SONY MZ-RH10 HI-MD WALKMAN REVIEW

I have been a fan of MD for a while now and have had various players/recorders/decks over the last 5 years or so. However, this was my first Net MD as I haven't had a home PC until recently which could deal with using one. I also wanted to wait for the first generation of HI-MD to come and go so they could iron out some inevitable creases. So firstly, I like this MD because of the speed it can record albums (as opposed to real time, which is what I am used to) and although I am not exactly in love with the Sonicstage software, it has served me ok so far and I have been using version 3, which is better than past editions, although I know there will be issues to come as I use it more and more to download/upload tracks. These issues mostly relate to the copyright restrictions that Sony like to try and control. They only allow you to download songs/albums from your PC (so this could well be your own CDs from your own collection) a couple of times before it locks you from doing it again. When uploading from your MD to the PC (only possible with analogue recordings, like live recordings or voice recordings) you can only upload once and if you try again, the original gets deleted from your MD. That could mean you lose an important original recording really easily.

But focusing on the unit itself, I'm quite pleased so far with my RH10. The Organic EL display is just lovely and certainly lives up to the hype in my opinion. The button layout is slightly confusing at first when you are used to the older style Sony models but you do get used to them. The search function and ability to play albums on a disc by their artist or even genre is a great bonus. I have about 35 albums on a MD and you need to be able to search somehow, although the shuffle mode and see what comes up method is still a great one! The bit rate being quite low, I'd expect sound quality to be poor but it's not actually that bad. Mp3 support is overdue and welcome, although there seems to be a nasty EQ issue with Mp3s and they sound much worse than the Atrac 3 recordings. I personally don't have a lot of use for Mp3 as I'm still into buying albums from shops rather than downloading but I have a bit of stuff on my PC.

For me, one major let-down is the remote. It's not even LCD, let alone backlit and this sort of scrimping and saving do Sony no favours here. The remote doesn't even have half of the controls I would expect it to, so using the buttons on the remote for anything apart from play, stop and volume is pretty much useless. Of course with no display, you can't see what you're listening to either. I can't even make mine skip single tracks, it just skips albums or groups. I tend to use the unit buttons for everything useful, although that can be awkward, especially if you're running or cycling or pretty much doing anything whilst listening.

I didn't even try using the ear buds supplied with my MD. Sony are renowned for their poor supplied standard earphones. So I just plugged in my trusty Sony MDR-EX71SLB headphones and off I went. All of the other accessories were fine. That was charger, usb cable, soft carry bag (don't bother thinking this will protect your MD though, I use mine for carrying accessories and use a Swordfish padded case for my MD), gumstick battery and plastic case, AA battery add-on case, which is a bit flimsy but as long as you're careful should be ok and the Sonicstage software CD.

In summary, I am very pleased with this purchase. It seems quite good value for money, though Sony could have done without some corner cutting on the remote and as usual, headphones. Sonicstage is improving but the anti-copyright features make it far more difficult to use than, say "itunes". I would recommend the RH10 to anyone who wanted a lovely looking (lets see how long that screen lasts unscratched) and very long playing media with potential unlimited storage with unlimited blank minidisks, which are getting cheaper all the time. I see this as a better alternative to ipod for me. I prefer the (in my opinion) much better sound quality of MD and am happy having to cart around a few disks (though not many with this amount of storage) for the privilege. I am a MD fan and although it is still not very popular in the UK, I would take this over an Mp3 player anyday!! So not too good to be true... in that it's not perfect yet, but certainly it's a step in the right direction. Hopefully the third generation will be closer to perfection!