Sony MZ-R55 Personal MiniDisc Player

I have always needed portable music. As a kid, I had a combination radio/headlamp/horn clamped onto my bike handlebars and have had something ever since. I've had them all - boomboxes, headset radios, portable tape decks, CD Walkmans and finally, Sony's MZ-R55. Mini-Discs are sooooo much better than CDs or tapes!

So Many Uses

I love the versatility of the MZ-R55. I like to dub my vinyl LP's onto MP3 or CD and I used to patch my turntable directly into my sound card. I always had to choose between moving the turntable near the PC or running a long cord. Moving the turntable was a pain in the neck but the long cord didn't give a good signal. Now I can record into the MZ-R55 and download into my PC with as clean a signal as if I had connected the turntable directly. The MZ-R55 also records off of a microphone, line input and optical digital input. I use it to take notes at meetings and record sessions at conferences. It is so small and light that it fits into a shirt pocket. After recording, it is easy to split tracks and label them. As a player, it rocks. It is plenty loud when I want it and the remote control allows me to change volume, select tracks, pause, play and stop. Handy "Hold" switches on the remote and the main unit prevent accidental changes to the settings. This makes it ideal whether walking, biking or riding the bus. For more strenuous activity, the read-ahead buffer works well and I have never caused it to skip. The car kit makes attaching it to the car cassette player trivial. I lock the player in the glove compartment and leave the remote hanging out. When restarting the player, it picks up right where it left off. The unit is well-built with a minimum of plastic and should last a long time.

Feature-packed

In addition to the features already mentioned, the MZ-R55 can combine tracks or re-arrange them, split them or delete them. The disc may be labeled as well as each individual track. The backlit remote is easy to see both day and night and the displays on both the remote and the player itself are crisp LCD dot-matrix screens. The controls are well marked and easy to use. It was not long before I could control the player without looking at the controls. The remote has a standard mini-headphone jack so you can use your favorite headphones. Since the remote itself has a comfortably long cord, using standard headphones does present a minor problem with excess cord. The remote has a clip to hang it off your clothing. The battery charges up quickly and lasts for hours. The unit included a AA battery holder which extends battery life. You can use standard alkalines, Ni-CAD or NiMH in the AA holder.

Feature-lacked

I do not have too many complaints about this unit. In fact, my main complaint is about what some consider to be a valuable feature: SCMS. Serial Copy Management System or SCMS prevents you from making 2nd or 3rd generation digital copies. Now don't get me wrong, I heartily support copyright and am an active anti-Napster activist. I just do not think SCMS was well implemented. I did some work with a local radio host where I recorded the off-air chatter with his guests, dubbed it into a recording of the on-air show and produced a CD. Since the radio studio gear is all Mini-Disc based, I wanted to digitally copy the final mix down to Mini-Disc but SCMS stopped me.

The other thing I wanted to see was a direct digital PC interface - either USB, serial or parallel. I happen to have a high-end sound card with digital I/O but there should be a closer connection to the PC and soft formats such as MP3.

Recommendations
The problem with SCMS won't be an issue for most people. I mention it because if you do produce any digital content, you would want to know before you drop $300. The newer models now come with a USB port adapter so this problem is fixed as well. If you find one of the MZ-R55 on closeout and don't need the USB connectivity, BUY IT! Otherwise, buy the new ones with "PC" in the model name - i.e. the MZ-R70PC. Either way, it's tough to go wrong.