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Ah, this is a little off-topic, but an extremely small MD recorder would be good for you (perhaps, read on)

That is truely where MD shines - good hardware.
There is a lot of BAD ASS kit that is being released in japan. Go to http://www.minidisc.org to read up on the latest japanese units.

With regards to getting an extremely small recorder: The sony MZ-R55 is the one to buy. The price is around $350 msrp ($275 discounted street price?) and it is the top-o-the heap recorder at the moment. It's even pretty easy to get a hold of one.

With regard to recording at concerts:
Depending on the type of music you are recording (this applies particularly to symphonic music) using binural microphones (a tiny stero pair that can be clipped to your ears) can yield remarkable fidelity. You should check out this article.

Cheers!

I view people who buy portable MP3 players like smokers. How fu*king stupid can a person get? Against all the overwhelming evidence they still make a mind numbingly dumb decision like spending $250 on a big mistake. Minidiscs are cheap, store 74 minutes of excellent quality audio, are extremely portable, only skip with a great deal of effort on the users part, can record MP3 directly from comptuers as well as audio from CD players or any other device that has sound out and on and on and on. Before you do someting stupid, do youslef a favor and check this out. Minidisc.org

You didn't actually read all of it, including links, did you? Go to that link you posted, http://www.connact.com/~eaw /minidisc/minidisc_faq.html#Q2 and click on "near cd." As of ATRAC 3.5, MiniDisc is as good, if not better than CD quality, and poised to overtake it. And it also cites some blind tests where even audiophiles couldn't tell the difference.

They don't sound better than CDs. They sound slightly worse. But most people won't notice a difference (depending on conditions).

I strongly doubt that the average person could tell the difference between identical recordings on both media, even under ideal conditions. Only way to tell is to have double-blind tests conducted by people who aren't jerk-off audiophiles.

• An e-mail from the RIAA stating why it allows CD to Minidisc copies and not CD to hard-drive/MP3 copies. (They collect money from the Minidisc manufacturers to offset potential illegal copying!)

• The last paragraph of this article shows how perverse the whole situation is:

  The issue here is not really one of tape piracy. If the music industry really wants to stop its CDs from being copied digitally, it can easily put "flags" in the digital signal that would prohibit all copying. However, a 1989 study by the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment found that about one-quarter of all pre-recorded music purchases were made after the consumer heard the artist or recording on a home-made (pirated) tape. It turns out that a little piracy, if it's not overdone, is good for the music business.

• this is also confirmed in this interview with Geffen's director of technology:

  Easton: So you're saying that we're better off, that a record company may be better off with people out there pirating audio off the 'Net because that could conceivably increase your sales . . .

  Griffin: Yes . . .

• An e-mail from the RIAA stating why it allows CD to Minidisc copies and not CD to hard-drive/MP3 copies. (They collect money from the Minidisc manufacturers to offset potential illegal copying!)

• The last paragraph of this article shows how perverse the whole situation is:

  The issue here is not really one of tape piracy. If the music industry really wants to stop its CDs from being copied digitally, it can easily put "flags" in the digital signal that would prohibit all copying. However, a 1989 study by the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment found that about one-quarter of all pre-recorded music purchases were made after the consumer heard the artist or recording on a home-made (pirated) tape. It turns out that a little piracy, if it's not overdone, is good for the music business.

• this is also confirmed in this interview with Geffen's director of technology:

  Easton: So you're saying that we're better off, that a record company may be better off with people out there pirating audio off the 'Net because that could conceivably increase your sales . . .

  Griffin: Yes . . .