Pros: The Sharp MD-X7 has excellent sound quality provided by its SRS (sound retrieval system) which allows the effect of surround sound with only two speakers. The bass is excellent and to date, I have never had to turn the volume up past halfway because the system is just so loud. The extra large LCD display is great for viewing MD song titles from far away. Also, you can program your own personalized message onto the machine (it comes standard saying: "let's listen to music"). You can also program important dates in the unit and a message to go along and remind yourself, such as setting the date of your girlfriend/wife/significant other's birthday and having a message come up reminding you what the day is. The unit is Y2K ready for anybody with this fear. It is easy to program tracks from three CDs and have them recorded onto a single MD. I often place the "master" CD in the first CD tray and the singles off the "master" into the second and third trays and then program the tracks I want in the order I want them on the MD. This works just great. Hit record and press play and the CDs, turn down the volume, and go to work/school/wherever.
Cons: The Sharp MD-X7 does not have the internet capability of the MD-X8 (but then again, it's $200 cheaper than the X8 and you don't have to purchase the $200 PCMCIA card either). Also, titling cannot be done via a PS/2 keyboard input that the MD-X5 and MD-X8 have. Titling is rather slow because it's pressing the forward/reverse button (or holding it) until it reaches the letter you desire. However, you can title during recording, playback, or stopped. the MD-X7 comes with a preset equalizer so you can't adjust it to your own preference. It has six different settings: 1. flat (no sound modification) 2. heavy-2 (bass & treble emphasize a lot) 3. heavy-1 (bass & treble slightly emphasized) 4. vocal (midrange tones emphasized) 5. soft-2 (treble reduced a lot) 6. soft-1 (treble cut a little). I set it on heavy-2 (because i listen to a lot of industrial/metal/techno music) and it hasn't been too bad. When the power goes out, your 3D SRS settings (wide and center) are erased and you have to re-enter them (only takes a few seconds though), but it can be annoying if you're power company is prone to surges. the CD trays take a little longer than usual to open than most units i've seen and the unit attempts to read the TOC of CDs which can add even more time for a CD to play. Also, the cd trays seem flimsy but who's going to abuse a $500 shelf system anyway? The manual doesn't explain (at least I never saw it) how to fast forward on CDs (press the cursor -> button). These are all minor concerns though. The one major concern i have is that the MD-X7 has a hard time reading the TOC on almost every brand of MDs I've ever used in it (TDK, Sony, and Quantegy). The disc name and track names all appear as NO NAME on some if not most occasions when you first put the disc in. If you press the stop button, the track names appear, but the disc name still doesn't. You have to eject the MD, then put it back in to get it read the disc name. I have no idea why, this may just be my unit or errors on the MDs themselves.
All in all: I find the MD-X7 to be a great home unit. The pros definitely out-weighed the cons when it came into consideration. If you don't want to spend the extra $400 for internet recording capability (which I never would have used anyway) but you want the convenience of a triple CD tray and huge LCD, the MD-X7 is a better choice than the X5 or X8. Aalso, the X7 and X8 have Sharp's SRS which sounds terrific in my opinion. this is an advantage over the X5 and X60. However, if tape is a must for some, then I'd fully recommend purchasing the X60. For me, I said good-bye to tapes in the early 90's and have never looked back. I look forward to future use with MD and can't wait to see what the future holds in store.