Sony's proprietary software is cumbersome, and while it isn't /slow/ you will certainly tire of converting your music to Atrac quickly. Added to this, Sonic Stage seems to be the only software capable of transfering music to minidisc and I couldn't find a download of the full software after trawling their website. It seems that if you lose the installation CD you are left with a £150 piece of junk. While you can copy files onto disks, Sony neglect to mention that the music tracks are actually invisible.

The build quality is reasonable, although the unit does feel a little fragile. I guess if you want something light then this is for you - I find myself constantly checking my pockets to see if it is still there. Admittedly, I have honestly not managed to jog a track so if you need it to work on a bike you will be pleased.

Even with the new compression, it is a pain trying to squeeze your albums onto minidisc. You almost always have an annoying amount of space free and despite what Sony say you can only really fit 9 CD-quality albums onto a one gig disk. Not being able to randomly play through your entire music collection is a pain.

It is a shame that Sony didn't admit defeat and pay mp3/wma royalties - their product suffers for it.

Buy an MP3 player.