I have used MD for over 11 years, I also have an MP3 player, MD is best for music, sound quality is better than MP3. Battery's can be changed and last 56 hours. Disc's are cheap less than a buck, and can be reused over 1 million times, I have disc's I made 11 years ago sound great, the software has even gotten better, you can delete just one song, or add just one. rearrange order, this has bass and treble, the LP2 mode is 2 hours and 40 minutes, perfect for custom collections. the LP4 mode is over 5 hours perfect for talk radio, and the regular SP mode is 80 minutes, that us for the highest quality, I have 3 portables, and one home unit. It interfaces with the computer with a USB cable, again, I will use this for many years to come. Perfect for musicians learning songs. when you stop it, it starts from there not at songs beginning, easy fast forward and rewind. Just awesome, I love Mini Disc. I also play the LP2 mode with selected New Age music at night on repeat very soft, and sleep so blissful, and when I awake I hear the nice soft music, there are so many uses, I also download talk radio, and listen to that, there are units that record via optic cable too, enjoy! Be selective, distinct, and unique. Use MD!

This thing really is great. It is true that you can get 50hrs. of use off of one AA battery. I have had this MD player for two years and I love it! It is just a rock solid machine; that's all there is to it. The discs are great too. they are small, lite and easy to carry. They are pretty cheep($1.50 app.) too, considering that they hold five hours of tones. The only thing about them is that you can't find them in stores, but you can get them on Amazon.com. It is not an ipod, but, in some ways I thank it is better. For one thing, it is SOOOO much cheaper, and frankly, it's more reliable than an ipod because there's not as much that can go wrong. It's not as sophisticated as an ipod. Though it's not quite as small and portable as an ipod, it really does have some advantages over it, I think. I am sorry that MD players never realy caught on, because they are realy cool. I wish more people knew about them. So, if your looking at this, GET ONE! You can afford it and I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Contrary to popular myth, this is NOT an MP3 player. It only plays a proprietary format. The PC desktop software will convert MP3 music to the proprietary format - and it will rip CDs to the proprietary format - but it's still a proprietary format.

Additionally, after you have gone through the trouble and effort of making one of the mini-CDs it is only usable on Sony products. If your next MP3 player is an MP3 player versus a Sony lock-in, your mini-disks and the data they contain are useless. You'll have to go through and reconvert all of your songs.

Even more irritating is that the software can only be run if you are logged in to the administrator account. Given Sony's root-kit fiascoes, do you trust them? Since the unit was purchased for my daughter, she has to ask permission to be logged into the computer each time she wants to make a new disk.

My daughter finally decided that she really didn't like the mini-disk format and wanted a flash memory based MP3 player. We purchased a Sansa ... and had to convert all of her songs again. (We are happy with the Sansa).

I needed a portable player to listen to the music I had recorded on minidiscs using my Sony JE-330 and JE-630 minidisc decks and I didn't want to spend a whole lot of money so I took a chance and ordered the DN430 which I found to be an excellent recorder and player. I also like the software - however I would recommend going to Sony's website and downloading (for free)the latest version of Sonic Stage. I found Sonic Stage to be very easy to use and navigate - in addition to recording to the minidisc player it also allows you to convert MP3 files to regular audio CD files and vice - versa and record either an MP3 CD or regular audio CD. Also the software provided with the DN430 contains an MD Simple Burner program for quick transfer of music to the minidisc player from regular audio CD's. Overall the DN430 minidisc player is a great alternative to IPODs and other flash memory player/ recorders. When a minidisc player breaks you can always buy a new one without loosing all of your recorded music, whereas with the flash memory players you can loose all your music should they break or seriously malfuntion. Another thing I like about the DN430 is the long battery life - up to 56 hours on a single AA battery!

Had purchased for a Christmas gift to replace an old minidisc player but didn't think of ordering it until the last minute. I was sure it would not arrive in time for Christmas but I was okay with that. To my surprise it arrived Christmas Eve day!