mr220 on the way

[matheis]

hello all!!!
i just snagged an mr220 on ebay. i'll be getting it early next week and will let y'all know what i think, compared to my other portables.
later
nikolaus

[Mystyler]

Crazy!

Seems you have Panasonic fever?

i was actually looking at that one too! how much did u get it for?

~EO

[matheis]

mystyler: i'm just having collector-itis right now, i fear. i really dig the touchpad, ya know it's so damn funky!!!

einolu: i snagged it for $66 or so - just under the bin price.

now, it's off to seattle for a wedding and to compare my mr200 and ds8 with md_junkie's dr480 and q77. that should be fun. md_junkie says that he thinks the q77 smokes the dr480, soundwise. i'm curious to see if i agree...


later
nikolaus

cool, thats an amazing price, im also looking to snag a 220 from ebay, but i really really want the white one... pimp . anyway, tell us how it sounds!

~EO

[Mystyler]

If the Q77 does indeed smoke the DR7, then we've got one hell of an unlikely super unit!

[matheis]

well, the kenwood products i've owned or friends have owned have been pretty darn good when it comes to sound quality! so i won't be too surprised if it does sound really nice.

[matheis]

received the mr220 this morning. i opened the priority mail package and found: mr220 main unit (pristine condition with original sticker still on), remote (a few scuffs on the lcd screen, but not bad), and stock buds ('panasonic' white lettering on buds scuffed) - but no ac adaptor, external battery case, or gumstick battery. inserted an md and gumstick battery, and the mr220 powered on, read the md, and i activated play, ff, rew, pause, and stop. everything worked well. i plugged in the remote and found it to be functional, activating all the aforementioned functions, as well.

build: appears to be very sturdy build, aluminum front/back. same footprint as the mr200 but a couple mm thinner than the mr200. button layout less intuitive than mr200 but nice to have more functions assigned to the touchpad on the mr220.

display: lcd screen more crowded than mr200's, i would guess due to the fact that the mr200's screen is more square and the mr220's screen is rectangular. good contrast, very easily readable. title scrolls across once at beginning of song, as with the mr200, then only the first 12 characters of the song displayed. scrolling less 'stuttering' than mr200. display shows decibel level, disc spinning, battery level, sp/lp mode, equalizer setting, and play mode all the time. the bottom two levels of the display are dedicated to the song time/title info. the bottom line shows name info: disc, group, song title info and also shows volume info when the volume buttons are pushed. the next line up shows the time elapsed or time remaining for each song and also the total time and number of songs on the disc (although with this last display option, the display reverts to song number and time elapsed after a few seconds).

remote: the remote's build seems cheap to me after the other remotes i've been familiar with. it dispalys the song number, disc spinning, battery level, play mode, and equalizer setting at all times. it also shows 6 characters of disc info: song number + either time elapsed, song title, group title, or disc title. the title info scrolls continuously. it can also display total disc time, but as on the main display this reverts to elapsed song time after a second or two. the display button also doubles as a light button, activating the backlighting until the song title scrolls across (nice!). to activate the display functions described above, one must hold down the light/display button for a second. the remote is pretty ergonomic (except that it's once again upside-down - why is that almost all md remotes must be upside-down?!?!?). the function buttons are lined up on the lower side of the remote, the hold slider at the top, and the play/ff/rew/stop/volume functions are activated by a circular pad (like the r909) next to the display. contrary to other's comments, i find it easy to activate stop/play by depressing the pad and don't find that the other functions are accidentally activated.

playback functions: disc read takes 5/6 seconds after insertion. playback starts ~1/2 second after depressing display. after skipping tracks, playback starts after ~1/2 - 1 second. after stopping play (stop/stanndby mode), playback starts instantly after pushing play. i activated random play mode, and there was a ~1 second gap between songs. i activated 1-repeat mode, and found that you could skip between songs in this mode by pushing the ff/rew buttons and the 1-repeat function only applies if you let the song paly through on its own. searching through songs is quite fast, faster than on my ds8 for certain. one thing i miss from the mr200 is cueing up the next song while the current song is still playing. with the mr200, you could use the ff/rew buttons to search through song titles until you reached the song you wanted to hear next. you then pushed the enter button to skip to that track. this way, you could keep listening to music while searching for the next song you wanted to hear, which was a nice touch that's missing here.

sound: well, i like the sound of the mr200 and the mr220, as well. after hearing several different units, i really think that people need to re-examine their understanding of amp ratings vs volume output!!! i've certainly found that by listening with the same earbuds that panas (with their 'weak' amp ratings, are loud!!!). as with my mr200 review, i find that the volume setting of 5-6/25 compares with 15/30 on my ds8. using the headphones, the panas are louder. when i've hooked them up to my car stereo, though, i find that the ds8 has a louder 'line-out' function than the mr200 (no data on this with the mr220 yet). i will use the normal and xbs-1 function (normal function most of the time, i imagine) but won't use the xbs-2 or train mode functions and think that they need to be replaced with better functions, preferably user-defined bass, mid, and treble settings!!! the xbs settings are like sony's mega-bass settings. with xbs-1, the effect is okay. with xbs-2 though, it's just too much - too boomy/muddy!!!

recording: well, i got this off ebay with no guarantees about its functionality, other than it read 'no disc' when connected to a power source. and, it appears that it doesn't record. well, i guess that's what you get when you take a chance, eh! i did get a good deal and will use the mr220 for playback, i guess. so far, i tried recording with my mics and an optical cable. the mdr acts like its recording and performs a toc edit, but keeps making a little noise after the toc edit display disappears. when i push play, the mdr recognizes the newly recorded track, displays time remaining info about it, and acts like its going to play the recorded track but stops after a few seconds and goes into standby mode. if i try to get it play a few times in a row, it reads 'system error' and shuts off. i tried to record onto both blank mds and an md with music recorded onto it already and in sp and lp2 modes. no success with anything. i changed to a fresh gumstick with no success, either. i tried to erase the track i 'recorded' on the mr220. it looked successful, but after removing the md, it was erased. lesson learned there - no mds go into mr220 without the 'no-erase' slider activated on the md!!! i'm assuming it's like the mr200, though - high/low sensitivity setting for analog line-in, no adjustments for optical, straight (non-adjustable) agc recording with mics. if it did record, i'd be more inclined to use it for recording albums with the optical-in, lectures with through the mic-in, and concerts through the line-in with a battery box.

earbuds: i haven't tried them yet. i have evaluated the mr220's sound with my ex71's.

summary: i like the looks. i also like the mr220's touchpad. it is very sensitive and makes skipping/searching through tracks very quick and easy on the main unit. the main unit's display could be a little larger to make it less crowded, but is okay. the remote feels kind of cheap but is more ergonomic than a lot of remotes - no accidentally activating the wrong button as with the newer sharp remotes, nice circular pad, really like the dedicated light activation button! the remote's display could be a little bigger, though! sound compares favorably with the sonys i've heard (r70, r90, n505, e900) in loudness and sound quality (louder than my ds8/DR7). no recording functions available on mine so i can't comment there. quite honestly, i'll be my dr7 for recording anyway, so while this is a disappointment it isn't the end of the world - plus, i didn't pay too much for it

anyway, if anyone has any great ideas on how to fix the recording functionality on the mr220, please let me know. and tanks for taking the time to check out my initial impressions of the mr220.

later
nikolaus

great stuff. i conclude that the 200 is better than the 220, ignoring mdlp. anyway, great review!

~EO

ps: if u can get pix of any of ur panas, that would be great!

[matheis]

einolu
well, i'm still sitting here listening to the mr220, so it can't be too bad i have to say that i do like the mr200's display *much* better - it's similar to the dr7's display in size i like the remote's functionality better than my auvi remotes - *much* more intuitive!!! sounds good! fits nicely in my case logic md case. just wish it could record oh well... the mr200 does have a nice, funky look to it, though

i have a digital camera at work that i can snap some pictures with. i'll wait til the remote for my mr200 gets here, though. where's a, easy to use, free image hosting site?

later
nikolaus