Marvelous mobile music machine
Written: Jan 21 '04 (Updated Jan 25 '05)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Sound: |
 |
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
| Portability: |
|
|
| Battery Life: |
|
|
|
Pros:
* Excellent build quality
* Great sound
* Neat design
* Long battery life
Cons:
* No line output
* Non-backlit display
* Included earphones are terrible
The Bottom Line: As a regular portable minidisc player: five stars
As a dedicated NetMD unit: three stars
Conclusion: A terrific player, unfortunately let down by strange anti-piracy software limitations
|
|
|
| mimoid's Full Review: Sony Net MD Walkman MZ-N710 Personal MiniDisc Play... |
Introduction
I have always been interested in portable music and I have since my first portable cassette player worn out an entire selection of various Walkmans and Discmans (Discmen?).
The MP3 format however never managed to appeal to me, as I like to have my music collection stored on some kind of external media instead of as files on my computer. I may be a bit old-fashioned, but I like to be able to grab one of my albums right off the shelf and pop it into my player for instant listening, without having to boot up the computer and download files to some hideously expensive memory card.
It didn't take long until I fell in love with the MiniDisc format - mainly for its portability and durability but also for the sound quality that pretty much surpasses everything that MP3 is capable of. And with the recent introduction of the NetMD concept, MiniDisc users are no longer stuck with real-time recordings, but can use a computer to transfer an hour's worth of music in just a few minutes.
After a long search I finally decided for a stationary Sony MiniDisc deck to add to my Sony QS home stereo system and a matching Sony MZ-N710 MiniDisc Walkman to take along when leaving the house.
First impressions
The MZ-N710 is Sony's middle range NetMD MiniDisc recorder/player, mainly aimed towards the European market. Here in Sweden at least, the price is still pretty steep and I suppose many presumptive buyers with limited budget will shy away from spending that amount of money for such a small device. Blank discs are also a bit pricey when compared to blank CD's, but nowhere near as horrendously expensive as memory cards.
The player comes in two different flavors - blue and silver. I bought the silver colored unit as I think it looks a little slicker and neater. Well, that's just me. As what can be expected from Sony, the N710 looks very well-designed and very well-crafted.
The entire front of the N710 is made of aluminum (the back of the unit is still plastic though). The 9 character LCD screen for displaying album and track names and other information is very crisp and clear, but unfortunately it is not back-lit, so in dark surroundings you won't be able to read it.
The small metal buttons have just the right amount of resistance and a nice distinct "click" when pressed. My only minor complaint about the design is that 45 degree slanted fascia, which sometimes makes it difficult to find a certain button without looking. I still keep pressing the "forward" and "backward" buttons by mistake when trying to change the volume. Oh well.
In spite of its small size, the N710 has a very pleasant weight and feels quite solid - it has some kind of "jewel-like" appearance. The back of the unit is completely flat and the provided flat NiMH battery is completely integrated inside the shell instead of those awful bulky battery compartments that can be found on many cheaper players. As a result, the N710 is a neat little unit that will quite easily fit into a normal sized pocket. It can also be worn around your belt by using the provided faux leather pouch. I would recommend using the pouch in any way, if you, like me, are anxious avoiding scratching those precious aluminum surfaces. I have noticed that the area around the headphone input and the auxiliary battery holder attachment screw point display some minor cracks in the plastic after one year of constant daily use.
Accessories
A desktop cradle is included in the package. For some reason the product photos have been edited to introduce a cool deep blue tinge to the cradle, but it is in fact made of regular black plastic. The provided AC power supply is attached to the cradle, which then becomes a basic recharging station - just pop the player in the cradle and the battery will start a recharge cycle. The cradle is unfortunately not equipped with a USB jack, which would make it easier to connect the player to a computer but I suppose it would have made a rather fragile solution.
There is no microphone onboard the N710, only a microphone input, so if you want to make acoustic recordings, you will have to purchase an external mic.
The N710 comes with a cylinder-shaped wired remote control unit with its own dedicated display (alas, also non-back-lit). I am sure many people will find this remote very useful, but personally I couldn't get used to that bulky thing dangling from my earphones. I also found it a bit awkward to use, so finally I decided to put it away for good.
The weakest part of the package are without doubt the supplied earphones. While bearing the Sony logo, they are just as ill-fitting as they are ill-sounding. After a few minutes of listening, I immediately put the provided earphones where they belonged (the bin) and instead purchased a pair of Sony EX-70LP earbud phones, which are a lot more suitable to go with the N710.
Why Sony decided to include these terrible earphones will for ever remain a mystery to me, as they completely ruin the otherwise splendid first impression of the N710. These phones are probably responsible for a good part of the negative comments on various review sites about the player.
Connections
All around the N710, you will find a number of jacks, connections and covers. There is a USB jack for connecting the unit to a PC, an optical input, microphone input, combined headphone and remote control jack and also two types of power inputs: one for the supplied 3V DC unit and another for the add-on auxiliary battery holder (also included).
The latter is by the way an absolutely brilliant idea - whenever you are on the road and the rechargeable battery gets exhausted, you can just add the "piggyback" battery compartment, pop in a regular AA-battery and get going again. Bravo! The black auxiliary battery unit looks distinctively ugly when attached to the N710 (kind of like a leach) but it does what it is supposed to.
The only thing sorely missing from the N710 is a dedicated output jack, let it be analog or optical. As result, you cannot take a recording done with the unit and transfer it to your PC to edit it and burn it to CD. You can't copy a minidisc to another disc to make a backup of your recording - hey, you can't even connect your unit to your amplifier unless you use the headphone output!
This is a very strange omission - the lack of a dedicated output will seriously diminish the unit's usefulness as a field recorder, since your recordings will for ever remain in the minidisc domain unless you (like me) own a stationary MiniDisc deck with optical output...
Features
Apart from the strangely missing line output, the N710 is loaded with recording and editing features. In the hierarchical menus you will find all the necessary tools for creating, editing, naming, splicing, merging, organizing, grouping, bookmarking and arranging your recordings and tracks, using nothing but this clever little unit.
Naming your tracks and albums with the buttons is a nuisance but it's probably as good as it gets without a dedicated keyboard. However, by using the NetMD transfer (more on that in a moment), you can name your tracks and discs in the computer and have these names transferred to the discs.
The menus are a bit fiddly to use and I still find myself accidentally skipping between tracks and jumping in and out of menus while trying to change a setting. It is a pity that the track names cannot be made to scroll through the display. Well, they can, but you cannot store this option as the default display setting: as soon as you click on the Stop button, the display reverts to its normal mode (scroll the track name once and then display the track number).
The N710 is equipped with Sony's own G-Protection system to ensure that the unit will never skip a beat no matter whether you walk, jog or jump around with it. I exclusively use Sony's own "Shock Absorbing" discs - with these I have so far never encountered one skip or glitch - not even by shaking the player in my hand. Absolutely perfect.
The provided rechargeable battery runs for about 20 - 25 hours of constant playing on one charge (85 hours according to Sony, but that also includes the usage of an external AA battery). Since the rechargeable batteries used in the N710 are relatively inexpensive, you can easily purchase a couple of extras to extend your available playing time to hundreds of hours.
By the way, I have recently noticed that the charger sometimes quits charging the battery prematurely and leaves the battery half-charged. To obtain a full charge, I have to remove the unit from the cradle and put it back again for the recharging to commence. I suspect that the original battery is starting to be a bit old and is no longer quite as eager to become charged over and over again - after all I have been using it almost daily for over a year, so it is not unlikely.
The output level is limited at 1.2 mW + 1.2 mW to conform to European norms, something that I have read a few people complaining about being too low. While the output may not be enough to give yourself instant and permanent hearing damage, there is still plenty of punch in the N710 to rattle your earbones!
I can't remember ever having needed to crank up the volume higher than about 60% - not even on a crowded street or in a bus - and I do like my music loud. The N710 is perfectly capable of driving my Sony MDR-CD780 closed headphones without problems, so as far as I am concerned this low output issue is pure nonsense.
You should however keep in mind that the N710 deserves nothing but high quality phones. If you are trying to use the (*shock horror*) provided earphones, at least do everybody a favor and stop whining about the output being too weak! Get yourself a pair of decent earbud phones and you will be blown away by the difference. And, if that still doesn't help, maybe you should seriously consider consulting your doctor for a hearing checkup...
By the way, if you are worried about developing hearing problems after prolonged exposure to music at high volumes, you can further limit the available output using the built-in AVLS volume limiter system, but I find that this introduces a rather unpleasant "pumping" effect of the overall sound volume so I wouldn't recommend using this function.
Sound Quality
The sound quality is with one word excellent - using the same headphones, it sounds in every aspect almost just as good as my stationary Sony QS MiniDisc deck. Once more I feel the need to emphasise that the key words here are "good headphones". Not the ones included.
To further modify your sonic experience, the N710 is equipped with a "VPT Acoustic Engine", which is basically just an audio processor by which you can select one of the four available virtual sound scenarios: "Studio", "Club", "Live" and "Arena". These will all make the music sound pretty much like a bootleg recording of a live performance or music from your neighbors party listened to through the wall. Apart from the novelty aspect, I don't see why anybody in the right mind would want to use this function.
Far more useful is the brilliant six band graphic equalizer, which is perfect for tailoring the sound to your liking. There are four different preset equalizer settings called "Heavy", "Pops", "Jazz" and "Unique", but also two customizable user settings. The preset settings are a bit too harsh and extreme for my taste, but instead I would strongly recommend that you take your time and find a suitable custom setting for an optimized personal audio experience suiting your own earphones, ears and personal preferences. Since you have two separate, memorizable equalizer settings, you can create two different settings, for instance one for street use and one for home use, or two settings for two different earphones.
(The unit can also remember equalizer, sound volume etc settings for up to 20 different discs and retrieve these settings automatically for you whenever you insert one of the recognized discs. However to enable this function, you must perform a simple service menu hack, described at the bottom of this review.)
The N710 is also capable of making recordings from either a microphone (not included) or by using the optical line input. There is no analog input however.
To record onto MiniDisc, the unit uses Sony's most recent and most sophisticated compression algorithm (at least until the release of the new HiMD format) called ATRAC Type-S, which at its highest fidelity setting is virtually indiscriminable from CD.
At the maximum quality (SP mode), you can fit about 74 minutes worth of music on a single disc (or 80 minutes on a somewhat larger disc). It may be because of my slightly ageing ears, but I must admit that in SP mode I am unable to hear any difference whatsoever between CD and MiniDisc - not even when switching back and forth between my CD and MiniDisc deck.
You should keep in mind that due to the nature of the ATRAC format, a MiniDisc recording at its maximum bitrate (292 kbps) is much closer to the original recording that an MP3 recording at the same bitrate.
If you on the other hand are willing to sacrifice some sound quality in order to squeeze more music onto your discs, you can use one of the two "long play" recording modes (called LP2 and LP4), which will use the more storage efficient ATRAC3 compression algorithm. In LP2 mode you can fit twice as much music on each disc (about 160 minutes). The sound quality is still very high and you will only find audio artifacts if you know exactly what to listen for, which makes this mode more than adequate for casual listening.
If storage efficiency is your main objective, you can finally use the maximum compression rate (LP4) to squeeze in as much as 320 minutes worth of recordings onto each disc. The sound quality is no longer really suitable for music but still pretty decent for other recordings, for instance lectures or conferences.
NetMD
The N710 is a so called NetMD player, which means that you can connect the unit to your PC via USB and transfer CD-audio, MP3, WMA and WAV files to your discs using the included SonicStage 1.5 software. The software, while not always being absolutely intuitive, works perfectly and I haven't experienced any crashes or any other strange behavior yet.
SonicStage also doubles quite effectively as an audio jukebox. If you wish, you can thus transfer your entire CD-collection to hard disk and copy selected tracks or albums to your MiniDisc on the fly. If you have an internet connection, the software will even look up the CD you are transferring, and label each track to match the titles of the songs. Very slick indeed!
I am not sure how the other reviewer of the N710 managed to come up with 40 minutes (?) of copying time, but personally I found that a whole CD is copied to MiniDisc in about five minutes - also including the time it took of for the software to look up the CD on an Internet database, and download the album title and track titles.
Before the actual transfer is performed, the software will automatically convert the files to Sony's native ATRAC format. Unfortunately you cannot use the highest fidelity mode (SP), only LP2 or LP4. This is presumably done in order to avoid software implementation of the more sophisticated compression format used in SP mode, and instead keep it entirely as a hardware codec. For copyright reasons, no doubt. This is quite a pity as I really hate having to sacrifice the highest available sound quality for shorter transfer times.
What is utterly confusing, is that you can actually select "SP" for audio quality in the software when performing a NetMD transfer. However, you should know that this is not the same "SP" as used when recording directly to MiniDisc, but an LP2 recording upsized to take up twice the space as it normally would, without yielding a higher audio quality. This is done in order to provide backwards compability with the older non-LP devices, but it is nonetheless very confusing.
The NetMD protocol comes with another potentially confusing copyright protection quirk, namely the "checkout-checkin" function. Whenever you use the computer to transfer a music track to MiniDisc, the software will keep track of this action and will not allow the same track to be transferred to MiniDisc more than three times. If you want to transfer the same track a fourth time, you will have to "check in" one of the existing recordings.
The word "check in" may be a bit misleading for some people, as it seems to imply that you can actually transfer a recording from MiniDisc to PC via USB. That is however not the case: when you perform a check-in, the software will not perform any actual copying, only decrement the number of checkouts for the selected track and erase it from the disc. If the track wasn't originally checked out from the same computer, you won't be able to check it back in.
Now, in spite of all these weird limitations, the NetMD concept is actually quite simple, very useful and even very cool, but you will need to invest some time in understanding why the NetMD concept is designed the way it is and how it is meant to work. Don't stray away from the path designed by Sony's engineers or you will find yourself wandering into a minefield.
Conclusion
The Sony MZ-N710 is an extremely good and usable MiniDisc player/recorder. The few serious faults that exist have really nothing to do with the unit itself but is a result of Sony's strict anti-piracy policies incorporated in the NetMD concept and SonicStage 1.5. The sad thing is that these policies - while being utterly annoying for us, legitimate MiniDisc users - will hardly stop music pirates, only force them to use workarounds.
Taken all into account, I believe that excellent sound quality, small physical size, great design and long battery life more than adequately make up for the few strange software quirks forced upon us by Sony's engineers.
Edit 2005:
With the new release of SonicStage (version 2.3), the checkin/checkout limitation has been eliminated. The new version is also able to handle the new Atrac3Plus codec with 256 kbps encoding to be used in the more recent HiMD units, with a significantly higher sound quality than the previous LP2 mode. Bravo!
Service menu hack - not for the faint of heart
1) Make sure there is no disc inserted!
2) Enter the service menu by enabling HOLD, hold down the GROUP button and enter the following key combination: FF FF Rew Rew FF Rew FF Rew Pause Pause.
3) If done right, the player now shows the version number (like 1.200, 1.400 or 1.600).
4) By using the Vol and FF buttons, navigate to key 0 61 (Manual / FCode). The entry should say ***S20 (the asterisks are continuously rolling hexadecimal numbers).
5) Use the Vol+ and Vol- buttons to change the last two digits from 20 to 70. Press Pause to store the new code.
6) Now navigate to the key 0 62 and change its value from ***S64 to ***S7B. Press Pause to store the new code.
7) Leave the service menu by removing the battery and inserting it again.
Now you have given the player all the software functions of the MZ-N10 player!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 300
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
mimoid
|
|
Location: Sweden
Reviews written: 28
Trusted by: 3 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.