Sharp MD-MT90 Full Review

[joelongwood]

Very interesting, informative, and entertaining discussion. If ratings were still available, this would be 5 stars easy!

[thomas]

yeah, i also think the 821/31 are among the best MD units ever made (should have gotten it instead of my MD-MT20 )

I'm wondering if Sharp's equalization is in the analog stage as MacDEF says, or if there is actually an automatic digital EQ built-in.... In the minidisc.org 'hacking' page, someone mentioned that

I've read a number of comments that the Sharp has "stronger" bass than Sony machines -- this has been my experience, too, so I decided to see if I could get a "flat" output from it. I went into test mode, went to EEPROM settings, then to "DEQSET," and changed all the settings to hexadecimal "00" (except for FLp, because that's the only one that's not in the 7xx EEPROM, so I figured it could be something that the MT15 needs.) Well, it seems to have worked -- after comparing the sound before and after, and comparing the same disk to my wife's un-hacked Sharp 702, the hacked MD-MT15 has a much different sound to it, one that I personally prefer. The bass is not as emphasized nearly as much, and it gives a much clearer sound to the music overall, also more definition to things that were almost drowned out by the bass.

I wonder if this is actually true, i've been into service mode, but i'm very hesitant to change the settings. Does anyone here want to give this a try?

http://www.minidisc.org/sharp_md_mt15_service_mode.htm

[becomethemould]

thanks guys for the info, yeah it was line IN not out.. i've been into the setup menu for the 832, i dont get an option like the one u are talking about, maybe it's for the older ones.. u can change it back i think, so probably just write down what the default settings were

i cant read the manual for my md.. the bulk is in japanese, so i got help from leon hehe

[Deuce_Bigalow]

Even if the headphone jack can double as a true lineout it's better to have a separate line out to save wear and tear on the connections in the headphone jack when you use the line out. Headphone jacks always eventually wear out. Especially newer low end Sony players.

[blr]

I own a Sharp MT66 (866 in some countries) and used to own Sony r70.
I compared the sound and the difference is not that big IMO except that the Sharp has more powerfull output. It is true that the Sharp is a bit warmer and bassy, but to hear the difference one need to use fairly revealing headphones. Even with Sony E888 they sounded very similar.