mkduffer's Full Review: Sony Walkman MZ-R70 Personal MiniDisc Player
I'm know I'm dating myself by admitting this, but I remember when Sony first unveiled the minidisc music format. A reusable digital recording medium with random access and compact size, what was not to like? Unfortunately, the "portable" units of the time were about the size of a fireplace brick, and almost as heavy. While the sound quality was definitely alluring, the idea of having to lug around this behemoth player was a major turn off. Sadly, I was forced to turned my back on the new technology, pop another cassette into my walkman and wait patiently for the players to catch up with the potential of the new format. Well, that time has arrived and the package that it has arrived in is the Sony MZ-R70 (preferable with the PC interface).
The MZ-R70 is Sony's economy version of their high end MZ-R91 model. To make the unit more affordable, they removed some of the high end frills from the R91 like the "gum-stick" NiMH rechargeable battery and the backlit LCD remote and probably most importantly, the "Joint-Text" function, which automatically downloaded titling information off of music CD's during the recording process. This next comment is directed at minidiscs in general, not just the MZ-R70 unit. Titling is cumbersome, to say the least on the vast majority of the units out there. If there was one benefit of the old "brick" sized units, it was that some of them had a keypad for inputting music title data. When I first got my MZ-R70, I diligently inputted about half of the song titles onto my first recorded minidisc. I then promptly got out an el Marko pen and labeled the jackets of the rest of my minidiscs.
Because the R70 uses standard AA batteries, it has a slight bulge in the back where the AA battery compartment resides. The R91 gets around this problem by using the flat "gum-stick" style rechargeable battery. However, if you deplete your supply of recharged "gum-sticks", you have to attach a separate "AA" battery compartment to your player to use standard batteries. Personally, I've never found the battery hump to be a big deal and I prefer not having to lug around several different battery sizes and their chargers. Not having to deal with the external battery compartment is also a big plus. Battery life, by the way, is excellent in this unit. When I don't want to bother with rechargeables, I grab a cheap "AA" alkaline battery from the fridge and run the unit all day on it. I don't have much use for the supplied NiCD battery. Personally, I don't see why any company in this day and age would supply NiCD batteries to their end users when NiMH is available, relatively inexpensive and is ultimately a better ecological choice. In my opinion, all those cordless and cellular phones out there are supplied with NiCD batteries for one reason only: So that the end user has to by replacement batteries from the same company they bought the phone from. I buy my "AA" NiMH batteries for less than $2 a piece. I don't see why Sony couldn't have just bit the bullet on this one and done the right thing.
The MZ-R70 that I purchased came with a PC interface. The unit attaches to the USB port of my computer and as long as you are running Windows 98 or 2000, it is automatically detected. This is a much more elegant solution than using the speaker or line-out of your sound card. My experience with sound cards is that in general, the sound coming from them isn't clean enough to record to a digital medium. The nice thing about the PC interface is the music is much cleaner than a sound card. Basically, the music remains in digital format through the USB port, all the way up to the interface device. The interface device is actually a digital to analog converter that was jointly developed by Sony and Xitel. Since the music is digital almost all the way to your recorder, there is much less noise. It's a great way to transfer all those MP3 files onto minidisc. If you are going to buy an MZ-R70, get the one with the PC interface.
I've seen at least one other reviewer in here complain about the length of the headphone cables supplied for this unit. Personally, I like the length. The headphone cable is long enough so that if I put the player in my shirt pocket and attach the headphones directly to the unit, there is enough slack to allow free movement of my head. Any longer, and the cable would run the risk of getting tangled. Also, with the player in my pants pocket and the remote attached, the remote hangs at chest level, making it convenient to locate. One gripe I do have is that the remote doesn't have a shirt clip. When ever I finish using the remote, I have to be careful to let the remote down gently. When I forget, it yanks at the headphone cord. I suspect that if it was done often enough, it could possibly damage the headphones. While I don't personally care for this remote, I recognize it as a viable cost cutting alternative. I still think they should have put a shirt clip in the unit. By the way, the LCD on the main unit is NOT backlit. That means it's really hard to know what you are doing in the dark. I replaced my remote with a backlit LCD unit (with a shirt clip) and I'm totally happy with it now. The headphones offer excellent sound quality, however it would have been nice to have the folding ones.
Unlike earlier portables, this minidisc has a 40 second anti skip buffer. I've yet to have my skip. Enough said.
One final gripe. My unit came with a digital optical cable. One end is a mini connector, the other a TOSLINK. Since the MZ-R70 uses a mini connector, it would have been nice of Sony to provide a TOSLINK to mini adapter, like the ones seen on the Recoton digital optical cables. This would insure compatibility with all the digital decks out there.
All in all, I'm totally happy with my new minidisc player. It's a compact feature rich player/recorder with great sound and long battery life. Well worth the money.
40-second shock resistant memory and high quality recording with digital automatic gain control Dual headphone jack allows use of remote control while...More at Amazon Marketplace
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