Sony Net MD MZ-NE410 Personal MiniDisc Player
- Backlit Display: No
- Recordable: Recordable
- Built-in Equalizer: No
- Headphones: Yes
- Remote Control: No
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The Sony MZ-NE410 : Good 'Nuff For Now
Pros
Small, cheap, sound quality, portability, light weight, cheap media, tremendous battery life
Cons
Software, hard to diddle with while running, display dark, cheapo headphones, no bullet or radio
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
A good little portable music device with enough strong pros to look past the long list of cons.
A Little Background
If you know all about MD already, skip this first section. MD was born almost 15 years ago in Japan as an alternative not so much to the new and burgeoning CD market/format, but as a higher quality digital alternative to cassette tapes. It would share the erase and re-record functions of cassettes and yield a superior sound quality by virtue of being digital. This was definitely not the case starting out, but it did offer an alternative to constant degradation experienced every time one played back a tape, no matter the quality. Being that the playback method of cassette tapes is actually physical, i.e. the tape has to touch the read head in order to yield sound, the playback method of MD was optical (actually magneto-optical, but more on that later) offering a clear advantage. As such, they had the longevity of compact discs, guaranteeing that the first play would sound as good as the 200,000th. This would be all well and good, but it took a several years for the sound quality of MD to really catch up. Meanwhile Phillips and Panasonic were driving hard to bring the obsolete-before-it-even-debuted DCC format to market. Although I really liked the idea, I just knew it wouldn't last and unlike DAT, good luck trying to find support for a DCC device today, even from the manufacturer!
MD, which stands forMini Disc, appears to be quite similar to a CD in that it has the shiny reflective surface we know from experience with CDs, but it is substantially smaller, even smaller than the floppy discs you use in your PC. Unlike the PC floppy, the protective door will not open unless in a playback device, further protecting it from damaging scratches, something I know we've all done at one point as we stacked bare CDs atop each other. Keep in mind, when MD first came out CD burners, even for the home computer were a ways off, and even when they hit the market hard, they were incredibly expensive as was the media; not the 4 cents/disc we are used to now. And the bottom line was that CDs still sounded better in the early days.
Magneto-optical recording differs from CD burning in a couple major ways, but does share some points with CD-RWs. I was going to write a paragraph on this, but I was having a hard time condensing all the pertinent info into something usable. So, if you want to know absolutely everything about MDs, how they work, etc, etc, please click the MD is the future link on my profile page. You can get to it from this review by clicking on that fabulous picture of Jebediah Springfield (Hans Sprungfeld for you purists) up top and to the right.
As time has gone on, the playback and record/playback devices have gotten smaller and smaller. What used to be the size of an early eighties Sony Walkman, has been reduced, in the most extreme case today, to something as thick as two stacked discs weighing less than 56 grams! You will literally forget you have it on your person. This all comes at a price, but as this format, and other optical formats have been standardized (frequency), the price becomes more and more reasonable and has been dropping since day one anyway. The unit I bought is not the smallest out there, but is small enough to strap to my arm and forget about it. The MZ-NE410 can be had for $89 on line, but as my instant gratification kicked in that evening, I bopped on down to Fry's and paid $129 plus tax. It was a poor choice, but I made it anyway. All that comes with this base model offering is a USB cable, the player, headphones, a Sony brand disc, the software for your PC and about 10 other pieces of info including directions for loading the software, how to use, registration materials, and a few promos. No battery was included, but at least it only takes one AA, which lasts forever by the way.
A Brief Word About ATRAC
ATRAC is the encoding method employed by MD recorders. This is tied in directly with MDLP, or MD Long Play. There are two LP compression options other than standard encoding and they are LP2 and LP4. LP4 is the longer of the two and your sound quality will take a hit when using this method. This depends on a number of variables including the quality of the original track or tracks, the recording setting on the software for the player/recorder and the rate. This new ATRAC associated with MDLP is ATRAC 3.0
Now there are going to be some of you out there saying whoa! What about ATRAC 4.5 Type-R DSP and Type-S (oddly similar to Honda designations, draw your own conclusion) are we not taking two steps back by reverting to ATRAC 3.0? Well no, because the original ATRAC formula, the very one that we associate with 4.5 Type-R is actually ATRAC 1.0 version 4.5. So we see that in fact 3.0 is a step up such that what we are really dealing with today is ATRAC 3.0 version what-have-you. It will progress just like the original 1.0 did, getting better and better as time goes on. Hope that helps.
Performance and Features
The headphones that come with this unit are predictable terrible. They are the sort of thing you might pay $3 for in a Wal-Mart, except that they say Sony on the side, so it'd be more like $10. They have poor range, no oomph, no bass (except a lot of mud), and seem to cut off well before 20kHz. Needless to say I was expecting this, so I picked up some Sony bud style phones at Wally World a few days ago. It was a vast improvement to say the very least and really makes this little dude shine. Also, they have a less prominent plug making it easier to slip the player into the armband I bought for running. Now it might seem like a I'm being a little Sony ho again, but there is a reason the armband thing I purchased was a Sony. It was simply that it was sized for this series of players (410, 610, 810), aside from the fact that it was simply more comfy than the generic, which was only a dollar less anyway.
There are only two levels of preset bass and treble adjustment on this player/recorder. One sets the bass at positive 3 while the treble is neutral, the other leaving both at virtually neutral. I tend to leave it on "sound 2", the bassier of the two. Although you can pull back on the treble to (I think) 5 points below zero, the bass only adjusts to 3 above, vexing me somewhat as this unit doesn't seem to have the most efficient amp in the world. Even at max volumes, it doesn't really play that loud. For my purposes though, which is running at the hike and bike trail around the lake (it's really a river), it will get loud enough so that I find I actually pull back on the volume quite often. I have set decode and record functions on my PC to DL to the player in LP2 format. LP2 is one of the three available methods for recording, the others being LP4 (up to 600 5min. songs on one disc, depending on source) and standard which ends up being like a burned CD, about 10-15 songs per disc. Also like CD, it's only reading/burning one side of the disc.
Whether burning in standard, LP2, or even LP4, the amount of music that you can cram onto one disc comes down to the quality you choose to record. There are choices from as low 45kbps up to a max of 132, which as a result of the software patch's defaults, where mine is currently set. I have simply been too lazy to go back in and change the settings… yeah, those extra 50 keystrokes could kill me. As it is right now, in LP2 @ 132kbps, I can usually get on between 30-50 songs per disc. Not a bad deal really, it's enough for my run, and when I come home I can selectively erase what I don't want and load new songs on that very disc, all chugging along in the background as I do other things, like write reviews. There has been a lot of talk about not being able to burn MP3s or load discs for ripping, yadda yadda, so let's talk more about the software issues, and there are plenty of them.
Right off the bat, I don't rip factory discs to load onto my 410, I see no reason too. All music is in MP3 format on my hard drive. I stopped buying CDs years ago. I will do it though, I used a Tupac disc to test that after I DL'd and executed the patches available through Sony's own site. They are very specific about the order and manner in which these patches make their way onto your system, so follow the directions to a tee. If you do not, you will be back to square one, you won't be able to record MP3s, rip discs, or do anything else for that matter. The fact is, the software included is supposed to be V1.50, it isn't, it's V1.5, and simply doesn't function properly. Once I verified the software I loaded through Sony's site, I upgraded to V1.50, then patched w/ 1.53. Now everything works and fortunately for me, it made it through the first time around, but again, they are VERY specific about the loading and execution processes.
RealOne is useless, so forget it, focus on SonicStage. It isn't too intuitive and is actually a little bass-ackward in order of operations, but you'll get used to it. The software to "fix ID3 tags" is useless. Just hit K-Lite and download a good one, but I didn't just say that, so you didn't hear it from me. Just so you know, if you imported a unit from Japan, for whatever reason, the software will not work, period. So the end result here is that you can make it all work, just be patient and read the directions! I have no troubles at all anymore and as far as only being able to "check out" songs three times, the patches seem to do away with that (and it's from Sony! Go figure). BTW, when you load the original software, it will create an "Open MG" folder, copy your music to that folder, it will make your life a lot easier.
Advantages
I thought long and hard about Panasonic's SD format players. They are small, can sound really good, are sleek and sexy, are the newest thing, and not prohibitively expensive. The drawback is losing a 256mb card the size of a postage stamp, smaller actually. You'd be (I'd be) out almost $300. If lose an MD, which I already have, I'm out $1.89. I'll let you do the thinking/math on that one. MDs are really very small, light, and undeniably hip. Americans just never (nor will they ever, most likely) embrace MD like the Japanese, Chinese, and much of Western Europe, so when someone here in the States see's you fiddling with them, you often get asked what it is, pretty cool really. The player itself is quite small and would disappear in a purse or sport coat pocket. I forget it's on my arm during my runs. It's got a little bit of bulk, but is no larger than say the volume of a pack of Lucky Strike shorts. The play/pause/FF/Rew/stop button is a disc that pivots whichever way you need it to depending on the function. It also acts as the nav for the menus as well. Although the screen is not backlit, it has a neat purple color and the track/album/group/time will scroll across at a lazy pace, so you can figure out exactly what you're listening to. That is certainly where having valid ID3 tags is essential. The is the requisite "hold" switch to turn off the buttons protecting against pushing one when it is not desired. Just so you know, this player NEVER skips, at all, ever.
Disadvantages
The display screen is tiny, as are the buttons and I often find myself pausing when I want to skip to the next track. I hit the menu button when I want to advance to the next group (folder). The headphone terminal sticks out as does the battery housing. I would really have preferred a bullet remote, but the 610 was $70 more, and I didn't see that as worthwhile to spend that much more on that particular convenience. I am rethinking this now. The display is not backlit, this is a real pain at dusk as it is very hard to see the readout. The sound in LP4 mode surely leaves much to be desired, but discs are so small, arguments that carrying them is a pain is a little silly to me. The software is terrible. I am going to say that again just to ensure no one mistakes that for ambiguity. The included software is atrocious! It's buggy. It requires immediate patching and even then doesn't operate smoothly and sometimes even shuts itself down, and no I have a brand new PC that's plenty fast, has no viruses, and operates smoothly. The software is just that poor. You will be able to get by this, but I might recommend getting a slightly higher end model come late October as there will be an "thoroughly updated" version of SonicStage shipping with the 10 series (410, 610, etc) and all new models. The software with N10 and N1 will be updated as well.
Final Thoughts
This is a good little portable music device. It is smaller than most HD based MP3 players, but larger than most hard memory based MP3 players. Call it a happy medium if you will. The sound is, on average, about a 7 out of 10. It's relatively light, widely available, and the media is cheap and can be very snazzy with all the cool colors and styles. Recording is pretty easy and relatively fast at 32x max transfer. Most of the new units feature 64x (as the 810 and N10 do), but even at 32x, it only takes about 10-15 minutes to burn a disc on average. I see this a real boon to active people wanting something portable that sounds good and features the use of inexpensive RErecordable media with good sound quality. The players are competitive in price with most MP3 playback devices and far less money and far less fragile than say an iPod (not bashing, just making a point), and, again, the media is cheap! Hit your local Fry's, Circuit City, Best Buy, Tweeter Etc, Good Guys, whatever and fiddle around, this may be your best bet.
If you know all about MD already, skip this first section. MD was born almost 15 years ago in Japan as an alternative not so much to the new and burgeoning CD market/format, but as a higher quality digital alternative to cassette tapes. It would share the erase and re-record functions of cassettes and yield a superior sound quality by virtue of being digital. This was definitely not the case starting out, but it did offer an alternative to constant degradation experienced every time one played back a tape, no matter the quality. Being that the playback method of cassette tapes is actually physical, i.e. the tape has to touch the read head in order to yield sound, the playback method of MD was optical (actually magneto-optical, but more on that later) offering a clear advantage. As such, they had the longevity of compact discs, guaranteeing that the first play would sound as good as the 200,000th. This would be all well and good, but it took a several years for the sound quality of MD to really catch up. Meanwhile Phillips and Panasonic were driving hard to bring the obsolete-before-it-even-debuted DCC format to market. Although I really liked the idea, I just knew it wouldn't last and unlike DAT, good luck trying to find support for a DCC device today, even from the manufacturer!
MD, which stands forMini Disc, appears to be quite similar to a CD in that it has the shiny reflective surface we know from experience with CDs, but it is substantially smaller, even smaller than the floppy discs you use in your PC. Unlike the PC floppy, the protective door will not open unless in a playback device, further protecting it from damaging scratches, something I know we've all done at one point as we stacked bare CDs atop each other. Keep in mind, when MD first came out CD burners, even for the home computer were a ways off, and even when they hit the market hard, they were incredibly expensive as was the media; not the 4 cents/disc we are used to now. And the bottom line was that CDs still sounded better in the early days.
Magneto-optical recording differs from CD burning in a couple major ways, but does share some points with CD-RWs. I was going to write a paragraph on this, but I was having a hard time condensing all the pertinent info into something usable. So, if you want to know absolutely everything about MDs, how they work, etc, etc, please click the MD is the future link on my profile page. You can get to it from this review by clicking on that fabulous picture of Jebediah Springfield (Hans Sprungfeld for you purists) up top and to the right.
As time has gone on, the playback and record/playback devices have gotten smaller and smaller. What used to be the size of an early eighties Sony Walkman, has been reduced, in the most extreme case today, to something as thick as two stacked discs weighing less than 56 grams! You will literally forget you have it on your person. This all comes at a price, but as this format, and other optical formats have been standardized (frequency), the price becomes more and more reasonable and has been dropping since day one anyway. The unit I bought is not the smallest out there, but is small enough to strap to my arm and forget about it. The MZ-NE410 can be had for $89 on line, but as my instant gratification kicked in that evening, I bopped on down to Fry's and paid $129 plus tax. It was a poor choice, but I made it anyway. All that comes with this base model offering is a USB cable, the player, headphones, a Sony brand disc, the software for your PC and about 10 other pieces of info including directions for loading the software, how to use, registration materials, and a few promos. No battery was included, but at least it only takes one AA, which lasts forever by the way.
A Brief Word About ATRAC
ATRAC is the encoding method employed by MD recorders. This is tied in directly with MDLP, or MD Long Play. There are two LP compression options other than standard encoding and they are LP2 and LP4. LP4 is the longer of the two and your sound quality will take a hit when using this method. This depends on a number of variables including the quality of the original track or tracks, the recording setting on the software for the player/recorder and the rate. This new ATRAC associated with MDLP is ATRAC 3.0
Now there are going to be some of you out there saying whoa! What about ATRAC 4.5 Type-R DSP and Type-S (oddly similar to Honda designations, draw your own conclusion) are we not taking two steps back by reverting to ATRAC 3.0? Well no, because the original ATRAC formula, the very one that we associate with 4.5 Type-R is actually ATRAC 1.0 version 4.5. So we see that in fact 3.0 is a step up such that what we are really dealing with today is ATRAC 3.0 version what-have-you. It will progress just like the original 1.0 did, getting better and better as time goes on. Hope that helps.
Performance and Features
The headphones that come with this unit are predictable terrible. They are the sort of thing you might pay $3 for in a Wal-Mart, except that they say Sony on the side, so it'd be more like $10. They have poor range, no oomph, no bass (except a lot of mud), and seem to cut off well before 20kHz. Needless to say I was expecting this, so I picked up some Sony bud style phones at Wally World a few days ago. It was a vast improvement to say the very least and really makes this little dude shine. Also, they have a less prominent plug making it easier to slip the player into the armband I bought for running. Now it might seem like a I'm being a little Sony ho again, but there is a reason the armband thing I purchased was a Sony. It was simply that it was sized for this series of players (410, 610, 810), aside from the fact that it was simply more comfy than the generic, which was only a dollar less anyway.
There are only two levels of preset bass and treble adjustment on this player/recorder. One sets the bass at positive 3 while the treble is neutral, the other leaving both at virtually neutral. I tend to leave it on "sound 2", the bassier of the two. Although you can pull back on the treble to (I think) 5 points below zero, the bass only adjusts to 3 above, vexing me somewhat as this unit doesn't seem to have the most efficient amp in the world. Even at max volumes, it doesn't really play that loud. For my purposes though, which is running at the hike and bike trail around the lake (it's really a river), it will get loud enough so that I find I actually pull back on the volume quite often. I have set decode and record functions on my PC to DL to the player in LP2 format. LP2 is one of the three available methods for recording, the others being LP4 (up to 600 5min. songs on one disc, depending on source) and standard which ends up being like a burned CD, about 10-15 songs per disc. Also like CD, it's only reading/burning one side of the disc.
Whether burning in standard, LP2, or even LP4, the amount of music that you can cram onto one disc comes down to the quality you choose to record. There are choices from as low 45kbps up to a max of 132, which as a result of the software patch's defaults, where mine is currently set. I have simply been too lazy to go back in and change the settings… yeah, those extra 50 keystrokes could kill me. As it is right now, in LP2 @ 132kbps, I can usually get on between 30-50 songs per disc. Not a bad deal really, it's enough for my run, and when I come home I can selectively erase what I don't want and load new songs on that very disc, all chugging along in the background as I do other things, like write reviews. There has been a lot of talk about not being able to burn MP3s or load discs for ripping, yadda yadda, so let's talk more about the software issues, and there are plenty of them.
Right off the bat, I don't rip factory discs to load onto my 410, I see no reason too. All music is in MP3 format on my hard drive. I stopped buying CDs years ago. I will do it though, I used a Tupac disc to test that after I DL'd and executed the patches available through Sony's own site. They are very specific about the order and manner in which these patches make their way onto your system, so follow the directions to a tee. If you do not, you will be back to square one, you won't be able to record MP3s, rip discs, or do anything else for that matter. The fact is, the software included is supposed to be V1.50, it isn't, it's V1.5, and simply doesn't function properly. Once I verified the software I loaded through Sony's site, I upgraded to V1.50, then patched w/ 1.53. Now everything works and fortunately for me, it made it through the first time around, but again, they are VERY specific about the loading and execution processes.
RealOne is useless, so forget it, focus on SonicStage. It isn't too intuitive and is actually a little bass-ackward in order of operations, but you'll get used to it. The software to "fix ID3 tags" is useless. Just hit K-Lite and download a good one, but I didn't just say that, so you didn't hear it from me. Just so you know, if you imported a unit from Japan, for whatever reason, the software will not work, period. So the end result here is that you can make it all work, just be patient and read the directions! I have no troubles at all anymore and as far as only being able to "check out" songs three times, the patches seem to do away with that (and it's from Sony! Go figure). BTW, when you load the original software, it will create an "Open MG" folder, copy your music to that folder, it will make your life a lot easier.
Advantages
I thought long and hard about Panasonic's SD format players. They are small, can sound really good, are sleek and sexy, are the newest thing, and not prohibitively expensive. The drawback is losing a 256mb card the size of a postage stamp, smaller actually. You'd be (I'd be) out almost $300. If lose an MD, which I already have, I'm out $1.89. I'll let you do the thinking/math on that one. MDs are really very small, light, and undeniably hip. Americans just never (nor will they ever, most likely) embrace MD like the Japanese, Chinese, and much of Western Europe, so when someone here in the States see's you fiddling with them, you often get asked what it is, pretty cool really. The player itself is quite small and would disappear in a purse or sport coat pocket. I forget it's on my arm during my runs. It's got a little bit of bulk, but is no larger than say the volume of a pack of Lucky Strike shorts. The play/pause/FF/Rew/stop button is a disc that pivots whichever way you need it to depending on the function. It also acts as the nav for the menus as well. Although the screen is not backlit, it has a neat purple color and the track/album/group/time will scroll across at a lazy pace, so you can figure out exactly what you're listening to. That is certainly where having valid ID3 tags is essential. The is the requisite "hold" switch to turn off the buttons protecting against pushing one when it is not desired. Just so you know, this player NEVER skips, at all, ever.
Disadvantages
The display screen is tiny, as are the buttons and I often find myself pausing when I want to skip to the next track. I hit the menu button when I want to advance to the next group (folder). The headphone terminal sticks out as does the battery housing. I would really have preferred a bullet remote, but the 610 was $70 more, and I didn't see that as worthwhile to spend that much more on that particular convenience. I am rethinking this now. The display is not backlit, this is a real pain at dusk as it is very hard to see the readout. The sound in LP4 mode surely leaves much to be desired, but discs are so small, arguments that carrying them is a pain is a little silly to me. The software is terrible. I am going to say that again just to ensure no one mistakes that for ambiguity. The included software is atrocious! It's buggy. It requires immediate patching and even then doesn't operate smoothly and sometimes even shuts itself down, and no I have a brand new PC that's plenty fast, has no viruses, and operates smoothly. The software is just that poor. You will be able to get by this, but I might recommend getting a slightly higher end model come late October as there will be an "thoroughly updated" version of SonicStage shipping with the 10 series (410, 610, etc) and all new models. The software with N10 and N1 will be updated as well.
Final Thoughts
This is a good little portable music device. It is smaller than most HD based MP3 players, but larger than most hard memory based MP3 players. Call it a happy medium if you will. The sound is, on average, about a 7 out of 10. It's relatively light, widely available, and the media is cheap and can be very snazzy with all the cool colors and styles. Recording is pretty easy and relatively fast at 32x max transfer. Most of the new units feature 64x (as the 810 and N10 do), but even at 32x, it only takes about 10-15 minutes to burn a disc on average. I see this a real boon to active people wanting something portable that sounds good and features the use of inexpensive RErecordable media with good sound quality. The players are competitive in price with most MP3 playback devices and far less money and far less fragile than say an iPod (not bashing, just making a point), and, again, the media is cheap! Hit your local Fry's, Circuit City, Best Buy, Tweeter Etc, Good Guys, whatever and fiddle around, this may be your best bet.
