WOW!! After using my Sony MZ-R37 for years to record live music, I found this forum! I have been quite successful downloading my mini-disc to my PC using the line out on the mini-disc into the sound card on the pc with a phono mini-jack...the software that I have been using is MusicMatch, which let's me choose the input source in the record mode, and is very easy to use. From there making CD's is a breeze. The results have been what I thought to have been quite good when using a "typical" good stero. I brought my CD's to a friend that has a high end audio store and is a recording engineer.. we A/B'd my recording from the source (mini-disc) with the CD I made using the CD quality MP3, listening on a top of the line audio system using Quad speakers, NAIM components, in a listening room, ideal situation which I am sure shows off any flaw. This was a recording made in a small intimate jazz club, and the source sounded more alive and spacious than the burnt CD... he then proceeded to copy my mini-disc onto a stand alone CD recorder component real-time (about $300), which turned out to be indistinguishable from the original source. Any suggestions as to how I can download to my PC and then to a CD with results equaling the source? My choices for format are MP#, WAV, mp3PRO, Windows Media Audio, and my choices for quality are CD quality (128 kbps), Near CD quality (96 kbps), Custom (320 kbps), and Custom VBR (60%). Oh..back to your question...it looks like the MZ-R50 has an audio out, so I think that going line out from that unit into the sound card of the PC would work well, as long as you have a recording software (like MusicMatch) that will allow you to choose "line in" as a recording source.
