Sony MZ-R55 Personal MiniDisc Player
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Similar in Personal Audio Mini Disc Player
- Recordable: Recordable
- Headphones: Yes
- Remote Control: LCD
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MDs Are Coming MDs Are Coming
Pros
Awesome capability for such a small size. Makes Cassette Walkmans look ancient.
Cons
This player does't play MP3s, new ones do. High Price. Battery only lasts 4 hours.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
The newer players can play MP3s. CDRs and CDRWs are taking over for music and computer data storage. MD recorders are good for recording lectures and sound effects.
Update--- February 12th 2001 ----
More and more people are getting CDR and CDRW burners. This looks to be where Computer Storage Media will be heading. I still like the idea of using MDs to replace 3.5 inch hard disks.
As for music, MDs are great, but again, CDRs are more convenient. The new MP3 players are able to play MP3s, which increases the amount of songs that you can put onto an MD, which make them better than MP3 players in my opinion; but look out, CD players that read MP3s are now here-- a CD can hold an average of about 150 MP3s.
The only thing that MDs now have a leg up on, is that you can use it like a tape recorder, and record class lectures, meetings, and (like me on my production projects) sound effects.
------End of Update
I have recently become the owner of a Sony MZ-R55 Portable MiniDisc Recorder. I?m scratching my Afro wondering why this technology hasn?t picked up in the USA. The technology is absolutely wonderful! The one thing that would make sense is the price of the technology, which would come down if it picked up, and people are probably more likely waiting for prices to drop before picking up on it. Somebody make the first move!
Accessories
My MD (MiniDisc) recorder came with an AC power adapter, headphones, remote, 4-hour nickel metal hydride rechargeable battery with carrying case, AA battery hookup case, and a nice carrying pouch to protect the player from getting scratched up. The screen displays the track titles, the date and time, the amount of battery life left, the amount of free space on a disc, VU meter, function names, and symbols.
The nickel battery given to you only lasts 4 hours and takes just as long to charge. I prefer to use the wall jack or AA batteries. There are longer lasting batteries available but the 4-hour version comes with the standard package.
Uses
People use these walkmans for recording class lectures, sound effects, CDs, LPs, interviewing, tuning aids, and more. The walkman is small enough to go anywhere that you go, unlike the huge CD portables. This player can fit comfortably in your pocket. The dimensions of the recorder are 3 1/8? x 3 ?? x ??.
Cool Remote
Sony figured that since the player would get tucked away into the user?s pocket that it would be a hassle to slide it out and in and push buttons all the time. This is why they included a remote that hooks up to the headphones. The remote is about half the size of a Sharpie permanent marker. All the controls to playback are on this remote. You twist the end to go forward or back tracks. There are buttons to play, pause, stop, adjust volume, select play mode, mark tracks, and select desired display. There is a display on the remote that can illuminate and displays the same information on the screen of the player. Clip the remote to your belt, shirt, or wherever it is most comfortable for you.
40-Second Shock Resistant
This MD Player/Recorder has 40-second shock-resistant memory. You can go jogging with this walkman and will never hear your music skip. There are a ton of stories out about how the walkman keeps playing in extreme occasions. You can shake the player in your hands for 40 seconds before the music is disturbed. I don?t suggest doing this; a 2-second shake will get the point across.
MD Walkman vs. Cassette Walkman
The MD walkman is better than cassette in that there is no need to have to fast forward to the next songs. Flipping through tracks is as easy as pressing a button. On the MZ-R55, you are allowed to assign each song a track and title it. The MDs are rerecordable; you can erase a track and record a new one.
MD vs. CD
Record all your favorite music into near CD-quality onto a MiniDisc. An MD will record 74 minutes of stereo (a regular CD can only hold about 80 minutes) and 148 minutes mono. It can do this in a smaller space because the recorder only records the parts of audio that normal human ears can pick up(20 Hz to 20,000Hz). The sampling rate is 44.1 kHz. CD to MD recording won?t come out in perfect CD quality but the difference is hardly noticeable, and isn?t an unpleasant difference like recording CDs to cassettes. In fact if you gave a test to people to try and determine the difference from a CD and the MD recording (blindfolded), most people won?t be able to tell which one is which. I?m not saying they sound exactly the same. I?m saying that the slight differences in the MD recording are not degrading. The digital information on an MD is said to last 30-50 years before degeneration occurs.
Recording
You can record onto an MD digitally or analog-to-analog. If you do an analog-analog recording from CD then you are working with two different chips with different kinds of compressions. CD?s use DAC and MD?s use ADC chips. The distortion isn?t that bad at all but if you record digitally then you avoid using the DAC chip altogether. The downside to trying to record digitally is that your source has to have a digital connection, which aren?t common on a lot of CD players.
I have a problem with the Automatic Gain Control on the recorder. It automatically sets the recording volume so that all your audio is played back at similar levels. I find that the first 2 seconds of my tracks are loud and then slowly sink down from the AGC. You can turn this feature off and adjust the levels manually on the MZ-R55; a digital VU meter will display on the screen. Set the maximum input level to hit ?12 dB on the meter.
It is important to keep the recorder stable while recording tracks. Any quick jolts could put a gap in a track and the laser could destroy information on other tracks.
Let?s say you record 12 tracks, which take up 72 minutes. You decide to erase one track that is six minutes long. You then want to add a song that is 8 minutes long. The MD will record the song on two different parts of the MD. Six minutes worth (Where the old song was) in one part of the disc and two minutes at the end of the disc. The music won?t distort as it skips to different sections. All the playback information is stored in part of the disc, which acts like the table of contents. Sony reports that a blank MD can handle one million recordings. You get 1785 characters to use to title your tracks in 255 blocks. Each track must use at least one block. Each block contains 7 characters. The maximum amount of titled tracks on an MD is 255.
Premastered and Recordable
There are two kinds of MDs that you can purchase, premastered and recordable. There aren?t yet a lot of prerecorded MDs for sale and are hard to find. These are albums by music artists just like CDs and Cassettes. You can?t record onto a prerecorded MD. The recordable MD uses a different setup to play back tracks than the prerecorded ones. The recordables are preferred because of quality and easiness of copying a CD to a MD. This way the user has the album in both mediums.
Premastered MiniDiscs use the conventional CD-type pits and valleys that a laser scans to read 0?s and 1?s. You can?t record or erase anything on these MDs. Recordable MiniDiscs really on magnetism. North and South Poles are placed 60 millionths of a centimeter apart. The poles reflect a laser light at different angles, which the unit decodes as digital information, recreating the original bit stream. Since Magnetism is used to store data, your MD could get ruined when brought into a strong magnetic field, so keep magnets away. All MD players can read both Recordable and Premastered MDs.
Generation Problems
Currently the recording from MiniDisc to MiniDisc is not allowed unless you have professional equipment or the source MD is premastered. The Serial Copy Management System is encoded into the MDs. You are allowed to copy a CD but you are not allowed to make a copy of your copy. You lose quality during Premastered MD dubbing. The MD must uncompress the information and send it to the recordable disc, which recompresses this information. So far companies will not permit the direct transfer of uncompressed data to another source.
MD Info
MiniDiscs are about 2 ?? in diameter place in square cases about 2 ?? x 2 ?? x ??. MDs are incredibly durable. They?ve been thrown into the washer and dryer, have had things spilled on them, have been thrown out of speeding vehicles and still play perfectly after brushing, cleaning, and drying it. The discs are made of Makrolon, which is the same plastic used to make CDs.
MDs can also be used in computers to store data. Companies are pushing MDs to replace 3.5? floppies. An MD can store about 140 MB each. For $2-$4 each, it is much cheaper than Zip disks.
High density MDs that can hold 650MB of uncompressed data are in the near future. This means trouble in compatibility in current formats. Current hardware will not likely be able to read or use these discs.
Finally
I really enjoy my MZ-R55. I find it a good way to carry around MP3s that I?ve gotten off the web. I look forward to seeing the MD devices become widely used in the USA. The problem with the technology is that it is slightly expensive for what seems to be simple technology. The technology is also changing and involving high-density discs. If you are unsure about MD players then wait a while and observe the prices and the people using them. If you have $300 to play with then check out the MZ-R55, you?ll love it.
More and more people are getting CDR and CDRW burners. This looks to be where Computer Storage Media will be heading. I still like the idea of using MDs to replace 3.5 inch hard disks.
As for music, MDs are great, but again, CDRs are more convenient. The new MP3 players are able to play MP3s, which increases the amount of songs that you can put onto an MD, which make them better than MP3 players in my opinion; but look out, CD players that read MP3s are now here-- a CD can hold an average of about 150 MP3s.
The only thing that MDs now have a leg up on, is that you can use it like a tape recorder, and record class lectures, meetings, and (like me on my production projects) sound effects.
------End of Update
I have recently become the owner of a Sony MZ-R55 Portable MiniDisc Recorder. I?m scratching my Afro wondering why this technology hasn?t picked up in the USA. The technology is absolutely wonderful! The one thing that would make sense is the price of the technology, which would come down if it picked up, and people are probably more likely waiting for prices to drop before picking up on it. Somebody make the first move!
Accessories
My MD (MiniDisc) recorder came with an AC power adapter, headphones, remote, 4-hour nickel metal hydride rechargeable battery with carrying case, AA battery hookup case, and a nice carrying pouch to protect the player from getting scratched up. The screen displays the track titles, the date and time, the amount of battery life left, the amount of free space on a disc, VU meter, function names, and symbols.
The nickel battery given to you only lasts 4 hours and takes just as long to charge. I prefer to use the wall jack or AA batteries. There are longer lasting batteries available but the 4-hour version comes with the standard package.
Uses
People use these walkmans for recording class lectures, sound effects, CDs, LPs, interviewing, tuning aids, and more. The walkman is small enough to go anywhere that you go, unlike the huge CD portables. This player can fit comfortably in your pocket. The dimensions of the recorder are 3 1/8? x 3 ?? x ??.
Cool Remote
Sony figured that since the player would get tucked away into the user?s pocket that it would be a hassle to slide it out and in and push buttons all the time. This is why they included a remote that hooks up to the headphones. The remote is about half the size of a Sharpie permanent marker. All the controls to playback are on this remote. You twist the end to go forward or back tracks. There are buttons to play, pause, stop, adjust volume, select play mode, mark tracks, and select desired display. There is a display on the remote that can illuminate and displays the same information on the screen of the player. Clip the remote to your belt, shirt, or wherever it is most comfortable for you.
40-Second Shock Resistant
This MD Player/Recorder has 40-second shock-resistant memory. You can go jogging with this walkman and will never hear your music skip. There are a ton of stories out about how the walkman keeps playing in extreme occasions. You can shake the player in your hands for 40 seconds before the music is disturbed. I don?t suggest doing this; a 2-second shake will get the point across.
MD Walkman vs. Cassette Walkman
The MD walkman is better than cassette in that there is no need to have to fast forward to the next songs. Flipping through tracks is as easy as pressing a button. On the MZ-R55, you are allowed to assign each song a track and title it. The MDs are rerecordable; you can erase a track and record a new one.
MD vs. CD
Record all your favorite music into near CD-quality onto a MiniDisc. An MD will record 74 minutes of stereo (a regular CD can only hold about 80 minutes) and 148 minutes mono. It can do this in a smaller space because the recorder only records the parts of audio that normal human ears can pick up(20 Hz to 20,000Hz). The sampling rate is 44.1 kHz. CD to MD recording won?t come out in perfect CD quality but the difference is hardly noticeable, and isn?t an unpleasant difference like recording CDs to cassettes. In fact if you gave a test to people to try and determine the difference from a CD and the MD recording (blindfolded), most people won?t be able to tell which one is which. I?m not saying they sound exactly the same. I?m saying that the slight differences in the MD recording are not degrading. The digital information on an MD is said to last 30-50 years before degeneration occurs.
Recording
You can record onto an MD digitally or analog-to-analog. If you do an analog-analog recording from CD then you are working with two different chips with different kinds of compressions. CD?s use DAC and MD?s use ADC chips. The distortion isn?t that bad at all but if you record digitally then you avoid using the DAC chip altogether. The downside to trying to record digitally is that your source has to have a digital connection, which aren?t common on a lot of CD players.
I have a problem with the Automatic Gain Control on the recorder. It automatically sets the recording volume so that all your audio is played back at similar levels. I find that the first 2 seconds of my tracks are loud and then slowly sink down from the AGC. You can turn this feature off and adjust the levels manually on the MZ-R55; a digital VU meter will display on the screen. Set the maximum input level to hit ?12 dB on the meter.
It is important to keep the recorder stable while recording tracks. Any quick jolts could put a gap in a track and the laser could destroy information on other tracks.
Let?s say you record 12 tracks, which take up 72 minutes. You decide to erase one track that is six minutes long. You then want to add a song that is 8 minutes long. The MD will record the song on two different parts of the MD. Six minutes worth (Where the old song was) in one part of the disc and two minutes at the end of the disc. The music won?t distort as it skips to different sections. All the playback information is stored in part of the disc, which acts like the table of contents. Sony reports that a blank MD can handle one million recordings. You get 1785 characters to use to title your tracks in 255 blocks. Each track must use at least one block. Each block contains 7 characters. The maximum amount of titled tracks on an MD is 255.
Premastered and Recordable
There are two kinds of MDs that you can purchase, premastered and recordable. There aren?t yet a lot of prerecorded MDs for sale and are hard to find. These are albums by music artists just like CDs and Cassettes. You can?t record onto a prerecorded MD. The recordable MD uses a different setup to play back tracks than the prerecorded ones. The recordables are preferred because of quality and easiness of copying a CD to a MD. This way the user has the album in both mediums.
Premastered MiniDiscs use the conventional CD-type pits and valleys that a laser scans to read 0?s and 1?s. You can?t record or erase anything on these MDs. Recordable MiniDiscs really on magnetism. North and South Poles are placed 60 millionths of a centimeter apart. The poles reflect a laser light at different angles, which the unit decodes as digital information, recreating the original bit stream. Since Magnetism is used to store data, your MD could get ruined when brought into a strong magnetic field, so keep magnets away. All MD players can read both Recordable and Premastered MDs.
Generation Problems
Currently the recording from MiniDisc to MiniDisc is not allowed unless you have professional equipment or the source MD is premastered. The Serial Copy Management System is encoded into the MDs. You are allowed to copy a CD but you are not allowed to make a copy of your copy. You lose quality during Premastered MD dubbing. The MD must uncompress the information and send it to the recordable disc, which recompresses this information. So far companies will not permit the direct transfer of uncompressed data to another source.
MD Info
MiniDiscs are about 2 ?? in diameter place in square cases about 2 ?? x 2 ?? x ??. MDs are incredibly durable. They?ve been thrown into the washer and dryer, have had things spilled on them, have been thrown out of speeding vehicles and still play perfectly after brushing, cleaning, and drying it. The discs are made of Makrolon, which is the same plastic used to make CDs.
MDs can also be used in computers to store data. Companies are pushing MDs to replace 3.5? floppies. An MD can store about 140 MB each. For $2-$4 each, it is much cheaper than Zip disks.
High density MDs that can hold 650MB of uncompressed data are in the near future. This means trouble in compatibility in current formats. Current hardware will not likely be able to read or use these discs.
Finally
I really enjoy my MZ-R55. I find it a good way to carry around MP3s that I?ve gotten off the web. I look forward to seeing the MD devices become widely used in the USA. The problem with the technology is that it is slightly expensive for what seems to be simple technology. The technology is also changing and involving high-density discs. If you are unsure about MD players then wait a while and observe the prices and the people using them. If you have $300 to play with then check out the MZ-R55, you?ll love it.
