Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony MZ-N1 Silver Net MiniDisc Walkman with 5 Free Blank MiniDiscs

I bought this back last December and was extremely pleased with my purchase at the time.
The software needed replaced so sonicstage was recommended to me and i found it easy to use and handy for transferring.
The speed of transfer to minidisc once your songs are uploaded to the computer is rapid and once you start playing you'll find you'll get an impressive many days worth of play out of it before you have to recharge.
Having a removeable flat battery was good for me as due to previous players i already had 2 and so i could go for weeks before i needed a recharge.
The headphones supplied with it are pretty standard and although they can do the job they aren't the most comfortable of things so i would advise in investing in a decent pair.
The features on the system are really impressive and you'll probably never get round to using them all (unless you are good at mixing and toying with your music)

Now round to the point on my title, it's probably more of a customer service gripe but it still concerns the player.
After a few months of use i found that my player was struggling to read discs all the way (even those recorded in normal SP) so it was sent off to get repaired by an independant repairer. When it came back (a month later) i found that not only had it the same problem but i had someone elses shell (full of dents) around my components.
Then it was sent of to Sony themselves to be repaired but ended up in an affiliated repair shop, about 3 months later i get a call to say they do not have the needed part to fix it and will not do until christmas so i am to get a phonecall(which i am still awaiting a few days later) about a replacement - to be of equivalent or better specifications.
I can just picture the scene of a newer but poorer model arriving on my doorstep.
After all this i read up that this is a common problem with this model, as is the case i am very disappointed in Sony. One of the biggest worldwide companies can't fix their products when they go wrong.
Overall not too impressed and would be reluctant to buy Sony again (altho they do effectively own the minidisc market).
If you do consider buying please be aware of these problems and consider if it's really worth it.

I first started using minidisks when they first came out several years ago. They then had a few issues being a pain to copy music over and the player I had being the size of a small brick.

When my old minidisk walkman finally died a couple of years ago I forgot about my old minidisks, the seperate for my stereo sat gathering dust.

With the advent of MP3 I decided it was time to invest in a MP3 Player, however during my research I stumbled accross the Sony Net MD and after reading the reviews I realized I could have the best of both worlds, after buying one on Amazon the unit arrived and the first thing that shocked me was the size, or rather the lack of it, it literally fits in your shirt pocket and weighs virtyally nothing.

I then fired up the software, having read the Amazon reviews I expected some sort of unworkable monster however it seems easy and practical to use. You can download an entire CD, label the tracks and transfer to minidisk in less time that it would take to listen to it and thanks to some clever features of the software you can listen to tracks while you are doing it.

To be fair to Sony it must be hard to balance owning one of the biggest music labels in the world and inventing one of the easiest pirating methods so they do through in some clever features to keep you honest, for example you can download tracks to your player 3 times but no more unless you load them back.

Such ideas could be seen as bugs but I respect the way Sony have balanced things out.

The final thing I want to say about the unit is (suprisingly) the sound quality, it is by far the best listen I have had. The headphones that come with it are great if you have big lug holes like me but by seperating out the nifty remote control from the headphones means you can change them relativly inexpensivly.

I look forward to a great deal of pleasure with my Minidisk Player the only comment I would make is where are all the pre-recorded minidisks?? They are never in stock unless you are a Britney Spears fan (I mean listening not looking!) and you need to buy the CD first!

Long Live The Minidisk!!

I'll first start with how small this thing is, it's unbelievable, fits in the palm of your hand. The design layout and built quality is everything you would expect from Sonys top of the range MD, top notch.

The software that comes with it is a doddle to use, recording and tranferring music to MD couldn't of been made any easier.

Put a disc in and push play and it sounds amazing, although some people think that the headphones that come with the unit aren't very good, I would disagree with, there comfortable and sound great too what more do you want?

The only minor down point is, and it is very minor, is the dry battery case that connects to the bottom of the unit to use the full potential playing time that's offered doesn't do it any justice in the looks department, and they should of colour coded it with the unit instead of it being black. I can live with this though.

I personally went for the blue one to be a bit different because everyone I know whose got an MD has got, and you've probably already guessed it, silver. It does looks great in both colours but I think blues got the edge.

Bottom line is, I would recommend this little baby to anyone in the market for a personal mini-disc player/recorder that looks great, sounds amazing, is user friendly, and makes your mates jealous cause they haven't got one.

FILL IN THOSE FIVE STARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the third MD Walkman I've owned and (as you might expect from the current cutting edge unit from Sony) easily the best. Incredibly easy to use, whether directly from a CD player or via the PC docking station and with quite ridiculously long battery life. Fine sound as well (although you should bin the supplied headphones - my one gripe is that a unit [of this price] should come with slightly better phones). Easily the coolest gadget I currently own.

One thing that puzzles me, though, is why Sony is manufacturing and hyping a range of NetMD Walkmen designed to rip music from CDs using a PC when virtually every major new release from the Sony owned record labels includes copy protection designed to prevent the discs being played on PCs.

This is lots of fun until it breaks. I agree with another reviewer that Sony appear to be producing disposable products that will last until the warranty runs out. Mine is 3 months outside the warranty & surprise it had developed a problem with recording, struggling to advance the disk and worse will play some disks but randomly blanks out others. This has happened to me before with other Sony top of the range portable audio products eg two MZ-50s & a D-100 DAT player. I for one will not be buying Sony again until they improve unit life expectancy. My retailer said they could not offer me their standard 2 year extended warranty on this product. I now know why.