Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony MZ-N1 Blue Net MiniDisc Walkman

I bought my MZ-N1 about a month ago and I have to say I am very impressed.

The unit is physically very small in size and it comfortably fits inside a shirt pocket. The remote control is very easy to use and makes changing volume, skipping tracks etc very easy especially as you can leave the device in your pocket. The player also comes with a leather belt clip, at first I didn't like the look of it but I have however changed my mind and I do use it as it will prevent the player from getting damaged and I can strap the player to my belt if I am not wearing a jacket or a shirt with a pocket.

I personally found the PC software very easy to use. I didn't like the installation as it took ages and seemed to consist of lots of seperate installations instead of one large one. The installation did however complete without any problems.

To put music on a MD is easy. Simply insert a CD into the CD-rom drive, enter the track name and artist and then click a button that will convert it into a format that can be copied to your MD. Once the music is in MD format you simply drag it to the MD player window and the files are quickly copied to the MD. Putting MP3's onto the player is a bit more complex because it automatically orders the files in name order and it is annoying putting them into the correct order. As however I use the original CD to convert the music I am completely happy.

I occasionally cram 4 CDs onto an MD, but usually I put 2 onto a single MD. I personally can not tell any difference in the music quality between the different bit rates.

My advise it to definately buy one. As mentioned you can fit 4 albums on a single MD and if you use the leather case you can put another MD in the case along with the player, this therefore means that you can have 8 albums at hand.

I logged onto amazon with the plan of searching for an MP3 player because my MP3 collection was growing and having to burn the files to a CD-R then to minidisc was taking ages, and costing me loads in buying CDRs. I really thought minidisc was coming to an end and MP3 was taking over! But then I found this little beauty.

I used to have a MZE-90 (smallest MD player in the world 2000) and the MZ-N1 is pretty much the same size, and weight with better battery life, but it also records and even transfers MP3, WMA, and WAV from the PC.

It looks very sexy on my desk next to the cable modem, with it's docking station, and the main power light on, and the recording light blinking like a CD-R drive. It takes minutes to transfer 5 hours of MP3 to the Net MD, along with all the names. But I was very surprised when I pressed the menu button and was given a long list of menus and options, including sound settings where you can change the bass and treble settings and then save them to one of the two presets. It also has pointless features like speed control, although when you're bored it's quite amusing to listen to Eminem at 3 times the normal speed.

One of my concerns about the ability to store 5 hours of music was that I thought I wouldn't be able to find tracks easily and that if I recorded 5 albums on the one disc they would all be mixed with each other . But the N1 has a group function where you can put a group of tracks into a group folder and then you can change tracks within that folder, but to listen to a different album you have to open one of the other folders.

The only thing I don't like about the N1 is the remote! It is big, ugly, and not user friendly in my opinion. Sony have really taken a step backwards with this one, my old remote was slim line with a clicking head rather than a jog dial, and had separate volume controls. On the N1 you have to pull the jog dial out to adjust the volume. I suppose I might get used to it but I prefer the old one!

I dont think it gets much better than this to be honest. Sony have no limits, with MDLP standard on all new Mini disc players you think it couldnt get better. Now that we have NET MD's you can record music straight from the internet, or from a cd you own. Its like burning a cd (except you can erase it as much as you like!) you can copy audio music 32X that of normal time. Sounds great but its even better than this. You require a pc to run the software, but the software that comes with it on CD is relativly straight forward...all these manuals you get with the product and you start to think its gonna be a hard thing it isnt believe me!.
Can MD's get even better? thats what id like to know!. This is by far the best ive seen so far. Also included is a charge cradle placing the mini disc on it and it automatically charges or records the music via a USB port from your computer.
This is bloody good, yeah it might be expensive but it worth every penny believe me!!.
If you were worried that the music isnt compatible beacuse it has been recorded fast, its compatible on any mini disc decks that are ATRAC3 standard.
Only negative point is that you need headphones, the ones you get are really poor and fall out your ears constantly. I would recommened a pair of Sony MDR-A35G (these are hard to find but are good) or MDR-EX70LP's as these have good sonic sound. But if over the head headphones are your thing (Hip hop style) MDR-G63LP are the daddys.
Anyway...Happy mini disc searching!

I've had the MZ-N1 for a few months now so have had enough time to really assess the good and the bad of Sony's latest flagship MD. It's pretty impressive it has to be said. First the bad points though:

1. When you have transferred about 80-90 songs on to a minidisc with the name of the artist and corresponding song, there then arises a memory shortage. This means that you cannot transfer the name of any further song on to the disc. You can still transfer more songs on to the MD, up to the allowable disc space but the names remain blank on the MD from about the 90th song. This is a surprising disappointment.

2. The Open MG jukebox software is fairly straightforward if a little convoluted, but does occasionally crash especially when transferring songs on to the MD. This is only a minor inconvenience though which is normally simply rectified by shutting down the program, restarting it and continuing with the song transfers. Very occasionally I do have to reboot the machine.

3. I mainly use the MD in a car with a cassette tape adapter (not supplied, but cheap) that I insert in to my car's cassette deck. Therefore the biggest disappointment is not having a backlight on the MD main unit so I can easily see which song I want to play when driving at night for example. There is a backlight on the supplied earphone unit but I'm referring to the display on the MD unit itself. I cannot believe Sony made this oversight!!!!!!!

4. A minor quibble is not being unable to transfer songs directly from a CD to the minidisc in LP4 mode. LP4 mode basically increases the capacity of a disc by 4 times so that with an 80 minute disc for example you can get 320 minutes of music; that's more than 5 hours. You can get around this by first saving the CD in Windows Media Player and then transferring the songs from here to the Jukebox and MD in LP4 mode.

Ok enough slating, the good points are numerous and do outweigh the negative aspects. Here are some of my own favourite points though:

1. The most obvious is the vast number of songs the thing can hold, especially when you use an 80 minutes disc - more than 5 hours on in LP4 mode.

2. The large number of functions available and especially the ability to perform a given function in more than one way (similar to being able to perform a given function on any Windows PC program using a variety of means).

3. A great point is the ability to edit names, song orders, deletions, insertions etc on the MD using the PC. You can also do so with the MD itself but it is far easier and faster using the PC and MD cradle set up.

4. The ability to organise songs in groups and to skip between groups is useful.

5. The impressive long life of the supplied alkaline battery. For me it can last a week when I've used it for about 3-4 hours a day in the car.

6. The extra battery attachment supplied which uses common AA batteries. Useful when the main alkaline battery runs out of juice.

7. The hold function is handy which means you cannot accidentally adjust a function on the unit.

8. The earphone display, function switches and backlight are useful and convenient.

9. The ability to transfer songs from a variety of sources such as the PC or a normal hi-fi.

10. It's small, stylish and sleek with user-friendly functions, an example being the single button which serves as a play, pause, stop, forward, rewind and skip function. You don't have to fidget around trying to find the correct button.

11. It's fairly rugged. I've already dropped it once on a hard surface, panicked for a sec but didn't damage anything. I wouldn't recommend doing this too often though!

The greatest point for me though is that it puts my mate's Sony MZR900 Minidisc in the shade!!! (Sorry J', it had to be said).

Adios

M.

This is without a doubt the best way to take your music collection with you. At 75 mins CD quality sound per MD (or 150 mins (LP2) extremely close to CD quality sound or 340mins FM radio quality sound (LP4) per MD) it carries more music than all hardward MP3 players, and you can always take a handful of MD's with you to increase capacity.

NetMD works. OK the copy protection thing is a bit of a pain (each CD track from a Hard drive can be copied 3 times before you have to reload it from the CD) and the software's filing system takes some getting used to but making compilations is pretty much like any MP3 player - being a simple drag and drop system. Downloading to MD is fast (approx 10-20 mins per 150 min LP2 MD).

NetMD really should be the future - this system really does deserve to succeed. If you're considering a hardward MP player, don't. This is better, has more capacity, sounds better (ATRAC definitely sounds better than MP3), looks good, has great battery life (and a facility to use a AA battery), and links with a PC and can convert wave (CD) files, MP3 and windows media quickly to ATRAC for the MD.

Only irritating thing is that you have to remove the unit from the stand to get the MD out. This is irritating as it breaks the USB connection.