Now, as soon as I took it out of the box, I was excited to start recording. I took one of my CD's and a blank MD and put them in my new "toy." I pressed the high speed CD syncro button, then watched the magic happen before my eyes. I was stunned! I couldn't beleive how fast I could record CD's. Now, before I used to record my MDs via my MZ-R50 and an analog cable. I had to track the songs myself, wait until the MD was done recording before I could edit the names of the tracks, and worst of all, record in real-time. All this took me anywhere from 1-2 hours. Now, I can have everything recorded, edited, and put into my MD collection in less then 20 minutes.

This baby has even more to make your MD recording session a little bit more enjoyable. If a CD has text on it, it will transfer the text directly to the MD. Therefor, I barely had to lift a fingure when recording those type of CD's. I just pressed high speed recording, walked away, and came back 12-15 minutes later to find that it was done.

Now, I still record some things via an analog connection, like MP3's. I don't have a sound card with a digital out, and after getting this baby, I don't think I am. With my SoundBlaster Live! Value, and the MXD-D3, all backround noise from a computer is virtually illiminated! I was shocked when I heard the sound quality of my MP3 recordings with this thing. Plus, with the "music sync" button, it make my recordings easy. I press that, and as soon as a sound source starts playing, it sarts to record. Then, I have a 2 second gap between MP3's, so it will track the songs automatically.

BOTTOM LINE: This is a great unit for those out there with very little time (like me). It will record your CD's in less then 20 minutes. This is also good for those lazy people out there as well. It pratically does everything for you. The only draw back from this unit, is that it doesn't have a port for a PC keybord. Other then that, I am VERY pleased with this unit, and think it was worth every cent! I just bought a Sony MXD-D3 CD/MD player/recorder today and am very pleased with it overall. It is true that the MXD-D3 does not have an optical digital output, so I had to hook it up to my JVC RX-888V digital receiver with traditional RCA cables. That was no big deal since I am already using the receiver's two optical digital inputs for a DVD player and a 5-disc CD carousel changer.

The MXD-D3 is very convenient to use since it has a CD deck built-in (no need to hook up an external player). Making mixed MDs is a breeze with the REC-IT function. Just cue up the track of interest on the CD (you can have it playing), hit REC-IT, and the CD starts the track from the beginning and records it to the MD. You can even listen to the CD while you are recording. It couldn't be easier. Copying a complete CD to an MD can be done at up to 4x speed with the CD Synchro feature. The text functions for adding titles to the MD and its tracks are also very easy to implement.

I was impressed with the ease of editing a track on an MD with the MXD-D3. On one disc, I put Boston's "Hitch a Ride" as track one and Matchbox 20's "Push" as track 2. During playback, I noticed that the MXD-D3 put a blip from the next song on the Boston CD ("Something About You") in just before "Push" started. That was not the MXD- D3's fault, as the two Boston tracks run together. Anyway, getting rid of the last few seconds of track 1 was a cinch. Now the transition between Boston and Matchbox 20 is perfect. If you make a mistake while editing (i.e., take out too much), there is an undo function.

The sound quality of the MD is impressive. It may not quite be CD quality (it's inherent to the compression scheme used for MD and not limited to the MXD-D3), but it is quite excellent. The MXD- D3's MD sound quality is rated at >98 dB (same as the CD deck), which is quite good. By comparison, JVC's XU-301 triple-CD changer/MD recorder, which I also considered for purchase, is only rated at 88 dB for MD (94 dB for CD).

All in all, I am very happy with the MXD-D3. It is easy to use, the sound from MD is great, and it is an all-around good unit. A bonus is that the price is coming down rapidly. I got mine for $270 on sale. My only concern, however, is that MD players are not catching on, so I am a bit concerned about the availability of blank MDs in the future.

In short, the only major drawback that one might notice with the MXD-D3 is the lack of a digital optical output. That doesn't bother me, but may bother some. Last year I bought this wonderful machine as a replacement for equipment that was lost in a fire. I have been happy with it ever since. First of all it is 2 machines in one (saving space) and it has the 4x copying mode which is great. The only thing I don't like about the machine is the fact that you can't use a keyboard for titling. On the other hand, with cassettes we didn't have titling anyway. I'm too lazy to do it with the remote, so I just skip the titling.

Sound is very good, both from the CD and the MD. But I have upgraded the cables to the amplifier with quite expensive Ixos cables. That really improved both CD and MD sound. It is rediculous that the electronics companies don't provide better cables with their state of the art equipment.

The thing that I like very much is the editing option. I like to record concerts from both TV and radio on my stereo VCR. Than I can edit them on my MD player. Yes, this a very versatile machine. Next step is getting a USB-analogue connector for my iMac to record mp3's to MD. (The analogue connection from the iMac is much to noisy, a lot of hum). Unfortunately the iMac is to far away from the stereo system to get an optical converter. But this will sound OK too.

Do I recommend this machine: Yes, very much so. It's one of the most interesting items in the Sony catalogue. If you think of buying a MD deck, think of buying this combo and upgrading your CD in the meantime. But get good cables, the Sony cables just don't perform.