I'm finding it inconvenient to have to constantly get into the menu and switch from Headphone to Line Out depending on where I am and what I'm working with. If my home deck had MDLP I suppose that wouldn't be (as much of) an issue. The extra AA-case is too flimsy and unlike the MZ-R50's, the battery door isn't secured when the case is screwed onto the recorder. I dropped the unit once and the AA battery went flying across the room. (And the AA case is indispensable because the internal battery drains so fast. I recorded on average 5 hours of LP4 audio per day on my recent Ireland trip and had to fully recharge every night. That was without any playback time at all, just straight recording, for 8 days in a row.)

The USB cradle is also annoying; I can't just pop it in there for charging and still operate the controls. Once it's in, it says "PC -> MD" on the display and ignores all the on-unit controls, even if the PC is off. The only way to make it do anything is to bring up a program on the PC, or pop it out of the cradle, hit the necessary button sequences, and then reseat it in the cradle. Piece of s#!t.

I'm happy to have the 5 hour recording time, but I could have gotten the same thing in pure ATRAC/SP if I had bought an MD-Discam instead. Still thinking about why I never did. Considering that I'd be uploading to the PC in realtime no matter what, the MD-Discam now seems like the better choice...

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