・MD-MS100

026   |   Sharp   |   '95  12.25

The Slot-In Revolution

Although the Slot-In disc-changing mechanism made its debut in the first generation of MD (Sony MZ-1), it seemed to be a direct transfer from home audio systems to portable players. It was not only bulky but also lacked practicality.

To achieve a smoother disc-changing experience, the MD-MS100 adopted a slim Slot-In mechanism. Unlike the cumbersome flip-open and close mechanisms of conventional designs, it only required a One Touch horizontal motion to quickly insert or eject discs. The newly developed optical head was slimmed down from the previous 4.7mm to 3.1mm, making the player more compact and achieving a reasonable level of practicality. Slot-In also became a standout feature for Sharp in the following years. However, Slot-In required more space and made the player somewhat thicker and heavier.

To complement the Slot-In design, a departure from the previous horizontal layout was made. With a significant amount of white space and the use of curves, the overall appearance was clean and stylish. The elongated LCD screen displayed track titles, REC Level, battery status, and disc information at a glance, supporting up to 10 characters in English, numerals, or Kana (Japanese script). Unfortunately, it did not come with a LCD remote control, which was a missed opportunity.

It featured what might be considered a thoughtful function for MD at the time, "Synchro REC." It detected the presence or absence of audio during recording and automatically start /pause recording accordingly (automatically deleting blank spaces of 4 seconds or longer and marking track mark at silent intervals), making recording and editing easier and more convenient.

The dual-chip LSI for digital audio processing was replaced with an integrated single LSI, boosting performance and achieving the strongest battery life of up to REC 3.5/ play 4.5hr on a rechargeable battery. It supported power from four sources (rechargeable battery, home DC, external battery pack, and car power source). While the player had some weight to it, it was nearly ¥20,000 cheaper than its competitors at the time. Although the external battery pack required an additional ¥2,000 investment, in the context of the expensive MD series during that era, it was relatively more affordable...

DMP-R30