Sony MZ-B100 Personal MiniDisc Player
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Similar in Personal Audio Mini Disc Player
- Recordable: Recordable
- Headphones: Yes
- Remote Control: Yes
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Sony MZ-B100 - Great MD Recorder, but still a work in progress.
Pros
Built in mics & speaker, really small, runs for hours off 1 AA Battery.
Cons
No mic level controls, an over anxious limiter,
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Still the best thing out there. I've tried a bunch of other portable MD recorders and this one's the best.
I have 3 of these now, all bought off eBay for around $200 used. Retails for $499 I think. I'm a professional musician who likes to record rehearsals, gigs and interviews. I'm really into the whole minidisc thang because it's digital and records at near CD quality.
What I like about these recorders is their ability to be small yet powerful. It has a built in stereo mic and speakers, which allows you to record something and quickly check how it's recording so that you can make adjustments.
Of course, the down side is there aren't too many things to adjust for live recording except mic sensitivity (hi or low) or stereo/mono with regards to the mics.
Because there is no manual recording level (a mistake all MD manufacturers make), they have to use a built in limiter, which wouldn't be so bad except there's no way to even adjust that. So recording is fine for quiet or medium loud levels. But a loud rock band will cause the limiter to squish the dynamics so severly that it doesn't sound good.
What I did to get around that (I play in a relatively loud rock band) was to purchase a separate little mic preamp and dual stealthy mics made by Giant Squid. I learned that a lot of pro bootleggers use these to record concerts and later burn CD's. The Squid mics plug into the preamp which in turns plugs right into the line in, thereby bypassing the limiter. Now my live recordings are much better.
One other thing I'd like to see on here is a nice dedicated digital output. It has a digital input (line), but strangely no digital output. The cry-baby record companies probably keep digital outputs off these things in order to make copying more difficult. Ha! Like I'm going to go thru that much trouble to steal music. If I was going to steal, I'd just go on the internet.
I simply take a MD out of the MZ-B100 and plop in into a MD table top unit that is hooked up to a stand alone CD recorder when I want to burn a CD.
What I like about these recorders is their ability to be small yet powerful. It has a built in stereo mic and speakers, which allows you to record something and quickly check how it's recording so that you can make adjustments.
Of course, the down side is there aren't too many things to adjust for live recording except mic sensitivity (hi or low) or stereo/mono with regards to the mics.
Because there is no manual recording level (a mistake all MD manufacturers make), they have to use a built in limiter, which wouldn't be so bad except there's no way to even adjust that. So recording is fine for quiet or medium loud levels. But a loud rock band will cause the limiter to squish the dynamics so severly that it doesn't sound good.
What I did to get around that (I play in a relatively loud rock band) was to purchase a separate little mic preamp and dual stealthy mics made by Giant Squid. I learned that a lot of pro bootleggers use these to record concerts and later burn CD's. The Squid mics plug into the preamp which in turns plugs right into the line in, thereby bypassing the limiter. Now my live recordings are much better.
One other thing I'd like to see on here is a nice dedicated digital output. It has a digital input (line), but strangely no digital output. The cry-baby record companies probably keep digital outputs off these things in order to make copying more difficult. Ha! Like I'm going to go thru that much trouble to steal music. If I was going to steal, I'd just go on the internet.
I simply take a MD out of the MZ-B100 and plop in into a MD table top unit that is hooked up to a stand alone CD recorder when I want to burn a CD.
