Sony Memory Stick Walkman NW-MS7 Digital music player £300
Sony's Memory Stick Walkman was the star turn at last year's celebration of the 20th anniversary of the personal stereo, and gizmo lovers have been saving up ever since. Now this ne plus ultra of MP3 music players has finally arrived, however, buyers may want to think again.
The MS7 is very small, very light (69g) and certainly looks the part: it has a more stylish design and a much better quality of finish than the average naff-looking MP3 player.
It's also very easy to set up and use. The problem is the sound quality, which is very much on a par with the average naff-sounding MP3 player.
The MS7's brief visit prompted something of a Sonyfest at home. We compared it with a Sony FM Stereo Radio Walkman (SRF-46), a Sony Walkman (WM-FX473) cassette player, and a Sony Discman (D-E885) with six different types of Sony headphone, including the cool blue back-of-headphones (MDR-G56) and my prized MDR-NC20 noise-cancelling phones.
The Memory Stick Walkman, though by far the most expensive device, sounded the worst of the lot. The acid test was the thumping bass groove in Good Stuff by Kelis (which Virgin released as a single on June 5 to follow Caught Out There, or "I hate you so much right now!"). The MP3 file sounded great on a PC with a subwoofer, but when it was transferred to the MS7, most of the bass and much of the excitement disappeared. This might have been partly the automatic translation from a 5.45 megabyte 192kbps MP3 file to a 3.66MB 132kbps Sony Atrac3 file - the highest quality allowed. It was also the effect of the in-ear headphones supplied: the WM7 sounded much better with ultraslim Sony MDR-W20 Turbo headphones, purchased separately.
At this level, the 64MB WM7 can hold about an hour of music - 14 or 15 tracks - though you can double that by dropping the bit rate to 66kbps. Frankly, I didn't have the heart.
Getting music aboard is very easy thanks to the MagicGate connector and USB cable supplied, and the OpenMG Jukebox software which runs under Microsoft Windows 98. The Jukebox software will rip the tracks from an audio CD and will also play and convert WAV and MP3 files. However, it took about half an hour to load the machine.
Removing files also takes time, because you can't simply delete them. The SDMI copyright protection system means you have to check every file out and then check it back in to the same PC. Indeed, you're only allowed to check each music file in three times ... and you can't back up the MagicGate folders on your PC, because that would be copying too.
If you think music sounds OK when played from an MP3 file that's a tenth of the size it was on CD, then the Memory Stick Walkman will not disappoint. It's very small, very stylish, and will make your friends coo with envy (assuming they haven't read this review). But if you want to listen to something more like hi-fi on the move, there are better and cheaper ways to do it, at least until memory chip capacities go up and prices come down.
