Appropriately, Gone Green on the back of a Shrek 2 review. Blue next...what to review for blue..?
Appropriately, Gone Green on the back of a Shrek 2 review. Blue next...what to review for blue..?
Member since:05.07.2004
Reviews:9
Sony could have changed the music compression standard, and seem to have missed the opportunity with both hands!
ATRAC3plus.
Pros - it's a great quality compression. Cons - it only works on compatible Sony CD players.
The ATRAC3plus compression software allows you to put almost 500 superb-quality songs on one CD-R/RW, but this format can only be read by this CD player - which means that you cannot play it in another car CD player, or on your computer. The audio compression package that you have to use to make the files does not play them back....also, the conversion from CD to ATRAC3plus CD is horrible - you need to switch CDs as you go along, not burn them from the computer hard drive. That means 490 songs, at 20 songs a CD = 24 CDs. So you need to sit and switch up to 24 CDs in and out of your computer....and if it goes wrong, then you have to start from scratch!
MP3s
Pros - you can get a lot of MP3s on a CD-R/RW Cons - you have to accept a drop in quality if you want lots of them.
MP3s are a more realistic and straightforward option, as you can burn these straight on.
The CD Player.
Lovely, it really is a nice piece of kit. Jog control means you can cycle through tracks with very little effort. The player also supports CD text (it displays the ID tags from within MP3s, so you can see artist and song title). Volume control is good, it displays as a series of rising bars. It can get VERY loud! You also have a Bass button, when you have two bass bars showing, you can feel your head vibrate! It has the usual repeat/shuffle/single repeat options, which is good. I used this to stop smoking....I have a subliminal CD which I put on, then left on continual repeat while I slept. I haven't smoked since, and I have no withdrawal symptoms! If I can find this book on Ciao, I will review it!
Obviously it will play standard CDs, but will also play CD-R and CD-RW.
It's a very light player, and it fits quite happily in my jacket pocket.
Excellent point - a little slide on the reverse which says "hold". This means you can press "play", slide the holdover, and you will not accidently press the "stop", "ffwd" or other buttons. When the unit is turned off, I also slide the "hold" over, as it stops it being turned on by mistake!
Battery life - I use rechargeable, and a single charge lasts me in excess of 80 hours, which is exceptional. There is a battery level indicator on the display, which is helpful - you don't want to set off somewhere with only a quarter charge...!
Supplied kit
Headphones - usual low standard stuff. Invest a decent pair straight away! Cables - all there, nothing else you can really say about it. The car conversion kit is the cassette type, not to allow you to play the ATRAC3 files through a normal car CD player. The remote control is handy! Software - Simple Burner. Very easy to use, but only really required if you are going to use the ATRAC compression standard. You can use any other software for burning MP3s, and most CD Rewriters come with a version of Nero, which is more than adequate.
Overall, this is a good buy. If you ignore the ATRAC3 system, and just buy it as an MP3/CD player, it still stands up as value for money. Excellent build quality, simple to use.
Even better, I got mine from Ebay for £60 plus £8 P&P, slightly under retail, and with a full warranty!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
The only thing I would add is that the ATRAC3plus format (and ATRAC3) are very very irritating.
The Sony software since the early days of OpenMG conversion has generally been slow, awkward and relatively unstable. Furthermore, the closed and proprietry atrac3 standard is woefully Sony only (with limited support from Real). Betamax anyone? MD data? Conversion is therefore unlikely so you lose most of the benefits.
Although ATRAC3 is a very good lossy compression system, it would have been better for the drive to support MP3pro which delivers equal performance at 66kbps with standard cheapo earphones.
MP3Pro also allows you to go higher whereas atrac3plus is stuck.
Advantages: Good quality sound, looks good, includenots mp3 Disadvantages: slightly expensive, battery life decreased with any less than the most expensive batterys
Hsaxo 22.03.2008 (22.03.2008)
·
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of SonyCD / MP3 player
Advantages: No skipping, batteries last long, good sound system with good headphones Disadvantages: Little pricey, Buttons layed out funny, No fast foward for MP3 tracks
cyclone88 16.11.2002 ·
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of SonyCD / MP3 player
Are you the manufacturer / provider of Sony CD / MP3 player? Click here
Jul 8th, 2004
(Jul 9th, 2004)
very helpful by (67%):
helpful by (33%):
