5 hours plus music on each disc which are relatively cheap these days. I bought mine for a dollar each.
Being out of the home means you'll need a device with good battery power, and the option to buy more if your device runs out of juice. This unit fairs very well, 50 plus hours battery life on each AA battery depending on the compression you use. And since this unit uses AA batteries replacing them would be easy since there available at most stores.
Being a MD fan since 1996 I always hated the fact the it took me 5 minutes to upload a 5 minute song. That was then and this is now! Today Sony has blessed us with Net Md which allows one to transfer multiple media types onto the md player via usb port up to 32x speed depending on the compression you use. Very cool.
Also, the software provided by Sony transfers the titles of each song onto the disc which can be viewed on the main unit or the remote if you upgrade to the lcd version like I did.
The unit I owned before this was the mzr 700 which is almost identical to the mzn707 walkman except it lacks high speed recording. So it might be help to read what I thought about the 700 model.
I just got to tell you, this unit rocks! Just imagine being able to record up to 5 hours of music onto a 2 dollars disc. Also, this unit can record anything! MP3's, dvd audio, CD audio, you name it. And to top it all off, this unit uses 1 AA battery, which is very useful on the road.
Yes, again, 5 hours of music on each disc! Let me explain how this works. The Mini disc uses ATRAC compression to store digital music on each disc. There are 4 levels of compression SP (80 minutes excellent quality) LP2 (2.66 hours great quality) LP4 (5.33 hours good quality). I guess you could compare this to your 6 head vcr record settings.
I tend to use LP4 because I'm an active guy who likes to be entertained outdoors enjoying music while walking, biking, or running. Since I'm outdoors I don't notice any difference in sound quality. But for those of your who stay in a lot and would never use this unit outdoors I recommend the LP2 setting. Why? It just sounds better.
If you listen to MP3's like I do, do yourself a favor and download the wincue Mini disc plugin for winamp. This program basically cues up all the music you specify and add's track marks for every song. So, yes, you could create a 5 hour play list, connect your MD to your USB port and start recording without you being there. This is a great time saver! Without this plugin usually you'll have to add the track marks yourself, this is very painful.
AA batteries. "Standard batteries good, proprietary batteries bad." Enough said. (basically proprietary are very expansive to replace compared to standard batteries one could buy off the shelf) I use NiMH rechargeable batteries because it has little memory effect and they keep on ticking. I think mine can give 700 charges. A pack of 2 cost 5 dollars, the unit takes 1 AA battery, so you would get 1400 charges from the two batteries.
I forgot to mentions the units battery life.
- up to 18 hours with a rechargeable Nicad, NiMH will be longer.
- up to 53 hours with an alkaline battery.
Lastly, I like to mention the remote is excellent because it's so convenient to change tracks without touching the main unit.
To learn more about MD portables in general please visit the mini disc community page at http://www.minidisc.org/
here you'll find information like compression, sound quality, and so on.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 140
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Epinions.com ID:
ribcookie
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Reviews written: 19
Trusted by: 2 members
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