Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony MZ-NF610 Silver Net MiniDisc Walkman

This is a great minidisc player. The quality of playback is incomparable to a cassette; even my early Beatles albums are free of hissing tin undertones.

The radio is operated by the remote control rather than the actual player, perfect if like me you are a mad flicker of stations as you can safely seal away the player in a pocket. Minor gripe in that the preset stations are spooled through by sliding a button to the side rather than pressing it which feels slightly awkward.

The array of options offered seem daunting at first but I could not wish for a better instruction book, it is clear to understand if a little strangely laid out, the instructions for using the radio are on one page but the instructions for saving a station to a preset don't appear for another 10 pages!

It doesn't have a microphone socket so, unfortunately, cannot be used as a Dictaphone.

I love this minidisc player and can thoroughly recommend it with all my heart.

This was my first minidisc player I am am very pleased.

The headphones given to you are very good and the general quality of songs (not in LP2 or LP4 mode) is extremely good.

The lack of backlight is annoying but acceptable- you hardly every need it anyway!

It has not microphone socket meaning you can't transfer data from the actual minidisc player to the computer but I knew this before I bought it.

The FM and AM reception is acceptable and the player generally is quite small and fits nicely into most pockets. With the remote simple and acceptable. However it should be pointed out that the radio is inside the remote and can only be operated with the remote. Meaning if you lose this then you lose the radio also. Slightly annoying but It's not exactly easy to lose it!

SonicStage does everything you want it to, but again, Sony goes its own way. The program bears no resemblance to any Windows software you've ever seen, which will increase the time it takes you to become comfortable with it. Digital-rights management is deeply ingrained in SonicStage but is not a problem as long as you don't try to use the player as a vehicle for moving music to other computers.

The MZ-NF610 is not as fast or as convenient as the iPod, and it's not directly compatible with your existing digital-music collection, but what it does, it does remarkably well.

The wires could be a bit longer on the headphones but this is simply a small number of insignificant and easily adjustable complaints which leads me to be extremely happy with this player and give it 4 out of 5. Recommended!