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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R55 is certainly not recoomended
Pros
Sound quality, Size
Cons
Battery life, "Phantom problem"
Recommended it?
No
I bought my R55 in Malaysia. Before I actually bought this unit, I was thinking.. "WOW ! Look at that recorder... small and sleek with a nice interface on the cover." Boy.. that was when the trouble started.
I went to a few sites to check out some pictures of the R55 and I was in awe. I told myself I need to get that unit. So I went out and bought it.
When I took it home and opened up the unit (just to tell you, the internation package include the following items : the recorder unit, a rechargeable battery, an adapter - for charging the battery, a cloth pouch and a Optical cable). I switched it on and it works perfectly well. Then I opened the manual and saw the word "Battery life, 4 hours playback"
4 HOURS PLAYBACK ! Geez, even the R50 could go up to 8-9 hours with the rechargable battery. (It only provides 2.5 hours of recording). So... the moral of the story is: "Always do more research on a particular product before actually buying it"
This is not the end of the problem list, it seems that particular units (especially those produced before March 1999) had problems which somehow got to be known as the "phantom problem". The unit will start erasing your tracks (or even worst, the entire MD), stop recording, won't charge your battery and the list goes on and on. This can be solved easily by simply exchanging the unit with Sony (be sure you have the local warranty card with your unit or else you might need to go into battle mode).
The sound quality is nice but the battery life took away all the fun. It takes 3 hours to charge the battery and it only provides 4 hours of playback. This would mean you have to hog around the external battery pack and a few AA size batteries to enjoy the unit in long-use periods. (The also means adding 50 % of volume to the unit)
All in all, sound quality was excellent (but then again, aren't all MD players good in sound quality :) ) and the recording is good. Be sure to purchase a stereo mic to make use of the recording functions.
The remote control is easy to use (but you need to operate it with two hands which is quite troublesome sometimes). This is fixed with newer MD releases from Sony with a "smart" remote which can be operated with one hand. I believe you can purchase the new remote and use it with the R55 (however, I have not tested it yet).
I went to a few sites to check out some pictures of the R55 and I was in awe. I told myself I need to get that unit. So I went out and bought it.
When I took it home and opened up the unit (just to tell you, the internation package include the following items : the recorder unit, a rechargeable battery, an adapter - for charging the battery, a cloth pouch and a Optical cable). I switched it on and it works perfectly well. Then I opened the manual and saw the word "Battery life, 4 hours playback"
4 HOURS PLAYBACK ! Geez, even the R50 could go up to 8-9 hours with the rechargable battery. (It only provides 2.5 hours of recording). So... the moral of the story is: "Always do more research on a particular product before actually buying it"
This is not the end of the problem list, it seems that particular units (especially those produced before March 1999) had problems which somehow got to be known as the "phantom problem". The unit will start erasing your tracks (or even worst, the entire MD), stop recording, won't charge your battery and the list goes on and on. This can be solved easily by simply exchanging the unit with Sony (be sure you have the local warranty card with your unit or else you might need to go into battle mode).
The sound quality is nice but the battery life took away all the fun. It takes 3 hours to charge the battery and it only provides 4 hours of playback. This would mean you have to hog around the external battery pack and a few AA size batteries to enjoy the unit in long-use periods. (The also means adding 50 % of volume to the unit)
All in all, sound quality was excellent (but then again, aren't all MD players good in sound quality :) ) and the recording is good. Be sure to purchase a stereo mic to make use of the recording functions.
The remote control is easy to use (but you need to operate it with two hands which is quite troublesome sometimes). This is fixed with newer MD releases from Sony with a "smart" remote which can be operated with one hand. I believe you can purchase the new remote and use it with the R55 (however, I have not tested it yet).
