The Sony MDS-302 was released here in the US back
in 1995. I bought mine in June of 1996, and the
machine is about a month away from it's fourth
birthday and is going strong even after hundreds
of hours of use.
The 302 was my FIRST MD deck. I went to MD after
I got fed up with cassettes (even after owning
two Nakamichi decks: an BX-300 and an CR-1A) and
their problems. I paid around 350.00 us dollars
for my MDS-302. It was the best money ever spent
on a piece of audio gear. Sony did a good job on
this machine: a basic layout that is very user
oriented. The large sized function keys are easy
to navigate, as is the dial. I love the TITLE IN
feature when recording, makes it easy to enter
song titles while recording them. The track
access is very quick, and it even features a
TIMER RECORD/PLAY switch for unattended
record/play (when used with an EXTERNAL timer).
I am not sure which ATRAC version this machine
uses, some say 3.0, some say 3.5. Whatever it is
it sounds GREAT and blows away any high end
cassette deck with even the best tape used. I
didn't start using the optical digital input
until I got a CD player with digital out last
year. I do like the front panel switching between
analog/digital in: you can connect both an analog
and digital input and switch between the two from
the front. The low profile of the unit looks
good, even on top of my Nakamichi BX-300 which
hasn't been used much in the last four years.
The display is clear and easy to read, and the
scolling feature is handy. I also like the
calendar type track display. One drawback is the
small V/U meters...they can be hard to read from
a few feet away. The unit also has a front panel
1/4 inch headphone jack and volume control- a
great feature if you want to say, check the
content of your disc without firing up your
entire system.
I applaud Sony at their craftsmanship. My MDS-302
has had many hours of use, and has had not a
single problem. Not one of my discs has shown a
single failure, and this unit appears to be going
strong even today. Compared to my Sharp MD-
MS702MK portable, the Sony just seems to sound a
little bit less "tinny", though both units sound
great and better than ANY cassette deck or other
analog recorder.
If you are considering purchasing one of these as
a second deck or your first MD deck, I give it a
thumbs up! It made a believer in MD out of me!