Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony MZ-NH900/BM Black Hi-MiniDisc Walkman

I bought this product a few weeks back and although it took a while to be delivered (changes to address on my part)it has been well worth the wait.
The machine looks great in black;funky and snazzy. Although the screen on the main unit is not the best the remote more than makes up for it and displays all the information clearly.
The jog dial is a cool addition and allows the user to basically speed through the tracks to see which one to play. Kind of gimmicky but fun all the same.
The sound quality is also very good, clear and rich. There are many different sound styles all of which offer something a little bit different but I have plucked for Surround which makes my music sound great.
The charging stand seems to work well and now sits next to the PC for charging up the player when I am transferring music. The battery life is good, however if the unit struggles for power I can attach a battery pack.
Otherwise in terms of the actual HI-MD player I can find little fault.
The software supplied is easy to install and use. I have used both the MD simple burner and SonicStage and both seem to be a great way for transferring music between my PC and the MD player. It is quick and easy and I have transferred multiple CD's onto the HI-MD disc within a matter of minutes. SonicStage is used for importing audio files or other media and for storing music downloaded from the net, but for a quick transfer I use the simple burner.
All in all a great product. Looks great, sounds great and easy to use whether that be transferring or listening to music.

Having lost faith with my iPod due to poor battery performance I decided to invest in one of the new breed of MD player/recorder from SONY - due in large part to recommendations from friends about the format but also because these units are powered by a single, replaceable AA cell.
Having had the unit for some two months now I can confidently say that I am never going back to iPod!!!
What is most impressive about the performance of this MD player is the sound reproduction. I was disbelieving of friends' claims that seemingly new elements of recorded sound reveal themselves when a CD is transferred to MD but it is true! When listening to my MD recording of Peter Gabriel's "PASSION" CD it possible to determine guitar and bass tracks that are inaudible on the CD. (Apologies to Tim and James for being a doubting Thomas).
Furthermore, SONY have improved the capacity of the MD. I now have my entire Brian Eno collection on one MD - with room to spare!!
The software for managing transfer to/from PC and editing playlists etc is less ergonomic than with iPod but is still common sense and functional.
I also find it reassuring having a disc that can you can see and touch. It just seems more tangible than data residing on some internal medium.
Lastly, the battery life is miraculous! I would estimate that a single AA battery provides approximately 50 hours of play at four hours per day. No more annoying battery failure on long journeys (as happened all to often with iPod) - simply take a replacement.
I cannot recomment MiniDisc, and this unit in particular, highly enough.

I can't find any fault in the unit, it does exactly what I paid for. 1GB sure is a lot for a removable disk, but will obviously lose out to high-capacity hd players, who's capacity seems to be growing by the day. I personally prefer the idea of removable storage, you have the freedom of being able to lend someone a disk. While the NH900 works perfectly as a portable music player, if that's all you're looking for, you can find mp3 players, and even md players that are far cheaper for what you want. The main selling point of the 900 for me was its abilities as a recorder, namely, the ability to record in uncompressed PCM. The quality of recordings i have made with this unit have been near CD quality, which is pretty impressive, given the size of the unit.
I have heard a lot of complaints about the Sonic Stage software provided with Sony units, but it works perfectly fine for me. Admittedly, I have mainly been using the MD simple burner to transfer CDs to the 900 (approx 6-7 mins transfer time per cd). The main Sonic Stage program works fine, and with a simple update available from Sony's website, you can convert files recorded on the unit to .wav files. (They are uploaded as ATRAC files) There's lots of nagging about the restrictions of Sonic Stage (uploading limitations) but I can't really see these getting in the way for me.
A few downsides:
The supplied 900 mAh rechargable battery isn't too wonderful on its own, although used together with the clip on AA battery attachment, you can get decent battery life. (Though this obviously makes the unit slightly bigger)

You can get line out or headphone output (you choose via the menu) when the remote is not plugged in, but headphone output is the only option with the remote.

The menu itself takes a few days to get used to, but isn't that bad.

1GB Hi-MD disks are around £5 each. This isn't too bad, given the high capacity, but does add up if you were to start a large collection.

Sound quality is good on PCM and hi-SP mode, but does get a bit 'flat' on hi-lp recording mode. This is easily compensated by the fact that you can get 45 albums on one MD. I personally use Hi-SP for my more favorite albums, and Hi-LP for music that i listen to more 'in the background'. (You can mix on the same disk)

Top volume is a bit low... maybe this is a good thing, as I'm slowly going deaf listening to so much music.

Some strong points:
The remote is perfect! Just the right shape and size, it's backlit, and you can choose the information you want it to display.

The sound is great, although does need 'tweaking' occasionally with the sound settings and EQ.

Transferring music from CD to MD is fast, probably faster than mp3 players.

It works as a 1GB hard drive, what more can you say. It's almost worth the money just as a very elaborate floppy drive. As you can mix music and files on the same disk, you can take files anywhere with no extra weight- not bad.

Oh, and it looks damn good.

To summarize:
The NH900 is a good player and a great recorder, highly recommended for musicians who listen to a lot of music and want to record themselves in decent quality on the move, or anyone in general who needs a good portable player/recorder.

MD 900

I researched this player alot before buying and am still unsure whether this was 100% the right choice.

plus points to HiMD (compared to Mp3 players around the same price):
the capacity is endless, just buy more discs.
if mates have them, it's easy to share the music.
you can record from any input at high quality
you have choice of using AA batteries.
when used as an external drive you can store the discs seperately.
well built
g protection
good compression (48kb/sec sounds fine and there's plenty of choise of bit rate)comes with remote (although not used it much yet - wires too long)
digital recording level
you can reformat old MD's to huge capacity (60 min disc to 219MB)
(80 min disc will hold 610 mins)

negatives.
size - MD's are small, but mp3 players are smaller.
you need extra cables to record and play back through hifis
(can only record CD's using digital cable supplied)
capacity is good but again mp3 players are smaller for more memory.
slow to convert files (maybe due to crap computer)
could do with radio (saying that though, portable radio is always poor quality)
not as easy to use as ipod/creative zen etc with only 3 line display

advantages of the 900 (as opposed to the other MD players)
aluminium nice finish
removable add on battery cell holder (useful if you dont intend to use AAs much)
backlit lcd remote.
charging cradle (although not USB connected)
3 line display on player.
black

if you just want to play mp3's get an mp3 player, like ipod mini.
if you want to listen to a bit of radio and record the odd thing, get a creative zen micro.
for good quality recording from all inputs and the ability to expand the memory forever get a HiMD player.

Before selecting this device I looked at the whole range of HDD based music players / storage combo devices. When I discovered the 1GB storage capacity of this device I became keen on this option. What I needed was a 50/50 music player and storage device to transfer and backup data and the Hi-MiniDisc was definately NOT a mistake. In case you are thinking of purchasing and have similar needs, here are MY FAQ's.
1) You can plug this device in via USB without ANY drivers on Windows XP and earliser (back to 98 2nd Edtn). The device shows up in Windows Explorer and I transfered a 1.8Mb file in less than 10 seconds. A very useable speed compared with CD-RW.
2) You can't store and play music in any other format than ATRAC, but the included Sony SonicStage does all the conversion for you if you have existing MP3's etc.
3) MiniDisc supports folders, so you can group your tracks/albums(done automatically from CD-transfer), and best of all they stay in the same playing order, not the case on USB Flash Drives in my experience.
4) You are advised to leave the device on mains power if working with the larger 1GB discs via a PC, it drains the power!!!
5) It does not charge from USB.
6) The headphones are OK, but pay for better ones and you WILL notice the difference.
7) The 1GB discs are not in the UK at the time of writing, well not where I looked! But should be here soon.
8) I tried to copy tracks off an old MD a friend gave me of some analogue recordings, SonicStage did not let this happen...?
9) You can mix and match data and audio on a disc, COOL!
10) Battery life, around 8Hrs, less for 320 bit recordings, but hey! Buy a 1400mAh battery and make it grow by an hour or two...
11) Buy one! The 4Gb-ish sized "fruit" and similar are OK but this device lets you keep multiple discs, only limited by the space you have to store them, and even in a shoebox it's quite a few!

I hope this helps you decide, if fashion dictates, go with the trend, but logic suggests this is the one to have. Oh and if anyone says, MiniDisc, it's like Betamax, slap a 1Gb disc in thier face and mention that the technology is still developing!
Buy one, do it!