MD still great

This is a great MD deck and very easy to use. Editing, titling are a breeze. Although I do use MP3s as well, I still love Minidisc.

Sony MZ-B10: Safe Digital Archives.

I use my Sony MZ-B10 MiniDisc Recorder to archive the recordings of all my university lectures and seminars which have been made on my Sony ICD-MX20 Digital Recorder. As with all Sony systems, these units have been designed to compliment each other and to give professional results. The output from the MZ-B10 is excellent, the unit is well made, and it has survived the rigours of two years of college and university life without a problem. A typical piece of Sony equipment, superb reliability and build quality, and easy to use!

A few minus points to consider!

The other reviews of this HiMD tell you all the good things about it - and I'm not going to disagree with them. I have been relatively happy with my purchase - made so that I can take a huge collection of classical & Jazz music with me to Iraq for 4 months. I now have hundreds of CDs in one small case with a dozen discs in it. Excellent.

The few problems you need to consider before deciding that MD is for you:

1. Sound levels of recorded classical music vary greatly. Compression is often low to give the best sound quality and this means that when transferred to a digital file like Atrac you may find it hard to get high enough volumes from in-ear phones (unless you get the very expensive sound isolating type which I have decided to buy!). Pop and rock you can listen to quite happily at level 20/30 - you may stuggle to hear some classical music at 30/30.

2. If you have poor or (over 40!) failing eyesight you will struggle to read the display on this MD. The display is small with no backlight and the font size is miniscule and not very clear (compared to an iPod).

3. The battery compartment cover has an annoying tendancy to pop open when you are changing the disc.

4. SoundStage is not great and messed my PC up quite badly on the first few attempts to load it. The QuickBurner is quite slick though. Biggest problem here is that MD still doesn't do MP3 - but I suspect that Sony will have to change this on newer models - you might prefer to wait for that if you like the MP3 format in preferrence to ATRAC.

Conclusion - a good product and one that I don't regret buying (particularly for my specific purpose and with my concern about the reliability mini-HDs in a difficult environment) - however, it could be even better with a bigger backlit screen and a volume boost for classical fans!