Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony MZ-S1 S2 Sports Net MD MiniDisc Player

Absolutely Great! No problems with software at all. Open MG recorded great and easy as did Simple Burner, and finished music sounded great all around. Have not tried LP4 yet but I see no reason why it won't be good also except for small reduction in quality. I would purchase again without question.

Sony may have missed the boat with their MZ-S1 Net-MD Minidisc Walkman. First of all, it is HEAVY, over 1/2 pound with battery and minidisk. Second, it is designed to be a "handheld" unit which can be a bit awkard for some sport uses. Third, there are vertually no "flat" surfaces for mounting universal belt clip buttons. Fourth, the "joystick" control is quite a nifty idea , but it requires a lot of finess and practice to operate. Fifth, did I mention that it is HEAVY, weighing in at over 1/2 pound with battery and minidisk. Maybe that is the reason it is designed to be a handheld, its to heavy to carry around in a pocket or on a waist band.

This thing is awesome, though the software it comes with is a pain in the backside. I hate that Sony makes you "check out" songs from a library. But you can use other software such as RealOne that is easier to use with it. I have seen this thing for sale for $149 to $199 - but Best Buy has it for $66. That was what made me buy it! You can go into one of their stores and get it for that price, or jump on Ebay and find their online store. Either way - $66 for this toy is a stunning bargain!! I have an MP3 player that I've since stopped using because of the ease of use of this MD player. No plugging into a PC and switching out songs with a Flash ROM chip in an MP3 player. I just grab maybe 2-3 disks with music that suits my mood at the time and hit the gym. I'd have given this item 4 out of 5 stars because of the obtuse software but for $66 it gets 5 stars in my book!

I'm a budget conscious consumer so I've really taken my time researching the MP3 player scene before buying something. Before reading my review see if my concerns were the same as yours. My big concerns are durability of the player and the cost of increasing music storage. If those were my only issue, not just my main ones, I could have given this 5 stars. The player is durable, additional media are about [$$$] each, and I have yet tp get this to skip and I've dropped it (accidentally) and taked it running.

I do have a few issues though. First, the unit needs some sort of strap. Whether it is a hand strap or arm or whatever, it needs something other than the wimpy wrist strap that comes with it which is meant more to catch the player if you accidentally drop it rather than keeping it in place during active use.

Second, The whole check in/out feature is annoying. If I used this player significantly more than I do I might wish I had purchased something different. I guess the whole idea is to help prevent the propgation of illegal music trading. Whatever your opinion on that subject I think anyone would agree that what Sony has done here isn't the answer, their implementation just frustrates those of us who have a large collection of digital music obtained legally. Besides, the process slows down the transfer of music to the player dramatically and thwarts any additional potential the player had, keeping the Sony Mini-Disc players from cometing on a level with the iPod. If the discs were treated like standard digital media and the player was recognized as a removeable disc drive by Windows think of all of the uses for the player. It could be a mini hard drive, carry standard files, speed up digital music transfer, etc. Instead it is just an "MP3 player", and even then it is not a true MP3 player, it can merely convert MP3s, WMAs, etc. into the propietary ATRAC3 format.

That gets into the OpenMG jukebox program used for transferring music onto the player. It's quirky and flakes out frequently. Evidently it has gotten better from the reviews I read but it still has quite a ways to go.

All in all I got the player mainly for use when I go running and it is quite good at that, I just spend longer than I want putting together my mini-disc compilations. If money is not an issue for you however or you have plenty of removeable memory I would recommend getting something a little nicer.

I initially bought this product on an impulse because what I wanted was not in stock and I wanted to get some tunes for my motorcycle. Well, the product is Great except for one BIG problem_____the software does not work after about 2-3 applications. I took it back and got a replacement to no avail. It still does not work. I'm taking it back to the retailer and am going to try Sony's S-2 CD Player/Reciever/MP3 unit. Do I sound bitter????You bet I am, after all the time and lost money(accessories) I've spent trying to make something work that doesn't___________work.