Price Paid:  $350.00 from Sony Centre

Summary:
ah... my new md at birthday time rolled around this year and it was time to move up in the world of portable audio! since i now have an md deck in my hi-fi i opted for a player-only model as opposed to my previous recorders. if you want an md that is as small and light as possible, this is the dogs wotsits, the world's smallest in fact! besides the sheer convenience, the mze-900 is hard as nails! my experience of mds in the past is that they are so horrendously fragile, which when combined with my tendency to drop them, has meant breakage after breakage. this model, however, is still bangin' out the tunes un-fazed after several life-threatening shocks of equal calamity to those which very promptly knocked the stuffing out of my old ones. i am very impressed, and oh-so-very relieved!

Strengths:
tough as a magnesium old boot! YAY! so light in fact, that if you drop it, there is a very good chance that it won't come off the end of your 'phones cable! dangle baby! YAY! top-class sound quality across the most complete dynamic range i have heard from a portable md to date. oh-so-sexy styling; square, brushed metal case, under-stated yet exuding class. battery life is great at up to 40hrs on a full charge of it's gum battery alone. choc-full of features like a snickers is full of peanuts; disc memory, independent bass and treble controls with 3 personalisable sound settings (suits my sennheiser cans so well), mdlp, and even a bleedin' pitch control! SORTED!

Weaknesses:
hmmm... the top of the range models are always very, VERY EXPENSIVE. as the electronics get smaller the prices get exponentially larger... particularly when dealing with a mega-brand like sony, who, in fairness, do over-price most of their products to some degree. but then again, you can't really hold this contraption up to the same standards of madness as what we're asked to shell out for a pair of same-old jeans with some blokes name written on them... cos it is the best example of portable md technology in the world.

Similar Products Used:
mzr-55, mzr 70. note: the mze-909 is the same thing, but isn't half as tough, looks HIDEOUS in comparison and has a well-suspiscious door catch. buy the mze-900 instead cos it's better and will be ch

Price Paid:  $450.00 from richer sounds

Summary:
5 stars in this review means, "far better than you imagined". I imagined 1210s to be excellent, i got a pair, and they *were* far better than i imagined, these are so absolutely incredible, no-one would have changed from Vinyl to cds or tapes if they owned them. Buy one (or two), get a nice needle for them, a nice amp, and some great records and enjoy them for the rest of your life, Believe me, they''ll last that long, they will outlast you. Forget the rest, Vestax, numark etc etc. They are a nasty cheap joke to these monsters. Take a risk and stand on these babys, and watch the world spin at EXACTLY 33 and one third RPM. Try it on a leading competitor and get bits of plastic and wood all over your floor. These are even worth considering over and above audiophile sets, Although they don''t sound Quite linn-ish enough to be ranked as the best sounding ever.

Strengths:
Build quality (Solid rubber base, Solid aluminum top) Sound, stability, Excellent everything.

Weaknesses:
Very expensive, And also, if you ever mention you have these you''ll get always get some spa saying crap about how they''re 20 year old design is crap etc etc etc.

Similar Products Used:
Vestax 2000s, Kam everythings, Numark pro, Linn 12k.

Price Paid:  $250.00 from Sony Store

Summary:
A fantastic player. I recommend getting this unit + a recorder like the Sony MDS-JB940 deck for the ultimate MiniDisc setup.

It will be difficult for Sony to drastically improve on this player. As the previous review stated, the E909 is better, but not all that big of an improvement other than the longer battery life. Great job Sony.

Strengths:
Small design, light weight, build quality, ease of use, sound clearity, functionality.

Weaknesses:
Remote is slightly difficult to use with one hand.

Similar Products Used:
other Sony portables

Price Paid:  $280.00 from Sony Store

Summary:
Again, I cannot stress how amazingly light, tiny, and well built this unit is. It can be put in any pocket (i.e. shirt, sock, underwear..) and forget it's even there! Controls are well designed and feel excellent to the touch.

Sound quality is amazing – all ranges are perfectly clear and no range is overpowering or muffled. Absolutely top quality…and all of this on my cheap $15CAN Sony ear-buds!!!!

I won’t get into heavy praising of the MD format, but as a long time user (since 1996), I can say that there is not one negative thing about the MD format. At the beginning when I first got into MD, I had doubts about it surviving the market trends among other audio formats, however, as time passed over the years, Sony and the MD format have impressed me all the way. Sure, MP3s are convenient for those net-users and napster pirates but memory is expensive. As well MP3/CD players are flakey! CDs have top quality reference sound (what else is good about it?)....but MD has *all* the best of both formats – hands down.

So basically to all those nay-sayers who doubt this format, I strongly encourage anyone to get into MD – especially those who listen to music while on-the-go or even while exercising. Considering MD as an alternative to CD? NO! CD is the alternative now!!! =) List 1 CD album where you would actually listen to every song with the same equal pleasure...can’t eh? Heh...

As for a portable player? I highly recommend the MZ-E900. Perhaps the MZ-E909 is minutely better in every way over the E900 (however, except it’s plain/boring looks!...and more features don’t always mean better), but who knows if it'll even arrive anywhere outside of Japan. The E909 does support an international power supply but if you are willing to pay the extra $$$ for shipping and border fees, by all means.

Either way...bring-on that daily subway commute to work!!! Yeehaw!

Strengths:
- absolutely fantastic full magnesium construction
- sound quality - with good earphones (actually, anything better than the buds provided with the unit..) the sound quality is AMAZING
- remote is fantastic - blue lit background LCD - very cool
- features - custom playback modes, program order for 20 MDs, customable bass and treble adjust, sound presets, MDLP (standard, 2x, 4x)
- won’t skip while playing (unless you got a crazy-psychotic type twitch in ur eye)
- 29 hours playback in Standard play mode with that tiny stick battery alone!!! Amazing…
- looks very slick!

Weaknesses:
- included ear-buds is the cheapest quality
- annoying "beep" when switching songs/tracks using the remote stick - using the unit doesn't "beep" tho =) (this is preference tho - some like the beep)
- comes with a special battery charger, so you need to take the battery out and charge it (unlike old players where you used the player to charge the battery, or the new MZ-E909 where it comes with a cradle and you charge the battery like how the Palm V works)
- price, slightly expensive, but you'll never need another player...ever!

Similar Products Used:
Sony MZ-E3

Price Paid:  $300.00 from Sony Inside(best price in Sweden)

Summary:
Much has beesn said about this ,but some criics say that there is one macabre fault on the E900,it is FRAGILE.One misstake and is goes apart in ..you know! The truth is that alla electronic portable devices is extremely fragile , eaven robust sportportable devices, will broke if they are dropped on any surface in an ANGLE that will make them hit the ground so that the OPENINGmechanism will be damaged.This damage is the most usual fault on any md and the cause is that mds on this spot is very fragile, and if the made land on this spot on the mechanism, the openingmechaism can ore in many cases WILL be broken, and it will be hard ore imopssible to open and take oou and mD-disc and insert it again! Therfore it is EXTREMLY important NOT to drop the MD on any surface EVER and NEVER subject it to high moisture, water, dircet sunlight, extreme heat, chocks, strong electromagnetic fields like fron speakers and other things that beams out this , .MD are fragile and finemechinic devices that neads to be cared well, like portable pC´s . Who will ever drop a portable PC and say: " Why did it broke,dooh!It is a bad pC!!". Only fools with will balame Sony if the have submittted there MD for extreme chcoks, sun, heat and other bad enviroments.If you drop your MD this will i most cases not be covered by ANY warranty and you will be chrged full for ALL reparation-costs!!!! Finally. This is a very priceworthy product,if you can afford it.If not, save some time so you can buy it. It is the best MD that have ever beenmade from Sony and truuly and amazing product.Extremly long life,LP2,¤ and normalplay, new form of Shock-G protection that works better than the older not so funtional shcokmemeory 20secs ore 40secs.My old JVC worked ba don this, dispite it hade 40 second sof chock-memory, the disc flopped and flipped manytimes when I ran och wa sjogging and eaven sometiem swhen I was walking.With this babe,you can jump,run, walk, do what evcer you whant, until this date, it has never broken the sound for ANYTHING but me pushing the "powe off"-buttom... Truly one of the top ten greatest audiodevices of ALL TIME. BUY IT AND FORGET ALL YOUR TRUBLES, BECORSE WHEN YOU HAVE THIS BABE IN YOUR HANDS; THERE GONE.

A very very happy owner of a Sony MZ-E900.

Strengths:
*Very smooth and good loking product *Remote controll is very easy to learn to handle and is easy to place on your shirt *Good detailed manuel on booth swedish and english (most Sonys have also german,french,italian etc..)! *VEry good support and many places that can repair the product becorse of Sonys huge size as a company ! * Low price compared to products with equall functions, size and quality.

* Many, many functions! Moore than most other MD out there untills this date ...
* It has custumized sound-setting, very rare-cool!
*It has a long and very easy to read display on the remote,the tetx is moving also an dsupports very long texts.
*It has personolized discmemory,it can store separate soundsettings and othe rinofr for many discs, very good!
*It is the smallast and one of the thinnest players around!
*It is extremly light eaven with disc and battyry in.
*Very long battery life.I I used mine foor veeks now(not every day)with only the gum-battery and it keeps gooing and gooing.... It has way moore batterylife anyone can demand for this can of product. Compared to both cd-players,mp3players and other formats, this outperforms them all in batterylife I think, and it has the bets editing and custum.-function on any md -player Ive ever seen!

* Easy to open and inser and take out disc. Very smooth operation.If so small and light you cant eaven feel it in your pocket , but you can hear its music...

*Much moore, but I have no time to mention them all, there are to many good things about this product...

Weaknesses:
So far...nothing,.Ive have tested it and can not find any disadvantages on this little baby! It has everything you EVER can demand and imagine on a portable MD, and eaven much moore. It demands some big cash to buy, but saving to this sucker is worth defenetly, becorse you will never ever have to buy a new portable MD ever.Why? BEcorse you willfind that this babe is too good for Sony, becorse those that have this product will be so happy about it that they will niver want to buy a new MD!!!!(not before it breaks).
Soem say its fargile,moore about that in the summary...

Similar Products Used:
I have used and tested two other MD´s, JVC 1999 blue light and HQ audio portable MD (JVC's only model at that time).Much heavyer than this babe, and much much shorter batterylife (8 hrs with gum,SOny E900 has aroudn 40 hrs on one gum-charge!!!!). And also one older Sony portable that had much shorter batterylife and mucj less functions..So far I would say the product is much better than any other I ever used on many aspects (soundquality,batterylife,functionality, number of usefull functions, design and so on..).