mz-n10 quality question

[Guest Anonymous]

I do not have a MD player yet. I have read the pros/cons of the appearance of the N10, but nothing about the quality of the unit, that is its usability, sound, etc, especially in relation to its price.

Anyone with an opinion? Or a source where I can find out this information.

Thanks.

[Mystyler]

Think of SP recording as "CD quality", and that doesn't mean "64kpbs .wma CD quality". Many cannot tell the difference between CD and MD.

However, the long play modes (MDLP) sacrifice quality for quantity. LP2 is almost SP, and the best trade off quality/quantity. LP4 on the other is not as good - some people love it, but it is best suited to voice recordings, although, some people swear by LP4 CD dubs for long trips.

Sony units are have more of a learning curve to use, rather than a Panasonic/Sharp, but you're set if you can read the manual - people who have never used MD can take to their new unit like a pro after a few days. If you end up buying a Jap N10, the majority of the manual will be in Japanese.

[Bazirker]

Hmmmmmm...in several forums, people have been bitching about different quality issues (i.e. the "they don't make em like they used to" thread and other such things) and I too was wondering if the Z10 is quality. OK, so it has a million and one swanky functions, but can you drop the thing off your couch without the screws falling out? Rumors seem to be flying about the decaying quality of sony portables, and I'd rather not pay roughly $400 for a fancy piece of trash. Any ideas?

[mAjEsTiC]

Hmmmmmm...in several forums, people have been bitching about different quality issues (i.e. the "they don't make em like they used to" thread and other such things) and I too was wondering if the Z10 is quality. OK, so it has a million and one swanky functions, but can you drop the thing off your couch without the screws falling out? Rumors seem to be flying about the decaying quality of sony portables, and I'd rather not pay roughly $400 for a fancy piece of trash. Any ideas?

well it is tru that Sony portables r becoming more "cheap" and that they aren't so rugged nemore...but that aside i still remain sceptical about the integrity of the internal li-ion battery employed by the N10...function wise i think th unit is great...in terms of build??? i'm not 2 sure about since i do not own 1...but if u hav the money and u treat ur md rite (like not drop it outta a 2 storey building on2 a concrete sidewalk) then i'd say the newer Sony units will last quite some time...i think the sound in the Sony units are generally the same amoungst the models i'v owned...itz usability has somewhat degraded...like trying 2 access simple functions hav gone from only having 2 push just 1 button press to having 2 go thru a menu and sub menus just 2 get the md 2 repeat a track 4 example...otherwise i would say look @ other brands like Sharp, Panasonic or Aiwa since their build seems more solid than the newer Sony units...

[Mystyler]

I say treat your MD as if it is a hunk on metal - if it breaks within the first year, it is poorly made, but you've got your warranty. If it breaks in your second year, it is slightly dodgy. If it lasts after that, it's paid for itself 10x over.

I don't go chucking any of my MDs around on purpose - they just have a lot of accidental falls, etc - to be expected, IMO. So far, my 20 month old MR200 is rockin' on, and my HX400 hasn't missed a beat.

BTW, that Li-ion cell in the E/N10 is only 340mAh...

[Leland]

As one of the few real users of the N10 at the moment, let me weigh in.

The build quality is very good. You could not even think about "screws falling out". I find the unit very sleek to hold and use. It is as light as most non-recording players. The glossy finish is really attractive in either silver or gray. The controls work well and are intuitive, with the possible exception of remembering which commands are under "Useful" and which are under "Option".

As I live in Japan, I can go to the store here and fiddle around with every make and model currently available. I am convinced that Sony has the best build quality of any model on the market. Sharp is about as good, the rest are behind. This is a subjective feel test, but backed up with my personal experience. For all the moaning, Sony does a pretty good job on quality of these units. Buy, you might be unlucky.

The Lion battery can easily be replaced if it wears out. It is not an accessory, but as a spare part, replacing it requires the removal of only one screw and this is described in the manual. The battery life is less than some of the other units claim due to the small size, but if based on your usage it is adequate, then I think Lion is better and more predictable than NiMh and tops up better. I would not worry about it. You can easily carry the AA adapter for the pinch if you run out.

[Guest Anonymous]

I'll chime in too. I've had my MZ-N10 for 4 days now. It is solidly built. It doesn't "feel" as substantial as my old MZ-R900 did but it is at least as sturdy as that if not more so in actuality. It's just so light that it feels like nothing.

Everything I've read says that the magnesium body parts are thinner so I guess that they are. The finish (I got grey) seems much sturdier than my old red MZ-R900 (US version). Like they applied the colour and then a good semi-gloss top coat to protect it. No battery hatch to break, like on the R900 (mine had to be affixed with duct tape after the third or fourth time I dropped it). And the fit of he lid to the body is superb. The slide latch on the lid seems sturdy enough, though not as tough as the R900's button.

I've dropped the MZ-N10 a few times now, about 2 feet to carpeted floor, and once about 4 feet to a gravel driveway. Mercifully it was in it's neoprene case. No problems, I must work on being less clumsy.

The AA battery box when attached is as sturdy as the R900's. But not more so. It also makes the whole combo about half a centimeter longer than a similarly configed R900. That is a bummer. Really my only true complaint at this point.

The only build quatlity issue I've run into is that it is fairly easy, too easy really, to accidently knock it off the cradle. The cradle itself is a bit cheap plasticy. The kind of super-post-it note self stick feet work well but if the cradle it self were heavier I think that the accidental detaches would occur less often. As noted above I am a clutz.

There are some nice feel features on the body as well. There are raised dots extruded from the case under the Mic input, the headphone jack and the end search button. These are nice for guidance on the unit without looking at it. I probably would have put the End Search bump under the T-mark button if I'd designed it. I know that I'll use T-mark more than end search. I actually like the new placement of the T-mark and End Search buttons over where they were on the R900.

The jog dial seems sturdy enough. It is fully rotational and also serves as the enter key, when pressed from the edge of the dial towards the back of the machine. I kind of miss the dual jog levers of the R900 but I think that I'll grow accustomed to the new style.

I think that the LCD is a little harder to read. It would be nice if they would incorporate some kind of "indiglo" type technology into the LCD.

(If you've not seen a Timex indiglo watch it basically lights the LCD by making the background material glow blue when the appropriate button is pressed. Much better than the old style tiny light postioned to shine across the lcd).

I really like the new remote too. I like the new track << > >> (REW PLAY FF) button. The reversal of the volume up/down from the R900 has got me a few times. But I'll get used to that.

Overall I'm really really happy with it.

B

[Bazirker]

Thanks for the highly detailed descriptions of the unit, it sounds good to me!

As a side note, however...THE INTERNAL BATTERY IS ONLY 340 mAh??? Dude my Ni-MH rechargable AA's are 1200 mAh. Yanno, I bet sony could have ooooooooo so slightly enlarged the unit and gotten a lot more battery life into it. Dammit. Yanno, it would really kick ass if Sony/Sharp/whoever designs these players would send their design ideas to minidisc.org so people can make suggestions. I'd definetly be all over that, plus we'd have better players.

[arieh13]

I just bought myself an MZ-N10 and i love it.

It small and light and really good quality but i need to find where i can get an English manual. I bought a Jap model and the manual has almost zip in english. So where can i get one in English?

Also what are your opinons of the program that comes with it?

Are there any other options cause i not so impressed with it!!

Thanks for anyones advice

Ari the Newbie

[Leland]

In lieu of an english manual, download the PDF for the N1 manual from the minidisc.org site and it will get you most of the functionality, which is similar. The only differences are bookmark (hold down the joystick for 2 seconds while playing), rehearsal (hold down track mark for 2 seconds while dividing tracks) and a few other features mentioned in the comments on the unit. The rest should be intuitive.

Regarding the program, I use the older version, which is even less impressive, but gets the job done. It is called Open MG Jukebox.

[Guest Anonymous]

Leland thanks for the tip on the N1 manual. I too am waiting for an english manual. So far I haven't had any real problems though.

I'm a Mac/Unix user so I haven't used the software either. I have a couple PCs and thought about installing it but with the built in limitations I decided it was pointless. (limitations: check in/out madness, no upload, no true SP loading, and extra disk space needed to store ATRAC copies of files I already have as MP3s and of course greatly exagerated download speed). This is my first NetMD unit.

I generally record MDs via my sony mxdd5c. Either straight from CD or via Xitel MDPort DG-2 from an iTunes playlist. Set up playlist, hit record, go to bed. Fresh baked MD while you sleep. From CD it'll do 4x in SP and 2x LP2/4. I do use quite a bit of LP4 but have lately been using LP2 the most.

I've been using Omd/Xmd for the past couple of days and it kicks butt. I imagine that most of my MD titling duties will happen there. I'll be really happy if those who are working on it get download and upload working but that is most likely a long way off. And I'd use up more than down. The ability to title via computer goes a long way. If you're running MacOS X you should check it out.

http://www.sorted.org/~pete/Xmd/

b

[Mystyler]

Guest, try this for your PCs:

http://www.minidisct.com/forum/showthread....=&threadid=4825

[Leland]

Well, Guest, I respect your points, but here are a few comments.

I think the checkout limitations to Open MG Jukebox are over criticized. First, how many copies do you think you will need? Second, what I do is back up my database, which is a good idea anyway after the effort to read in all my CD's and MP3's. Then, after I make a bunch of MD's, I can restore the Database and have a full checkout count back again. I havn't heard many people comment on this, but the security is pretty lax. I have a copy of my database on 3 computers and they don't notice each other. I can back up and restore to any computer. I never registered the product. Using restore, I don't worry about checkout count.

Mac OS is a problem. Sorry. I migrated years ago, and Mac is certainly cool, but I left due to software support issues and Open MG Jukebox is a good example of an app that is only Microsoft.

Your complaint about no true SP loading, you also comment that you use LP2 the most. This is how I have gravitated also, so when I have to upsample to get SP, I don't mind. Mostly I use LP2, which these days sounds pretty good. On my N10, the download speed is so fast, it is really addictive. Prior to my Shanghai trip, I made 12 hours worth of MD's while I was getting dressed and packing with only a few clicks of the mouse in less than a half hour. Once you try it, it is hard to go back.

[Guest Anonymous]

You make some really good points.

I've never heard anyone mention the backup aspect of Open MG that is pretty cool. I never have used it and I suspect that if I did I too would become addicted to fast downloads :mrgreen:. Right now Mp3 (via high quality LAME encoding is the best option for me). Family and friends with MP3CD players and I have somewhere around 100GB of files.

Back to OMG, I also wonder how much I'd be annoyed with not being able to re-arrange/delete tracks away from the PC. It's not something I do all the time but I do occassionally.

On the whole though probably just another reason to b*tch about OMG without having used it. :shock:

It is cool to hear people espousing the positive aspects of it.

As for Macs No need to feel sorry for me. Especially now that they are finally running a Unix varient. I know my way around PCs and have for the most part not had problems finding software that I needed to do what I needed. While Open NetMD doesn't do it all I can live with the functionality it does give me.

My top gripe about Apple was that years back when they licensed cloners the business end of it was such that Apple only lost money. The cloners were building faster cheaper hardware that was just as reliable as Apple's own. They might have actually increased market share of the platfom. Oh well... Ooops I'm praising the wrong technology

We now return you to the previously MD related thread alreay in progress.

B

[ZenmasteR]

Im getting to grips with sonicstage, when feature that it seriously lacks in drag and drop

which i have to real player for it!!! (not bad actually)

so far I am experimenting with quality and other tweaking etc.

at least we have been spared of the openmg horror stories.

the audio quality of the N10 is very good, SP sounds extremely nice aswell as LP2 mode.

[AV Freak]

Concerning the cheap feeling of new MD units, I think that it is probably because new units are so light. I have had a MZ-R500 for two years now, and was afraid it was going to just cruble in my hands since the first day I got it. The unit has been great, never missed a beat, even after constant use and repeated drops to the pavement. I don't think these new Sony units are as bad as they are made out to be.

Actually, I'm glad they don't make 'em like they used to. I can't seem to keep the screws in my MZ-R30.

I think there are little MD elves that come out at night and steal them.

I've had to start locking it up at night...

[Leland]

Guest, with my N10, I can move tracks to different positions on the disc when it is not connected to the PC. I cannot delete tracks. Move does work.

[me]

Try applying some clear nail polish to them screws, perhaps it'll poison those MD elves that keep thieving those screws. If it doesn't do that, at least it should prevent everyday usage of the unit from causing the screws to pop out.

[bilbo]

Hey Leland,

I guess I've been misinformed on the NetMD thing. I thought that no disc editing could be done away from the PC/NMD software.

I'm now registered as "bilbo"

B

[Leland]

Here is what I seem to observe with my N10. If I am remote, I can move, rename and re-group tracks. I cannot delete or split (add track marks), trprotect comes up. I renamed a track, then checked it back in to see what would happen. It checked in fine, incrementing the tally, ignoring the name change. I do seem to be able to delete tracks on some non-netMD recorders, but you lose the checkin count. This all seems to be true for my N505 also.