| Product: |
Sony MD Walkman MZ-E900 |
| Date: |
28/09/04 (443 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: appearance, sound quality, battery life and recharge time
Disadvantages: pointless on light wastes battery power, control of sound settings, disc error messages
Yet another electrical product I have had the pleasure of testing and reviewing and a rather brilliant one it is too! The Sony MD Walkman MZ-E900 is a MiniDisc player, and Sony claim it is the world's lightest MD Walkman that combines the superb sound reproduction quality of digital technology with the ease and convenience of MiniDisc recording. These are the claims but how does it really perform when put to the test? Well you’re about to find out!
~~~GOOD THINGS~~~
My initial impression was that the MiniDisc player is incredibly light and aesthetically superior to similar substitute products. The picture featured is an accurate representation of this device. In short it is an attractive silver colour with Sony Walkman logo on the front and a small remote control with a blue LCD screen in it. I think this MiniDisc player is stylish and sophisticated looking; it doesn’t have a cheap ‘plasticky’ look or feel about it at all except for the battery case which attaches to the side of the unit to hold 1 AA battery, although this doesn’t cheapen the appearance of the product overall. I think it looks better than the next model up the E909. The unit is made of brushed magnesium making it durable, which is an obvious advantage if you are prone to dropping things *puts hand up* but it is also ultra lightweight, this is another advantage for your carrying convenience. The unit is small and thin (7.8 cm x 1.3 cm x 7.1 cm) and also light (58g) in fact it’s easy to forget that you’re carrying it if you have it in your pocket which is much better than personal CD players which tend to have a more bulky appearance and will undoubtedly be heavier.
The MiniDisc Walkman provides up to 100 hours playing time on ‘Slow Play’ mode and comes with one Sony AA rechargeable alkaline battery. What Sony do not state on their specifications for this product is that the 100 hours playing time ONLY applies if you are using it in LP4 mode using both batteries, if you aren’t then playing time is considerably reduced. The unit also plays in SP mode and LP4 mode. In LP2 mode playback time is 33 hours and in LP4 mode it is 37 hours. All payback times are longer if you are using an external battery however the drawback of doing this is that it nearly doubles the weight of the unit. Recharge of the battery takes about an hour. The supplied rechargeable battery is a NiMH NH-14WM Battery although you do not necessarily have to use this.
It also features new stick backlit LCD remote controller which is easy to use and adds to the style of the MiniDisc player. It has all the features you would expect; stop, play, skip, pause etc.
Digital Sound is preset, and with good headphones the sound quality is excellent. The power output is strong so with a decent enough pair of headphones you shouldn’t have any problems. However there is a slight problem with sound control settings; see the ‘Bad Things’ below.
The MiniDisc has several other features that benefit the user. Firstly a built in alarm, though personally I don’t tend to use this, personal disc memory and a melody timer. All useful features though not of terrible importance. The G-protection is excellent and the unit seems to be unskippable. Jogging and travelling don’t seem to bother it at all.
~~~BAD THINGS~~~
Unfortunately there is a slight disadvantage to control over the sound settings of the unit; they are limited to regular and two bass settings. This is where the next model up, the E909 is a definite improvement as it allows full control over both treble and bass settings. Depending on the type of music you are listening to the control you get over the sound of the E900 model should be perfectly sufficient.
Also, this unit doesn't have support for song groups which is annoying if you have several albums recorded on one disk. If you prefer to keep music on MiniDiscs this way then this probably isn’t the player for you.
I do have one problem occasionally with the E900 MiniDisc player that seems unexplainable and that is that when I start playback of a disc, it displays ‘disc error’ or ‘no disc’ message when there is an undamaged disc in the unit. The problem is easily solved by stopping and then restarting playback or by ejecting and reinserting the disc, this isn’t really much of a hassle and I wouldn’t say this should stop anyone from buying it but it does seem to be somewhat of an unexplained mystery.
Other than these two minor problems I haven’t experienced any disadvantages while testing the product.
~~~AVERAGE THINGS~~~
The next model up from this one, the E909 has different coloured lights which light up to show what play mode it is in. It lights up green in SP mode, Orange in LP2 mode and red in LP4 mode The 900, unlike the 909, has a red light that can't be turned off, which comes on whenever the unit is on, I suppose this is useful if you didn’t put it on hold and it turned itself on while it was in your bag but otherwise it seems to be more of a waste of battery power than having any particular advantage. Simply ensuring you set the unit to hold after you’ve stopped using it will ensure it doesn’t turn itself on. It doesn’t change colour depending on mode like the next model up does.
~~~USEFUL INFORMATION AND VERDICT~~~
Overall this unit is a very high performer with a couple of niggling issues. I think it is aesthetically better than the next model up, but the 909 does win on functionality. The unexplained disc errors that it occasionally displays could be an error with the product I was testing or it could be a general error with this model. I’d be inclined to believe that it may just be a problem with this particular one I’m testing. As a player only not having a recording facility I think it is good value for money and will certainly last a long time thanks to it’s rushed magnesium build which will hold up to most knocks that it takes.
This MiniDisc player will cost you around £199.00
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