Not all it could be. (Sony MDS JE520)

Member Name: mellory_crad

Product:	Sony MDS JE520
Date:	30/10/08 (211 review reads)
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Advantages: "Shuffle" mode.

Disadvantages: Stagnant media format.

Once hailed as the future of recorded music, Sony's MiniDisc format failed to deliver in almost every area. Its lifespan artificially prolonged by its adoption in the broadcast industry, this relic has struggled in the consumer arena from it very conception.

However, with the JE520, Sony might be onto a winner...

Alongside the expected features, such as Play, Pause, Fast Forward, Fast Rewind, Stop, Record, Eject, Power On/Off etc, Sony have introduced some new, and most welcome features. Foremost among these is the ability to program the device to play tracks on the inserted disc in any order you chose, as well as a "random" (or shuffle - for the iPod generation) mode - handy when you feel a bit crazy, and crave the suspense of not quite knowing what you are going to hear next.

The "lossy" ATRAC compression algorithms have also moved on in leaps and bounds since the "grainy" tones of yesteryear graced our hifis, offering a viable alternative to the phillips compact cassette format.

Summary: I'll wait for the new version in the spring...

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