Home > Consumer Reviews > SONY NW-MS11 Network Walkman(R) Digital Music Player

Purchased Sony's new MS-11 but returned it the same day (and purchased Samsung YP700). Despite it's steep price...it is indeed great looking, functional but has one large flaw -- Sony's music management system is too restrictive (explained below).

Before I purchased the MS-11, its product specs read 'plays back in ATRAC and supports MP3'. This means that if you have MP3 songs that you have converted or downloaded free from the internet onto your computer, you cannot merely 'copy' them onto the Sony MagicGate memory stick ("MS"), but rather must convert the MP3 song file into Sony's ATRAC format. Once converted, Sony's music management system tracks how many instances of a song has been 'checked' out of your computer (that you connect the MP3 player to) and limits the number of times you can 'checkout' a song. Also, Sony recommends that 'checked out' songs are then 'checked back in' (as opposed to merely deleting the song from MS if you no longer want it) -- what a hassle!

Bottom line is that Sony (as a music company) wants to (over) protect music intellectual property which means a hindrance to users.

I would recommend other brands, such as Samsung YP700 (which is 128MB built-in and you can add 128MB memory chip), as opposed to Sony MS-11 which has no built-in memory but does come with 128MB MS. The Samsung looks great, works great (blue LCD lighting with remote control) and is cheaper at [lower price] -- and importantly, you can simply copy/delete downloaded MP3 files onto the player without dealing with a 'check-in/check-out' music filing system.

I am truely shocked at the good reviews for this product. The things that are good are that it is a good petit size, excellent for someone like me who does not wanna hawl a bunch of cds around and a bulky cd player especially if you are gonna go to the gym and work out or what have you. In its most compact format it holds about 50 songs depending on the lengths of songs and using its smallest format. Othen than that everything else sucks. The battery is a piece of crap. It is a unique size which is not available in stores, so once it goes no matter what you are doing you cannot replace it with another, you have to wait until you get home to recharge it again. Since I had it I have returned to to Sony 2 times mostly casue the battery does not work right. It clearly says in the book to charge it 7 hours which i do and after a while it starts to decrease in energy. It has been a bad experience sending out the product to sony and waiting for them to return it and what have you. It has an indicator to tell you the life of the battery, mine always is blinking meaning it is low even though i just charged it. ALso it NEVER indicates the battery is full and if it does it last one song. I mean I spend 300 bucks i expect a product that works right. Not this crap. I mean i am always having issues with the battery BOTH the ones i have. Casue i bought an extra one on the side per Sonys request.... whatever. If you wanna hear the first song it is ok, but lets say you wanna hear song number 49 on your player well as you search through all the songs clicking to number 49 there goes the battery and shuts off. It is rediculous at least if you could pop a double a battery in there it wold be ok but you can not do that. So trust me the size is great but not practical, especially for this money.

This is a fantastic product -- but it's not for everyone.

If you're a big MP3 fan and have hundreds (or thousands) of MP3s, then this may not be for you. While Sony says that you can play WMA and MP3 files on this 'Walkman', you really have to convert it to ATRAC format using their software, first. If you don't mind converting to ATRAC from MP3 (the quality is similar, if not better), then this will work -- but chances are you probably don't want to go through that process.

However, if you're looking for a small, sleek, portable player that you can load several of your CDs to: this is the product for you. Pop a CD into your computer, tell the softeare to convert it, and then just choose what songs you want on the Walkman.

The sound quality is great, and the physical product is top of the line. The software could use a little work, but for the most part is solid (I wouldn't want to run it on an outdated computer, though).

First let me get this out of the way... if your not a Sony freak, you won't like this product. Sony employs its proprietary techonology in all of its products so unless you have other Sony products, your gonna find memory sticks expensive and the whole process annoying.

I have a Sony Vaio computer with memory stick reader as well as a Sony digital camera so when looking for an MP3 player, Sony seemed like the logical choice because they worked with memory sticks too. However, you MUST use Magicgate memory sticks with the player. Magicgate memory sticks will work with other Sony products but regular memory sticks will not work with the player.

The Magicgate memory sticks as well as the Sony Software is designed to protect copyrights. Sony is a music company also so they must balance their priorities.

The software is a bit cumbersome and almost unusable on slower computers but works will on newer models. You cannot simply copy the music from your folders to the memory stick... you must use the software's Check In-Check Out ability. That's cause the songs are read by the player as ATRAC3 files (Sony creation!).

There... I've given you all the problems you might face. I find this to be a great player, for me. I know some people will disagree. It's small, plays extremely well, i liked the headphones, and battery life is decent.

If your looking to buy this music player then a here are a few things you need to know.

1. transfer times are a little bit slow. cause you have to convert your mp3 into atrac an then it transfers. the transfer from your computer is fast but the converson is not.

2. i had problems with the software, i called sony to get it corrected but the phone rep couldnt help and told me that someone higher would call the next day, but no one did, instead i got an email asking me what the problem was ( i didnt like that cause it take more time to do it through email) my problem was that the software open mg caused an error and terminated in win xp. I figured that my ms outlook was messing it up and delete outlook and every since open mg has worked fine.

3. the whole check in/ check out system [stinks]. Im fine with the whole check out thing but the fact that i have to check the song back in to avoid not being able to check the song out next time is absurd (actually you have 4 check outs with out check in before it does that). i know the system is to prevent ppl from sharing songs but why would it matter if you check it in or not cause you cannot put the song on another computer anyways. for one it wont let you, two its in atrac. for me after i dont want a song on it i jsut delete it, and i recently read taht you need to check it in so im a bit peaved.

4.small things i dont like is that the battery indicator is inconsistent. its not a big deal or anything but i jsut never know when my batter is almost dead. what happens is that after you charge the bat. and put it in the indicator quickly drops to 3 bars (4 being full) then after and hour or 2, it drops to 1 bar then lasts for a while on one bar. it may not even matter to you but its sorta does for me.

so the decision you have to make is is the look worth the hassle?, is the price worth the hassle?, and is sony worth the hassle?

i know ive said alot of problems ive had with it but i still like the player it is incredibly small and looks great. It is light and does the job that i bought it for. overall i am happy with my nw-ms11, but then again i got it as a birthday present and didnt shell out [price] for it.