Dance the Light Flandango (Sony Walkman NW-MS9 64 MB)

Member Name: SlyClone2k

Product:	Sony Walkman NW-MS9 64 MB
Date:	20/04/02 (685 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Small, Compact & Light, Supports most music formats, No moving parts

Disadvantages: Possibly looseable, Not the cheapest memory or unit on the market

Although sony have just released the NW-MS11 I felt that at least some mention should go to the NW-MS9.

I happen to be lucky enough to have recieved one of these for Christmas, mostly due to requiring something that would play music while I worked my butt off down the gym.

The MS9 is a really great device, small compact and light. Slips into the pocket easily and is virtually non detectable when your working on the treadmill, cross trainer or bike.

The MS9 comes with a 64MB memory stick, battery, charger, headphones, and the unit. The memory holds around 1 and a half albums. Of course this depends on the compression rate you choose when uploading music onto it via the software (OMGJukebox) that is also bundled. In short its good to go after a short time working out the software and charging the battery.

The technical specs:

Weight: 2.3 oz (approx.) (67g) w/battery and MagicGate Memory Stick media

Dimensions: 1 1/2" x 3 1/4" x 2/3" (approx.)
(37.9 x 81.6 x 15.7mm). Thats roughly the size of a large lighter. And about the same weight as a zippo.

Importantly for me the unit has no moving parts, important as I use it down the gym. This essentially means that you're going to be hard pushed breaking it with lots of movement. It also means no skip. Ever.

The unit is USB connectable to most Windows versions, although the software seems to work better on a 2000 machine than ME. I've found it a little flakey. Fortunately the newer release of the software is downloadable, but it is 60MB, so not much fun over a modem.

The MS9 itself is simple to use, utilising a see-saw button that controls the fwd-rwd, play and stop funtions that you'd expect to find. There are a variety of display modes and the back lit LCD neon blue facia is attractive and fashionable if thats your bag.

The unit plays back Sonys own ATRAC3 media format which I believe is b
ecoming there standard. This media is about half the size of your average MP3 file the software also supports MP3, WMA, WAV and Liquid Audio and is upgradeable to support additional audio formats, its pretty versatile.

On the down side, a bigger Memory stick comes in at around £130, the 64MB you get as standard is a little smaller than many cheaper models and the unit itself doesn't come cheap either.

I've found mine is a little prone to scratches, but it does come with a velvetine bag so is easy to protect. A key chain attachable thingummy is also provided so you can clip it to a belt hole.

After four months I couldn't live without mine.

Summary: