300 Smackeroos - Is it really worth it? (Sony Memory Stick Walkman NW-MS7 64 MB)

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Product:	Sony Memory Stick Walkman NW-MS7 64 MB
Date:	30/11/00 (65 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Simple to use software.

Disadvantages: Lengthy recording time, too expensive.

Well, it’s fairly safe to say that the Sony Walkman has come a long way since it first emerged in the 1970’s as the biggest thing to come out of Japan since Godzilla. The Discman followed a few years later and the mini disc took up the flag at the end of the 1990’s.

The latest Sony product to bear the famous crest is the Sony Memory Stick Walkman. It’s the company’s latest gadget to incorporate memory stick technology, Sony’s unique storage medium, which means it’s incompatible with normal flash memory. In the box you get the player, a 64mb memory stick, companion software, a USB cable, an AC adapter, plus other accessories such as headphones and a carry case. Using OpenMG software, you record your entire CD collection to your PC’s hard drive, then upload selected tracks to the memory stick through a USB connection between your PC and the Walkman. Sounds simple doesn’t it?

And it would be if the tracks didn’t take so long to record. The lengthy recording time is mainly due to the sluggishness of the OpenMG software at converting your music files into Sony’s ATRAC3 format, which can then be transferred to the memory stick. But the real problem is that the Walkman can’t play MP3 files. All your MP3’s need to be converted to ATRAC3 format first, and while the OpenMG software happily converts MP3’s to ATRAC3, it’s a right old pain and very time-consuming.

Apart from this set back, the software is mind-bogglingly simple to use. You can record CD’s at three bit rates – 132, 105 and 66Kbps – with sound quality diminishing as the bit rate decreases. The OpenMG Jukebox also gathers title and track information from CDDB’s on-line database for displaying on the unit’s tiny backlit LCD panel.

The new Walkman does, admittedly, have street cred by the bucketload, and if you want a piece of the latest technology, 300 smackeroos
may not seem like much. But when the price is double that of comparable MP3 players, and you take into account the MP3 playback issues, anyone can be excused for politely refusing.

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