Aiwa AM-F70 Personal MiniDisc Player

This is one of the nicest portable minidisc recorders I've seen. At $300 (circuit city, J&R), it's a great price for what it offers.

I do believe that this is the best looking portable minidisc player out there. The indiglo is nice - but for some reason the LCD is hard to see unless you are looking at it from certain angles (including straight on - looks like it was meant to be looked at while lying on a table). I've made a dock for this unit in my car - and it looks and sounds great. The one negative thing about using it in a car is that Aiwa does not make a car power cord (and without the power cord, the indiglo doesn't stay on - so it's hard to see the display at night). I eventually bought a Sony 6V power cord, and although it powers it fine while running, it fails to charge the unit when it shuts off (side note - unit appears to only charge while stopped when plugged in - why?). With a little testing what I believe is happening is that when it begins the charging process, it suddenly draws a couple of amps from the power source - which the car power supply can't handle, so it gives up. However, the car power source is fine for just playing. (Oddly enough, the battery does seem to drain mildly while playing, even when plugged into the car - so I sometimes will unplug it from the car (which can't charge it), and my battery will be low, even though I have not used it without power since the last charge).

Anyhow, outside of the power problems, this unit is fantastic. The editing features are great - everything you need: divide, combine, move, erase, title - and very good control over where you want to divide with the wheel. The wheel is also very convenient for titling. (The default function of the wheel is to control volume, but it also adjusts recording levels, titles, and moves the divide location). This makes me wonder how other units can even live without the wheel (I stayed away from the Sony R50 and R55 because they had no wheel (why?) - whereas the previous generation did). Other nice features - small switches on the back for turning syncro record on or off, and to change the input level (line, mic low, mic high). (Record quality is AMAZING). It also takes a miniplug for digital input (in the same jack as the mic!) You can choose auto track marking, or time based (every 5 mins). You can set AVLS (auto rec levels), or set it manually! (I love that). You can record in stereo or mono for twice the time (who needs a stereo lecture?).

For playback, it has 3 levels of bass control. 40 secs of shock protection are awesome. I have tried this in a Tune Belt while jogging - and it does skip eventually - UNLESS I tuck the tune belt partially under the elastic of my pants (this keeps it from flapping). There are many other features - these are just the ones I like best. This unit is more full featured than many home decks.

I also like the design of the remote - it has virtually all the functionality of the main unit (except to start recording, you have to slide the switch on the main unit - which is OK). The only thing I miss on the remote is that you have no tactile way of knowing whether it is paused or not - the pause/continue recording is the same button, so you might lose track of which state it was last in, and not know whether you are pausing or recording without looking at the LCD display on the remote - and in some situations, it is very inconvenient to have to look at the display each time you want to start or stop recording. Also no tactile indication when you've hit the end of the disc. I don't actually think any other recorders do this, and I don't know how easy it would be (one simple thing that would help would be to have separate pause/record buttons that felt different), but I definitely would love any MD recorder that had something like this.

The only other things I do not like about this unit are: The swoops headphones are not that great - I have a pair of fairly cheap Sony foldable headphones which are the normal over head kind, that have buds that stick into your ear - I find these fit into the ear and stay put best (thereby giving the best bass response). But headphones are trivial to switch.

The extra battery pack is just a little large and cumbersome to also have in your pocket - so I end up not using it at all, although I would love the extended battery life (I think the new Aiwa might have an attachable single battery pack that's nicer).

I have lost data on a couple of discs while titling - I don't know if this is the deck's fault or not though.

And again, my least favorite thing is that there is no power adaptor that works and charges it in the car.

Lastly, there's one thing that annoys me - you can easily hit the disp button to make the titles appear, but if you hit stop, and then play again, it goes back to displaying time. I would prefer to always see the titles - it should remember my setting.