Can you transfer from MD to PC with net-MD?
I though one of the irritating limitations was that you can only go the other way. Has that changed recently?

Like you, I just use the MD (mine's a Sony MZR-30, old but one of the best they made) like a cassette walkman without any of the noise and distortion. MD audio out -> PC audio in : sorted! You don't need to know about ATRAC. MP3 etc because you don't get access to the data in that form; it's just audio in, audio out.

Most portable MDs with a mic socket supply electret power so a really simple electret mic without its own batteries will work, really well too.

Whatever, http://www.minidisc.org is and always was the place to go for information.

Anahata