Review on Sony D NF430 Walkman: Your Ultimate Portable Compact Music Player by Reggie Stewart

Well I bought this product so I can play my MP3s on it on the go, not just on my stereo and as space is limited on the number of CDs that you can hold. I use it as an add-on to my HD MP3 player and stereo, but I find I use it even more than they do. While my stereo and HD MP3 players play MP3s just fine, there are occasional issues. When I used my MP3 discs that I created with Windows Media Player, everything was fine at first. Then I noticed that the CD player stopped for a few seconds between tracks and made a grinding noise like the CD stopped and then started spinning again. I thought it was ok. Also, MP3 discs would start skipping at certain points (shock protection doesn't seem to work here) and some wouldn't even play all the time. I've tried them on my stereo and computer in the same places and there were no jumps or anything. So I started burning MP3 discs with another program and it fixed the crunch and long pause but it still skips in some places but not as much as before. In other words, I don't think it handles MP3 discs well with any errors, no matter how small, or even discs without errors. I haven't used it much for regular CDs, but it seems to play them well. The sound isn't that great even with better headphones and tries to improve it with an equalizer. My HD MP3 player and stereo (cheap, by the way) sound a little better. It seems that with this player a lot of statics, fluff. The batteries last a long time. I use Sony batteries and get 13 hours of playback and I think I'm underestimating a bit. It's a good player, but be aware that it's not the best machine for playing MP3s. Edit: The more I use it, the more I dislike it. Okay, I understand the audio CD playback works fine. The problem is that it plays MP3 CDs horribly, even after trying different software, different filesystems and finally getting it to work without long pauses between tracks. I rewrote a lot of CDs to make this thing work. It still skips and doesn't play all MP3 files or only play some of them. Just when I think he's not going to miss them or stop playing them, he does. As I said, none of the options work for this problem. Sometimes it happens in the same spot which could mean the disc isn't the right one but I doubt it because my Sony stereo plays all my MP3 discs just fine so it's probably not my fault. I don't know if it's the energy saving technology or something else, but it's unacceptable for something at this price point and is the main reason I bought this device. I could just grab my old Citizen, which I got for a few bucks if I just wanted to listen to regular audio CDs, and it sounds almost as good. I have a feeling that all of these Sony CD Walkmans of this model (and possibly other models) are the same and it's probably just not mine. So I really don't want to spend the time and money to send it back and have it repaired or replaced only for the same thing to happen. I'd be interested to know what other people think using this primarily for MP3 discs. Most of the reviews here don't really cover the mp3 aspect. If it worked properly, I think it would be even better than those flash or hard drive MP3 players. EDIT: 3/30/08 Okay, I figured that out and why some aren't working properly and skip issues from time to time. If the file name is too long, there is something else on the disc, including album art, or you are using an incompatible file system, it will not play properly, even if it seems too much at first. It still plays ATRACS discs more smoothly than MP3 discs, in other words there is no one and a half to two second delay between tracks. The problem with ATRAC is that it doesn't sound all that good even at higher bitrates, and Sony has largely abandoned the format and Sonic Stage. . MP3 discs created with Sonic Stage work, but iTunes does it better. DO NOT create a regular MP3 data disc even if you don't burn anything on it as it probably won't work properly, especially if you use one of these free burning software. He figured it out, and after spending lots of money on discs, he tried to figure out a way to make it work.