Customer Reviews:
 Handy But Somewhat Unreliable December 7, 2003
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I got this Minidisk player last Christmas. At first I was in love with it. It was small, new, held tons on music on one disk, and I was the only kid at school that had one...but after a few months the buttons got messed up. My forward track button didn't work so if I wanted to skip ahead two songs, I had to go back through the entire disk. After that, it decided to only read certain disks every once in a while. When my friends started to get minidisk players, they started having the same problems I had. I realize this is one of Sony's lower end models, but still...that is still very disappointing. Another thing about minidisks is the transfer times. Yes 32x is pretty fast, but if you've got a collection of 500 cds, that's gonna take a looong time to get all of them onto minidisks. If you have a huge CD collection I recomend getting an iRiver CD player. They are amazing for the relativly small $100 price tag. Im sure Sony's higher end minidisk players are more reliable, but as for this one, I definetly wouldn't get another one.
 Great basic MiniDisc player/recorder December 6, 2003
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
When my MP3/CD player fell to its death, I needed a replacement. I first purchased a RCA Lyra, but the software made my computer hang, so it was quickly returned. Then I saw this MiniDisc player, and it's been a joy listening to music since then. Why they haven't caught in the United States (they're EVERYWHERE in Europe) I'll never know.PROS: *Low price compared to other models, *easy to use, *excellent sound quality in SP mode (thanks to ATRAC Type-R), *phenominal battery life, *up to 5 hours of music on an 80-minute disc (about $2), *supports MP3 and WMA, *small size, *the "coolness factor" CONS: *Software is kinda buggy, *remote and other important accessories not included, *artifacts can be heard when listening to songs in LP4 mode (ESPECIALLY when converted from anything non-ATRAC or .wav), *included headphones are unimpressive, *no MIC-in So why did I give it 5 stars if it's not perfect? Despite the buggy software, it's pretty easy to use. I run XP Pro, and have had no major problems, except for the occasional program crash. OpenMG has yet to cause me to reset the computer. And if you don't like any of the commercial management programs, you can find freeware or use Nero to copy songs over. As for the accessories, battery life is so good an A/C car adapter is pretty unecessary. A remote, as well as tape adapter, can be purchased for cheap if you don't mind eBay. And as for artifacts, anything recorded at 66Kbps is going to sound a little off, but it sounds much better than an MP3 recorded at a similar bitrate. If you want your songs to sound the best in LP4 mode, I've found it works best to convert the file to be recorded back into a .wav file. There will be some loss of data when you decode the MP3, but it should hardly be noticable in anything 128Kbps or better. You'll get the best sound if you use an audio ripper to get a song from your favorite CD and then convert that .wav into ATRAC. To sum it up, I love this gadget. I have been fascinated with MiniDisc players since I saw one in a movie in the early 90s. They don't cost the $750 like they used to, thankfully. In any case, if you want a recorder/player with live recording capabilities, it might be worth your while to invest the extra money. If you're like me (meaning you don't care about live recording), then this just might be the device you're looking for. (And if nothing else, it's a great tool to use to meet people. Seriously! Strangers will come up to you and ask about it, I kid you not. It's happened to me more times than I can count on two hands.)
 Great for the price!! Good Features November 6, 2003
This is an insanely small, easy to use device. I loved it the minute I got it! I purchased it from tc2002 (who I also recommend) through amazon. It came refurbished and in perfect condition. Some reviewrs say that the software is hard to use, but I disagree. You install the software (very quick), plug in your device via USB, and start recording. I had filled the disc an hour after I had gotten it! Song transfers may take some time, but it's worth it to fit so many on 1 disc. Definitely a great medium for music playing, especially for the price you can get this device. Highly recommended!
Good Player, Bad Software November 3, 2003
This is a really great player. It can hold 4-5 cd's worth of music on one disc, and the discs are rewritable hundreds of times. The discs are really cheap, and you can take as many as you want on a trip. The software is not very good though, you can only burn the songs a few times onto he md's, and it can take a really long time. Overall, this is a good player that is worth the money.
 Sony Music really crippled it. October 20, 2003
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Someone (and I believe it to be Sony Music) really crippled this little guy. NetMD could have been real cool, but it's nothing but a hassle. It's no wonder MD didn't catch on, even with the introduction of NetMD. First, OpenMG is simply horrible. You have to Check Out the music files that you copy to it, and you only get 3 check outs. To delete a file off the MD, you have to Check In the track. You can't just drag & drop MP3 files individually either, you have to set up a whole "playlist". Not to mention, OpenMG is buggy and crashes 9% through the transfer. I downloaded SonicStage 1.5 (OpenMG's replacement) and it's still as crippled and bloated with the same check in/check out rules and stupid playlists. I don't know why I can't just drag & drop MP3's to the MD. If the terrible software weren't bad enough, all MP3's, WAV's, etc. are converted to LP2 ATRAC3 files, so your hard drive space gets wasted. That also means if you copy MP3's to the MD in SP mode, what you're getting is just LP2 converted to PCM, then the N505 itself reconverts the PCM to ATRAC. NetMD is hardly worthwhile compared to realtime recording via SPDIF. About the only thing NetMD is good for is editing track titles from the PC.
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