[skagen]

I'm looking at buying a portable MD player/recorder and have narrowed it down to three. their internal headphone amps are rated as follows:

a) Sony MZ-R910 (5mW into 16 Ohms)
b) Sharp MD-DR7 (8mW into 32 Ohms)
c) Sharp MD-MT180 (10mW into 32 Ohms)

The assumption here is that I am using the same earphone for all: the Sennheiser MX-500 earbuds, with 32 Ohm of resistance. So the headphone part is known already.

I previously used an MZ-R900 (5mW into 16 Ohms). I loved the design, but found the sound into headphones a bit weak in bass and also in total volume. So as I shop for a replacement, I'm trying to get an improvement in the sound into earphones.

My priority is the sound, so what I'm trying to find out is for these given headphones (Sennheiser MX-500), whether the $289 unit (Sharp MT-DR7, 8mW into 32 ohms )is going to produce a MEANINGFULLY better (louder + deeper bass) sound than the $229 unit (the Sony MZ-R910, 5mW into 16 Ohms).

Or will neither produce any menaingful improvement over the MZ-R900 - which probably means that I might as well go with a cheaper low-budget Sharp model (MT180).

I have got some varying opinions from other folks but nothing conclusive at this point to help me drive a buying decision.

Does anyone have any input of insight to offer?

 

[myself, aka me]

The Sharp DR7 has amazing detail and deep bass - without any bass boost. The bass boost also boosts the bass while leaving the rest of the spectrum alone. I compare it to my R37, and I find the R37 incredibly weak.

The MT180 probably sounds better than the R910 but not quite as detailed as the DR7. In fact, from what i've heard from other DR7 owners, and from my own experience, the DR7 sounds the best of the modern portable MD recorders.

 

[swalker]

Depends on what kind of sound you're looking for.

Sony R910, well, I haven't listened to the units, but I've heard R900 and N1. If that's any indication R910 indeed is louder than R900(I'm still wondering why most Sony MD units have the same rating of 16ohm and 5mW when they are clearly different) and its bass would be a bit better but it still has that Sony sound. In other words, if you were unhappy with R900's sound characteristics, you probably will not like R910 either. From what i've seen, if you like R900's design, you'll love R910's design. It has all the typical Sony bells and whistles as well as a remote control that is, in my opinion, blows away Sharp ones.


MT180 has the old school Sharp sound - very warm sound with lots and lots of bass. The feeling is that of powerfulness. The downside is, its the treble region sounds somewhat muffled and thus compared to the later Sharp models it lacks details in te high end. Being an international model, it's bulky and doesn't have the sexiness of other models especially since you liked R900. I must mention that it's a solidly built model tho.

DR7. I haven't seen the unit but based on my experience with DS8 and what I've read on the web, it's a very nice unit in terms of sound. It's plenty loud and the treble is much improved over the old Sharp machines. However I can see why people would prefer the old Sharp sound of MT180 or 831. It doesn't quite have the same powerful feeling. But to me, the new digital amplifer sound is a good compromise between the Sony sound and the old Sharp sound. It's slightly warmer and have a bit more bass than Sony and the high end is not as sharp as Sony while clearer than old Sharp models. However I must add that the Sharp remote is a big turn off if you liked the Sony remote. Just imagine an R900 remote without the pull&roll control part- you do everything through those little buttons.

 

[skagen]

From what I' m hearing the MT180 is probably out of the race. Sounds like a tough call between the R910 and the DR7 at this point.

I loved the size, feel and and remote of the R900, but soundwise, it was not the greatest for jogging outside. I really had mixed feelings when it broke! I really hated the fact that I had to play it on maximum volume all the time - and still couldn't get a decent bass sound out of it . It was a choice between either puny bass at flat EQ - or if you boosted the bass settings, a godawful booming sound with no detail whatsoever. Its only for jogging , but considering that I primarily listen to dance music, it was irritating for a unit of that price range to sound so...weak.

However, I was using the stock earbuds that come with the R900. I was told that the Sennheiser MX-500 are better so I decided on getting those for whatever until I buy. But I'm now wondering if the R900 would have sounded acceptable with the Mx-500 earbuds.

The DR7 sounds pretty good from what you guys are saying. If the R910 really does have louder volume than the R900 that's good, but the question is whether that volume improvement allows it to produce better detail on the bass.

The R910 is about $40 cheaper than the DR7, so anything close to parity on the sound would make it a tough call.

Thanks for the input so far. Any additional insights/reviews/comparisons of the sound on the R910 or DR7 are certianly still helpful....