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

Short and sweet. This is a little beauty. Easy to use and with Sony Sonic Stage software provided a dream to load from a PC.

Really is a litle cracker. Sadly can only give it 5 stars.

I bought this a year ago in favour of the mp3 players etc. since I could record from other live sources. Since the minidisc recorder can be connected via a USB port, i thought that I could copy across the information to my hard drive- wrong! Unfortunately it only works one way since the recording is not in a recognisable format (it needs to be in Atrac format to be recognised). I had to connect to my PC via my sound card and record using Cooledit 2000 which is a bit pointless. My only other gripe is that the remote can be a bit fiddly sometimes as I sometimes find myself knocking the wrong button by mistake.

Other than that, I've been fairly happy with the Net walkman. The software that comes with the Net MD is Sonicstage and is now an older version. You can get a free upgrade going to the Sony site. Or you can do a search for Sonicstage Connect and download the installation executable file. Unfortunately, you can only download the installation file and then run it on your pc while connected to the net to install the remainding 35Mb information. Once installed though, it's well worth the upgrade. All the information on any CD's that you want to convert to Atrac to listen on your Net MD can automatically be updated via the net. So once you put in a CD it searches for the titles, album, artist, times etc all automatically! Brilliant. Converting your music couldn't be easier. You can also convert using MDLP which allows you to have more tracks on one disc and the quality is still very good.

The MD comes with a decent leather pouch with a belt clip that comes in handy too. Sony are also renowned for their incompatibility with other sources. Music that you downloaded may or maynot be able to be converted to atrac as I found out. You'll really love this if you've mainly got music on CD's that you want to put to minidisc as it's a piece of cake. If you're the type to download stuff regularly i'd get look at an MP3 player or try Sonys Hard drive network walkman if you have a heck of a lot of music (it can store up to short of 20Gb).

All in all another good quality item from Sony but a little outdated now though. Check prices Vs what you can get now though

This Minidisc is great. It works well and the sound quality is good. I enjoy listening to it.
There are a few blemishes, though.

- Like another user has commented, the earphones stink.
- The remote - it's good and everything, but it should have a screen on it!
- Sonicstage - how BAD can a program be ??

Despite that, the minidisc has it's pro's. It's a good buy overall, but I admit that I prefer an MP3 player!

I hope this is helpful.

I have had the MZ-N510 for about a year now, and it's still going good.
The player is very rugged, as mine still works even though it's been dropped on the floor several times!
The only qualm with the package is the headphones, they are so pants, your best to buy a new pair, as the ones that came with mine kept falling out of my ears, and the cable is slightly too short so they easily pull out as well!

Other than that, this MD is a great first MD recorder to have, buy one and cherise it.

FIRSTLY I WOULD LIKE TO CORRECT ANYONE WHO HAZ GIVEN THIS MD OR ITS SOFTWARE A BAD WRITE UP, YOU MUST BE STUPID!!! THIS IS QUITE SIMPLY A QUALITY MD THE SOUND IS CRYSTAL CLEAR, IT RECORDS/COPY MUSIC WITHIN A COUPLE OF SECONDS AND THE SOFTWARE IS SOOOO EASY TO USE AND VERY STRAIGHT FORWARD. ONE THING I WOULD SAY TO SONY IS 'SORT OUT THE DIGITAL OPTICAL CABLE!!!' IT DOESN'T FIT INTO ANY OF MY ELECTRICALS. BUT OTHER THAN THAT IF YOUR LOOKING FOR A QUALITY MINIDISC PLAYER/RECORDER BUT DON'T WANT TO FORK OUT OVER £200 FOR ONE, BUY THIS IT HAS THE QUALTIY OF THE SONY MZN-910 WHICH IS PRICED AROUND £200. ALL YOU PEOPLE WHO CANT USE IT PROPERLY, YOU'RE USELESS!!!!! ITS EXELLENT