Kenwood DMC Q-77 Review - Audio T-Board - Internet's Friendliest Board on Audio and Electronics

md_junkie · April 29th, 2003, 05:17 PM

Following matheis’ suggestion, here is my first review of MD equipment.

After the death of my E10 I decided to go on and buy something what I call “unorthodox (read: non-Sony, non-Sharp) MD player”. I did a littler research and my eye fall on to the Kenwood’s new line of MDPs. I decided to go ahead and buy it from proven service of Hyperjack team.

Reviewing unit: KENWOOD DMC Q-77 MD player. Made in Malaysia

Size, weight
It would be a ridiculous idea to compare the size of this unit to one of E10. Clearly, E10 is the leader in the size competition of MDPs. E900 would be a better choice to compare. I must say that the size of the unit is very similar to one of E900. I think that their footprint would be the same area. The player feels good in my palm and the weight compared to E900 is approx the same as Sony.

Aesthetics and general appearance:
The unit that I chose was in black color with the red insert, or pad, on the lid (face) of the player. Part of the appeal that drew my attantion to this player was the shape of that insert which reminds me a minidisc case. The body of the player is made out of aluminum and the insert is made out of a rubber. I don’t know what the reason behind this insert but it feels strange in the palm. There are writings on the pad that read:

KENWOOD
PORTABLE MINI DISC PLAYER
DMC Q77 WWW.KENWOOD.COM

The writings are barely visible since they are grooved into the pad with out any color distinction. So you can use a ball pen and follow the grooves to make them more visible.

The back:
On the back of unit there are a HOLD button and the connections to the charging stand. Those connections totally ruin the whole aesthetics of the unit. If you have a PDA you’d probably understand what I mean. Why would they put them on such a visible place (back) as opposed to one of the sides?

Sides of the unit:
I don’t know if it’s any relevant but this MDP has 11 screws along of all the sides. My E900 has only 4. The gumstick battery latch is very solid and the battery compartment is standard. There are total of 5 operation buttons on one of the side of the unit. The buttons are very close to each other with a flat surface on all of them, which means that it’ll be difficult to operate the unit in the dark.

The lid of the unit in the close position has a little gap, i.e. when I slightly press the lid I can see that it goes up and down. In the open position, the angle of the insertion space is much wider then in E900. Strange thing, if I hold the unit horizontally (parallel to floor) and slide Open button, the lid open half the way and the disc will not pop out at all, i.e. I have to help with my other hand to fully open the lid. In a vertical position (Open button facing up), the lid opens completely and the disc pops out. I suspect that there is a major defect with the lid in the horizontal position.

The remote
It is a very interesting remote control. It’s a silver color, which doesn’t make sense; I wish they had a color of the main unit and the remote to match. It has big two-line screen with the green backlit. The operations on the remote are done with the nice jog dial on the right side of the remote. The lines on the screen can be customized, i.e. you can have upper line display track name and the bottom line – group name, or visa-versa. The remote can display: Track name/track time/rec mode/group name/ disc name/ “KENWOOD” (just like that). There is a constant scroll of any info on display, something that Sony should learn to do.

The time from pressing the play button and getting a sound from the headphones on a newly inserted disc is 9 sec. The disc doesn’t scan when it first inserted. The remote doesn’t have a Pause button; pressing the Stop engages the unit in the sort of Pause state with the screen ON and displaying disc or song information. After the 3 min. of inactivity the unit completely shuts down.

Other buttons, beside a jog dial, include Volume, Sound, Repeat and Hold. The volume buttons are very hard to press. There is no clip mounted to the remote and no possibility to do that because clip comes as an accessory. I found it very nice feature because I have more flexibility of attaching and clipping the remote to my clothes.

Only from remote it is possible to engage Sleep and Alarm modes. Honestly, I haven’t tried using either of them. I guess it’s just the same concept as in any other units with these features.

Sound
Now is the best part. The sound of this unit is simply amazing. According to specs this unit has a D-class amp and I am sure that it’s the same technology as the Sharp’s 1 bit sigma delta thing. Moreover, the remote jack is a 4 POLAR type meaning that Kenwood cloned (borrowed?, developed?) the same signal separation concept as Sharp. Now there are more surprises, since I own DR480, I used the supplied 4 polar headphones from DR480 with Kenwood through the remote output. The result: mono out on the left channel. Then I removed the remote and inserted the Sharp’s headphone directly to the unit. I was amazed. Nice beautiful, spacious stereo sound (the disc I was listening was Depeche Mode “Ultra” (real-time SP)). I am confused about the remote output on Kenwood: why I had a mono out with the 4 polar headphones and stereo sound with the conventional 3 polar headphones.

There are following sound settings: Normal, SoundEQ1, SoundEQ2, SoundEQ3, 3D-Effect1, 3D-Effect2, 3D-Effect3, UserPreset (customized bass –4…+4 and treble –4…+4). I didn’t like the 3D effect feature at all; I think it’s distorts the sound and completely ruin the music listening. I liked the equalizer setting #2 though.

Volume.
Volume measures from 0 to 30. The unit is very loud. I tested the volume using my E888s and I cranked the volume up to 30 with the “Normal” sound setting. I observed no distortion or break out of the sound. Since my everyday phones are Etymos, I have to use the amp and the unit sounds just incredible.

Accessories included
In the box there were: remote, earphone, Nickel-Hydrogen cell (1350 mA), recharging stand, battery case, carrying case, instruction manual, warranty card. Recharging stand is very nice. It folds for a better transportation and has a built-in speaker.

Conclusion.
Though the appearance of the unit might have some minor disappointments, the sound that the unit delivers completely outruns everything.

azt33 · April 29th, 2003, 05:55 PM

Wow, thanks for the review! So do you think the sound is comparable to the Doctor (DR7/480)?

Enjoy your new unit!

Superbaldguy · April 29th, 2003, 06:20 PM

Good job, md_junkie.

It's nice to read about units that are somewhat rare or not in the mainstream.

DLP · April 29th, 2003, 07:36 PM

Nice review, glad to see you like the unit. Quick question for you: what happened to your E10? Did I miss that story?

matheis · April 29th, 2003, 08:12 PM

md_junkie

i'm so glad to see your review - it was great! i was hoping you might answer a few follow-up questions for me.

first: regarding the unit's sound...you mentioned that you disliked the 3d settings. did you also dislike the 3d settings on the e10? as azt33 mentioned, how does it compare sonically to the dr7? i have a dr7, myself - is the kenwood louder? do the 4-step treble and bass boost setting have much of an effect? how does it compare to the e10?

second: regarding the remote...how does the jog dial work? from web images, it looks like a joystick-type remote (kinda like sharp's previous generation remotes). can you do an index search for songs, like on sonys? how does the detachable remote clip work? how big is the remote, compared to the dr7's remote? do you like the remote better than the dr7's?

third: regarding the speakers...do you ever use them? are they halfway decent?

fourth: regarding the unit's build...you mentioned a gap when the door is closed. do you feel that the unit is well made, though? does it feel solid like the dr7? built to last?

fifth: regarding battery life...do you feel like you get a decent amount of play time? what you should be getting?

whew! a few more ?s than i originally intended. anyway, thanks for the review. i know i appreciate it, and i'm sure that quite a few others will come on over here and check it out!

team kenwood anyone?

later
nikolaus

D-EJ915 · April 29th, 2003, 10:31 PM

hey, so the Q77 is a better unit than the DS8??, sounds nice yo!, that is awesome, except for the fact that the Q77 is 300 dollars for a player!!

matheis · April 30th, 2003, 12:22 AM

d-ej915

the q77 is ~$260us from t-station (ie, hyperjack). the q55 is the same as the q77 minus the rubber padding and speakers for a little over $200us. if i were thinking of aquiring one of these, i'd probably have to go for the q55. unless you significantly prefer the styling of the q77 over the q55, that is! both are pretty sweet looking players, imho, with the q55 being a bit more 'classic' in appearance than the 'cooler/hipper' q77 (the black n red q77 is pretty sweet!). anyhoo, i think it gives us all anoter option, eh

later
nikolaus

me · April 30th, 2003, 01:45 AM

The four pole remote jack if it's similar to Panasonics.. It's not because it's a four pole headphone thing, it's just a different way of sending resistance down the wire.

md_junkie · April 30th, 2003, 03:06 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by DLP
Nice review, glad to see you like the unit. Quick question for you: what happened to your E10? Did I miss that story?

Here is the thread with my story
But in short, I entered into the Service mode and I couldn't make the player work afterwards. To proper exit the mode, a battery has to be removed and I couldn't remove E10 internal battery even with instructions in the manual

md_junkie · April 30th, 2003, 03:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by matheis

i'm so glad to see your review - it was great! i was hoping you might answer a few follow-up questions for me.

Thanks. As I said it was my first review. I hope it help.

Quote:

Originally posted by matheis

first: regarding the unit's sound...you mentioned that you disliked the 3d settings. did you also dislike the 3d settings on the e10? as azt33 mentioned, how does it compare sonically to the dr7? i have a dr7, myself - is the kenwood louder? do the 4-step treble and bass boost setting have much of an effect? how does it compare to the e10?

I didn't like the virtual surround sound on E10. I just couldn't feel the surround effect. On thing for sure is that I always listented the E10 through my Total Airhead amp because my ER-4S with impendace of 100 Ohm couldn't deliver loud sound from E10. I liked the 6 band equalizer. This is something that I miss the most from that player.

As for DR-7/DR-480, I can say that Kenwood sounds louder. Here is what I did. I pluged my 4S without amp straight to the remote output, adjusted the volume of the player to mark 25 out of 30 and played the song. Then, put the same headphones and same song into DR-480 at same volume level 25 out of 30. I could feel that Sharp sounds quieter then Kenwood. I increased Bass and treble to the maximum level on Sharp and still I felt that music is quieter that from Kenwood.

Quote:

Originally posted by matheis

second: regarding the remote...how does the jog dial work? from web images, it looks like a joystick-type remote (kinda like sharp's previous generation remotes). can you do an index search for songs, like on sonys? how does the detachable remote clip work? how big is the remote, compared to the dr7's remote? do you like the remote better than the dr7's?

A Jog dial is a little jog that moves up/down, left/right and push. Left/right - track selection, "up" and then "left/right" - search mode (scroll throught the song) or group search, down - menu listings, and pressing for 2 second "down" the player enters to set-up menu: Beep on/off, Japanese characters on/off, and constrast of the remote screen adjustement.

The length of the remote is the same as of DR7. It basically looks like a gumstick battery only a little wider and higher. The clip works like this. There are two grabbing mechanisms on the clip. One is for grabbing and securing the cord, or wire (could be a headphone cord or the one from the remote). The second mechanism is to grab your shirt and hold the remote. I like Kenwood remote because I got hooked by the 2-line display from E10; moreover, I think the fonts on the Kenwood are lager hence easy readable.

Quote:

Originally posted by matheis

third: regarding the speakers...do you ever use them? are they halfway decent?

They are allright. I can't imagine where would I use them. Maybe when I travel or something like that. Honestly, I think they are just overkill.

Quote:

Originally posted by matheis

fourth: regarding the unit's build...you mentioned a gap when the door is closed. do you feel that the unit is well made, though? does it feel solid like the dr7? built to last?

Yeah, Kenwood is a solid unit ready for a normal everyday operations. I like it

Quote:

Originally posted by matheis

fifth: regarding battery life...do you feel like you get a decent amount of play time? what you should be getting?

The battery life has become very insignifican to me. I haven't tested the claimed by Kenwood battery longitivity hours but I can assure you that it's enough, besides I can always use a gumstick battery from E900 or attach AA to the unit.

Quote:

Originally posted by matheis

whew! a few more ?s than i originally intended. anyway, thanks for the review. i know i appreciate it, and i'm sure that quite a few others will come on over here and check it out!
team kenwood anyone?

Sure.... I am in

Cheers,

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April 29th, 2003, 05:17 PM	#1
md_junkie Apprentice Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Portugal Posts: 45	Kenwood DMC Q-77 Review Following matheis’ suggestion, here is my first review of MD equipment. After the death of my E10 I decided to go on and buy something what I call “unorthodox (read: non-Sony, non-Sharp) MD player”. I did a littler research and my eye fall on to the Kenwood’s new line of MDPs. I decided to go ahead and buy it from proven service of Hyperjack team. Reviewing unit: KENWOOD DMC Q-77 MD player. Made in Malaysia Size, weight It would be a ridiculous idea to compare the size of this unit to one of E10. Clearly, E10 is the leader in the size competition of MDPs. E900 would be a better choice to compare. I must say that the size of the unit is very similar to one of E900. I think that their footprint would be the same area. The player feels good in my palm and the weight compared to E900 is approx the same as Sony. Aesthetics and general appearance: The unit that I chose was in black color with the red insert, or pad, on the lid (face) of the player. Part of the appeal that drew my attantion to this player was the shape of that insert which reminds me a minidisc case. The body of the player is made out of aluminum and the insert is made out of a rubber. I don’t know what the reason behind this insert but it feels strange in the palm. There are writings on the pad that read: KENWOOD PORTABLE MINI DISC PLAYER DMC Q77 WWW.KENWOOD.COM The writings are barely visible since they are grooved into the pad with out any color distinction. So you can use a ball pen and follow the grooves to make them more visible. The back: On the back of unit there are a HOLD button and the connections to the charging stand. Those connections totally ruin the whole aesthetics of the unit. If you have a PDA you’d probably understand what I mean. Why would they put them on such a visible place (back) as opposed to one of the sides? Sides of the unit: I don’t know if it’s any relevant but this MDP has 11 screws along of all the sides. My E900 has only 4. The gumstick battery latch is very solid and the battery compartment is standard. There are total of 5 operation buttons on one of the side of the unit. The buttons are very close to each other with a flat surface on all of them, which means that it’ll be difficult to operate the unit in the dark. The lid of the unit in the close position has a little gap, i.e. when I slightly press the lid I can see that it goes up and down. In the open position, the angle of the insertion space is much wider then in E900. Strange thing, if I hold the unit horizontally (parallel to floor) and slide Open button, the lid open half the way and the disc will not pop out at all, i.e. I have to help with my other hand to fully open the lid. In a vertical position (Open button facing up), the lid opens completely and the disc pops out. I suspect that there is a major defect with the lid in the horizontal position. The remote It is a very interesting remote control. It’s a silver color, which doesn’t make sense; I wish they had a color of the main unit and the remote to match. It has big two-line screen with the green backlit. The operations on the remote are done with the nice jog dial on the right side of the remote. The lines on the screen can be customized, i.e. you can have upper line display track name and the bottom line – group name, or visa-versa. The remote can display: Track name/track time/rec mode/group name/ disc name/ “KENWOOD” (just like that). There is a constant scroll of any info on display, something that Sony should learn to do. The time from pressing the play button and getting a sound from the headphones on a newly inserted disc is 9 sec. The disc doesn’t scan when it first inserted. The remote doesn’t have a Pause button; pressing the Stop engages the unit in the sort of Pause state with the screen ON and displaying disc or song information. After the 3 min. of inactivity the unit completely shuts down. Other buttons, beside a jog dial, include Volume, Sound, Repeat and Hold. The volume buttons are very hard to press. There is no clip mounted to the remote and no possibility to do that because clip comes as an accessory. I found it very nice feature because I have more flexibility of attaching and clipping the remote to my clothes. Only from remote it is possible to engage Sleep and Alarm modes. Honestly, I haven’t tried using either of them. I guess it’s just the same concept as in any other units with these features. Sound Now is the best part. The sound of this unit is simply amazing. According to specs this unit has a D-class amp and I am sure that it’s the same technology as the Sharp’s 1 bit sigma delta thing. Moreover, the remote jack is a 4 POLAR type meaning that Kenwood cloned (borrowed?, developed?) the same signal separation concept as Sharp. Now there are more surprises, since I own DR480, I used the supplied 4 polar headphones from DR480 with Kenwood through the remote output. The result: mono out on the left channel. Then I removed the remote and inserted the Sharp’s headphone directly to the unit. I was amazed. Nice beautiful, spacious stereo sound (the disc I was listening was Depeche Mode “Ultra” (real-time SP)). I am confused about the remote output on Kenwood: why I had a mono out with the 4 polar headphones and stereo sound with the conventional 3 polar headphones. There are following sound settings: Normal, SoundEQ1, SoundEQ2, SoundEQ3, 3D-Effect1, 3D-Effect2, 3D-Effect3, UserPreset (customized bass –4…+4 and treble –4…+4). I didn’t like the 3D effect feature at all; I think it’s distorts the sound and completely ruin the music listening. I liked the equalizer setting #2 though. Volume. Volume measures from 0 to 30. The unit is very loud. I tested the volume using my E888s and I cranked the volume up to 30 with the “Normal” sound setting. I observed no distortion or break out of the sound. Since my everyday phones are Etymos, I have to use the amp and the unit sounds just incredible. Accessories included In the box there were: remote, earphone, Nickel-Hydrogen cell (1350 mA), recharging stand, battery case, carrying case, instruction manual, warranty card. Recharging stand is very nice. It folds for a better transportation and has a built-in speaker. Conclusion. Though the appearance of the unit might have some minor disappointments, the sound that the unit delivers completely outruns everything. __________________ MD units: DR-480H, Q-77 (Black), MDS JB980 (Silver), E10 (dead), E900, PC3, Vaio MXS10, Headphones: Beyers 831, Grado RS-1, Earbuds: ER-4S, EX70, E888LP Headamps: Cmoy, Total Airhead, Creek OBH-21SE, Grado RA-1

April 29th, 2003, 06:20 PM	#3
Superbaldguy T-Moderator Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: New Germany, N.S. Canada Posts: 22,023	Good job, md_junkie. It's nice to read about units that are somewhat rare or not in the mainstream. __________________ Recorders - MZ-N910 (silver), MZ-R910 (pink), MZ-R909 (blue), MZ-R50 (silver), MZ-S1, MD-DR77 (black), MD-MT831 (silver), MZ-B10 (silver) Hi-MD recorders - MZ-NH1 (sliver), MZ-NH700 (silver/blue) Hi-MD downloader - MZ-NH3D (blue) Hi-MD player - MZ-EH50 (white) Players - MZ-E720 (brown), MZ-E707 (aqua), MZ-E80 (black), MZ-E75 (red), MD-DS77 (black) DAP - Sony NW-HD5 (red) Headphones - ER-4P, MDR-D66SL, MDR-D22SL (silver), PX200, CX300, MDR-E888SP and LP DSLR bodies - Nikon D80 and D40 Nikkor lenses - AF-S 12-24mm f/4, AF-S 16-85mm f/3.5~f/5.6 VR, AF-S 70-300mm f/4.5~f/5.6 VR Third-party lenses - Tamron SP 17-50mm f/2.8 XR Di II LD, Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8 EX HSM, Nikon Speedlites - SB-400, SB-600 and SB-800

April 29th, 2003, 08:12 PM	#5
matheis Master Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: oregon, usa Posts: 604	md_junkie i'm so glad to see your review - it was great! i was hoping you might answer a few follow-up questions for me. first: regarding the unit's sound...you mentioned that you disliked the 3d settings. did you also dislike the 3d settings on the e10? as azt33 mentioned, how does it compare sonically to the dr7? i have a dr7, myself - is the kenwood louder? do the 4-step treble and bass boost setting have much of an effect? how does it compare to the e10? second: regarding the remote...how does the jog dial work? from web images, it looks like a joystick-type remote (kinda like sharp's previous generation remotes). can you do an index search for songs, like on sonys? how does the detachable remote clip work? how big is the remote, compared to the dr7's remote? do you like the remote better than the dr7's? third: regarding the speakers...do you ever use them? are they halfway decent? fourth: regarding the unit's build...you mentioned a gap when the door is closed. do you feel that the unit is well made, though? does it feel solid like the dr7? built to last? fifth: regarding battery life...do you feel like you get a decent amount of play time? what you should be getting? whew! a few more ?s than i originally intended. anyway, thanks for the review. i know i appreciate it, and i'm sure that quite a few others will come on over here and check it out! team kenwood anyone? later nikolaus __________________ www.counterpunch.org

April 29th, 2003, 10:31 PM	#6
D-EJ915 Kagamin Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Virginia Beach, USA Posts: 7,962	hey, so the Q77 is a better unit than the DS8??, sounds nice yo!, that is awesome, except for the fact that the Q77 is 300 dollars for a player!! __________________ Portable: Sony A815 (blue) & stock earphones, D66SL, Sennheiser PX100W, E888, HD600 Home: PC -> NX10 amp -> ¡JBL E30 & custom 10" sub \| HD600, E888 Team MZ-R910 My Site =3 My MDs

April 29th, 2003, 05:55 PM	#2
azt33 Honorary T-Advisors Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 1,776	Wow, thanks for the review! So do you think the sound is comparable to the Doctor (DR7/480)? Enjoy your new unit! __________________ MD: Sharp DS77 (silver), Sony E10 (silver) DAP: iPod Video 80GB 5.5G (white), iPod Shuffle 4GB (black), iPhone 16GB 3G (white) Headphones/earphones: D66SL, CX300 (black) Interested in getting an MR230 and E900 (not properly working)? PM me! Will let go for just shipping costs!

April 29th, 2003, 07:36 PM	#4
DLP Guru Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 1,326	Nice review, glad to see you like the unit. Quick question for you: what happened to your E10? Did I miss that story?

April 30th, 2003, 12:22 AM	#7
matheis Master Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: oregon, usa Posts: 604	d-ej915 the q77 is ~$260us from t-station (ie, hyperjack). the q55 is the same as the q77 minus the rubber padding and speakers for a little over $200us. if i were thinking of aquiring one of these, i'd probably have to go for the q55. unless you significantly prefer the styling of the q77 over the q55, that is! both are pretty sweet looking players, imho, with the q55 being a bit more 'classic' in appearance than the 'cooler/hipper' q77 (the black n red q77 is pretty sweet!). anyhoo, i think it gives us all anoter option, eh later nikolaus __________________ www.counterpunch.org

April 30th, 2003, 01:45 AM	#8
me Ultra Guru Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Auckland, NEW ZEALAND Posts: 6,707	The four pole remote jack if it's similar to Panasonics.. It's not because it's a four pole headphone thing, it's just a different way of sending resistance down the wire.

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