NR70V as an audio player.

[dannn]

so how does it perform?
sound quality, speed of machine while in use, battery life...

im planning to buy the NR70V to replcae my T615c and Minidisc player. if you are familiar with the minidisc format you know that it is far superior than an MP3 player.(IMO)
i barely use my sony MZ-N1 and i can easily get 250 to buy a NR70v. will it suffice? my audio needs arent too heavy.

your input and opinions will be happily accepted.

-dann

[Unregistered]

Dann, I think if you search the NR forum you'll find other inputs to your question. But I'll give you my two cents.

I use my NR just about everywhere, but on music I use it mostly during my 35 minute bus ride to and from work and it's great!! In my case the 128meg memory stick stores enough MP3s (about 28 songs) for that purpose. I find that I am swaping songs about once a week from my PC where I keep the bulk of my MP3 files. I sample my MP3s at 128Kbps and I am happy with that. I don't have a mididisc so I can't speak to the quailty comparison, but you can always sample at a higher bps rate to get better sound quality.

I find no real slow down on applications in conjuction with the MP3 playing in the background on my NR, though the battery drain is significant.

I was in a similar shoe with you before I bought my NR; I had a Palm Vx and a CD player with me and I thgouht why oh why am I carrying two separate devices (not to mention how nice the NR looks :D).

Hope that helps.

[to_stargaze]

Oops. That was me who made that entry :D

[rob_squared]

Commuting, that's exactly what I use mine for too. In addition I use it when I'm on break at work.

[benroa]

Compared the sound quality to other MP3 only players around the office recently, and though I'm no expert, there wasn't much difference in audible quality.

Battery drain is an issue, but the easy and fast drag&drop style of transfering files from PC to NR via cradle makes up for it.

[david4603]

I'll second that, if you listen to music 1.5 hour daily plus use your Clié for another 1 hour, your battery will last for two days. Music is good (I usually hook my Clié to PC speakers in my office), look is great and the feeling what you can do with your PDA is great.

[pigburger]

Headphones, don't skimp on the headphones, and don't use the earbuds that come with it. As an mp3 player it is fine, it all depends on the quality of the mp3, but the one thing that will make a difference are the headphones. My MDR-G73's only set me back $20 and I'm kicking myself for not doing it sooner.

[to_stargaze]

Good call pigburger.

One more comment on battery life. In case you don't already know, flipping the "Hold" button while listening to music drastically increases the listening time. It's been claimed by Sony that you can listen to about 8 hours that way, though I've not personally pushed that edge myself.

[Jeffry]

The memory sticks aren't cheap as the MDs. But since you don't listen to alot of MP3s, then this won't be a problem (hopefully). Just something to think about.

[weesisj]

I used to carry a VX and a CDplayer and a camera with me. And now only that one stylish gadget called NR70V! I listen to music or audio books while I am on the plane. It is brilliant, and yes: Good headphones do wonder!

[golalmo]

The mini-disc sounds better then mp3 (at 128 kb) because it use more sophisticated compression algorithem from sony, called ATRAC (more like micro$oft wma).
You can have the same sound quality in your cli'e, if you buy one of those "white" MagicGate MS that allow using ATRAC compression insted of MP3 compression.
You will also be able to put more songs in the MS since the ATRAC uses 64-96kb compression (like MD).

[dannn]

MDs have 112kb compression

[philipx]

The best thing for me is that I can listen to music and read books at the same time using a single device.

The MP3 feature was not an important thing for me when I bought it, for I had an excellent/best MP3 player. But now, to be frankly, I would not buy one PDA that does not have an mp3 player :D

[golalmo]

Originally posted by dannn
MDs have 112kb compression

Maybe new MD's that are using ATRAC5.
The Cli'e is using ATRAC3.

[Danl123uk]

so how much can u save ie
how many seconds per megabyte

[nimo]

tne player not work! the songs name,and the time are show,but the file is not want to play:(

[pigburger]

nimo, are you getting any error messages?

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by weesisj
I used to carry a VX and a CDplayer and a camera with me. And now only that one stylish gadget called NR70V! I listen to music or audio books while I am on the plane. It is brilliant, and yes: Good headphones do wonder!

Audio books? Where can I get audio books!?

sorry for OFF-TOPIC

[sophroniscus]

For my use, NR70V audio player is second to none. It plugs straight into either the classroom sound system or a PA system in a hall full of 2,000 students. Quality is easily up to scratch, and I can load any sound files I want. On a stage, the cable & RC control are both invisible.

Between that and Powerpoint, who needs a podium?

This machine is a tool, not a toy.

[kstuart]

Audio books? Where can I get audio books!?

Well, for one, at Audible.com , which has a wide variety of books.

In order to listen to them in MP3 format, you have to burn the proprietary Audible.com format to a CD-R and then rip the CD to MP3. (Or I hear that you can find software on the Internet that converts the Audible formats directly to MP3, which is probably illegal.)

I'm not interested in audio books myself, but I would imagine that the usual P2P systems also have books in MP3 format.

[Spiral]

Audio works fine, contrary to wat people think, you can play files as mp3's down to 64kbps (quality is quite bad in SOME songs, some sound a bit less clear, but surprisingly good).

But i've seen/used (just 2 days ago actually) the sony MZ-N1 (top of the line model curently, no?) it's very nice.

MZ-N1 is smaller (a bit thicker tho), cheaper to put more songs on, plays with a MUCH better battery life. I agree with you that it's better than an mp3 player, especially if you have a nice model and like to hear high-quality sound.

NR can play games, sort your stuff, but keep in mind, you'll probably be able to fit less songs at lower quality and songs that you put on take up space that can be used for other things. Sound quality is marginal, and you won't have on-machine tag editing and such, less sound options (bass on/off, doesn't make much difference to sound either). Remote is definately lower quality, and has a lot less functions

Personally, I would keep the MD player and get maybe like an SJ33 or something? just a suggestion, but if you "rarely use" you MD player, you might want to think about downgrading to somethign cheaper, since it's a bit of a waste to have such an expensive MD player and not use it, u could use the difference to get soemthign u'd use everyday.

Summary: NR is an ok audio player, but i'd recommend sticking with a dedicated audio player that can store more at higher quality, and saves the battery life (I do keep a few songs on the NR, since it's always with me, but i also have an iriver IMP-350, excellent cd/mp3 player for a reasonable price.)

[dannn]

thanks for all your input,
ive decided to keep my t615 and my N1

the NR70 is no contest when it comes to audio to my N1
one thing i wasnt paying attention to was that i use my N1 to record a lot, not just songs but like my band and stuff.

i might get the NR70 later after my 615 has seen its last days.

-dan

[mykelfurman]

I use my t665 and will continue to use my nr70v mostly in the car. I live in redneckland and so load up a memory stick with my rave/techno and head out on the highway. Those tapedeck converters that plug right into the headphone jack are great! Plus with Textaloud I can have all my email and anyother document read to me while i'm in the car. Really handy.

-mike-