The latest drawer from Toshiba has turned out to be pleasantly flat. Judging by the low price, the XR-Z 50 offers a lot of access options. The scanning head jumps to the next or previous track at the touch of a button, pressing it several times causes correspondingly larger jumps. After actuating a slide switch, indices can be selected in the same way.
There is also a fast forward and reverse flow, but this is without the possibility of eavesdropping. For this, however, the display is automatically switched to title time display for the time of the search process, so that at least an optical control is available.
soiling problems when inserting the disc are almost excluded, because the charging unit extends pleasantly far.
The small Toshiba occupies a special position compared to its competitors in terms of its type of programming. After all, it is not possible to combine different tracks into one program in any order and frequency. Only one connected block can be selected and, if desired, played several times with the help of the "Repeat" function. Such a block is not tied to the beginning or the end of titles, but can also be arbitrarily limited by time stamps. However, unlike other devices, this feature hardly deserves the designation "programming".
The display fulfills its function quite well, but the simultaneous display of title/index and real time/remaining time must be dispensed with. A switchover is possible. The operation is carried out using short-stroke buttons, which are located behind a tough plastic film. Ladies with long fingernails are likely to get quite a lot of problems here.
Excel lent price value-to-value ratio
There is nothing wrong with the transmission characteristics of the XR-Z 50, they are consistently top class. The immunity to interference is also impressive, pressing defects and surface soiling leave it cold. If you place the device on a reasonably low-vibration surface, there will be no playback disturbances. The adjustable headphone output is commendable, which can also elicit a lot of volume from relatively quiet listeners.
Overall, the XR-Z 50 from Toshiba is a highly recommended device that does without the very great subtleties in ease of use, but can come up with good data and an extremely reasonable price. rp