Sony D-NE900 ATRAC Walkman Portable CD Player
From Sony
Long playback, slim design and advanced functionality make the D-NE900 a great buy. Sony DSP technology has extended battery life to more than 85 hours utilizing one NH-14WM Rechargeable Battery and one "AA" battery. The thin aluminum body looks good, and it's great for travel. The D-NE900 supports ATRAC3plus, ATRAC3, MP3 and CD-R/RW formats. It can fit up to 490 songs on 1 CD-R/RW disc @ 48kbps, and the SonicStage Software makes it easy to manage your music library. Includes a Slim Stick Backlit Remote Control which gives you total control with just one finger. Over 85 hours of battery life. Thin aluminum and magnesium body. Fits up to 490 songs on 1 CD-R/RW disc.
- Amazon Sales Rank: #27003 in Consumer Electronics
- Brand: Sony
- Model: DNE900
Get the most from your digital music listening with Sony's D-NE900 portable CD player, which includes SonicStage CD Simple Burner software so you can 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--an incredible 85 hours of playback from the supplied gumstick rechargeable battery and a single AA battery (not included) in the unit's external battery case.
A supplied carrying pouch and slimstick backlit remote control simplify use when you're on the go. The player also includes Sony's popular jog dial control for easy folder navigation, a 4-line dot-matrix display, advanced file navigation with 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 with compatible commercial audio CDs.
Compatible with ID3 tagging and most CD burners, SonicStage CD Simple Burner software transfers songs from CDs or MP3 music files from your PC's hard drive and burns them to recordable CDs using ATRAC3plus compression.
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 MP3 or Dolby Digital sound formats). With ATRAC3plus, music can be burned and compressed at 132, 105, 66, 64, or even 48 kbps (kilobits per second), letting you select the right balance between fidelity and storage space (you'll get around 490 songs per disc at 48 kbps).
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-NE900's heat-resistant lid helps protect the player against high-temperature build up, especially when you're using it outdoors or in a vehicle.
Sony's automatic volume limiter system (AVLS) conserves batteries--and guards your hearing--by capping your listening level at either of 2 settings.
What's in the Box
CD player, MDR-027 stereo headphones, LCD Remote Commander remote control, rechargeable battery (NH-14WM), backlit battery-charging stand, external battery case (AA x 1, battery not included), a CD-ROM (Sonic Stage software), a carry case, an AC power adapter, a user's manual, and warranty information.
Slim-Line Design with Aluminum Body. Includes SonicStage Software / MP3 - ATRAC3plus - ATRAC3 Format Playback. Whether you're commuting, working at a desk, or working out at the gym, the D-NE900 CD Walkman Portable CD Player will keep you entertained and informed right up to the moment.
What's in the box
Stereo Headphones, CD-ROM (SonicStage Software), LCD Remote Commander, Remote Control with Backlit, Battery Charging Stand, Rechargeable Battery (NH-14WM x1), External Battery Case (AA x 1), Carrying Pouch, AC Power Adapter
Four and a Half Stars
Plusses:
- Good sound quality (not excellent) typical of Sony portables. The "active" sound setting seems to be the best at volume, and the "custom" equalizer setting is nice if you need to compensate for too much bass or treble within a recording. I was listening to a CD today, for instance, that had too much treble, so I switched the setting to "custom" and turned the treble down a little, while boosting the bass a smidge.
- Absolutely will not skip, which is nice because the last Sony Discman I owned would skip if the wind blew in China.
- Durable. I dropped it today on my kitchen's linoleum floor from about four feet. Not only did it not skip, but it just kept playing like nothing happened.
- The supplied headphones are okay (not great). If you're serious about sound you'll use better headphones.
- Very intuitive controls on both the CD player and the remote control. After a few minutes of practice you get it down.
- Battery life is great.
- The aesthetics of the player are nice, and this is the slimmest player I've ever experienced.
- The info screens on the player and the remote are large and, well, informative.
- I haven't tried the ATRAC dealio, and I'm not sure I will, but I'm glad that the player will play just about anything I throw at it, including older, scratched CDs, MP3s, etc.
Minuses:
- Doesn't get loud enough. You can make it loud, but you sacrifice sound quality and depth, even in good headphones (I use Sennheiser HD280pros). Perhaps a separate headphone amplifier would improve the volume issue.
- The player and remote controls are a bit chinsy. The jog wheel on the player, for instance, is a bit tough to turn in a plasticky sort of way. In other words, there's a lot of plastic here, rather than heavier, smoother metal.
Summation:
High quality player for those who are picky about sound and features. The plastic issue can't be fixed, but the volume issue can, although you'd have to shell out some more bucks for a headphone amplifier. Also, I'd recommend this player only if you have a good set of headphones, or are not worried about the sound through the supplied, complimentary, headphones. The price here at Amazon was the best I was able to find after thorough research and it was shipped in one day for free.
Rating: Four and a half stars.
DNE900B review
I am posting this review to assist anyone else after info on this model, as I could find very few reviews on it anywhere. I have only owned the thing for a month (black version of course - they go faster/sound better), so these are some preliminary thoughts. I hope this is of some use - email me if you have any queries.
THE PLAYER
I spent a while wondering whether to get this Sony or an I-River IMP job. Getting both was the clear solution, but alas not practical. Have read good and bad reviews of the IMP players, not sure what swung me to the Sony. Either would probably be fine.
The player is excellent (but was too expensive!). Very slim, solid construction, the thing looks and feels tough. Recessed plug socket for the phones/remote is a nice touch. Have had no problems with the life of the battery. I have been using it solely on the internal single battery, playing audio discs and MP3s (not ATRAC), and it's lasted a long time. The external battery pack is strange. Could find no description of this thing anywhere before I bought it. Essentially you can attach the external pack, with single AA battery to front of the player, either by itself, or in conjunction with the internal battery. I do not use it, as it is clearly fragile (plastic) and ruins the ergonomic design of the whole thing. I keep it in a pack as back-up, but as I bought a spare rechargeable battery I may never use this. However, you can attach the external battery pack and recharge the internal battery by plugging DC into the external battery pack. Recharge cradle works well.
Player has lots of features. Reads discs quickly and have had no problems with play-back. As several people have noted, the bass is not particulary 'heavy'. Altho digital bass is mentioned, there is no separate bass boost facility, just the parametric equalisr. The equaliser offers several settings, and you can set your own 'custom' settings. This feature is quite confusing! You can modify the low, mid and high. Three parts of each frequency range (ie 9 settings), set the volume for each, however, the weird thing is that you can ony modify ONE part of each of the three subsets of each frequency bands - once you modify one of the three subsets it cancels out the previous modification you may have done. Very strange, if anyone can figure this out, please let me know, I can't work it out. You should be able to modify the volume setting of all 9 subsets, but I can find no way - you can only modify one of each 3, ie 3 in total.
Yes, this thing will give woeful sound if you use crap headphones. Here in Australia we get some in-ear jobs supplied. They have cables that are way too short, so I simply plugged in another set of Sony in-ears and these sound great.
The remote is excellent, but takes some getting used to. The backlight facility is good. Easy to bump other buttons while using some, so the 'one-hand' claim may be a bit optimistic. I also worry that the thing's cable connection points are fragile. As I destroyed my last player by dropping it three times, I keep this player in a bag and use the remote all the time, works fine.
SOFTWARE
Being a luddite not yet able to afford or embrace an MP3 player/IPOD type thing, I got this as a compromise, knowing little about compression formats etc. Here is a summary of what I've found:
Sonic Stage is confusing and difficult to work. As an on-computer library it is not as good as Windows Media or ITunes. It has no graphic eq feature that I copuld find. When burning an ATRAC CD I could only get one of my two burner drives to be recognised. I also found strange problems where after ripping tracks to ATRAC I could not then burn them to disc, the software kept saying that there's no authorisation to burn or something similar, perhaps this has something to do with copy control - I have no idea but it convinced me to ditch the idea of using ATRAC files completely.
Ther is no way you can burn an ATRAC CD that includes existng MP3 files on the same disc - the software will convert them to ATRAC or not burn them. ATRAC sounds great, but I can't use ATRAC files on any other library program like ITunes or Windows Media, so I will not be using ATRAC. There is NO way that I can find to convert ATRAC files to MP3 using Sonic Stage or any other software, so it's a case of keeping 2 copies of a track if you want ATRAC and MP3.
I use Music Match Jukebox to rip tracks as MP3. One user suggested ripping to MP3PRO and playing on the DNE900, but I believe that the DNE900, even though it wil play the Mp3PRO file, will not play the separate high-frequency component of the file, so the sound is not as good as straight MP3. Please correct me if I'm wrong. The player will not play WMA files. Therefore there's not much point rippping to MP3PRO and playing on the SONY. I rip the tracks as straight MP3 files and use Windows Media Player as my standard libray/plyer on the computer. WM player has a burning facility but I can't work out how to set up folders on the CD to burn so I use Nero to burn the MP3 discs (the version I use doesn't recognise ATRAC so I can't use this to mix ATRAC and MP3 files either).I like ITunes but opted for WM player. The DNE900 plays MP3 files well, it will use more battery power to play these than ATRAC apparently but that's OK.
That's about it. Have fun, let me know how you go!
Robert Ashdown
Small and powerful
Initially I was just looking for a small CD player so that I could listen to recorded books when I wasn't in the car. Then I discovered ATRAC software and (even though I thought it sounded too good to be true) knew I wouldn't be happy with JUST a CD player. I did a little research and decided a remote control would also be essential. So, the D-NE900 was in the running but seemed a tad expensive until I found a great deal at Amazon.
I've been more than pleased with it. (My husband must be tired of hearing me gloat about it!) And the ATRAC software has become a necessity (instead of a luxury) since I can no longer play CDs from the library in my new car's CD player.
The car was about 6 weeks old when a borrowed CD got stuck in the changer and I had to take it in to the dealership's Service Dept. They gave me a new changer and had to send the other one off to extricate the CDs. (Thank goodness it was warranty work!) The service rep says it doesn't matter what make car you have, CDs that have inventory labels (such as from the library) or even CDs YOU BURN have a chance of getting stuck. He said you should only play recorded CDs you buy from the store.
So...I still rent the CD books from the library but I record them into the ATRAC format and listen to them on my D-NE900 in the car and anywhere else I decide to take it. So far the most I've transferred is 24 CDs (2 books) onto 1 ATRAC CD, but it will hold more. And the battery life is amazing. The only problem I've had is when the PLAY button must've gotten pushed accidentally - I've made sure to use the LOCK buttons since then and haven't had that problem anymore. It took me a little while to learn all the remote functions but I'm so glad I have the remote! I just put the player in a fanny pack, clip the remote to my clothes and away I go.
I would definitely recommend the Sony D-NE900.
