Sony Net MD Walkman MZ-NE410 - MiniDisc recorder - black

I realized its really not practical to buy that thing or any other flash mp3 player for that matter... if you ever wanted to change songs you'd have to head back to your computer to add or remove songs on to your flash mp3 player. I knew about the Sony MZ-NE410 and it was on sale for 99 dollars. I use to own a MiniDisc player and hi-fidelity is a plus for a minidisc player vs. an mp3 player. Ignore those SNR (Signal2Noise Ratio) numbers on mp3 players nothing compares to a minidisc player.

Last but not least LP4... I was afraid it was going to sound horrible like a 64 kbps mp3 or even worse... LP4 is freaking amazing let me tell you. There is a quality difference but the difference is hardly noticable to the average ear. I can hear flaws but there's no distortion and its very clear. Amazing product! 99 Dollars and CHEAP MEDIA! Each minidisc holds about 320 minutes (LP4 Mode), 160 (Lp2), and 80 min (SP NEAR CD QUALITY). It is about 1 ounce lighter then an iPod and MUCH MORE PRACTICAL. Stop throwing away your money... the iPod's Hard Drive is more likely to fail since there are moving parts in a Hard Drive. I listen to about 5 or more CD's on one minidisc. I am still using the one that came with mine. Its not as thin or as small as those keychain mp3 players but its great for jogging and small enough.

The minidisc player also plays just like Sony's recent mp3 products. It buffers music into its memory while it's playing and stops spinning the minidisc after gaining filling up its buffer space. This increases battery life (about 56 hours with E2 Energizer Batteries) and the actual players life and of course for movement protection (G-Protection). Most mp3 players only play for about 10 hours. Technically an mp3 player is suppose to last longer then something with moving parts but many forget that an mp3 needs to decode the music which is like processor power in your computer and translate it to a sound unit in your player just like sound cards in your computer. YOU CAN'T GO WRONG WITH THIS! There's no pretty LCD but you're listening to music not watching equalizer bars go up and down and see the lapse time of the song, screw the LCD.

As for the good, this player is tiny, light, and has a cool matte black finish much like that on a B-2 or F-117. The amazing sound quality lets me hear things I never heard when listening to music through my computer, and I have a high quality home theater system connected to my comp. The player seems to excel with classical and soundtrack background scores, but everything else sounds incredible too. One unusual thing is that the included headphones actually sound great too. The display is tiny, but easy to read. It does only show track name at the beginning of a song, but you can switch to a mode that always shows the title quickly, with only a few clicks, so you can just switch back and forth if you really want to.

In closing, if you're in the market for an MD player, go with this unit, just make sure to download RealOne. I'm sure the newest high end models are great too, but they cost twice as much, and still have the same enraging SonicStage software.

When I open the box I finally received, I did not find any jack that I can plug a microphone in. So I read the manual and only find something talking about recording with a computer. After several more hours of finding and reading manual/spec on the sony site, I realize that most other Sony minidisc walkman/recorder has optical input(which happened to be able to be used for analog line level input also) and some high end unit has mic input also.

And right now I have hard time to get a full refund which I believe that I am entitled to due to Amazon and Sony's 'false advertisement'. Amazon said that they will at most refund me 50% to 80% if I return. I am even willing to buy another sony model from them!.
I will let you know how it goes. But at least the future buyers won't fall into the same 'traps' as me.(Of course, you will still be in the same situation if Amazon somehow block this review from showing up)