Sony MZ-R55 Review

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Sony MZ-R55
3.3 stars
Average rating for this product is: 3.3 out of 5

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Rob.'s Review of Sony MZ-R55 Portable Mini Disc Player

10th Jul 2003

Overall Rating

2 stars
  • Value for money
    3 stars
  • Sound Quality
    2 stars
Good Points

Easy to use. Nice remote control.


Bad Points

Heavy. Short battery life. Poor sound quality.


General Comments

This was the first portable MD recorder I purchased and I didn't quite realise how mediocre it was until it broke and I got a new player.

My MZR-55 broke after just over a year of me having it - 1 month outside the warrenty. After doing some research on the Net, I discovered that this was unnervingly common and quite a few people had similar "MZR-55 sudden death" incidents, despite treating the unit well.

Having forked out nearly £200 for it at the time and being told that to repair it would cost at least £100, I vowed not to buy Sony MD products again and to sink my cash into a new setup. I got a Panasonic player-only unit and a Yamaha MD deck for recording.

Invariably, this'll end up being something of an unfair comparison (as the Sony is a recorder while my Panasonic is player-only). My Panasonic player feels like a feather compared to the Sony, is significantly smaller, has noticably superior sound quality and a battery life of 15+ hours (still going strong after 2 years) verses the Sony's 3 hours (which seems to drop to more like 2 after a year or so).

I cringe when listening to recordings I made with the Sony. It is a blurry, muddy and mushy sound verses the crispness and detail of the Panasonic/Yamaha combo. While this combo is obviously not the last word in performance by any means, it puts the Sony to shame in all departments.

The moral of the story? Buy a fixed MD recorder deck and a decent player-only MD portable if you want decent performance and avoid Sony (or buy a good extended warrenty).

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