Stylish Sony Player

A few weeks ago I bought a Sony D-NE900.
Do I need to mention I am very picky when it comes to sound quality and features on a cd/mp3 player? Just read my previous reviews and you will understand!

This CD/MP3 player is very appealing to the eyes; large LCD display( about one square inch), a remote with a display as well.
I wanted a d-ne900, the customizable EQ presets sounded good to me, just what I needed... but,I thought 199$ was too much to pay. As I was trying out a d-ne500, 50$ cheaper, (see below for review) at the "Future Shop" store, I came across the D-NE900 retailed at 99$, probably a demo.

It was out of the box, looked brand new, no scratches, in perfect condition. Came with the remote, a rechargable battery an external battery pack (for one regular AA battery) a DC adapter and a charging stand.
I got the same warranty as a brand new purchase. I saved about a 120$! Was I to let this deal go?...
Of course not!

Aesthetics
Its gotta be the sexiest CD player out there! No kiddin'!
The pictures do not give it justice.
It's shaped like a spaceship, quite similar to the saucer-section of the enterprise in TNG series. It is stylish, classy, slim, slithly bigger than a cd disc.
Looks sturdy, aluminum casing.
A pale silver color. Easy and pleasant to hold in your hands. Large LCD display too. The advertisements stipulates it has a 4-line LCD display, actually, there are two additional fixed-lines under the fourth one. It displays type of file, program mode, battery indicator, sound preset, for a total of 6 lines! Impressive!

The fonts are big enough, displays 12 characters from right to left, scrolls the titles that are too long.
The colour of the background is kinda dark, makes it hard to read in poorly lit rooms or even at night. The sony d-ne711 (see below for review) has a lighter background color and is much easier to read.

The SONY logo on the front of the d-ne900 is engraved in a pale shade of silver aluminum, very neat! All buttons are made of metal, sturdy and shiny. The D-NE900 does have a techno look while remaining classy and feminine.
The remote is backlit with a nice fluorescent green color.

The D-NE500 is the cheaper version of the DNE900. It uses one regular AA batt. It is a bit larger and all made of plastic. The appearance is not as nice, far from it! Seems to be a lot cheaper.

Headphones
I did not get the generic headphones or plugs. Anyways I always use my Koss Portapro headphones with my cd players. Been using these for 5 years. They are amazing (look below for review).

SOUND
Very decent sound. Similar to the d-NE500, if not exactly the same. Same EQ presets (off, soft, active, heavy, custom).
The off preset is the normal one. Sounds thin but fair.
The soft preset sounds mid and muffled, accentuates the vocal range.
Active preset is pretty good, it gently increases the low and high freq.
The heavy preset is the best one, apart from the custom. It sounds clear and bright, boost the highs and lows a lot more.
The Custom preset is the reason why I bought this device, it allows you to boost or cut the low, mid, high freq. It shows a wave of the 3 bands. You can chose only one frequency within the 3 bands for each freq-area, therefore, impossible to adjust every band seperately. You can only pick one, it is limited... I could not get the sound I like. I tried all possible combinations...

Sound preference is a very personal thing, not everyone has the same taste. SO far Sony does not do it for me.

If I could picture how the D-NE900 sounds, I'd say, it sounds clear, crisp but cold. It is definetely not a warm sound, though it is very hi-fi! Amazing in the very high freq (hi-hat, cymbals, falsetto-voice) but sucks for the mid and low.
It's suitable for easy listening softer types of music, not for Hard rock or metal, not even for pop music. And at high volume, the mid freq can get very tough on your ears.
I experienced distortion when I pushed the volume up and boosted the customizable EQ. I usually jack up the bass freq and lower the mids and increase the highs.. it still sounds too mid for me. I do not like the way the mid freq sound on this player.

The ultimate SOUND test...
For the first few days, I only used my d-ne900, at home, and was quite impressed with it...
I knew it lacked the kick-bass sound I love, but still, I appreciated the hi-fi sound quality... till ... I catched my bus on my way to work ...
Was I disapointed when I heard how it came out?! The low freq from the bus' motor immediately overpowered the bass and lower-mid freq of the player! All that was left were the annoying mids and highs... I used to listen to an old rca rp2360 (review link below) on my commute and I have to say, that old player KICKS-A@@! Back then, I did not have to crank up the volume, played it at 4 (on a scale of 1 to 10).
The d-ne900 did not pass the "commute test" at all! The problem remained even with original audio CDs...

The only times i could sense a little kick from the drums was when it was near distortion! Sucks!

So I tried to adapt the customizable EQ preset .. well.. lets say those tiny buttons are already tricky to use in a stable environment. They're so small I need to use my NAILS to press them... imagine on a bumpy ride! And the small joystick have to be moved precisely in the right direction to get it to change freq band... It took me awhile...
I ended up removing all the mids I could and most of the highs.. There wasn't much volume left at this point, only some bass and it distorted..
I tried sitting closer to the front of the bus (further from the motor noise - which is not very loud by the way - it never posed a problem for me before).. It was a bit better, but still, only the smooth songs sounded fair.

I still couldn't get the bass-boost I used to have with my old rca player.. far from it! Instead, I had this cold-colored hi-fi sound.. but... let me put it this way, avoid listening to Avril Lavigne unless you wanna hurt your ears with this!

Files compability
CD audio, mp3, atrac3, atrac3plus.
The software is usually included. I did not have it in my pack.
I got it from another sony player. It works but you need a fast computer. Pentium 3 and up.
It allows you to put up to 450 songs onto one single cd (sampled at the lowest bit-rate 64 kbps).
I tried it once, I sampled at 64kbps, the sound sucks.. it's possible to sample as high as 128kbps. It is mentionned in the book that, at 128KBPS, atrac3 files sound as good as mp3s sampled at 320.. this remains to be heard!

Features
. High tech slim aluminum body design
. OPR light (operation light) lights up in 3 different
colors depending on the file format (very cute).
. Clip on style remote with backlit one-line LCD display
. ATRAC3plus, ATRAC3, CD audio and MP3 Format Playback
. SonicStage Simple Burner
. Jog Dial Controls
. 18 playback modes (auto ranking playback function)
. 4 Line Dot Matrix display on the player (plus 2 fixed
lines)
. Supports CD Text and ID3 Tagging
. Skip-Free G-Protection 1 and 2
. CD-R/RW Playback
. Parametric Equalizer with 3 presests plus one adjustable preset
. Digital Volume Control
. Heat Resistant Lid
. 2 Position Automatic Volume Limiter System (AVLS) (removable)
. off timer and auto shut off (to conserve battery life)
. AC power adaptor
. alkaline exterior battery adaptor
. requires only ONE flat rechargeable battery or a regular
AA alkaline battery
.charging stand (the player is sitting in the charging
stand in the picture above- barely noticable)
. Headphones (cheap)

FEATURES I LIKE:
It has the common features, prog mode, shuffle, bookmark etc.. the coolest one is the auto-ranking mode. If you turn this mode on, the player will play your top ten list! (it remembers up to 10 disc) It knows which song you listen to the most. You can also have them play randomly (auto ranking shuffle play), in this case, it'll play up to 25 of your faves! I haven't seen other brands offering this option.

FEATURES I didn't like:
It is very easy to scroll through folders and such, but do it fast, cause if you stop touching the controls for a few sec, the display menu returns to the 1st page.

Another annoyance it that it's not possible to see more than one folder at a time. It lists them up one by one. I personally prefer seeing all the folders and pick which one I wanna listen to.

Fast forwarding through a song while it plays is not very effective, it scrolls very slowly and stops and re-starts...
You can't pick the next song while a track is playing, it would just start the new track.
You must wait till it ends or near the end ... then scroll through the folders as fast as possible.

CONTROLS
All controls are made of silver metal. They look very sturdy, and they are.
4 buttons (two for folders and two for volume)
One jog dial and a 5 way control key (like a tiny joystick).
Not so user friendly, might I add. Certainly not for fat-fingered folks or elderly. You need precision while operating those tiny buttons. They're almost built inside the surface, I use my fingernails to push them! No kiddin! (this machine might have been built for young women only).
The jog dial is superb, has tactile dots for a good grip, it goes 360 degrees. It is precise and rapid.
The 5-way control key, in the middle, is another story. It requires precision and a stable sitting place. Takes some getting use to.
It works just like a computer joystick, push up for play/pause, down for stop, right for ff/skip-forward/scroll, left for rew/skip-back/scroll back. Press to access different menus.
You need to read the book at this stage. It is very easy once you read it.

REMOTE
Backlit with a nice fluorescent light-green color. About two inches large and the width and shape of a pencil. Same matching silver color.
The buttons are all plastic, except for the left tip : volume jog dial.
The remote is very light, the cord is not long enough, about two feet.
There's no way to keep the light opened all the time. It remains opened 5 seconds or so. It's triggered when you touch any buttons, or when a new track begins. It is possible to shut the light out completely, in the menu options.
The remote has one lcd line. It scrolls titles, displays playmode, track number. When you press the display button sequencially, it'll switch from 3 diff screens, title, artist, bitrate.
You cannot open folders or pick up songs with it. You can switch EQ presets with the "sound" button. Much easier to access it from there than on the very player! Same thing for mode button.
There is a hold switch, stop, play/ff/rew/skip jog dial, a removable clip, you can position it right or left, quite easy to do and it won't break. The volume is a jog dial, located on the left, at the tip of the remote.. Twist it upward for - and downward for +, bizarre at first but you get used to it.

It's possible to use the player without the remote. The sound remains the same.
Once the remote is plugged in, you have no choice but to plug your headphones in it.

Batteries
Only one (very slim) rechargeble battery needed. Located inside the player, under the disc.
It is possible to use an exterior AA battery adapter. It is small, only one regular AA battery required. Easy to install, it attaches to the back of the player, no dangling wires. You can charge the walkman through it too, I never tried it.

Battery life is very good.. though it uses only one rechargeable NH-14wm battery with/or one AA regular alkaline battery. If you use both, you get twice the battery life.

The battery indicator is not reliable, it shows 4 full bars for only one or so after charging, then goes to 3 bars and sticks there till all of sudden, u get a "low batt" indication and the player stops.
All your favorite preset remain stored unless you completely remove the batteries

Charging
The charging stand is in the picture above- barely noticable when the player is installed.
It is light and small, made of plastic, easy to use. It starts charging as soon as you place the player on it. The red led lights up and the battery indicator shows the charging mode on the display.
You cannot listen to music while it's charging. It takes about 5 hours to do so. They recommend you wait for the battery to get completely drained before recharging.. So, better carry the adaptor battery pack with ya.

It stops automatically when fully charged, the led shuts off.

Other stuff I dislike
Each time you open the lid, for any reason, the resume funtion stops working, and the player reads the entire disc again.. it takes 30 sec to load, more or less.

There are gaps between songs… a few sec. Although, the seamless option is available, but only for atrac3 cds.

G protection
It never ever skipped! I tested it all the way, shaked it, walked with it. Other reviewers testify that the sony G-protection is good in all conditions, jogging and so forth.

DURABILITY
I never dropped any cd players before.... till I accidentaly dropped this one.
It fell on my wooden floor, a 4 feet drop. And from the sound it made while it hit the surface, I knew it was intact. Not a scratch! Still worked perfectly.

Conclusion
I think you get the idea by now that I did not keep this player. I returned it.
I recommend it of course, but not for all users. Only for those who like crispy-clear sound and not so much bass.
It is reliable, sturdy, looks amazingly stylish, it's mostly easy to use... but pricey.

I made it a personnal mission to find the perfect cd/mp3 player! Some may call this an obsession ... (I would not blame any of you)... BUT I finally found it!
It is not the one mentionned in this review.
Stay tuned for ....THE ONE!

The BEST MP3/CD player:
iRiver slimX iMP-550

More cd/mp3 players reviews:
SONY DNE-500
SONY DNE-711
RCA RP-2360 My old favorite CD player

Koss' Headphones
KOSS PORTAPRO
KOSS SPORTAPro