Big sound in a little package
Written: Dec 08 '04 (Updated Dec 08 '04)
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Pros: Small, lightweight, highly portable, ability to record live music, excellent battery life
Cons: No drag-n-drop transfer, slightly outdated and only available used
The Bottom Line: If you want to do more than just take your computer's song list on the road, this is a fabulous alternative to an MP3 player.
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| pearannoyed's Full Review: Sony Walkman MZ-R70 Personal MiniDisc Player |
Music... it's a big part of my life. Not that I really listen to that much music—I'm more into performing it. Singing in a choir or playing my flute in a small ensemble is one of my favorite ways to take a break from real life. It's fun and relaxing. But it can also be frustrating. When you're singing in the choir or playing with a small group of musicians you can never really get a true sense of what things sound like... out there... in the audience. So several years ago I went hunting for a recording device that I could use to listen to the music my friends and I were creating. A standard cassette recorder didn't have the kind of sound quality I was looking for, and standard digital recording devices didn't have much storage capacity. When a friend and fellow musician showed me her new MiniDisc recorder, I realized that this was the best of both worlds and, after a little research, I bought a MiniDisc recorder of my own. I have never regretted it.
The Unit
The MiniDisc recorder I ended up purchasing is the Sony MZ-R700DPC Recording MD Walkman with PC Link. My unit is a funky florescent green color (that oddly, Sony calls Khaki), but this unit also comes in blue and silver. I think I paid about $100 for this on Ebay when I got it 3 years ago; today you can pick up a used on for roughly half that—give or take $30 depending on condition and accessories.
The unit itself fits nicely in the palm of my hand. At roughly 3.25 in. x 3 in. x 1.25 in. it is slightly too big to fit in a shirt pocket (unless you have really big pockets) but it can easily fit into a purse, gig-bag, or jacket pocket for when you want to take it on the road. Mine also came with a carrying pouch designed to strap on your arm to keep it out of the way while exercising at the gym or taking your daily walk.
The face of the unit has a single large button for all the standard menu functions and transport functions (play, stop, FF etc.), with separate small buttons for volume control, pause, track mark, end search, record mode, 'enter' and a button/slider combo for record. Above the buttons is an LCD display window which displays a single row readout of information about the disc including track, time remaining, and menu options, as well as having icons showing the current record mode, remaining battery life, and current play status. The included remote includes the same controls as are on the face of the unit, but does not have a readout display. It is intended to clip on a shirt or jacket for easy access to playback functions when you have the unit tucked into a pocket, pouch or purse.
Input/Output jacks are all along the right side and include a headphone/remote combo jack, a microphone input, and an optical input. The attached battery cover is also on the right side and pops open by moving a slider (helps prevent accidental opening) to reveal the single AA batter the unit requires. On the left side of the unit is the open/eject button which causes the front face of the recorder to spring forward and the MiniDisc to pop up. This mechanism operates easily, but I've never had it open when I didn't want it to. Construction is a combination of metal and plastic and has been sturdy enough to stand up to several years of use even though it occasionally gets unceremoniously dropped in the bottom of a bag or purse instead of being properly packed up in the protective case I bought for it.
My Experience
I've used my recorder quite a bit for recording rehearsals, performances, lectures and the like, and I've always been pleased with the results. Using my Sony ECM-DS70P stereo microphone (purchased separately) I have always gotten very high quality recording results with few exceptions. One small thing I have found annoying is that when plugging the mic directly into the recorder rather than using the mini-jack extension cable, the recording can include the slight mechanical whine associated with starting the unit. This is only a problem if you can't start recording 5-10 seconds early—once the disc is fully spinning it is quiet enough that it is not picked up by the close proximity of the mic.
Also a minor problem is that if you are recording in an extremely loud environment such as an amplified concert there is a possibility of overloading the audio input capabilities and having your recording sound somewhat clipped and distorted. I havn't run into this much, but it's a good idea under extreme conditions to either be some distance away from the speaker stack, or to use a powered mic setup with impedence control (but that can be a costly option).
Recently, I used the recorder to capture some priceless Karaoke performances. While there was some extraneous noise picked up from the bar, and the karaoke sound system was less than ideal, the actual quality of the recording is very reminiscent of the real-life sound of the bar and is a perfect keepsake from a wild weekend. The caveat is that upload of analog recordings, unfortunately, have to happen in real-time. There's no way to 'see' this recorder as a drive on your computer and just drag files over. And even if you could, Sony's proprietary ATRAC3 format would prevent playback on anything but another ATRAC compatible device
The other way to use the MZ-R700 to record music is in conjunction with the PC Link USB adapter (which gives this unit the DPC designation). This allows you to transfer music in any audio format onto a MiniDisc. As with upload, you have to play the music onto a disc in real-time. Somewhat newer units have a technology known as NetMD, and the newest have Hi-MD technology, both of which allow you to drag-and-drop music files (using proprietary SonicStage software) like you would when making a CD; but this older unit can't do instant conversion to the ATRAC compression format, so if you want to put 3 albums on a disc, you have to actually play all 3 albums—not a practical option if you're in a hurry. That being said, the recorders with the newest technology and mic inputs can run up to $400, so the price trade-off is worth contending with the slightly outdated technology.
Final Thoughts
I love this unit! While I would like to have a newer recorder so I could put pre-recorded music more easily onto MD media, to get this unit away from me, you would have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands. It has been a reliable workhorse for live recording, it's smaller and easier to transport than a CD player, and it has far better sound quality than an audio cassette. This may not be the ideal piece of equipment for everybody, but for certain applications it beats anything else available!
Learn more about MiniDisc technology and products at www.minidisc.org.
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Technical Specs
Audio playing system
MiniDisc digital audio system
Recording and playback time
When using an 80 min. MiniDisc
Maximum 160 min. in stero
Maxumum 320 min. in monaural
Revolutions
350 rpm to 2,800 rpm (CLV)
Error correction
ACIRC (Advanced Cross Interleave Reed Solomon Code)
Sampling frequency
44.1 kHz
Sampling rate converter
Input: 32 kHz/44.1 kHz/48 kHz
Coding
ATRAC (Adaptive TRansform Acoustic Coding)
ATRAC3 (in LP2 and LP4 modes)
Modulation system
EFM (Eight to Fourteen Modulation)
Number of channels
2 stereo channels
1 monaural channel
Frequency response
20 to 20,000 Hz ± 3 dB
Wow and Flutter
Below measurable limit
Inputs
Microphone: stereo mini-jack, minimum input level 0.35 mV
Line in: stereo mim-jack, minimum input level 49 mV
Optical (Digital) in: optical (digital) mini-jack
Outputs
Headphones: stereo mini-jack, maximum output level 5 mW 5 mW, load impedance 16 ohm
Power requirements
Sony AC Power Adaptor (supplied) connected at the DC IN 3V jack:
Specific AC V dependent on country where purchased
Battery operation time
NC-WMAA Nickel Cadmium rechargeable battery (supplied)
Recording hours: Stereo (4), LP2 (6), LP4 (7.5)
Playback hours: Stereo (13), LP2 (14.5), LP4 (18)
LR6 (SG) Sony alkaline dry battery (not included)
Recording hours: Stereo (9), LP2 (13), LP4 (16)
Playback hours: Stereo (40), LP2 (46), LP4 (53)
Size
Dimensions
Height: 28mm
Width: 81mm
Depth: 75mm
Weight
116g recorder only
142g recorder with battery cell
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 100
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pearannoyed
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Member: Amy Padgett
Location: CA Dreamin' ~ TX reality
Reviews written: 197
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Mean people suck.
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