Strengths:
Feature-rich, Sony quality, surprisingly decent headphones, excellent skip-free technology, long battery life
Weaknesses:
Slightly awkward button placement, sluggish (at best) SonicStage software
Summary:
I spent quite a bit of time in the week or so before I bought this product researching the main players in the MP3-CD field. While my favorite based on everything I'd read was the iRiver iMP-550, I decided that I could get everything I wanted out of a player for less than $100. The features that I sought the most were:
1) an AM/FM tuner
2) the ability to fast-forward within an MP3 song, which I found many of the lower-end players could not do; and,
3) a jog dial or other implement that made navigating through songs and folders fairly simple.
I ended up narrowing my search to Sony and Panasonic products, and eventually went with Sony because I was curious about their ATRAC technology, which I'll get into in a bit.
STRENGTHS:
For the most part, Sony is going to put out decent products, and this player seems to be no exception in terms of quality and workmanship. I don't have any complaints yet, having owned it for about four months. The D-NF400 has every feature I had looked for in my initial research, and then some. The TV and weather bands have turned out to be more entertaining than I would have guessed.
I didn't spend any time actually listening to other MP3-CD players, so I don't have a basis for comparison when it comes to volume output. I can say, however, that with all of my 192kb songs and most of my 128kb music, I can get plenty of sound at about 3/4 volume capacity even while commuting by train. At home or in my quiet office, I'm often only at about 1/2 the volume capacity. Although I've replaced the stock headphones with a set of Sony MDR-V150s (ear-muff style), the stock headphones are nearly as loud and reasonably clear except at very high volumes. They also let in a lot more outside noise, however, so if you really love your music, you're better off replacing them.
So far, I've not heard a skip from this player. As I said, my most frequent usage in on the train, which isn't the smoothest ride in the world. I've also hooked it up to my car stereo via a cassette tape adapter and driven all over the mean streets and freeways of LA without a hiccup. And, of course, since I commute, I do a fair amount of walking with it between the train and subway. So I'm impressed that I haven't had any issues at all here.
I haven't had the player long enough to truly comment on battery life except to say that I've put in approximately 20-25 hours of active play time, and the battery indicator still looks full. Certainly nothing for me to complain about. (Update: the first set of batteries lasted approximately 85 hours split between listening to ATRAC CDs and the FM radio -- I'd say it exceeds expectations.)
WEAKNESSES:
I'll start with the biggest weakness, which is the SonicStage software. I've read reviews from several other people who have used it who have called it completely useless, and I can understand why. This software is designed to allow you to compress your music even beyond MP3 compression while still maintaining high-quality sound. Sony claims that at 48kbps, you can have up to 490 songs on one CD.
Now, let me start by saying that when the software does work, it does an excellent job. Using the default setting of 64kbps, I've recorded several CDs with over 300 songs on them. There is something very pleasing about being able to store your entire library of certain genres of music on a single CD. And although I'm no audiophile, I haven't noticed an appreciable difference in quality in my music, most of which was ripped at 192kbps.
The software operation itself leaves a lot to be desired, though. My main complaint is that it ise x t r e m e l ys l o w .The conversion from MP3 to Sony's ATRAC format is painful. The first CD I burned, which had 283 songs on it, took over 5 hours just for the conversion process. Thankfully, in this day of 100GB+ hard drives, SonicStage will keep the converted files on your hard drive so that if, for some odd reason, you ever needed to burn the same songs on to another CD, you would not have to repeat this tedious process.
SonicStage is also buggy (it crashed on me after almost four hours of a conversion job because I had managed to exceed the space limit for the CD I was trying to burn -- something it would have been handy to know *beforehand*). Also, I wish that Sony had allowed you to convert your proprietary SonicStage files to MP3s. Be warned that if you use SonicStage to rip your CDs, you're stuck with the music in that format. If you use MP3s for anything else (such as on your computer at work or perhaps an MP3 CD player in your car), you're better off ripping to MP3s first and then letting SonicStage convert them for you. All in all, though, when the software works, it does a decent job.
The only other issue I've had with the D-NF400 is with the design of two of the buttons. The jog dial for navigation consists of the left, right, up and down directions, with a play/pause button right in the center. Because the buttons are so small, I've often found myself trying to skip to the next song and instead pausing the current song inadvertently. The other odd button is the one used for switching between FM/AM/TV/Weather Band. It's a flimsly-feeling thin rubber bar, and it just adds a cheap feeling to the player when everything else is so solid.
SUMMARY:
Overall, I have had a great experience with the player, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who prefers this format to the stored memory MP3 players. Good job, Sony!
Click Here to see more reviews about:
Sony D-NF400 ATRAC Walkman Portable CD Player with Digital AM / FM / TV / Weather TunerProduct Description: Spin your commercial CDs, your homemade music CDs of almost any stripe, or listen to the radio, TV, or weather-band transmissions on Sony's versatile, full-circle D-NF400 Walkman portable CD player. The player includes SonicStage software, which lets you 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--more than 85 hours of ATRAC3plus CD playback or up to 50 hours of audio CD playback on two AA batteries (not included).
Using SonicStage Software SonicStage allows you to rip audio to your computer CDs and the Internet and then transfer it to an ATRAC3 or ATRAC3plus-encoded CD. These encoded CDs can hold as many as 490 songs. The D-NF400 offers a two-line dot-matrix display, 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 for compatible commercial audio CDs.
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 the MP3 or Dolby Digital sound formats. With ATRAC3plus, music can be burned and compressed at 132, 105, 66, 64, or even 48 kilobits per second (kbps), letting you select the right balance between fidelity and storage space (you'll get around 490 songs per disc at 48 kbps). MP3 compatibility extends from 16 to 320 kbps files.
The player comes bundled with Sony's SonicStage CD Simple Burner software. Compatible with ID3 tagging and most CD burners, this application transfers songs from CDs or MP3s on your PC's hard drive and burns them to CDs using ATRAC3plus compression.
The D-NF400 offers a whopping 51 station presets, which works out to 30 FM, 10 AM, 4 weather-band, and 7 TV stations so you're never far from your favorite channels. You can hook the player up with your home system through an optional analog stereo "Y" interconnect.
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-NF400's heat-resistant lid helps protect the player against high temperatures, especially when you're using it outdoors or in a vehicle.
Digital Mega Bass Sound boosts your music's low end without the loss of high clarity or the addition of low distortion, and there's also a built-in equalizer with three preset curves and one customizable setting. Sony's automatic volume limiter system conserves batteries--and guards your hearing--by capping your listening level at either of two settings. The player works with an optional AC/DC 4.5-volt power adapter (AC-E45HG or -E45A).
What's in the Box The CD player, MDR-027LP stereo headphones, a CD-ROM (SonicStage software), a user's manual, and warranty information.
Buy cheap Sony D-NF400 ATRAC Walkman Portable CD Player with Digital AM / FM / TV / Weather Tuner now
This has no A/C connection. That does not appear in the description. I threw the player in the trash when I opened the package because I can't use it.
This is a nice sturdy CD walkman that is excellent for exercising like jogging, stair stepping, aerobics...etc. It has a heavy duty snap cover to keep the CD in place so it will never open and fall out if dropped.You could probably throw this thing against the wall and it wouldn't break.The sound is great with extra bass boost x 1 and x 2.The program button to get it to turn on and advance the music tracs was alittle confusing until I read the directions.The ear buds are alittle funny to get used to, they fit inside the ear with an ear "hanger" but sound very good once you fit them in.The only con for me is an arm band.I wanted a CLIP on the back to clip it onto my shorts but instead a wrist band so you can't sit down and write or do anything with your hands unless you take it off.It is almost too big to put into shorts pockets too.I ended up getting a x-large safety pin to hang it from my shorts wasteband (belt loops would work if I had them) then you could fasten the velcro band around the belt loop. Hopefully they will put a belt clip on the next release of this fine walkman.I do recommend it if you don't mind wearing it on your wrist or having it bang around your belt area.I paid about 68.00 from it on Amazon with fast free shipping.
I bought this Walkman brand new at least seven years ago for a hefty price, and it was worth every penny. I used it at least five times per week whilst walking, and it never gave me any problems whatsoever. The sound quality was wonderful, unlike the others I have used since this one died after getting rained on one evening.I think it would have played for several more years otherwise, which is quite significant as every other Walkman I owned never lasted much more than one year, they never wanted to repair any of them that did stop working. This was a gem of a Walkman, and I wish I could find another one brand new and unopened. As one reviwer of another more recent model quite correctly stated, the quality of portable CD players over the last few years has plummeted. People seem to be swayed more by bells and whistles than by what is really important: sound quality and product longevity. 
Well they were written up as green but they look yellow and the package says green too. But that doesn't matter, the important thing is that they are easy to use and work well. And they were here the next day. Other CD players that we have purchased at that price were sort of cheaply made. The only thing is we wish that the info panel or screen showing the track was on the top instead of the side edge. But price and quality is what we were interested in first and Sony gives that.
The Craig personal CD player is a good buy.The sound quality is very good.With anti-skip technology, it can play CDs with which my car stereo has trouble.It's lightweight and the headphones are adequate.(Since this was a replacement for a Sony player, I decided to stick with my old headphones.)The manual indicates how you can buy an adapter to play through a stereo, do random play, or repeat a favorite track.It's lightweight, easy to stick in a travelling bag.The wall adapter to draw power from a plug that I used with my previous player fits into the port, but I haven't been able to get the player to work off AC current.With batteries, it works well.Particularly with the value for the money, this is a good buy.
you get what you pay for. its cheaply made (duh) but the sound quality isn't horrible and the retractable feature is good. i keep this as a back up and for my laptop when i'm on the go
The Sony Psyc D-EQ550 Walkman is by far one of the best and most creative cd players on the planet. It comes with 2 vibrant lids which you can switch out to fit your mood plus matching clips for your headphones. I really like how you can personalize it by putting your own photos and other art in it. The sound is awesome!!!!! It gives off a rich sound when you have the MegaBass on. It sounds like mini subs and amps are inside the headphones. I would recomend this cd player for all teen girls who like to have unique styles.
This is my favorite product.I check "books on CD/Mp3" out of the library and listen to them on this Sony "PSYC" Walkman while I walk the dogs, do gardening, drive to work, drive back from work, run on the treadmill, etc.
The Sony D-NE306CK works as advertised.
This player does what is advertised.I do not enjoy playback of MP3s at 48kbps, but I am satisfied with getting 170 songs at 132kbps at 4 min. avg. song and 700MB CD (their claim) rather than the unbelievable number of 490 per CD.The small print on the back of the package was in blue and very hard to read.Thus, beware a 300 MHz Pentium II is a minimum requirement for the Atrac3Plus compression software. I am not going to list all the other computer requirements, but would encourage you to find those out before buying, if the Atrac3Plus feature is important to you.By the way, that format will only play on the CD players that can read that format, obviously or not so obviously. You are likely going to love this player, if you need one for your car and/or home.It finds mp3 songs fairly fast (faster than my old Rio player) and continues play where you left off unless you hold down the play button. One problem I am having with my model is that the forwarding and rewinding through a track does not work as said in the manual with the mp3s on my CD-RWs, but works fine with my CDs, hmm. One other feature I would love to see to make this player even better is a carrying pouch with beltclip.While it does come with velcro adhesive for play in the car, eventually I usually manage to have the player knocked about accidentally. A carrying case would provide additional protection against damage. Hope this helps.
This is a great CD player and the sound and bass is great but the only problem is the CD-RW playback.For some reason, the CD-RW disc has to be more of a very high quality grade and must have absolutely no scratches or the sound will be erratic when it skips.If you dont use CD-RW's then, you should have this CD player because it is great with everything except CD-RW's.
Good buy.I hate spending ridiculous amounts of money on portable CD players with the radio, car attachment, etc.Do we really need those?Guess some people do.I didn't so didn't want to pay for stuff I don't use.Anyhow...
This summer, I was telling my eleven-year old niece that it would be nice to have a cd and fm walkman in one. She looked at me like I was so out of it and told me it already existed.
When my old Panasonic broke down, I needed to find a cheap CD player that could perform. This was it. Even the cheapest Sonys wont let you down. Here's the low-down-
this tape player is pretty good. It has lots of features and an anti-roll thing for action or bumpy rides. I dont know why it has this metal tape thing, they are not around anymore, in fact, they havent been around for at least 10 years. Lots of presets and digital tuning eliminates the guesswork of manual dial tuning.