Sony Walkman D-NE500 Personal CD Player
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Similar in Portable CD Players
- CD-R/CD-RW Playback: CD-R/CD-RW
- Bass Boost: Without Bass Boost
- Supported Formats: MP3
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Cheap Alternative to MP3 Jukebox
Pros
Excellent compression technology, great storage capacity, very low power usage with 1AA battery
Cons
Menu is awkward, buttons are somewhat small, keep track of which discs are ATRAC3
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
This will satisfy my need for portable audio for now. I would consider a jukebox with this technology as the memory would be excellent if it gains mainstream footing.
I am an audiophile, and I invest quite some time in transferring music from vinyl LP to MP3, so sound quality is very important to me. For awhile, I have been using a little MP3 player for on the go music, but only playing with 64MB makes this a chore, even with the adding flash memory. I was poised to buy either an iPod or a NOMAD Evo hard drive player, figuring it to be a convenient storage device.
The problem I had with them was price. Even the cheapest models (at about 10-20GB) were starting at $200. I also tend to be brutal to portable devices, and it would hurt to break a HD player.
In come the Sony CD player with ATRAC3plus technology. Honestly, I bought it happy with the MP3 compatibility not considering that I would even use the ATRAC3plus. But when I read that the 64kbps in ATRAC3plus is equal to 128kbps in MP3, I was curious about the sound quality.
You have to use their program called SonicStage to convert to ATRAC3, as it is proprietary technology to Sony. The program was easy to use, but it was a time consuming affair to write an entire music disk. Be sure that you have plenty of RAM space for this feature, or you'll be sitting for awhile.
Sony advertises 490 songs to a single disc, but you would have to write files at 48kbps. Most of us will choose to use the 64kbps, and that produced about 290 songs on one of my discs, though some of the songs are long, so your mileage will vary.
Playback is all to be expected from Sony, excellent. The display menu is easy to read, but there is no backlight; it would have been a nice touch, but they are also trying to power this thing with 1AA, so hey.
One drawbacks is that you have to keep track of which discs are written in ATRAC3plus, and this can be a little bit of a nuisance as it is not a mainstream format yet. This format was originally used in minidiscs (ATRAC1). ATRAC3plus is the newest installment with tighter compression. It will be interesting to see if this format gains popularity.
I'm not too crazy about the little button for menu functions. You have to hold it down and toggle at the same time to make selections. Stock headphones are adequate for listening, and have a decent range, though I'll use my own.
The problem I had with them was price. Even the cheapest models (at about 10-20GB) were starting at $200. I also tend to be brutal to portable devices, and it would hurt to break a HD player.
In come the Sony CD player with ATRAC3plus technology. Honestly, I bought it happy with the MP3 compatibility not considering that I would even use the ATRAC3plus. But when I read that the 64kbps in ATRAC3plus is equal to 128kbps in MP3, I was curious about the sound quality.
You have to use their program called SonicStage to convert to ATRAC3, as it is proprietary technology to Sony. The program was easy to use, but it was a time consuming affair to write an entire music disk. Be sure that you have plenty of RAM space for this feature, or you'll be sitting for awhile.
Sony advertises 490 songs to a single disc, but you would have to write files at 48kbps. Most of us will choose to use the 64kbps, and that produced about 290 songs on one of my discs, though some of the songs are long, so your mileage will vary.
Playback is all to be expected from Sony, excellent. The display menu is easy to read, but there is no backlight; it would have been a nice touch, but they are also trying to power this thing with 1AA, so hey.
One drawbacks is that you have to keep track of which discs are written in ATRAC3plus, and this can be a little bit of a nuisance as it is not a mainstream format yet. This format was originally used in minidiscs (ATRAC1). ATRAC3plus is the newest installment with tighter compression. It will be interesting to see if this format gains popularity.
I'm not too crazy about the little button for menu functions. You have to hold it down and toggle at the same time to make selections. Stock headphones are adequate for listening, and have a decent range, though I'll use my own.
