Sony D-NS921F Atrac3/MP3 CD Sports Walkman

This player is great, I've had it for about over a year and it works great. When I first got it the software (Sonicstage) was HORRIBLE. Over the year Sony and connect and sonicstage have updated themselves three times solving all problems I had with burning Discs with my computer (Atrac format). The radio works great. Tv Tuner works great. Mp3 Discs play great. Atrac discs now play great after the last upgrade about a month ago. I currently own the S2 Sports Minidisc/Recorder, and Ipod and this player. The Minidisc works fine but the Atrac discs sound so much better on this player that I use this player for long trips and the office. The Ipod I use for workouts because of the Size and variety of music at my fingertips. (The Ipod Battery I have to recharge about every other day so that makes it not suitable for trips) I carry about three compact discs that hold a ton of music for trips and harder workouts (the unit is durable and waterproof). I've had a ton of portables (Mindiscs 5, Cd Players4, and an Ipod 20Gb) and I always reach for this player or the Ipod depending on the situation (Business look - discreet Ipod) For the record This unit sounds worlds better that the Ipod using the Mp3 burned discs or the Atrac burned discs (Even better!) Minidisc was a nice format but all the moving parts inside the players always seem to break very easily. The Ipod doesn't have those Issues except It can be a hassle to recharge away from homeand It isn't waterproof. This unit runs on batteries, best sounding using the Atrac discs and is damn tough and waterproof (TV, AM/FM and MP3/ATRAC). You won't find a better deal money wise. Just my opinion.

I have read some silly things on the other reviews....First of all, this is also a real mp3 cd player... you are not forced to use Sonic Stage with all your files. Personally I made several MP3 cds with all my mp3s (5 gigs), and some cds using Sonic Stage: I can store 20 hours of music in a single 700 mb cd-rw using 64kbs atrac 3 plus... amazing!The sound is really acceptable: far better than mp3s or wmas at 64kbs... I prefer to have a lot of music in a portable device... even if sound quality is not totally awesome. If I want GOOD sound quality I'd rather stay at home and use my hi-fi ;)Another thing: no chirps or birdies in my unit :)This player is GREAT!

Every feature you could possibly want - CD/MP3 player, AM/FM, Weather band AND TV tuner - what could be better.The only problem is it sounds like, well, cr*p. That's the only way to put it. I was seeking to replace my beat up old Sony D-451 sports walkman. That unit has a half-broken door, the recharge circuitry doesn't work any more, and the skip protection is poor. But for sound quality, compared to the 921, my trusty old sports unit BLOWS THE 921 AWAY.I don't use the headphones that come with the unit. I have high-end Denon headphones that kick butt, because I am listening to HEAR AND APPRECIATE THE MUSIC. If you are like me, you will be totally unhappy with the 921. Sounds to me like the high frequencies are missing. Did they sacrifice sampling rate to give more skip protection? Would have been nice, Mr. Sony Marketing Rep, if YOU HAD SAID THAT ON THE PACKAGING SO I WOULD HAVE MOVED ON PAST THIS PRODUCT IN THE FIRST PLACE WITHOUT HAVING TO WASTE MY TIME.If you are a jogger who just wants 20 million hours of music at your fingertips and a radio that sounds ok thru the mini phones provided, this is what you are looking for.But, if you are going to be sitting back on the 45 minute train ride home from a long day at work and want to hear some quality music, look ELSEWHERE.Really, there should be a law for this.

That's the sound you'll hear about every fifteen seconds when listening to an audio CD in this player with the G-Protection set to position "1" and running off of two AA batteries. Switch to house current using the 4.5V AC adaptor and the chirps are less frequent because the CD drive motor no longer continually spins up and down (an energy saving feature when using batteries), but they still do occur. Although the interval of annoying chirps is longer with the G-Protection set to "2", sound quality may suffer. For some odd reason, there is no way to turn off this audio artifact of the antiskip algorithm. This regular electronic chirping is quite obvious on quieter pieces of music, and it can even sound like a badly played note. It totally interferes with the listening experience. If you have access to an audio test CD, play a track with all output bits set to zero, and you'll notice that the chirping is gone, suggesting that this audible artifact is the result of an engineering defect in the anti-skip implementation. Note that the chirp seems to occur when the G-Protection circuitry is buffering content, such as periodically or when the motor spins up and down, rather than due to DC motor noise or any disc surface defects such as scratches, dust, or fingerprints.This unit's cheaper cousin, the D-NF610, suffers from a similar G-Protection artifact, although in that case the problem is continuous (albeit relatively subtle) noisy cackling primarily in the left channel that significantly reduces the sound quality of the material being played. Both units were promptly returned, as neither unit's unique antiskip circuitry artifact is something that the listener should have to endure. A four-year-old Sony Discman D-T405 sounds MUCH better than either unit and has no such CD playback problem, whether the Electronic Skip Protection is on or off.The headphones used to test this unit were the rather nice sounding Sony MDR-E888 earbuds, which have a rather wide frequency response. Other headphones also allowed the chirping problem to be heard, although cheaper ones with less frequency response might not reveal the problem quite as well.Pros:- The specs on paper are GREAT! This _should_ have been one awesome piece of hardware!- Includes AM/FM/TV/WB tuner, which is highly desirable to avoid having to carry two separate units- Above average sound quality for the tuner; even the CD player sounds good when it's NOT chirping!- Seems quite sturdy, although heavy- Option to use rechargeable batteries, with recharging through the included AC adaptorCons:- Free annoying electronic chirping bird included at no extra cost! :-(- Although the specs state that MP3 files up to 320Kbps can be played, in practice this is very much hit and miss. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't. 256Kbps is better, but also very unreliable. Presumably that's why the manual highly recommends that MP3 files be recorded at 128Kbps. Yes, the lower bit rate seems to work fine, but the sound quality is obviously compromised, although not as badly as one might think.- The included wrist strap is totally impractical for many activities, not to mention this unit is rather heavy at 12.2 oz (w/o batteries). A belt strap is badly needed, but with this player's bulk and unique button location, you may be best off fashioning your own with a nylon luggage strap.- No backlit display- Most definitely not for audiophiles who expect decent quality soundOther: At the time of this writing, if you call the toll-free Sony Network Portable Audio Support Line and enter the model number for this unit, your call will be disconnected. In order to speak to an agent, answer "I don't know" when prompted for the model number by the automated voice response system. Neither Tier I nor II technical support were aware of the sound quality problems of this unit, but that may be because of its recent arrival on the market.Sony - Please fix this antiskip audio artifacting, and you'll have a very sweet product indeed!