Sony NET MD MZ-N710 (Silver) Review

[loserkid182]

I received my N710 yesterday and I must say i am very impressed with it.

It's the first MD i have owned and it is superb

It looks very very sexy is very small (slightly wider and taller than a minidisc and as deep as 2 minidiscs in their cases and one loose) and it fits into my back pocket.

You get a lot of parts with it:

the slimline stick battery in a protective plastic case
carry case
optical cable
charging cradle
charger (can be used with or without the cradle)
dry battery pack for AA battery (it screws onto the bottom)
remote control
sony earphones
manual
Sonicstage 1.5 software (very good - shame about the inability to upload tracks recorded via optical/Line in/ or mic )
usb cable

i think that is all of it (i left the box at work)

Putting music onto the unit is a bit daunting at first using Sonicstage but after a few goes it is easy.

Copying cd's to MD is very easy, if you are connected to the net it will get the CD information for you (apart from custom compilations) and there are no gaps between tracks.

The remote is very nice and small but you may have problems if you have little fingers as the buttons are tiny and i kept pressing the folder + and - by mistake, the display is very useful so you don't have to dig out the main unit to see which track you are on, it also displays the Battery status, sound mode, SP LP2 LP4 status, track number , time elapsed etc.

To play, pause skip forward and backward, and change songs there is a sliding button. which you press in for Play/pause/enter, slide to the left once for previous track, or hold left and skip through the song, and the same goes for sliding it to the right.

I managed to fit 3 Blink 182 albums onto a disc using LP2
and on another i have LOTR:TTT and matrix reloaded soundtracks, all of which sound excellent.

I briefly tried LP4 but i prefer LP2, i will use LP4 if i am going on a long journey or if i am recording speech.

I am not sure what the Output power of the unit is (1.2mW or 5mW) but it seems loud enough with the MX500's ( i havn't tried the sony ones)

There are only 2 things i have a problem with:

1) There is no backlight on the unit or remote, but i know all the tracks anyway, but it would have been a nice addition,

2) Like everyone else i would like to be able to upload the recordings i have made. (but you can just set up your MD via the line in and record it using goldwave or something similar)

http://www.blink182.me.uk/files/stupid-fat-hobbit.wav - recorded using analogue out on dvd

Thanks for reading

Loserkid182

[DLP]

Congrats on the new unit, welcome to MD

[Hunter]

yeah i got one n710, it's great!!!
but not so great if you owned an european unit....

but anyway, congratulations!!!!

[loserkid182]

Originally posted by Hunter
yeah i got one n710, it's great!!!
but not so great if you owned an european unit....

but anyway, congratulations!!!!

Thanks for the replies guys

I don't know what the actual output of it is (has french and english on the back) but it seems quite loud with the mx500's

i totally love it and i am now always on the lookout for new MD's when i am out.

I'm Hooked

cheers

J

[Krazi]

Sounds like you've caught the MD bug from the rest of us!

[yamagatacamille]

nice review and welcome to the realm of which is MD

[fg_]

Hi. I am also another glad owner of a 710. It only gave me one problem: when recording live, there were skips. That was solved using Sony Premium minidiscs and setting "SYNC REC" to on.

It's a great unit . It's my first MD recorder/player and it has changed my life .

[VoiDeT]

I got my mz n710 today!
Loving every bit about it! =)

[fg_]

My life has changed with my first MD (N710)

I have:

- A quality audio system.
- A portable recorder.
- A bunch of minidiscs with sound quality (SP for albums and LP2 for compilations)

I'm very very happy not to have chosen the Napa MP3 player