Mindisc got better but more complex (Sony Hi-MD Walkman MZ-NH900)

Member Name: mgoldman

Product:	Sony Hi-MD Walkman MZ-NH900
Date:	18/04/05 (928 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: flexible, works well, not an iPod

Disadvantages: complex , non intuitive

The bastards who stole my wife's car got my old sony minidisc (but none of the kit necessary to make it work!!!!!!!). These days, insurance companies don't give you the money, but give a direct replacement via a contracted out supplier. The closest they could get to the MZ707 was this, and as a hi MD recorder, I am mostly happier.
Now, you have to be a fan of minidisc, and so far the battle against hard disc systems like iPod is pretty much lost, and also against the solid state flash. But imagine this: a system that can carry, potentially, an infinite number of tracks, that can record radio or data, and still leave you room for more. The Hi MD is pretty amazing. It is backwards compatible with the older formats, and your old discs will hold approximately 10 hours of sound each. These discs retail for about a pound each. Fork out a bit more for a hi density 1MB disc, and you are talking 45 CD's recorded on one disc. That sounds good to me.
The newer minidisc recorder looks pretty much like all the Sony predecessors. The docking cradle looks the same, but is subtly different, meaning that I don't have two docking sets. That is a pity, and there is no obvious reason why Sony should have changed this. The display is complex, and unless you are in bright light with good eyes, can be hard to read. There is a backlight, but I have not discovered it yet.
There is a computer interface, and this is a magnitude better than the old Sony MG jukebox. The rapid burn programme does exactly that. The beauty is that it links with the internet and downloads the details of the CD's it is recording. I don't know how it does it, but it is damn clever. I have tried it with some fairly old and obscure stuff, and it just goes ahead and finds the disc contents, and just simply labels the recording. This clearly has to be done to compete with the iPod system.
I simply hate the contemporary earbud earpieces, even though they work well. I find them uncomfortable. Replacing them with conventional earphones was not a great success, as the power of the setup is not great enough to produce volume loud enough for outdoors. I eventually settled on a pair of powered noise cancelling earphones from Thompson (!!!!!!!!), bought from Makro.
The other pity is that the simple AA battery has been replaced by a Sony NiMH oblong. This means that you can't simply carry a supply of spare rechargeable AA's. However it is slightly better than that, in that there is an AA battery holder supplied, and you can pop any sort of AA cell in that and screw it on to the base in an emergency, but you have to carry it with you.
The other loss is the rather nice carrying case. A simple cloth drawstring bag is supplied which seems a bit nasty. However, you can carry extra discs and batteries. I will probably go and buy a generic case soon.

Operating the system is quite complex, and there are lots of menus. You won't guess how to do everything intuitively, and the use of icons means that you really really have to read the thick instruction book. However, the machine produces a great sound, seems to work well, and I will get used to it.
Given the choice of defecting to ipod, I chose minidisc. I have also discovered software that will allow you to record Internet radio to MP3, so unlike ipod, you can listen to your favourite audio radio.

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