Sony MZ-NE410 High Speed Net MD Walkman Recorder Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)After browsing hours and hours for a cheap alternative to buying an mp3 player and something I could run with I spent about 2 hours in Best Buy and reading reviews on Amazon.com to find what I wanted.I paced back and forth through the aisles constantly going back to the mp3 area only to find myself so close to buying this open item iPod...it was 269 for a 10 GB old style iPod, however it was kind of beat up.
I realized its really not practical to buy that thing or any other flash mp3 player for that matter...if you ever wanted to change songs you'd have to head back to your computer to add or remove songs on to your flash mp3 player.I knew about the Sony MZ-NE410 and it was on sale for 99 dollars.I use to own a MiniDisc player and hi-fidelity is a plus for a minidisc player vs. an mp3 player.Ignore those SNR (Signal2Noise Ratio) numbers on mp3 players nothing compares to a minidisc player.
Last but not least LP4...I was afraid it was going to sound horrible like a 64 kbps mp3 or even worse...LP4 is freaking amazing let me tell you.There is a quality difference but the difference is hardly noticable to the average ear.I can hear flaws but there's no distortion and its very clear.Amazing product!99 Dollars and CHEAP MEDIA!Each minidisc holds about 320 minutes (LP4 Mode), 160 (Lp2), and 80 min (SP NEAR CD QUALITY).It is about 1 ounce lighter then an iPod and MUCH MORE PRACTICAL.Stop throwing away your money...the iPod's Hard Drive is more likely to fail since there are moving parts in a Hard Drive.I listen to about 5 or more CD's on one minidisc.I am still using the one that came with mine.Its not as thin or as small as those keychain mp3 players but its great for jogging and small enough.
The minidisc player also plays just like Sony's recent mp3 products.It buffers music into its memory while it's playing and stops spinning the minidisc after gaining filling up its buffer space.This increases battery life (about 56 hours with E2 Energizer Batteries) and the actual players life and of course for movement protection (G-Protection).Most mp3 players only play for about 10 hours.Technically an mp3 player is suppose to last longer then something with moving parts but many forget that an mp3 needs to decode the music which is like processor power in your computer and translate it to a sound unit in your player just like sound cards in your computer.YOU CAN'T GO WRONG WITH THIS!There's no pretty LCD but you're listening to music not watching equalizer bars go up and down and see the lapse time of the song, screw the LCD.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Sony MZ-NE410 High Speed Net MD Walkman Recorder

Product Description:
The MZ-NE410 Net MD Walkman recorder has everything needed to create great-sounding music mixes. In addition to transferring music at up to 32x speed (using its LP4 mode), the unit's SonicStage Jukebox software stores and manages digital music files, custom playlists, and music transfers, making it a cinch to transfer music to the device. The MZ-NE410 offers high-speed transfer from a PC via a direct USB connection, and it can record more than five hours of music on one 80-minute minidisc (using LP4 mode). It also uses Sony's skip-free G-Protection technology, which eliminates or reduces skipping during many active uses. The MZ-NE410 is compatible with the RealOne music player and the pressplay.com online music subscription service. It plays back ATRAC3 files and supports multiple Internet audio formats, including MP3, WMA, and WAV. The unit provides up to 56 hours of continuous playback on one AA battery.
The Easy Skip group-folder function helps organize songs into albums or groups. Once the music is transferred to the MZ-NE410, you can easily skip from group to group. Besides the bundled SonicStage software and SonicStage simple burner application, the MZ-NE410 includes software for creatively organizing music. MoodLogic software goes beyond typical jukebox applications, letting you compile music by mood or tempo rather than simply by artists and song titles.
MoodLogic corrects file information by identifying and retitling mislabeled tracks during ID3 tag cleaning. It also has a feature called Music Marker, which lets you "tag" music during playback. Once the device is reconnected to a PC, MoodLogic retrieves the marks, connects to the Musiclub Web site, and provides information about the song and artist and links to download new tracks, purchase CDs, or discover similar artists.
Note: The MZ-NE410's recording features and bundled software are not compatible with the MacOS operating system
Here's how you can use the included Sonic Stage Software to manage your music files:

Want to buy Sony MZ-NE410 High Speed Net MD Walkman Recorder at other amazon sites? Click the corresponding icon below:

Creative Zen V Plus 1GB (Black/Orange) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I bought this for my 11 year old son. At first I was upset, it is much smaller than I had expected.However he loves it. The software is very user- friendly and he needed only basic help from me in the begining, now he can load all his own music without assistance. It does have a joystick-type button to access themenu so I would recommend caution and patience when using that. So far, he has had no issues with it.Definitely worth the money. The sound quality is amazing. One thing that is not made clear though: it does have a FM tuner, BUT you can NOT record from it, we thought you could.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Creative Zen V Plus 1GB (Black/Orange)

Product Description:
ZEN V Plus is so tiny that it will fit into almost any pocket. But don't let the size fool you; the ZEN V Plus is packed with all the great features you desire. Fill your tiny ZEN V Plus with up to 500 songs. Log on to the Internet and browse different music services for the songs you want. Download your favorite songs without paying for the whole album. Plus, for a low monthly fee, you can join a subscription service and fill and refill your ZEN V Plus with new tunes everyday. Your videos will look amazing on the stunning 1.5-inch color screen. Show off your favorite video clips of friends, vacations or cool skateboarding stunts. Rich, vibrant photos, album art, and menus burst to life. Navigate all of your content with remarkable ease using the patented ZEN user interface. Your music, photos and videos are all available at your fingertips. When in the mood for something different, simply use the built-in FM radio. Set up to 32 station presets so you can catch up on the latest sports results, listen to your favorite talk show, or navigate your way out of traffic problems.Audio Playback Format -MP3, WMA, WAV and Audible Photo Format -JPEG Video Playback Format -Uncompressed AVI, other formats via transcoding Organizer -Syncs with and views Microsoft Outlook Contacts, Calendar & Tasks Signal-to-Noise Ratio -Up to 92dB Frequency Response -20Hz - 20kHz View Photos and Album Art at any viewing angle Personal Video Clips FM Radio Direct CD Recording Built-in Voice Recorder Skip free playback 8 EQ settings (Acoustic, classical, disco, jazz, new age, pop, rock and vocal) System Requirements -Microsoft Windows XP (Service Pack 1 or higher) / XP 64-bit, Intel Pentium III 1GHz or AMD Duron 1GHz, 256MB RAM, USB 1.1 port (USB 2.0 recommended), 170MB free hard drive space (more for audio content storage) Dimensions -Height 2.7 x Width 1.7 x Depth 0.6 inch Weight -1.55 ounces

Want to buy Creative Zen V Plus 1GB (Black/Orange) at other amazon sites? Click the corresponding icon below:

SanDisk Sansa e130 512 MB Digital Audio Player with SD Expansion Slot Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This mp3 player is pretty darn good.It is light weight, easy to handle, and fairly inexpensive ($103 from Amazon).I bought the Sandisk over the Rio and RCA offerings because Sandisk, at least in my research, didn't seem to have the number of complaints about product quality and lack of customer support that the other two brands had.Also, it seems as if getting at least a 512MB flash memory player with an expansion slot is going to cost around $100.

This player represents the second Sandisk mp3 player in our household.We were impressed with the ease of use and tranfer speed of the 512MB flash memory player (with no expansion slot).The Sansa player is no different.It is literally drag and drop on to the Sansa.The number of features also put it over the top versus the RCA and Rio.

Overall, you can't beat the usefullness of this little gadget.

Pro's:

--Small size, light weight
--USB 2.0 file transfer speed (transfer 100mb worth of songs in seconds)
--Backlight display
--Plays mp3 and WMA (you can put both on the player at the same time and it doesn't even blink)
--Radio reception is fairly decent here in the hills, but still won't pick up all of the available stations in your area (none of the small mp3 players on the market get anything more than decent reception so don't use this as a selling point regardless of what you buy)
--Sound quality is decent even when playing songs at 64Kbps.If you use this compression level, get good earphones.
--Lots of features including a customizable 5-band eqaulizer with presets, WOW surround sound simulator, and other sound effects.Also, has stopwatch timer and a host of other settings you can play with.
--Battery life is excellent.Not as good as some, but still near the top of players that have good battery life.
--It comes with pouch, armband, earbuds, usb cable.

Minor Con's:
--When you purchase this player, buy headphones.The included earbuds are pointless as the sound quality is barely adequate and the included 3 sets of earbud covers can't keep the earbuds in my ears.
--The battery cover door comes off fairly easily.It looks like it's on there pretty tight but it's not.I think Sandisk did this because of the many complaints that the battery covers on their mp3 players were too difficult to remove causing many people to break the battery cover (like my fiancee did with her own player).
--Your music files need to be properly tagged. I thought my files were appropriately named but this player doesn't seem to recognize the songs.I think the ID3 tags on my music are not correct as the player will display the music title you typed in but it will also show the album, song title, and artist as unknown.
--The buttons on the front are hard to push if you are not expecting it.You just have to adapt to pushing the button deeper than you would think.
--The volume is controlled by a rotary wheel on the top right side of the player.It is very difficult to turn, especially when it is in the holder.I would have preferred two more buttons on the front or side than the wheel.
--Getting the player out of the holder is incredibly difficult.Wipe of the display of the player and the inside of the plastic holder before putting the player in the holder.The plastic film that protects the display during transport leaves either static or a light adhesive film on the display that makes it stick to the plastic holder after you put it in.It took me five minutes and many attempts to get it out before I realized what happened.Also be careful not to yank off the battery door when pulling the player out of the holder. There you have it.None of these gripes add up to more than a minor irritation which is why I gave it five stars (I would have given it 4.5 starts if I could have).However, having experienced other mp3 players, this one has the best combination of manufacturer product reliability and product support, versatility and expandability (up to 2GB SD card), features, and sound quality.My finacee has started using my player instead of her own player.Added on 4/25/05:
In my initial review, I forgot to mention two things.The Sansa ignores your file organization so don't bother trying to setup seperate folders for different genres of music.This is why I warned before to make sure that the music you have is named and tagged properly because it does allow you to play songs by artist, album, date added to player, and so on (let's hope SanDisk fixes this with some software upgrades).Also, there is about a 1-2 second lag when switching between songs.This can get a little annoying at times but you will get used to it. To be fair, one more upside is that I added a 1G SD card (SanDisk Ultra II) and after the initial 60 seconds to read the card and update the playlist, it doesn't miss a beat.I still really enjoy this mp3 player.

Added on 05/02/05:
My Sansa has started to drink batteries like I drink Coke.Not sure why; it could be using extra juice to read music on the SD card.I may have to purchase rechargeable batteries if this keeps up.I got 6 hours of playing time out of my last battery.My fiancee's Sandisk (a flash memory player, no expansion slot) goes about 15 hours on a AAA battery.Not sure why the huge discrepancy between our two Sandisk players but my best guess is that my batteries are being drained reading the memory card.It would be helpful if someone out there with some knowledge about this would write a review.

Added on 0725/05:
After having a chance to live with the player for a few more months, I have to downgrade the rating to 3 stars.The player has become harder to live with.It plays reliably and the sound is good but it is still drinking batteries like crazy and the rotary volume knob hasn't loosened up much.Sandisk hasn't offered any software upgrades to address the lack of being able to organize your files any way you want to and it is still very difficult to remove the player from its holder.Having owned several makes and models of players before, this is still better than those players because each of those players died 2-8 months after purchase.Shop around and get what sounds good to you.

Click Here to see more reviews about: SanDisk Sansa e130 512 MB Digital Audio Player with SD Expansion Slot

Product Description:
SanDisk Sansa e100 series of small, highly portable digital music players use embedded flash memory to store many hours of digital music. For an enjoyable music-listening experience, the new music players feature high-fidelity sound, a sophisticated yet easy-to-use song navigation and sorting system and a unique design that continues SanDisks tradition of distinctive styling.

Get 57% OFF

Want to buy SanDisk Sansa e130 512 MB Digital Audio Player with SD Expansion Slot at other amazon sites? Click the corresponding icon below: