This is the MD player you work your butt off for!
Written: Feb 25 '01
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Pros: Great size, strong, long battery life, options up the wazoo!
Cons: Packaged ear buds suck and sound level is lower then I like.
The Bottom Line: Pay the money and you get a unit worth every penny, just make sure you save an extra $10 for a decent pair of earbuds.
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| mrbonig's Full Review: Sony Walkman MZ-R900DPC Personal MiniDisc Player |
Almost two weeks ago I was looking into MP3 players and a friend pulled his MD player (a sharp model) out of his pocket to show me. I was very impressed with the size. After I talked to him and did lots of research I decided to get one (a birthday present for myself). After spending days trying to find a MD-MT821 I started looking more at the Sony MZ-R900... and I decided the extra $50 might be worth it.
After waiting as patiently as I could for 3 days (yes, I paid overnight shipping and got it 3 days after I placed the order). I ripped open the box...
First impressions were "holly crap this thing is small!" It's smaller then pictures have you to believe. Next I noticed the very obviously sound and strong construction. All buttons feel firm, the jog switches are nice and snappy and nothing is loose... very nice clean Japanese construction!
It comes with a stick-of-gum battery which holds quite a few hours of playback. Flying to LA for the weekend for a buisness trip and this thing probably won't run our of batteries, but if it does you can slab a AA in this nice cartridge, use the thumbscrew to attach it to the unit and you've got more hours!
After I got some music recorded I was off and listening. This is the only time in which I felt my $350 yielded less then perfection... the hard plastic earbuds they give you SUCK! They hurt.. and the only thing going for them is they sound good, but go pick up some Phillips SBC HE210 earbuds (Target) and you'll be happy again.
Recording is a SNAP! I just hooked a double mini cable (from a old set of Gateway speakers) from my soundcard to the input jack, hit record, hit play on Winamp and I was off and recording. The ability to Title your tracks as they are recorded is great, and this unit makes titling nice... you can do it on the remote, but I suggest using the base to do it... since you can use both Jog flips to do it scrolling through the letters is fast and titiling is easy.
The quality is great too... I recorded about 25 mp3s onto a single disc, in LP2 mode with plenty of room to spare and the playback is great. From my understanding the lp2 compression is along the lines of lp2 compression, so while a trained ear might notice a difference between standard and LP2 recording modes when copying a CD if you put your mp3s on here, use lp2 and you will get lots of room and no quality change!
This was the only other place though I am even slightly dissatisfied. Automatic recording levels sets it so the meter will top out at 5 bars (out of 9). Now I like the ability to get my music LOUD in my headphones, and with the automatic recording levels used I would turn it up all the way and still want a little more. You can work around this by doing manual recording levels and having it top out at about 6 or 7 bars, and I am happy here, but I would like it if you could maybe set how high the auto-recording levels goes to... again, a small thing and easily work-aroudable.
The remote is a nice little unit too. Having a hold switch on the remote was brilliant and the way they do track and volume (by twisting a spring loaded sylinder either up or down for tracks, and then pull it out and do the same for volume) is also nice. I am finding I don't look at the remote too much, but when I do I like the backlit panel and track name display.
Track searching and in-song searching is a little slow and unresponsive (when you hold the track advance switch down to jog through the track it takes a second or two before is starts, and a second or two to start the music when you let go).. this is a slight pain if your recording didn't autoregister track marks and you have to search 5:00 into a track to set a track mark between songs, but again... not a huge deal, you get used to it quick, and aparently if you've jogged it stores past and future in the buffer so when you let go, if you go back a few seconds that lag goes away.
Overall I am VERY pleased with this piece of sweetness. It's sharp, sleek, and just oozes machismo. I couldn't help but shop all the techy guys I work with the day I got it!
Get a good pair of earbuds or nice headphones (im not a huge fan of Princess Leia headphones) and you will love this thing. Yes, it is expensive, but the fact is you get nothin but quality with this unit.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 350
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Epinions.com ID:
mrbonig
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Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 1 member
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