Sony MZ-RH910 Hi-MD Walkman Digital Music Player

Manufacturer:	Sony
List price:	~~$249.95~~
Our price:	Too Low To Display that is 100% off!

Sony MZ-RH910 Hi-MD Walkman Digital Music Player

Average rating: Stars

not a bad product, but needs more support

so i bought this basically for the recording capabilites and i was having alot of problems with the software as most other users.
What i found to fix the errors in sonicstage was to upgrade to the latest version thru sony's website, (currently 3.1)
then load sonicstage, goto media info and initalize (format) the discs. After ive done that i havent got an error since then an its been a pleasure to use. :)

Sony MZ-RH910 Hi-MD Walkman Digital Music Player - Sony

A great tool for musicians...

I recently decided to abandon the use of my beloved Sony Pro-Walkman Cassette Recorder in favor of the Minidisc (MD) format. As a musician, the lure of being able to capture practice sessions, rehearsals, and gigs in a digital format was too great to resist, particularly with the price of first-class MD recorders dropping in recent years.

After a fair amount of research I purchased Sony's new MZ-RH910. What a delight! This unit (along with its higher priced big brother, the MZ-RH10) continues the evolution of Sony's Hi-MD format, introduced in 2004. (For a great intro to Hi-MD go to minidisc.org's site and look for the Hi-MD faq).

For me the biggest selling points of the MZ-RH910 were:
a) the ability to record in Linear PCM Mode...16 bits/44.1 kHz (i.e., uncompressed audio, CD quality). This is a biggie if you demand the absolute best recording fidelity,
b) the capability to perform high speed bi-directional audio transfers between the computer and the MZ-RH910,
c) the ability to save your uploaded recordings in WAV format (via the supplied software), at which point you can do pretty much anything you want with the file,
d) great battery life...30 hrs of playback in Hi-SP mode when the supplied rechargeable battery is used with a standard AA alkaline battery,
e) to these ears, recording in Hi-SP Mode is virtually indistinguishable from uncompressed mode (Linear PCM) in most cases,
f) very generous recording times...on a 1 GB Hi-MD disc you can get almost 8 hrs of recording time in Hi-SP Mode...[34 hrs (!) in Hi-LP mode],
g) for you MP3 addicts out there, the MZ-RH910 supports MP3, although you must use the supplied software for the transfer, i.e., no drag-and-drop.

Ok, that's all good, but what about the cons? Many reviewers complain about the lack of a backlit display. Yes, that woulda been nice but if you really need backlighting buy the MZ-RH10, which is essentially the same unit for about 100 bucks more.

My biggest complaint about the MZ-RH910 is that if you set your recording levels manually, as I almost always do in my work, the unit will revert back to "automatic recording level mode" every time you stop recording. That's a bit of a hassle...Sony should have allowed a feature whereby you could choose whether you want your default recording level adjustment mode to be "manual level setting" or "AGC" (automatic gain control).

And speaking of AGC, it works great in most instances where there are no sudden volume swings from loud to soft, or vice-versa. If you're doing basic voice recording or, say, recording a string quartet, choir, piano, etc., you'll be fine. But my experience shows that if you have sudden volume spikes (up or down) you'll get weird "pumping" and "clipping" effects. I'm a drummer and I got unacceptable results when recording in AGC mode when my playing had wide dynamic swings. This behavior is not unique to the MZ-RH910 - it's a limitation of most AGC systems. Just be aware that if your intent is to use the MZ-RH910 for live music performance with widely varying dynamics, you'll need to manually set your recording levels.

One other drawback I found on this unit is that the headphone output volume is not as loud as I'm used to. The volume output of my old Sony Pro-Walkman Cassette Recorder is substantially hotter than the MZ-RH910. Don't get me wrong - the MZ-RH910 gets loud enough for standard headphone use (protect your ears, please!!), but as a musician I often need to plug the MZ-RH910 into external sources via its headphone out jack (no dedicated line-out on this unit). A bit more output volume headroom on this unit would have been welcome, but I've been able to compensate by adjusting the volume on whatever I'm plugging it into (mixer, stereo system, etc.).

On another note, make sure you understand how Sony's aggressive copyright protection scheme works and what limitations it may present for you (other reviewers on this site have explained this quite well). I called Sony to make sure I grasped the whole scenario, with the result being that there's nothing I can't work around if necessary. (Unless your intent is to make pirated digital copies and distribute them will-nilly, you'll be fine.)

All in all I'm thrilled with the MZ-RH910! The bottom line is sound quality and useability -- this unit sounds fabulous and is easy to use. Sony's been making great stuff forever and this unit is no exception to that legacy. It was quite a thrill to capture my group's musical performance in uncompressed digital audio, upload it to my PC via the USB connection, convert it into a WAV file, and burn it to a CD. Now THAT'S something to get excited about!!

Sony - Sony MZ-RH910 Hi-MD Walkman Digital Music Player

Up to 34.9 hours of non-stop music!

Ok, all of my friends have IPODs or some other type of either hard drive based or memory chip technology based devices. And YES, they do cost about the same or less than this device. So why did I spend my hard earned money on an aging technology like the Mini-Disc?
Well, is it really aging? Of course it is, and getting better every minute! Sure, you can record millions of times on any minidisc with no noticeable degradation of signal quality. But I like the long term facts that I'll still have my MDs long after all of those other devices are already dead and gone and buried in some landfill somewear. Now don't get my wrong, my device will be buried right along side theirs. But I'll still have my music collection and most likely a newer device to play them in. And with Sony kicking the tires on this technology and coming up with such things as ATRAC 3 and ATRAC 3-plus, I'm sure that ATRAC 11 is right around the corner! Hell, I've already got 13 CDs on my Hi-MD 1 GB mini-disc and I'm not even halfway to it's storage limit! Sheesh! It's small, it's compact and the MDs just don't break. Sure, it's an aging technology... but something do get better with age, don't they?!

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