I had read a little bit about the MD-ST70 at T- Station and on the alt.audio.minidisc newsgroup. I ordered it from HyperJack, along with an international voltage adapter, and received it two weeks ago. In those two weeks, I've taken a few notes on the unit to form a review.

The ST70 is a bit larger and thicker than Sharp's top of the line MDLP portable, the ST77, and is roughly the same size as the Sony MZR-90 portable recorder.

The ST70 is a clamshell case with what Sharp calls "open top insertion" (which is basically like every other clamshell case). A unique feature of the ST70 are 9 LEDs on the front in groups of three different colors. When a single play MD is being played, the bank of green lights will flash. When an LP2 disc is played, the bank of blue lights flashes, and LP4 mode is indicated by the group of orange lights. It's a nice little gimmick that increases the aesthetic appeal of the unit, as does the availablity of 5 different colors.

The power is provided by a gumpack NiMH cell, and is charged on a recharging stand provided with the player, with an external AA battery pack provided if needed. On a full charge (about three and a half hours), you can expect about 24 or so hours of single play mode time, with more in LP mode. Also provided is a felt bag carrying case, a set of earbud headphones, a plastic carrying case for the battery, a Japanese instruction manual, and a backlit stick remote. It's worth noting that people who don't care for Sharp's stick style remotes can substitute the remote of their choice on the ST70. I used the remote of my aging Sharp MT-821 domestic (American) recorder, and it's fully functional with this imported player.

There are only five buttons on the unit itself, located on the back of the player: stop/hold, +/- volume, and track backwards/forwards. All other functions, including setup options for turning off the system beep, play mode LED setup, etc., MUST be done with the remote.

In conducting listening tests with the ST790, I discarded the slippery (and unpadded!) earbuds provided with the unit, and opted for a pair of Sony "street style" headphones (MDR-G82LP) I purchased from Minidisco. The ST70 does not feature the multi-level tone control found in Sharp's more expensive players, and instead, uses a three step "X-bass" setting. Although this Sharp player is a bit louder than the Sony MZ-R90, the bass tends to get thin at higher volume levels. Depending on the kind of music you're listening to, it's usually sufficient to leave the bass boost to 2 out of 3, which helps the sound at higher volumes.

It's also worth noting that the ST70 sounds quite good playing back LP2 recordings with superb fidelity. LP4, using it's stereo separation based encoding, sounds a bit like FM radio, or low bitrate MP3.

All in all, this is an attractive player with decent sound, and an option to consider for people in the market for an MDLP player that doesn't cost as much as the Sony MZ-E900 or Sharp MD-ST77. One might wait for the price of the ST70 to drop below $200 before making a purchase, however. If MDLP isn't important to you, consider an older SP only portable that can be had with more features at a lower price.