Brief Panasonic SJ-MJ50 Review

[DLP]

Recently acquired this unit second hand from a guy at Head-Fi. Was looking for a cheap remote unit to be used with my D66 since I lost the extension cord to them so I can't use it with my MT180 and my MT770 works too irregularly, and can have a very harsh sound with the D66. At about $90, this seemed to fit the bill.
So I bit, and then found out the guy lives in my city. So he dropped them off at my place a few days after I sent him the money. Pretty cool.
See pictures at links below (property of respective owners):
http://www.minidisct.com/products/pana_sjmj50.html
http://www.minidisc.org/part_Panasonic_SJ-MJ50.html
So let's get into it:

Looks
This is a stylish unit. There is a blue light across one side of it, and the face and back is a brushed metal framed in a reflective metal. Very professional, very prone to collecting finger prints.
The remote doesn't look like much unfortunately, but isn't ugly. Kinda neutral, and the back has a see-through plastic that shows the circuitry of the remote that's neat.

Functionality
The unit has 5 buttons on it: Play/Stop on the back, Track Forward and Track Reverse on the back, Volume Up and Volume Down on the side. There's a hold switch on the side. It works for basics, but everything else is on the remote, as to be expected with a player. Play/Stop, Forward and Reverse, Volume Up and Down, S-XBS (bass settings), Play mode, and Light (causes backlight to light up)/Display are all the buttons that's on the remote.
I don't use the buttons on the unit, I got it specifically for the remote. Though if I did, I'd say it's pretty limiting.
The remote actually works better than I thought it would. The Play/Stop is the center of a little pad, with Forward and Reverse on the sides of the pad, and Volume Up and Down on the top and bottom of the pad. The 3 buttons for the other functions are on the bottom of the remote, and the top has a hold switch. This layout works really well for me, as I usually use the remote with my left hand with the unit in a left-side pocket.
To turn the unit on, either insert a disc or press play. Once the TOC is loaded, playing is immediate, quite unlike my Sharp units which have a delay even with the TOC loaded. Skipping songs is not so immediate however. The delay is less than my Sharp's, but still very noticeable from my memory of a friend's Sony R900 which was fairly instantaneous switching between songs. To turn off the unit, just hit Stop and leave it.
The novelty/originality of this unit comes from inserting a disc. It is actually kept shut via a spring rather than the usual design on most units, which is it's kept shut by a latch and kept open by a spring. You open the unit by rotating a small lever and holding it in position. This is cool because it's different, but it's stupid holding the lever in place while trying to get the disc out and get a new disc in with one hand. Not bad if at home, kind of a pain while on the go or on the train/bus and playing juggle the electronics and media.
The blue LED light on the side comes on everytime the unit closes, or you give it a command. This gets annoying when I have the unit out, but when in my pocket, novelty and annoyance are gone completely.

Sound
Sound is what I'm all about. I enjoy the Sharp sound but at times with my D66, it can be harsh. This is bad because I would like to keep my D66 as my portable headphone. Anyway, if I were to listen to my units with my D66, this would be my finding:
MT180: Harsh at times, but bassy and warm, fuller sounding. Very enjoyable.
MT770: Good, balanced sound, but harsh in the upper ranges (symbols, electronic sounds at high pitches), overall good with darker headphones.
MJ50: Wow, quite different. What I hear is a rich, detailed midrange and very smooth sound overall in comparison to the Sharp's. There's things I've never heard with my Sharp's specifically in the midrange (mostly voices, regular guitars) that just come alive with the MJ50. What I've noticed is you pay for this with what is definitely a recessed bass and treble. I am at an unfortunate loss with my D66 with this combo as most of my music is rap music, but it is allowing me to rediscover my rock music at the same time, so it's a good thing too . Overall though, it's a very pleasant sound and worth it.

Overall
I can't complain at about $90 US, as this unit appears to be almost brand new. No scratches were present when I received it, and everything was in pristine order. The sound to me is most suited to vocals and rock, where midrange has a big standing. The extra detail of the sound is amazing though, because overall it's not really clearer than my Sharps. Everything still has the same level of haziness (don't worry about this if you don't even notice) but there's just more of it without being overwhelming. It's a very easy to use unit, very light and small, and works beautifully. $90 well spent!

Any questions or comments or requests for more information, go ahead and post. The only thing is I didn't get a manual with this, so I might not be able to answer some questions.

[Ziggy]

Nice review.

From the pic at minidisc.org, it seems that this unit's cradle is attached to a pair of speakers. If you got them with the package, how do they sound?

[DLP]

Oops, forgot about that. Actually, the cradle is the speakers. They come pushed together, and when you pull the speakers apart, they are still attached but you now have a slot to insert the MJ50 in. Plug the AC adapter on the side and it automatically starts charging. Press play on the other side or insert the remote in the headphone jack on the side of the speakers, and you can play while charging, either out of the speakers or the headphone jack. Sound? Well, they sound like a pair of 2" speakers. Not very good in the grand scheme of things, very tinny and not very lively. It's basically like a small FM radio.

[Tiger005]

so the sound is a lot warmer than sharp's sound?, ok, that seems to be what I need.