Some people regard the R50 as the "absolute norm" - some kind of ideal form
for an MD portable. My guess is that after the R50, MD portables generally
became caught up in a somewhat pathetic quest for better stastical
performance (low power consumption, for example).
I don't know what the R50's amp output is, but if it's over 5+5mW then that
may be a reason enough for some of us to pursue it.
I've read a lot of discussion on headphone amp output. A lot of people
claim that the smaller the output, the "lighter" and thus "sharper" the
sound, but that it actually sounds somewhat unsettled. It seems that
greater output generally gives a stronger sense of depth and scale.
This issue is not just limited to MD portable, of course. And it's not that
the portables with less output are not "good"; it's just that I'd always
like to see a maximization of the sonic potentals. :-)
Back to the Sony portables discussion. I have the R900. The nice thing is
that every time you use it, you realize how hi-tech it is. It prompts you
to "pushENTER", shows you how much data is left to be encoded, and revs up
like nothing else (aside from 45x search cassette walkmans).
The one major complaint I have of the R900 is the way it handles power. The
battery indicator "spasms" all the time as it draws some extra power to
start the spindle, read, write, and so on. Sometimes I'd start recording
confident that I've got plenty of power left, then come back 5 minutes
later, to find the R900 cut itself off from an empty battery.
There are parts of the operation logic (i.e. how you go about operating)
that are erratic to me. However, this is probably a personal issue and
isn't quite a reason for affecting decision-making.
I realize these may all be a bit irrelevant to the questions... sorry bout
that.
Leon
on 2/5/01 11:43 AM, Ed Heckman at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
At 2/4/01 3:15 PM, John Small wrote:
Since both are available (R50 at $250, R90 at $220) is there one reason to
prefer one model over the other? Beyond the R90 issue is there some
reason to
prefer the R900 over either the R50 or R90, aside from the LP feature? These
are the only three portable player/recorder models being considered.
Wow, I'm surprised no one answered this yet.
All other things being equal, the R900 is far superior to the older
machines. It's battery life is longer, it's faster (more responsive) than
the R55 and R90; but not the R50. It finally allows you to set it so End
Search is automatic. And it supports MDLP, which IMNSHO, is a big step
forward.
The only real drawback to it is that it has one output for both
headphones and line out. It uses a software setting to control the output
instead of a hardware switch, and it reverts to headphone mode at the
drop of a hat. But this is just a minor annoyance in an excellent design.
In short, unless there's a particular reason not to, get the R900 over
other choices. I have one and I'm VERY happy with it.
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