Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony D-NE710 ATRAC3/MP3 CD Walkman Portable Disc Player

I'm very picky when it comes to CD players. I had my previous walkman for three and a half years. But I wanted an MP3/CD player combo. I researched and researched and I decided on this model.

I fell in love with it. It has great features. It's simple enough not to be confusing, but it does do quite a bit. The sound quality is good. It has a special bass feature, which is outstanding. It has a shuffle feature, which is very important to me. Using the software it comes with, you can burn up to 490 songs on a single CD-R. When you do that, the quality isn't as high. However, if you were in the car on a long trip, it would hardly matter (if you want a car kit with it, check out the Sony D-NE718CK; it's the same exact player only with a cool car kit, and it's $20 more). Battery life is spectacular, even on two plain AA batteries. It's just an amazing player.

I have hardly anything at all to complain about. The headphones have great sound quality, but they hurt my hears when I keep them on too long. I think that has more to do with the shape of my head. They're a bit low on padding, though. Also, my old CD player had a button in the middle (where the hole of the CD goes over) that you could press and the CD would pop up. The Sony doesn't have it. Okay, yes, it's not really a complaint, I'm just sad that I can't amuse myself by pressing the button over and over again.

I have owned many many many portable audio units of various formats, and have found MP3-CD players to be the most value packed, versatile, and convient. This model can also play ATRAC3+ files which, at 64mbps, sound great, and can squeeze 24 hours on them on one disc. You can also transfer all your old mp3's to atrac3+ without sacficing any quality. The software is incredibly easy to use, and is similar to Sony's minidisc software. The battery life on this CD player is ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE! My first MP3CD player (RioVolt SP250) two years ago got less than 10 hours on 2 batteries. With this model (and using hicapacity NiMH batteries) I get more battery life than I would've expected from any portable audio device. The box says 90-something hours, but I get much more than that. Two things that would make this model better would be a backlit screen and handstrap, but that would build up the sticker a bit. All in all, I absolutely love this CD player, it's the best Sony model I've ever seen!

Overall being able to play MP3 discs as well as atrac3+ discs (and your common variety cds) is a big plus, especially for people who want to take there music with them, storing around 300 songs at a good quality. A previous person complained about the volume control - ie: being buttons up and down, vs. a volume dial. The reason I replaced my last discman was that the volume dial was old, and scratchy when adjusting volume, which happens in time, the buttons are a good work around for this wear and tear effect, and the placement of the battery compartment does reduce the height profile of the player, Again, I've seen fatter players than this.

This CD player is probably one of the best I have purchased or maybe ever will. The design is Flawless and the sound quality is excellent. I dunno wut some of you people are sayin about it being cheesy or cheap looking because it certainly is not. The last thing that would come to my mind is that the design is boring and I dont know what the last reviewer wanted the bottom of the CD player to be like, I mean cmon?! Though the Sony D-NE710 isnt as slim as some of its competitors such as the Iriver IMP350 which I own also, it still is reasonably compact and I would prefer it over the Imp350. The only tiny problem I would mention is that it does not have a backlit display which would have been very convienient. All in all I would have to say that it would be dumb not to buy this. At [this price] bucks its def. worth it.

I purchased this CD player because I wanted the long play time without changing CD's. I was going to buy a Minidisc Player, but hesitated to because of its linux incompatibility. I regret buying this product greatly for the following reasons:
1)It is neither Stylish or Ultra-slim. While the site claims it is thin and sylish in reality it is as thick as any other cd player because it needs to take AA batteries, In regards to style, the top is silver and fancy looking, but the bottom half which there are no photos of is just plain old white plastic.
2) While this CD player is pretty expensive, it still has terrible build quality. The controls feel terrible and as though they are about to break with each push, and the jog wheel is even worse. If you are commited to buying an CD MP3 player buy a cheaper model, increased quality to go with the higher price is simply not present.
3) The volume control is difficult to use in comparison to a simple wheel

The Possitives are, it has not broken yet, the shock protection is good so far, and it does indeed play MP3's and ATRAC's.