My son uses an i-pod, but he has the same problem that I had when I only had 1 minidisc player viz. you cannot leave a recorder to do a timed recording from the radio whilst travelling and listening to recorded music. MD seems so made to be an in-car system and hi-md even more so, but Sony's lack of drive is sending me back to recordable CD's for portable music They are bulky and delicate. We have been spoilt!