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My model is called the Sony MZ–N505 in a rather glorious orange yellow/lemon yellow combo. Other colour options include silver and blue, but I love the yellow one. At the time this model was pretty new on the market, though there are several other options available today, although ... Read review
Advantages: Carry your music around with you Disadvantages: Not an iPOD
...My model is called the Sony MZ–N505 in a rather glorious orange yellow/lemon yellow combo. Other colour options include silver and blue, but I love the yellow one. At the time this model was pretty new on the market, though there are several other options available today, although they all have pretty much the same features, though most are now a tad smaller than mine. But saying that, mine is certainly no brick. With it’s front face measuring approximately ... ...not hesitate to recommend the Sony MZ-N505 Net MD Walkman, I love it, and it has travelled the world with me – well it’s been to France, Germany and Denmark as well as most of the UK anyways – and with being shock-proof, it’s perfect for walking round town supplying me with my own little world of music. Like I said, one of the best bits is the ability to record whatever you like onto your disks, one disk that I listen to a lot has a couple of Dire ... more
I am a confessed obsessive fan of pretty much all music, from the fabulous Jamie Cullum to the Divine Comedy (ha see what I did there?!)… and so I was over the moon when my parents bought me a Mini Disk player/recorder for Christmas a couple of years ago.
My model is called the Sony MZ–N505 in a rather glorious orange yellow/lemon yellow combo. Other colour options include silver and blue, but I love the yellow one. At the time this model was pretty new on the market, though there are several other options available today, although they all have pretty much the same features, though most are now a tad smaller than mine. But saying that, mine is certainly no brick. With it’s front face measuring approximately 8 x 7cm, with a depth of 2cm, it fits neatly in pretty much any pocket.
The idea of a mini-disk player/recorder is to provide music on the move as an alternative to MP3, at a time when the iPOD was merely a twinkle in some clever person’s eye. The actual disks are just smaller than the player itself, and at Long Play x 4, which I have it set to, you can record about 80 songs onto a single disk. Naturally, the sound quality is slightly different to normal recording settings, but to be honest I don’t really notice a difference at all.
Recording onto the disk is easy. The machine comes with a NetMD pack, allowing you to connect the player/recorder to the computer and download tracks from the Internet. But I found this didn’t want to work on my computer, as my computer didn’t want to play ball. But I’m sure you won’t have any problems with a computer with a little less of a personality. Instead, I bought a lead from Dixons for £5 which allows me to connect the player/recorder to anything with a headphone socket, such as my CD player or even TV. I then just press record and we’re off! I can even record from the radio, which I love doing as I can edit out the bits I don’t want later on. It’s really easy to delete bits you don’t want and to edit your track orders to suit your tastes.
The main features include: (I apologise for the less than technological language here, I don’t have the instruction manual to hand, and to be honest I don’t want to be just reeling off a random list at you…)
EDIT menu allowing you to name tracks, move them to a different area of the disk or erase tracks. You can also choose to erase the whole disk if you like. DISPLAY menu allows you to change the display features on the LCD screen. (‘well duh!’ I hear you cry). This include the time – as in how long the track is, how many minutes/seconds you have left of it etc. The PLAY MODE provides many different ways of listening to your MD, with the ability to choose from random, constant repeat and normal options. You can also adjust the BASS levels and choose to activate the AVLS option which, when switched on, doesn’t allow you to turn the volume up to potentially dangerous sound levels. The model will also allow you to make track-listings within one disk by placing tracks into groups of your choice. This allows you to flick through a list of albums to listen to rather than tracks.
I have to say that I have no complaints about the MD player at all, apart from the fact that it is a little tricky to name the tracks on there at times, as mine is a little old and keeps thinking I’m pressing another button – grrrrr. Very irritating.
I would not hesitate to recommend the Sony MZ-N505 Net MD Walkman, I love it, and it has travelled the world with me – well it’s been to France, Germany and Denmark as well as most of the UK anyways – and with being shock-proof, it’s perfect for walking round town supplying me with my own little world of music. Like I said, one of the best bits is the ability to record whatever you like onto your disks, one disk that I listen to a lot has a couple of Dire Straits’ tracks on (how embarrassing – it’s not my fault – blame my boyfriend who plays them constantly), plus Mr Cullum, the Scissor Sisters, Franz Ferdinand, Lost Prophets and the Grease Melody all on one disk – a bizarre combination I am pretty sure you wouldn’t find anywhere else.
All in all, one word to describe – genius. Though an iPOD is on my Christmas list
By the way - you can get your sticky mitts on one for about £150 in most good eletrical retailers such as Dixons or Argos. My parents paid about £260 for mine about two years ago.
Advantages: Durable, excellent battery life, great features. Disadvantages: Plastic fantastic!
...possessions, I was bought the Sony MZ-N505 Net MD Walkman for my birthday (from my hubby). It was a replacement for my old and very knackered tape Walkman, something I had for well over 5 years. My Walkman had been sat on and cracked, dropped and cracked a bit more, lent out to brothers and bashed about a hell of a lot by my demonic son (he was then) and his cousins. So completely useless I needed a replacement, most of my music was on tape or on ... ...I would have settled for a nice little tape Walkman, but the man of the house (they all like to dream don’t they!) decided that I should get a mini-disc player. I of course said no! If he was going to get me a nice new, expensive personal audio system then it would have to be a recorder. So a Net MD recorder was what I got, and a damn nice little toy it has been too.
On first inspection, cheap, flimsy and overpriced were my original reactions. However ...
hunnibunni 19.01.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Sony MiniDisc recorder
Advantages: High speed download, superb sound, ultra lightweight Disadvantages: Pricey
...afternoon, I wandered into a Sony Centre and spotted a pocketsize silver box on display. It had this appealing futuristic look, and was so light I hardly noticed that I was holding it. Five minutes later, I was £179 poorer!
The little thingy is Sony MZ-N505, codename Net MD Walkman, or Sony Portable MiniDisc Recorder. MiniDisc was invented by Sony and uses a new compression technology to store digital sound in less space (up to 5 hours playback ... ...and solid. Just what has Sony done making the sound so good from a tiny box like this?!
The whole package includes:
MD recorder (81 x 28 x 74.5 mm)
In-ear stereo headphones with remote controller
Carrying case with belt clip
Rechargeable battery
AC power adaptor (for charging battery)
USB cable
Digital cord (for recording from CD player, etc)
PC software on CD Rom
I have learned that MZ-N505 is being sold cheaper in the USA ($149 I heard!). ...
LBoy 02.03.2002 (03.10.2002)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Sony MiniDisc recorder
Advantages: Looks great, sounds great, simple to use, long battery life Disadvantages: The software is a bit of a pain
I actually purchased this product a good two or three years ago. It was a birthday present but one chosen by myself. I already had a personal cassette player (which, incidentally, I loved) and a personal CD player (which was alright). I didn't really want to progress up the "Walkman ladder" because I was more than happy with my cassette player, but peer pressure meant I eventually gave in and did so!
I didn't really want to find one I liked: well, ... ...that it was the best thing since sliced bread. Soooo, I went shopping for one, and came across this little gem in one of the showcase cabinets. I fell in love with it straight away, which I didn't really want to do because I was so trapped in the past! I just couldn't resist buying it... I had a choice between blue and silver and, as a Coventry City fan, I had to go for the former.
I cannot remember how much I paid for it, but you can get one for ...
ktcov 15.08.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Sony MiniDisc recorder
Advantages: connect to pc, can convert mp3 files with included software Disadvantages: lacks features included on the other 2 models
The MZ-N505 is the cheaper out of the three players in the net md range by sony. Therefore it has less features, but for the money it is still a very good product.
When i was looking for a product to replace my portable tape player i was very tempted to buy an mp3 player. They looked so good, but they had flaws, they were expensive, had little memory, and extra memory was also quite expensive. It was then that i came across the MZ-N505 for £180 ... ...wanted one. It was half the price of an mp3, could store nearly five hours of music on one disc, using the long play 4 mode, and extra discs where as cheap as 50p each. Not only that but you could connect the player to your pc via usb and convert mp3 files with the included software, then copy the songs to the plaeyr.
After a bit of searching on the internet i found one for £150 and bought it. The software was very easy to use and set-up, and within ...
buckle247 08.03.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Sony MiniDisc recorder
Advantages: small and sexy Disadvantages: in line remote looks a bit cheap
...via usb port and the sony jukebox software is supplied with it to allow the transfer of songs to and from the player.
the software allows for three different sampling rates to allow you to choose the balance between sound quality and amount of data you can get on the disc. In practise I found that the middle sampling rate was the best balance, as it enabled me to get around 20-30 tracks on a disc (depending on lenght) without compromising too much ... ...is a completely different matter). the lowest sampling rate will quite comfortably let you fit about 3-4 cd's on a single disc. However I found at high volumes the sounds quality dropped of quite a lot.
recording songs via the pc was easy and quick as was the process of checking them in and out of the player.
The only downside I found was that copying songs to and from the player were fairly processor intensive even on my pc (2ghz processor with ...
pmsbony 29.08.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Sony MiniDisc recorder
Sound Quality
Ease of Use
Look & Design
Range of Features
Value for Money
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Advantages: small-light-compact-great sound quality-MDLP-great batery life Disadvantages: pricey!
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Advantages: Looks good, good price, quite a few good features. Disadvantages: Not as many features as some MD's, not a NetMD
If you have had a look at my reviews, then you will have seen that I wrote about a MD player that I had before a few weeks ago. Unfortunately I left it on the bus a couple of weeks ago so I had to buy a new one. I saw this cheap on Ebay and decided to snap it up.
I'll start off by describing what a mini disc player is for those of you that don't have a clue what they are.
MiniDiscs were brought out by Sony in 1991 as a disc based digital medium for recording and distributing audio that is near CD in quality.
There are two types of discs: Premastered MDs, similar to CDs, and Recordable MDs, which can be recorded on repeatedly, like a CD-RW.
Anyway onto this MD player? I have only had this for a couple of days but I can still tell that it is better than the mp3 players that I have had in the past. With mp3 players the battery ...
Product Information for "Sony MiniDisc recorder" »
Audio system
Sound Output Mode
Stereo
Sound Effects
Digital Mega Bass
Automatic Volume Limiter System (AVLS)
Yes
Record Level Control
Automatic, manual
Features
Battery level indication, hold button, joint text capability, ATRAC technology, Multi-jog operation
Md system
Type
MiniDisc recorder
Media Load Type
Slot-load
Playback Modes
Programme play, random play / shuffle, all tracks repeat, one track repeat
Edit Functions
Insert, erase
Response Bandwidth
20 - 20000 Hz
Sample Rate
44.1 kHz
Shockproof Memory
Yes
Features
Sampling rate converter, monaural playback mode, MDLP, USB 2.0 compatibility, mono extended time recording
Headphones
Headphones Type
Headphones - binaural - semi-open
Connectivity Technology
Wired
Sound Output Mode
Stereo
Connections
Connector Type
1 x SPDIF input ( optical plug 3.5 mm )
1 x audio line-in ( mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm )
1 x headphones ( mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm )
1 x USB ( mini-USB Type B )
1 x DC power input
System requirements
OS Required
Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows 98/ME/2000
Peripheral / Interface Devices
CD-ROM, USB port
Manufacturer's product description
Sony's MZ-N505 Net MD Walkman Recorder has everything you need to create great-sounding music mixes in record time. In addition to transferring your music in up to 32x speed, title and track information created in OpenMG Jukebox is transferred to the MiniDisc. With Easy Skip group folder function, you can arrange songs into groups or "albums" in OpenMG Jukebox and easily transfer them to the MZ-N505 Net MD Recorder. If you record five hours of music, you can simply skip from group to group to suit your mood. And your mood can change as many times as you want with up to 56 hours of playback with one "AA" alkaline battery. You even get a choice of 12 playback modes for a choice of programs for shuffling, repeating and grouping tracks. Get your downloads - even faster - and Go with Net MD Walkman!
