Sony Net MD MZ-N505 Personal MiniDisc Player

This all started on a misunderstanding.

You see, I like to record my own voice and send it off to people. A subtle bit of egotism, though I keep insisting I don't think I can sing. And every device in the house that recorded audio tapes was starting to go wonky, recording at speeds much slower or faster than should have been allowed.

So for Christmas two years ago, I asked my father to buy me something that could record. I thought the meaning was obvious, since I was constantly stealing my mother's ailing tape recorder, but Dad latched onto the idea and decided to go all tech-geek on me.

I suppose he has to be a tech-geek; he's a contract computer engineer, and if you're not on top of modern technology, you'll get left behind. But what had been my modest request for nothing more than a hand-held tape recorder became in actuality a cute little Sony stereo that played CDs and recorded MDs. (And even knew the titles to any CD put out on Sony's label.)

I, not being a tech-geek, had never seen an MD before. It took me about a month to get the hang of these things that looked like baby floppy discs with see-through shells, but after that I was addicted, making as many little compilation MDs as my budget could handle.

At this point, my discman no longer seemed shiny and new. In fact, it seemed clunky and CDs seemed too big and offensive to be carrying around. I yearned to be able to take all my little MD comps around with me instead, so I requested a portable MD player for the next Christmas.

Having a tech-geek father is good, because he'll buy you anything as long as it's a tech-toy. I got my new Walkman, my shiny new Net MD.

It has not left my presence once since December. It takes the bus with me, goes to work with me, travelled to California with me. I hope to one day be buried with it, or whichever of its succesors I have by that point.

So as not to break my heart later on through the review of this utterly cool product, I will bring up the cons first. I mean, it's not like there's many. At all. But everything's got its little things, right?

First off, the head phones that came with it. Ick. Ick, ick, ick. They're those plain old whatever headphones that you can buy in the store for 15 bucks, with the scratchy black padding and the low low volumes levels. I got rid of them immediately, favouring another of Sony's products, those over-the-ear headphones that are unobtrusive, clear-sounding and, most importantly, loud.

I listen to music that begs itself to be played loud.

Another con is that when you set your CDs up to record onto the MDs (I'll get into that), the wrong name will sometimes come up. For example, AFI's Modern Epic off of Very Proud of Ya is thought to be called Modern Epidemic by Sony's source.

One more I can think of, then we're done with the cons.

You must constantly have this thing on hold. Accidental pressing of buttons can do awful things.

There is a button called "T MARK". What this does is it breaks the song apart the moment you hit it, and makes the rest of the song a new track. This is a nifty feature, and it's useful to clean up 'hidden tracks' on albums with lots of blank space, but the problem with it is, it doesn't say "are you sure you want to split this track?" It should say that. Accidentally splitting tracks in half is not only annoying, it makes listening on random quite an experience. Half a song here, another half there. I don't want to go home and re-record a song or so every day just because I accidentally nudged a button.

And I've found that on mine, though it's probably just crossed wires, that if I hit somewhere between rewind and stop on the control pad, it will perform the same function as T MARK. Needless to say, I have become very careful when hitting the rewind button.

Now, onto the goodies. Oh, does this baby have goodies. Such goodies it has.

Ahem.

To cater to the American readers out there, I shall attempt to remember what inches are... And if my recollection suits me well, this little thing of beauty is about 2 1/2 or 3 inches tall and wide. Approximately the same height as my index finger, and I have tiny little hands.

It will fit anywhere. Any little pocket (well, except those silly fifth pockets on jeans), at the very top of your jampacked purse, easily palmed in your hand, even just slipped into the waistline of your pants. It so tiny! It's bright and shiny, too, and comes in several bright and shiny colours.

Mine is silver. Classic, chic, suave, I love it.

And not only is the player itself easily portable, you don't have to carry a lot of MDs around with you. There are three recording speeds (stereo, LP 2 and LP 4), letting you record up to 400 minutes of music.

What this means is that I can carry one MD with me, just one MD, and have the entirety of AFI's discography, vinyl only and rare tracks included, all fitting perfectly on just one MD. Then I can amp the bass times two to listen to Hunter's talent!

And I do believe I'm betraying my current band obsession, heartily.

It's got all the necessary actions functions, like repeat one, repeat all, repeat shuffle. (And listening to 400 minutes of music on random is just so cool.) The group option let's you search through your MD album by album. It's such a delicious little thing.

I think the greatest part is the ease at which you can record things onto this MD.

With my little stereo, I had to record to MD track by track. I could never figure out how to get the whole CD on at once. And I had to title the tracks by hand. On a number pad, no less. You know, hit 2 once for A twice for B three times for C. That sort of annoying stuff.

With my Net MD, I just plug it into the computer (it comes with the software and its own special little cord), open up the jukebox, and slip a CD into the computer. This is called the Net MD, because it accesses a database on the net to pick up all the info on the album you just put in.

This is nothing new; music programs have been able to do this for ages. But not with the amazing all-encompassing depth that this has. I put in a CD only released in Canada on something like RealPlayer or Windows Media Player, and it will come up blank. Or if I put in a small release like one of my Cleopatra comps, I'll get the same.

With the Net MD, even if it's a Canadian album that just came out that very day (such as with the recent release of LiveonRelease...Goes on a Field Trip), there's a track list waiting there for you!

Sometimes, as said prior, the track list can get a bit wonky, but it's never totally wrong. In fact, I think Davey Havok would be amused if he knew Sony thought his song was called Modern Epidemic.

The really amazing thing about these track lists it provides, though, is that on V/A comps, the tracks tell you the band as well! I think that's the coolest part. I was completely thrilled when I got a Sisters of Mercy cover album that no one in their right minds would actually buy, and I got an accurate track and artist list recording smoothly over onto my MD.

Mm. Yummy.

And shall we speak of sound quality?

With each recording speed, the quality is supposed to get worse. But here's the thing. I can't notice any worsening at all.

I'm a girl who's so picky about her music that she replaced a copy of The Downward Spiral when the track heresy had maybe a one-second skip that no one else was even able to hear. I pick up the oddest little fluxes in music. But I can't find any flaws in these recordings.

I am in love with my Net MD. I fully intend to marry it someday. I will most likely burst into tears if it ever needs to go in to be fixed or, god forbid, replaced.

If you're shopping for a new portable music player, I cannot recommend this enough. The entire world needs a Net MD!