My favourite MD walkman so far
Written: Dec 28 '00 (Updated Dec 30 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Lightweight, elegant yet stylish metallic case; excellent "to-be-expected" Sony quality of build and audio output.
Cons: None
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| matsmith's Full Review: Sony Walkman MZ-R91 Personal MiniDisc Player |
Perhaps I shouldn't feel I must apologise for my UK English spellings. Oh well, I gave in.
I wrote a Minidisc review a long time ago. It compared two Minidisc recorder walkmen; a Sony and a Sharp. You can see the review at http://www.compsoc.man.ac.uk/~matsmith/reviews.htm. Admittedly it was a pretty naf review, not much content. But nevertheless I look back on it and smile, because I realise how much Sony's top-of-the-range minidisc walkman has evolved.
At first glance the minidisc walkman is funky and fashionable and tiny, just like the Aiwa and Sharp equivalents. Further prodding below its cool-blue exterior would suggest, however, that it is still way ahead of its competitors.
As far as features/spec is concerned, Sony claim that this portable Minidisc recorder is the smallest and lightest of its kind in the world, it has the longest playback and record time (i.e. battery life), there is a 40-second shock resistant memory buffer - this means that you can supposedly jog it for 40 seconds and it will still play reliably. This, however, is only a theoretical figure; if you actually shake the thing vigorously for a solid 40 seconds it will probably not play. Actually it will probably have stopped playing a while before then. But you get the idea. Obviously there are the standard Sony features, inherited from the last model. These include useful things like a very complex automatic gain control function for recording, date and time stamp function, the very cool (surely unsurpassed in quality) megabass, and CD text transfer capabilities. It is possible to link the walkman to your CD player with its optical out, and various other computer-related things. Sony boast an impressive 29 hours of playback time with their tiny flat battery plus a single AA Duracell clamped onto the side. It does 29 hours fine for me. Also notable is the new design of Sony's trademark jog-dial. Other manufacturers seem to envy this feature and try endlessly to think of something even more ingenious, apparently to no avail! When you press it in, it enters menu mode on the display, and then you can tilt the dial up or down to scroll through all the options. Cunning, easy to use, fast, sweet.
Here are my first impressions. Pretend I've just spouted for ages about how cool and funky and wicked it looks and how I am listening to it even as I am writing this review. Okay that's that bit done. Indeed, it is good looking, but check the photos for yourself. Okay. I bought it from Dixons in Canary Wharf, and took it straight back and ripped the new machine out of the packet. I gasped, for I noticed that there was no separate line out socket!!! I think I remained quite shocked at the fact that I had to be subjected to listening to that terrible headphone pre-amp when plugged into my hi-fi as I used to with the dreaded Sharp all those years ago... but actually I don't! I plugged in that minijack to phono cable that has been waiting eagerly with its other end in my hi-fi for 2 weeks and hey presto, somehow it knows that it ain't my headphones! Nice one. And I thought they were skimping on sockets or something! So that was my first reaction.
My second thought was, "hmmm, I think I will grow to like that backlit remote". That would likely be the thought of anyone who purchases this, so it's quite a boring thing to say, but let's talk remote. I must admit, even though I prefer the remote for its luminatory qualities, I don't particularly like the feel of that "navigation" rod bit at the end. Basically, the remote is a long thin thing with a good, clear display that runs across it, and a joystick at the end. The problem is that when you go forward a track, it doesn't feel as if you have pressed a button, it feels more like you have nudged a tiny little lever by accident. This seemingly minor point is important to me; if I'm on a crowded train and I'm dangling into my pocket to press play, I need some sensory feedback at the fact it has registered my button press. It doesn't always beep straight away when I press play. And this brings me onto my final gripe.
I don't know about anyone else's experience, but I have noticed that this Minidisc unit, in comparison with the previous top model (MZR-70 I think), seems to take a long time to do things. By this I mean the following.
Firstly, on older models, it is to be expected that when you press play when the unit is turned off, it takes a while for sound to come out (the unit's laser has to position itself and the disc spins). On this model however it takes an inproportionate amount of time to play; this time can vary. This leads me to suspect that the 40 second jog-buffer is not quite as effective as in previous models: if the first couple of seconds after pressing play are more sensitive to jog, this would contribute to the fact that it takes a lot longer to start playing.
Secondly, and much more annoyingly, when the disc is playing and you want to 'search' through the tracks (fast forward/rewind), you must press and hold the skip button. On older models, pressing and holding the skip button does this immediately. On my MZR-91, it can take up to 7 seconds of holding the button down before it starts 'searching'. I suspect this is a design fault rather than a fault that is specific to my player.
All this aside - for I can quite happily brush it all aside - the 91 is an excellent excellent excellent player. I still argue that if you want ease of use, style, value and quality of design, opt for the Sony models. The only issue of design that I have come across is the questionable "end search" function, but that's a different story. I admit to supporting Sony on that design decision, but many don't! Let me know if you are interested in that one. No, I find no fault in the player other than those mentioned here.
Oh, it is a great joy to use. It is sleek to touch, and that jog-dial makes you feel secure in the fact that there really are people out there who sweat blood and tears thinking up cool ideas for sturdy input mechanisms nowadays (not that I could lay claim to knowing that there were also people out there who sweated blood and tears for design ideas 20 years ago but... oh....)
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
matsmith
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Member: Matthew Smith
Reviews written: 6
Trusted by: 2 members
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