Sony Walkman MZ-R70 Personal MiniDisc Player

I bought the mini disc recorder for my son.
He studies music and this is the best tool we have found for him to take to sessions to record as he and others are playing.
The advantage of the discs is that they can be passed to other people to play on compatible devices. This gives a degree of spontaneity which MP3 etc does not quite have.

I bought this Walkman for my son after he used mine and was vey impressed with it. He likes the one I bought him - it is convenient, robust and gives excellent sound quality for the music he enjoys listening to.

Good recording quality, shock memory, small, nice sound, flexible, we can write the names of the clips... nice to capture sounds on the road (with an external mic), and to stuff lots of songs in one mini-disk - sounds much better than any mp3 I've heard so far.

I bought a Aiwa MDLP Recorder 10 years ago. I slightly damaged it recently and wanted a replacement recorder. The design of this one is very good, better than my Aiwa Recorder. The Sony has more metal in the design, so it is stronger. the only Minus points are: No USB socket so cannot download from a PC also no Optical Lead Socket. I have to use my Aiwa to record onto a Mini Disc. Another minus is that it only play music that is recorded at normal speed, it will not play music that is recorded in LP.

lovely sound compared to MP3 good stereo good bass,a wee bit slower than MP3 but not much.quite impressive!!when using mid-large headphones it really does pack a punch

I am a professional broadcast journalist - have been for 25 years. Was issued with one of these when based in South America - stood up to the amazon and mistreatment in a backpack with only one problem. The cover for the battery tends to get loose and then will not click in properly - easily resolved with a bit of duct tape. Made many recordings for use on BBC radio 4 and world service with this. I am now teaching courses for radio in UK and Africa and have decided to use these as they are very cheap on e-bay - and give high quality recording. They are out of date - because they do not record digitally - but does that does not really matter for my purposes I also like to have the material stored on a mini-disk. If you are doing your own interviews or gathering your own sound for podcasts or broadcast and don't have a lot of money to spend - this is a very good buy. It leaves enough money to invest in a decent microphone which is actually more more important for good quality recordings. I would recommend spending your money on that. An indestructible reporter's mic like a Beyer m58 or audio technica AT804 or electrovoice PL5 is well worth the investment.

I like the size, the ergonomy.
It's very simple to use.
The sound quality is very high.
I'm very happy with this MD

I have gone back from an iPod to mini discs as I missed the sound quality and I have a mini disc mastering system that was now idle, however I had previously purchased a Sharp (purchased on ebay)that expired and was uneconomic to repair. I have noticed these are becoming collectable and always wanted a Sony. I had bid for at least four and after bidding for these and losing out on them I decided to be more aggresive with my bidding and finally got the MZ-R70 It was advertised very honestly as not being perfect but when it arrived it was in virtually brand new condition it works excellently and has features I did not have previously. A great purchase from an honest ebayer. This is how it should be a great deal and a good experience.

I will be looking for others.

Gives me the opportunity to listen to my music on a different format. Small enough to be carried in my pocket.

I bought this machine because I wanted a digital recorder to replace my tape recorder. The tape recorder has been around for many years. First we had reel to reel recorders back in the 60's and then the cassette recorder made it possible for portable Walkmans and mini units for cars. Most tape or cassette recorder had a microphone input so that we could make a good quality voice recording. Now that these machines are becoming rare we have to look elsewhere. As digital technology has now taken over from analogue I have been looking at ways to make recordings using this new technology. Mobile phones have a voice recording option and portable voice recorders are available everywhere but they don't produce high quality recordings. They are ok if you just want to make a memo recording when you haven't got a pen or piece of paper available but they are not suitable for a good quality recording. The best options seem to be the computer which would produce a good quality recording but is not very portable and the Mini Disc recorder which is portable but has now become another piece of technology that is disappearing. When buying a Mini Disc recorder I had to make sure it has a microphone input as many of them do not have this option. I bought a Sony MD Walkman MZ-R70 from e-bay and tested it out. Some MD machines I find difficult to operate but this one has a mic. input with a recording slider control on the front. It was easy to use and produced a good quality recording for a small machine which fits neatly into your pocket. Its a shame that these machines are becoming rare now but there seem to be a lot still available on e-bay. For portability I still think the MD recorder is best and the Laptop or Notebook computer would come second but make sure your batteries are topped up before doing an important interview. http://www.geocities.com/woodleyuk/index2.htm