As many of you know, I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Sony’s MiniDisc recorders for many years. The new models, MZ-M10 and MZ-M100, have solved a few problems and increased the love.

What I love (*=new in these models):

• Much cheaper media than CF
• Good AGC
• High-quality compressed audio (ADTRAC)
• Long record times (8 or 34 hours depending on mode)
• Uncompressed WAV recording option (94 minutes)*
• USB transfer to PC*
• Long recording battery life (12.5 hours)*

What I hate(d) (*=solved in these models)

• Lousy UI
• Transfer of WAV files to Mac*
• Transfer of compressed files to Mac

Overall, these are among my favorite solutions for recording live events. Connect to the sound board, make sure AGC (automatic gain control) is enabled, push Record and walk away. Come back at the end of the day (up 10 12.5 hours later) and retrieve the recorder. These new models have a longer-life NiMH battery, and you can attach a single AA cell to get the all-day battery life. Previously, you had to transfer the audio in real time through analog- or digital-audio interfaces, but Sony now includes USB transfers to PC. You can transfer uncompressed files to Mac, but not the compressed ADTRAC files that I typically use. That’s okay for me, since I’m still using Windows for audio.

The street price of the MX-M10 is only$299, while the -M100 is $100 more. I have the latter, and the only differences I know of are the improved display on the -M100 and the remote control. If I were to buy another one, it would be the less-expensive MX-M10.