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 enlarge | Brand: Sony
Category: CE
List Price: $129.99
Buy New: $90.00
You Save: $39.99 (31%)
New (4) from $90.00
Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 26205
Color: Black
Media: Electronics
Batteries Included: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 0 x 0.1 x 0.1
MPN: MZDN430
Model: MZDN430
UPC: 027242664258
EAN: 0027242664258
ASIN: B0007RJWZ0
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Great Sound but poor Mp3 player September 14, 2005
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
Let's start out by saying that I like the device, It's a better sounding player than any of the others I've used recently. With that said, let me detail why I think it's an average product and will be getting something to take it's place.
First there is no Mp3 support. None. All Mp3s have to be converted in order to get them on the disks. This takes a LONG time. Even longer than dragging and dropping my directory trees onto the more expensive hard-drive players.
Speaking of Drag and Drop... there is none. Any music you put on this player must be done so with the crappy software that is included.
I say the software is crappy because every CD I've ever owned has been ripped to my hard drive by artist with directory brances for each album title. The software that I'm supposed to use to transfer my music to the player only regognizes about half of those ablums (even though every album falls into catagory trees under the artists' name) and lists them as "misc" albums. The result of importing your files into the software is a directory folder by the name of Metallica, which contains sub folders for the albums "Kill 'em All," "Ride the Lightning," "Master of Puppets," "And Justice for All," and "Metallica" suddenly becomes "Artist: Metalica, Albums: And "Justice for all" and "Metallica" and the Misc. Artists area of the software suddenly contains the rest of the albums. This is rediculous, especially given that I've done all the work in arragning all my artists and albums for the software. You would think it could simply look at my organization of the files in question and import them as it sees them. Instead it basically does it's own thing.
With my old Archos Jukebox player, all I had to do was plug it into my computer and drag the directory tree over to the new USB drive and wait about an hour.
With the NetMD player, I have to select the tunes I want (because there is much less room on an MD than say a 1 gig flash drive) and wait while the song is converted from mp3 to the propriatary format and then wait for the song to be transered over the USB 1.0 cable. In other words it's slow. In the time it took me to burn a 66 song MD, I could have transered about 5 gigs of my mp3 collection to a hard disk player.
Also annoying is the fact that FEW of my settings carry over from one disk to the other. So when I throw in a mix disk and set it to play in shuffle mode, it works fine until I hit stop and remove the MD to replace it with a new one. Then I have to navigate the menu to set the player pack to shuffle mode. The sound settings and display settings are carried over regardless of the disk being played, but the other settings are not.
One last gripe is that in order to carry a full working day's worth of music, I have to carry several mini-disks. Meaning that my pocket is packed with a five pack of recorded Mini-disks and the player as well as an extra battery just in case. There's just not that much storage capacity in a Mini Disk. I can get about 60 to 70 songs on a single Mini-disk, but the average 256mb flash drive player does the same and is easier to use (and cheaper too).
Honestly though, the positives outweigh the negatives (saving this device from a 2 star rating in my book). The Sound quality is AMAZING. Seriously, I've not heard an mp3 player sound like this before. Of course, the NetMD player isn't exactly an mp3 player and I suspect that has something to do with the sound quality. My guess is that the format that the mp3s are converted to restore some of the peaks and valleys in the music that the mp3 format ignores. Even the lp4 recorded disks actaully sound better than more other Mp3 players I've used.
The interface is good, with simple clicks sets everything up and running. The software, while nothing but annoying, is easy to install and figure out and does it's job. The battery life is AWESOME! For a single AA battery you get a LOT of play time.
It's a great player, but I think most people who buy this would be better served by a 256mb, 512mb or 1 gig flash drive for a few dollars more. You would get more music in a smaller package and you wouldn't have to use clunky and annoying software to get your music onto your player or from your player to another computer or player.
In the end, the Sony mz-dn430 is not a bad little device, but it could be a whole heck of a lot better and simple 256mb and 512mb flash drives are in about the same price range, store more music and are much easier to use.
 Very nice product September 12, 2005
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I've owned this MD for a few weeks, and I'm totally satisfied, the only thing is that even if it doesn't include the car kit, it should have, at least, the DC input (and may be the remote control input), so you could buy the kit as an accessory
 wow August 9, 2005
i just got this player recently and wow, i love it. it transfers cds to the discs so much faster then any mp3 that ive seen. The quality is so much better to, its like im listining to the cd the way it was meant to be heard. and its small enough to fit into the little pockets people have on there pants. this is a great toy for anyone.
i love it July 17, 2005
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
md player it self gets 5stars the software is ok. this is my 2nd one (the first was stolen)and i love the case design of this one. i had the plan black on. the i-pod has become a fad. apple usta use the slogan thin diffrent. i love apple computers but i dont like the fad of the ipod. the md playe gets better baterie life and the ear bud that came with it where suprisly loud , but the hurt my ears, got some kross pro from radio shack . the same md disk that i once played on my $50 soby ear buds sound 100 time better on the new head phones.i have wateched md sence i was a kid and could not afford one but know they have become so inexpencive that it makes no sence to spend all o your money on a overprice laptop hard drive.
Holy ****!!! June 23, 2005
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
FOr a while I was thinking about buying an Apple Ipod, but hten I saw those on a website. 5 hours of music to one MiniDIsc really caught my attention. This player is acually more frugal than the APlle Ipod. FOr 300 dollars you get 5000 songs (Ipod) For 200 dollars in Mini Discs (The SOny Multi-color ones) you can get more than 7000 songs. That, to me, was a major sellling point. Then, I bought it and got it home. This product amazed me even more. The software is so easy to use, and works really quickly. You can make custom folders withcertain songs in them, and yuo can even record in different quality modes. (LP2-Best LP4-2nd Best) Truthfully, I can't tell the difference between them. I would reccomend this player to anyone who is looking for a way to store lots of music on something very small. I would also buy this over any Mp3 player. Yet again, Sony has come through!
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