Because most of the Sharp models share the same features, like track-editing, optical/analog inputs, 4 stage bass DSP, on-the-fly record level adjustment, etc. etc., I won't go into those aspects of the 831 here. As I mentioned, it shares virtually all the same features as the 7xx series, and even the MS200 before that.

What I will go into is a brief description of the unit's less technical aspects, and why I am so impressed with it.

APPEARANCE: When I finally opened the box and took out the 831, I was astonished at how small it is. It is so small that I almost worry about losing it around the house! The anodized aluminum casing feels strong and durable -- I have the blue one and it is a very nice color. The silver is nice too, I'm sure, but I've only seen it in pictures. The controls are small but manageable. The LCD display is a nice size and is easy to read. The whole unit is very "sexy" -- it's kinda plain in appearance but futuristic- looking just the same! And best of all, it's so small you can put it in your pocket and barely know it's there!

SOUND QUALITY: The reason why I upgraded my old Sharp to the 831 is the ATRAC 7.0 and 24-bit A/D converters, as well as the reduction in size...I have to admit that I have not noticed a huge difference in sound quality from my old Sharp, but the sound is fantastic nonetheless. I attribute this to the quality of the Sharp ATRAC, which IMHO is a little better than Sony's. The headphone pre-amp on the 831 is very quiet, almost noiseless, and the bass is clear and clean.

OTHER COMMENTS: The supplied headphones are the cheap mini-earbud type, which I hate, so I haven't even used them. Instead I use my $100 Grado headphones and am able to enjoy the great sound of the 831. The iMac-style charger is "cute"-looking, but it's really just a plastic docking station for power and that's it.

The remote is very tiny, and has a nice backlit LCD screen, and even has a little fish screensaver that swims around while you're listening to tunes! I really like the small size of the remote -- it would be great for "stealth" recordings, which I plan to do in the future. You can pause recordings and adjust record levels with it, which is great! Unfortunately, the remote, despite all its coolness, feels a little plasticky and toy-like. It doesn't seem all that durable because the plastic parts are so light and small -- I suppose a person would have to be a little extra careful with it.

SUMMARY: I know people have their preferences between Sony or Sharp, and I can totally sympathize with Sony-heads, but honestly, for a price-to-feature ratio, the Sharp is a great machine. Sony might make the world's smallest MD recorder, but the Sharp is a real close second. And you get all the same features, and even some features unique to the 831, like NO end-search, simple real-time recording level adjustments, 4 stage bass DSP, and the latest ATRAC 7.0 from Sharp (I believe Sony is still using the now- stale ATRAC 4.5 in their portables)!

The 831 completely rocks, dominates, and kicks major MD arse! Okay, i feel it might be helpful to some if there is a review for this sucker (to complement the actually quite good one done by Rob Thompson). Anyways, here's the basic rundown.

Size: Quite small, i actually wouldn't feel comfortable with much smaller, it's a teense bit smaller than a sony r55, and also a bit thinner. Some people mistook it for an r55 when they didnt get a good look at it, so i assume they are very similar in size.

Looks: DEFINITELY GET IT IN BLUE. It looks absolutely fabulous in blue, i feel silver gets a bit boring over time, but the blue stays interesting forever. Also it is a very clean simple design, and is a definite crowd pleaser (at least among my peers).

Design: The buttons are a bit small, but are quite useable, and whence you get used to them, they are quite easy to use. The LCD is very large and very clear. The letters are large and all the indicators are easy to see and read. The meter i find to be more accurate than previous models, and also quite useful. I would definitely rate it superior to any sony unit's LCD, which i find to be a bit too cluttered and the meter to be next to useless. I like the eject mechanism on the Sharp quite a bit, when you push a disc in, it will click, and then you can just push the lid down and the disk will not pop out. I have found with sony units i have had around the house (my friends woudl forget em at my house) that you have to hold the disc while pushing the cover down. I can't remember if the sony r90 was that way too, but i would assume that you'd have to hold the disc since it has that one touch eject system. All the ports are in very convenient placement, I am especially glad that the line out and the mic in are on opposite sides, it saves confusion in the dark and i just think it's overall nicer.

Features: Very nice features...and quite a good value for them. Sharp ATRAC v7, which i find to be quite superior to Sony ATRAC 4.5 typeR (at least to me, and no the r90 does not have typeR, it has regular 4.5). I think it might have the dual-rail output like the st-50 instead of the older condenser type outputs. I have noticed that the 831 sounds noticeable more clear and spacious than my old 722. Also the tones are deeper. It is extremely easy to TOC clone, look on the Minidisc units board from a while back and youll see me explain how to do it. It TOC reads very very fast as well, which is pretty nice, and also for some reason seems to have anti shock while recording as well. Also, the thing that would easily make me buy a sharp over the sony, it can charge while recording or playing....which is very useful to me. I suppose there are advantages of the sony....i'm just not familiar with them. Ack, okay this review may be a bit biased, but I feel that the 831 is the most functional unit in comparison to any other sharp or sony.

Battery Life: Not sure exactly what it is, but i only have to charge it once a week or week adn a half, and i use it every day for an hour or two a day. I would probably guess that it is around 12 hours or so, perhaps 14.

Overall sound: The sound is much more wide than any other portable that i have used, which is sometimes a bad thing because some recordings will sound too soft. However I find in general that it is a great asset, especially in live recordings and classical music, as well as acoustic. It has a much greater amount of detail than any other portable i have used. I think it could stand to have a bit louder output, but the output is not unsatisfactory at all, it's actually great, but sometimes i guess i listen to music at abnormally high levels when listening to like....offspring (hehe!).

Other stuff: The supplied earbuds are okay, they are definitely the best for factory earbuds, but that doesnt mean much. It's actually because of the shape and not the driver units though, when my old ed-238's broke, i kept the earpads, so i slapped em onto these sharp things and the sound was actually very good. Oh well, not many people have those earpad thingies though. Like with any unit, you'll probably end up buying other headphones (I personally reccomend Sony MDR- ED268LP earbuds, they seem to be very much attuned to the 831's sound characteristics). The charging stand is very neato, i like it a lot. The remote is quite useable, and nice, although i still favor the 722's remote, i just like that neato round shape and also how the lcd is transparent on it and it rests over a vlue indiglo backing (yes it is quite apparent that it is transparent...neat that rhymes). However i'd still take the 831 over the 722 (hehe).

Alright, i think that covers it...

In essence anyone would be basically euphoric with this unit. Okay, maybe not everyone...but it still is a great. After scouring the High Street and the Net for a portable MD recorder for the last few months, I finally stumbled upon the Sharp MDMT831. This unit currently retails for around £200 in the UK, which was way outside my budget. Had I not bought it for a bargain one-day only price of 129.99 I probably would have gone for the cheaper mid- range Sony MZR70. Anyway, more about that later.

I have been using the unit for about a day or so now, which is probably not enough to give a good overall view on it, but I can say initial impressions are very good. The unit comes with a flashy remote with some fancy features like a fish screensaver if the current track does not have a title. I also liked the blue colour of the backlight which makes things very easy to see in poor light conditions.

The unit records very well of a CD player. I have made copies off CD's which were themselves first generation copies anyway, and only the most hardened hi-fi nut will notice the difference in sound quality here as there is little or no loss in sound quality through digital recording.

Overall the unit looks, plays, and records great (it even has a recording level which you can set. I havent had time to play around with this, but I guess this is especially useful in live recordings!).

One big letdown I have noticed so far with the unit is that it won't allow you to title your recordings while they are being played! What a joke! If I had paid the full RRP for this unit (200 UKP) I would certainly be concerned about this as it is actually annoying, but seeing as I got the unit at a knockdown price I am personally not too bothered about this little 'feature'. It is a little baffling however, that Sharp have failed to implement this feature on what was until recently their top of the range MD portable! I mean, even the low end Sony's allow you to title MD's while playing, so I dont understand why Sharp left it out.

Also, as with most units, the 831 comes with a basic set of earphones. Surely manufacturers out there can afford to supply some decent earphones at a price like this? Oh well, wishful thinking i suppose.

Last, but not least, as I mentioned above, the sound quality is superb, as long as you use some decent headphones or earphones! I also briefly owned a Sony MZR70 a while back, and I would say sound quality is similar, if only slightly better on the Sharp. But then that is to be expected on what is generally a more expensive 'higher' range unit.

Finally, would I recommend this unit to others? Yes definitely, although I would say only buy one if you can get it a lot cheaper than the RRP. I personally don't see it good value to buy this recorder at the full price seeing as it doesnt even let you title MD's during playback! If this 'feature' doesnt bother you too much, then I would buy the Sharp over any Sony any day, because the battery life of the Sharp is much superior to even the top of the range Sony MXR90/91.

I hope this review was helpful to those thinking of buying an MD. If you are in the UK it is definitely worth keeping an eye out in What Hi Fi magazine for Richer Sounds adverts as they often advertise prices much cheaper than the high street. Let me start by saying I'm not an audiophile.

My goal was to find an extremely small, portable, rugged and attractive minidisc recorder. After doing the standard research on the web, and also checking out the devices available in local stores, I chose to buy the Sharp MD-MT 831. I made my decision based on perceived reliability. The only other machine in the game was the competing Sony R-90, and it didn't feel solid enough, not did reviewers suggest that it was.

I owe a debt of gratitude to Brian Youn for helping me evaluate the machines and get a manual in English. Even if he does prefer the Sony!

One warning... I was ripped-off the first time I tried to buy the device on E-Bay. Like a dummy, I sent cash the way half way around the world. Months later, the guy tells me he's still patiently waiting for the money to arrive. Right.

Here are my reactions to the Sharp. Again, remember that I'm no audiophile, so I'm not going to pretend to pick out the discrete subtleties of the sound that others say they can.

Appearance: I got the metallic blue one, and I'm happy that I did. I always carry it in the provided case, and so I've seen no wearing away of the coating. I'm fairly conservative in my tastes, so picking the blue over the silver was a big deal, but I think I made the right choice. I have no problems with the controls. But I did have to search the web and rely on the kindness of strangers (see above) to get an operator's manual in English.

Use: The buttons are clearly labeled in English. Again, they've held up well in the year or so since I bought it. The unit still feels like it's in mint condition. I got an optical digital CD player so that I could record my minidiscs with optical digital sound. It's been incredibly easy to record. It's a simple two-step process where you play the CD and set an audio record level... then hit the sync button, restart your CD and away we go. I've never had any problems (other than occasionally forgetting how and having to refer to the manual!) The three-level bass button is useful. Playing back through ear-buds sounds tinny without an elevated bass. But playing the thing through my car speakers sounded terrible, until I turned off the bass completely, at which point it sounded great. When using Sony MDR-V600 headphones, I keep the bass at level one. By the way, I'm very happy with these headphones. Overall the audio quality is first rate as far as I'm concerned. Clean, no extraneous noise, full.

I haven't bothered with labeling CD's or tracks, so I'm afraid I can't tell you anything about that feature. Sticky labels on the outside of the minidiscs are enough for me... I don't really like fiddling with small controls. I never use the remote, so I have no feedback there, either. The machine is pretty quiet when it's running... I've never heard it above the music... and even when I don't have headphones on the noise isn't terribly noticeable. Plus, as I said, I keep it in the case, which muffles any possible sound. Battery life is fine when I'm only playing back. But it's significantly shorter if I also record. I keep a careful eye on the battery meter... I find I can play perhaps 1/2 hour after it's on empty.

Rugged? I use the Sharp while I'm exercising and when I'm driving. Unlike my portable CD player, the Sharp doesn't skip when I'm driving. It's had rock solid sound since the beginning. My exercise is on a machine, so there's not a lot of bouncing around. I worry that I might someday get clumsy while loading a minidisc and somehow damage the mechanism. As with all of these tiny devices (including my Sony DRC-PC5 Digital video camera) the mechanism for accepting a tape is made of very thin metal... it seems to me it could easily be bent. So I'm always careful when I insert a disc.

Overall, I'm very happy with my purchase. I think I bought the right device for my needs. As I said, I'm pretty conservative when I buy stuff... so my knee-jerk reaction was to buy a Sony. I didn't trust Sharp's reliability. But so far, I've had no reason to regret my decision. I hope something in all of this helps you make your choice.