The Unit

These are the specifications I could understand from the manual:

44.1 kHz
EFM
1 bit
40 ~ 20.000Hz +/- 4dB
20 ~ 20.000Hz +/- 1 dB (....??... 10kOhm)
....(+/- 0.001 % W.PEAK)

Headphones: 8mW + 8mW (....??.... 16 Ohm)
DC 1.2V MHB-901 Battery pack (1400mAh Ni-MH)
DC 1.5V (LR6)
 

Playbacktime

Aiwa MHB-901    19 hours
LR6                        27 hours
MHB-901 + LR6    50 hours
 

Dimensions

71.6 X 78.5 X 14.5 mm
91 g (with disc and battery ?)
 

These pictures say enough! Don't they ?

Click on the pictures to see the original piture!

Front

Back, with LR6 (AA) battery extension

Comparison of a MiniDisc and the unit, the Minidisc should be rotated 90 degrees...

The unit with the remote control and the headphones next to a Sony MZ-E25

Extra Parts
The battery and a cord to connect to the remote control.

The bag. (In dutch: "Knikkerzak" :)

Remote Control
The remote control (from the Aiwa AM-HX30).

It has a backlit display which shows a fine blue color, but the scanner couldn't scan the color. It is as cool as the Sharp backlit display if you see it for real!!

Alarm
Press "DISP/SEARCH" and "MODE" at the same time. You'll enter Alarm mode. Change the value from 10 minutes to 3 hours with the "FORWARD" and "REVERSE" buttons. Cancel the alarm by pressing "STOP" two times. If the counter reaches 0 you'll hear a beep and the music stops playing until you press a button.

Program play
Press the "MODE" button 4 times. Select the first track number and press "DSL/ENTER". Select the next number etc. etc. If you press "PLAY" your program will be played. (Maybe this isn't completely right.. but you'll find out very easy how to use it!)

Special settings: Beep, EarGRD and Contrast.

To use these options press play, then stop, hold down the DISP/SEARCH button for a couple of seconds. Now you'll see the "BEEP ON" on the display. To change this value press "DSL/ENTER". When "BEEP OFF" is selected you won't hear the sounds that indicate actions.

To go to the Ear Guar mode press "MODE". The display shows "EarGRD ON". You can change this value by pressing "DSL/ENTER". The maximum level is 12 out of 20.
 

The last thing you can change is the contrast of the display. After the Ear Gaurd mode you can press "MODE" to get to the next option. The display shows every part of the display. The number describes the contrast level. 0 is the lowest and 15 is the highest. I prefer 7 or 8, it gives a clear view and it consumes less energy.

Press "MODE" again to leave the setting.

Note: If you remove the batteries the setting won't change!
 
 

Who am I?
My name is R.M.Morriën. I live in the Netherlands. Since 1996 I'm one of those MiniDisc freaks. I think I know very much about it, people think I'm crazy, but they have their own habits :) The first unit I bought was a Sony MDS-303, a year later I bought the MZ-R3. Last year I bought the 520 and I'm waiting for the 630 with PS/2 connection and s-link. My sister now has the MZ-E25 (you can see above..) and my brother owns a MZR-35. I sold the R3 to one of his friends this summer (the summer of 1999) and I had to lend my sisters walkman.

I found out how to enlarge the capacity of a MiniDisc by cloning a TOC from one disc to another. You can read about this on the MiniDisc community pages under the sector 'hacking'.
 

Why and where did I bought the unit?
I travel 2 hours a day and I'm realy into club music so I just need a walkman.... I just need music, don't you? I travel a lot and I really like listening to music, I used the R3 for the last 2 years and I needed a good replacement. I don't need the record function so I searched for a really nice player.

I was thinking about the Sony E55, E80 and E90, because I'm a Sony freak. But the E55 costs 400$ (american dollar) in the Netherland.... ok I payed 500$ for my R3 three years ago... but that is then and this is now! I was looking at the internet and I read the minidiscussion pages, everyone was against some sellers. I ended up at www.minidiscweb.com. There were a lot of negative messages about them, but I read them after I ordered my unit. One of the reasons I used www.minidiscweb.com was the payment method. I just wanted to use my credit card for the first time. They have all the units that will be in the Netherlands in about a year or maybe two... and the price is much lower than in the Netherlands.

I read a review of the Aiwa AM-HX50 and it described what I needed. I choose the AM-HX55 because it's a newer model and only a few dollars more expensive.

Question: Is Aiwa not just Sony? They use the same batteries and the same bags, the logo is almost the same... in a sort of way..
 

MiniDiscWeb.com
16 september:
I ordered my unit. I just received my credit card and couldn't wait to order a unit. I went to www.minidiscweb.com, I entered all the fields to order the unit. At the time I finished it I was redirected to www.iescrow.com. At that point I was beginning to wonder what would happen. I had to make an account. I had to pay to Iescrow by sending a fax to them with my signature. Iescrow is a third party for internet transactions, at first I didn't trust them, but what the heck just try and see what happens...

17 september:
I send a fax to them with my signature, at 18 september it was processed. My money was at Iescrow. They send an email to minidiscweb with an order to ship the unit to me.

20 september:
I got an email from minidiscweb telling me there is no blue unit, do you mind sending a white unit? I answered that I don't mind what color it is, just send me the unit!

21 september:
I got an email from Iescrow that the unit is on it's way. I got a tracking number for FedEx next day it was something like: EE317799413HK. I went to the FedEx site but I couldn't tack the package, it had to be a 6-10 digit number! It scared me... I emailed minidiscweb but they didn't answer.

23 september
17:00 CET my neighbour comes to the door. She has a package for me, rather large, it has a HongKong stamp on it and the right tracking number! I got my unit in a week!!!!!! On the package there was an EMS label with the tracking number! In the package there were a lot of papers and there was another package from FedEx without any labels. Inside the FedEx package there was a small box from Aiwa... yes!!...

Conclusion
That week the site of www.minidiscweb.com changed about three times completely! I completely lost trust at that time.... but:

You can thrust www.minidiscweb.com, because of the tons of email messages I don't think that the guy who does all the work has time to answer them. The answers I recieved were only answers to the 'subject' of my email message. Make use of that!

Iescrow is a convenient third party, I send an email and they gave a very good reply! I had no problems at all with Iescrow!

For people in Europe: you have the unit within a week, if it's in stock within 4 or 5 days, if you order early and fax immediate to Iescrow it will be 4 days!

I only wonder what minidiscweb.com does with my personal information like my credit card number etc. etc. ... but then again this is the Internet :)

If you have questions or suggestions mail me at Morrie01@ie.hva.nl
 

 
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