Sony MZN710 Net MD portable MiniDisc recorder

.../> The appearance of the Sony MZ-N710 gives this minidisc recorder a great advantage in comparison to other, bulkier recorders. It is available in two colours; silver and dark blue. Both are metallic in appearance and both have silver buttons. The buttons on the recorder itself are as follows:
'Enter/play'- circular, around 5mm in diameter
'Volume'- in a panel surrounding the enter button, '+' above and '-' below.
'Skip track'- ...
...recorder include the company logo- Sony embossed at the top of the recorder in silver lettering, the walkman logo and the product name written on the product in red. What is very annoying about these button, although they look very nice, they are very difficult to press. It's allright for younger people with smaller fingers but for men who have bigger fingers, the buttons are not ideal. I often find that I end up pressing 2/3 buttons at the same ... more

I received this minidisc recorder as a christmas present from my grandparents and it has been one of my best and most used christmas presents. This nifty little minidisc (or "minidisk") recorder isn't cheap, but for the amount of times that I use it, it has certainly been worth the money.
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*The minidisc recorder- history*
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After the portable cassette player/radio came the portable cassette player. Easier to flick through tracks than the cassette player and thinner it was a great technological advancement. However, the development of MP3 files prompted the development of MP3 players, although many CD walkmans had the facility to play CDs with MP3 tracks on them. These MP3 files lacked in features, although it was easy to put a file onto MP3 players their memory wasn't exceptional meaning that after a certain amount of tracks had been transferred onto it, it could not allow any more. This became very annoying, meaning that users had to compromise, replacing older tracks with newer ones. Furthermore they was the on-going debate about filesharing and downloading. It was argued that the MP3 player fueled filesharing and downloading which upset many artists and record companies. The problem was finding a compromise- something that would please both record companies and the consumer. The solution- the minidisc recorder. The minidisc recorder allows users to copy CDs onto handier, niftier little discs which are easier to carry around. It also allows the downloading of MP3 files onto the discs (at the users own risk of course). What's more some record companies choose to release official minidiscs of some popular albums. Moreover the fact that the minidisc recorder is so compact allows users to fit the gadget in their pockets and the memory can be shared between several minidiscs. With the minidisc recorder everyone is made happy.
However, the Ipod has been a more recent development, meaning that users no longer have to switch between minidiscs. Although many argue that minidisc players are going out of use due to iPods and other devices with far more memory, I stick by my minidisc recorder. Not only does it look good and fit into your pocket easily, it allows you to quickly scan through songs as you don't have to go through 1000s of songs to get to the one you like- you just have to change minidiscs. Furthermore the price is a lot better than iPods which cost £250-300+. Over double the price of a good, top of the range minidisc recorder/player.

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*Looks*
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The appearance of the Sony MZ-N710 gives this minidisc recorder a great advantage in comparison to other, bulkier recorders. It is available in two colours; silver and dark blue. Both are metallic in appearance and both have silver buttons. The buttons on the recorder itself are as follows:
'Enter/play'- circular, around 5mm in diameter
'Volume'- in a panel surrounding the enter button, '+' above and '-' below.
'Skip track'- to the left and right of the enter button.
'Menu'- tiny circular button, 2mm in diameter
'Cancel/CHG'- the stop button, about 3mm in diameter, circular
'Pause'- as above
'Group'- small circular button, 2mm in diameter positioned next to the screen.
'End search'- Also next to screen, oval in shape
'Rec' (record)- Sliding button with red press down button for locking the record function.
In addition to this is a blue sliding 'hold' button on the side of the recorder and a silver sliding button which has an ejecting facility. The names of the buttons are written in small silver font and the symbols , such as arrows for skipping tracks are embossed on the buttons.
Other written parts on the minidisc recorder include the company logo- Sony embossed at the top of the recorder in silver lettering, the walkman logo and the product name written on the product in red. What is very annoying about these button, although they look very nice, they are very difficult to press. It's allright for younger people with smaller fingers but for men who have bigger fingers, the buttons are not ideal. I often find that I end up pressing 2/3 buttons at the same time since they are so small and close together.
The screen is a plain LCD screen and the writing which scrolls across it is black and easy to read. The screen is around about 2 inches in length and it situated across the recorder on a slant. This is one of my favourite aspects of the design. The shape of the recorder is also innovative. It is square in shape and about 2.75 inches in length and width, diagonally across the recorder is a small fold.
On the remote is several small buttons and the screen in similar to the screen on the recorder itself. The remote is black and the border around the screen is white. The same colours are used on the supplied headphones which are reasonaly shaped for the ears. However, they are not as nicely shaped as they could be since they do not fit to smaller ears and often fall out as a result. The headphones are black and have Sony written on the headphones themselves in white. The 'connector' between the headphones has Sony embossed on it in black.

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*Features*
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This minidisc recorder is loaded with many different features. I have had this product for 6 months and still haven't had the chance to use all the different features it has. Among my favourite and most used features is the ability to charge the battery in the supplied charging 'cradle'. This gives this minidisc recorder a great advantage over other models as many require the use of a clip on battery. With this minidisc player you get the best of both worlds as, should your battery run out then you can replace it with a clip on AA battery which comes in a nifty black plastic case. This is great for long journeys where you may require a lot of battery. The charging cradle is a flat stand which you just pop your minidisc recorder in and the wire into the socket and you're away. Charging takes about 3 hours and one load of charge has been known to last me 2/3 weeks. When the charge is running out the battery symbol on the screen flashes. The sound quality is never compromised as the charge runs out.
The remote is pretty basic, it's Sony to match the recorder so it has the same buttons on it and some extra ones too. It is a tube shape with the buttons on the top, bottom and a turner on the side to change the tracks with. The supplied remote is not as good as other Sony minidisc remotes which have lighting up screens and can be bought in many different colours. You can normally buy one of these from Ebay at a price of around £20 or new at about £50.
The headphones are also very bog standard. As I outlined earlier, the ear pieces are quite large so they are not recommended for the smaller ear. This means that to get a louder and clearer sound quality you have to shove them riiiiiight into your ears. I strongly recommend that you buy extra headphones with rubber earpieces, these give a lot better quality and although, at £30-40 they are not cheap, they're definitely worth it for regular users of minidisc recorders.
The extra sound features which can be contolled via the remote or the recorder itself include the ability to change the 'sound' or 'style' of the music. You can select between arena, live, unique, studio and club styles. The loudest and clearest is the studio version which is the standard style.
There is also a hold button which is similar to locking the keypad on a mobile phone. It means that if you accidentally press a button then nothing will happen. This feature can be toggled easily. The recorder has G-Shock which means sharp movements and jogging with this minidisc recorder will not affect the sound quality.

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*Extras*
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Supplied with this minidisc recorder is a lovely leather looking case from Sony. It is black and has a large velcro fastening, this protects it from damage and scratching. There is also a USB cable which can be fitted in the USB port on a computer and on a 1cm large hole on the side of the recorder for transfering music to minidisc. This is simple and easy to do. Sonicstage software is included which is a programme which allows you to make playlists which can be transferred onto your minidisc recorder. It also allows you to rename, move and delete tracks from minidisc. Once again this software is easy to use and is fairly self explanatory. However, the instruction manual which is supplied is a different story. The basics are reasonably explained but extra features such as the 'group' feature are not explained fully. I've had this recorder for 6 months and I still don't know how to use half of the things on this gadget, the instruction manual does not help. Otherwise the software and the basic functions on the minidisc recorder are fairly user friendly and good for the beginner. No minidiscs are supplied but it is compatable with all minidiscs. Not just Sony ones.

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*Price*
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I got this product for £119.99 from the Comet website last year (they lost it in the lorry while delivering it to me apparently so I didn't get it for 6 weeks!). But I have seen this product priced as high as £160! You have to shop around for this minidisc recorder as it is a fairly recent product and is more advanced than many on the market so the price is going to be a lot higher than your average £70-80 recorder. As I said at the beginning of this review, I have definitely got my money's worth on this recorder. Although the price is a lot, I use mine so often that it has been worth it.

Thanks for reading, sorry about the delay in finishing it. Thanks again!

Natalie
Ciao 

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