Really happy

I haven't had a portable music device for quite a while now and wanted something that was truly adaptable. Sometimes I'm in the family car, sometimes I'm in my car and sometimes I need to travel by train. I also work away from home pretty regularly. This device is fantastic for all situations.

My previous car had a 10 disc changer in it, my current car has a BOSE tape/radio system in it which is excellent quality and I didn't want to get rid of it. I can fit over 11 hours of MP3's on one CD with the MP3 format @ 128 kbps - Who needs a 10 disc changer!

Other comments about the sound are just plain wrong. As another reviewer says, the volume will reset itself if there are no batteries in it, it's not difficult to turn up and it is more than loud enough for me at 50% volume on the headphones. I even think the standard headphones are ok. Mind you I'm no pretentious muso who can tell if you use gold connectors or not. I'm just normal. When it's played through the car stereo the volume is more than loud enough for anyone. The people who haven't got this working ok must be like the walls of a castle. I didn't do anything special and it worked brilliantly straight away.

I haven't tried the ATRAC thing and I probably won't. I usually rip my mp3's at 128 kbps and they sound fine to me and the format suits my other compatible devices. ATRAC would limit my discs to this portable device or at least playing them through it and I don't see the point. An 11 hours plus cd allows for variety and if you take the time to put compilations of songs you really love on a cd how many could you possibly need?

In short, I'm really pleased I bought it.

Superlative player - horrible software

I really like this player. It has perfect sound quality for my operas, its ability to play and its software to convert MP3s and Audio CDs to WMA at the bitrates I choose mean I can get masses of operas and audio books onto it (still room left after putting on 15 full length operas 3 full-size audio books and several single tracks!). User-created Playlists mean that I can listen to it when I fall asleep knowing it will switch itself off when it reaches the end of the play list. They also ensure that I can play my tracks in the order which I choose. The playlists are created in SonicStage and are a useful way to transfer tracks to the player. It also has 5 built-in 'Booklists' which behave like Playlists but are created within the player at the press of a button. The previous reviewer was mistaken; the player does have a stop/pause button as well as the switch off button and will switch itself off after being on pause for a bit. It will then continue playing where it left off. The Battery lasts for ages between charges. (just as well - the manual says it will only live through 500 charges) I took it away for 4 days and never had to charge it once (Although I would have had to have access to a PC to do so). The controls are easy to use. It falls just short of a 5 star rating because you can only put music onto it using SonicStage which is horrible. I recommend that you burn your CDs to your hard drive using RealPlayer, add the ID tag info using software like MP3 Bookhelper then transfer it to your player from your PC using SonicStage. Sonicstage is dreadful at getting disc info. It will put CDs from the same commercial opera set into completely different Albums, sometimes naming them for their composer, sometimes their conductor, sometimes the singers. Then you have to look for them. It has poor results searching for CD details, oftening suggesting a trackname/singer which is completely wrong. But there are ways to avoid using SS more than necessary and still enjoy this excellent product.

Update: I've had to edit this review and give this a lower star rating because, after a year of use, it died, just out of guarantee. RIP. I still miss it!

Sony USB Cable for Walkman.

Quality Item but very expensive. I lent my original cable to a friend and never saw it again and thought a replacement woult be just a few quid but was shocked at the actual price. Unfortunately a must have otherwise the Walkman is useless without it.

MZ-NH1 owners avoid like the plague!

This item does not fit the MZ-NH1 MD Walkman!!!! Unfortunately I had to open the packaging to find out so if anyone wants one on the cheap then contact me!!!

Great sound quality, build and accessories

I have just picked this up from a recent trip to the US.
The sound is excellent, even when hooked up to an amp.
The remote control is novel and functional.
You get an extra battery accesoory as a contingency if your rechargeable battery runs out and the mains charger, docking station and carrying pouch are welcome extras.
With the attrac system you can compress all your cds onto one cd or thereabouts). I managed to get 6 radiohead albums and eps onto one cd! And the sound is still better than mp3 compression by miles!.
For those that value cd sound, this is a cracking player!

ipod killer

I have been looking for a viable alternative to an iPod for a while as i didn't want to become a sheep and follow the itoilet trend, however before i found this player i was discouraged by other mp3 players with their reported breakages by other users and lack of good looks.

Enter the Sony NWA806FW

ok to start with this is a tiny player, was amazed at how small it was when i took it out of the box. its lighter than your iPod nano and is about the same size as its taller but the iPod is wider. Also its design is very nice, big screen, straight forward buttons, looks very sleek and nothing like the other tacky players on the market.

The display itself is crystal clear and the sound quality left me in awe at its clarity and bass quality, which is prob because of the amazing ear phones it includes . In comparison to the iPod it is far superior, partly because of the bass but also because of the 'tinney' quality to the iPods headphones. The lack of software for file transfers has also worked out as a plus because Sony's sonic stage sucks ass so its nice to be able to use just drag and drop, or windows media player. I should also probably mention that the Sony player has 30hours audio playback while the iPod nano only has 24hours. oh and it has a nice clock too.

There are only 2 negatives points that i want 2 bring up, there isn't the option to set any of your pictures as backgrounds which i would have liked and a skin changing option that swaps the layouts colour or something similar would have been nice.

Other than that i would really recommend this player to anyone who doesn't want to follow the crowd. This one will set trends not follow.

The Gucci of MD

It was after my little brother suggested that caring 300g of minidisk around could be bad for my heart that I decided to send my 3-year-old ‘original’ recording MD to the museum and invest in this beautiful little model.
The first thing that I noticed about this player when I walked into the shop was its amazingly well designed looks. I wouldn’t describe myself as a simple man but the cool little bump on the front coupled with the dimpled, classic metallic body really fascinated me! It’s this visual superiority over other brands that make Sony one of the largest electronics corporations in the world. Even though there were other, much cheaper models it was Sony’s amazing attention to detail that caused me to ignore the £100 price difference.

As far as functions go there is only a certain amount of things a MD player can do: Play, stop, track change etc… However, not wanting to be held back by the restrictions MD bring, Sony incorporated 1-bit technology to not only speed up the player’s sound processing time, but also increase the sound’s quality. This feature named ‘ATRAC DSP Type R’ is exclusive to Sony and in my opinion is essential. The MZ- E909 also comes with ‘g-protection’ to almost completely eradicate all skipping or jumping. As the MD market has moved into Net MD and MDLP this player is compatible with both formats, as well as the old-school 74min/80min format. This MD Walkman also comes with ‘Digital Sound preset and Personal Disk Memory’, thus allowing you save both the sound features (bass, treble and volume) and track playing order for each of your individual minidisks. The final feature of this minidisk player is in my opinion the most valuable: Sony decided to incorporate a function into the menus that allows you to change the speed that the actual minidisk plays, e.g. from fast to slow! Many hours were spent with my mates listening to the smurf-like high pitch of Usher and the deep, Barry White-like voice of Britney! (the britney album aint mine by the way!)

In terms of value for money the MZ-E909 is relatively expensive. There are few models on the market that top the £200 price tag that this MD player carries. However there are many MD that cost under £100 and do almost exactly the same as this player. In hindsight I would have maybe gone for a cheaper model, as function is fairly limited in MD technology. If your going to buy a MD player, seriously consider these questions: Do you have a MD recorder? Would you not be better off with a recording MD as they’re almost the same price? Have you considered CD and MP3 players?

This player goes beyond any other thanks to Sony technology. Its sleek looks and great design coupled with its superior functions make this MD player a elite product, but as with most goods, this comes at a price.

BUY IT NOW!!!

This is the best MP3 player ever!!

I bought one after my creative just gave up working, and I have to say that this beats the creative on all levels. It is very small but feels sturdy in your hand, the screen quality is amazing and the spiderman trailer that comes on the player looks brilliant, and the sound quality is the best I've ever heard come out of something so small (the headphones do feel strange at first but once you're used to them they're great and they beat and headphones that come with an ipod or creative).

Even though it will take longer to transfer your files I would advise you to to convert your tracks to atrac, because it keeps the quality, but makes the file size smaller, meaning you can fit more on the player! (dont use advanced lossless though, it made a three minute long track 32MB!!).

Other than the problem with advanced lossless I have had no problems with sonicstage and think that it is much better than the creative sofrware, can do a lot more and that it works much faster.

I have only one thing to complain about, and that is that you have to buy a mains adaptor to charge the player from an AC power suply. The player only comes with a USB cable for the computer, but still this is only a small thing, as you can get perfectly good adaptors for £0.01+P&P at the same time as getting the MP3 player.

I would also recomend getting a case or a sock for the player so the screen does not get scratched or covered in finger prints.

Excellent

Good mp3 player, had it a month.
- sound quality and battery life all good.
- easy to use
- compact
- FM radio pickup not brilliant so not sure that this is a worthwhile feature, hence drop of a star.

mp3

i was very disapointed when i receved the item as i ordered a red mp3 player for my son when i got it in the post i opened it and it was pink not red so i had to swap it with my girls one so i am not happy pink was not what i ordered