I heart you, Sony MZ-R50 portable Mini Disc recorder

The year was 1999.  I bought my first real ‘modern’ computer: PowerMac G4 450mhz. There were these music files called “.mp3’s” that were gaining popularity, but there weren’t really a lot of those around, nor many programs to manage/play them.  I used SoundJam MP, which later turned into the Apple program we will all know and love/loathe.  There was no such thing as an iPod; hard disk-based music players were as large as…hard drives, the same order of size as a portable CD player.  I needed a music player and recorder, and I have always loved the Mini Disc format since it came out 6 years earlier.  I just loved the idea of optical recording, and more importantly, I loved cartridges/cassettes.  My favorite Transformer will always be Soundwave, because of that love.

The MZ-R50 was a hard recorder to find.  No one sold MD recorders in the stores.  I had to turn to ebay in order to find this particular model.  But why do I love this thing?  Besides being an excellent recorder, with optical digital inputs, phantom power for stereo microphones, and everyone’s favorite Sony feature: Digital Mega Bass, what I love most about this recorder is the way it feels in hand.  Constructed of machined aluminum, this is one of the last Sony products that I know of that had this quality in materials.  This recorder is solid, and closing/ejecting the disc gives a nice, hearty click as the door locks (and while recording, the button to unlock the door is disabled until you press stop…genius!).  Size is very small, as large as my 3G iPod (a future IHY post), and like those early iPods, this MD recorder has some weight to it.  It gives you a feeling like closing the door of a large, expensive German sedan, like you know you have something quality.  And most importantly, this thing works.  I bought it 10 years ago, and I just recorded some live music yesterday.  Flawless.  Damn, I love this thing.