Sharp MD-MS702 Personal MiniDisc Player
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Good machine
Pros
Fully adjustable recording levels
Cons
Twiddly menu-driven editing
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Used with a good quality mic, this unit is hard to beat -- ideal for somebody looking for decent sound at a reasonable price.
As a professional classical musician, decent recording equipment is essential. I have used this unit to record anything from lessons and rehearsals to demos, and it has consistently performed well since I bought it 2 years ago.
I chose this unit over the Sony models on offer because it had fully adjustable recording levels (at the time I bought my Sharp, the Sony models only had "high" and "low" levels); this was definitely a wise choice, and I have used levels throughout the entire range depending on venue and what was being recorded.
The unit performs best when used with a quality made-for-minidisc-use microphone -- I have a Sony mic which fits the bill and has made astonishingly high quality, near-professional quality recordings.
The battery life isn't too bad (although I really wish you could use the built in battery OR ordinary alkaline batteries: sometimes when you're on the road it's easier to find batteries to buy than it is to find a socket -- or the time -- to recharge!) -- I can get a full capacity MD recording and several playbacks out of one charge (recording, of course, takes considerably more juice than playbacks).
The controls are acceptably manipulable, although the slightly-complicated menu system takes a little getting used to -- I'm still not sure how to get to the "track-break" setting (which determines how long the unit records before splitting to a new track)! I don't think other units are significantly more intuitive, though.
I seldom use the enclosed remote "pad", but on occasions when I have, the small buttons drove me NUTS (and, not incidentally, started to HURT if you had to push them down for any time, eg when scrolling through tracks).
Overall, this unit was an EXCELLENT investment for me. It was a choice between this and a DAT recorder, and, given the price difference, this was unquestionably the right decision. It might not be the ideal choice for a more casual user looking more for a portable music player than a piece of recording equipment; an MP3 player would be a better choice for that. However, if you need a robust, high-quality, highly portable recorder, you don't need to look any further. It's a winner.
I chose this unit over the Sony models on offer because it had fully adjustable recording levels (at the time I bought my Sharp, the Sony models only had "high" and "low" levels); this was definitely a wise choice, and I have used levels throughout the entire range depending on venue and what was being recorded.
The unit performs best when used with a quality made-for-minidisc-use microphone -- I have a Sony mic which fits the bill and has made astonishingly high quality, near-professional quality recordings.
The battery life isn't too bad (although I really wish you could use the built in battery OR ordinary alkaline batteries: sometimes when you're on the road it's easier to find batteries to buy than it is to find a socket -- or the time -- to recharge!) -- I can get a full capacity MD recording and several playbacks out of one charge (recording, of course, takes considerably more juice than playbacks).
The controls are acceptably manipulable, although the slightly-complicated menu system takes a little getting used to -- I'm still not sure how to get to the "track-break" setting (which determines how long the unit records before splitting to a new track)! I don't think other units are significantly more intuitive, though.
I seldom use the enclosed remote "pad", but on occasions when I have, the small buttons drove me NUTS (and, not incidentally, started to HURT if you had to push them down for any time, eg when scrolling through tracks).
Overall, this unit was an EXCELLENT investment for me. It was a choice between this and a DAT recorder, and, given the price difference, this was unquestionably the right decision. It might not be the ideal choice for a more casual user looking more for a portable music player than a piece of recording equipment; an MP3 player would be a better choice for that. However, if you need a robust, high-quality, highly portable recorder, you don't need to look any further. It's a winner.
