Home > Consumer Reviews > Aiwa AMF70 Portable Minidisc Recorder/Player

This is a very well made device: it records beautifully and it's fairly robust physically. I've got live jazz & blues recordings made with the accompanying mic that are as good as many live CDs.

Only one problem: the wierd shaped Li-Ion battery died very young. Where can I get batteries for this machine?

The large jog dial - so lacking on other players -is the best. It makes titling extremely easy, and is much better as a volume control than some tiny buttons. It's also very attractive and the back light on the unit is brilliant. The remote has more functionality than any other unit including the record function, which comes in handy when you want to record from the mic and the unit is buried in your pocket. The only thing the remote lacks compared to others is the ability to title, and that the clip on the back is a little big. Another thing you can do that's not available on other units is quickly program track titles for playback. I'm extremely pleased with the Aiwa, it's very easy to use and of course it sounds great. You can also edit your tracks with the combine/divide functions. It even plays a 3 sec. rehersal before dividing a track so you can adjust the point where you want the division to take place for more accuracy (very cool). The headphones look very slick and sound nice but my only complaint is that it has poor bass reproduction and a very short cable. Some say the external battery pack is a bit bulky and that's true, but you don't need to have it plugged in all the time. The beauty of the awia is that you can switch power sources without iterupting play in any way. So when your 10 hrs.(playback) of internal power is almost up you can just plug in the battery pack(which you kept in your bag/other pocket) without inetrupting the flow of music (this also works with the adapter). And if you've ever been on a long drive or trip, you'll warmly welcome those extra 25 hrs. of playback. (40 hrs. total if both batteries are used together)

Sony's MD standard has many advantages over players like the RIO which is what I almost bought, thank God I didn't. The MP3 players are only starting out with voice quality recording features making them at best a very expensive walkman, they are two to three years behind. MD uses ATRAC to compress sound, which is also a lossy compression scheme like MP1 layer 3, but is much higher in quality most people say indistinguishable from CD. The AIWA uses fourth generation ATRAC (ver 4.5) which is state of the art and also backward compatible with older MD ATRAC. The AIWA is one of the top three in it's class also check out the Sharp 721 series and Sony MZR-90 series which are comparable but a little more in price (all which lack digital out BTW). All record 74 minutes stereo and just over 148 minutes in mono. Real disc capacity for MD is rated at around 140 MB. The price per MB of storage is much more economical compared to RIO and Sony's new memory stick standard. MiniDiscs cost $1.50 to $3 apiece. If you own a SBLive Platinum (or LiveValue with the Hoontech cable which is cheaper and better IMHO) you can go digital straight from the soundcard into the AIWA using the optical digital Toshiba link fiber optic cable which is included in the package. This means ANY sound going through your soundcard can be digitally recorded into the AIWA (CD's from the Digital cable, WinAmp Channels, RealAudio, etc.. It does however also support the SCMS protocol which means you can only do one generation of digital recording, there are ways around this but unless your professionally copying it's not worthwhile using the AIWA as a dubbing device buy a MD homedeck. You could always do a regular analog dub which is still great quality. As a portable recorder it is very inconspicous and is a favourite amoung concert recorders, invest in a set of bi-aural (stereo) microphones, and or a good dynamic mic (Shure sm-57) and away you go. I've heard stories about blind people using portable MD recorders as aural cameras to capture places which they've visited on vacation. The backlit screen, price and jog wheel made my mind up for me. One thing the Sony has that the AIWA doesn't is line out, but I had no problem using the headphone out with increased volume to dub recordings back into my computer for editing at proper levels. You can also do divide/join/move editing functions right on the AIWA and index up to 256 tracks. If you're serious about MD then also scope out a home deck and make sure it has digtal out so if you want to keep everthing in the digital realm you can. So far no manufacture has come out with a MD drive which can be hooked up to the computer so you can use MD to record data or do a direct music dub, so the only way to get music in is using mic/line/optical in recording at real time speeds, although some home decks can do 2X and 4X dubbing. I'm banking that the pressure with be on to produce a drive as MD continues to grow in popularity. I am very happy with my AM-F70 and expect to be for many years.

I both this minidisc for one purpose, to record lectures at school. I found out lately that it can hold up to 150 minutes in mono recording, which is the equivalent of almost three hours of class. The microphone ( sold separately) is very good, and i can listen to the lesson during my trip to work and school. I can also title the disc and every important thing the professor explained and i need to remember.It is easy, I name the track, EX Rene` Descartes, and when i need a review I just go and listen as much as I want, like the song of a cd. I can divide, combine, erase and so on. The only problem is the remote control, the volume botton broke after the second day, the headphone are impossible to use, unless you have the head of the size of watermellon. About the rest it is a very good portable minidisc, I would have appreciated more if the were included a AM/FM radio in it.

This mini disc recorder/player has great sound and is EXTREMELY easy to use not to many buttons for confusion, but enough to do what you need to. Has long playback with added power if needed.Its compact and is very stylish. i love the swoop earphones. The main body is back lit as well as the buttons,(great fro traveling when not very light)and the large screen remote is too. The remote is great and does everything. You can name each song and disk w/ up to 50 letters. I highly recomend this system!