Sony MZR90 Minidisc Recorder

• Compact, lightweight minidisc recorder
• High-quality recording with digital automatic gain control
• 40-second shock-resistant memory
• Digital Mega Bass sound system
• Inline remote control

I recently purchased the MZ-R90 as one of my birthday presents. At first, I was a little skeptical of the whole MD format, as it hasn't been real big in the U.S. But to me, there were two distinct advantages over MP3: The ability to record from digital AND analog sources, and the unlimited space according to how many discs you have. When I opened the box to this player, I almost couldn't find it! I was very surprised at the size of this machine. It is really small and intricate and has many features.

Recording--Recording was a snap for me. All you have to do is buy an analog cable which cost me ... at ... I also bought some blank MD's there too. To record form a CD, you just hook up one end of the cable to the R-90's line-in jack and the other end with the headphone jack of the CD player. Then, you slide the record button and play the CD! You can also record MP3's from your computer this way; I think it is better than an MP3 player because you have unlimited space.

Playback--Playback is about the same as portable CD players. You can do shuffle play, repeat 1, or repeat all. The volume control and bass boost are easy to use. You would think that MD recordings would sound worse than the actual CD, but let me tell you--they don't. I couldn't notice any difference between my CD and my MD.

Moving around with functions--This player is the epitome of ease with functions. It features a jog dial that you move up and down to scroll through options, and to select you press the dial in. There are 7 main functions during play and 4 when there is no disc.

The Remote :-)--This little thing is one of the sweetest parts of the player. It has all the basic functions, editing capabilities, and is backlit. I don't know if you could ask for a more functional remote.

Editing--The editing part of this machine is a cinch. You can label the disc and the track names for each MD. There is space for 1700 charaters each disc, so don't worry about running out of room. Pressing the pause button during editing will bring you to certain types of charaters: Upper and lower case letters, symbols, and numbers. This is very convenient so you do not have to spend forever searching for a letter. Note: The American version of the R-90 cannot display or edit with Japanese katakana. (But who cares about that?)

Overall Satisfaction--I am very pleased with my purchase of the MZ-R90. Is is small, functional, and very attractive. I don't have any major quirks with it, except that it sometimes takes a while to load, but...oh well! If I had to do this purchase over again, I would do it in a heartbeat.I hope you enjoyed this review, and happy listening!

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I wanted portable music. My first thoughts were of an MP3 player, but the options are currently quite limited: either fixed storage of 30-60 minutes, or removable storage (flash, memory stick, etc) at a cost of $1-2/minute of audio... and long download times to get the music into the player. Lot of money, not much functionality. I looked elsewhere...

Minidiscs have improved immeasurably since the first generation of harsh, metallic audio. Media is cheap as well; at $2-3 per 72-minute disc, the savings over mp3 media alone are enough to justify Mindisc.

I decided to get a portable player/recorder, and after looking at the options, purchased the MZ-R90. Sony's highest-end, smallest, lightest minidisc player (competitive with an mp3 player!), with a great feature set. The jog-dial is a suprisingly effective control -a single control, which you can jog with thumb or finger, does almost every common operation -except volume. Wonderful idea, I hope to see it blatantly stolen by everyone else.

RTFM, though, if you want to title your tracks: I figured out everything except how to save the title I had entered. There are a couple other gotchas: the same jack is used for headphones and line out, and it resets to headphones when it powers off, making it a hassle to switch between 'phones and stereo (or car). (Setting volume at max for line out is the easy workaround.) Recording off of battery avoids any chance of ground loop hum, but if the battery isn't freshly charged, you risk running out of juice. Use the external AA-holder to more than double your rec/playback time. These few gotchas make me rate this 4 stars instead of 5 -my personal experience has been excellent!

With the addition of a $30 mic, it's also very handy for recording interviews, so it's now a business expense, too.

There's only one problem. The hard-to-find MZ-R91 looks even better. So I got one of those, too... :-)

Read Best Reviews of Sony MZR90 Minidisc Recorder Here

I have to admit, prior to purchasing this player, I had my doubts. One can easily say that a CD player is much less expensive, lacks the necessary time to record an MD from a CD, and overall is more popular (for those who want to listen to a friend's CD's while not at home, yet this friend is listening with his/her own CD player). Furthermore, for those of us who demand high sound quality, only the fiber optic cable provides for a digital recording. This means not just any CD player will record digitally; only those with an optical out will allow you to record withot a loss of sound quality.

I must say, however, that the benefits heavily outweigh the drawbacks. The size is very important. The MZ-R90 is tiny, measuring 2 7/8 inches by approximately 3 inches. This can be said to be only a little larger than a quarter of a typical CD player. Whereas I was unable to even dream of fitting CD's, much less a player into my inner jacket pocket (the pocket is too small by at least half an inch), the MZ-R90 fits with room to spare. Not only that, but the size difference allows me to fit 7 or 8 MD's into the pocket on the other side.

The remote is twice as useful as I first perceived it to be. The lack of a need to actually pull out the MD to change volume, play, stop, or pause has saved me at least a total of 24 hours since I bought my R90. The LCD display has its uses, especially when I want to know what track I am skipping to. I can, with the touch of a button, know how much time is left to the disc, what time of the day it is, the name of the track, or the default setting: the amount of track time passed.

The AA adapter holds only one battery, keeping the size small, but doubling the play time. As an adapter, the option of removing it to keep it light and small is always there.

No doubt, I highly recommend this product over any other portable MD player and recorder out there. The only thing I can imagine to compliment the lightweight and ease of the R90 would be a pair of wireless earphones.

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Let me start off by saying that I love this thing. It's by far the coolest new toy i've purchased.

I got it at some going out of business sale in the city. I bought a nice microphone from Sony to go along with it. My primary goal was to record all my language classes while overseas and then post them on my web site.

Anyways, the sound quality is great, and i'm definitely sold, but here are the two major drawbacks for me:

1) No digital offload of recordings to your computer. (I'm a web developer)

2) They have this stupid "End Search" button. It works like this. If you want to record anything... first you hit the "End Search" button, then you hit the "Record" button. If you don't hit the end search button first, it will erase all the rest of your recordings after the track number that you hit record in front of. I lost lots of great recordings in Thailand before i finally learned about this user interface failure. They should have just labeled it "prepare for recording" in stead of "End Search". Better yet, they should have just eliminated it and included the functionality in the record button.

That being said, I'm thinking about selling my my current one in favor of one of their new ones that is more expensive but promises to overcome the above two drawbacks.

Living over here in asia I get access to all the new gadgets by japanese companies. I actually have this model. Mine is silver though. I guess blue is a world model.

There are some pains you must go through with this piece of equipment.

1st of all you cant change the bass level through the remote. This is the worst feature. Very inconvenient

Second sony still didn't get rid of the End search button. You might just erase your album by mistake.

Third the playing time isn't that great. 8 Hrs of so. Unless you have 2 or more batteries get's pretty irritating.

Actually the most important thing to know is that this model has been replaced. The current flagship sony is the r-900 which allows MDLP recording/playback allowing max 320 minutes of recording on 1 disc. This is worthless but the 160 minute option is very useful.

I recommend getting a MD audio system and a dedicated player. Not a recorder/player. I personally use a E-900 which supports MDLP playback and 20 hours of playback on 1 charge. Smallest, lightest in the world right now. Once you go to a dedicated MD player there is no turning back. MD recorders have just too many drawbacks.