Sony D-NE300 ATRAC Walkman Portable CD Player (Blue)
- Portable CD player compatible with MP3 files and Sony's ATRAC3plus compression technology; 2-line display with ID3 tag recognition
- Includes SonicStage CD Simple Burner software to facilitate ATRAC3plus CD burning from MP3 files and from other CDs
- Skip-free G-Protection technology eliminates or reduces skipping during many active uses
- Bookmark playback function for easy programming, auto-ranking playback programs your favorites based on listening frequency
- More than 85 hours extended playback with 2 AA batteries (not included)
Product Description
SONY D-NE300 -- Whether you're commuting, working at a desk, or working out at the gym, the D-NE300 CD Walkman(R) Portable CD Player will keep you entertained and informed right up to the moment. Customizable Equalizer Up To 80 Hours Continuous Playback with 2 AA Batteries (Not Included) for ATRAC3plus Playback -- Up To 50 Hours CD Audio Playback Off Timer Auto Shut Off Feature to Conserve Battery Life Skip-Free G-Protection(TM) Technology CD-R/RW Playback 18 Playback Modes Auto Ranking Playback Function Bookmark Playback Function for Easy Programming Digital Mega Bass(R) Sound System Digital Volume Control Heat Resistant Lid 2 Position Automatic Volume Limiter System ( AVLS ) Color - Blue
Amazon.com Review
The Sony D-NE300 is a stylish, compact portable CD player with a robust set of features. If you're in the market for a durable companion that will let you enjoy CD, MP3 and ATRAC3plus tracks on the go, The D-NE300 is the ticket. We found much to like and little to complain about in this capable unit. Features
The D-NE300's simple controls allowed us to find our way around the unit's features with little fuss. The two-line dot matrix display was especially handy for viewing the names of our MP3 and ATRAC3plus tracks. Sony's G-Protection feature can be programmed to offer two levels of protection from stutters and skips when the unit is jarred or shaken. Even on the lowest level of protection, we found that only the hardest knocks could make our music miss a stride. We also liked the intelligently designed equalization features of the D-NE300. Equalizer presets called "soft," "active" and "heavy" are built in, or you can set your own levels in the low, mid and high ranges via a nifty graphical interface. Sound Quality
In short, we were impressed. We popped in an MP3 CD and within 10 seconds the unit recognized the playlists and song titles we'd burned onto the disc. The unit delivered rich bass and clear highs, especially when we used the "heavy" equalization setting. We noticed some degradation in sound quality when listening via the included headphones at high volumes. We found the Sennheiser PX 100 Headphones to be a worthwhile upgrade. Battery Life
It would be nice if the D-NE300 shipped with rechargeable batteries, but Sony claims that the D-NE300 can squeeze up to 85 hours of battery life out of two standard AA batteries (not included). If accurate, this is an amazing feat, and although we didn't test the unit for 85 hours, we did note that battery strength was still full after a full day of testing. According to Sony, the D-NE300 is equipped with advanced digital signal processing that helps it pull a lot less juice than its predecessors. The unit's display has no backlight and it sleeps after a period of inactivity, further contributing to battery life. ATRAC3plus, MP3 and SonicStage
The D-NE300 ships with Sony's own SonicStage software, which is designed to convert your MP3s and audio CDs to Sony's proprietary ATRAC3plus music format. There are advantages and disadvantages to using SonicStage and ATRAC3plus encoding. On the plus side, ATRAC3plus offers a very good compression ratio of approximately 1/20, meaning it can compress CD-quality audio to a twentieth of its original size. This allows you to encode up to 490 songs, burn them to CD and then play them in your D-NE300. MP3 encoding, on the other hand offers about half as much compression, which means your CDs won't be able to hold as many songs when encoded in this format. The downside to ATRAC3plus is that once your music is encoded in this format, your CDs must be played on an ATRAC3plus-compatible device, which means you are stuck with Sony branded CD players with ATRAC3plus support. MP3 formats, on the other hand, offer complete compatibility with all CD players that support MP3 CD playback. Adding to our grumbles, we found the SonicStage software somewhat lacking. The user interface was confusing and encoding both our audio CDs and MP3s to ATRAC3plus was slower than we would have liked. Fortunately, the D-NE300 supports ATRAC3plus and MP3 formats, so if you want to cram a ton of songs onto one CD you can use SonicStage and burn ATRAC3plus CDs. Meanwhile, if you want to enjoy the universality of MP3 CDs, you can use third-party MP3 encoding and burning utilities. The D-NE300 makes it easy to listen to the music you want, whenever you want it. --Joshua Gunn Pros
- Compact, simple design is very user-friendly
- Sound is clear and crisp
- Support for CD audio, MP3 and ATRAC3plus
- Long battery life
Cons
- No rechargeable batteries included
- Included software difficult to use
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Sony D-NE300 ATRAC Walkman Portable CD Player (Blue)
- Electronics: 0 pages (2004-03-15)
- Publisher: Sony
- Label: Sony
- Studio: Sony
- Average Customer Review:
 based on 23 reviews
- Sales Rank in Electronics: #40515
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Avg. Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good deal. 2005-09-30
Comment: Works great and plays MP3 CD's that a more expensive MP3 CD player wouldn't play. Seems to go through rechargeable batteries pretty quickly, though.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: good sound quality but serious design flaws 2005-06-13
Comment: Since I bought it, I'm still wondering what designers think when they do these things...
I'm used to have my discmans on the right side of my waist, so unless you are lef-handed, the open slider, not to mention the volumen control are the most uncomfortable I can imagine due to their location...
Regarding the volume control, there two tiny buttons, a + and a -, and, again unless you can read braille, are impossible to find without taking a look repeatedly to them. That's very annoying to me.
Batteries: Yes, they last a lot. But for me seems ridiculous that they're inside the lid, behind the cd, that obviously you have to take off when trying to replace them. If you're planning to carry just the cd that is inside, you will need two extra hands and a cdbox to put the cd in, while you change the batteries.
The lock button, guess what, it's on the inferior face of the player, yes, you'll have to take it off, wherever you have it, take it with both hands, and slide the control to lock.
The atrac format is one of those proprietary things Sony use to have, you have to use exclusively that awful software that comes with the player, and you, me at least, wasn't able play cd with atrac files I recorded using my favorite recording software. It seems the "atrac cd" must be done exclusively on their software. If you like to have the control on the proceses on your computer this is not for you, mine kept complaining about temporary space, expired music copyright, and so on... The software update process from Sony site is not something you just simply can download and install when and where you want, is one of those "intelligent updaters" that decides everything for you, so if you are planning to install it on each computer/partition you usually use, you will have to download that 30mb again and again... unless you capture the temporary downloaded folder full of unrelated components.
Mine does not play wma files, as some reviewer said it will even if the manual didn't mention it. And, yes, I was aware before buying it that atrac was proprietary, but I did not expect this. I Just gave up on atrac and use it as a simple good mp3/cd player. All the other features according to the published ones.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: I will never buy sony again 2005-05-23
Comment: At first i thought this discman rocked, but actually it sucks. the main problem is the lack of proper mp3 playback, about half way through a song it will cut off and start the next song, which especially sucks for audiobooks
on top of that sony locks you into using atrac3 so if you no longer have access to your original collection (as i dont) the there is no way to convert it for use in a better player (ie ipod or nomad).
Save your cash and get something better.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good Product for Price 2005-04-29
Comment: About 3 months ago I got really excited about purchasing this product. I mainly decided to buy this product because of its ability to store 400+ songs on one CD. I searched multiple sources and finally found it for $49. For about the first 2 months this product worked great. I went on multiple long trips and one vacation with this thing. The problems I've experienced were skipping of tracks (and yes, cd is not scratched, and lens is not dirty), buttons wearing out, and no ATRAC support. The ATRAC support I was really disappointed about. If you are planning to buy this product because of ATRAC support, I suggest that you don't. I have friends who bought it for the same reason, and were disappointed too, all with different computers. For the buttons problem though, I can't blame the buttons. I've must have pressed the volume buttons at least 500 times. Also, if you're looking for deep bass, with this CD player, don't buy it; the equilizer is crap! My durabrand CD player had better bass than this unit. To conclude, I wouldn't purchase this product, because you'll be able to find much nicer CD cheaper. Don't be fooled by the price, I know I was.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: broke down after 2 months 2005-04-19
Comment: This player has stopped working after 2 months of light use even though I have taken perfectly good care of it. I don't recommend buying it.
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