Sony NF610 Review...

[TeleJammer]

Hello,
I'm new to the board, but not entirely new to MD.

I have owned a NE410 for several months now. At first I loved it, but later wanted some of the other features other recorders had, mainly a remote and an optical/analog line in. When I went to Circuit City a couple days back, they had the NF610 for $145, so I bought it.

I'll review the following qualities of the unit:

Build Quality (out of 10)
Sound Quality (out of 10)
Features (out of 10)
Remote (out of 10)
Style (out of 10)

*Keep in mind I have hacked the unit for the extra sound settings and so on....
Also since the 410 is the only other MD I have used, I will be making lots of comparisons.

Here goes....

Build quality:

Compared to my 410, everything just feels "tighter". The units slot closes tighter and feels much more robust than the 410. The buttons have a nice solid click to them and don't feel loose. The play, FF, RW, Stop area on the 610 is much more solid than the 410's. The battery door closes tight, the headphone/remote and inputs all click in tight, well I guess the build quality can be described simply as tight. Very solid feeling. Overall I'll give it 8.5 out of 10.

Sound Quality:

I use a pair of Sennheiser HD212 pros. The 5mw amp does the trick for these phones. I am very impressed with the sound of this unit. Using a custom sound setting on the six band EQ (got from hack) it blows my old 410 out of the water. Crisp highs, clear mids, deep and smooth bass. Even without the EQ it sounds great. I have listened to several styles of music with it already (rock, jazz, blues, pop, folk, hip-hop) and have yet to be let down by the sound. Also it seems that my LP recorded MD's (all LP2) sound a tad better. Even with my bass heavy 212's I manage to push out the mids and highs better than my 410 could, it really makes these phones sound fantastic. Overall 9/10.

Features:

Seems the only thing lacking on this unit is a mic input. Sure there are models with it, but for my needs it is unneccesary. Recording is simple and painless. Since I don't believe in MP3's or downloading music (gasp!) I use only simple burner for my LP2 recordings. Simple burner is just that, simple. I have made several SP recording on the unit, it is quick and easy. The menus are simple to navigate, though some functions though are slightly confusing and I find myself pulling the manual out for reference (no big deal really). The 610 comes with a rechargable NIMH battery, which is weak (700mah). It charges in 2 hours inside the unit with the supplied adapter. And last for a dozen or so. A regular ol' AA can be tossed in which will give much more playback, max of 52 hours in LP4. Just having the AC adapter alone makes this miles better than the 410. It also features AM/FM/TV/WX tuners. They can only be used with the remote, which may be annoying for some, but I don't mind. Reception of FM and AM stations is average. It takes some manipulation of the headphone cable (which acts as the antenna) to get strong reception. It allows for presets in each mode, which is nice. TV and WX is poor. I can get a few TV stations to come in, and NO weather stations. Editing functions are best done using NetMD on your computer, but can be done on the unit as well. It is time consuming and somewhat annoying, so stick with NetMD and your fine. With the hack you get a melody timer, which is an alarm that can be set from 1-99 minutes. I love this feature, it wakes me up on the bus so I don't miss my stop, but many may find this useless. I'm sure I may have missed a few things here, but can't think of any right now. Overall 9/10 (with hack), 8/10 w/o.

Remote:

I actually really like this remote. The play/track skip/pause/enter is all done on a sliding jog thing. Move it to the right to skip forward, left for back. Press the lever in and it will play, once more will pause. Quite simple if you ask me. Though people with big fingers may hate it, my skinny ones love it. There are seperate buttons for volume, stop, display modes, hold (switch), groups, and sound. The radio is turned on from the remote, and can only be used from there, nothing displays on the actual unit while using the radio. Navigating stations is simple using the slider. text is on a 1 line LCD display, track numbers and sound settings too. The display shows an animated "W" walkman symbol on startup. The text scrolls smoothly and is clear and legible. All the info you need is right there on the remote. It has the standard clip on the back. One negative for the remote is that it is bigger than some, and lacks a backlight. Overall 8/10.

Style:

Slightly thinner than my 410 (by 7mm's), but its still got the battery bulge. The blue color is nice, though a black or silver would be ever more nice I think. The buttons you use most are the biggest, and the ones you use less are smaller. If this unit used gumsticks instead, this would be one sleek skinny unit. But as it is, it is still very pleasing to the eye. Overall 8.5/10.

Final score: 43/50 or %86

I highly reccomend this unit to anyone who needs a cheap, yet feature packed, good sounding, MD recorder.

That's my review, hope it was alright. Apologies for anyhting I left out. Let me know of mistakes and I will edit them.

Later

[dukeofbecker]

Thanks for the insightful Sony 610 review...I'm sold! Just a matter of time till I buy.

What is the "hack" to which you refer? Could you describe what it does and where it's available?...

thanks,
Carl

[yamagatacamille]

he is referring to this: hack

dont let the N710>N10 fool you, it's all the same. cheers!

~nice review telejammer. hope to see some pics along w/ it

[TeleJammer]

You want some pics huh? Well, I snapped these real quick. They are terrible, but hope they will suffice .


Player and Remote


Remote alone


Player alone


My Complete Collection



Just thought I'd throw that last one in for fun. Don't those 48 recorded minidiscs (and the one blank there) look great next to that 610?

Maybe I ought to make a post with just pics of my collection, you know, for bragging rights .

[IheartJamBands]

I got a chance to look at a 610 up close, and I just wanted to add that the quality of the paint job is far superior to the 510. The second pic from the bottom shows you that they used a deep, rich looking metal flake blue for the back.

[Watchdog]

How's the reception on the radio? Can you get many stations and how's the sound quality of the radio?

[TeleJammer]

The readio reception is decent with FM and AM. TV and WB are all very weak. It takes a lot of fiddling with the headphone cable to get anything. As for sound quality, it is a radio. Also You can't adjust sound setting while using the radio. It sounds fine, but nothing spectacular. I mostly use it for talk radio and morning shows while on the bus in the morning and it does a fine job at that.