Sony D-NE300 ATRAC Walkman Portable CD Player (Blue)

The compact full circle design of the MP3 Portable CD Walkman is so attractive it is going to inspire you to get out and go for that walk! The Walkman’s ATRAC3plus feature is an advanced audio compression technology that lets you create your own compilations of up to 490of your favorite songs on one CD-R/RW disc. You’ll be able to also play back MP3 files downloaded and recorded onto CD-R/RW media using your PC’s CD-ROM drive. Features 2-line dot matrix display; ID3 tagging and CD text support; customizable equalizer; Skip-Free G-Protection technology; 18 playback modes; digital Mega Bass sound system ; digital volume control; and more. Enjoy over 85 hours of continuous playback with 2 AA batteries (not included). SonicStage Software included. Blue. *Estimated 4 minutes per song. 1-1/4Hx5-3/8Wx5-3/8D”.
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’ll be able to 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 even if 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 lets you encode up to 490 songs, burn them to CD and then play them in your D-NE300. MP3 encoding, however offers about half as much compression, which means your CDs will not 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, however, 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 wish to cram a ton of songs onto one CD You’ll be able to use SonicStage and burn ATRAC3plus CDs. Meanwhile, if you wish to enjoy the universality of MP3 CDs, You’ll be able to use third-party MP3 encoding and burning utilities. The D-NE300 makes it easy to listen to the music you wish to have, whenever you wish to have 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

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 all the way through 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)