Sony MZ-N707 Net MD Walkman Player/Recorder (Blue)
From Sony
Sony's portable Net MDM-^Y player/recorder features an L4 mode that allows you to record MP3s or CDs up to 32x faster than can be done with standard recording. The unit includes a remote control equipped with editing functions, which provides direct access to the player's functions. The MDLPM-^Y feature allows you to record 4 times as much music on one disc than on the standard MD. You can record from multiple sources, and with the supplied car kit you can take it wherever the road takes you.
- Amazon Sales Rank: #44938 in Consumer Electronics
- Brand: Sony
- Model: MZ-N707
Great Product, but Software BLOWS!
I'll start with the good points:
1. Lightweight and totally portable
2. I personally think the LP4 mode sounds fine. I constantly use it while on the subway going places. 5 hours per disc kicks any portable mp3 player in the pants.
3. Battery life is great! Even the rechargable is impressive.
4. BEST PART. I use the mic in with the sony MS-907 microphone and the results are superb. I have simple recordings of myself playing guitar and the recordings sound like I am in the room. I haven't tried dumping any recordings back onto the computer yet, but supposedly I have to do that through the analog jack.
Bad points
1. The headphones that come with it [are bad], but this is no news to anyone.
2. The remote takes some getting used to and it could be a little better designed.
3. 32X is a crock. I'd say realistically I transfer tunes about 10x speed and I have a 800mh PIII. Still not bad. You can go from there.
4. The Software. Let me repeat. The software is hands down the worst part of this package. As you have probably read, tracks must be 'checked in' or 'out' using the Open MG Jukebox software. You can only check out 3 at a time. Honestly, this is NO BIG DEAL because you can always re-import the file to the playlist and you get 3 fresh 'credits'. So don't let that bother you. I do have errors frequently not letting me check in a file that I checked out. I just delete it off the player and re-import the file if I need more credits. That's the way around Sony's attempt to police what I do with MY music.
The problem for me is that when you import a file the ID2 & ID3 tags must be in place. It doesn't just list each mp3 as whatever it is named. Let me explain. Open any song on your Winamp. Right click on the song and check out File Info. If these aren't filled in (which most of the time they aren't) then the artist is recognized as UNKNOWN on the MD Jukebox. I have about 5,000 mp3s on my computer, so I literally spent hours upon hours editing these tags JUST so I could find mp3s in the Jukebox that I was looking for. Once I did that, everything was smooth and was alphabetical. If you only have a couple of hundreds mp3s, then it probably won't bother you until you have thousands.
All in all, the player is excellent quality, so far. Recording with a mic is most impressive and I look forward to using it at my gigs, rehearsals, etc. The only hinderance is the software, but there are ways around some of the 'rules'.
Read this before purchasing any Sony MD product
In a nutshell, Sony has muddied the incredible promise of their MD players with a copy protection scheme that further proves the music industry is run by money-grubbing ogres. Unless Sony separates their music hardware business from their music software business, the latter is going to destroy the former.
Despite the impression given by the Sony web site, you cannot transfer MP3 files directly to your player. Instead, you must use the proprietary OpenMG Jukebox software to import your MP3 files and convert them to a new format -- ATRAC3. The OpenMG program uses an annoying check-in/check-out system to transfer the ATRAC3 files to the player's MD. You check-out a song when you transfer it to the MD, but you're limited to only 3 transfers. If you check the song back in, which removes it from the MD, you get credit for another transfer. If you use up all of your transfers, you have to re-import (and convert to ATRAC3) the original MP3 file into OpenMG.
The 32X transfer speed hyped for the new NetMD players is only for files which use the lowest quality ATRAC3 bit rate (66 kbps) and the time to convert your MP3 files to the ATRAC3 format is not included. If you use the higher quality bit rates (105 kbps and 132 kbps are your only other choices), the transfer time (and conversion from MP3) is slower. You can always rip your CDs directly to OpenMG in ATRAC3, but you won't be able to export them to the standard MP3 format.
I bought my MD player so I could listen to my CD collection while working out or lounging by the pool. In anticipation of receiving it, I've been busy ripping my CDs to my home computer. I don't want to deal with converting them to another format (why should I?) and I don't want to be bothered with checking files in/out and I don't want to be forced to use OpenMG to manage my music collection.
You may be wondering if the check-in/check-out system is actually annoying in practice or if it just sounds like it would be. You also may be wondering how the various ATRAC3 bit rates sound. Unfortunately, I can't help you because I'm returning my player to Circuit City without having experienced a single note of music. The copy protection hurdles are more than I want to jump. I'm not a criminal and my music player shouldn't be my adversary. Fortunately, there are plenty of good MP3 players from other manufacturers, though I will miss the low media cost that MD promised (heavy sigh).
May Sony NetMD R.I.P.
If Sony didn't suck, it would be PERFECT for live recording!
I bought my MZ-N707 for one purpose: to record live music. My friend is in a band and he wanted me to record his gigs, so I looked into ways to record live music. What I found was that if you don't have thousands of dollars, endless hours of time, and a fully-equipped sound studio, you're hosed. So I called my local GuitarCenter store and was told the Sony MZ-N707 was just the thing I needed. It just so happened they had a bundled package there that included the works: microphone, car adapter kit, rechargable batteries, etc. And the price was right: about $350. So I bought it, took it to my friend's show, recorded the show with no problems, listened to the show on the way home (FABULOUS, CD-QUALITY SOUND!), and then, when I got home, tried to load the tracks onto my computer in order to burn them onto CD's. NOT!!! After literally weeks of trying different things, re-reading the manual, reading the dozens of web forums that are devoted solely to this subject, and, finally, emailing Sony, I found out that YOU CANNOT TRANSFER ANYTHING FROM THE MINIDISC TO YOUR COMPUTER that you didn't take off of your computer. I don't know what rocket scientist thought of packaging the minidisc recorder with a microphone if you can't use anything you record with that microphone, but I hope that person is one of the millions of Americans on the unemployment line right now (God Bless the rest of you!). Sony said it was because they were concerned about copyright infringement, but what if you, like, OWN THE COPYRIGHT? Sorry, no provisions are made for such a common occurrence.
Ultimately, I found a couple ways of transferring the music recorded onto the minidisc to your computer, but unless you have a separate digital CD burner, as far as I know, you're limited to creating analog files. The easiest way (I think) is through RealPlayer's "record from outside line" option. If you use this option, be sure to create separate tracks on the minidisc recording first; if you don't, you'll be stuck recording the entire disc onto your CD, and if the session is too long, it won't record at all (I can attest to how frustrating this is -- the last time I recorded my friend's gig, I downloaded it and then gave him the minidisc so he could use his studio equipment to download it digitally. Unfortunately, the session I downloaded is about 2 minutes longer than what will fit on a CD, so I can't transfer any of it until he gives me back my minidisc!).
I want to be clear that the QUALITY of the minidisc's recording is phenomenal--10 stars--but that the product's potential is severely hampered by the lawyers at Sony. However, there really isn't anything else on the market for recording live music that is as inexpensive, portable (the minidisc is tiny), and reliable as the MZ-N707. For anyone who is as inexperienced at recording live music as I am, I highly recommend this device. I promise you two things: (1) you will get CD-quality sound recordings, and (2) if I can figure out how to get the music onto my computer and then onto a CD, you can! Also, as another reviewer mentioned, the battery life is unbelievable. It uses two AA batteries (don't bother with the rechargable ones), and they probably last for at least 320 minutes of recording time, plus the related download time. I've run out of batteries a few times while recording, though (my own fault), so don't believe the little meter in the window--just replace them every time you need to record and you'll be set until the next gig.
