Sony MZ-NH1 Silver Hi-MiniDisc Walkman at Amazon.com

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0 of 4 people found the following review helpful: Why bother?, March 23, 2005 Reviewer: E. ROSENBLUM - See all my reviews    These minidisk players/recorders lock a user to some Sony's proprietary format (Atrac3) and software, and impose severe limitations on how your music collection (MP3, WMA and so on) may be copied from/to these devices (see WWW for details). So I just ask myself why a one would want to use this thing if there are so many (much cheaper) alternatives available that don't impose all these annoying restrictions? Was this review helpful to you?  (Report this)

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful: excellent portable music machine, March 18, 2005 Reviewer: Drez "Drez" (MD USA) - See all my reviews This little machine is awesome... I use it to play music copied from CDs (I ride the train to work) and to record live music. What puts this unit in a class by itself is the ability to record through the line-In or mic-In straight to 1Gig MD and then USB download to PC and convert to wav... Nobody else can do that, that I know of... that was the missing link --- Yea Sony! of course, from there, u can do anything you want with the digitized music: edit, layer tracks, crossfade with other music, burn CD, MD, the web, whatever... I also needed a good stereo mic for recording live music and rehearsals. I picked the Sony ECM-MS907 Stereo Microphone. It's small, sturdy and adequate, but the threads on the included adaptor don't fit standard mic stands, and the Sony mic won't fit in the adapter that comes with, say an SM57 or SM58... bummer... I also needed closed headphones. The Sennheisers are great for rehearsals, etc, but uncomfortable on long train rides,,, the Sony MDR-EX71SL/WK ear buds fixed that problem... OK Here's something you can't do,,,, you can,t transfer songs to and from your PC on AC power, 'cause you can't cradle the MZ into the AC adapter and plug in the USB cord at the same time... I know... tha's dumb... The Sonic Stage software is adequate after you upgrade it from the Sony sight,,, and you need to download the MP3 and WAV conversions tools also $FREE$ ... You have to have Sonic Stage installed in order to install these other tools... OK here's another gotcha,,, An MD that was loaded from Sonic Stage knows what computer it came from, so you CAN'T take your MZ-NH1 to your friends house and download your Sonic Stage songs to his Sonic Stage so he can make a copy of your disc ... naa-daa ... u get a nasty message saying something like "This MD wasn't recorded on your friends computer so fuhgetaboutit" ... tha's wack'd Sony ... You CAN record directly from a CD to an MD loaded in the MZ through the Line-In, thus bypassing Sonic Stage step, but Line-In means analog so some degradation will occur (You can record your favorite TV show here, but why?). Oh yea, the units made out of some kind of alloy from outer-space (Cryptonite, i think), it feels like an indestructible cigararette case (looks like one too) ... but here's the gotcha... the remote's just painted plastic, it works good, lights up, etc, but it feels like if you accidentally stepped on it, it'd crunch like a cockroach... Still, with the line-in, mic-in recording capabilities, 1GB disk capacity, WAV & MP3 conversion software, tank-build and very good sound, this unit is way ahead of the CD/MP3 players, I-Pods and other portable units availabe today... Was this review helpful to you?  (Report this)

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful: i love the sony mz-nh1, February 15, 2005 Reviewer: Michael Blackstock "drdestructo1" (Stuart, FL USA) - See all my reviews    i recently bought the sony mz-nh1 for recording live shows, and i couldn't be happier. you can transfer your recording to your computer, make cd's (with sony WAV converter) and then format the minidisc and use it again! awesome Was this review helpful to you?  (Report this)

13 of 20 people found the following review helpful: What's an iPod??, February 10, 2005 Reviewer: Young Mario (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews Whenever I am going to work, I cant help to notice all the people sitting around me on the train with their stylish iPod. They are just cool fad as are those yellow rubber bracelets that cost a dollar. Apple should have just added the yellow bracelet in the packaging! "I really dont want an iPod, but my friends have one so I'll dish out 250.00 so I can look cool." This is why I didnt want an iPod. They are dumb and trendy. This Mini Disk player will obliterate any iPod ever made. Just look at the specs and compare. Ok, sure some iPods can hold more music, but who wants a device who's internal battery will only last you about a year or so under normal use. Not only do Mini-Disk players offer superior sound, but they are long lasting. I myself have dropped my player many times over the past two years and it still plays and records like the first time I used it. So do yourself a favor and get a Mini-disk player and stand out, unless you want to be like everyone else on that train or bus or wherever with their little iPods and white earbud headphones. If you got an iPod for Christmas, sell it on EBAY so some poser out in suburban America can look cool with their yellow LIVESTRONG bracelet. Pros: -Fast Data Transfer -Excellent sound -Durabilty/Reliable -Easy to use -Record all types of digital music files -Not an iPod Cons: Ahem,...it's not an iPod! Was this review helpful to you?  (Report this)

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful: Exceptional Quality; great sound fidelity, December 16, 2004 Reviewer: Alex theodo (Los Angeles CA) - See all my reviews I have been an MD user for a couple of years now. I finally got this great Hi-Md unit and I am very satisfied thus far. The unit is really sleek and sturdy; light, but at the same time has a rugged feel to it. The sound is amazing. Do yourself a favor and buy a good pair of phones for th unit. The phones that come with it do not do justice. I splurged and got the shure ec3s, and the sound is amazingly clear. SonicStage 2.2 has come a long way since OpenMG; and keeping in mind that when we are talking about transfering, we are actually talking about burning a cd; the transfer speed is very good. Of course the big drawback is that there is no Apple support for the MD; but for the sound, the features (digital recording; microphone recording that is at pcm quality) I can live with that drawback. i have a dedicated windows laptop for my music. Coming from just being an ipod user for the last 7 months; the batter life on this thing is trully amazing. In the two weeks that I have had it; I had to charge the battery just three times (including the initial time), and then I just listen to music hours and hours each day. I am using hi-sp for my songs which equates to 7 hrs of music at the 1gb disk, and 2 hrs of music at the regular MD disks formatted under the Hi-Md scheme. One word of advice; to enjoy the sound fidelity to its fullest, you will need to start with a lossless format; in my testing if I start the conversion from a compressed format already e.g., MP3, Atrac3 to AtracPlus; there is some distortion and artifact introduction. However, I believe this has to do with the sensitive earphones that I have. If you use medium grade earphones you should be ok. Bottom line, I think the MD format is here to stay; true it's not for everybody, but those of us that are used to the little quirks that come with the system (sony's drm leaves something ot be desired), love these little machines. Was this review helpful to you?  (Report this)

13 of 22 people found the following review helpful: MZ-NH1 is the best portable HD sound, October 16, 2004 Reviewer: CARLOS GALVAN - See all my reviews    I got the MZ-NH1 a couple of weeks ago and I love it. The sound is great when i use the headphones, and amazing sound when i connect the MZ-NH1 to my house amplifier or to my car audio system. If you are a fanatic for the High Sound definition the Ipod don't compare whit the MZ-NH1. The High quality of sound that gives the High Definition Digital Amp incorporated in the MZ-NH1 with the versatility of the Md are the perfect combination. Additionally the MZ-NH1 has another amount of excellent characteristics. Was this review helpful to you?  (Report this)

48 of 50 people found the following review helpful: Search 4 the best MD Player Ends Here! IPOD has a competitor, September 14, 2004 Reviewer: S. Arslanian (Buena Park, Ca United States) - See all my reviews    I got the MZ-NH1 a couple of weeks ago and I am thrilled with it. Let me sum it up: PROS * I gigabyte MD is great * Over 7 hours of music using ATRAC3 256kbps, 2nd highest quality, and sounds beautiful * Full Magnesium Body * Small, Slim, and Solid Device * Long Battery Life - Gumstick Rechargeable battery * Sweet Cradle * Finally we have Transfer from MD to PC -important note- When the file is transferred it's in sony's omg format which you can only play using the sonicstage software. However, there is official news that Sony will come out with a free program that will let you convert the "omg" file into a wave. * Mic recordings still sound incredible * No check in - check out, but you still have to use SonicStage Software to transfer music to player * You can drag and drop files -note- If you drag and drop mp3s it will put the file on the disc but you won't be able to play it through the player, must use sonic stage. * Backwards compatible with old minidiscs * You can record from literally almost any source of sound. CONS * headphones included aren't too good (no biggie) This player is sweet Was this review helpful to you?  (Report this)

Avg. Customer Review:
Number of Reviews: 15

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

again,excellent but could have been better...., April 25, 2005

Reviewer: A electronics & photo fan from beckenham, kent United Kingdom

this is going to be a very quick unbiased kinda review.

the unit and controller,top notch,great functionality,and especially the build quality or the md itself,work or art,real quality.

the headphones are a crock of poop,come on sony,what a let down,i havnt bought any new ones yet but definitely will,the e2c's and e3c's look the biz.

sonic stage which is the software you need to use to manage the contents of you md that comes with the nh1(hi-md) and its horrid.what a pile of dung,i mean its never actually crashed on me or anything but its nasty,yukk. i've never owned a ipod however i love listening to my non atrac music files through itunes,what a wikid piece of software,well done you mac guys.for the record i downloaded the latest version of ss,that being 3.1 and its still rank!

apart for that,pretty cool,and well done amazon,brill price.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

Professional Sound Recording Quality, April 9, 2005

Reviewer: liu_qingdao from London, United Kingdom

Not only I am happy with the playback of sound tracks ripped from CDs but also very pleased with the recording quality that the Sony MZ-NH1 possesses when using an external microphone. The recording on the minidisk can be easyly downloaded to my PC using SonicStage, then you can convert the file into wav format using Sony's WAV Conversion Tool. You can, of course, further convert the wav file into any format such as mp3, rm etc using third party software. It's really great. A must for voice artists.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

This little baby sure packs a punch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, January 6, 2005

Reviewer: thelittleliverbird from WORKINGTON, CUMBRIA United Kingdom

After searching for a minidisc player and scanning through many reviews of certain models, i plumped for this one.
After getting through the instruction manual (which is a task in itself!)i charged up my new minidisc player and sat back to enjoy (obviously with different earphones to the ones provided in the box as they are utter rubbish and besides, my little ears are far too sensitive for them!)
The sound quality and the features on the player are fantastic. The backlit remote display is very useful although i do think that this feature should be standard on minidiscs anyway.
The player is of a good design that is very light and easy to operate.
The charging cradle looks great but is just not practical to transport with you.
I have not yet had a chance to use the new 1gb disc but i have already had trouble trying to buy them (you do get one free with the minidisc player)and even an official sony shop i went to did not have any!
Overall,I think that this player is definitely worth the money. It has lots of great features such as random and repeat play, it looks great and it is great. I am very impressed with mine and i would recommend it.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

One of the best MD recorder ever built, November 21, 2004

Reviewer: A electronics & photo fan from Singapore

Just bought this player 3 weeks back. More than satisfied but could have been better. I prefer this to iPod due to its size and battery life. The battery can also be changed once it is flat. The remote supplied is wonderful. Jogdial makes choosing music tracks easy. The different settings for equaliser is also a plus espically for custom ones. Minor complains, could have build the stand for both charging and transferring music, not only for charging. The LCD screen on the unit could have been better and at least with back light.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

Great, but is it worth ?225?, October 26, 2004

Reviewer: bx456 from Tewkesbury, England

I got my MZ-NH1 about 2 months ago, and so far have had no problems. There's no way I could talk about everything in one review, but here's the main bits.

Most reviews I've read talk about their absolute hate for the software, but what's so wrong with it? It's quite slow, but then I do have a slow computer. It looks very swish, is easy to use and basically it does what it's ment to do, very well.

It looks great, the magnessium casing on the player is smart and it doesn't scratch. The remote is a piece of genius. There's alot of people who say that the one line display on the player isn't enough, but every single feature you could ever ask for is on the remote, which I prefer - and it's easy to use. You also don't have to keep getting it out of your pocket to change stuff.

Now for the not so good features... the claim that you can get 45 hours onto one disc, is all very well if you don't mind listening to the worst quality of music, ever. For 45 hours you have to compress at 48kbps, but a listenable quality at 112kbps will fit around 17 hours - which is still loads!

The headphones provided are terrible. If you're going to buy this then just buy some decent headphones with it, believe me the ones provided aren't even worth trying.

Overall though, the MZ-NH1 is an excellent player. the two things I'm not happy with are only very minor compared with all the other impressive features. The only reason I'm not giving 5 stars, is the huge price. In the high street this player is being sold for ?300, which is ridiculous.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

Excellent, October 11, 2004

Reviewer: A electronics & photo fan from London, United Kingdom / Ashgabat, Turkmenistan

Much better battery than the iPod! This mini disc player has seen me through several jet-lagged nights and a couple of long flights without letting me down.

The software is reasonably straightforward and intuitive.

The sound reproduction is excellent on 64 kbs, which allows you to fit more music or talking books onto a single disc then if you use a higher resolution, though I did buy new earphones as the ones supplied might fit a man's ears, but don't fit my dainty ones.

All in all, I would strongly recommend this Walkman. The 1Gb discs should be available soon, but the 80 min discs work well for the time being. One 1Gb disc is supplied with the machine.

Thank you, Amazon, for getting hold of a Walkman for me given my time constraints, I was impressed with the speed of delivery once I had explained my problem.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

Should of happened sooner, October 4, 2004

Reviewer: A electronics & photo fan from great yarmouth, norfolk United Kingdom

i'm really impressed with my new purchase it's got all the features i need and many more beside's. It's probably one of the best prices you'll find online let alone the high street. Again one problem is not being able to record you'r tracks from the pc to md while the recorder is in the cradle but that can be over looked, Sony have recntly deicided to support MP3 instead of making you use Atrac3plus which is a plus so i would keep a lookout for an updtaed version sometime in the future.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Gadget Chinaman, September 30, 2004

Reviewer: chrischriswanwan from Hampton

Nice work Sony. I must say that it has lived up to all expectation. Out playing the Ipod by miles, this is simply the best piece of kit you can buy today. Excellent sound quality with most of my cd collection on the 1 gb disc. Although it takes a whole three monutes to transfer an album! Battery is excellent, a whole weeks worth of playing time then needs chargeing next to my pc.

Smaller than most md players, it is also light weight and stylish. LCD is brilliant, four lines of text and a bright blue light that doesnt strain your eyes in the dark.

So....concluding this i would like to say sorry to Ipod, whos regin will come to an end in the near future and congraualtions to sony (not usually said)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

great, September 26, 2004

Reviewer: A electronics & photo fan from Leeds

?4 for 3 discs each 1 gig in size! thats 3gig for under a fiver. how can u complain!!!!!!! the player looks and sounds great, u need to throw away supplied headphones and buy the sony 'ear-buds' (amazon price ?25.99) so add that to the cost of buying the walkman, but still a good buy.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

I'am seriously impressed, September 25, 2004

Reviewer: adwol48 from great yarmouth, norfolk United Kingdom

this is a major step forward for mindisc's i've just managed to put basically all of my mp3's onto a 1gb Hi-MD disc and these normally take up about 2.2gb on my pc, for 224 pound yes it might be more expensive than other recorders which basically do the same thing but if size does matter to you this has to be the one it's far slimmer than other recorders ( and easier on the eye i think). a couple of problems which have been pointed out before is the doclikng cradle cant be used to charge the battery and transfer files simultaneously, also i've think that although the supplied software is okay it can be a bit slow but you might get better results if you have a newer pc also the addition of optical input is very handy since a couple of my cd collection cant be transfered to WMA so i'll directly record those to Hi-MD.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

Very Impressed, September 24, 2004

Reviewer: Minidisc Fan from Potters Bar, Herts United Kingdom

I have recently purchased this minidisc recorder and am delighted with it, it does everything that was promised. The transfer speed is really fast and, as well as music files, I have successfully downloaded photos, Word files and video files onto the 1Gb disc and used them in other applications.

The re-chargeable battery is not really a problem as the recorder uses mains power when attached to the cradle and power from the computer when it is connected via the USB cable. Ideally I would have liked the option of using a standard battery in certain circumstances as I could do with my previous recorder, but this is a minor point.

My only gripe is that I have been unable to purchase the 1Gb discs.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

fantastic sound quality, September 19, 2004

Reviewer: A electronics & photo fan from COVENTRY United Kingdom

the nh1 provides top sound quality among all md and mp3 players. Sony never lets me down. the reason I choose this hi-end version is that all other cheap versions are not available in Japan, you know, Sony always made cheap version to occupy overseas markets, and their sound qualities are terrible, I have tried the nh-600,my god......the sound is worse than my old n10(net md). so strongly recommend NH1,it's what Hi-md should be!!!

A better than average peformance from Sony's flagship Hi-MD, September 15, 2004

Reviewer: MR O J BOOTHROYD from Windsor, United Kingdom

I bought the MZ-NH1 about 2 weeks ago, and since then I've been spending half my waking hours recording music from my computer and CDs onto this wonderful-looking new contraption by Sony.

Despite the fact that the NH1 was plugged as being a worthy rival to the iPod (said endorsement made me hold out 'til its release) it is simply too different to compare:

Pros:
*Easy recording from CD to device.
*Ultra-light and easy to carry.
*When all tracks are in Atrac3(plus) mode, it is very easy and very quick to exchange files from PC - MD.
*Remote control is very well designed. Controls are easy to use, as is the display.
*When used for recording from a Hifi/optical cable/microphone it is just as easy to use as its predecessors.
*You can still play and record on old MiniDiscs.

Cons:
*Sonic Stage software is temperamental - on numerous occasions it has either frozen or shut down on me.
*If you record media onto the HI-MD from one computer, you cannot upload it to a different computer, even if it has 'Sonic Stage'.
*If you record media using the supplied 'MD Simple Burner' you cannot upload it onto 'Sonic Stage'.
*The cradle is the only way to charge the device.
*Unlike some of the older NetMD models there is no USB port on the cradle.
*The blank Hi-MD 1GB discs will not be on general release in the UK 'til December '04.

In summary, if you are going to use the MZ-NH1 as an MP3 player; don't. Get an MP3 player. If, however, you want the flexibility that the MiniDisc range has always given (changeable discs, recording from microphone, recording from optical cable...) then go for it.

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

Well Done Sony, September 14, 2004

Reviewer: bugz-hot04 from England, Manchester

This is an exceptional music player. It has style, reliability, and is a vast improvement in terms of the older "MiniDisc." The MZ-NH1 Hi-Md player (in my opinion) rivals even the "almighty" Ipod. But not in terms of space, as the Ipod has a huge capacity for music. However, although the Ipod is unique in this sense, it has a tendency to "crash" alot, the MZ-NH1 will never crash making it more reliable. Plus it lets people deal with a more realistic amount of music at one time as it provides 1 GB discs (Over 200 songs) not 20 GB. (Around 5000 songs)

The MZ-NH1 does have it's flaws though, as the "electronics & photo fan" points out (read his/her review). The transfer speed has also improved dramatically. It is incredibly fast for a mini disc player. However it has nothing on the ipod's speed. Both the MZ-NH1 hi-md player and the Ipod are a good buy. They both look good and and the cost roughly the same (20 Gb Ipod) But I think the MZ-NH1 player is the best bet. It has endless space as you can just keep buying more discs.

27 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

It's Great But It Could Have Been Awesome, September 6, 2004

Reviewer: A electronics & photo fan from Dagenham, Essex United Kingdom

This is my second Sony MD player and for me MD is the way to go. I love the MZ-NH1 and the indexing, remote control and just the style of the box is great. BUT.... The cradle is the only way of charging the battery which means you have to take the cradle everywhere with you, instead of just popping in an AA battery. Also, the cradle doesn't connect the USB port to the PC so you can't do both at the same time. You need a separate cable for the PC-USB connection. It's a great machine, but it could have been better.