Sony Net MD Walkman Digital Music Player user reviews (MZNF520DKIT)

4.5 stars

"Great Alternative" on September 15, 2005 by mjw1948

Pros: Inexpensive, Unlimited memory

Cons: Not an Apple Nano

Summary: I was looking for something that you could excercise with and had sufficient memory to accomodate both my wife's and my music collection. HD units were out and Flash units were too expensive for 2GB of memory. If you do not mind a player that does not look cool and not mind storing several tiny minidiscs, this is a great alternative. For $112 I purchased this unit brand new, 5 additional Sony Gold minidiscs, a Sony armband and 4 AA rechargeble batteries and a charger. Recording in LP 2 mode, you can store 160 hours of music on one disc. In SP mode, 80 hours and 320 in LP4 LP2 is very comparable to my son's Apple Mini in sound. However, you may want to replace the Sony supplied earphones as they are marginal at best. The software, Sonicstage Version 2.0 takes some getting used to but it is not as bad as people make it out to be. You can upgrade to version 3.2 from the Sony Support site and it does add some improvements. The FM/TV/Weather band remote that comes with it works fine. Reception of course will vary based on your location. You really need to use re-chargeble batteries as the unit does not charge off of USB when you are loading CD's and eats batteries. Once in playing mode, a high capacity rechargeble lasts 30--40 hours. If you are looking for a highly reliable, durable, stable, inexpensive player and don't really care about a cool looking unit or colorfull displays, the Minidisc format from Sony may be for you. There are lots of deals out there on many different models. Also, for thoese who don't like SonicStage, Sony will be replacing it with Connect Player, more of a drag and drop format.