WTB: Hi-MD Recorder With Mic Input

[Joy Divisioner]

Figure it's a longshot, but my NH-900 was stolen and I'm on a very tight (college) budget. I've got a lot of stuff coming up that I'd like to record, and thought I'd give it a shot here. Net-MD recorders with mic-in jacks and of comparable quality could also be considered. Thank you!

[King Ghidora]

I've seen new Sony MZ-NH700 and the Sony MZ-NHF800 models go for under $100 on eBay but it's been a while. One company in particular was selling a lot of them. It was pretty rare to see the NHF800 under $100 but it did happen once in a while. I say the NH700 goe for as little as $75.

I have the email address of the place that sold so many if you want it. Actually this auction looks like one of theirs even though the information is a little different than before. It's the same ad layout they used before and the location is very close to the location they listed before. They quoted me a price of $120 shipped for the NH700 but I ended up buying a used NHF800 for $115 which came with a bunch of blank discs.

Buying used might be a good idea for you. A lot of audiophile type people are selling their HIMD recorders and buying Zoom H4's and Edirol R-09's because they record in 24 bit. So there are a few used HIMD recorders on the market. That's how I got mine.

If you're really strapped for cash you could get an iRiver mp3 recorder. They aren't the quality of HIMD but they are pretty good. At high bitrates MP3 really sounds pretty good. The biggest problem on the iRiver's is that the mic pre-amps aren't all that great. But I just bought 2 IFP-890 recorders to use with my video business for $20 each. They sometimes sell for less than $15. They're only 256 meg but they do a decent job of recording. I got a very good set of phones with one of the 890's I bought too. Both sets of buds were Sennheiser's but not the best of their line. Still one set was very good and the other was just average.

You might also think about buying a standard MD recorder. They often sell for under $40 and they really do a good job unless you want to upload your recordings to a computer for editing or whatever. You end up with a second generation analog recording. It's still pretty darn good but it isn't as good as HIMD obviously.