Sony Net MD MZ-N1 Personal MiniDisc Player
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Similar in Personal Audio Mini Disc Player
- Recordable: Recordable
- Built-in Equalizer: Yes
- Headphones: Yes
- Remote Control: Yes
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Even more reason to throw your tapes out!
Pros
Compact size, impressive battery life, quality feel, exciting sound
Cons
no illumination on player LCD, OpenMG software useless and unreliable
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
The MZ-N1 has the best of tape, CD, and MiniDisc and MP3 all rolled into one. But OpenMG leaves an AWFUL lot to be desired.
The Sony MZ-N1 is the flagship model of its new "Net MD" range of portable MD players, merging the traditional benefits of MiniDisc with the portability and ease of use of Web-sourced MP3 files. NetMD is also Sony's latest attempt to kickstart flagging MiniDisc sales in the US, where the format hasn't really caught on since its launch in 1993. Contrast this situation in Japan, where MD has all but replaced the traditional cassette tape, and Europe is slowly following suit.
NetMD basically a MiniDisc player that is able to accept MP3 files from the internet. The standard converts the MPEG Layer 3 format to the ATRAC compression format which MD uses. ATRAC has been further refined though to provide so called LP2 and LP4 compression, which allows up to 300 minutes of internet music to be stored on a single MiniDisc. This has its obvious benefits, although sound quality suffers, and MD's created using LP2 or LP4 are not backwards compatible with older MD players.
The N1 comes with a docking station, which doubles as the recharging point, and as a means of connecting it to your computer via a USB connection. The N1 comes bundled with Sony's own OpenMG Jukebox software, which allows you to create playlists of your favourite MP3s and then download it onto MD.
But this is not as simple as it first appears - firstly the OpenMG software is equipped with Sony's MagicGate copyright protection system. This keeps a close watch on what you are doing; firstly when you download MP3's to the player, this process is known as "checking out". The system then will not allow those files to be checked back in to a different PC. The MD player is also not allowed to delete any PC-sourced music from the disc so as to make sure that the whole thing doesn't go out of sync. Furthermore, OpenMG only permits a maximum of four copies of the same file to be checked out, therefore banning the ability to make multiple copies. I also discovered too late that OpenMG does not work on upgraded versions of Windows XP. I am taking this matter up with Sony as they do not state this fact on their sales literature, but as far as I am concerned - omitting this key fact is wholly unacceptable. I am left therefore with a wonderful MD Walkman, but in its key selling point - its Net capability; its close to useless.
What about the player itself then? Well it is the most compact MD Walkman yet. This is thanks to a flat-type Ni-Mh battery which means that there is no bulge in the back where your bog standard AAA battery would go. The unit is a mere 15 mm thick!! The casing is made from magnesium, meaning that it is very light and easy to carry around. But the traditional Sony "look" is still there, and all the controls look and function in the solid Sony fashion which we are all used to.
If the rechargeable battery dies, there is a clip on AAA battery holder that will allow you to run the N1 from a conventional drycell battery. The clever part is that the rechargable and the drycell battery can be used together to give a maximum of 110 hours playing time. When your battery eventually does die, you can run the player from the wall using the battery charger.
Sound quality is excellent, although I found the headphones uncomfortable to wear. The in-line remote control is a handy device to have, and it has the luxury of a backlit LCD display that more or less tells you everything that the one on the player does. The major drawback here is that the display on the player itself is NOT backlit, so you find yourself using the remote control for editing operations, even though the controls on the player are much easier to use and less fiddly than the silly little buttons on the remote. Equally there are some functions on the remote control that aren't available on the player, and vice versa.
Audiophiles who have been denied the pleasure of playing back their vinyl LP's at 45rpm when they got bored listening to them can rejoice. Since the advent of CD's have denied them this pleasure, the clever guys at Sony have given this machine a speed control so you can vary the playback speed of the music in question......sad I know but an addictive little feature.
Of course the N1 can do all the usual MiniDisc stuff, like naming of tracks, re-record ability, splice, move and edit tracks etc etc, so I won't bore you with all that, but this little machine has more potential than any of its predecessors to make MiniDisc the definitive replacement for cassettes. I would have liked to give this machine a five star rating, but I have demoted it to four because of the very poor nature of the OpenMG Jukebox software, which after all - given that NetMD is supposed to be the key selling point of this machine, is a major disappointment.
NetMD basically a MiniDisc player that is able to accept MP3 files from the internet. The standard converts the MPEG Layer 3 format to the ATRAC compression format which MD uses. ATRAC has been further refined though to provide so called LP2 and LP4 compression, which allows up to 300 minutes of internet music to be stored on a single MiniDisc. This has its obvious benefits, although sound quality suffers, and MD's created using LP2 or LP4 are not backwards compatible with older MD players.
The N1 comes with a docking station, which doubles as the recharging point, and as a means of connecting it to your computer via a USB connection. The N1 comes bundled with Sony's own OpenMG Jukebox software, which allows you to create playlists of your favourite MP3s and then download it onto MD.
But this is not as simple as it first appears - firstly the OpenMG software is equipped with Sony's MagicGate copyright protection system. This keeps a close watch on what you are doing; firstly when you download MP3's to the player, this process is known as "checking out". The system then will not allow those files to be checked back in to a different PC. The MD player is also not allowed to delete any PC-sourced music from the disc so as to make sure that the whole thing doesn't go out of sync. Furthermore, OpenMG only permits a maximum of four copies of the same file to be checked out, therefore banning the ability to make multiple copies. I also discovered too late that OpenMG does not work on upgraded versions of Windows XP. I am taking this matter up with Sony as they do not state this fact on their sales literature, but as far as I am concerned - omitting this key fact is wholly unacceptable. I am left therefore with a wonderful MD Walkman, but in its key selling point - its Net capability; its close to useless.
What about the player itself then? Well it is the most compact MD Walkman yet. This is thanks to a flat-type Ni-Mh battery which means that there is no bulge in the back where your bog standard AAA battery would go. The unit is a mere 15 mm thick!! The casing is made from magnesium, meaning that it is very light and easy to carry around. But the traditional Sony "look" is still there, and all the controls look and function in the solid Sony fashion which we are all used to.
If the rechargeable battery dies, there is a clip on AAA battery holder that will allow you to run the N1 from a conventional drycell battery. The clever part is that the rechargable and the drycell battery can be used together to give a maximum of 110 hours playing time. When your battery eventually does die, you can run the player from the wall using the battery charger.
Sound quality is excellent, although I found the headphones uncomfortable to wear. The in-line remote control is a handy device to have, and it has the luxury of a backlit LCD display that more or less tells you everything that the one on the player does. The major drawback here is that the display on the player itself is NOT backlit, so you find yourself using the remote control for editing operations, even though the controls on the player are much easier to use and less fiddly than the silly little buttons on the remote. Equally there are some functions on the remote control that aren't available on the player, and vice versa.
Audiophiles who have been denied the pleasure of playing back their vinyl LP's at 45rpm when they got bored listening to them can rejoice. Since the advent of CD's have denied them this pleasure, the clever guys at Sony have given this machine a speed control so you can vary the playback speed of the music in question......sad I know but an addictive little feature.
Of course the N1 can do all the usual MiniDisc stuff, like naming of tracks, re-record ability, splice, move and edit tracks etc etc, so I won't bore you with all that, but this little machine has more potential than any of its predecessors to make MiniDisc the definitive replacement for cassettes. I would have liked to give this machine a five star rating, but I have demoted it to four because of the very poor nature of the OpenMG Jukebox software, which after all - given that NetMD is supposed to be the key selling point of this machine, is a major disappointment.
