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

I bought this product some months ago to enable me to listen to my own mix of music while out and about, and I found this was more than just another Walkman! I found it compatible with SonicStage which I had on my computer, but the real attraction was that I could record in Long Play, which gave me 2 hours and 40 minutes non-stop on 1 disc. By simply connecting 2 CD players into a mixer, then connecting via the line-in on the Walkman, I can play my choice of tracks, back to back with no gaps, for 160 minutes with no audible loss of digital quality, then take it out with me and listen to my own mixes on the bus. The unit is incredibly good for battery life as well. I find that a single AA battery lasts me for several weeks as the unit seems to use very little power to play the discs, and I listen for an average of 3 hours a day. Unlike an mp3 player, I can record in real-time and unlike a CD player the music never skips, and unlike a cassette there is no tape to get chewed up. I am very surprised that Minidiscs are now very low-profile as their versatility is second to none. You can split tracks, join tracks and even change the order of tracks all at the touch of a button and the discs can be recorded a million times. If you like to record music in the traditional way, but love the clarity of digital sound then this is the product for you - well worth every penny of its price!

I bought this and then wondered whether an MP3 player might have been the better option, but to be honest, it has a few advantages over an MP3 player.

You store on minidisks (obviously), which means that you don't have to delete songs as you won't be running out of space, even if you have a lot of music. Apart from putting music on using the included software you can also record directly from practically anything, it doesn't have to be digital. This means you can back up tapes or LPs and put them on the minidisk as well as rips from CDs or music you bought off the internet. That is probably the main advantage it has over MP3 players in my opinion, because they only read specific types of files.

Overall, a very good buy and I never had any problems with it. Would definitely recommend it, especially if you want to listen to music you haven't got in digital form yet.

I bought this MZ-N510 fifteen months ago, on the day before I had an important test. On that day I knew that I should study, but I couldn't. That little thing looking at me... I decided to record a MiniDisc. I installed the bundled software (SonicStage 1.5) on my pc (P4 2,66 GHz, 512 Mb DDR400, Seagate Barracuda IV 120 GB 7200rpm :P ), which took me about 5 minutes. I've never used that program and I didn't need to use the manual or the help option to start working with SonicStage so I found it very easy to use. My pc never freezed or went slower. In a few minutes I was using my new gadget. So absolutely no complaints about SonicStage... (I recently upgraded to the 3.1 version, but haven't tried it yet) As a matter of fact, I always use the Lp2 record option, I never tried the LP4... :S
The Walkman itself is small, light, good looking and very important (for me, at least) it is well-built. I was afraid of some very shinny buttons to lose their shine, but untill now, they seem just like brand new, as the whole device does (not a single strach... I always use the provided carrying case, so I never touch the buttons, I only use the remote). The battery life is quite good, especially with an alkaline battery, which I managed to try a few weeks ago, and it is still the same one. Very good! The display is a bit small, and there's no backlit. But it is easily readable. The remote is very simple, so it lacks a LCD display but, for me, it's no big deal. The supplied headphones have a decent sound quality, but the bass is weak, even when it is set to "+3", the maximum value. I tried better phones and I can say the sound is very good. (I ordered a pair of the MDR-EX71SL (B) 2 weeks ago, and I'm still waiting for them to come :( This is Portugal. Enough said).
In sum, this a great device with nice sound quality, great autonomy, with good acessories. 15 months ago it worth my 190 €. But i cannot recommend it now. There are better choices out there: the Hi-MD, the Sony NW-HD5, and the Creative Zen Micro 5GB (watch out the battery life: only 10 hours!).

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 is an excellent minidsic player. The sound quality is good and it does what says on the box. I only have one critisiscm of this product and it is the bundled software. It took me 2 and a half hours to get it going because it kept crashing. If you have windows xp you might want the patch for the software if you are going to buy this product.