[leon]

This is somewhat off-topic (i.e. non-sound-quality), but... Sony is saying that there are changes to the battery life of these units, due to redesigns in the transport and the servo.

MZ-E10
SP: 29 --> 23-hour (-6)
LP2: 35-> 33-hour (-2)
LP4: 40-hour (no change)

MZ-N10 (playback/record)
Li-ion rechargeable
SP: 23/9 ----> 17/8.5 (-6/-0.5)
LP2: 27/13 -> 20/11 (-7/-2)
LP4: 30/16 -> 24/14 (-6/-2)

Li-ion and AA alkaline
SP: 58/23 --> 42/15 (-16/-8)
LP2: 71/33 -> 52/20 (-19/-13)
LP4: 77/41 -> 58/26.5 (-19/-14.5)

Sony also posted figures for the AA alkaline used alone, implying that this can be done on the N10. Sony has also put up "eCatalog" pages for both models, and you can see the E10 now comes in gold color too.
http://www.ecat.sony.co.jp/audio/wal...0168&KM=MZ-E10

 

[myself, aka me]

23 hours? I wonder how accurate that is..
So no changes in the release date then?
Surely they should release info on the MZ-E710 soon..
And that gold looks funky!

Waaaaa minidisc.org give me E710 info! yay!
6 band EQ
148 hour playback
Virtual phone technology (for giving you ''that 'side stage' feeling", according to sony)

 

[Tina]

curious. it's either sony was panicky to announce the press releases of these units after they learned the ds8 was coming out a few weeks ago so they have to give nice figures on the battery life. or the units in their beta form were unstable. or they had totally screwed engineers who didn't know right from left when testing the battery life.

either way, this totally shows how sony tries to glaze the eyes of the public to crave for their md products a couple of months before they will be released. i wouldn't even be surprised if ayumi hamasaki will be in their e10 ads again

.

 

[leon]

Sony seems to do a lot of last-minute fixes on their products. CD, MD walkmans, the Clies... sanding off excess gaps, masking tape-type adhesion... this might just be another one of those. Floating wires all over the circuit board...

The Japanese standard battery life test is 4 hours of playback every 24 hours, at specific room conditions (temperature, air pressure), sitting on a flat surface, all-repeat. Like the fuel consumption of cars, I think certain tweaks can be done so that the battery life is extended without breaking the law. These tweaks might have consequences in everyday use, but hey, we're all struggling human beings.

ayumi probably has a contract with panasonic, teehee.

 

[Tina]

Quote:

Originally posted by leon ayumi probably has a contract with panasonic, teehee.

probably got pissed off with the openmg that came with the free n1.

5mW per channel @ 16 ohms, 23 hours of sp playback on unremovable li-ion battery, it seems to be a good unit to be strolling around indoors. if the battery power dies in school, it'll be a good paper weight. one free space in my christmas list.

 

[andrzejpw]

Hmm, is it just me, or has sony sort of run out of "miraculous" battery life changes? I mean, there's only so far you can go, right?

 

[myself, aka me]

Quote:

Originally posted by Tina probably got pissed off with the openmg that came with the free n1. 5mW per channel @ 16 ohms, 23 hours of sp playback on unremovable li-ion battery, it seems to be a good unit to be strolling around indoors. if the battery power dies in school, it'll be a good paper weight. one free space in my christmas list.

Actually, it would make a pretty lame paperweight. It only weighs 55 grams

 

[tbdoah]

bear in mind two things:

1) the battery is only 3mm
2) maybe for once Son didn't "fudge" their battery times. I dunno, but Sharp doesn't, so maybe Sony will finally tell the truth!

 

[leon]

If you find this to be a bad analogy, don't sue me

What Sony has wrought in the battery life of their portables is quite like how Intel has handled CPU clock speed. Circa 98-99 Sony came out with ways to dramatically bump up battery life, things like running the spindle at 2x, 3x speed, using specific IC/LSIs instead of sharing with the home decks (the other makes haven't always followed). There can be consequences, like waiting for the spindle to power on and accelerate, and moody, "seasonal" battery power demand.

Sony set themselves up, more or less... when they want to stop pushing battery life (within cost constraints), they suffer from the public whom they've "educated" in their marketing to think the longer, the better. Some people think this is what Intel did with Pentium 4... when they start offering new things at "only" 1.4, 1.6GHz, they'll suffer from the perception they wanted the consumers to have.

If we were without cost constraints, then we could use 0.13-micron process to make the LSIs more thrifty... use better motors...but I don't see how portable audio would ever be without severe cost constraints today.

 

[linnem]

What on earth do you do when the build in battery dies??? Throw the MD out?

 

[Tina]

Quote:

Originally posted by linnem What on earth do you do when the build in battery dies??? Throw the MD out?

disposable md?

send the unit to your nearest sony service center and they'll replace the battery for you. if this is included within the warranty period, i'm sceptical. anyway, if you know how to take care of li-ions, the battery will last for three years more or less.

 

[leon]

On some types of equipments (e.g. Palm PDAs) the battery is fixed, probably glued, and not meant to be removed. In that case, if the battery dies during the warranty period, you send your unit back, the companies will probably give you a new unit. I heard Handspring did this a lot.

The E10 battery is not meant to be removed by us lay people, but it's probably easily removed when you open up the back? A reason for doing this is probably that making it non-removable saves on space and weight. You don't need as much space for battery contacts that are non-removable, and there might be less reliability issues, and these couple of grams matter in competition.

 

[martioz]

I like this idea.
I wish get my hands on disposed MD units

DIY goldmine....

 

[purk]

Tina,
Quote:

if this is included within the warranty period, i'm sceptical. anyway, if you know how to take care of li-ions, the battery will last for three years more or less.

Is this a way of Sony telling the consumer that their MD will only last up to 3 years.

Darn it Sony!!

Purk

 

[andrzejpw]

Quote:

Originally posted by linnem What on earth do you do when the build in battery dies??? Throw the MD out?

of course not! you buy a new one!