Hey guys, I have absolutely no deep knowledge in MD technology. But I do have some questions: I have an old, Sony MZ-R700. Its not a NET one. 1.) It has optical in. Should I go out and buy a digi - out sound card and record through that instead of my normal (motherboard built in) card? IS there a great signifant quality difference that is noticable? 2.) In my room all my sound is played through 2 large tower speakers powered by an old Marantz pm340 amp. It has nice quality. And is very loud. It also has a big "phones out" jack. SHould I change what I am doing (recording from the soundcard) and record through the amp? So its works kinda like a preamp? Would that give me clearer sound? If so what should my volume setting be on the amp? 3.) I use the MD to record ambient sounds and maybe dialogue and other specifics. Can I just buy a normal dynamic mic and use that? Or should I get 1 dynamic for ambience (all noises) and one onmi directional? 4.) Is this MD on par with the latest models or has it really fallen behind quality wise? I mean is this MD inferior to the brand new expensive models or do the new models just proveide more 'ease-of-use' and other argueably "useless" features? 5.) Before music recording from my computer I always monitor the sound output using the very very basic gain bar. (U know the thing that moves up and down with amplitude!) Anyway I always set the volume recording manually before clipping occurs (all of this in REC Pause mode). SHould I monitor this sound output through my home theatre speaker (therefore through the amp) or throught the headphones? Is this the best way to view the amplitude levels? Why dont they didicate a professional display that splits the levels into freq bands? It would be very uselful to those ppl who record a lot. So Any other useful ways to set levels? 6.) Anyone else heard about those headphone amplifiers? Are they really worth it? ---ANyway guys, Any feedback would be great!! -Cheers -DMitri.
