Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony D-NE300 Psyc ATRAC Walkman Portable CD Player (Gray)

I'll try and put this review in for both of Amazon's NE300 models, since they are just different colours afterall. Further to what's already been said, here is some extra info on the player that I was unable to find elsewhere prior to buying it, so this may be of help:

- if an MP3 song lack's ID3 tags, the player's LCD screen will show the filename as you'd see it in windows. Long filenames will scroll automatically
- manually going from mp3 track to track (ie, just hitting forward) there is around a 3 sec delay. If you let a song finish by itself, however, it will go immediately to the next
- load time on a full mp3 disc is 20 seconds (I timed it). Load time on a disc with a single mp3 was 16 seconds. Load time on an audio cd with one track was 10-11 seconds
- this player does not play .wma (windows media audio) files, even though the guy at sony I asked said it does (admittedly the player does not advertise that it plays wma)
- the cd-rw disc I tried worked fine, and that's all I'll be using
- stock headphones seem decent, and in fact with them this player does go very loud
- music order: I had no problems with it. Whether files were in the root directory, or within sub folders everything seemed to play in order as it was burned
- adtrack I did not test. I have no intention of converting all of my mp3s, so no idea on how well it works
- I experienced no "missing end pieces" on songs, as one reviewer said that he did
- I'm confirming that there is no backlight for this
- note that the NE300 blue and gray, on amazon, are slightly different pictures. I bought the gray one from another source and it looked as the blue one on amazon does (it was gray, obviously, but the physical shape of it, I mean). The gray on amazon has a little indicator below the LCD (which mine does not have). I wonder if there are slightly different versions, and the newer ones possibly solve some old issues like track order? I bought mine yesterday BTW.
- I experienced no skipping issues, but I only tried the player in the car and shaking it for maybe 10 seconds. I think technology is such these days that if you're experiencing mp3 skipping on an mp3 discman, it's probably a very poor player; I'd expect no skipping (except maybe running, and supposedly this can handle that)

I give this a 5-star, because it does everything that it claims to do, and it does it well. The player feels reasonably solid. It is, afterall, a $50 player with a lot built into it, so don't expect something you can use as a frisbee. It's quite small with little wasted room.

I do wish it had a backlight, and I'd have no problem losing some battery life (especially since it's awesome with this player), but I knew I was not getting that when I bought it.

Waiting for pay-day, I spent 4 weeks researching to find the best MP3CD player for under $100 Canadian. After going through many players, looking for the best features-to-price ratio, it came down to two players. The Sony D-NE300, and the Panasonic SLCT710. I read many reviews for each player, looked at the pros and cons, and compared the players extensively. My ultimate decision ended up being the D-NE300, which I bought for $90 Canadian alongside Sony MDR-G54LP headphones for $30. Great combination, to say the least.

Notable features: MP3, Atrac3/Atrac3plus, Parametric EQ, G-Protection, CD Text, ID3v1/ID3v2 tags, AVLS, 18 playback modes including Auto-ranking, 85-hour battery life.

The main reason I wanted a MP3CD player was because I'm always on the run. I'd rather carry around 1 or 2 CD's with some of my albums on it, rather than carrying around a huge CD wallet with 30 seperate CD's. This player takes care of this problem easily! I like to have the least amount of loss in my compressed music as possible, so I rip all my CD's to 320kbps MP3, which the D-NE300 plays flawlessly. I can fit an average of 6-8 albums at this bitrate on a single 700MB CD-R. It's not made clear anywhere else, so I had to test it myself, and I'm confirming that this player supports both ID3v1 and ID3v2 tags. CD-Text also appears for CD's burned with CD-Text enabled. I've yet to buy a CD with CD-Text, but apparently some retail CD's have it. My only gripe is how slow the dot-matrix screen scrolls. I figured there'd be an option for the speed, but there isn't.

Some people have already pointed out the cons of Atrac3/Atrac3plus and the supplied SonicStage software. I haven't tested it too much though. I made one Atrac3plus CD encoded at 256kbps. The sound is great, but it took almost 2 hours to convert 56 songs from 320kbps MP3. That's way too long for me to wait! I'll stick with MP3, thank you very much. It's much more universal, and not as much of a pain in the ass. Also, the seamless option for Atrac3 doesn't work. There's always at least 2-3 seconds between tracks.

One feature I've been playing around with a lot is the parametric equalizer. I like my music to sound perfect, and this option keeps me satisfied. I use Active the most (best for pop/rock), but sometimes I'll use Soft for slower acoustic numbers, or Heavy, obviously for faster, heavier music. Custom is fun to play around with, especially when listening to concert recordings.

Pros: Light-weight, compact size, great sound, flawless MP3 support.

Cons: poor software, no remote, no backlit LCD

Overall: Highly recommended. I am completely satisfied with this product, and would recommend it to anyone who's considering it. If you want radio as well, spend the extra few bucks for the D-NF400, which is the exact same player with AM/FM/TV/Weatherband support.

I bought this when it first came out and there were NO reviews on Epinions, Amazon, or anywhere else that I could find, so I just took the "plunge". I have just read all of the reviews for the D-NE300 (which I use), D-NF400 (which I bought for my daughter) and the D-NE500, at Epinions and Amazon and am amazed at the WRONG comments some folks make. I assume it is because they don't sit down and READ the manual.

It has a parametric equalizer with four settings (soft, active, heavy, and custom). As is obvious, the first three are "set" by Sony, and the fourth is customized by the user. This is very nice because when you use different headphones and/or music styles, you will want to set up the sound to your personal likes.

It has every playback option one could want (a group is a folder):
repeat play
group play
single play
shuffle play
group shuffle play
m3u playlist play
bookmark track play
auto ranking play
auto ranking shuffle play
program play

The center control button is a large rocker-style button that can be used to play/pause, skip forward a track, skip backward a track, fast forward w/i a track, fast reverse w/i a track, move up a level in the options menu, move down a level in the options menu. The small button to its left moves you to a previous group/folder and the small button to its right moves you to the next group/folder. The small button on the far right is the menu/display button button (a short push gives 4 different ways to display info and a long push takes you to the menu options). The button on the far left is the stop button (stops play immediately, but the display takes a few seconds turn off).

There is a small slide button on the back for "hold" which prevents you from accidentally pushing any of the other buttons (I store mine in hold).

The headphone jack is on the lower right side, the "open" slide button is on the right side (to insert/remove your CD), and the +/- volume buttons are on the upper right side. The 2-AA batteries are inside, under the CD. They last about 80 hours! Get some NiMH batteries and a smart charger.

The display is amber with black letters and is a little small, but easy to read in daylight. I REALLY wish it were backlit though!

I have noted some negative comments from other users about the SonicStage software that comes with the unit. It actually works just fine to convert your CDs to ATRAC. I use 48kbps for audiobooks and 64kbps for music. There have been comments that it is very slow to convert MP3 files...I haven't used it for this. Just remember, Atrac is a Sony proprietary format and will not play on any subsequent device (other than Sony) that you may get down the road.

I generally use MP3 file format, however. I set up my files so that they will play in the proper order-

For Music:
ARTIST
ALBUM
01-Song Name
02-Song Name
etc

For Audiobooks:
AUTHOR
Book Name
01-Book Name (first CD)
01-Track 01
02-Track 02
etc
02-Book Name (second CD)
01-Track 01
02-Track 02
etc

It plays in filename order and displays MP3 tags; plays VBR and CBR...no problems.

It resumes wherever you stopped it, mid-track, which is very important for those who want to use it to listen to audiobooks, lectures, etc.

I use AudioGrabber for audiobooks (32kbps, 20,050Hz, mono) and Exact Audio Copy for music (128kbps, 44,100Hz, stereo), because I don't want to have to reconfigure when I switch from audiobooks to music. There are many good ones like CDex, etc. The trick is getting the files and naming system set up correctly.

The "g-protection" is wonderful and I have never had any problems with skipping, although I have not tried jogging.

There is a sleep timer that you can set for 1-99 minutes.

If you encode using Atrac, there is a setting for seamless play for live concerts.

If you want AM/FM/TV/Weather get the D-NF400 for about $80.

If you need a remote (no display, just controls) get the D-NE500 for about $100.

I think these Sony CD/MP3/Atrac players are a GREAT VALUE. If you encode MP3s at 128kbps, you can get 10-11 hours on a single CD (700MB CD). And you will be hard pressed to find anything that will play this long (up to 80 hours) w/o a recharge. I also like the fact that you can use AA batteries and can easily change them out as needed.

I prefer to use CD-RW discs. I recently discovered that you can use packet writing! What does this mean? If you have Roxio, it came with DirectCD (I haven't tried this one). If you have Nero, it came with InCD (this is what I use). You can format the CD-RW and use it like a big floppy, to drag/drop, copy/paste, delete files...pop the disc into your CD player and play! This will limit the usable size to about 500MB, however. I believe the iRiver CD/MP3 players have this capability also.

I think that you can also use multisession when burning, but I haven't tried it. This is because, if using Atrac, you can put some files on, take the disc out, then add more later. I am guessing it will work when burning MP3s too.

I use the Sennheiser MX-500 earbuds with mine, and it makes for a good combination.

Amount Paid (US$):
60

Sound:
Good; more than sufficient for all average users

Ease of Use:
Excellent; operates with the touch of a button

Durability:
Good; solid it will last until new technology develops

Portability:
Good; mid-sized and functional when jostled

Battery Life:
Excellent

Pros:
Customizable Options Great anti-skip protection LONG battery life Resumes mid-track for audio books

Cons:
Display is a little small and not backlit

The Bottom Line:
Best Bang for the Bucks Award! That's why I gave it a 5-star rating.

Overall Product Rating:
Excellent

Recommended:
Yes

First, I would like to say that I am not associated to Sony or Amazon.com in any way.
Now, the CD player:
I did my research before buying it; I wanted a good-looking MP3-CD player, with good battery life and easy to use, and it had to be under 70 dollars. My first candidate was an iRiver player, I don?t remember the model number now, but it was cheap and full of features, but at the same time it was UGLY and battery life was mediocre at best. Panasonic players looked perfect until I found out that MP3-CDs had to be specially formatted and the thing is just hard to operate (I downloaded the manual from Amazon, I recommend doing this before buying any gadget in general). So only this Sony was left? I was kind of reluctant to buy a Sony CD player, because they are always a bit overpriced, but this one is certainly not!
It?s full of (useful) features. Although it does not have Mega Bass, it has a very nice equalizer, LOTS of play modes, including a nice ?auto ranking? mode that plays the tracks you played the most of a given CD. Never skipped (G-protection is great!), and it?s very easy to navigate (dedicated skip folder buttons and a nice two-line display). The design is just perfect! Much better than those cheap players. The unit itself is light, a bit thick but not too much. I paired it with a pair of Koss KSC-35 headphones and it sounds great!!! (don?t bother with the bundled headphones, as always, they are horrible). Also: although the description here at Amazon says the display is backlit, IT IS NOT.
About the software: just throw it away. The sonicstage jukebox application looks slick nevertheless, but its incredibly resource-hungry, and it doesn?t do anything else than creating those Atrac3 files, that sound just like MP3s (AND a 48kbps Atrac3 file DOES NOT sound like a 128kbps MP3 file, a 132kbps Atrac3 file sounds a bit better, but its bigger, and the difference is trivial). You will need your regular CD burning software to create MP3-CDs and ATRAC3 CDs anyway, so my advice is to stay away from it.
Amazon.com: great service as always.
Highly recommended

First off, the Sony Psyc D-NE300 is a teriffic bargain at its price. I was skeptical at first of the fact that 490 songs HAD to be put onto a CD, rather than flash memory or a harddisk. However, the included software, SonicStage 2.0 is the easiest music management software I have seen used, and I have every player/jukebox out there. As soon as you insert an audio CD, Gracenote hits its servers and comes up with every detail about that CD. The info is carried over into the ATRAC compression, and the CD player actually lists the artist, album, and song playing on its screen. That's right, it's just like a solid-state MP3 player. So far, I have seven albums on a fifth of a CD-RW using ATRAC3Plus at 64kbs/s. As for the sound, its simply amazing. MP3Pro, which uses the same 64kbs/s sound nothing like the ATRAC's. It is clear, rich, and never gets distorted. MP3Pro just sound tinny and hollow. The circuitry used in the player limits the "noise" so that distortion should never occur, even at its maximum output. Every song I've listened to so far is the clearest I've ever heard them. The included headphones even sound better than the street style models sold separately.
In conclusion, the player is amazingly stylish, small, and feature packed. I gave it four stars because the manual wasn't entirely helpful and you'll be using the buttons a lot, so they may wear out after awhile. Nevertheless, the player offers terrific sound and the ability to put about 25 albums on one CD. At a fraction of the cost of a solid-state player, it really becomes a capable alternative. Like I said, I was skeptical at first, but now I'm very pleased with the product so far. Its ease-of-use can only be matched by the way more expensive I-POD.
P.S. The player also has a parametric equalizer, whicha allows you to customize your sound however you like. I just use the "Heavy" setting though, as it produces the richest sound. Oh yeah, the batteries also last about 80 hours, which is ten times what I was getting with my old Aiwa.