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Electronics : Sony D-NE511 Silver ATRAC/MP3 CD Walkman
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Rating: 
- Sony Atrac CD Player - very reliable...............
Only had this CD player from Amazon for two days now, but very pleased with it.Very good sound quality, even with supplied basic earphones. Been listening to MP3 Christian preaching disc on my post-round, and played flawlessly. I tried converting some of my CD's with the supplied software, and that worked perfectly, sounding just as good as the original, even with the default 64 kbits conversion, had loads of spare room on the disc, after several albums. The volume could be a bit higher, but not as bad as some reviewers have said, perfectly loud enough when I used it at work, walking on my post-round!
The machine hasn't skipped at all, even when playing normal CD's and has worked perfectly with the cheap Benq CD's I purchased from Amazon. The lid could have been made from stronger plastic, such as the plastic used on the underside of the machine, and it's a shame the lid is not flush with the machine when closed. A bargain at £40, much better than other MP3 CD walkmans, as it plays ATRAC CD's which are better quality compression than the older MP3 technology, and take up less room on the CD. I would suggest going no lower than 64 kbits for ATRAC recording, as you still get heaps of CD's onto a CDR, and quality sounds as good as original. Battery life also very good, other brands have short battery life, Sony always have good battery saving technology. You cannot go wrong with this machine, now even cheaper than what I paid for it, and you get 5 CDR's that amounts to about 140 albums in ATRAC! Forget about Apple Ipod, this is far more flexible and cheaper to run, and cheaper if you ever drop it! and CD's only 15p each at Amazon if you buy 100 Benq CDR's ....... HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Rating:
- Simple, cheap & effective
Got mine the other day & although the software package doesn't support Mac users I found this to be excellent value for money :)
If you have iTunes just burn a playlist with MP3 set in your preferences for burning CD's.
Very happy!
Rating: - FANTASTIC
Excellent sound quality and it looks great.
Brilliant price and software is easy to use and allows you to copy up to 60 CD's onto one disc.
A very satisfied customer!
Rating: - Great product but a few niggles
Just a few points to make about this excellent piece of kit.
1) The most obvious but important point is that you can get loads of music on 1 cd at a decent quality (with 64k ATRAC3+ you get 24 hours and it sounds fine).
2) The Volume. Unless you want to seriously damage your hearing the volume is usually fine for the supplied earphones. However, if you listen to classical music, which tends to be quieter and have a greater dynamic range, the volume can be a bit low. When using the cd player at home I plug it into my computer speakers and the volume's fine for normal listening, but can't go as loud as a normal cd in a hifi.
3) The general design of the cd player is good and the jog dial makes navigating an ATRAC cd of 300+ tracks a breeze: you rotate it to scroll through the tracks and press it to play the currently selected one. I do however have a few gripes about the ergonomics. I sometimes find that when I press the jog dial I accidentily scroll up or down one song. Also the volume button is on the side of the cd player so you have to hold the other side of the cd player when operating it.
4) Missing features. The feature I most sorely miss on this cd player is a program facility. Bog standard cd players usually have this and they normally have no more than 20 tracks. With over 300 you really miss this. The play modes are good: you can do random play on the entire disc or just for one group (which corresponds to an album). There is no backlight. The cd player doesn't come with a carry case but it fits perfectly in the padded envelopes you get DVDs in.
5) Power. To start with I used some dirt cheap (20 for a couple of quid) non-alkaline batteries and they only lasted less than 10 hours. I then replaced them with some alkaline batteries and it's still going strong after on average a couple of hours use a day for several weeks. The batteries aren't rechargable but I can safely recharge them with this great recharger I've got (I think it was from a company called Innovations if you want one). The supplied AC adapter is small and light (remember to take out the batteries before plugging this in).
6) Misc. When you insert an ATRAC or MP3 cd it has to scan the whole disc before you can play a song. For a 25 folder (album) 360 track ATRAC cd this takes 20 - 30 seconds; a bit more for an MP3 cd as the ATRAC burning software produces a table of contents to speed up the scanning process (I think). Also it doesn't start reading the next track until the current track has finished, which can be a bit annoying if one track leads into the next. The hold button's nice and it weighs 275 grams with the batteries in it. Also in jumping from one track to another, particularly if they're a long way apart on the disc, the cd player makes quite a loud noise. If you're wearing the headphones listening to music you won't notice but others around you might get annoyed.
7) The software. I found the ATRAC burning software simple to use. There are 2 ways of getting music onto an ATRAC cd: 1) put in the cd and the tracks will get ripped to ATRAC and stored in a temporary folder, or select mp3 files in which case they get converted to ATRAC just before burning the cd. I therfore ripped my CDs to mp3 (using a free and perfectly decent ripping tool dBpowerAMP). This meant that when I wanted to make another cd with those tracks I didn't need to rip them from cd again. It took about 2 - 3 hours to convert 24 hours of music to ATRAC (my PC is 1.2GHz celeron 128MB RAM). I encountered some problems with the ATRAC software reading my mp3 files. Sometimes the track length would show up as 20536 minutes or something ridiculous, in which case I could convert the mp3 file to .wav and then back again to mp3 (so I had to re-enter the ID3 tags using winamp). However, after I had burnt a cd I found that some tracks had been missed out, I think because the ID3 tags were corrupted (maybe dBpowerAMPs fault?) or the bit rate was too low. The good thing is that, even with CD-Rs you can add more files to a disc once you've burnt it if there is still space.
All in all, a great product despite a few problems, especially at the price on amazon.
Rating: - Nice unit, but classical music fans watch out
Other reviewers have claimed the volume isn't an issue, but if you're a big classical or jazz fan, you may want to read my review.
I put in a classical CD, and turned the drive to max volume. It was all rather faint. I had read that there's a 'volume limiting system', so I was glad to learn how to turn it off. Imagine my despair when I found it was already off, and I was already as loud as I could go! A look through the manual showed that in Europe the headphone output has been limited to 1.5mW, compared to 5mW in Japan and the US! Classical music has a very wide dynamic range, so most of your listening (even at full volume) will be rather quiet. Dance music or modern highly compressed (volume wise) pop music are fine at max volume, but jazz, classical, and older pop music (like, say, The Carpenters or ABBA) suffer extremely. Anyway, if you're going to listen to classical music ALL the time, be ready to compress the dynamic range of your files to listen to them properly.
That out of the way, the player is pretty good. It's fast compared to other models in starting up and finding tracks on the disc. The jog dial is good, although it's a tad sensitive. The anti-skip protection is very good. Navigating discs is really easy. It plays all the MP3s I've thrown at it so far, including VBR, etc.
Now for the least important parts.. The headphones are the usual dire fare. I can't even get them in my ears, but luckily I have some Fontopias :-) The software is bearable but not great, everyone else has already commented on this. It is usable, however, but claims it cannot accept VBR MP3s which is a bit silly as many online services now sell these files almost exclusively. Also, the manual is full of spelling mistakes and errors, which makes me think this is a product Sony released on the quick. The plastic casing is a bit cheap and tacky. The player is also noisy on its own, with all sorts of crazy stuttering noises and a noisy laser head swinging back and forth. If you have your music on, however, this isn't a problem! Might worry some people if you're on a plane, however :-)
And, last but not least, the ATRAC3Plus encoding does sound pretty good. Even at 48kbps I found it listenable, although not preferable on my favourite stuff. To make a single big 'compendium' CD for those times I can only take one CD with me, however, it's great.
- Sony Atrac CD Player - very reliable...............Only had this CD player from Amazon for two days now, but very pleased with it.Very good sound quality, even with supplied basic earphones. Been listening to MP3 Christian preaching disc on my post-round, and played flawlessly. I tried converting some of my CD's with the supplied software, and that worked perfectly, sounding just as good as the original, even with the default 64 kbits conversion, had loads of spare room on the disc, after several albums. The volume could be a bit higher, but not as bad as some reviewers have said, perfectly loud enough when I used it at work, walking on my post-round!
The machine hasn't skipped at all, even when playing normal CD's and has worked perfectly with the cheap Benq CD's I purchased from Amazon. The lid could have been made from stronger plastic, such as the plastic used on the underside of the machine, and it's a shame the lid is not flush with the machine when closed. A bargain at £40, much better than other MP3 CD walkmans, as it plays ATRAC CD's which are better quality compression than the older MP3 technology, and take up less room on the CD. I would suggest going no lower than 64 kbits for ATRAC recording, as you still get heaps of CD's onto a CDR, and quality sounds as good as original. Battery life also very good, other brands have short battery life, Sony always have good battery saving technology. You cannot go wrong with this machine, now even cheaper than what I paid for it, and you get 5 CDR's that amounts to about 140 albums in ATRAC! Forget about Apple Ipod, this is far more flexible and cheaper to run, and cheaper if you ever drop it! and CD's only 15p each at Amazon if you buy 100 Benq CDR's ....... HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Rating:
- Simple, cheap & effectiveGot mine the other day & although the software package doesn't support Mac users I found this to be excellent value for money :)
If you have iTunes just burn a playlist with MP3 set in your preferences for burning CD's.
Very happy!
Rating:
- FANTASTICExcellent sound quality and it looks great.
Brilliant price and software is easy to use and allows you to copy up to 60 CD's onto one disc.
A very satisfied customer!
Rating:
- Great product but a few nigglesJust a few points to make about this excellent piece of kit.
1) The most obvious but important point is that you can get loads of music on 1 cd at a decent quality (with 64k ATRAC3+ you get 24 hours and it sounds fine).
2) The Volume. Unless you want to seriously damage your hearing the volume is usually fine for the supplied earphones. However, if you listen to classical music, which tends to be quieter and have a greater dynamic range, the volume can be a bit low. When using the cd player at home I plug it into my computer speakers and the volume's fine for normal listening, but can't go as loud as a normal cd in a hifi.
3) The general design of the cd player is good and the jog dial makes navigating an ATRAC cd of 300+ tracks a breeze: you rotate it to scroll through the tracks and press it to play the currently selected one. I do however have a few gripes about the ergonomics. I sometimes find that when I press the jog dial I accidentily scroll up or down one song. Also the volume button is on the side of the cd player so you have to hold the other side of the cd player when operating it.
4) Missing features. The feature I most sorely miss on this cd player is a program facility. Bog standard cd players usually have this and they normally have no more than 20 tracks. With over 300 you really miss this. The play modes are good: you can do random play on the entire disc or just for one group (which corresponds to an album). There is no backlight. The cd player doesn't come with a carry case but it fits perfectly in the padded envelopes you get DVDs in.
5) Power. To start with I used some dirt cheap (20 for a couple of quid) non-alkaline batteries and they only lasted less than 10 hours. I then replaced them with some alkaline batteries and it's still going strong after on average a couple of hours use a day for several weeks. The batteries aren't rechargable but I can safely recharge them with this great recharger I've got (I think it was from a company called Innovations if you want one). The supplied AC adapter is small and light (remember to take out the batteries before plugging this in).
6) Misc. When you insert an ATRAC or MP3 cd it has to scan the whole disc before you can play a song. For a 25 folder (album) 360 track ATRAC cd this takes 20 - 30 seconds; a bit more for an MP3 cd as the ATRAC burning software produces a table of contents to speed up the scanning process (I think). Also it doesn't start reading the next track until the current track has finished, which can be a bit annoying if one track leads into the next. The hold button's nice and it weighs 275 grams with the batteries in it. Also in jumping from one track to another, particularly if they're a long way apart on the disc, the cd player makes quite a loud noise. If you're wearing the headphones listening to music you won't notice but others around you might get annoyed.
7) The software. I found the ATRAC burning software simple to use. There are 2 ways of getting music onto an ATRAC cd: 1) put in the cd and the tracks will get ripped to ATRAC and stored in a temporary folder, or select mp3 files in which case they get converted to ATRAC just before burning the cd. I therfore ripped my CDs to mp3 (using a free and perfectly decent ripping tool dBpowerAMP). This meant that when I wanted to make another cd with those tracks I didn't need to rip them from cd again. It took about 2 - 3 hours to convert 24 hours of music to ATRAC (my PC is 1.2GHz celeron 128MB RAM). I encountered some problems with the ATRAC software reading my mp3 files. Sometimes the track length would show up as 20536 minutes or something ridiculous, in which case I could convert the mp3 file to .wav and then back again to mp3 (so I had to re-enter the ID3 tags using winamp). However, after I had burnt a cd I found that some tracks had been missed out, I think because the ID3 tags were corrupted (maybe dBpowerAMPs fault?) or the bit rate was too low. The good thing is that, even with CD-Rs you can add more files to a disc once you've burnt it if there is still space.
All in all, a great product despite a few problems, especially at the price on amazon.
Rating:
- Nice unit, but classical music fans watch outOther reviewers have claimed the volume isn't an issue, but if you're a big classical or jazz fan, you may want to read my review.
I put in a classical CD, and turned the drive to max volume. It was all rather faint. I had read that there's a 'volume limiting system', so I was glad to learn how to turn it off. Imagine my despair when I found it was already off, and I was already as loud as I could go! A look through the manual showed that in Europe the headphone output has been limited to 1.5mW, compared to 5mW in Japan and the US! Classical music has a very wide dynamic range, so most of your listening (even at full volume) will be rather quiet. Dance music or modern highly compressed (volume wise) pop music are fine at max volume, but jazz, classical, and older pop music (like, say, The Carpenters or ABBA) suffer extremely. Anyway, if you're going to listen to classical music ALL the time, be ready to compress the dynamic range of your files to listen to them properly.
That out of the way, the player is pretty good. It's fast compared to other models in starting up and finding tracks on the disc. The jog dial is good, although it's a tad sensitive. The anti-skip protection is very good. Navigating discs is really easy. It plays all the MP3s I've thrown at it so far, including VBR, etc.
Now for the least important parts.. The headphones are the usual dire fare. I can't even get them in my ears, but luckily I have some Fontopias :-) The software is bearable but not great, everyone else has already commented on this. It is usable, however, but claims it cannot accept VBR MP3s which is a bit silly as many online services now sell these files almost exclusively. Also, the manual is full of spelling mistakes and errors, which makes me think this is a product Sony released on the quick. The plastic casing is a bit cheap and tacky. The player is also noisy on its own, with all sorts of crazy stuttering noises and a noisy laser head swinging back and forth. If you have your music on, however, this isn't a problem! Might worry some people if you're on a plane, however :-)
And, last but not least, the ATRAC3Plus encoding does sound pretty good. Even at 48kbps I found it listenable, although not preferable on my favourite stuff. To make a single big 'compendium' CD for those times I can only take one CD with me, however, it's great.