kylev's Full Review: Sony Net MD Walkman MZ-N505 Personal MiniDisc Play...
The NetMD series of MiniDisc players from Sony is a godsend for music lovers that want to take their music on the go. Finally, there is a platform that allows me to use my computer to manage music on the affordable (about $2 per MD) MiniDisc media.
The price of flash-based media (like Memory Stick and Compact Flash) alone is enough to make anyone consider other options. For the price of a single 64 meg Memory Stick, I can buy a whole box of blank MD’s. This was one of my primary concerns when choosing a portable music solution, and why I ended up at the MiniDisc platform. With this player, you can take your MP3 collection and copy it to MiniDiscs, rip audio directly to MD’s on your computer, or record from other audio sources using the line-in cable.
It should be noted, however, that all is not well. The Sony-supplied Simple Burner works fine, ripping a CD to MD (with CDDB title lookups) in about 8 minutes on my computer. However, the Open MG Jukebox software is nearly non-functional. As of this time, it does not support Windows XP, nor does it support variable bit-rate (VBR) MP3’s. This was a major disappointment, since I have the majority of my large CD collection ripped to MP3’s for convenience while I work at home. I had been looking forward to creating MD’s by drag and drop, but the software simply doesn’t work. In fact, on VBR MP3’s, it just locks up with no explanation. Only after a lot of searching on non-Sony sites did I discover and verify the VBR wrinkle. Sony claims to be working on a patch, but I’ve been waiting 3 months. Still, I’ve made about 20 MD’s direct from CD with impressive results.
The sound from this unit is quite good. Pre-recorded MD’s rendered sound quality that was nearly indistinguishable from the same title on CD in various headphones. For recording your own, this unit is also LP compatible, meaning it supports the LP2 and LP4 modes, which give you twice- or four-times the capacity per disc than the normal mode. This means an 80 minute disc gives you over 5 hours of play in LP4 mode! This does, of course, come at the expense of sound quality. I would compare the recordings in LP4 mode to that of a 128kbps MP3. For me, this is how I record most things as I primarily use the player on my train commute or while jogging. Serious music listening is still done on my full-scale stereo. Audiophiles need not bother with the N505.
An interesting wrinkle I found was that using the N505 allowed me to take along a lot of music to work while still complying with my company’s strict “no MP3” policy. I take the equivalent of 40 CD’s to work in MD form in a fraction of the space. And I don’t have to worry about the original media getting stolen from my desk.
I do kind of regret not buying the next model up, the MZ-N707. I have wanted to record live events, and cannot with the N505 because it lacks microphone inputs. It also does not come with the wired remote, which would’ve been handy for jogging.
All in all, I hope that people re-awaken to the MD form factor. The media is cheap, and with USB-enabled players like this available, there is no reason not to try it.
UPDATE (4/23/2003) - Recently Sony released a new version of the OpenMG Jukebox. Stability has improved considerably, and it now handles VBR MP3 files. I am also running it on Windows XP Pro. This means my two primary complaints about the product have been fixed. This platform continues to improve.
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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