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My MZ-RH710 UK Edition Review

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I bought this a few days ago , this is a quick review.

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BUILD QUALITY/LOOKS

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This photo shows surface texture well

Very nice for the price (i payed £80) , i think it looks better than any other low range minidisc sony have released. The front is shiny , it feels a bit like the surface of my DNE10. The back is black also and is matt finish. The silver disc on the front may or may not be metal , you cant really tell but it does feel colder than the rest of the unit. The buttons and jog dial are also high quality and the joystick is the same as my NH900.

It feels solid and there is NO movement when the door is shut (my nh900 moves a bit)

The screen is very clear even in sunlight , much better than my nh900 which is unreadable in most conditions.

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SOFTWARE

Sonicstage 3.2 is what i use, this ships with 3.0. I am sure you are all familiar with it.

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Line-In Visible

SOUND QUALITY

This unit does not appear to have a digital amp (no icon on back of player or mention in manual). I have read a lot about MP3 playback being crippled on these players. I have found no issue with MP3 playback, 256 MP3 compared with Hi-SP sounded very similar, hard to tell apart.

I tested 132 atrac3 vs 128 MP3 and did notice that Atrac had slightly more treble but nothing to worry about.

I would say that if you want MP3 playback this unit is very good, i compared MP3 playback with my DNE10 and the difference is not in detail , there is nothing missing with MP3 on the RH710 it just sounds like it has more bass.

Now i hacked the unit and got the full equalizer (no real volume increase however) i then put 4khz up 1 notch and 10khz up 2 and could not tell the difference between this and my DNE10!.

I use PX200 and HJE50s.

BATTERY LIFE

I left it running overnight on repeat with a AA in it playing MP3s at 128-192and got to 17hrs and still had a bar left with no flashing , so ii guess 19 hours is about right.

RECORDING

Usual features , recorded White Stripes DVD optically with no issues at all.

OVERALL

I recommend highly, i got it at a good price but anything under £100 is a fair price imho.

A+

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Edited by richyhu
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Thanks for being the first one to review this unit on the board, and I assume, the 'net! Excellent write-up and pictures. Did you have a selection of other colors before purchasing?

Just black in UK , but i think i would have chosen it over silver anyway.

Black looks very cool!

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Does it works with rechargable super AA's (with capacities in the 2000 mAh range)?

Thats what i am using 2300 to be exact - 17hrs fine by me!

dimensions are 83.6*29.5*77 107grams

OH and you get a full paper manual!!!!!!

Edited by doomlordis
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Very nice pictures and review.

I had my eye set on this model here in North America from minidisc-canada until I learned it did NOT have the line in/optical port here in NA. What a pity cause I was going for it. Got a RH910 instead.

Would have been nice to have my backup unit (to the RH10) take AA without having to take that external AA case all the time. Anyways the price of shipping from Europe put the price more than the RH910 I got. Just can't figure out Sony's reason for crippling the DH710 with download only and no Line In. Same dumb logic went into the 600D 1st Gen unit as well. I would take one of those 600's with line input any day...

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Very nice pictures and review. 

I had my eye set on this model here in North America from minidisc-canada until I learned it did NOT have the line in/optical port here in NA.  What a pity cause I was going for it.  Got a RH910 instead. 

Would have been nice to have my backup unit (to the RH10) take AA without having to take that external AA case all the time.  Anyways the price of shipping from Europe put the price more than the RH910 I got.  Just can't figure out Sony's reason for crippling the DH710 with download only and no Line In.  Same dumb logic went into the 600D 1st Gen unit as well.  I would take one of those 600's with line input any day...

It does seems strange? Maybe based on spending habits or something anal like that. I got this over the RH910 because of the AA, just bought a black MC33EL to go with it (£9 on ebay!).

The MC33EL on my DNE10 works fine with this unit, you can even search by artist etc.

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Great review! And that unit look excellent!

Where on earth did you manage to get it for only £80 though??

A friend works in Sony Centre , it was a open box return.

Best price i have seen online is Unbeatable , £97.99 delivered (when stock is in , you get free postage).

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doomlordis,

I just rec'd an MZ-DH710 from Minidisc Canada after ordering on 9Aug - pretty good service only 6 days to arrive in Australia.

The black shiny surface makes it look very sophisticated not like my MZ-NH600 even though they are almost identical in size.

Does your RH710 have on 3V DC in connector on the bottom ? The DH710 has the notch but no actual socket hole.

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doomlordis,

I just rec'd an MZ-DH710 from Minidisc Canada after ordering on 9Aug - pretty good service only 6 days to arrive in Australia.

The black shiny surface makes it look very sophisticated not like my MZ-NH600 even though they are almost identical in size.

Does your RH710 have on 3V DC in connector on the bottom ? The DH710 has the notch but no actual socket hole.

Yes it does , and a line in (optical) below the usb port.

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Yes it does , and a line in (optical) below the usb port.

Thanks I could see the line from your photos but not the DC in connection.

Seems Sony loves to complicate their production lines with slight physical variations on its models. I suppose it saves them trying to put an AC adaptor into the packaging for this model.

They did not even include a battery with the DH710 however there was an old style 1GB minidisc but in a normal size case not that silly long HiMD one.

The compliance plate on the back is a little different to your one; saying made in Mayalsia to Canandian electrical standards.

There is also a little blue sticker on the front " MP3 Digital music player"

The other difference is your Record/track mark button has been replaced with a download button. I'm sure of the usefulness of this yet.

Edited by bogon07
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'Download' is used primarily with Simple Burner for more efficient rips, from what I've read..

Yes the manual mentions that. None of my other MDs need a download button for Simple Burner to work.

I think it was a redundant button with no lin-in on this model so Sony decided to give it some sort of function rather than make it blank. I might experiment with it over the weekend to see what it does. It could be used as a hardware initiated startup for SB ...

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The Download button on the MZ-DH710 activates SimpleBurner without its normal panels showing after a CD has been ID'd by the music database. A small notification pops up over the system tray if you need to change any settings.

So hitting the download button causes SimpleBurner to run in the background and copy the CD to a minidisc. This means that you don't see any track listing or indication that the database has correctly identified the CD.

There is no indication of how far the transfer is progressing only a noise when completed. If there is not enough room on the MD for the whole CD then it did not transfer any songs across ! You then have to open up the SB control panels and select the individual songs to transfer across which sort of defeats the purpose of having the button.

I hope Sony did not spent a lot of time on this feature.

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It can shuffle all tracks on a disk, all tracks by an artist, all tracks in an album - its shuffletastic!

It is shuffle however not random, it will shuffle the tracks and then play them one after another not repeating a track untill all tracks have been played.

Random is crap as you oftren get the same tracks repeated regularly.

Edited by doomlordis
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It can shuffle all tracks on a disk, all tracks by an artist, all tracks in an album - its shuffletastic!

It is shuffle however not random, it will shuffle the tracks and then play them one after another not repeating a track untill all tracks have been played.

Random is crap as you oftren get the same tracks repeated regularly.

Thank you SO much for this valuable information! ( I sure hope it's not just a UK-model feature, as I'm getting a US one )... what's the shortcut to shuffle play? (menu-play mode, etc...?)

I see no on line manuals for this model, and... I have no patience.

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Thank you SO much for this valuable information!  ( I sure hope it's not just a UK-model feature, as I'm getting a US one )... what's the shortcut to shuffle play? (menu-play mode, etc...?)

I see no on line manuals for this model, and... I have no patience.

Try this link for RH-710 user manual:

http://www.sonydigital-link.com/Shared/ASP.../2593568112.pdf

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 8 months later...

Can you use a Mic on the line in?

You "can" use a mic on a line-in, but it has to be a self-powered/amped mic to be usable. Unlike a special mic-in jack, a line-in jack is not powered, so using a regular mic will yield very very low volume.

Edited by pata2001
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IIRC a non-powered mic will yield nothing at all... as it simply needs current to operate

a powered mic (or a battery box) into line in will work, but it will only yield very low volumes

to get the same use as a mic-in you'll need to get a preamp, which can easily surpass the cost of a low-end HiMD with mic-in and adds another 'box' to your setup

bottom line: if you want to record: get a HiMD intended for recording i.e. with a mic-in... there are cheap models like this as well (NH700/800, RH910)

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