Sony MZ-E300 Personal MiniDisc Player
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Similar in Personal Audio Mini Disc Player
- Recordable: Not Recordable
- Headphones: Yes
- Remote Control: No
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Finally, a durable portable MD player!
Pros
Light weight; high durability; great sound; long battery life; LCD on unit
Cons
No pause button :-(
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Update: Still going strong as of July 2004!
I agree with jag2112's review of this fine unit, and am writing my review to tell you how durable I've found the Sony MZ-E300 MD player to be in actual long-term use.
My reason for wanting a portable MD player instead of a recorder/player is that portable MD players lack the recording gear found in portable recorder/players, so the manufacturers can make them really tiny and light-weight.
There's nothing like putting your portable MD player in your shirt pocked at the library, browsing the stacks with both hands while your headphones fill your ears with glorious digital audio. Jogging with an MD player is also wonderfully convenient. I laugh at people trying to haul around those plate-sized "portable" CD players. Get with the program, people, and buy an MD portable so you can keep those easily scratched CDs at home, safe and sound.
DURABILITY
If you read my other MD player reviews, you'll note I have had great difficulty finding an MD player (not recorder) that lasts more than a year. Both the Sharp and the Aiwa players disappointed me greatly.
The Sony MZ-E300 is the most durable MiniDisc player I've owned. Still going strong after two years of regular use! My first MZ-E300 died an unnatural death when I forgot it was in my shirt pocket (due to its feather-like weight)and bent over a bucket of hot bleach water. I was cleaning my apartment that day, enjoying my music while using both hands to mop the floor, and the player fell right into the bucket.
Obviously, no electronic gear is made to withstand immersion in hot bleach water, and the unit quickly died (in testament to the durability of the MD medium, the disc itself still plays most of the tracks! But I didn't know if it could harm my MD equipment so don't listen to that disc anymore). I ordered another MZ-E300 and am using that one to this day, after two years of daily use. I am very happy with the durability of the Sony MZ-E300.
USABILITY
Sony really outdid themselves on the user interface for this unit. The buttons are all different sizes and shapes, which allows easy recognition by touch when you can't look down to see where things are (while driving, for example). The Play/Forward button is huge. Sony also included an LCD on the unit, which I find really helpful for those times when you want to look at the unit--much preferable to having a remote control, I hate those things. Last thing I buy an MD for is more wires all over the place...
My one reservation about the MZ-E300 is that there is no Pause button. Pressing the Play button while playing a track advances to the next track. Pressing Stop spins the unit down. There is no way to pause the playback just long enough to hear someone ask you the time, then start playback right away from where you left off. You have to use the Stop button to halt the sound, and it takes too many seconds to start back up. My hunch is Sony allowed their engineers to get so caught up in achieving long battery life, they forgot to learn how customers really USE the item in real life situations. This is too bad, because ease of use is more important to me than a few more hours of battery life--especially when the battery life is already superior.
PRICE
Hooray for Sony finally making a portable MD player under $100.00. I bought mine for around $85.00 and it is well worth it. I just wish MD manufacturers would "take the gloves off" and compete with CD players by marketing a player-only unit like the MZ-E300 for $50.00 and a no frills recorder/player unit for $100.00. Then we'd see some more market penetration for this wonderful consumer audio format.
My reason for wanting a portable MD player instead of a recorder/player is that portable MD players lack the recording gear found in portable recorder/players, so the manufacturers can make them really tiny and light-weight.
There's nothing like putting your portable MD player in your shirt pocked at the library, browsing the stacks with both hands while your headphones fill your ears with glorious digital audio. Jogging with an MD player is also wonderfully convenient. I laugh at people trying to haul around those plate-sized "portable" CD players. Get with the program, people, and buy an MD portable so you can keep those easily scratched CDs at home, safe and sound.
DURABILITY
If you read my other MD player reviews, you'll note I have had great difficulty finding an MD player (not recorder) that lasts more than a year. Both the Sharp and the Aiwa players disappointed me greatly.
The Sony MZ-E300 is the most durable MiniDisc player I've owned. Still going strong after two years of regular use! My first MZ-E300 died an unnatural death when I forgot it was in my shirt pocket (due to its feather-like weight)and bent over a bucket of hot bleach water. I was cleaning my apartment that day, enjoying my music while using both hands to mop the floor, and the player fell right into the bucket.
Obviously, no electronic gear is made to withstand immersion in hot bleach water, and the unit quickly died (in testament to the durability of the MD medium, the disc itself still plays most of the tracks! But I didn't know if it could harm my MD equipment so don't listen to that disc anymore). I ordered another MZ-E300 and am using that one to this day, after two years of daily use. I am very happy with the durability of the Sony MZ-E300.
USABILITY
Sony really outdid themselves on the user interface for this unit. The buttons are all different sizes and shapes, which allows easy recognition by touch when you can't look down to see where things are (while driving, for example). The Play/Forward button is huge. Sony also included an LCD on the unit, which I find really helpful for those times when you want to look at the unit--much preferable to having a remote control, I hate those things. Last thing I buy an MD for is more wires all over the place...
My one reservation about the MZ-E300 is that there is no Pause button. Pressing the Play button while playing a track advances to the next track. Pressing Stop spins the unit down. There is no way to pause the playback just long enough to hear someone ask you the time, then start playback right away from where you left off. You have to use the Stop button to halt the sound, and it takes too many seconds to start back up. My hunch is Sony allowed their engineers to get so caught up in achieving long battery life, they forgot to learn how customers really USE the item in real life situations. This is too bad, because ease of use is more important to me than a few more hours of battery life--especially when the battery life is already superior.
PRICE
Hooray for Sony finally making a portable MD player under $100.00. I bought mine for around $85.00 and it is well worth it. I just wish MD manufacturers would "take the gloves off" and compete with CD players by marketing a player-only unit like the MZ-E300 for $50.00 and a no frills recorder/player unit for $100.00. Then we'd see some more market penetration for this wonderful consumer audio format.
