Sony Network Walkman NW-MS9 64 MB

...use.

The Sony Network Memory Stick Walkman (MS-11 – same as the MS-9 but with 128Mb memory stick supplied) was the MP3 player that stood out from the rest.

First things first, it is a very stylish piece of equipment. Very sleek and looks like it’s worth the price tag that comes along with it. Size-wise it’s tiny, and you’d be amazed at how small this sophisticated piece of equipment really is. The Walkman itself consists ...
...Sony Memory Stick. The MS-9 model comes with a 64Mb Memory Stick, which, at 66Kbps can store about 2 hours of music.

The player has a back-lit LCD screen that contains information about the current song, 4-bar battery level and a bass level meter.

The unit has no moving parts, meaning that it is skip-proof, something that even the best CD player can’t claim. Transferring tracks from your computer is fairly simple, but ... more

After carrying around my ancient CD Walkman, and having the hassle of only being able to take 1 CD with me, I decided to buy a MP3 player. I needed something that was small, lightweight, and easy to use.

The Sony Network Memory Stick Walkman (MS-11 – same as the MS-9 but with 128Mb memory stick supplied) was the MP3 player that stood out from the rest.

First things first, it is a very stylish piece of equipment. Very sleek and looks like it’s worth the price tag that comes along with it. Size-wise it’s tiny, and you’d be amazed at how small this sophisticated piece of equipment really is. The Walkman itself consists of the main unit, a think Sony battery and a Sony Memory Stick. The MS-9 model comes with a 64Mb Memory Stick, which, at 66Kbps can store about 2 hours of music.

The player has a back-lit LCD screen that contains information about the current song, 4-bar battery level and a bass level meter.

The unit has no moving parts, meaning that it is skip-proof, something that even the best CD player can’t claim. Transferring tracks from your computer is fairly simple, but can be time consuming. The software (OpenMG Jukebox) has to convert the music from whatever format it was in to the format that the play recognises. Also, it music compress it into one of 3 levels of quality. 66Kbps, 105Kbps or 132Kbps. The lower the quality the more songs you can store on the memory stick, but you will be sacrificing sound quality. This said though, the difference in sound quality isn’t actually all that much, and in my opinion is worth sacrificing that little bit for almost twice as many songs.

The player is extreme easy to use. It has a simple seesaw button that controls movements between tracks, playing and stopping tracks and also fast forwarding and rewinding tracks. On the underside of the player, there are a few more buttons that control the bass level, a menu button, and also options for changing the visualization on the LCD display.

In the uncomplicated menu, there are power saving options such as turning off the back light, and turning off the ‘beep’ function that plays whenever you press a button (not so much power saving, just personal preference).

I found the size of the player perfect, as it wasn’t too bulky, and it also wasn’t the sort of thing that is easily forgettable either (you’d think that it might be, but at around £300 you’d be amazed at how much you are aware of it!!) All the ports are very accessible, so changing a battery or memory stick is very easy to do. Also, the USB port is extremely accessible, so there is no worries about having problems connecting the USB wire.

The NW MS-9 and 11 supports USB2.0 which means data transfer is quick, which is essential when transferring music. When you ‘Check-In’ and ‘Check-out’ music, it must be to the computer where the music was originally ‘Checked-in’ from. This is to prevent piracy, and is the reason the MagicGate Memory Sticks are used (they are considerably more expensive than regular Sony Memory Sticks). You can check-out any music file from your computer, as long as it is in one of the supported formats(MP3 and WAV only i think). You can import songs from CD's, or just MP3's you may have stored on your computer. Importing music from CD's is incredibly easy, and its jsut a matter of choosing the bitrate, and then letting the program 'rip' the tracks already in the format the the walkman uses.

For an MP3 player, you are definitely playing for size and style rather than storage capacity, as there are other MP3 players out on the market that offer larger storage.

The only problem I have had with this product is the battery life. It is advertised at being 10 hours when fully charged, and for the first few months after buying it, it was. Then I ran into problems with the supplied charger not charging the batteries properly. So I sent it off to Sony, who quickly sent me a new charger and an extra battery. Everything was fine again, and then a few months later I had the same problem. This made me fairly annoyed because it meant that I couldn’t use my expensive walkman, because none of my three batteries would work. Once again, I sent it off to Sony explaining what had happened before, but this time they sent it back saying that it was fine, and they had charged one battery to full. Since then everything has been fine, and I have been using a different plug to charge with just in case it was a fault on behalf of the electrics in my house!

That is the only warning about this otherwise excellent product. If you want a player that is extremely stylish, and of excellent quality, then this is definitely it, however, in terms of value for money, like many Sony products, this isn’t so good. But you are paying for a very good and tiny product. (Also, Sony support was excellent – both times I sent my walkman off, it was back within two weeks).
 

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