mookiekong's Full Review: Sony Walkman MZ-R500 PC Personal MiniDisc Player
I've had my tries at MP3 players, but they never impressed me much. The problem is that with MP3 players I'm always attached to a PC. If I want new music I have to go to my computer and transfer over music for listening. Then there's the problem of the cost of expanding a MP3 player and the initial cost of one. With my Rio600, which is a decent machine, it only comes with 30 minutes worth of recording RAM (32mb) and if I want to expand it to 90 minutes of recording time then I have to buy a 64mb backpack for $149.
The great thing about the Sony MZ-R500PC is that I paid about the same price for the R500PC as I did for my Rio600 and I can expand it for about $1.50 per 2 hours of (decent sounding MDLP2) music. The limitation before on MDs was that each disc held only 80 minutes of music. Which is still great, but if MD wanted to compete with the onslaught of MP3 players it would have to offer something else. This something else is MDLP. With MDLP a higher compression rate can be applied to music to allow for more time per MD. So using a regular 80-minute MD one can put 160 minutes on it with MDLP2 compression or 320 minutes with MDLP4 compression. MDLP2 sounds as good as a high bitrate MP3. MDLP4 sounds as good as a medium to low bitrate MP3. For spoken word MDLP4 is great since it lets me record more than five hours of stuff on that one little disc. For regular music recording though MDLP2 is more than enough.
The R500PC is the low-end of the new line of MD recorders from Sony. It does everything that one could want from a MP recorder. It records in real-time, which is sometimes a real drag if you're a person who wants almost instant tranfers, but otherwise once you make a disc it's there for you always until you erase it (unlike a MP3 player). The R500PC comes with an USB-to-analog PC adapter so that you can hook up the R500PC to your PC to record MP3s. I must say though, the PC interface is not much more than a USB soundcard -- though this is nice because it eliminates most of the electrical noise of that a soundcard may experience because the USB soundcard is physically outside the computer case.
The sound recorded on the MDs from the R500PC is wonderful. And the machine is small enough to carry around anywhere. The only thing that is missing from the machine (that I really don't miss) is the inline remote control. The info screen for this machine says that it has the inline remote computer, but it doesn't. The big missing thing is the AC adapter which is good to have around because recording to MD can suck up a good lot of battery power. Also, there is no recharging circuitry in this machine (unlike the bigger brothers). But, what can I ask for? This is the budget MDLP recorder from Sony. The battery life on the machine is incredible, I'd say I've used it all week at work (maybe four hours a day) and still haven't had a need to change the battery!
If you're looking for a good way to carry around your tunes, this is the way to go.
Portable mini-disc player with recording capability Digital gain control ensures quality recording Automatic Volume Limiter System for even, consisten...More at Amazon Marketplace
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