SONY BRINGS STUDIO SOUND TO NEW Hi-MD WALKMAN

Taking playback sound quality to another level, Sony today announced the latest addition to its family of Hi-MD™ Walkman® digital music players. The sleek and slimline MZ-RH1 builds on the success of its predecessor. Listeners can now enjoy unsurpassable CD-quality sound whether they are playing back music recorded at a live music concert or selecting from their personal music library.

The MZ-RH1 is a digital audio player that can play files downloaded in LinearPCM, ATRAC (ATRAC, ATRAC3, ATRAC3plus) or MP3 format, or which have been recorded onto the device from a live music session. Sony has improved the recording experience with several enhancements. Users can adjust the mode to reflect what they are recording, which could be a live event, their own ‘jam’ session, or even a business meeting - creating crystal clear playback sound. The MZ-RH1 also features different listening modes to complement musical genres and create the right acoustic atmosphere, including “Club”, “Jazz” and “Pop”.

The competitive price belies the MZ-RH1’s professional capabilities. The iconic Sony design with the spectrum analyser display encases a pocket size recording studio. Usability for professionals has also improved, moving the buttons to enable easy operation, and building in a backlight function so that the product can be used in a dark recording studio. Sony has the advantage on the market for studio quality sound thanks to its Hi-MD next-generation formatting technology. Harnessing over 14 years of research and development, Hi-MD evolved Sony’s popular MiniDisc into a multi-purpose medium for storing audio, text and image data. Hi-MD uses the uncompressed LinearPCM format so music can be recorded and played back with the same sound quality as the original source. The MZ-RH1 will be available from May 2006 across Europe.

Key product features include:

The device is also now offered with Mac compatibility, bringing greater choice in digital audio devices to Mac users.

The Mac application can be downloaded from the MZ-RH1 page on the Sony websites and support website: http://www.sonydigital-link.com, from summer 2006

Users can now revive their old mini disc libraries as digital music by uploading music to the PC

Ultra slim and compact body – measures just 14.7mm

Supplied with high power headphones offering treble and bass sound, and a remote control for easy listening and playback

Rechargeable battery offers a battery life of 19 hours

Removable media format offers unlimited storage capacity - one 1GB mini-disc can hold up to 45 hours of music

Dynamic normalizer automatically uniformises the sound volume of each recorded track to a listenable level

High capacity coupling condenser allows an authentic reproduction of bass

PC data storage (Windows/Mac)

HD digital amplifier

Hi-Speed USB (compatible with USB2.0 specification)