Rugged, reliable and easy to use
Written: Dec 31 '03 (Updated Feb 21 '04)
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Pros: Rugged; doesn't skip; plays MP3 files flawlessly; controls are simple to learn; good documentation
Cons: Expensive; rotten "car connecting pack;" who wants to burn files in Atrac3plus format Sony pushes?
The Bottom Line: Great unit, but the cassette adapter needed to use this on a tape deck in your car is cheap trash.
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| HawgWyld's Full Review: Sony Walkman D-NE518CK Personal CD Player |
Although my wife keeps threatening to replace either my car or her's with an SUV, I still cling to my beloved 1998 Ford Escort ZX2 as I'm both sentimental and stubborn. However, there's a major flaw with the ZX2 -- the dash is set up so it's hard to put anything in there but a Ford CD player (and, those aren't that great). So, I picked up this little Sony D-NE518CK Walkman (complete with car-connecting kit) to slap in my car.
Now, a few years ago, using a portable CD player in a car was absolutely miserable. For one thing, they skipped like crazy. For another, changing a CD while driving down the road could be dangerous. This little Walkman takes care of both problems.
As for skipping, Sony's G-Protection system works quite well. One can set G-Protection at either the "1" (minimum) or "2" (maximum) levels with the flick of a switch. I put mine on "2" in the car and tested the Walkman by banging it against my leg, throwing it in the seat a couple of times and other such ridiculous things. The CD I was using didn't skip, and I've not had any trouble playing CDs while driving around town and hitting potholes, driving over railroad tracks and etc. Sony did an excellent job in putting together a portable CD player for use in a car.
As for swapping CDs, this particular Walkman is an MP3 player, too. I tested the unit by ripping the songs on 14 discs to MP3 files and then burning them on a single disc. I organized the songs on each album into folders (such as KISS - Love Gun) in order to keep track of them. The player is set up so I can move between folders and songs at the touch of a button. So, the need to swap CDs in and out has become a thing of the past. And, of course, this can also read tracks compressed to the Atrac3plus and Atrac3 formats (more on this later).
This unit is also a joy to use in the car because the controls are simple and easy to memorize -- no looking down while driving to move around between tracks and folders.
Now, this unit isn't without it's warts. First of all, you've got the price of it -- I paid $80, which seems a bit high for a portable player. Still, this unit has proven to be quite durable and reliable, so the price doesn't much bother me.
The major complaint I have about this Walkman has to do with the "car connecting pack," which is essentially a power adapter which plugs into a cigarette lighter, a "cassette tape" which transfers the signals from the CD player to a cassette deck and a wired remote. The power adapter works well and hasn't given me any problems. The "cassette," however, is a piece of junk which is cranky in cold weather and absolutely hates tape decks which aren't cleaned very regularly. I had trouble getting the cassette to work properly, so I cleaned the hell out of my deck. The cassette still wouldn't work (it kept auto-reversing, see), so I cleaned the deck again. The cassette worked fine after that for the most part, but I still have to keep the deck very clean in order to keep everything functioning properly. The cassette adapter, simply put, borders on unusable.
The "wired remote" is of absolutely no use to me. It allows the driver to select songs and hit play, pause and stop easily. However, I've got the unit situated where I can hit the buttons on the Walkman easily. Since the button layout is easy to learn, the remote simply resides in my glove compartment.
Useless, too, is the aforementioned Atrac format. Now, Atrac files sound as good as MP3 files and actually take up a bit less space (Sony claims one can get up to 400 Atrac files CD, and I get about 200 MP3 music files on a 700-MB disc in MP3 format). And, the provided Atrac ripper works well enough, but I simply don't bother with that particular file format. Why? The rest of the world uses MP3 files. My DVD player accepts MP3 files. Why would I go with another format when I could only listen to the discs I burn in my car?
Oh, and I have one, small gripe about the software -- unless you run a Windows system, forget about using the SonicStage Simple Burner, which is included with this unit. That doesn't bother me much as I have a Windows box at home, but I assume some Mac and Linux have and will pick up this Walkman. Sony, I think, made a mistake by assuming just providing a ripper/burner for Windows users would be good enough.
As for sound quality, I've been quite pleased with the performance of this Walkman in my car. Both my CDs and MP3 discs sound great on this unit. The headphones, which come with the Walkman, are nothing to write home about. However, they still sound fine. Oh, and the unit comes with an AC adapter, too.
I would love to write about the battery life in this unit, but I don't know a whole lot about it. Sony claims one can get up to 40 hours of use out of a set of batteries with this unit, and that could be true. However, Sony also claims the car connecting pack works well, so it's possible the company could be lying about battery life, too. I listened to the unit once on battery power for about two hours once, and the battery level-meter in the unit never moved off of full. I can't say much about battery usage, but do believe including a handy meter was a dandy idea.
A couple of other features I haven't mentioned are the bass boost (which I don't have a use for) and the "jog wheel." The jog wheel allows the user to select tracks quickly by turning the wheel and pressing it when the desired track shows up in the display window. That can be useful, I suppose. The display window, too, is useful. It provides information such as track names (for MP3 and Atrac files) -- pretty basic stuff which you'd expect in such a device.
Ah, there is one more thing I should mention. This unit is set up so it will remember it's place when power is removed. That's very handy for people who drive around a lot. Quite often, I'll be in the middle of a song when I stop somewhere, and it's convenient to be able to pick up where I left off. I appreciate the feature much more, however, when I'm in the middle of a 30-minute old time radio show and have to stop. I could lose my place easily in one of those things since they are fairly long and I pack about 100 of them in MP3 format on a disc (sampled at a low bit rate, of course).
It's been brought to my attention recently there's something odd about the feature which allows this CD player to "remember" which track it was playing when stopped. Evidently, the feature only works if batteries are in the unit. Without them, the player will lose its place when power is shut down. I didn't realize this to be the case as I always have batteries in my player in case I want to take it out of my car and listen to it at work or something.
All in all, I've been very pleased with this unit. Sony's fake cassette needed to hook this up to a car stereo is a piece of trash, but that's the only major flaw I can find with this unit.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 80
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Epinions.com ID:
HawgWyld
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Member: Ethan C. Nobles
Location: Benton, Ark.
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About Me:
The oxen are slow, but the earth is patient.
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