Just got my R909! I'm actually very impressed with this little sucker. I wasn't expecting much, but Sony put in a number of little improvements... let me just brief you guys on a few... --DUAL VU METERS FOR LEFT AND RIGHT CHANNELS for both playback and recording! This is very impressive! During recording, the third line of the display is split into two, with the top half for LEFT and the bottom half for RIGHT. During playback, the dotted bar at the bottom is used to indicate the level... from what I can tell, the meters are split into left and right from the middle, and both bars move outward to indicate the level. If this doesn't make sense, I apologize, I'll explain more fully in my review next week... --Contrast adjustments on the main display... adjustable in 8 steps. This is like the contrast control you would have on your graphing calculator... there is NO backlight still, and it should be noted that the color of everything in the display is now a dark blue (like on the Sharp MT77), and no longer black as on previous Sony units. --The charging stand works with the R900 (and should work with the R90/91). I have no idea if Sony plans to make it available separately, but they certainly could. --The jog dial feels nice, and all three lines of the display are used to display track titles while searching through the songs with the jog dial. The track number AND name are displayed now, which is very nice. --SOUND settings can now be adjusted from the main unit, WITHOUT THE REMOTE. When changing the bass and treble settings, all 3 lines of the display are used, and (like with most of the menu options), you can use the "control pad" to make changes. --I really like the new playstation-style "control pad"... unfortunately it is not that firm, and gives a bit (feels a little mushy). Pushing it straight in hits PLAY, and the rest of the controls are clearly labeled. --The menu layout is even more vast than on the R900... the manual devotes 6 pages just to map out the various menus during different modes! I'll have full scans of these within the week... --I haven't gotten to play with the GROUP function at all yet, but it seems that the GROUP name acts sort of like the DISC name... the manual states that the GROUP name is stored in the discname area (the explanation in the English section of the manual is really minimal, so I need to explore this myself)... It seems that before recording, you can select a group, and then the recording will be placed into that group. And if you don't designate a group before a recording, it goes into a "new" group. Not sure how you create/name groups, but I'll let you guys know in more detail as I find out. Anyway... the color I have is blue, and it's a very warm blue (almost between blue and purple). If you guys are wondering anything specific, let me know, I'll try my best to address any questions. --Brian Youn The University of Texas at Austin alum [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp ----------------------------------------------------------------- To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
