Documentary recording, minimum fuss: which MD?

[abergdc]

My sister is travelling for several weeks and wants to record various things, ambient sounds, music and dramatic performances, maybe discussions etc. Needs to be above all unintrusive and easy to use.

I know this has been discussed a lot, and I've read some of the old threads, but for this particular purpose I could use some help.

I'm thinking:

Sharp DR7 (pros: easy record volume control, line out for transferring recordings to PC and eventually CD, that back-record feature in case you hear something good and then decide to start recording)

Sony N10 (pros: AGC might be nice for this sort of situation, where she doesn't want to have to fiddle at all.)

Besides general comments, my questions:

(1) How useful is AGC for this sort of thing. I understand the criticisms for recording music (where you lose the dynamic range), but remember she really doesn't want to fiddle and is not really looking for fidelity.

(2) How useful is the Sharp feature that pre-buffers a few seconds of recording while recording is paused?

(3) For tranferring to PCs, how bad is it in practice to use the headset out on the Sony, remembering that this is documentary, not music?

(4) She was planning on getting a stereo ear-plug microphone, like the Soundman OMK II K one, which is pretty expensive at like $90 but seems ideal for her needs. Does that sound sensible?

We are price-sensitive, so would like to go cheaper if feasible and only more than these ones if it were really very sensible to do so.

Thanks in advance and I apologize if this is too much of a repeat question,

Andy

[A440]

You can probably save $100 or more and get an older model if you don't want a lot of bells and whistles. I've used an MZ-N707 for a year for all sorts of recordings, and it's got as much fidelity as your microphone can provide.

They're on Ebay all the time for $100-180.

You want an outboard mike on a cord, not one that plugs directly into the MD, because it will pick up the hum of the machine. If she's recording quieter sounds, the N1 is not a good idea because it whirs every so often; I don't know about the N10. AGC is probably going to be useful in those situations.

[mAjEsTiC]

the N10 has a quieter motor than that of the N1...it does whir from time 2 time but it isn't as loud as that on the N10...if you want near silent motor sound i would suggest that you get a Sharp unit...