I'm currently in the process of researching MiniDisc recorders. I have owned several different Sony models over the past five years, including the MZ-R55 (great non-MDLP, non-Hi-MD recorder, but has a short battery life), the MZ-N707 (great overall MDLP recorder, but the remote lacks a display), and the MZ-N10 (Sony's MD tenth anniversary model, which seems to have quit working). I am looking to buy one of the new Hi-MD models and I'm going to try and hold out until April when the second generation Sony Hi-MD models hit the U.S. market. The unit that I am concentrating my research on is the MZ-RH10. The most intriguing feature to me on that model is the organic LED (OLED) front-panel display.
For those unfamiliar with MiniDisc, you should visit the MiniDisc pages at http://www.minidisc.org .
Although I own a couple of hard-drive based MP3/WMA players (the Creative Zen Micro 5 GB model and the Creative Zen 60 GB model), the MiniDisc models, such as the Sony MZ-RH10, represent a way to carry an impressive amount of music or other audio on a small virtually indestructible magneto-optical disc. One 1-GB Hi-MD can hold up to 45 hours of music at a 48 kbps ATRAC3plus setting. However, I'll probably use a setting that allows about 20 hours per disc.
I plan to post more in the future on which model I ended up choosing. By the way, expect to see my MZ-R55 and MZ-N707 on eBay soon, under the seller ID of erayboul.
