Sony MZ-NF610 MiniDisc Player - The Most Underrated Portable Audio Device
Written: Aug 20 '03 (Updated Feb 10 '05)
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Pros: excellent sound quality, remote, rechargeable battery, radio, one MiniDisc holds over five hours of music
Cons: SonicStage software, the cable is too long, broke after 18 months
The Bottom Line: MiniDisc players are better than most audio devices available on the market, and the MZ-NF610 is one of the best models.
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| vadimio's Full Review: Sony Net MD Walkman MZ-NF610 Personal MiniDisc Pla... |
Finally, this is the moment you've all been waiting for. I have settled down to write a review on my new MiniDisc Player, the audio device that I chose to be the heir to my CD player. I ordered the player from www.xocute.com (my review of their site can be found if you click on the link).
First of all, what is a MiniDisc player? A MiniDisc player is a portable audio device that can play MiniDiscs, which can hold beyond five hours of music on one MiniDisc (MDs cost around $2 each). These devices can make recordings which a few accessories, depending on the model that you have purchased. Although MD players have been around for a decade, they have not garnered as much interest in North America as they have in Asia. In the US, Sony is the key maker of MD players, while other firms like Aiwa and Sharp have models for sale in Asian countries. MD players have been gaining interest and Sony has launched a few ads, but they are still not even close to being as popular as MP3 players or the traditional CD players. This is a real shame.
The model that I ordered is the Net MD Walkman MZ-NF610 Type-S. The player came with quite a bunch of accessories, including an AC adapter, a Nickel metal hydride rechargeable battery with a plastic battery case, a standard pair of Sony headphones with a remote control, a USB cable, a very detailed and helpful 119 page instruction manual, a few quick instructions, a CD with software and a single premium 74 minute blank MD.
The player itself is very small. It is much smaller than a CD player but slightly larger than some MP3 players. The actual dimensions are 3-5/16"W x 1-3/16"H x 3"D. This means that this player easily fits in any pocket possible or in your hand. With a battery, the weight is around four ounces, so it has the same weight as my cell phone. The front of the player is a metallic blue color, just like those nice BMWs. The front features many buttons, including the play, stop, end search, menu, volume, record, pause and group buttons. This is actually one of the first audio devices that I know of, which has a separate pause button, as most devices have a play/pause button. The Sony and Walkman logo are present on the front, as well as the display screen. The right side of the player has a black HOLD switch, and if activated, it prevents users from accidentally pressing any button. The right side also has the headphone jack, a line in (optical) jack and an USB jack, which has a gray flap that you should close when not in use. The left side has the open button. Just press the button, and the MD player opens on the top slightly, like a cassette player, and if a MD is inside, it will pop out. The bottom of the player has a jack for the AC adapter. The battery slot is found on the back of the player.
Before you can listen to any music, you must transfer some music onto MiniDiscs. I bought an 8 pack of MDs with my purchase of the player, so I was good to go. To transfer music to MDs, you must use the software that is included. You get three programs: Mood Logic, Net MD Simple Burner and Sonic Stage. These programs are compatible with all versions of Windows other than Windows 95. Mood Logic is just a program to organize your music, and I have only used it once. Simple Burner is a simple program that is used primarily for transferring music from a CD to the MD Player. First of all, connect one end of the USB cable to a USB port in your computer and the other end into the USB jack in your MD player. Then insert a CD into your computer and a MD into your MD player, choose the transfer mode and tracks you wish to send, and click Record. Voila, you are done. But what if you want to transfer music files that are saved on your computer, not on CDs? For this you must use SonicStage, a painful and very confusing program. You have to make playlists on your virtual music drive, and then transfer them. You can transfer MP3, WAV and just about any file you want. The only problem that I had was their check-in/out system. To protect copyright laws and such, this program only allows you to transfer a specific file three times maximum. You can't have the same file on four MDs. Check-out means transfer a file to a MD, while check-in is returning a file to a computer. Therefore, you can check-out, check the file in and check out as many times as you want, just make sure it is not checked out three times before checking out once more. That is fairly confusing but that is the system!
Here is something very important about transferring files! You can transfer in three different modes: Normal, LP2 and LP4. If you choose LP2 or LP4, then your files will be compressed into ATRAC3 files, which are a smaller bit rate than most files, and therefore you can fit more music onto a MD if the music is compresses. With normal mode, you can fit either 74 or 80 minutes of music on one disc (depends if you bought 74 or 80 minute discs). With LP2, you get 2 hours and 40 minutes of music, while with LP4 you can fit 5 hours and 20 minutes of music. I compress my files to LP4, therefore all of my MDs have more than 5 hours of music, which is far more than any CD-R!
Well, after all of that trouble you've got yourself and MD. You insert it into the player, and enjoy everything. The audio quality is great. The music sounds better than most MP3 players do, and every note is right on. The volume can get pretty high, and there are 30 different volume selections. My volume is usually between 15-25, but that might be due to the average headphones that are provided. There is even an Automatic Volume Limiter System function, which prevents you from setting the volume to dangerous levels. You can adjust the treble and bass, and there are two preset variations. This player has G-Protection, which basically prevents all skipping, and MDs have shock absorbing mechanisms, which means that skipping will never, ever occur.
This player has all of the functions and feature found in other audio devices and more. First of all, you can label tracks names, and make groups, and this is useful if you are going to fit more than one CD onto a MD. Each MD can have a maximum of 1,200 characters, which is plenty. Therefore, every track, band and CD name is visible. You can shuffle tracks, repeat tracks automatically. You can bookmark your favorite tracks, and with 20 bookmarks per MD, you can easily listen to your favorite songs on MD containing hundreds. You can label tracks on the player, move tracks, divide them, merge them, or delete them if you did not use SonicStage to get them there. You can even erase a whole disc completely. But my MD player is also a recorder. If you purchase an optical cable, you can hook the player up to radios, CD players, TVs and make live recordings by yourself. If you buy a microphone, you can make recordings straight onto a MD. The only bad part is that the 610 model does not have a mic jack, so you have only use self-powered mics with this model.
The MZ-NF610 runs on a single AA battery. As I have mentioned, the player comes with a rechargeable Nickel Metal Hydride battery. This battery is made by Sony, and it made specifically for audio devices. The battery is pretty stylish and you get a decent amount of hours out of it. When listening to MDs, on average, I get around 14 hours of battery life. If you record items or listen to the radio, or listen to high quality audio, then you get a few less hours. To recharge, hook up the AC adapter to the MD player, and the battery recharges while it is inside the player. The battery takes just a couple of hours to recharge after it is completely drained, but for maximum listening time, using a normal one time alkaline battery, such as a Duracell, will give you around forty hours of music, although Sony claims that the number is actually 48. Listening to the radio drains the battery very quickly.
Another reason as to why I choose this model instead of any other model was because the MZ-NF610 is equipped with an AM/FM/TV/weather band tuner. Not many models come equipped with a radio, and this was a feature that I really wished to have on my new device, because carrying a CD player and a radio separately was very irritating. Changing radio stations and modes can only be done via the remote, so if you lose the remote, you can't listen to the radio. You can even improve broadcast reception if you read the manual. You can preset radio stations manually or have the player do it automatically. You can preset up to 51 stations - 30 FM, 10 AM, 7 TV and 4 Weather. If you live in Canada, you will not have the TV/Weather tuner. The TV option lets you listen to TV shows, and it is useful if you want to listen to the local news, for instance. My player was unable to pick up the Weather so I haven't really looked into it.
The headphones that come with the US model (the one that I have) are different from the Canadian model. If you buy the Canadian model, you get earbuds, while the US gives you plain Sony headphones, the ones that go on the top of your head. The lower part has a metallic silver coating, which makes them look acceptable. The Sony and Walkman logos are visible on both sides and so is the model number (MDR-027). The cable that is attached to the headphones is extremely short, and that is because you have to connect it to the headphones, which then connect to the player. The remote is very thin and long, and has a silver color. There is a clip on the back, probably for those that wish to clip it to their belt instead of allowing it to hang in mid-air. The cable from the remote is a too long for me, so I have to stuff it into my pocket. The front of the remote has the Radio On/Off button, as well as the display screen. The top has the HOLD button, as well as the DISPLAY, P-Mode and Sound buttons. The bottom is home to the volume, group, stop buttons and to the jog lever, which can play, change and pause tracks. Both the player and remote display show mostly the same information, including track name, track number, battery information, time display, player mode currently in use, recording or not, even the LP mode indication. By pressing the display button, the screen will show you the track number and elapsed time, track number and name, number of total tracks in group and group name, number of total tracks and disc name or the track number and sound mode.
The warranty on this player is 1 year parts and 90 days labor. This is not the best possible warranty, but since Sony is a very reliable company, I do not think that anything will go wrong with my player. Also, this player seems very durable, as it has actually taken a tumble, and nothing happened at all. The shock absorbing mechanism worked and the music was still playing. Therefore, I do not advise you to purchase an additional warranty.
Overall, the MZ-NF610 is one great portable audio device. The price of it is around $199.99. This is a good price for it. The cheapest Sony MD Player is $129.99 but it lacks vital features such as a radio. The more expensive models come with lithium-ion rechargeable batteries but they cost nearly twice as much as the model that I own. The MZ-NF610 has every feature that you will ever need, as well as a bunch of accessories. Not only can you listen to, but also you can record music. The radio that is included is a great bonus for me. There are a few cons, such as the length of the cable and that the software can get tedious, but these cons are so small that I think that the pros greatly outweigh the cons. The fact that MDs hold so much music without sacrificing much quality is mind-boggling and this will be one device that I will use for a very, very long time.
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Unfortunately, I had to update this review. You might be wondering why. After 18 months of use, this MiniDisk player encountered a problem. The record disk wore out and became so weak that it can no longer record any new songs onto a disk. It makes the same sound like it normally did while you transfer songs, but when you hit play it says 'Blank'. This problem has been encountered by others MD users too, and so now I can only listen to my previously recorded material. This does not bode well with me, so I am now on the look-out for a new portable audio device.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 184.40
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vadimio
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