MD-DR7 Review

[me]

Sharp MD-DR7 Review

1. Build Quality
2. Main Unit LCD
3. Remote
4. Sound Quality

Notes: Review updated today, Saturday 22 March 2003
Headphones currently in the process of being upgraded, will update 'Sound Quality' section to reflect this

Today i'm doing sections 1-3. I thought as this unit isn't very widespread at the moment, people were itching for a bit of a review, well, here's the first few sections. The other has to wait as it is a thing you need to wait to discover (like annoyances, sound quality, recording...)

1. Build Quality

To get this thing started, i'll tell you first off it's made in Malaysia. Don't let that put you off it however, this thing feels solid. I checked inside it, EVERYTHING is metal. If you have a Sony machine, you will see they have a flimsy metal "skeleton" holding the MiniDisc inside. In the DR7, we have a metal plate, perforated with many holes to save weight. Sharp engineers have really thought of everything! Other things to notice inside: The laser head itself is surrounded by a metal casing, not plastic like the modern Sony units. The electronics board is mounted on a metal plate, not plastic like my R37. I'm not sure if this is strictly modern players from Sony, or if they have started using plastic on their recorders too. It certainly was metal on the R900 though. Either way, I AM impressed. Opening/closing the unit? It's smooth. I slide the open switch, and the unit opens about one and a half centimetres. Upon closing it, I was expecting a grating sound from the lid twisting a bit (N1, E900, and probably R910 styles) from not pushing quite in the center of the unit. Nope. A clunk sound is what I get, and it's nice.

With a Sony, a minor concern of mine (and major to others) was the fact that the battery door was SO flimsy! Knowing this, I was always very careful with my Sony's battery door, however, after a couple of months I could feel that the door was indeed becoming loosely fitting. Oh dear. When I got my Sharp, I was expecting something far different. It feels the same opening the door, and closing it with no battery, but I think Sharp have figured out that if they use a hefty spring as the battery contact on the other end, friction (and a better mechanism) will keep the door closed. It certainly feels more solid than my E900 and R37's ever did (even though the R37's has never opened when I didn't want it to).

The lid of the unit is a shiny navy blue. Yes, it's a navy colour. The pictures ARE lieing to you. I like the shiny-ness, others may not. It's enameled. Turning the unit on it's side, we see a chromed plate stretching from the left hand corner as a 2mm line, on to the top of the unit as a 7mm line, and back down the right hand side as a 7mm line still, except in the corner where it's a 2mm line again. Comparing this to my E900 with no chrome plates, and my R37 with a dull grey/silver plate, I am very impressed. I hope it will not wear off. Zephonith's R900 is still chromy after two years, so I have some hope! Yes, so the chrome plate makes the unit appear more finished, to me.

I now flip the unit over. We have arrows pointing to the various jacks on the unit. Before I received it (Zephonith is a goddess!!!), I felt these were silly looking. Bah! They are better than having it embossed on the side as abbreviations, and there's no room to print it completely anywhere else, so on the back it goes. And it doesn't look too bad as I look at it. The back of the unit is annodized. The unit feels pretty solid, apparently it's only three grams heavier than the R909, and I think Sharp used aluminium to build the unit. I don't really care. It's solid.

2. Main Unit LCD

On the main unit, there is obviously a large LCD display. It's one and a half by three centimetres, and as Tina said in her impressions, is 12 characters x five lines. A quick run through of the lines shows the first line is devoted to a level indicator, record indicator and battery life indicator. The second line is devoted to play characteristics and what the next line is showing : Disc title, Group title, or Track title (indicated by their first letters), LP2/4, group, and 'MY' indicators. 'my' is the 'track bookmark' feature. I'll talk about that later. The fourth line shows titles, and the track number. [update: If there is no name for the title, then a dolphin 'swims' across the screen. A pair of notes for no disc title, they dance. "cute". I have no disc without a group name, so I can't tell you if there's a cute animation for that. There probably is.]. Back to the fourth line - you get 12 characters of title goodness hooray! . I made up a group disc (title fudge method), and unfortunately, the number shown is always the track number, never the group number. That's the display elements covered.

The LCD colour is blue. A little deeper in colour to the unit itself. In fact, from what I remember of the R909, it's the exact same colour. Right now, you are all thinking 'OH NO!' as we all know the R909 had err... a rotten LCD (sorry happy R909 owners, I like the rest of the unit, honest!). This was due to the background showing up as well as the display element. I think Sharp have cured this by tinting the LCD a darker green, which hides this effect. Even if that wasn't the reason for the green LCD, it still looks nice. Better than in Tina's picture (which gives a bit of a false impression of the actual colour, no offence to your photography skills there tina, mine are much worse!). The font is better than my R37's, and reminds me of my deck just a little.

3. Remote

The remote shows various display elements, a record indicator, and record mode indicator. Oh, and a spinning disc. In the top left hand corner is a miniture spinning disc indicating what the unit is doing (playing, fast forwarding etc). Underneath is a record indicator, to the right of it is an indicator showing whether or not the disc is grouped or not. Above this is 'TTL' which indicates the disc title. Anyhow, next to ttl, we have the track indicator (again, only shows the track, not the group number). Next to this, there is a group, track, or disc indicator. It's fancy. D for disc, G for group, and nothing for title (it dissolves into another space for the title to scroll on. From an 8 character LCD to a 9 character one. Fancy stuff! On the far right corner there is the play mode indicators (repeat etc.), underneath which there is a 3 bar battery indicator. Next to the battery indictor is a set of three bars. One is lit for SP mode, two for LP2, and 3 for LP4. What seems odd, is 1 bar is also illuminated for mono. Really useful.

The LCD itself is smaller than what I thought, small, but effective. 5mm x about 45mm. Backlight colour is the same blue as the RM-MC11EL from Sony. It's very crisp too, I like it better than that previously mentioned Sony remote. After using it for a while, I realise it may be crisp, but it doesn't have a very wide viewing angle. It doesn't really matter that much as most of the time you would be touching the 'mote anyway, but it's still an annoyance. The LCD has three modes - NORMAL, ALL TIME, and AUTO OFF. Normal means the LCD will be backlit for 10s or so, and doesn't care if the title hasn't finished scrolling. boo. LCD remains on. ALL TIME will be the same as 'NORMAL' under battery power, but under AC power will permanently stay backlit. AUTO OFF means the backlight stays on for 10s, when it goes off, so does the LCD. Useful to Sharp for boosting their battery life claims. Not so useful to me.

The remotes stop and play/pause buttons have two and one bumps on them, so you don't have to look at the 'mote while using it. I feel it's effective, others may not. The clip is solid, a little tougher than the MC11EL, but has a grip on the end you push on. Using the Sony one made my finger slip, a minor annoyance. Like the new Sony remote (I hear this isn't new to Sharp), the headphone jack is on the left hand side of the remote. I recently went on a car trip, and naturally, took my DR7 with me. The remote is backwards to me. It thought so too, as whenever I went to check the display, found it upside down clipped to my shirt. I guess i'm meant to clip it vertically to my shirt now.. . Yes, the Delta of the Delta Sigma logo does light up, as the backlight continues to where it is located, however it's not nearly as cool looking as the one on the DS8. Yes, I did see the DS8 in person, and yes, it is as annoying as I thought it would be.

4. Sound Quality

[Leon]

Thanks for the review, me! If only Sharp had kept that joystick from the previous remote...

[DLP]

Hey me, you tease! I thought I was going to at least here about sound when I got in this topic!!!

Leon, do you really like the MT770 remote? I personally prefer the longer narrower style. While the 2 line joystick Sharp isn't bad, I'd prefer something else, more like the Sony remote that comes with the E10.

[me]

Yeah, i'm pretty sure i've got a bit of tinnitus or whatever (high frequency tone when really there's nothing there), and can't *hear* anyway, so bah, sound can wait.

But I can tell you it's crystal clear in between tracks.. seperation is good, and although the earbuds are really just plastic cylinders, they sound 'not so bad'.

[Leon]

DLP,
I don't like the two-line remote that much, except for that joystick. It's nice on the go, and lets me do silly things like dividing 30 tracks while I shop groceries. I record off internet broadcasts mostly, which means fast forward-ing through single 323-minute tracks, and the joystick's the easiest on my fingers. lt's also not too bad with gloves or numb fingers

[thopter]

I think Sharp's original round remote was the best one they ever made. Next would be the 877 'lozenge' type. I never owned any of the joystick generation type.
The new stick remotes have poor ergonomics. When I feel for the buttons on one side with my thumb, my fingers on the other side are inadvertently pushing unwanted functions like 'shuffle play' or 'group'.
If it wasn't for the 4-pole connection, I would go back to one of the older remotes.

[RaidenX]

Does the sharp remote have a button to turn on just the backlight? Cause something i find that pisses me off sometimes is that i can't do that on my n10 remote.....i either have to scroll through all the display things until it goes back to the title, then if the light is off too fast i have to do it again......or press pause/play.......

[me]

Nope. I just realised I'm trying to make this review cover everything, but there's always going to be things I don't think of :\

I guess i'll edit stuff into it

[Leon]

me,
Don't worry about the Brian Youn review stereotype, review whatever comes to mind

RaidenX,
Only Panasonic has a dedicated button for the backlight. On the latest Sharps, however, you can use the group button for the same purpose. Press once, the group icon would flash, but doesn't affect the current operation at all (unless you use FF/REW to select another group). Then you can either let it time out or press it again to turn off. If your Sharp doesn't have a group button, the playmode button also keeps the backlight lit without stopping the scroll.

I think Panasonic's backlight is also the only one that takes the title into consideration. If you press display (holding down the light/display button) to display the track title, it'll light up for as long as the title scrolls, up to a maximum of 20 seconds. Sharp backlights turn off after 10 seconds even if the title hasn't finished scrolling once.

[me]

Me sony MC11EL does that title scroll thingy too .