Short Review: Sony MZ-E10 (Silver)

[Tiesto]

A month ago I was looking for slim minidisc player which was comfortable to carry on, with good sound and battery life. So my options were: the Sony MZ-E10 and the Sharp MD-DS70, according to the experts reviews about both devices the Sony stands out for its size and style and the Sharp stands out for its sound quality, the decision was complicated but at the end, taking in mind the initial searching criteria, the winner was: the E10.

The Sony MZ-E10 is a great minidisc walkman made as anniversary of the 10 years of Minidisc Sony, since it is just a player its size is reduced but in this case I'm talking about of something extreme! with a dimension of just 81.9(L) x 72.2 x 9.9(H) mm and a weight of 55g it is one of the smallest and lightest players of the World, perhaps behind the Panasonic SJ-MJ97 in size. I chose it due to it is easy to find in the NA market, for its size/weight, its sound quality and overall for its STYLE, you have to see it for yourself to realize what I'm saying.

My experience with the player is in the following categories:

Sound:

The E10 allows to enhance the sound quality including a 6-bands equalizer with four preset (Heavy, Pops, Jazz and Unique) and two customizable settings. Comparatively the E10 sounds excellent in SP mode very similar to the Sony MZ-NH900 Hi-MD recorder at the same mode; in LP2 mode the sound is much better than my NetMD recorder, Sony MZ-NF610, however it's not quite good as the LP2 sound of the NH900 due to that the latter has an enhanced digital amplifier with regard to the one that has the E10.

Battery:

I think the player reaches the 30 hours of play time in lp2 mode with no problem which is very good if it's compared with the NH900, I havent tested the other two modes though, however its performance is far away from other MDLP players according to the comparison tables besides there's no battery attachment to extend the battery life. The internal Li-Ion battery (not user accessible) is intented to minimize to the maximum possible the size of the player but at long term might be an issue so I never leave to be discharged completely since this is bad for these batteries.

The battery can be found in Sony direct accessories website for about US$35 (item # 175631811), but I suggest to let the replacement to a technical expert for the sake of the player

Portability:

Well, here is where the E10 excels the others, once I put it in my pocket it doesn't feel at all, when I walk or when I am sat down, in fact my wallet is more uncomfortable than the E10. It disappears completely and that justifies its purchase.

Remote:

The remote provided is the Sony RM-MC33ELU which is a single line backlight LCD (only the asian version has the two lines remote ), a very solid remote and the Sony's warhorse, everything is done from the remote just like the other models with the mc33el but unlike this one the mc33elu has a special plug to match the thinness of the player. Perhaps a small complaint for the mc33 remote is that the search of a particular track can be bothersome because you have to stop what you're listening to start searching for the wanted track/abum one by one.

Summarizing

sound 9/10

build 10/10

comfort 10/10

battery 8/10

remote 9/10

style 11/10

[attachmentid=271][attachmentid=267][attachmentid=268][attachmentid=269]

[attachmentid=270]

[atrain]

great pics. nice review. looking forward to the ds70 next

[Michael1980]

Definetely the most stylish player out there.

[AMPlitude]

now ill wait for a hi-md variant

[andysnap]

now ill wait for a hi-md variant

←

Was the 'Hi-MD E10' the NH1?

Certainly seems to have alot of the character and style of the E10, although not as slim (what could be?) its maybe the more practical for that.

Andrew

[Ishiyoshi]

Was the 'Hi-MD E10' the NH1?

Certainly seems to have alot of the character and style of the E10, although not as slim (what could be?) its maybe the more practical for that.

Andrew

←

The Hi-MD variant of E10 is actually EH1; of course it's not as slim.