Sony MZ-S1 S2 Sports Net MD MiniDisc Player

My thoughts on this player, the Sony MZ-S1 Sport Net MD

The Good:

Does not skip. I have run, hiked and worked out on machine assisted equipment while using it. When running I have to hold it in my hand. When hiking or working out with machine equipment I hang it around my neck. I added a lanyard to the small, but very strong, strap that came with the player and this works very well. The player uses a single AA battery. I use the player constantly when I travel, 6-7 days a month and one battery normally last for my whole travel time when I play it for 4-5 hours a day while traveling. I have never used more than two batteries in one month. Very durable for being dropped 7 times.

The Not So Good: A little heavy for being water proof. I have not tested the water proofing claim yet. Sony makes a non-water proof model that does the same things but is $60-$80 dollars cheaper and weighs half a much.

The Bad: Head phones that came with them were not good. Used my old Sony head phones that goes behind the neck and clip on the ears. The software that comes with the player not very user friendly but gets the job done. Do not expect to just plug the player into your computers USB port and download music. You must load the software first. Windows XP will recognize the player as an external hard drive but will not transfer anything to it. It took me 30 minutes of reading and configuring to get my music to start transferring. It took about 30 minutes more to transfer and record an entire Mini-Disc worth of music in LDP mode (5 hours). The software first converts the MP3/WAV files then transfers them to the player. My computer is a HP Pentium 4, 2.53 GHZ, 512MB Ram, Windows XP Home Edition.

If I had to make the purchase again I would get the non-water proof model. Does the same thing, cost $60-$80 dollars less and weighs half as much.

I hope this review helps someone with a future purchas. This was my first long review.


OUSTANDING PRODUCT   December 26, 2003
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Whoever has previously written any kind of negative review regarding this product obviously had problems of some sort trying to use it. I bought this as a christmas present for my boyfriend, and he is not computer literate so he had trouble trying to figure it out. But I did not! As soon as the software was loaded on to our computer, the ripping of songs off of discs we already had and recording onto the MD was EASY!!!! Not to mention it's water proof, and my boyfriend plans to use this solely for snowboarding! It doesn't skip!! We tried hitting it while it was playing and it did nothing to the way the song was playing. Not to mention it's light, and compact. Anyone who is anyway computer literate can figure out how to use this, it's fast, friendly and most of all FANTASTIC!!!


Overall good, but very expensive   December 16, 2003
 3 out of 5 found this review helpful

This is a good MD player. I love its heavy construction,and lit display screen. The toggle switch is a bit hard to use while recording, recording itself is a bit difficult!

I do not use the Open MG/supersonic program, BEWARE it embeds something into your computer that messes up your mp3's.

Instead i bought a cable to connect it to my cd player, casset tape player and radio. This works well, but takes out some quality in the sound. Its nice to merge 3-4 cds on one minidisc.

I don't think of this as a alternative to a cd player, but as a alternative to a tape recorder because I don't use the software.


blank disc issue   December 16, 2003
 5 out of 6 found this review helpful

in case you have not read many postings on this issue, there is a risk of your unit not working after the warranty expires. I bought my Sony sports MD player over a year ago and it has suddenly stopped recording. There are dozens of postings at the following link complaining about Sony MD's, i would check it out before you buy this product. Sony's response has been almost non-existent and most people are having to pay around 100 bucks to repair.

http://www.musiclub.sonystyle.com/community/thread.jsp?forum=4&thread=16873

andy


A great machine, but not perfect   December 6, 2003
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

I don't wanna make you feel bored about this review, so I'm gonna be fast.
Fisrt of all, The Net MD are a million times better than a mp3 Discman. Why? Because MiniDisc are stronger and smaller, you can carry them in any pocket of your blue jeans.
(MD 1 - Other Players 0)
Second, With onle one MiniDisc you can store more than 5 hours. The software OpenMG converts the mp3 format to the MD format. You can export them only 3 times, that's true. But 3 times to 3 differet MDs, because you can send back a song to your PC and you'll have one more chance to record that song. If the tranfer fail, it doesn't count as a complete tranfer.
(MD 2 - Other Players 0)
Third, Its orange screen lets you see the title of the song, time remaining and many other data. Something that any other player doesn't have.
(MD 3 - Other Players 0)
Fourth, The weight is its weak point. It cannot be carried in your shirt pocket, and hardly in your jeans.
(MD 3 - Other Players 1)
In conclusion, I recomend this product. The Oks have beaten the KOs. You won't feel dissapointed. Enjoy it!