Sony MZ-RH10 Hi-MD Walkman Digital Music Player/Recorder

This is Sony's top-of-the-line consumer Hi-MD recorder/player. A similar device, a little cheaper, is the MZ-RH910, for which I have posted a long review. There are four differences between the cheaper MZ-RH910 and this model: the display, a remote control, a better battery, and a pouch. The display on this unit is beautiful. The stock images from Sony don't do it justice, so I took a picture of it and uploaded it onto Amazon (hover over the "customer image" thumbnails and click to see it). In my review for the RH-MZ910, I stated that this display was "probably more convenient." I understated the case; this display is much better, allowing you to easily see the display under subdued light or even in total darkness. The only place where the LCD on the RH-MZ910 is superior would be outdoors, where all the light washes out the RH-MZ10 Electro Luminescent display. The RH-MZ10 can be configured so that the display stays on all the time, or the factory setting is that it shuts off most of the display after a few seconds of no buttons being pressed to conserve battery power. The second difference between the RH-MZ910 and is that this unit has a wired remote control. You plug it into the headphone jack and plug your headphones into the remote control. I have not found it to be useful, it easier just to press the buttons on the unit itself. This unit is supplied with a battery that has about 40% more capacity than the MZ-RH910-- although it has the same form factor and it is interchangeable. Finally, this unit is supplied with a pouch big enough to hold the unit and earbuds.
I bought my other unit, the MZ-RH910, for its recording capabilities -- with an analog microphone, that unit and this one can record in uncompressed CD quality (44100 Hz 16 bit Stereo), as Sony calls it "a recording studio in the palm of you hand." To my knowledge, there are no other devices in this price range that can do this, except other Sony minidisc units. Sony has just (August 2005) released some "professional" models which include a microphone (the Hi-MD MZ-M100 is the analogous model). With the MZ-RH10 unit, you need a microphone to record -- I use the Sony ECM-719 -- about $65 -- which I believe is a better mic than the one included with the MZ-M100, both in quality and because it can also be used on non-Minidisc units.
I am very pleased with the quality of the recordings; and other people are usually quite impressed too. Minidiscs are also commonly used to record musical performances, either for practice, demos or to record concerts, though I don't use it for this. These units are also popular with journalists to record interviews. I use it, however, primarily to record the voices of my family and friends. Most people have their memories recorded in photographs and video, but audio is overlooked. However, voice recordings, especially good quality audio, invokes strong emotional responses and memories. Video, even with the highest quality equipment costing thousands of dollars, cannot substitute for it because when people are being videotaped, they become self-conscious and behave differently. The situations where you can shoot video are also much more limited--good lighting, your friends want to look good and be well dressed, etc. You can lay this machine down on the table and record, for example, your parents telling stories or your children, and get candid, authentic, high quality recordings that will sound the same in 20 years as they did the day you recorded them. The next step up from Hi-MD recorders is something like the MAudio Microtrack 24/96 which can record at better than CD quality, and has an impressive feature list, about $400 street price plus more $$ for a 1GB CompactFlash card - I don't know about it's reliability or ruggedness.
After I bought my other unit, the MZ-RH910, I realized I really liked the music-playing capabilities as well -- I must have been the last person in the developed world without an iPod or other digital music player -- and I now needed 2 units since my wife wanted a music player as well. So I researched digital music players. Many of the hard-disc units are very nice, but there was one thing I really disliked about them. Almost all the major brands, the newest units from Apple iPod, iRiver, and Cowon iAudio all had non-replaceable batteries. If this doesn't bother you, then you should probably consider one of these units. However, I really dislike the idea that in a year or two I'll have to send my unit to have the battery replaced, at significant expense, or buy a new unit. Also, I like to be able to load another battery immediately -- this unit also includes a side mounted AA battery holder, a great feature -- basically you will always have power for this unit if you have a spare gumstick battery or some AA batteries. The batteries for the minidisc can be had very cheaply, the Sanyo HF-A1U, a high capacity battery, can be found online for about $8, plus another $6-$8 for shipping. The hard-disk players I did find that had replaceable batteries all seemed to have reliability problems (Rio), or had other limitations -- such as the inability to play uncompressed audio natively (Sony NW-HD5 Network Walkman -- which I might have bought had it not been for this issue). Another advantage of the Sony minidisc units, is that I believe they are less delicate than hard disc units -- for example, my MZ-RH910 was dropped from a counter about 3 1/2 feet high and its perfectly fine. Also, these units have never skipped on me. One disadvantage compared to hard disc units is that minidiscs transfer speeds are not quite as fast -- so it takes a few more minutes to load a CD. This device will load and play back constant or variable bit rate MP3 -- but only the MPEG1 codec, not MPEG2 or 2.5. Almost all music will be MPEG1, but speech is sometimes recorded at the lower frequencies available in MPEG2. There is no convenient workaround either, since you cannot force Sonicstage to convert the files to another format -- though you can convert them one file at time in Sonicstage. The Sonicstage software used to transfer files to machine is cumbersome, especially if you are doing frequent transfers. Because of the lack of support for MPEG2 and the cumbersome nature of Sonicstage this device is not recommended for podcasts. The new Sonicstage 3.2 software, released in August 2005, which you may need to download from connect.com, will now encode mp3s from your CDs (at fixed bit rates only) -- though the version I received on the CD, 3.0, would not. You can load the music uncompressed though you will only be able to get 94 minutes on one minidisc -- but the fidelity is really stunning, and if you have good headphones you may want to use uncompressed for your favorite music. It's too bad the player doesn't support FLAC or another lossless format, which cuts the file size nearly in half.
Of course, with a Hi-MD player, you can't really put your whole music collection on one disc. I use the ATRAC3Plus 256 kbps format, which is the larger, higher quality format, it reduces the original uncompressed audio to about 20% of the original size. With this format, I have found you can get about 8 CDs on one minidisc. I have compared this ATRAC3Plus format to MP3s I made using LAME using the 320 kbps compression "insane" setting (the maximum quality and minimal compression permitted). The ATRAC3Plus sounds truer than the MP3 to the original uncompressed version, but you need good headphones to tell the difference. If you use the ATRAC3Plus 64kbps format (if you are using cheap earbuds, you may not notice the difference), you can get about 32 CDs on one minidisc. Additional Hi-MD minidiscs are about $7 each + shipping (Amazon charges a fortune to ship them for some reason, but you can buy them elsewhere). This unit and the MZ-RH910 are plastic instead of aluminum or magnesium, so they don't look as quite as pretty. Magnesium would probably have been nice, but I think plastic is better than aluminum which gets dinged too easily, and portable device like this is likely to be dropped a few times.
In summary: as a recording device, it is without equal for the price and size; as a music player you may want to consider it depending on your priorities.

I bought this mini-disk recorder to record lessons, master classes and concerts/recitals. Sound quality and clarity is excellent. It's fairly true to life, so it makes it easier to develop a more honest critique of your performance or lesson. I could record from the back of the concert hall and still get a wonderful recording with hardly any background noise. Price wasn't too bad considering how much other high-quality md recorders cost, and it is small enough to carry in your purse or bag without weighing it down. I can't say how good this would be for rock musicians, but I can definitely recommend it for any classical instrumentalist or classical singer. It's worth the investment.

I bought the Sony MZ-RH10 while looking for something to replace my iPod + iTunes. Granted I have a ton of music, however, I do not have time to listen to 60gigs of music nor do I want to scroll through 60gigs of music to find what I want to listen to.

Needless to say, I've found what I've been looking for. In walks the Sony MZ-RH10. People who want to "think" alike will have an iPod. Us folks, who want to "think" different, will have a MD Walkman. For me, the minidisc format is the ultimate solution. Yes, I can carry around as much music as I want, however, and more importantly, I can carry around JUST the music that I want. Depending on disc size, level of compression chosen, I can have up to 45 hours of music on one disc.

For those of you who love your mp3's, this player has all the mp3 support that you need. It supports all of the bit rates, tag info, and the player has built-in playlist support so you can play your favorite tunes in any order, and even shuffle them as well. The player also has a wide range of built-in editing features with regards to tagging and editing of recorded tracks. There's too many to list here.

On the recording front, and yes, there are many of us who love to record just about anything you can think of, I can record in analog or digital from multiple sources. I've been recording from different sources with cassette tapes since I was a kid, and this device takes me back, keeps me current, and will propel me into the future musically.

I would like to mention one more thing about the recording. I've read if you have two hours of music, then it takes two hours to transfer that music to the RH10. This is only true if you're plugged in directly to the source. Use the USB port on your computer and transfer albums to the RH10 in just minutes.

If you are reading this then you obviously were open-minded enough not to just think Ipod. Congrats. Now I'll tell you why this would be a better choice. I won't try to compete with that very accurate and thorough review that's already here, but I have to at least add another 5-star rating for this device.

SOUND. Though I have done a few audio recordings with my RH10, I use this primarily as a portable PLAYER. I've heard an IPod before, and I thought they sound terrible (as mp3s usually do anyway). Even though ATRAC is not a popular, universal format it is superior to mp3. I won't get into details about compression algorithms but just for an example even ATRAC at 132kbps sounds close to CD quality! This unit comes with a 5-band CUSTOMIZABLE EQ (Ipod only has presets). The battery option was already discussed... I enjoy having extra charged batteries ready to pop in when needed. I'll admit Ipod has the most intuitive and appealing display, but this OLED technology finally put minidisc on a higher level than minidisc used to be in terms of display. The display truly is better than photos show!

CAPACITY. Do I need 40gigs of music wherever I go? Even if I only had ONE HiMD disc with me, that's about 13 CDs (at the 132kbps quality). So imagine if you were going on a road trip and just grabbed five minidiscs (they're small, if you haven't held one). That's 5 gigs, 65 albums... would you even get past maybe 10 of them anyway? By the way, there is no threshold... you can always buy more discs (I usually get all mine on line).

DURABILITY. Yes, I've dropped mine too... several times. Minidisc players (I own a few) are TANKS. I knew someone who had a concern about OPENING a device and the mechanical parts involved etc. I tell you I've had more problems with HARD DRIVES than I have with minidiscs. Minidisc is like the Betamax was to VHS (superior quality, but just not popular due to Sony's poor marketing choices). Here's another important issue: THEY DON'T SKIP!! Minidiscs are beyond 'shock-protection'... truly they never skip. I've heard stories where some HD players actually have.

COOLNESS FACTOR. Let's face it.. everyone and their grandmother 'shuffle' around in the white earbuds. People see the minidisc and don't know what to think. GOOD. Be different!

A couple negative things: if you use manual recording levels frequently.. it won't remember your settings once you power it off. That is a kind of stupid oversight but in most cases, manual recording isn't really needed. Secondly, I don't get sony's need for you to have to push 2 buttons to activate record mode.. My old Sharp MD would automatically go into rec standby after you pushed the record button.. the mz-rh10 immediately starts recording.. you have to push play + record + pause if you want to go into standby. What is up with that Sony?
As a player, I love it. The display really is perfect.. very clear, very bright. Navigation is easy with the roller button and makes editing quick and painless. As a data storage unit it's great. Just plug it in and instantly it's recognised as a removable drive.. plug and play simplicity AND it's powered by the USB port so even if you're out of juice it'll work for you.
The sound is perfect and it has an EQ that allows you to save presets if you are looking for something specific soundwise.
So although the negatives may seem like big deals, they really aren't. It's Hi Def digital amp comes through with beautiful sounding recordings, it's awesome looking, and it's fast.. so I personally feel like the positives outweigh the negatives.

Just looking at features and sound quality the mini disk recorder puts the ipod to shame. Starting with the ability to record on seperate 1 gig disks keeping music and files organized to listen and find what you need quickly, for less than $6.00 a gig, and rerecord over 1000 times. The sound quality is what you expect from sony including preset and manual equalization. Having analog and optical inputs for external recording really sets it apart from ipod making it much more versitile. better display and smaller footprint is also a plus. After showing the recorder to two others that just bought ipods they returned them and purchased the mini disc recorder. Not well known and not a status symbol but hands down the better machine that does not need a reboot sequence. By the way I do have a 40 gig ipod as well.

You cannot record a music rehearsal via a microphone and then transfer it via USB to your computer for burning to CD. This has been the only consistent reason why I have not purchased a MD player and will continue to be the reason. I had high hopes that they would eventually change this in their newer players, but it seems that they are just trying to hide it better.

Here's what it says in the advertisment:
"With the included software you can transfer files from your PC to the MZ-RH10, and VICE-VERSA, at a break-neck, 100x transfer speed."

Here's what is says in the manual:
"Audio data that has been transferred from your computer and stored on the MD can be transferred back to MY Library of SonicStage on your computer"

Read the manual blurb carefully, you may not catch the limitation the first time you read it. The advertisement is true, but very misleading. So, why would I want this MD player? I'm not allowed to record my own music, transfer it to my computer, and burn a CD of it? Sony has gone overboard with copyright protection, and that's why they are losing the portable music player race. I don't dispute the MD's superior recording quality, but I think it's ridiculous to say that this device is for musicians given this fact.

This is the best portable audio-device I've ever had! It's small (the eternal benefit of MD-technology) and each disc can contain up to 1 GB of information, making it possible for me to have f.x. all the music that my favorite band R.E.M. has ever made on only ONE disc... it's great! This is possibly the best alternative there is to the iPod - plus you don't have to worry about expensive product-unique batteries that cost a fortune to replace! Buy it! :o)

I have always liked Sony's Minidisc format. Convenient and easily organized into collections. When my old one got stolen I looked at all the MP3s, IPODS etc, but all seem to have deficits- I dont need 4 million songs (are there 4 million songs?) The other big problem for my aging eyes are the displays. Too hard to read- but this display is Lucious!!! And despite other complaints the Sonic Stage 3.0 works fine (you just have to restart your computer 2 or 3 times during the install) You slap in the cd- it goes to the web and gets all the album info and diplays it in Electro Luminescent Splendor. Sound quality on highest quailty WAV is excellent, the compressed ATRAC 3 is less so, but I did get 45 songs on a 1 gig disk and still had 1/2 he disk free!!! The wav format is about 13-14 songs on 1 disk- to me the quality is worth it. This unit rocks!!! Get good head phones. Also the removeable rechargeable battery (hear that Apple?) is excellent with a backup power attachment that uses 1 AA battery so you are never stuck.

It has always been possible to transfer your own recordings (via microphone) from the RH10 to your computer in wav format.

But now with the new SonicStage 3.4 you can transfer ALL your music back and forth on this fantastic minidisc recorder!

This is a beautiful music player/recorder that has the additional attraction of being endlessly expandable (just load another minidisc).

I do a lot of my own recording (music concerts and meetings) and find the ease of use and clarity of sound to be spectacular. And now with SonicStage 3.4, there is just no reason not to jump on the minidisc wagon.

Forget that limited iPod everyone else is using and get the better performance and versatility of HiMD mindisc.

Thanks, Sony for making the RH10 even better!