OT: Sharp MD 702

[Pierre LIONNET <pierre.lionnet@eurospace.francenet.fr>]

I have had a sharp MD portable recorder for a little over one year now...
And I used it extensively, almost 4 to 10 hours a day on average for both
recording and listening. I used to carry it along with me all the time to
capture sounds and noises.

It worked well, except you can really feel the difference between the
recording and the original (the ATRAC compression is very hard with hissing
sounds - it gets rid of 'em, as well as with scratches, hums and ambience
noises) when you record sampled music. Actually I have the feeling that the
recordings sound very polished compared to the original and this is only
due to the ATRAC compression. Sounds like the very old fashioned DOLBY A of
the low end tape recorders of the early eighties... without the flutter.

Regarding recording from a microphone I had my best results (strangely
enough) with the little microphone that was supplied with my IBM
computer... don't ask why or how: crystal clear sound with no audible
difference from the original. But then I used it only to record speech and
ambient sounds (trains pasing by, cars in traffic jams etc.).

As a whole I have been happy with the unit until the warranty expired
(after 12 months) and 4 days (repeat FOUR DAYS) after it broke down...
The unit is now useless, and *FUNNY* enough it CANNOT be repaired (at least
not here in PARIS France) because the repairmen cannot run the routine
TESTS on the unit which is not able anymore to support them. Indeed the
problem is that the unit cannot access anymore the Table of Contents of
whatever MD you slot in. Of course it will not be replaced (warranty
expired...)
Note that the unit was not dropped, nor exposed to excessive heat or
whatever. 

I may have been unlucky, but I believe others may face the same problem, so
BEWARE.

Also you HAVE to know that you cannot always EDIT (and sometimes not even
REPRODUCE) the music recorded on a MD by a given model with another 
model...

My next buy wil be a CD recorder instead, I am also fed up with the price
of blank MDs (an average 25-30 French francs where a blank CD is less than
10 Francs). But what am I gonna do with my MD collection?

Good Bye

PiR - FreezerMan