3/18    Any recommendations for a good minidisc player?
        And where to buy from?
        \_ By player I'm assuming you mean a portable player and not
           a player/recorder deck or a portable player/recorder.
           I have two Sony portable players, one that came with my deck
           another one I bought a Fry's for $99. Both of them are pretty
           good (ie they sound fine in my car) and are pretty sturdy. I've
           dropped them several times without damaging them or the MDs
           they had inside. I also carry them around in my backpack and
           haven't damaged them to date (I've had them for ~ 2 yrs).
           The one that came with my deck has more buttons and a bigger
           display but it needs two AA batteries and it can only play for
           about 8 to 16 hrs before having to replace the batteries. The
           $99 one can use either the power stick or a single AA battery
           and can play for about 12 to 16 hours before needing a new battery.
           My brother has a Sony portable player/recorder and its okay, but
           he had to get it fixed within 3 weeks of buying it. Its been about
           six months since then and he says that it works pretty well for
           recording CDs and lectures. Just by looking at it, I'm pretty sure
           that its not as sturdy as mine and it probably couldn't survive a
           fall from a desk or a backpack.
           Several people at work have the cheap sharp players and they seem
           to work fine, but they are pretty big compared to the Sony players
           (about 2x or 3x as thick depending on the model).
           I'll post model numbers tomorrow morning.
           If you are looking to buy one I'd recommend checking out
           http://minidisco.com, http://minidisc.org and http://cameraworld.com along with Fry's. If
           you don't mind driving to Folsom, you should also check out the Sony
           outlet, they  usually have good deals on new and refurb players and
           player/recorders.
            \_ thanks, the URLs are especially useful.  Anyone used MDLP?
        \_ I would recommend the MZ-E90.  I've had it for about 3 months and
           really like it.  It's the second smallest player on the market and
           is really about the size of a MD itself!  The only caveat is the
           40sec shock doesn't work as advertised, kinda ranges from 10-30.  See
           reviews on MD's at http://epinions.com, pretty accurate.  The MD community
           has websites in which people post problems they have had with
           specific units (http://minidisc.ch/problems.asp  All resources
           for MD can be found at: http://www.minidisc.org  I got mine for
           $200 from http://shopping.yahoo.com.  Haven't tried MDLC, the ATRAC
           compression is the most I want my ears to handle.
        \_ I have a Sharp, one of the funky looking ones with the jog dial.
           I primarily use it for live music recordings, and it works very
           well.  I chose it over the Sony because of reports of its
           reliability.  It *is* fairly thick compared to the other MD
           players out there, notably the Sony, but I was looking only for
           something good to record with, not portability.  One other thing
           of note, the Sharp I have doesn't have a belt band, so I've had
           to have guest speakers have fairly loose pockets to hold the MD
           player when they speak.  -chaos