ichitaka

i couldnt help notice the 'wat's wrong with sony?' question, so i felt i had a moral obligation to comment. i had the same tots initally, i mean, how bad can sony be? and the ans is VERY bad. i got the N10, which you would expect to be better than the N1 you are considering. but from sound to ease of use to the remote, it's all just a pain in the ass, to summarise. yes, the sony stick remote with backlit looks great, the unit is featherlight, and... i m at a loss wat else i can say in support. but i guess if you are looking for a netMD, then sony is the better option over sharp. for one, the transfer speeds on the N10 are quite astounding, maybe not Ipod speed but comparable to any other USB mp3 players out there in my opinion. basically if you dont do any recording, or if you are not a sticker for sound, then N1 or N10 is good enough, tho still way too expensive in my book. otherwise, go for sharp.

actually i would only recommend the N10 for those who want to work with NetMd. it's really quite fast and convenient, and the checkin/checkout or software isnt as bad as legendary claimed, at least not on my computer. but if you plan on analog or live recording, or hope for ease of use, sharp is still the way to go. sony does score on size and looks tho; the N10 looks cool and weighs nez to nothing. the remote is great too, if only to look at. i suppose i will have to pick up the DR7 eventually for recording purposes, and keep the N10 exclusively for Netmd. btw, u can always install sonic stage on the other computer, and still check out songs from the mp3 collection on it. wat u simply cant do is try to check in songs checked out from one computer into another.

for one, battery life is too short; instead of the N10, you could have waited for 910, which would have similar features but a removable gumstick battery that will no doubt last longer. and i certainly didnt expect that the menus would be that hard to navigate; i dont want to have to go thru so many menus just to erase a track. the jog lever doesnt work as well as one would expect. the remote isnt as convenient as sony's discmans'. even sound is a letdown; the virtual surround and equaliser thingy is nez to useless. they shouldnt have dumped the bass feature, which sharp has maintained and even added a treble control with their DR7. and recording is a major pain in the ass; you have to select manual recording each time to gain control over recording levels; there's no auto sync with analog, something i neglected to investigate before jumping in. and when i attempt analog SP recording from my computer, the sound is nowhere near the standard i would expect; i can hear a little static constantly.

yes, you will have problems. as far as i understand it, the md player will only work with one sonic stage on one computer at any one time. that's how it stops you from uploading a song to another friend's computer and sharing it with him. wat you can do to get around the problem is simply to copy your mp3s to the other computer and install sonic stage there too. then you will be able to check out songs from that computer using the same recorder so long as you dont mix up and check the songs into the wrong computer cos the computer wont accept it. i dont know wat exactly you had in mind when you asked about problems but i hope this helps. personally, i m beginning to regret my purchase tho =(

i just managed to enter service mode on my N10, spent forever trying to hold down the VOL button and making it move FF and REW at the same time haha. Was just bout to give up when i scrolled down one of the other forums and saw another of Leland's posts saying that GRP button can be used as SHIFT key too haha. Anyway my firmware ver is 1.300, tho i dont know wat good that is over 1.100, seeing as it is that i have a poorer remote that doesnt have dual line display. i dont agree with Leland's hypothesis that the TOC hack depends on OS tho. Anyway mine says DATA SAVE after every darn song, tho it only does the official TOC EDIT thing after batch of songs i have transferred. i will try to plug it off the cradle later tonight tho, and see wat big difference it makes =)

hey leland, i follow your lead and went to the 707 hack thread, so i understand how to go into service mode, but how do you exit from it after checking the firmware ver? the thread calls for removal of power; so how do you do that with the N10? thanks, cos i really want to check my firmware ver. but there's way to upgrade firmware as far as i know, right?

thanx majectic, but darn, i have a RM-MC33EL remote. i really liked the dual line thingy. it only displays one line, however many times i press the display button. goes to show sometimes sony doesnt use its brains. any idea where i could get a dual line remote? and other question is, can u all name an artiste for EACH and EVERY single song, or are u all, like me, limited to just naming 1 singer for the whole md? thanx again =)

alrite, i shall attempt to explain. basically, netmd allows u to transfer mp3s from your pc to your md. in an ideal world, u should be able to transfer the mp3 to as many mds as u want, without bothering how many copies of the same song u have actually made. however sony, in a bid to protect its digital rights, has made it such that for every mp3 u have (yes, which means any mp3 u own or ripped from your own cd), u can only make 3 copies of it, aka 3 check-outs to any 3 mds. follow so far? if u have already made 3 checkouts of the same mp3, it demands that u return 1 of it first, before u can make another copy of it. so at any 1 pt of time, u can only have 3 copies of 1 song anywhere (i.e on your pc or your md in any combination). i know lots of ppl have problems with these issue, i for the record, think it's no big deal, in fact it helps me keep track of how many mds i have recorded, and whether i m duplicating the same song too many times. your views may differ i guess, once u get your N10 =)

my N10 does TOC update after all the songs are done too, but i have never attemped more than 10 at one shot. i usually do 2 or 3, sometimes 5, and it updates after everything is transferred. btw, can anybody tell me if the remote is meant to be single line or double? i tot i read somewhere that the remote can display 2 lines, but mine doesnt. and there's no way of transferring the artiste name either rite? my sonic stage only transfers the name of the track, not the artiste. those who have ans, pls let me know?

hey montyjay, having just got the N10, that's wat i would really suggest u buying. it looks great, and works great, as far as playback is concerned. but seeing as it is that you do alot of recording, you may be better off getting the DR7. that's provided you have already decided that u dont need the features of netmd, which IMHO is way cool in terms of speed. i havent tried live recording on the N10 yet, but the way the manual describes things make it sound pretty cumbersome. i had a sharp 722 once, early generation, and much as i like my N10 now, i will have to admit that the sharp still wins for ease of use and recording. idiot-proof operation basically. so there.

i'm 21, got my first sharp 722 when i was 16.

i m not too sure about the N1 cos i dont own one, but if it's anything similar to N10, then adjusting the recording level manually during recording IS POSSIBLE. the drawback is that apparently the default setting is AUTO, so each time u want to adjust manually, you have to run thru several steps; and once u press stop, then it goes back to auto level control again. at least this is wat the manual tells me; i havent had a chance to test it since i havent bought a mic. hope this clears up some of the arguments? i suppose quoting the manual is as accurate as it gets, or does sony have a reputation for printing inaccurate stuff too?

alrite, i m a new member in the forum, tho i ve been reading the posts here for more than a few years. i just wanted to say that the n10 is now available in spore as of 5th feb, some promotion in conjunction with valentine's day. it cost me S$599, and i had to hang around for a few hours till the stocks actually came in at 7+ pm. i dont know if the n10 has already come out in europe or USA, but i understand that alot of the users have imported directly from japan, with japanese software and manuals as a result. so if i can be of any help, pls let me know, i have an english manual and an english ver of sonic stage 1.5. hi to one and all.