Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony MZ-N510 Blue Net MiniDisc Walkman

This mini disc player is a great peice of kit and great value for money.I'm 15 and found the software very user friendly(if you dont understand it,read the book)and quick to use.
So go and buy it!

The people at Sony have done it again! After never having any problems with Sony products in the past, I opted for a Sony minidisc and it's excellent.
I have four albums and numerous songs all on one minidisc, made possible by the ATRAC3 compression software that comes with the product. Well worth buying!
Still using my discs nearly two years later and there is no audio depreciation at all.

Whilst I agree the software does transfer the MP3 over in its own format,it does leave the original MP3 intact on your PC.

There is no need to convert the file on a permanent basis, maybe some people should read the manual and consult the help file before giving out inaccurate information.

OK - lets be picky. The MZ-N510 would be the dog's best bits if hard disc and other MP3 players didn't exist. As it is, its about the thickness of 3 MDs and only a little bigger in footprint than 1 MD, so if size matters to you just recall the much hyped i-pod: this player/recorder is about half the size in its simplest form. However ....it comes with a single AA battery module which triples the duration of the re-chargeable internal battery, but when screwed to the side of the player spoils its simple lines and looks like what it is - an after thought in cheap black plastic.

The real drag, as noted by several reviewers on this page, is the slowish processing of tracks from MP3 to some obscure Sony compressed format I won't even bother to name as neither you nor a room full of techies will have come across it.

You can't play MP3s or wavs or WMAs unless they are processed by the obscure Sony Sonic Stage software into this arcane format. If you use MP3s and want to extend your collection when burning the latest CD, then don't expect Sonic Stage to give you MP3s as a side product - it creates what I now refer to as 'Sony Weird Format' (SWF)files only.

The capacity of a 74 min disc has been at least doubled by the use of some compression related to SWF, so at least you're not changing MDs like a hyperactive DJ. And of course, you can edit the play order by removing tracks and shifting them around, both via Sonic Stage and, for the very patient and small fingered, via the player or fetish-like remote (which could do with an illuminated display window for those dark moments at the bus stop)

Mini Disc is a format that missed that bus. Its basically a re-recordable CD in minature, but was late on the format scene and most folk were already into CD and CDRW, despite the sound quality being almost as good as CD.Then came the 'no moving parts' MP3 players and with them the unacceptability of changing discs, which recalls for those of us of a certain age the 78rpm shellacs teasured by the BBC archive.

If I wasn't having problems with my MP3 hardisc unit(no, I'm not going to slag off a certain major company, you'll have to see another review if Amazon can cope with the expletives), I'd not be fiddling around with this curiosity.

For those of you unsullied by mini MP3 players, or without the cash for a decent size memory, MZ-N510 is a cheap way of getting shedloads of those tracks in the order you want them. The customizeable 6 band EQ is another bit of Sony cunning, and for once the in-ear phones do not require you to have surgery before or after use.

I hear that the MD format is about to be given another dose of compression/resussitation, much as CDs became DVDs with all that implies for data storage, including images and movies, but thats around April. BTW if you buy the MZ-N510 don't forget to book the post-SWF therapy ...

Wonderful product quality and excellent delivery standards. Making delivery as said and product of better quality than expected and worth to be bought at this price. EXCELLENT SERVICE BY MIKROLIVE Worth trading (Thanx)