recording with mt-md180 & a couple of elemtary questions

[shodan]

i recently bought a sharp md-mt180 without realising that there was no mic jack in it, however i know that i can buy a pre-amplified mic to overcome that. my question is, would dicksmith diy au$10 preamp kit do the trick? if not, what sort of cost am i looking at for a preamp mic and which one/s in particular?

also: what is a battery pack and what does it do?

generally i want to be able to record conversations, lectures, me practising my clarinet, etc

--lionel

(pardon my ignorance, im relatively new to the md world)

[Mystyler]

Check this:

http://forums.minidisc.org/viewtopic.php?p=5439#5439

Hopefully it helps a bit. The DSE preamp would work, but don't expect brilliant results.