Best NetMD player?

[goldenbreast]

i already have a sony mzr55 but have noticed that the charging input (the yellow hole - yes i know, very technical ) is damaged meaning i cannot connect the ac power supply to it...

i want to start making live recordings and it seems that the hi md are all the rave. i know they can transfer much quicker than other MD players but i don't want to spend that much, plus, im happy to have to do the transfers in real time.

i have a Creative Audigy Audio Processor sound card - when i got my computer, it was the best upgrade i could get at the time via dell. im not sure if there is an exact model for it, i will have to double check. would this soundcard be good enough to do the transfers?. does it have the inputs necessary for doing transfers?.

i see that on ebay you can get net md players pretty cheap so, if anyone could give me some advice on the best ones to look out for i would appreciate it

thanks

Alex

[Richard]

* Moved to Find Your Minidisc section

[KJ_Palmer]

There's plenty of choice, though you'll normally have to look on eBay etc for second hand bargains. My personal favourites are the Sony MZ-N707 and N910, which are my last two Net-MD only units, having moved into the Hi-MD world. Both going strong despite plenty of battering.

It's probably best just to avoid the lowest-end of the market, as the cheaper ones may not be so robust. For Sony these are these are usually the ones with 4 or 5, eg. MZ-NE410, or with a D in the name, eg. N420D which are downloaders only, ie. can't record realtime.

Hope that helps.

[jaylen]

My personal favourites are the Sony MZ-N707 and N910, which are my last two Net-MD only units, having moved into the Hi-MD world.

Those are not "Net-MD-only" since both the N707 and N910 have mic/line/optical input. "NetMD" means that music is transferred from PC to MD via USB. The N707 and N910 are "MDLP" units, meaning they can record/playback in SP, LP2, LP4 = non-Hi-MD formats.

goldenbreast: You should definitely have a look at the MDCF equipment browser if you haven't already.

http://www.minidisc.org/equipment_browser.html

It's overwhelming, but there's some good information in there if you're going unit hunting on eBay.

If you want to do real-time transfers, you'd have to look for units with line-in and/or optical-in, so definitely avoid anything with the words "downloader" (like Borat also suggested) or "player" in their descriptions. Downloaders can only transfer via USB; and players, well, they just play (lol), no recording function. For real-time transfer and non-Hi-MD (MDLP), you could go with an N510 (it's "hackable," just look up the signature of the MDCF member, "RobShaz," for some really detailed info), N505 (also hackable), or N707 (also hackable, I think) for your stated needs.

If you and your budget will allow it, you should also check out the NH700. It's Hi-MD, but can also do what you need and it's one of the more affordable, all-around Hi-MD units.

Good luck.