MDs were first devised as as a way of allowing you to download tracks from CDs and to play pre-recorded MDs. They nearly all have optical digital imput, but to prevent pirating of tracks there was no digital output. Nowdays, pre-recorded MDs are defunct, and CD writers make the pirating of CDs a doddle, for downloading CD tracks MP3 is now the norm.

I still don't know of any small walkman size CD recorders which have digital output (there are some full-size decks), which is a great pity as one of the main uses of MD recorders these days is for making live recordings. When will the manufacturers realise that the original reasons for not including this feature have been completely voided by modern technology and put the matter right.

I have a Sony MZR-30 which has some great features, but which I find rather fiddly to use - especially if I want to use manual recording level. I recently bought a very cheap Sharp model, which is extremely light and compact, uses only 1 AA cell, and has manual recording level as a default. It also supplies "phantom power" for the microphone which means that I don't need an additional battery. I have been very pleased with the recordings that I have made with it.