My new NH3D - REVIEW

[u2o]

hey all,

i finally got my Sony NH3D at last, well i got it last sunday but my harddrive of my laptop died the same day, just repaired it other day. This review is also posted on Tboard but I thought it might be beneficial to be on here too.

anyway, it's a BLUE one i got. Silver felt too dark for what i like, and the blankness of the front panel made it too boring but Blue was perfect. I like the colour.

Sound quality wise, its good but not as good as Auvi i tried out... as everyone probably knows. It was surprising at first, being a migrant from old gen NetMD N707 to NH3D where when you press the SOUND button, its different. In N707, it was just NONE, SOUND 1, SOUND 2. In NH3D, i finally figured out that it was NORMAL, SURROUND, SOUND. NORMAL sounds crap. There are a few modes in Surround which took me a while to realise, and likewise with SOUND mode. I found it weird how it makes the playback stop/silent when changing from one to another. It also took me a while playing around with the 6 band equaliser thing in SOUND mode, but in the end I just made full bass and treble, so full on the either ends and 0 for the middle 4. To be honest, the preset default ones do not do any good to music. - The custom one I made brings out the best sound for my liking, which is good enough i guess.

The Remote - well, I like it now. The build quality doesnt feel good, but then it is SONY. Beware though, light scratches can go on the remote easily, ive already got a few which can be seen at an angle in some lighting conditions. Backlight is a must-have feature now for me, so I can see it in dark. However, under some lighting conditions, I find it hard to view the text, despite changing around the contrasts. At darkness, its fine, although more contrasty text would have been good. The main roller thingy is fun to use, but it would be good if you can control PLAY/STOP by pressing the button too, somehow, as well as VOLUME control. Am I asking too much? I guess I am. The bottons that control playback on the bottom of the remote is firm and fair enough. FF/REW buttons are funky to use and I like it. The PLAY button is in the middle, and also functions as PAUSE. To be honest, I'd have prefered if this was STOP instead. Volume buttons doesnt feel too good when using it, i prefer the N707 remote style where you can semi-rotate that thing on the end. Size-wise of this remote is better than I thought, and rather small.

The Unit - it's very solid, apart from the OPEN lever on the top where shaking the unit makes some rattling noise. SONY style. Feel of the unit is good, but kinda heavy which is a pretty good thing i guess, proof of solid material. The sides are very blank, just a rectangular battery/USB slot on the bottom, just headphone/remote slot on the right, nothing but rattling OPEN lever on the top. On the left, its the black bit with some limited control buttons. They are crap. Buttons dont feel good for your fingers, especially the VOL+-/FF/FR 4 way nav stick which just hurts, and difficult to direct the stick to the way you want. I dont use this section, so I just have HOLD on all the time on the Unit. SONY Logos are nicely positioned.

The Battery - Battery life is indeed poor. Good thing is that the remote can show approx how many hours the life has left, but bad thing is that its very inconsistant. One moment it shows 14 hours, next it shows 8. Maybe this will be fixed over time when battery gets used to the unit, only time will tell. Either way, power is limited on this unit as you cannot use AA cells. The Li-Ion battery probably helps though, more continuous charging possible i guess, and its light - a positive thing.

Other accessories - It comes with a carrying porch thats soft and nice. No belt clip though. Charger is 100V only, so you'll have to have a transformer or compatible 240V input 6V output charger. I bought one myself, tho not made by SONY. Charging Cradle is plasticky, but just a nice something to display your minidisc when not on move. Stupidily, you'll need one wherever you want to charge up.

I also bought a HiMD media, at 714YEN. Actually, I got this free technically, because I used RETAIL STORE POINTS. My NH3D costed 34000YEN, they gave me 1000YEN Points on the card, and used that up.

I havent used Sonic Stage or anything yet for this unit, but thats about it for now. I like this unit, but hasnt really got a WOW-factor to anywhere. It's just not as I imagined from a near-top range model.

[Ppk3000]

Nice review, except I have two questions:

- Does the remote feel like anything or is the slight increase in size not affecting the weight?

- What headphones/earbuds you use to listen to the music based on your judgement of sound quality..? (don't say the stock earbuds :wink:)

[u2o]

its slightly heavier i guess... but its nothing that really affects functionality.

the earphones... well its the one which came with the MD, coz thats the only one I have. Maybe its not a fair comparison, but I tested out Auvi using the same earphone.

[sirpilf]

where did you get it? and how much is that american $$?

[u2o]

I got it from 'Yamada Denki' in Japan. They're fairly big chain retail store. According to xe.com, its $307.

[AMPlitude]

wow, i was originally planning to get the NH3d but in time i found that it shows up these days for like only $20 less then the NH1 so ill just go with that :sleep: