What is the best plyer/recorder ever made for money?

[Guest Anonymous]

Hello Group;

I really like the MDS-JE510 home deck. I have a MZ-1, but the loader on those units were to easy to break. I have a MDS-JE500 that works great also. I have a MDS-JE470, but they did not put a headphone jack on that one. I have a MZ-N707 and that seems to be the best potable I have had. I don't consider my MZ-1 a real portable unit, but it does have a 1 thru 9, 0 keypad for instant punch in the button access which I lover and a backlit readout. To bad about the crummy loader. I had three of the MZ-1 and lost two of them to broken loaders. Had to throw them in the junk just because the loaders broke.

Thomas

[me]

The best? I don't really think there is a best.. I think my next combination is going to be a ripper though: MDS-PC1 for editing, recording, and home playback.

MD-DR7 for recording on the bus, concerts, at friends houses etc.

[Bazirker]

There really isn't a best...if I had to pick best portable, I'd go with the MZ-N10. However, I don't know anything about brands other than Sony (hard enough to find sony where I live, utterly impossible to find an md recorder that isn't sony,) and I'm mkaing that statement based solely on what works best for me. Like I seldom do live recording, I like NetMD, etc. There are definetly recorders that compete with the N10, but it'd be the best for my uses.

[me]

Well for playback.. Apparently the E10 is the same as the N10, and the DS8 beats the E10, which is in turn beaten by the DR7, we can conclude the DR7 is the best sounding modern portable. Not. Some people prefer one sound, some another (Sonys.. Panasonics.. Aiwas...)

So yeah, there really isn't a 'best' MD unit.

But from sound alone, these are some of the modern goodies:

DS8, E10, E710.

MD-DR7, MZ-N10

[Leland]

Me, how do you support your statement that the DS8 beats the E10? Is this based on the size of the unit per usable music output?

Leland: Confirmed SONY BIGOT!!!

The E10 is so more cool than any unit Sharp will ever develop...

Be suspiscious of this "Sharp sound better than Sony" gag. There is a hugh impact caused by sound volume being higher on Sharp units. Sony has limited this to help us save our hearing. This is serious.

[Bazirker]

Leland is completly right, a lot of people do mistake higher volume for better sound. (How many people post here and say they have the bass and treble all the way up?) I'd like to take a sony and sharp unit and some good headphones and compare audio myself sometime...

[me]

Confirmed through people who own digital amp sonys and the DS8, who spend their time tweaking the EQ of the Sony to make it sound like the sharp , and another person who had a DS8, gave it away, and bought a DR7, which sounded better than the DS8. I never found out whether the DR7 sounds better than the MT831 though..

No fear Sony Bigot! I'd never buy a sharp for one reason (assuming I don't have a deck): NO TITLING IN PLAYBACK MODE. WTF?! DUH!

But never fear, I still like sony, my home deck has 28mW x2 @ 32 ohms for that nice, rich sound. Unlike the uhh.. somewhat weedy R37 I own. I didn't think it was that bad until I switched to the PC1.

Also, the Sharps are apparently (note that word) more detailed than the Sonys. Will see if I can notice (probably not) between my PC1 @ DR7, and if I haven't sold my R37 by then, that too

[Guest Anonymous]

Be suspiscious of this "Sharp sound better than Sony" gag. There is a hugh impact caused by sound volume being higher on Sharp units. Sony has limited this to help us save our hearing. This is serious.

Look, I don't need Sony to look after me. Besides, they don't do this to help people. Stop fooling yourself. It is their excuse to increase battery lifetime which is a good thing but I don't want to sacrifice sound for battery life.

My A/B comparison:

Sources:

Sharp MD-MS200 with 10mW per channel output

Sony MZ-N505 with 5mW per channel

Earphones:

Etymotic ER-4P

Music:

Firecracker by Lisa Loeb recorded to MD by optical link with CD player

Comments:

While listening to both at about 75-80% volume on both units, the difference is quite large. The Sharp provides deep and clear bass with real impact. I sometimes use bass boost of 1 (out of 3) on this unit. It seems to only increase bass levels up to about 100 HZ and doesn't muddy the sound much. The Sony at this point has noticable distortion in the lower frequencies and there isn't the same forceful impact from drum beats. The total sound is thin. The bass boost allows you to turn the sound down and still have bass but this adds a lot of coloration to the sound.

The Sharp is the clear winner. It also sounds better than my Sony D-465 portable CD player.

My conclusion:

HEADPHONE AMP OUTPUT HAS A LARGE EFFECT ON SOUND QUALITY.

This is why I decided to buy a headphone amp. I am still waiting for it to be built.

[BJ]

I don't know if I ever posted this before, but I found the Sharp units to sound "crisp" while the Sonys sounded "warm". As for the original post topic, I'll have to agree that what's best depends on your opinion, and what you expect to get out of your unit.