Pros: Small size, battery life, ATRAC3 Sounds better than MP3, media is cheap.
Cons: DRM restrictions on MP3. Simple Burner doesn't support SP mode recording.
The Bottom Line: Great sound, portable, and easy to expand. If you're thinking of making all your CD's into MP3, take pause and consider ATRAC and a NetMD.
kb9vrg's Full Review: Sony Net MD Walkman MZ-N510 Personal MiniDisc Play...
I've been a user of MiniDisc technology since 1999. I previously owned a Sony home recorder and a portable player. Unfortunately, the eject mechanism of my home recorder stopped working in late 2002, and I never liked the tedium of titling without a remote, so my MiniDisc collection collected dust.
I've taken the effort to rip all 300 CDs I own into 192K+ MP3 files, and was looking for a new portable player. I'd been using my Palm Tungsten T with RealOne software and the sound was OK, but the battery life was poor, and I hated constantly having to transfer files when I wanted a different mix. I also have a Sony MP3 CD Player, which is fine, but I don't like having to burn CDs all the time.
I looked at several MP3 players, including the TDK Mojo 256F and the Rio Nitrus. Then I did some investigating into the "NetMD" products by Sony. Thinking back on my experience with the Non-Net MiniDiscs, I remembered how much I loved the non-linear rewritable format and the size. Being able to record a CD right from my PC seemed like a big win, and being able to do track moves/titles from the PC sure looked easier than having to title with a Jog Dial.
So, I decided to take the plunge and get a portable recorder. I wanted a recorder that could do recording from a digital source; mainly my Dish PVR-501 or my DVD player, and I liked the remote for the car on the 510, so I chose that unit.
My first impression was "Whoa, that thing is small!" My previous player was about 33% larger than the 510, which is slightly larger than a blank MD in profile, and about four MD's thick.
Construction seems on-par with my previous MD player in that it's solid.
I put in a "AA" battery and inserted one of my previously-recorded MD's, and it played right away. The title window isn't huge, nor is it backlight, but it is located conviently on the case shell, which makes it much easier to read. My old MD player had the display located on the side, which was a pain to use.
I did several transfers of my MP3's from RealOne with the Sony plugin using the 132K ATRAC setting, and the speed was no worse than transferring to my Palm. I wasn't disappointed with the sound, and it was consistent with what I expected from my MP3s. However, there is a DRM restriction, which limits you to transfer the same track from an MP3 to a MD only 3 times unless you "check-in (delete)" the file. That didn't seem convenient.
However, Sony packages a software tool called "Simple Burner." With Simple Burner, you can rip tracks from a CD and transfer them to MD. I was hoping that you could rip and transfer in any of the recording speeds (SP, LP2, LP4). Unfortunately, you can only transfer in SP if you're recording through the optical or line in inputs. However, LP2 sounds darned close to SP and has much better imaging and high-end response than a 192K MP3. Simple Burner supports the Gracenote CDDB and will handle grouping and titling. One note though, Sony doesn't provide a setting for proxy servers in Simple Burner, so if you're on a corporate LAN, you could potentially not be able to use the CDDB functionality.
Overall, I think it's much easier to copy your CD's using Simple Burner than to go from your MP3 collection.
The battery life is excellent, and if you use an NiMH battery, the charging function works excellent. I love the fact that the battery size is a standard "AA" and not a proprietary size.
Sound is as good if not better than my previous MD player. The 510 comes with two user-programmable sound settings, which are great for headphones vs. line-out type settings.
Overall, if you haven't burnt your whole CD collection to Mp3 and are looking for a higher-capacity portable device with high quality output, and affordable expansion, the NetMD series is the ticket.
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Update 11/2004
I've really found the niche for my Minidisc player. I record streaming audio from NPR with Replay Radio, save it as MP3, and use SonicStage to transfer the MP3 files to the MD. The MD is perfect for this, and love it.
I've also found M3U2SB and Daemon Tools to be very useful with SimpleBurner to more easily transfer MP3 files.
The Simple Burner 2.x and SonicStage 2.2 software are more stable as well.
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