Sony MDXC6500R RMD > Reviews (7)

Why I bought it
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I bought the Sony MDCar Stereo to play mini-discs that I have recorded from my CD collection. Why MD? Well, mainly because they\'re cute - but they are also cheap, re-writable, and convenient. I was fed up with poor quality sound from rather aged cassette tapes, and wanted something with a bit more ooomph!

This particular model caught my eye because it has a MD player built into the head unit, but the loading slot is hidden behind the removable front panel (The panel hinges neatly down when you need to change the disk). This leaves loads of room on the panel for a really cool display - with lots of colourful lights (they don\'t all have a meaning, but they sure look good!).

Security
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I bought my unit in Argos, and it came with a year\'s free theft insurance. You have to make sure that you take the front panel out of the car when you leave it - otherwise you are not covered by the insurance. However, the unit politely bleeps at you when you turn off the ignition - just to remind you that you need to detach the panel.

Display
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The unit has two display modes. The first is a kind of animated display which makes pretty patterns appear during playback of your MD - every few seconds the title of the disk or current track appear and then another pretty pattern. However, in this mode, the song titles tend to get truncated. The second mode does away with the animation, but lets you see the whole of the song title as it scrolls across the display.

If you\'re like me then you will find yourself drawn into the graphics - staring at the display whilst waiting at traffic lights, and then suddenly finding that the lights have gone green! The animated mode really is quite hypnotic.

Ergonomics
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The front panel takes a bit of getting used to. There are quite a lot of buttons to control the various menus and features. Some of the controls are very small, and difficult to use whilst driving the car!

Also, some tricky gymnastics is required to attach/detach the panel from the head unit. Because of the flip down design (allowing access to the MD loading slot) the panel is hinged at two points, one on either side. You have to slide the panel to one side, as if it were part of one of those spring loaded toilet roll holders (!) in order to detach it from the
hinge.

On the other hand, the large display area makes the panel easy to read. The volume knob is also quite generously sized - making it easy to find whilst you are driving or if it is dark.

Compatability
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The unit can be used as a controller for a boot-mounted CD or MD multi-changer. There are some also extras available such as a steering column remote control, and an infra-red remote control.

Don\'t expect too much from the MD player. It can\'t play disks that have been recorded in Sony\'s own longplay format, and it does not display all of the available characters that you might use in your track titles (it only shows the alphabet in upper case, for example).