Sharp MD-DS70 Review

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Intro

When the leaves started turning yellow, and snow began to fall, I thought to myself, maybe it’s time to get myself a new player. I knew instantly from all the praise on the T-Station boards, that a Sharp player was the way to go. In the back of my mind, I knew that I had to have the DS8. The AUVI amp, blue LED, and delta sigma logo grew on me as the days went by…. that was until I discovered the successor to the DS8, the DS70. In every aspect, the DS70 seemed to have more features than the DS8, but the $10 difference didn’t seem to justify that. However, I knew that I couldn’t go wrong with a Sharp, so I placed an order for it. One and a half weeks later, I am holding the DS70 in my hands.

So lets get on with the review.

What's In The Box

DS70 Player

LCD Stick Remote

4 Pole Sharp Earbuds

“Gumstick” NiMH Battery Cell

International (110V-240V) AC adapter

External AA Battery Case

Matching Charging Cradle

Black Felt Carrying Case

Instruction Manual - with an 8 page English section

My only real beef here was that the included manual was almost entirely in Japanese. Only the last 8 pages are for English instruction, which mainly explains the core functions such as charging, sound settings, leaving out many little stuff that you just got to know. There are page references to the Japanese sections, which have illustrations that are pretty much self-explanatory.

Design

In any case, let’s take a look at the casing of the DS70. The first thing that you notice is how durable this unit feels in your hands. This is due to the fact that the casing of the DS70 is made of aluminum, not as light as magnesium, but it is a stronger material that can stand up to daily use. The whole of the unit (yes, even the back side) is painted very similar to how car paint feels. The DS70 comes in four different “flavors”, silver, black (a dark dark navy blue IMO), maroon red, and white. I opted to go with the white color version, as I was feeling a need to distance myself from the all too often silver.

*UPDATED* Flashing blue LED clip

The first thing you noticed that the DS70 doesn’t have that blue LED on the front face anymore, unlike the DS8. Instead the blue LED is moved to the top of the player, smoothing out the face of the player. The delta sigma logo however is still raised. The “1-Bit Technology” type is moved underneath the delta sigma logo, unlike its predecessor, the DS8. The main function buttons are all aligned on top of the player, with the open slider switch placed on the left side. The buttons feel very durable, they have this reassuring “click” feeling when you press them. The off button serves a dual purpose, holding it down will lock down the main player buttons.

Battery

The unit still uses the ever-popular Gumstick battery format as its power source. The Gumstick battery door is of the slide out type, frequent use might just dislodge or loosen the hinge. As always, there is an external AA battery case. Working in conjunction with the Gumstick battery, the battery life can be extended far beyond of what only one battery could last. Here's a little chart.


To charge the Gumstick battery, simply dock it in the cradle. The blue LED stays lit the entire time until the charging process is done. It is recommended that you only charge once you have completely depleted the NiMH battery, to ensure optimal battery life.

Remote

The DS70 comes with a stick-remote that has pretty much remained the same from it’s predecessor, DS8. It is very easy to pass off a DS8 remote for a DS70 remote, the major difference is the ability of the DS70’s remote to display Kanji, and the trim of the LCD is all silver.

The remote features a teal-like backlit LCD that may be conceived as another color under different lighting conditions. Yes, even the delta sigma logo on the right side of the LCD lights up when there is activity. In the pictures it shown as sort of a baby blue color, resting near my keyboard right now, the color seems to be teal for me. By default, the light will stay on for an approximate 5 seconds when you push a button. Sharp has implemented a feature in the set up menu that allows you to completely turn off the light, or leave it always on. Of course the latter will drain your battery faster than usual. Setting the light to off will put the display on the remote to sleep, and turn off the flashing of the blue LED. The upside to setting it in the off position, the lights, and display are turned off, thus conserving battery power. Only when you press a button will the display “wake up”.

At all times, the remote shows track title, track number, sound mode, battery meter, and disc activity. I believe that it has a 10-character line display, but varies when it displays messages like “TOC READ”. Pressing display will cycle it to show song title, time elapsed, time remaining, disc name, SP/LP2/LP4 mode. However, when the display is switched to SP/LP2/LP4 mode, it’ll show it and then revert back to scrolling the song title. The default display is decided by what the display mode the last minidisc was left in. I found that the battery meter tends to fluctuate, not always accurately displaying what the real battery life remaining is. But when the battery meter starts to flash, time to charge or a change battery, making this the only time it’s truly accurate.


The mode button changes the different playing modes of the player. Cycling from random, random repeat, repeat all, one track repeat, “MY” (more on this coming up), “MY” repeat, and normal. Sadly Sharp did not incorporate a programming mode into the DS70, so placing your tracks into groups will kind of be the programming feature.

Whenever a disc is inserted, the player searches for groups. If it finds groups, it will first play the groups, then go on to the ungrouped tracks. Working in conjunction with the play modes, you can random, random repeat, repeat all (in this case, all groups), and one group repeat.

The “MY” playing mode found only on the DS70 and DR80 (NetMD Recorder), is essentially the same as the bookmark function of the Sony E10. When switched to “MY” mode, it will only played the tracks that you have bookmarked. The downside is that the DS70 only can bookmark up to 10 songs, compared to the 20 of the E10. Bookmarking tracks consist of just holding down the play/pause button to register it with the DS70, hold it down once again and the bookmark is erased.

Last but not least, the clip on the remote is very strong. I can easily clip it to my shirt without worrying it coming off. Unlike before with the E10’s weak clip, a little tug would have unclipped it.

Sound

The DS70 features 4 different sound settings for you to enjoy your music. The AUVI amp along with the 4 pole conductor truly does make a world of difference when comparing it to my E10. It’s very clear even at high volumes, with no signs of distortion. It is amazing to hear spatial sound created from a portable player. Instruments circle around your head, and then continue to play on one side of your head. Sometimes the effect is created so perfectly that you would swear that the artist is singing in front of you.

The only thing that I could find wrong with the sound was that it is low. It’s not so low that you won’t be able to hear anything, but I have to turn it up to at least 20. It’s nothing major, but it’ll be a thorn in some people’s sides.

Dolby Headphones:Features normal, studio, live and dome. It’s supposed to make you feel like that you are listening to the music in a studio, live, or dome. Personally this feature doesn’t fit my listening style. To add to that, listening to Dolby surround will cut your battery life down by half.

Bass:Features 3 different steps of bass. I listen to all my music on bass level 2/3, depending on the mood that I’m in. I find that with the AUVI amp, setting it on bass level 3 will not distort the music at all. The bass is reduced, but it is still stronger and clearer than that of other players.

Equalizer:Features flat, heavy, pops, jazz, dance, vocal, rock, soft, user1 and user2. The 5 presets are 5 bands, while the user1 and user2 are only 3 band. Regardless that it shows a 5-band equalizer on the display, the 2 left bars are adjusted together, same for the right side. Unfortunately the LCD does not show value of the dB setting, only showing you the set of bars. This can make it difficult to know what dB you are on.

*UPDATED* Equalizer clip

Surround:Features labo (???), club, hall, and arena. I personally don’t like to use these sound settings on their own.

The feature that I like the best is the fact that you can use Dolby Headphone and bass at the same time, and same goes for equalizer and surround. My favorite combination is using User1, and hall/arena.

Closing Notes

From a MD enthusiasts’ point of view, this player is a perfect piece of Japanese technology when you consider the fact that it is a portable music player. The sound that it so accurately recreates in your head is just astounding. It’s predecessor, the DS8, in my opinion is the only other minidisc player that can match it in terms of sound quality. I highly recommend this player to anyone that wants awesome sound out of their portable.







Copyright © 2003 by Alex Tan (blinkme_210), All Rights Reserved





Buy these great products at Audiocubes, selling Japan's best-kept secrets, delivered to your door for less.