My MZ-N10 Review
INTRO:
well, almost 3 months since i've received my N10 i can finally put in a review. although this is my first minidisc player, i seem to get the hang of it. so why we don't begin, shall we???
what made me jump ship from CD's to MD is that the power of recording like a CD but not losing the quality of the track. also the fact that you can erase your tracks and record other tracks you might want to put to create a unbeatable mix. i have yet not to do such thing but only to do a
record a whole CD (eg. my Ayumi Hamasaki "RAINBOW" album) to my MD. another reason to make the move is that some of my friends have MD players and i have been intrigued by the sleekness and quality of it, and the fact that i love new and unusual gadgets.
before making my MD purchase my short-list was in favour of (all Sony) MZ-N1, MZ-R910, MZ-N10. i heard that the N1 had a LOT of problems w/ the optical block, it's NetMD software (which i will get to in a bit) and among other things, and also the fact that the N1 was now discontinued at the time. so it was down to the R910 and the N10. since this would be my first MD, i would want one of the best out there right now (of course i did my research). the R910 looks like a good unit, but so was the N10. and also the N10 was NetMD compatible so that was sort of a plus for a couple of bucks more (about 70 bucks more). so it was confirmed that my first unit would be the N10. and finding it on the internet wasn't too hard. i stumbled upon Audiocubes and at the right time, the site had a sale going on and i jumped to that offer. a week after, my silver MZ-N10 had arrived!!!
unfortunately as i don't have a digital camera, i don't have any pics right now. here's a link to the pictures: Minidisc Australia (property of the respective owner)
...well, let's begin again!
BOX/CONTENTS:
nothing special on the box but seeing as its a 10th anniversary model, it would look fancy depending on you look at it (black finish, with the picture of the unit itself). contents include:
- MZ-N10 main unit
- USB/Charging Cradle
- External AA Battery Case
- 100V AC adapter (6V DC output)^
- Backlight Remote Control (# RM-MC35ELK)
- MDR-E838SP earbuds
- USB Cable
- Grey Cloth Carrying Pouch with drawstrings
- SonicStage 1.5J CD-ROM
- Instruction manuals, warranty information, and other extensive documentation*
*the instruction manuals and other things are all in japanese so beware as it's an import model!
^also if you dont live in japan, suggest getting a world adapter that suits your region.
BUILD QUALITY:
i'm sure Sony had to pull all the stops to make the N10 that small and thin. the whole unit is made of magnesium with a glossy finish. big difference compared to the N1 and R909, etc. the reason being thin is that of an internal battery built-in the unit (not to mention the 10th anniversary deal J). being said that, it weighs an amazing 84grams w/o disc! on the left is the jog 'knob', very different from the N1, R909, R910 jog dials, much like the N1, the jog knob is still fully 'rotable'. very shiny and a classy touch to the unit. on the bottom left side of the unit has 2 tiny buttons labeled 'end search' to go to the end of the disc before recording, and 't-mark' to divide tracks and useful for long lectures.
the 3-line LCD has quite a poor contrast and adjusting it via menu wont make it any better, but none-the-less, still legible. 3-line display makes titling easy as there is more view of characters. for a anniversary model, you would think of a backlight on the main unit, but you'll keep dreaming for another time. for the meantime, the only available recent backlit main unit is the MZ-S1 sports˛ model. my few peeves about this model is the 5-way control pad next to the LCD. it's horribly small and which makes titling tracks quite a nightmare in my opinion. the rest of the buttons are neatly positioned under the LCD and control pad. the "REC" sliding bar button glows a bright red while recording, which is pretty neat.
the right side sports all the inputs, from top to bottom: the line/optical in for all your CD, radio, etc. recording needs. the mic input (plug in power) for recording concerts, band sessions, and lectures and among other things which i wont get into. and finally the headphone-remote jack/line out jack to plug your remote (duh) and the line-out to connect to a line-in source (eg. stereo system)
the bottom of the unit show an usual USB input used to connect the external battery pack, connect to cradle, and for NetMD transfers. speaking of the battery pack, the AC/DC input is located on the side of the pack, which is a flaw because in order to record a track you need the battery pack rather than putting the input on the main unit. (but what are you going to do?) same goes w/ NetMD transfers, you would need the cradle w/ the AC input. (another peeve). the back of the unit show the mumbo-jumbo along with the HOLD switch, and built-in battery switch (to turn on or off). leaving the blt-in switch off leaves the unit "dead". even trying to plug the adapter wont work either, so a rule of thumb is to leave the switch at 'ON' at all times.
OPERATION:
the 3-line LCD, as i mentioned, has poor contrast but can still read whatever it's there. the LCD shows battery meter, play mode, title, etc. in record mode, it shows the individual channels (left and right) and how loud each are. during playback, the first line shows the track number; second line shows the time elapsed; and third shows the track title. once again with the 5-way control pad, it's fine for navigation for track and volume, but NOT for titling, it's very small. but i've just discovered when titling you can use the jog knob without using the control pad. allow me to explain; let's say you're trying to label 'seven nation army' on an North american N10 model, and not using capital letters, just scroll the jog knob until you see the letter you want and press down the knob, or press play. keep repeating the process and it's finished. or if you want, use NetMD sonicstage for titling.
bookmark track allows to play through your favourite tracks without having to go through the whole disc. during while the track is played, press down the jog lever for a coulple of seconds, then a bookmark will pop up with a number #/20. as you can see you can only have up to 20 tracks book marked.
let's go through the menu, shall we? first off, is EDIT. here you have basic editing functions, such as name, move and erase. there is also group set and release. set allows to select a certain amount of tracks into a group or 'album'. release is just the opposite of set. second, DISPLAY, allows what info to be shown on the main LCD and remote. PLAY MODE, is how you want your tracks played in a certain order, for example. SOUND option allows what sound setting you want for playback. either no sound enhancement, V-SURROUND, and SOUND EQ. in SOUND EQ, you can customize your own equalizer with 2 custom settings. in USEFUL menu, you can save all your sound settings and play back modes under PERSONAL. when you insert a disc that has been previously entered or 'saved' it will remember what sound setting, etc. OPTION menu allows to the recording position, jog dial functions, time set, powermode.
NetMD:
as the N10 being the anniversary flagship model, Sony decided to upgrade it's software and hardware by supplying all MZ-Nxx(n) models with SonicStage software instead of Open MG. the MZ-N10 now transfer songs a 64x faster than real-time*. SonicStage is a slight improvement on OMG but still has a few bugs in it. there is no NetMD uploading capablity for the new models. i don't use SonicStage now because it f@%#ed up my computer. when using NetMD, all songs have to first be converted into the ATRAC format before transferring into MD. and when that's done, you cannot delete, edit, or rename tracks from your portable unless it's connected to your computer. also you can only transfer a song to an MD 3 times after that you'll have to re-import your song back to SonicStage. there is a way around it though, Sony's other software, Simple Burner, allows transfers to MD without the copyright protection. that means you CAN edit, rename and delete your tracks at anytime w/o using NetMD.
*using LP4 compression.
Remote:
the remote for the N10 is somewhat similar to the previous remotes in the past. the model number is RM-MC35ELK, since being an import model, but if get it in north america for example, the model number reads RM-MC33EL. the N10 remote is slightly slimmer than the N1s RM-MC11EL(12ELK) remote. the remote sports a bluish-green backlight, same goes with the previous models. with a 12 character display, it is a slight improvement from the 9 characters from the 10L/11EL model simply because the text for the N10 remote became thin and not round. the N10 remote now comes with a detachable clip and can be positioned in different directions. the clip strength is just as strong as with the previous models.
the backlight helps viewing the display better in low-light. when you press a button the light will stay on for about a couple of seconds, when a track title is displayed, the light will stay on until the title has finished scrolling through. Sony puts an option in the remote whether you want the backlight on AUTO (factory default), ON, or OFF. turning it to ON leaves the backlight on at all times regardless on battery power or adaptor (beware putting the backlight to ON, as it drains your battery life like a dog) turning the backlight to OFF is purely the opposite thus preserving battery life.
the 35ELK remote comes with a 2-line display, while the 33EL sports only one line. the two-line displays on the top the album (or group) and the track title on the bottom. as you scroll display (by pressing the DISPLAY button), first off is the track name, then the group name (if any) then disc name, then sound preset, then power status (meaning which power source), then the time of which the recording took place, and finally the recording mode (SP, LP2, LP4, MONO)
the 35ELK includes some neat animations. for start-up, and for different sound presets. some pics of it here (property of the respective owner)
on the top has the HOLD switch, the display, p. mode, and sound buttons. while on the bottom, has the stop button, a jog lever (pushing it in for PLAY/PAUSE, sliding left |<< and right >>|) and the folder+ and folder- buttons to easily scroll through groups (if any).
Conclusion:
this being my first MD, i'd like to say that i made a good choice. this is an awesome recorder/player. for a 10th anniversary unit, Sony really outdone themselves. kudos! great design, great sound, this is the one unit to get!!!
5 stars («««««) for me despite some flaws, but the rest of it cancels it out:P
~Cheers!