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Average Reviewer Rating:
 
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Number of Reviews:
4
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( Displaying Reviews:
1 - 4 )
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Shrinking Technology...
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Reviewer: D Didier
from New York, NY
March 22, 2002
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First off I have to say that patience truly is a virtue. Originally, when I had started using MD back in '97, it was the "ahhh" cool thing to have and you'd be looked upon as a "yuppie" while you coveted your little silver box. What a lie. Strange how the poor man opt to having a way more lavish audio set up, than the rich man. Poor as I was I ventured into MD, not knowing squat about the format with sharps MD MS722. It was awesome and I didn't think much could change either. Finally after going through two MD's [second Model also a sharp MT821] and to now buying the MZ N1, I must say that it has indeed come a long way.
While I am no authority-type on whats hot and whats not, these are my impressions of the unit and are not intended to be taken seriously but everything here in is accurate with regards to my appreciation of the unit in question.
Portability and Ergonomics.
I appreciate the clean face of the unit. Alas that comes with a price. In terms of ergonomics, I have to agree that the FFwd-Play/pause-Stop button located on the unit takes some serious work to use. Its a different design and it will take getting accustomed to. The hardest thing about this button is actually stoping a flipping track when you want to [thank you for portable remotes]. You have to push down and in simultaneously for you to get that specific function. The same goes for a pausing a track, but you push up and in ???????? How am I supposed to deal with this button on the subway; especially if I dont' like the remotes that come with it? Sony annoyed me with this but it scores on being different I guess. The volume button is not in a bad place per say but if you have big hands, forget about it, since the + and - vol buttons are tiny. The menu button reminds me of my Pager, where some buttons seem to have too many functions programmed into it. For the weak at heart this might be confusing and to others it's great. All this at the expense of a clean face?? With that in mind, I would suggest some time in truly understanding the units layouts and functions and doing what we all love to do; READ THE MANUAL. Another thing about the unit is just how damn light it is. I was not amazed when I had first seen it, but the minute I picked it up at my dealer [Chinatown, NY] I was taken aback at how light the damn thing was. Techno has gone through some serious shrinkage over the past 5 years and this is evident in the MZ. The pictures of the unit on the web are exaggerated; the unit is much smaller than I had initialluy thought and the portable remote is a little bigger than I had thought. This is not a problem. The remote is fine and so far I have no problems with it.
Software
Okay, wows the word. Well maybe some of you readers out there already had more recent SONY MDs than I did, so I'm probably exaggerating at my first Sony Model. While my previous models were great, I had some serious issues about devoting the elapsed time of a full CD to copy music. I felt that I could have been using my home setup and time for something else. It always seemed like a chore to copy music. The PCMD feature was a great idea and it has made the mp3 geeks on my floor at work, glee with envy [muhohahaha]. To test out the speed of file transfer I copied Paul Van Dyks Out there and Back with OpenG to my HD, which took 10 minutes. Later I copied the stored files to the MD, in lp2, which took 5. I dont know about you, but thats fast compared to waiting on 78minute cd in years of ole. I have to mention that I am using a Toshiba Tecra 8100 [discontinued laptop], 266mhz chip, 64MB of ram, L1cache. I wonder if the time would improve on todays 1 or 2 GHhz units, especially with a scsi hd??? Anyone care to comment?
Sound Quality
Seriously, can anyone truly hear the difference in lp and sp modes. Sometimes, depending how well the original data you're a copying is recorded, this would not matter but on my older models I did notice a difference in tonal balance, the extra oompf and even playback quality between sp and lp. I would have to say that in terms of a comparison that sp is better. I havent tried any of the ES disks yet which supposedly give you higher quality recordings so it remains to be seen about that.
Since this is my first Sony Model; I guess I'm more impressed than most people are with it, and I usually I don't buy a model as soon as it comes out, but I couldn't resist this time with this units added features. The ease of copying data digitally and even better sense of portability that you get from the unit is apparent. When you love MD, you love MD.
D
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8
out of 8
people found this review helpful
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MZ-1 -- Still a winner
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Reviewer: Daniel Robinson (darobin@his.com)
from Washington, DC
January 07, 2002
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I first began using MD while assigned in Asia. My first unit was a MZ-R3 obtained in Hong Kong after its release. But years earlier I had tried the MZ-1 in a shop in Singapore and was greatly impressed. Last year, I decided to revisit the MZ-1 and obtained one in almost mint condition on Ebay. As another reviewer has observed, the MZ-1 was a marvel of engineering for its time. Direct key input for labelling, manual and auto record level control, beautiful backlit LCD readout, and the optical IN/OUT. I have used the MZ-1 through my Kloss 88CD and through my shelf system -- and although it's ATRAC 1, the sound is very good. I was lucky enough to obtain five spare BP-MZ1 batteries in addition to the one that came with the unit, so I now have six of the original SONY batteries. Among the cautions I would add -- if you're looking for one on Ebay be absolutely sure to question the seller carefully about whether the unit is fully functioning. In recent months, there have been a number of unscrupulous sellers trying to get rid of defective MZ-1s, usually with the disc mechanism broken. The usual scam is to claim that everything is working just fine -- they'll ship you the unit, and you'll find a dysfunctional disc mechanism. The seller will claim it was damaged in shipping, then refuse to refund, and tell the buyer to go through USPS or UPS insurance routes to get their money back. As for the heat issue with the MZ-1, it definitely is something to consider. But so far, my MZ-1 has not suffered from heat-related problems. Also, buyers beware -- for those purchasingt MZ-1s from sellers in Europe, you can end up getting one with the 220 volt adator rather than 120. As a broadcaster, although I do not use the MZ-1 for newsgathering (I use an MZ-B3 or MZ-B100), the MZ-1 is still a wonderful piece of equipment and MD history to own.
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Correspondent, Voice of America |
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2
out of 2
people found this review helpful
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Overheating
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Reviewer: Gerrit (cmesnard@yahoo.co.uk)
from South Africa
December 01, 2001
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I have owned this machine since 1992. I bought this unit because all my cassette decks developed problems. I became totally fed-up with tape and the nuisance to use it.
Had to stop using my MD recorder for a couple of years as MD blanks were unavailable in South Africa until about 3 years when Sony "relaunched" MD again.
The unit does not have any form of cooling. It severely overheated during one long recording session. Since then it always displays the message "disk error" whenever a disk is inserted and/or played. The play button has to be pressed several times before the unit actually plays the music.
I find the sound quality of this player quite acceptable - much better than cassette tape and MD is much more convenient to use.
I am considering buying an MD deck as the portable MD player is a bit of a pain to use as a hifi component - lots of wires that cannot be hidden. Sony South Africa does not import decks into South Africa as they maintain that there is no market for the decks. The tragedy is that MD does not sell well in South Africa because Sony is not marketing it properly. People simply don't by MD because they don't know about it! Anyway - I have found two secondhand MD5-JE530 decks for a reasonable price and consider buying them if they are in a good condition.
In conclusion - MD is in my opinion the best recording medium for the foreseeable future.
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- Architect, Pretoria |
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0
out of 2
people found this review helpful
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They haven't made one this solid since
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Reviewer: Anonymous
from Oxford, UK
April 08, 2001
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This was the first minidisc machine to be introduced in 1992, and Sony have not built such a solid unit since, IMHO. The recording quality is not as good as newer units, and it's about the size of a housebrick but if you're using it for DJ-ing or as a portable rather than personal it is great. It has only recently (after 8 years hard service) begun to develop a problem with the loading mechanism - I doubt very much if my new MZ-R900 or my R50 will be working in 2 years....
Once you accept the limitations that it has due to it being the first such unit ever made (60 minute battery life!) you learn to appreciate that it is, in fact, a fantastic piece of equipment. If you see one at auction for a reasonable price, buy it - you won't regret it!
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Student |
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15
out of 21
people found this review helpful
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