I've got one, too
I also have a MZ-R70, which I have not begun to use. Like yours, it will be used to record practice sessions. I have to get a mic for my unit, too, so I will be monitoring the responses you get here.
(I went to the Sony web site. The MS907 works directly without a pre-amp, right? It says $99 on the site. But another model with similar specs sells for $299. Why the big difference?)
This is my second Sony MD unit. I got a brand new one from J&R a couple of months ago, but returned it because anti-piracy software prevented me from transfering my recordings to my computer. I have since learned that you have to play it back in an analog fashion to make computer files.
Now I have analog set-up, a WalkMan D6. The main disadvantage of the D6 is that I end up with a ton of cassettes that are in “practice order,” but I need to use them in “performance-order.” So I do a lot of tape-swapping and rewinding. The computer would help ‘cause I could just burn a CD that has all the tunes I need to work on, in order.
Since I could play my tapes through the sound board into the computer, and I have to do the same to get the MD tunes into the computer, I wonder how the MD has moved me forward. I got it as a gift, but now, to use it, I have to get some pricey mics.
With my previous MD, the Radio Shack mics I use on the WalkMan D6 didn’t put out enough. I could hear, but it was faint. So I took the line-out from the WM D6 into the MD, and got good enough quality without having to buy new mics. But then, as you point out, where is the size advantage, with all that crap plugged into this little unit?
At some point, I expect to get a digital recorder like the Boss 864, which won’t be as compact, but will probably give me better quality recordings and the file management I need.
