Sony MZN1 Minidisc Player Reviews

Price Paid:  $107.00 from ebay

Summary:
I have been the proud owner of a Sony MZ-N1 for about a week now and i have to say it is an amazing piece of kit. Alot of complaints are made about minor imperfections which do not take away from the great performance and style of this mini disc player.Sony have increased the volume range and that was the only complaint I had with my rz900. I would recomend you change the headphones as the ones supplied are poor. The sound quality from this unit was even betther than my RZ900 and that is something I thought was impossible.

Strengths:
Good Looks, Great Sound, Feature Packed

Weaknesses:
Only the poor headphones supplied

Similar Products Used:
Sony RZ900

Price Paid:  $440.00 from Belgium

Summary:
Searching for a small, light weight portable player I found this MZ-N1. I was looking for a player that could handle my MP3's on my computer. A portable CD-player was my first opinion, but these are big and heavy and battery-life is not that great. Then I was watching out for memory-stick players like Muvo from Creative. Thesse are small, light-weight and have a great battery-life. But with memory-sticks you just have 128-256 Mb of memory, so not very much. So, conclusion, my eye fell on this Sony MD-player. It's a light player, great battery-life and because of the low cost of MD's I can take all the music I like with me. One MD can contain +30 songs in LP2-mode (160Mb on 1 MD). The MD's are small so easy to take with me. The process of recording is very easy. Just select the MP3's on the computer and press record. Of course, like you all know, the limitations of Sony are very stupid. You can only transfer an MP3 3 times on different MD's and then you have to "check in" the song before you can transfer it again (check out). By the way, there are already cracks on the internet... SonicStage is much better for recording than the delivered Jukebox programma. You can download the latest SonicStage from the internet. Music that you record with a microphone or with the optical in or line in is not transferrable to your computer with USB. This is a shame, but it could be a hardware problem. Of course you can transfer the music with the line out, but this is analogue and not a digital transfer. Question for other users: Are you also hearing a silent buzz when using the headphones with the remote control? When using the headphones without the remote, this buzz is gone!

Strengths:
-small, light player -great sound in SP and LP2 -cheap MD's, so you can take a lot of music with you -great battery-life -fast transfer from MP3's to MD

Weaknesses:
-price of player -check-in - check-out function to transfer MP3's to MD (3 times limitation) -MP3's are first changed to omg files, because MD can't read MP3: takes a lot of hard disk space because all the songs are first saved, but of course you can delete the omg files later.

Similar Products Used:
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Price Paid:  $600.00 from sony styles showroom

Summary:
Over all I am very happy with the product. The Open MG v2.2 seems pretty stable on my system (P3 533MHz 256MB SDRAM). No problem with installing neither did it crash the programme itself or the system. Easy to work with and use. Transfer and converting from mp3 is at good speed considering i am only using usb 1.1 rather than usb 2 for optimum speed. The built quality is quite impressing though it didn't feel as tough as my older sony MZ-G750. The remote control is very stylish and goes quite well with the unit. The sound quality is exception. By adjusting the individual bass and trebble i managed to obtain the same effect as the Sound virtualiser as on the MZ-N10. It's like listening to 6 channels surround. Listening at night feels so much like you are right there with the music while it's playing. If you use the CDDB service after you insert an audio CD , it saves you alot of time and hard work of titling. For 25 songs it'd take at least 30mins or so, compared to CDDB's 10secs. After you converted and checked songs out to your Unit, the title scrolls nicely on the remote.

Strengths:
*Stylish unit *Feature packed *Exception sound quality *Reasonable well built *Not bad price. Stable and easy to use Open MG v2.2

Weaknesses:
Not that i could think of yet.

Similar Products Used:
MZ-N10, other Net Minidisc player/recorders.

Price Paid:  $600.00 from sony styles showroom

Summary:
Over all I am very happy with the product. The Open MG v2.2 seems pretty stable on my system (P3 533MHz 256MB SDRAM). No problem with installing neither did it crash the programme itself or the system. Easy to work with and use. Transfer and converting from mp3 is at good speed considering i am only using usb 1.1 rather than usb 2 for optimum speed. The built quality is quite impressing though it didn't feel as tough as my older sony MZ-G750. The remote control is very stylish and goes quite well with the unit. The sound quality is exception. By adjusting the individual bass and trebble i managed to obtain the same effect as the Sound virtualiser as on the MZ-N10. It's like listening to 6 channels surround. Listening at night feels so much like you are right there with the music while it's playing. If you use the CDDB service after you insert an audio CD , it saves you alot of time and hard work of titling. For 25 songs it'd take at least 30mins or so, compared to CDDB's 10secs. After you converted and checked songs out to your Unit, the title scrolls nicely on the remote.

Strengths:
*Stylish unit *Feature packed *Exception sound quality *Reasonable well built *Not bad price. Stable and easy to use Open MG v2.2

Weaknesses:
Not that i could think of yet.

Similar Products Used:
MZ-N10, other Net Minidisc player/recorders.

Price Paid:  $250.00 from London

Summary:
Well I like the sound qulity and different formats (LP4 is not advisble as it compromises bit more on music quality). Looks ae good ans so is remote operations. Have some problems with body specially with the disc cover (the front panel) opening. About sound quality its amazing and lives upto the Sony expecations.

Strengths:
Sound Quality Easy Handling Remote Operations

Weaknesses:
Price!!!! Lil heavy.. Some problems with OpenMG