Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Strengths:
Feature-rich, Sony quality, surprisingly decent headphones, excellent skip-free technology, long battery life
Weaknesses:
Slightly awkward button placement, sluggish (at best) SonicStage software
Summary:
I spent quite a bit of time in the week or so before I bought this product researching the main players in the MP3-CD field. While my favorite based on everything I'd read was the iRiver iMP-550, I decided that I could get everything I wanted out of a player for less than $100. The features that I sought the most were:
1) an AM/FM tuner
2) the ability to fast-forward within an MP3 song, which I found many of the lower-end players could not do; and,
3) a jog dial or other implement that made navigating through songs and folders fairly simple.
I ended up narrowing my search to Sony and Panasonic products, and eventually went with Sony because I was curious about their ATRAC technology, which I'll get into in a bit.
STRENGTHS:
For the most part, Sony is going to put out decent products, and this player seems to be no exception in terms of quality and workmanship. I don't have any complaints yet, having owned it for about four months. The D-NF400 has every feature I had looked for in my initial research, and then some. The TV and weather bands have turned out to be more entertaining than I would have guessed.
I didn't spend any time actually listening to other MP3-CD players, so I don't have a basis for comparison when it comes to volume output. I can say, however, that with all of my 192kb songs and most of my 128kb music, I can get plenty of sound at about 3/4 volume capacity even while commuting by train. At home or in my quiet office, I'm often only at about 1/2 the volume capacity. Although I've replaced the stock headphones with a set of Sony MDR-V150s (ear-muff style), the stock headphones are nearly as loud and reasonably clear except at very high volumes. They also let in a lot more outside noise, however, so if you really love your music, you're better off replacing them.
So far, I've not heard a skip from this player. As I said, my most frequent usage in on the train, which isn't the smoothest ride in the world. I've also hooked it up to my car stereo via a cassette tape adapter and driven all over the mean streets and freeways of LA without a hiccup. And, of course, since I commute, I do a fair amount of walking with it between the train and subway. So I'm impressed that I haven't had any issues at all here.
I haven't had the player long enough to truly comment on battery life except to say that I've put in approximately 20-25 hours of active play time, and the battery indicator still looks full. Certainly nothing for me to complain about. (Update: the first set of batteries lasted approximately 85 hours split between listening to ATRAC CDs and the FM radio -- I'd say it exceeds expectations.)
WEAKNESSES:
I'll start with the biggest weakness, which is the SonicStage software. I've read reviews from several other people who have used it who have called it completely useless, and I can understand why. This software is designed to allow you to compress your music even beyond MP3 compression while still maintaining high-quality sound. Sony claims that at 48kbps, you can have up to 490 songs on one CD.
Now, let me start by saying that when the software does work, it does an excellent job. Using the default setting of 64kbps, I've recorded several CDs with over 300 songs on them. There is something very pleasing about being able to store your entire library of certain genres of music on a single CD. And although I'm no audiophile, I haven't noticed an appreciable difference in quality in my music, most of which was ripped at 192kbps.
The software operation itself leaves a lot to be desired, though. My main complaint is that it is e x t r e m e l y s l o w . The conversion from MP3 to Sony's ATRAC format is painful. The first CD I burned, which had 283 songs on it, took over 5 hours just for the conversion process. Thankfully, in this day of 100GB+ hard drives, SonicStage will keep the converted files on your hard drive so that if, for some odd reason, you ever needed to burn the same songs on to another CD, you would not have to repeat this tedious process.
SonicStage is also buggy (it crashed on me after almost four hours of a conversion job because I had managed to exceed the space limit for the CD I was trying to burn -- something it would have been handy to know *beforehand*). Also, I wish that Sony had allowed you to convert your proprietary SonicStage files to MP3s. Be warned that if you use SonicStage to rip your CDs, you're stuck with the music in that format. If you use MP3s for anything else (such as on your computer at work or perhaps an MP3 CD player in your car), you're better off ripping to MP3s first and then letting SonicStage convert them for you. All in all, though, when the software works, it does a decent job.
The only other issue I've had with the D-NF400 is with the design of two of the buttons. The jog dial for navigation consists of the left, right, up and down directions, with a play/pause button right in the center. Because the buttons are so small, I've often found myself trying to skip to the next song and instead pausing the current song inadvertently. The other odd button is the one used for switching between FM/AM/TV/Weather Band. It's a flimsly-feeling thin rubber bar, and it just adds a cheap feeling to the player when everything else is so solid.
SUMMARY:
Overall, I have had a great experience with the player, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who prefers this format to the stored memory MP3 players. Good job, Sony!
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Sony D-NF400 ATRAC Walkman Portable CD Player with Digital AM / FM / TV / Weather TunerSpin your commercial CDs, your homemade music CDs of almost any stripe, or listen to the radio, TV, or weather-band transmissions on Sony's versatile, full-circle D-NF400 Walkman portable CD player. The player includes SonicStage software, which lets you take full advantage of ATRAC3plus (Sony's proprietary music-compression technology) when making custom MP3 CDs on your computer. Playback options include 32-track programming, repeat (track, disc, or program), random play, and--thanks to Sony's great work in DSP efficiency--more than 85 hours of ATRAC3plus CD playback or up to 50 hours of audio CD playback on two AA batteries (not included).
The D-NF400 offers a two-line dot-matrix display, full ID3 tag recognition, and bookmark playback (which lets you program your favorite songs from multiple CDs and play them back at the touch of a button). CD Text support displays artist and title information for compatible commercial audio CDs.
ATRAC3plus is a high-quality audio-compression technology that reduces the size of digital audio files while preserving much of a track's original sound quality, similar in concept to the MP3 or Dolby Digital sound formats. With ATRAC3plus, music can be burned and compressed at 132, 105, 66, 64, or even 48 kilobits per second (kbps), letting you select the right balance between fidelity and storage space (you'll get around 490 songs per disc at 48 kbps). MP3 compatibility extends from 16 to 320 kbps files.
The player comes bundled with Sony's SonicStage CD Simple Burner software. Compatible with ID3 tagging and most CD burners, this application transfers songs from CDs or MP3s on your PC's hard drive and burns them to CDs using ATRAC3plus compression.
The D-NF400 offers a whopping 51 station presets, which works out to 30 FM, 10 AM, 4 weather-band, and 7 TV stations so you're never far from your favorite channels. You can hook the player up with your home system through an optional analog stereo "Y" interconnect.
Skip-Free G-Protection technology boosts the laser pickup's shock protection to minimize read errors that would otherwise interrupt your music, providing quick recovery from both horizontal and vertical shocks. The D-NF400's heat-resistant lid helps protect the player against high temperatures, especially when you're using it outdoors or in a vehicle.
Digital Mega Bass Sound boosts your music's low end without the loss of high clarity or the addition of low distortion, and there's also a built-in equalizer with three preset curves and one customizable setting. Sony's automatic volume limiter system conserves batteries--and guards your hearing--by capping your listening level at either of two settings. The player works with an optional AC/DC 4.5-volt power adapter (AC-E45HG or -E45A).
What's in the Box The CD player, MDR-027LP stereo headphones, a CD-ROM (SonicStage software), a user's manual, and warranty information.
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