Rating: 
Summary: Small and cool gadget
Review: The pros definitely out weighs the cons for mz-n505 MD player. Pros: small, light, don't skip, good storage on 80Min MD's, cheap media $1.5-$2/MD, good sound quality, relatively fast transfer from pc-player. Cons: copy right limitation can get annoying, no night vision ldc display, only display song name at beginning of track, no carrying case or belt clip. As for the software, some people think it's too complicated, i think it's not that bad. you just have to play around with it. i didn't have any trouble with it yet. OpenMG is the software u need to transfer mp3 to player, and u can edit ur track names and orders with it too, which is much easier than doing it by hand on the player. Simple cd burner software is good for burning cd's without copying it on ur computer and then having to converting them to mp3's first then burning them. u cannot erase mp3 tracks on ur player, but u can delete the cd ones u burned in there. no player is 100% perfect, but i think this MD player has much more good qualities than bad ones and most can live with it happily. There are more reviews in the Mz-N505 gold section if you want to read more. Anyways, i enjoy it very much, no regret for not getting a mp3 player instead.
Rating:
Summary: The perfect portable mp3 player.
Review: An optical minidisk player/recorder is the perfect mp3 vehicle: records in high quality (CD) or compressed (mp3), converting any source to its own format during download. Its replacable media is a true optical disk... almost as small as any memory cartridge, and competes with mp3-player expansion memory at the ridiculously low price of [money] for up to 80 minutes of music. Each minidisc is rewriteable forever. Now that Sony has perfected the USB interface and Long Play Mode, there's no reason to buy an iPod for nearly 3x the cost (buy two of these and 50 discs instead). This model, in particular, is a bargain. Light, rugged, with immaculate sound. Comes with headphones, battery, USB cable, PC software (no MAC available), and one disc.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't buy
Review: Sony's NetMD software is not user friendly. In about a year after purchasing any Sony MD player you will be unable to record onto the minidisc. You will see a "Blank" or "Error" on the LCD. I have both the MZ-N505 and MZ-N 707 with the same problem. Buyer beware don't throw away your money on Sony's crappy product.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Value, software needs revision
Review: Pros:
1) Amazing battery life
2) Great sound in SP, LP2 modes
3) Good sound (and 5h20m recording) in LP4 mode
4) Will not skip.
5) For fast CD to MD ripping via USB, Simple Burner software is quick and easy.
6) Flexible editing features (change track order, erase tracks, rename, combine, and delete tracks.)
7) very small and lightweight
8) Inexpensive, re-recordable mediaCons:
1) OpenMG software is restrictive (check-in, check-out) and slow. It has to convert all file types (wma, mp3, etc.) to ATRAC, and leaves copies of these converted files on your computer.
2) No upload capability. A bummer for live music and field recordings in particular.
3) No true SP support (Simple Burner has no SP or SP-mono option at all, and OpenMG software converts all files to LP first, so you don't get true SP quality.) The only way you can record in true SP is real-time.
4) No microphone input and no remote for the headphones. No big deal -- if you need these features, buy the MZ-N707. You can also upgrade to remote headphones at www.minidisco.com. Overall, I really like this player. I'm thrilled with the fact that I was able to fit the entire 4-CD studio recordings of The Police on one minidisc. It's flexible, easy to use and sounds great. If you are heavy into mp3s downloaded files, this may not be the most flexible solution, but it works. If you're like me and you just want a portable means of carrying music from your CD collection around, Net MD is perfect. Sony could make this into a home run by
a) giving full SP and SP-mono support to Simple Burner and OpenMG
b) allowing for uploading (at the very least, for non-copyrighted material).
c) speeding up OpenMG file conversion.
Rating:
Summary: An absolutely awful product - shame on Sony
Review: I, like many other people who bought a Sony net minidisc, have experienced no end of problems with the awful software and the useless hardware.
When the software is actually working it's difficult to use, and only allows you to make three copies of each track. Transferring music takes a long time, and it's touch and go whether your music will transfer to the netMD at all due to the frequency with which the buggy Sony software crashes. I've had to delete and reinstall the Sony software more than any other program on my computer, and have spent many hours on the telephone 'helpline' with unhelpful Sony 'engineers'. The final insult came afer a year of owning the minidisc player - the unit (not the software) simply refused to record new tracks, and would totally erase the minidisc you were trying to record to. Even though there are forums and even on line petitions where countless other people have complained of the same problems, Sony refuse to acknowledge that their product is shoddy - you shouldn't have this much hassle with a consumer electronic product so soon after purchase, especially a Sony product. Do yourself a favour, give this Sony dud a miss and go out and buy an iPod.
Rating:
Summary: Don't buy
Review: Sony's NetMD software is not user friendly. In about a year after purchasing any Sony MD player you will be unable to record onto the minidisc. You will see a "Blank" or "Error" on the LCD. I have both the MZ-N505 and MZ-N 707 with the same problem. Buyer beware don't throw away your money on Sony's crappy product.
Rating:
Summary: This little box rocks!
Review: So my Rio MP3 player died, and my old Sony Discman was starting to skip on lots of CDs (that played fine with other players). Time to replace it with a new Discman... that is, until I found this little electronic marvel. Sony's got a real winner with this player. I listen to music a lot while working, and I'm always having to haul CDs to work. Now I'm going to just make personal mini-discs of my CDs and carry those around. Lots of other reviews have covered all the cool features and complaints about this unit. The obvious pros (to me) are: the 56 hour playback on one AA battery, the ability to fit hours of music on one little minidisc, even editing minidiscs with the player itself. Very cool. The OpenMG software *is* confusing until you get used to it, but I found it to be very flexible, and filled with little touches that make things go faster. One in particular is that when ripping a CD to ATRAC3 format (the MD-specific format) and copying to minidiscs in one shot, OpenMG will multitask and copy completed tracks while it's ripping away... very nice, Sony! However, OpenMG takes FOREVER to install and actually runs about 10 different installers behind-the-scenes. If you are running Norton Systemworks (or some other package that monitors installs), you are going to see a lot of warnings about installers starting. Several other people have mentioned (and complained about) the SDMI locks the software uses. This basically limits you to making 3 copies of any song you have. You can gain back the copy by "checking it back in" to OpenMG (essentially erasing it from the MD). I understand about the need to prevent piracy, but this one feature is what keeps me from giving the unit 5 stars. I bought the music, and I should be able to make personal copies, not deal with some check-in/check-out process. Otherwise, this unit rocks... definitely recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Simple, High Capacity, Mp3 Killer, Crazy sound Player!!!!!
Review: I got this MD player about 10 months ago and it is still working as great as when i first got it. Sure some of the colour is fading and their are a few scratches but that does not affect the quality and it your won fault so if you dont want scratches be carefull. Anyways, i read many reviews that pwoplw think that the Open MG software it comes with is crap. I found the perfect alternate. I use Real One player to copy congs. htis is a better less buggy program and best of all there are no copyright protection so i dont need to worry about the limitation of the sony software (nice try sony, lol). I still use the Open MG but only to make playlists never to copy songs. Anyways I never buy cds, why woudl i need to everythign is on Kazaa and morpheus, Imesh and such, i dotn care if it illegal. So i copy these songs to minidiscs. Always record in Lp4 and you fit abotu 75 songs. I filled one disc so i went out and got a pack of 2 new discs for about $6. thats $3 a dic, and these disc can be rewritable. the MD menu has everything youl need (varoius play modes, bass boost, many opyions, and a menu to alter the display). Batery is crazy it is abtou 56 hours, but thats with a brand new high quality batery liek energiser. i used to just buy cheap batteries from teh "dollar store" (4 "AA" for a dollar) and these ran for about 25 hours since they are cheap but stil out does and 128 MB Mp3 player. now i have a panasonnic rechargable in there and it runs for well around 40 hours, and the best part is that if you get rechargable you just plug the player's adapter and it charges right in the player. the only thing i wish when i bough this player is that it would come wither better headphones, and a remote, and a carrying case. I found myself but a "case logic case for $15, and new good headphones for $20. anyways overall this player is best for the price. im your looking for a portable device the only reason why you would not want this is if yu want some hard drive player liek 10 gb or 20 gb, then you wont get it. but if your getting any memmory based Mp3 liek 64mb or 128 mb dont bother get an MD (better battery and cheaper discs). im even listening to it right now its crazy!!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Handy But Somewhat Unreliable
Review: I got this Minidisk player last Christmas. At first I was in love with it. It was small, new, held tons on music on one disk, and I was the only kid at school that had one...but after a few months the buttons got messed up. My forward track button didn't work so if I wanted to skip ahead two songs, I had to go back through the entire disk. After that, it decided to only read certain disks every once in a while. When my friends started to get minidisk players, they started having the same problems I had. I realize this is one of Sony's lower end models, but still...that is still very disappointing. Another thing about minidisks is the transfer times. Yes 32x is pretty fast, but if you've got a collection of 500 cds, that's gonna take a looong time to get all of them onto minidisks. If you have a huge CD collection I recomend getting an iRiver CD player. They are amazing for the relativly small $100 price tag. Im sure Sony's higher end minidisk players are more reliable, but as for this one, I definetly wouldn't get another one.
Rating:
Summary: Great basic MiniDisc player/recorder
Review: When my MP3/CD player fell to its death, I needed a replacement. I first purchased a RCA Lyra, but the software made my computer hang, so it was quickly returned. Then I saw this MiniDisc player, and it's been a joy listening to music since then. Why they haven't caught in the United States (they're EVERYWHERE in Europe) I'll never know. PROS: *Low price compared to other models, *easy to use, *excellent sound quality in SP mode (thanks to ATRAC Type-R), *phenominal battery life, *up to 5 hours of music on an 80-minute disc (about $2), *supports MP3 and WMA, *small size, *the "coolness factor" CONS: *Software is kinda buggy, *remote and other important accessories not included, *artifacts can be heard when listening to songs in LP4 mode (ESPECIALLY when converted from anything non-ATRAC or .wav), *included headphones are unimpressive, *no MIC-in So why did I give it 5 stars if it's not perfect? Despite the buggy software, it's pretty easy to use. I run XP Pro, and have had no major problems, except for the occasional program crash. OpenMG has yet to cause me to reset the computer. And if you don't like any of the commercial management programs, you can find freeware or use Nero to copy songs over. As for the accessories, battery life is so good an A/C car adapter is pretty unecessary. A remote, as well as tape adapter, can be purchased for cheap if you don't mind eBay. And as for artifacts, anything recorded at 66Kbps is going to sound a little off, but it sounds much better than an MP3 recorded at a similar bitrate. If you want your songs to sound the best in LP4 mode, I've found it works best to convert the file to be recorded back into a .wav file. There will be some loss of data when you decode the MP3, but it should hardly be noticable in anything 128Kbps or better. You'll get the best sound if you use an audio ripper to get a song from your favorite CD and then convert that .wav into ATRAC. To sum it up, I love this gadget. I have been fascinated with MiniDisc players since I saw one in a movie in the early 90s. They don't cost the $750 like they used to, thankfully. In any case, if you want a recorder/player with live recording capabilities, it might be worth your while to invest the extra money. If you're like me (meaning you don't care about live recording), then this just might be the device you're looking for. (And if nothing else, it's a great tool to use to meet people. Seriously! Strangers will come up to you and ask about it, I kid you not. It's happened to me more times than I can count on two hands.)
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