Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony MZ-N707 Net MD Walkman Player/Recorder (Black)

What I like about it : the complete packaging with all necessary cables, the rechargeable battery, the nice design, the remote control, the cheap price of minidiscs compared to MP3 players memory cards, the overall quality.

What I don't like so much : this thing cannot read MP3 files, these have to be translated to ATRAC3 files before being "checked out" to the player. This takes a lot of time and disk space, which is a pain. The result is good if you use 128 kbps MP3 files to start with, but from 96 kbps MP3 files, the resulting sound is dramatically downgraded and really horrible. As a consequence, I have to re-rip all my CDs to 128 kbps. The software is not so bad but very very slow. Many people complain it crashes or hangs too often, but I haven't had any problem under Windows 2000.

What I dislike about it : if you hope to use it as a digital recorder, you'll be very disappointed. I was able to record myself playing clarinet using an external mic, and this was fine, and very easy to do I must say. But then there is no means to export the result in a digital format. To generate an MP3 file from there, you must re-record the track using the headphones plug as line-out to the AUX input of your PC's sound card. With a significant loss of quality (and time). Really frustrating, a stupid software limitation...

Well, I read all of the reviews, here and elsewhere, and I still decided to get the 707 despite what everyone said. I am so happy that I did! This device is not only very easy to use, it is also very fast. The conversion from MP3 to ATRAC is fast...Others must just have slow computers as mine transferred a whole playlist in less than 5 min! - That's faster than my CD burner runs when it's not converting file types! The software that comes with the 707 is also reliable (version 2.2) and seems to work fine with Windows XP.
One of the reasons that I bought the 707 was so that I could record my drumming lessons for playback later when I practiced. I bought a decent digital mic and a recording I went with much success!
CAUTION: If want a device that allows you to record audio like concerts and than upload the audio onto your computer, don't buy this unless you are satisfied with analog conversion or have a MD deck on hand. If you want to record onto MD via microphone and don't care about uploading to PC or editing, then the 707 is for you!

I've enjoyed my player for about two weeks or so. I was actually about to return it due to the lack of Usability of the OPEN MG software that came with the unit but read that the Real One Player supports the recorder. So I downloaded the free Real version, clicked on add a new device- got the download from Real and off I went- now file swapping is a snap!
I'v recorded in LP2 and LP4 mode and notice no degredation in the sound quality either.
I would suggest this unit as long as you use the real player software.
Cheers!

I didn't believe all the gripes about the OpenMG Jukebox software. I admit, I thought that the people writing these reviews were simply joyless. I bought the MZ-N707 anyway. Boy was I wrong.

Q: Why on Earth---during a so-called digital music revolution---are the Godfathers of portable music (Sony) trying so hard to regulate themselves out of a booming market?

A: Greed. Ever since Sony got mixed up in the business of signing and marketing artists, they've forgotten that they're best at selling hardware. They've taken sides with Metallica, Garth Brooks, and the rest of the paycheck artists, and written software that will not allow you and me to use the music we've legally purchased in the ways that best suit us.

I bought my mini-disc player because I'm a lover of the mix tape. Mini discs are mix tapes---just 4-times bigger. So big, in fact, that it can be baffling. Perfect, right?

Wrong. Anyone who loves mixes understands that the same song can sound radically different from itself, depending on the context. So, it's conceivable that you might want to include the same song on a number of different discs. But, Sony's software will not allow you to use the same song twice. Instead of treating you like a valued customer, they have assumed you are a cheat, a thief, and a dirtbag---trying to cash in on the sale of digital music.

Whatever, buddy.

When I got by MD player, I converted my entire CD collection to MP3s into my PC. To get started---to build a quick collection of mini-discs---I created huge, 5-hour "Greatest Hits" collections of many of the artists in my collection. It's great, but everyone knows that Greatest Hits can grow old quickly, and the lover of the mix tape wants variety. But now, in order to make a mix that spans my collection, I have to erase all of the "Greatest Hits" collections in order to use any of those songs on a mix disc. That is foul play, Sony. Fix your software, or watch everyone move to MP3 playersand iPods---a much more valuable alternative. Fix your software to allow users to edit songs. (I.e., if I like the last "numbered" song on an album and want to include it onto a mini disc, I also have to include the hidden track attached to it, along with however many minutes of silence that lie between the two.) Set your customers free, Sony, or watch them scurry for alternatives. So many already exist. The genie is out of the bottle. Evolve with us. Find creative solutions. Not reprimands. Not rules. Not regulations.

Join the revolution. Post software updates now.

I read all the reviews here (and elsewhere), bought the product and then with some trepidation, loaded the OpenMG software. I've a fairly brutish machine (IBM-Pentium 4) and I work for a business software vendor, so I know that software is never perfect and that a lot of people's complaints might be due to the poor set-up of their own machine. Anyway, it certainly turned out to be a very complicated piece of software (designed no doubt by an old technician) with more buttons and options than you could swing a cat at, it took me half an hour just to find the instructions (incidentally, I had to go to the web and download an animation by a Sony specialist to work it out). But then came the real shock: on trying to load a non-copyright piece of material (a free sermon/preacher actually, for those of you thinking I can spin a yarn!!), an OpenMG message sprang up "Cannot find the copyright information for the selected song(s)" and refused to load it!!! How dumb is that?!

I'm all for copyright. Personally, I feel really uncomfortable downloading other people's property and using it for free, but this is madness!! Sony has really screwed up on this 'lock-down' mentality (by a bozo in the marketing or legal department probably) and rubbed salt into the wound by not thinking about users swapping free material... there are other equally stupid things about this software but hey, you may find them quaint.

Back to the story:

Deflated, I looked back across the reviews and noted that someone was using RealOne with MDNET... so I (i) downloaded RealOne vs 6.0 (an excellent product btw) and then (ii) used the update feature to load a MDNET plug-in. Within two minutes I has downloaded my first track...no copyright issues at all.

The rest of the product? Excellent... I give the hardware a 5 and the software a 0, hence... 4 (the hardware is that good, it makes up for it)