Sony’s latest and greatest portable minidisc recorder is available for under £200. The R900 is the ’premium’ model of Sony’s new range, which includes the MZ-R500, 700, 750 and 900. They all come in different colours and you can get a recorder or a player of most of the models.
The 900 is a direct replacement for the older R91. The 900 is very small and light compared to my old MZ-R55. It fits in your pocket very well and you don’t even notice it’s there. The anti-shock is much improved and it hasn’t jumped yet after plenty of running.
My main reasons for purchase though is it has 66 hours of playback battery life (max) and MDLP (MiniDisc Long Play). The battery life does actually last longer than this for some reason and I didn’t even have to charge it up for 8 hours when I first got it. The Long Play function is useful, LP2 giving you double record time doesn’t decrease the sound quality much but LP4 (*4 record time) mode does. LP4 mode is still better than a mono (double record time) recording.
The sound is great; digital recordings are as good as the original on CD. The bass is much better than the R55 and slightly clearer. All sound types come through very clearly and nicely and the bass and treble can be tailored to your needs. You can also speed up and slow down your music on it which is great fun!
The controls however are really bad. Entering track names is horrible and the jog dial things are naff, I liked the buttons on the R55. The remote control is better but entering track names is still frustrating. The remote looks good and serves other functions perfectly well.
To sum up I think it is well worth the £195 odd that you can get it for on the net, just do a search on google. It has amazing battery life and the MDLP is useful for saving £’s. It’s also looks cool, is very light and it’s pretty small too.
Anyway it beats MP3 any day of the week.