Sony MZ-R55 Personal MiniDisc Player

The MZ-R55 is a great MD player. Advanced, the MD boasts a tiny, fit-in-your-palm size with everything you need for a digital recorder. But the R-55 lacks one major feature--a long battery life. Reading the other reviews and having experience with the MZ-R50, I find that this battery problem is a an inconvenience but a trade-off that's made for the size.

Overall, though, the R-55 is an excellent product with great features. It is a great upgrade from the slightly larger MZ-R50. They are both very user friendly, with simple controls and not-too complicated recording styles. The mechanisms on the R-55 are very sturdy and durable. Like featherweight tape players that are available Asia, the R-55 continues the trend with its small buttons and opening and closing mechanisms.

MD recorders have been very popular in Europe and Japan but in the US, they, in general, have not been. With the advent of CD burners and MP3 recorders, MD players face stiff competition. It is difficult to say whether an MP3 player is better since recording is limited to data from a computer onto a flashcard, where a MD recorder gives flexibility in recording. You can record from a computer, tape recorder, the radio, etc...You can even use it as a microphone. Here's the lowdown on the R-55:

Features
The R-50 boasts around an 8-9 hour battery life. The battery is lithium ion and is much thicker and rounder. However, the tradeoff for a slimmer battery in the R-55 is sacrificed in the shorter battery life, which is approximately 4-5 hours. I find this very annoying as I find the battery indicator already showing me less battery life only after 15 minutes.

But besides the battery problem, everything about this slim recorder is great. It is a slick gadget with sleek functions.
The play, rewind, fastforward, stop and volume buttons are all small rectangular shaped. For people with larger hands, the MD may be difficult to maneuver with these small buttons.

The R-55 features an editing device that gives you the option of naming your songs. While the prior versions had a scroll dial, which was prone to wear and tear, the R-55 simply has the volume switches that are used for editing. This is convenient and contributes to the small size of the recorder.

The remote control has a futuristic stick similar to the R-50 but it has a back-lit feature similar to the Timex Indiglo watches. This is a great function, as you can keep the MD in the pouch but still having access to the controls. The remote allows you to switch songs, both forwards and reverse, stop, pause, and change the mode of the song, which is simply repeat on song, shuffle, or repeat the whole MD.
The remote can be clipped to a shirt or jacket for quicker access. The chord is long enough to place the remote in your pocket and place the headphones in your ears.

The headphones included with the R-55 are two buds that have soft black foam ends that cover the small ear buds. These are similar to the Sony Fontopia style earphones, except that these have a shorter chord because the R-55's remote already hosts a chord. The MD headphones are plugged into the remote control which plugs into the MD. The plugs on these earphones are a regular plug, not the miniplug that are common on similar devices with remote controls. You can use other earphones/headphones to plug into the remote. OR...You can simply remove the remote and just plug the earphones directly into the MD player.

The earphones come with gold plugs which produces a better connection and sound than the standard metal or silver coated plug.

Lightweight and very portable
The slim size of the R-55 gives me the option of keeping it in my pocket while I walk. It is not heavy--around the weight of the basic walkman.
Memory and ESP
The 40 seconds shock resistant memory is also another excellent feature that reduces any sound problems. I have never experienced any problems where the R-55 skipped.


Recording
There are two ways to record to an MD--either by analog or digital connection. In either case, they are not difficult to use.

Recording through an analog source is easy. Just plug the output into the microphone source and you'll get virtually digital quality recording. Also, when recording this way, the sound is recorded into digital bits onto the minidisc permanently, until I change it.

This sound will not distort or change over time as a tape usually does. If digital quality is what you want, then digital quality is what you can get. With the optical cable, I can record from a digital output, my stereo into the MD player. One warning is that the R-55 package that I purchased did not come with a optical digital cable or a regular analog cable.

So I suggest to buy one of the two. Preferably the latter since it is more functional and gives equal sound quality compared to the less common optical line. The accessories to the MD can add up pretty easily. MDs usually cost around 3-7 dollars depending on where you buy them. And the cables cost around 10-15 dollars. Beyond that, you can buy cleaning devices as well as cases--which are mostly unneeded.

Overall
Whether the 300 dollars I paid for the R-55 was worth it is debatable. Since I usually use the R-55 to record MP3s from my computer, I find that I can record much faster with MP3 players like the Diamond Rio.

Overall, I strongly recommend the R-55. Sony has produced a great product, that should stay on as the leader in its product class. The quality is great as is the usability.