Sony DNE509 ATRAC3PLUS CD Walkman

As many have said, this is a very nice CD/MP3 Walkman.Pros+ Very solid and reliable, in a small package.+ The battery life is amazing. I use NiMH batteries, and they last for days.+ Very nice full sound.+ If you hit the Stop button, it powers down in 10 seconds. When you power back up, it remembers the spot where you left off, even in the middle of a cut. I like this feature a lot, as I listen to a lot of recorded messages.+ It's a Sony! They're always great.+ It WILL play MP3Pro files, and they sound great, even though MP3Pro is not necessarily supported.Cons- Display is ridiculously small. I don't know what Sony is thinking on this one. If you want a similar Sony CD walkman with a very good display, try Sony's Psyc® ATRAC® CD Walkman®D-NF400PSGRAY (check Sony website). I wish I knew about that one before buying this one.- By default beeps with every button press and beeps constantly on Pause. However, this CAN be easily disabled, as documented in the instructions.- EXTREMELY slow FF and RW functions. This is irritating if you want to skip forward or backward in an extended recording.Further observationI haven't tried the SonicStage software, based on the very negative reviews here. I'm using MusicMatch Jukebox Plus, encoding everything MP3Pro 96 khz with great success.Overall, I'm very pleased with this player. Yeah, you need an electron microscope to read the display -- but beyond that it's great.

I opened this package and was so surprised to see the pretty player. No exaggeration in the ad. It is a great little thing. I like to listen to books and music on these players. They keep my place. ready for the next time.

Buttons are so tiny.

I am getting sick and tired ordering cd players but this worked for 1 cd and doesn't work anymore even with fresh batteries.

IMPORTANT: For some reason this CD does not appear in the MP3 CD Players page. Do note that this is a MP3/CD PLAYER!Choosing the right MP3 CD Player was a pretty tedious task for me. I went through so many CD players, comparing prices, features and reader reviews, but I could never find something that fit my needs. I was ready to get a Panasonic, but by reading some of the reviews and speaking with some friends I was informed that they generally have lower sound quality, and most important, lower volume power. Being the music freak that I am, volume level is not something to underestimate. My trusty Sony Minidisc (MZR-55, ancient history) was always suplying me with just the right volume, but how do I know if I can trust Panasonic? So I held myself from getting one, and again was very perplexed by which model to choose.That was all over when I stumbled upon this Sony's model, the DNE-509. I was very surprised to see that Sony actually made an affordable model! This is a relatively new one, and when I came across it I just knew this was going to be exactly what I needed.So on with the review itself.Features/Pros:* 77 hours of playtime in MP3 with only 2 AA battaries!* 12 play modes, including shuffle through whole disc or folder only, repeat, favorites play (you can tag your favorite songs, and program the CD to play those only! It'll also remember your favorites in up to 10 CDs!). You can also play MP3 list files, which comes in very handy.* Will read just about any MP3 file, from 8~320kbps, including VBR!* An awesome design :)* Has 2 G-Protection modes, "Mode 1" and the enhanced "Mode 2". Mode 1 is for walking and Mode 2 for more active sports. Basicly, you won't be able to make it skip. I am fully content with Mode 1, it had never skipped for me even once.* You can enhance your bass with "Sound 1" and "Sound 2" mode. Very high-quality boosting.* An outstanding volume output and sound quality. Make sure you burn high level MP3 for best results!* Hold button :) (yeah, some CDs don't even have THAT).* You can flip through albums (folders) with ease. Also, you can Fast Forward or Rewind in the song itself (yup, many CDs don't have that function as well! Just check the reviews on some of the CDs here).* Sturdy! Being the dumbass that I am, I've managed to drop it on the floor it twice from the table, and nothing happened.* If you're worried about what type of CDs the player would read (I know I was), then fear not. It reads just about any CD/CDR/CDRW. I use some cheap korean CDs and the player reads them wonderfuly well.* 1 line Dot-Matrix display, that supports all ID3 versions. In MP3 CDs, you can view the song's name, artist and album. Very comfy :)* Such an affordable price! This is absolutely the best you can get for that price.This CD supports ATRAC3 and ATRAC3plus formats. Those formats undoubtly have better quality over MP3, but generally it is a pain to start converting all your MP3 to ATRAC3. When you want to rip some CDs though, better encode them to ATRAC3, for best quality. The DNE-509 comes with a software called SonicStage. It's an easy-to-use software that enables you to convert your CDs to ATRAC3 files, and burn them. The only disadvantage of this program is that you can't add files after you burn them (no multi-session support). But with regular MP3s it's just fine.Cons:Basicly, I fount only 1 cone that is disturbing at times. There's this 1 second delay that the player adds between each track, so when you hear tracks are are supposed to be connected (many CDs have these "connected" tracks). This only happens in MP3 CDs though.Some people might dislike the fact that the CD has no Radio, and no wired controller like some expensive CDs, but I personally think these features aren't really needed. The CD lacks a backlight display as well.Note also that the player, like the other ones, does not recognize *.mpc files. You will have to convert them to MP3 or ATRAC3.So, to be conclusive, if you don't really need a controller or a radio, and not that high on budget, this is absolutely the thing for you. You will not get dissapointed, that I promise :) This proves again that Sony quality is not to be underestimated.