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

I'm so glad I found these reviews. I was getting quite paranoid that, despite taking the greatest of care with it, I had somehow managed to break my MZ-N1, annoingly just outside the warranty date. But it seems to be a recurring theme. And I, too, was unable to buy an extended warranty on it - it really does suggest a problem that was known when the product was released.

To me, the whole point of an MD player is to have a piece of digital equipment that doesnt skip. Unfortunately, the laser and seemingly everything else inside my player has packed in. Having been a superb purchase for around 12 months and 3 weeks, my MZ-N1 stopped recognising discs, started telling me there was a 'read error' and stopped recording accurately. It then starting skipping and pausing in mid song, refused to let me divide or move any tracks, and then started randomly deleting entire discs instead of reading them. I spent a fortune on new minidiscs, assuming they were to blame, but the fault obviously lies at Sony's door.

I WOULD URGE ANYONE CONSIDERING BUYING THIS PIECE OF EQUIPMENT NOT TO.

Even at the now greatly reduced price you can get it for, it wont last, which is bitterly disappointing as up to then, its a great product.

I have had my MZ-N1 for about 3 years now and love it.

- Full of features, still learning things about it that i never knew.
- The build quality and looks are superb.
- Sound qaulity is excellent. The supplied earphones are not the best. I would advise investing in some good earphones like the fontopia ones.
- Supplied software (OpenMG) is absolutely rubbish, However, if you get the latest version of Sonic Stage from the Sony website, that is much much better.
- The remote is excellent.
- The only minor gripe i would have is that if you use the cradle to recharge the battery (you can plug directly into the mains), it sometimes doesn't charge fully, I have to take it off and on again to get it to charge again...

In conclusion, an excellent piece of kit.

The best MD unit I have owned (I have had 6), brilliant build quality, excellent laser pick up. Forget the software, it is totally rubbish, NET MD is rubbish, record your tunes using optical, okay so it takes longer but what the hell, its a good investment of your time. BUY THIS ONE (or a MZ-N10) if you are considering buying a MD unit.

I bought this when they first came out. And i was happy with it at first untill i discovered a few things about it. The reason why i bought this was so that i could transfer my miked field recordings to computer in one single go. But the openmg software does not allow this. Another problem i found with this is that it is not Mac OS X or linux campatible. I don't know what sony has against these operating systems but if you are using either stay clear.
The software is also prone to crashing and can be quite slow.
The most annoying feature of this minidisc is the design of the buttons. Becuase the minidisc is so small they tried to cram everything into one button. So when trying to stop recording it can be hard becuase of this, i would say itg is akin to boxing with the button. My recommendation is to stay clear and go for a minidisc that has easier to use buttons and is cheaper.

This is an absolutely beautiful piece of engineering. It looks and feels great. The buttons on the machine itself are a bit clumpy, but the ergonomics of the remote controls are excellent.
The quality of the music recorded is superb, whether it's tranferred from mp3 or recorded live.

My big gripe is the nannying-software, which is about as user-friendly as a cornered rat!

First of all, it's very slow to transfer tracks, especially when compared to my other mp3 players, which are based on memory sticks or based on a hard-disc.

Secondly it's incredibly difficult to use.

The big turn-off is the lack of ability to transfer live recordings, (of my kids playing their musical instruments), from the player to my computer, and the limited number of times you can transfer tracks from your PC to the MD player.

Sony have obviously built their paranoia into their software, which is a shame because otherwise their hardware, for me, sets the industry standard.

Sadly, because of their software's flaws, I can't recommend this product.