Sony MZ-N510CK NetMD Walkman/Recorder with Car Kit

A step up from CD players but not up there with mp3 harddrive players.

It uses MiniDiscs which is a bonus for being small while also holding more than cds. But again it's not part of the player and it's just like any other cd: Limited amount of songs. Mp3 players will always store more, and it'll be there anywhere with you.

And like cd players you have to fast forward if you want to listen to one song that fits your mood at the time. Fast forward will kill the battery and just drive that disc crazy.

For the price it is nicer than say a small flash drive space mp3 player. ANd it does have the possibility of having more music than flash drive players and cd players.

So it is nice to get this for the price if you're not a huge music lover. If you are a music lover, and you have music in the thousands like me then I would go for the 20 or 60 GB harddrive mp3 players.

And that might sound bias, but I use to have this MD player but just recently upgraded to an iPod because my music was just too big to fit on so many MiniDiscs, and it was a huge hassle to want to listen to some Led on the train when the disc that it was on was at home.

It's a great and stylish product but I won't buy one again. I know MD is very popular in Asia and other parts of the world, but I just don't see how is that better then MP3 players especially when the price on the MP3 players are getting cheaper by the days? I used to own 2 SONY MD players and got rid of them all!!! The sound quality is good only if you record the tracks in MD standard format and in real time. Anything other than that, is gonna sound crappy. I am sure many reviews have already covered that aspect. And the SONY software sucks too when it comes to copyright laws. They remind me a bunch of old guys trying to enforce the old rules. Do yourself a favorite and get a MP3 player like iPod or something.

Though the sound quality and other hardware features are good, I would seriuosly recommend users not to buy this product. The software is such a big hassle that you stop using it as a MP3 player. It is a big pain to check in and check out songs and the user interface of the sonicstage software needs to be improved by leaps and bounds.

Besides the discs cost high (5 discs for $8), typical SONY strategy of making money by selling high-priced accessories.

You can rather buy an IPOD, if you can afford it, since it has much more value for money. In case your budget is low, any standard mp3 players should do the trick rather than going for the NET MD player from sony.

Very impressed w/ this little Sony MD unit. Great sound in a small pkg. This is my 1st minidisc player so I don't have a reference for comparison. Haven't tried to dnld music or record yet. I understand from some of the other reviews that the software can be fustrating to use but as long as I stay within the capabilities/limitations of this MD Net unit It should function ok. The learning curve for me to get up to speed will be long & slow but I'll get there.

First off, I'm only going to comment on the HARDWARE, because everyone knows that the Sonicstage software leaves much to be desired. Moving right along, this is a great entry-level minidisc player. I wanted a HI-MD player, however the prices are very high right now. I'm going to wait for the next generation players to come out because prices should come down considerably. With having said that, Atrac, as a codec, is far superior to MP3. My ripped Atrac LP4 tracks (highest compression, thus more music on a MD) sound considerably better than 128 bit MP3. Likewise, the LP2 sounds magnificent as compared to mp3. Overall, sound quality is typical Sony quality. Very good. The menu takes a while to get used to, but works well once you get the hang of it. This is my first Minidisc player, and I'm suprised that such an old technology can be soooo good. I was considering buying an mp3 player (hard drive player,) but I remembered that years ago I really wanted a minidisc player, so I decided to research them. Minidisc media are very cheap, and can be rewritten up to a million times (as Sony claims.) The discs are very small and fit in a pocket painlessly. Using LP4 on an 80 minute disc, you can have 5 hours of music. Pair that with an additional disc in your pocket, and you can have 10 hours of music within easy reach. Be honest, do you really need THAT much music close by? The price is a lot better than MP3 too. You can find this model new and online for under 70.00 shipped. Would you rather run or bike with something 70.00 or an Ipod for 300.00? Also keep in mind Minidiscs are very durable. Again, do you *really* need to have your WHOLE music collection with you while you're excercising? Minidisc is a viable alternative to mp3 for this purpose. The small size of this unit is also nice for running. Sonicstage isn'tas bad as a lot of people make it out to be. I "burned" 5 hours of music in LP4 on a disc and it took less than 15 minutes (my mp3 files are on another computer that I'm wirelessly connected to, so your time will be much quicker.) Overall, this is a pretty basic player/recorder that will be more than enough for most needs.

In regards to recording with this unit, it is possible, and sounds good too. You will need a powered mic, however, and keep in mind that to upload back to your computer, you'll have to do it in real-time via your line-in on your soundcard. Also, keep in mind that by doing this, you lose all advantages of recording digitally as the connection through line-in is analog. But, the sound quality is still VERY good. In fact, it is very hard to tell the difference b/w the analog recording and original digital. If ALL you want to do is record, I'd reccomend getting and older model with a mic-in.