Sony Walkman MZ-NH600 Personal MiniDisc Player

This thing is great. Confusion arises when trying to compare it to either MP3 players or CD - it is neither of these things. Think of it more as a vastly better substitute for cassette tapes and it won't disappoint.

The ATRAC3plus sound compression used by Sony is far superior to MP3 at similar bitrates and the sound is crystal clear with great stereo separation and dynamic bass. This model takes a single AA battery so it is easy to get up and running again if the juice runs out - you don't have to wait to get home and recharge it. Another thing I like about Minidisc is that if I get fed up with the music on one disc, I can eject it and slip in another (this is where the cassette comparison comes in). This might not be an issue if you have an MP3 player with a huge capacity but I find it very useful and each Minidisc can hold a lot of music. A 1GB disc can hold up to 45 hours of stereo music and double that for mono recordings (useful for audio books).

I recently removed my cassette deck from my sound system and replaced it with the MZ NH600. I'd like to have installed a HiMD deck rather than a portable, but these are expensive and aren't sold outside Asia (where Minidisc is still popular) so I'd have import costs on top.

Do yourself a favour - get one and marvel at the sound quality and wonder why they aren't more popular.

This 'seller' is a fraud, they knowingly sells faulty products then will not refund, what a shister, my fault for trusting this source. I asked the seller before they sent the item if it was working, I had no reply and the item turned up. DO NOT BUY OFF THESE PEOPLE, they also bump the price of their ebay products by bidding on their own items. They should be taken off ebay, I wish them the worst of luck and hope they get caught out soon, you bunch of b***rds.

Bought this to replace my old one which sadly broke after two years of good use, recording in high quality digital (MD SP is as good as CD in my opinion and that of many others, although one can of course record in CD PCM too on this versatile machine) from dig or analogue sources, playing back all my old SP MD's, as well as using the 1gb discs to compress almost my entire collection onto six discs for general non-critical or background listening (I'm a bit of a hi-fi purist at heart).

Some claim that MD is an obsolete medium - this is rubbish amongst those of us (we're evidently in the minority these days) who still like to have tangible copies of prized recordings which are durable. I've always hated CD's mainly because of their exposure to the elements, friend's CD collections have deteriorated over time in a way even my old LP records haven't & after ten years of minidisc use, I've still yet to hear one jump or skip, ever. So they're better than vinyl even? Now that's some recommendation...

The first thing I do when buying a CD is transfer it straight to an SP MD, that way I know it's gonna last!

AWESOME piece of kit. It has practically everything for a portable recorder and superb playback quality.

The recording modes are fantastic, even the lowest bitrate, sound is far far superior to any MP3 format. You can get an incredible amount of music onto 1 minidisc using the lowest bitrate. The functionality and connectivity of this item is whar sets it apart, it has a USB connection and the software that comes bundled with the recorder is superb. Sonic Soundstage 4.2, it allows you to connect the recorder to your PC and convert music files and transfer them to minidisc very very quickly and easily. For Windows Vista you can download Sonic Soundstage 4.3 from the Sony website (which I did).

You can also connect this recorder digitally via a Optical link to any other digital audio source and it also accepts Analogue input too i.e mic's etc etc. see what I mean about connectivity!!! It is easy to use, and the menu function allows you to access all the features in this recorder including a 6 band EQ!!!

If you see one of these going up for sale - GET IT. You won't be dissapointed.

I dreamed of owning a Hi-MD player, now four years later I finally got one and I have to honestly say I love it.

It's too bad that MD player technology is only popular in Japan and we are stuck with iPods images in the UK.

Thumbs up:

Hi-MD, not many people know that Hi-MD can store files like flash memory drives. You can store and transfer any files (pictures, text, video) on it at 1 gig memory capacity. I have more than 450 songs in ATRAC3Plus format on one Hi-MD disc. True, it's not easy to find Hi-MD discs. Some shop locations only have a few on hand. I couldn't even find them in Sony stores. But you can get them online. I have two Hi-MD discs. Wasn't that hard for me to get another one.

The sound is amazing for such high compression. Absolutely amazing. Like many portable music electronic products, the headphones that are included with the product suck. But if you love your music as much as I do, you would already have a few good ones that you probably use with this player anyway, so that wasn't a problem for me.

I use my MD player everyday and I mean I really USE it. I am the type of person that change my songs very frequently and turn the volume up and down all the time. This player was able to stand all of it. It's a tough little player.

Many people complain about SonicStage and the Atrac format but I have no problems with either. I have to say I like the Atrac format more than MP3 sometimes because of the size.

**SonicStage will play and convert your WMA files, unlike iTunes.

I use SonicStage as my media player because of the search function in the player and the way it organizes my songs.

**Song, artist display is good.
**there's a resume function
**songs can be organized into playlist with the groups function
**search function is awesome (search by artist name, track title, or group)
**able to customize equalizer/sound
**bookmark function
**quick start mode
**transfer speed isn't too bad
**no skips whatsoever
**easy to understand and use as soon as I got it
**a lot of other functions as well (but you have to expect that coming from Sony)

Problem:

Battery life, 23 hours is not enough for me (if you don't mess around with the buttons as much as I do, the battery life will be much longer for you). But it's better than most products out there. I also have a Sony Mp3/Atrac/Atrac3Plus CD player and it has 50 hours + battery life so that was what I was hoping for with this. But the MD player only needs 1 AA battery so what can you really expect. Note** When you transfer your files with this player the USB drive will be its power source unlike the older models where it drains a whole lot of power from the battery.

I was hoping for a remote control but I got it for a good price so no control for me. I do know where to get one for around 80 dollars so not a big problem for me.

I also wanted a radio mode but you have to shed a bit more cash for that function so oh well. And the same for the mic recording function.

Recommended:
Yes

Why you bought it?
– This is a real walkman – easy to carry and use
What you like most about it?
– I don’t have to use rechargeable battery, here I can go for one AA - battery I can bay in every shop.
What you dislike about it?
– The JOGDIAL is not very trustable.