Great new MD recorder by Sony! (Sony MD Walkman MZ-R900)

Member Name: johnnyho

Product:	Sony MD Walkman MZ-R900
Date:	19/03/01 (1046 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: MDLP, great remote, good battery life.

Disadvantages: Earphones

As soon as I opened the box the the MZ-R900, I liked the unit straight away. It is extremely compact and light - in fact it is the smallest minidisc recorder in the world at the moment! I found that the unit was difficult to operate at fist - but as I started to read the easy to follow manual I learnt quickly that it is a very easy to use unit. There are 2 jog dials, one on each side. they are used to edit traks and the menu, also to play and ff and rewind tracks. The screen is wide across the unit - a lot of people critisise this, but it is a very easy to read screen with and indiglo back to it, like the watches. As it is wide, it shows a lot more of the track name that scrolls across. The earphones are not good though - extremely large and uncomfortable, as I have heard from a lot of my friends who also have the same Sony earphones as everything Sony now come with these earphones. I now own a pair of the Sony Groove earphones, which are extremely comfortable in the ear and have extremely crisp and clear bass sound. I recommend that you buy these or other earphones if you are going to buy this unit. The remote of the unit is also extremely easy to use, with a pull out bit for the volume. You can also store personal bass, treble and volume settings for 20 individual discs, so that wen you put the disc in, the unit recognises it, and adjusts to the stored settings.

It is the first unit to have a speed setting - so that you can change the speed of the music. It also has MDLP, a new compression method, also invented by Sony. It is extremely useful and works like a VCR - it lets you record twice as much music on one disc in LP2 mode, or 4 times as much on LP4 mode! Although Sony say that cracking sounds may be heard in LP4 mode, I haven't experienced it yet and you can also easily change to the LP2 or normal modes. Overall, and extremely good, feature packed minidisc recorder!

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