Sony NW-MS9

This NW-MS9 portable MP3 player from Sony is really great. However there is software that comes with it and won't play your MP3's, that's right. Sony has brought out some software to make sure that you don't copy other peoples music. Which is great because, at the end of the day, not that many people do. However to play music you must copy your music from a CD or download it from SOME websites (I say some because you must FOR REAL OWN THE SONG). This is not good if you have a whole bunch of sony already on your hard drive and want to use. They will not be able to be played on this device. Also Only WHITE MEMORY STICKS CAN BE USED. I say this in CAPS because they are almost twice the price of the blue ones. So don't be fooled into thinking that the memory sticks are all the same. White are the Magic Gate ones that can do anything (cameras, video cameras, laptops and on this device). Blue ones do the same but don't work on this device.

Another part I don't fully understand - the software allows some type of check in and check out process. I tried to get more information about this but, from what I have read, you can only check in and out three times. Which does not make sense. Because if I had one I would change my songs quite a bit (meaning I would copy a SAME song back and forth more then three times)

Sony is doing this to stop people from copying their music which I understand. but it is not easy. I say this because I am in Austria at present. I live half of the year in Australia. So I copied all cds onto my laptop (SONY PICTURE BOOK with a memory stick slot) and was planning to buy this device at duty free and was told half about it but the guy told me not to buy it. This is when I did some research on it. I cannot use any of the music I have on my laptop due to the software on protecting music. All my cds are in australia. What am I to do?

However if you understand all of this and don't really mind then buy it, but be careful because it is so small you might loose it.

Also, I say again 2 gig sticks in 2003. That is more music then I own!!!!!!!!!!!

Please look into this music protection software. Oh yeah, one more thing - the software can be used on one computer (only home and not work) and music can only go from that computer to that device and to no other!!! Good work Sony!!!!

When you do eventually manage to get the Sony NW-MS9 portable MP3 player to all work together the machine is great but all the protection stuff in the software makes me nervous, even more so after the grief trying to get it to work. The instructions provided are barely average and the software in action isn't intuitive. After my first failed attempt to install it I was considering returning the player - I made an extra effort and got it working and it just sounds so sweet....

Hardware wise the Sony NW-MS9 MP3 player is a superior product. Software wise has a lot of catching up to do. Need lots of patiences.

Sony has attempted to create copywright protection for its digital music player, and in doing so has created a software nightmare. Its ATRAC conversion is slow, quicky, and inefficient. I have literally wasted hours trying to get this player to do very basic things. It plays with wonderful sound quality but its ease of use is terrible. I am getting rid of mine and would never recommend it to anyone.

This Sony MP3 player is fast, very fast. The conversion to atrac, however, is annoying. It doesnt skip, it has great quality and it is upgradeable. Cool.

The BEST Digital music player on the market. The term "mp3" player is now redundant anyway, as most players are now cross format compatible. Unfortunately this Walkman isnt, and ties you into Atrac3. Though this is really far from being a bad thing, as Atrac is the format used for Mini Disc, and the sound quality is just immense.

This Sony MP3 player is great. It is small, comes with a 64 MB memory stick, has big sound, has upgradeable memory, has a head turning design etc. I would definitely recommend this 'network walkman' as sony calls it because it doesn't really qualify to be called an mp3 player(it plays Atrac3 files, remember?). File sharing with this is quite impossible, but who cares?? it's so good looking nothing matches it in terms of looks...

The process of converting mp3s into atrac 3 is a drag, but putting an atrac 3 file on the player is fast....really fast. This thing is expenisve though, considering it only plays music. Upgrading to a 128 MB memory stick is REALLY expensive. The earphones that come with it are quite insufficient.If you're willing to 'dish out the dough,' and you have a good computer which is fast, by all means, go get one of these.