Let me start off by saying the only MD equipment
I've owned is the Aiwa AM-F70. The E900 is an
amazing little player. The size is amazing but
the thing that struck me was the weight. I was
truly shocked the first time I picked it up. I
still chuckle to myself everytime I pick it up
cause it's so small and light. The remote works
very well, the screen displays all the info you
need. On the unit itself, are the volume up,
down, stop, ff/play, rew, a red light that comes
on when it's playing, and the AVLs so you need
the remote to do pretty much everything else. It
has two sound settings that you can customize
with the 8 step bass and treble. It's nice cause
you can just press the sound button once or twice
to go back to normal so you can play it through
your stereo etc. One thing that really bothers me
is the beep when I'm playing it through my car
stereo because it makes it sound really loud.
When you press the display button it illuminates
until the name of the song has finished scrolling
which is nice. Also when you first play a song it
will scroll the name then show the elapsed time
from for the rest of the song.
Some of the features are adjustable speed, timer,
personal disc memory, and MDLP. The adjustable
speed is fun to play around with but I probably
won't ever use it for a real reason. The timer
may come in handy some day, who knows. Personal
disc memory is a nice touch, it will remember
your sound settings, play mode, and volume for
that disc but it can only remember that for 20
discs. It has play one, one repeat, all repeat,
shuffle, shuffle repeat, and program play. One
thing I noticed is that the shuffle mode is truly
random so that you may hear some songs twice
before you've listened to all the songs on the
disc, I would rather it not be this way, i'd
rather listen to all of the songs first. The
remote and the unit are both very solid, in my
opinion anyways. When you slide the open slider
the lid pops up and the disc slides out a little
which is great compared to my aiwa. The charger
that came with the unit will hold the battery and
plug directly into the wall. I thought this was
nice cause while the battery is charging you
could use the external battery, however I had to
buy an adaptor since I live in the US. The only
negatives I've seen so far are truly random
shuffle, can't turn the beep off(as far as i
know), and if you have it on shuffle and you
switch discs it goes back to normal play. The
unit looks great, sounds great, and is incredibly
small. So if you have the money it's definately
worth it.
Ive used this unit for a little while now and ill
have to say that it has been the best Mini Disc
portable that i have ever used. I have been
through quite a few MD Portables(MZR30,MZR50,
MZE25,MZR55)and i have stuck with Sony all the
way through. My last MD unit was the MZR55 which
served me well(even with the average battery life)
but as i never used the recording feature a
player only model seemed the way to go. On
receiving the unit,the first thing i realised was
how incredibly small and light it is. You could
put this in your shirt pocket and not even
realise that it is there. It had a remote not too
disimilar to my MZR55 remote in looks and size.
The fascia had that brushed "audiophile" look
which i found very appealing. It does not have an
LCD display on the unit(like everyone else)but
thats not a bad thing. I mostly have the unit out
of harms way anyway when im using it,with only
the remote at hand. After charging the battery
(the old NH-14WM)i was stunned to find that on
the rechargable battery alone playback time was
optimally 29hrs. Now that was a huge leap over my
old MZR55s 4hrs. The battery comes with a little
recharging unit(which the NH-14WM drops into)
which plugs directly into the wall...very funky.
A step up from the old mega bass is the "sound"
button. This button can memorise up to two preset
sounds(bass and treble adjustable -4 to +3)and
accessing it via the "sound" button on the remote
is easy. Which is where you will be doing most of
your button pushing. Some people cannot seem to
get to grips with these sony remotes but i cant
understand why as one hand operation is so easy.
It is in fact exactly like my old MZR55 remote
other than having to "pull out" the "turning bit"
to gain access to volume control. I recommend
getting better headphones as everyone else also
says as the supplied ones are "ok". Im using it
with a pr of 848s and the difference over the old
buds was amazing. If you can afford it the 888s
are quite excellent as well. After all this
though,how does it sound?. Well i felt that the
bottom end(courtesy of the adjustable bass/treble
controls)was awesome and with a slight tweaking
of the treble was made to give an excellent
overall balance in sound(my 848s are the same
buds i was using on my MZR55). Are there any
complaints?definitely not,it has all the
attributes of a great player ie small size and
weight,loooong battery life,great sound,great
looks(which doesnt hurt)and many years of MD
playback(i can attest to that as ive dropped it a
few times,something we all do,and it is still
functioning perfectly). So if you are in the
market for a top end MD player then definitely
give this machine a look over(and listen). You
will be amazed just as much as i was and still am
to this day. Happy listening.