Sony MZ-R900S Recordable MiniDisc Walkman – Silver

The Sony MZ-R900 Recordable MiniDisc Walkman is one smart-looking player. It sports a full metal jacket and a plethora of buttons and controls. It’s incredibly small too; you have to wonder where all the electronics are. There’s a remote, complete with LCD screen and a comprehensive set of controls. This is a little too chunky to let dangle though, so there’s a clip on the back to attach it to your clothing. There’s a smart rotary control, which is neat, but really needs two hands to operate. The small buttons can be awkward, when trying to name a long list of tracks for example.

Sony claims it will play back for up to 66 hours, which is a tad optimistic, especially when you start playing with all the features. It does have an exceptionally long battery life though, thanks to its low-power electronics. There’s an internal rechargeable battery or you can use normal batteries with a little clip-on unit.

This player has just about every feature currently available on any Portable MiniDisc player. It’s a full recording player, supporting LP2 and LP4 long play modes, although LP4 does mean a noticeable degradation in music quality. It’ll record from both digital and analogue sources. There’s a bit-rate converter so any digital source will do. Recording from analogue requires a special cable, which is just about the only accessory not supplied. There’s also Sony’s G-Protection system to stop skipping, which is excellent. All these functions inevitably mean you’re going to need to refer to the manual a lot initially, but the documentation is sufficient and readable enough that this is a painless exercise.

The MZ-R900 is a state-of-the-art player. It looks good, performs superbly and is well-built. If you are looking for a high-end MiniDisc player, then this model should definitely be at the top of your shopping list–Miles Berkeley

• Built-In Radio: No
• CD Player: no
• CD Player / Recorder: No
• Category: Portable
• DAB: No
• DAB Broadcast: no
• Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB): No
• Digital System: Minidisc
• Long play: no
• Longplay: no
• MD Longplay: Yes
• MD Type: MD Standard
• MP3 Playback: No
• MP3 Player: no
• MP3 Recording: no
• PC Connection: No
• Record Function: yes
• Recording Function: Yes
• Table / Portable: Portable
• Table/Portable: Portable
• USB Stick: no
• Width (mm): 79
• Year of Introduction: 2001