If you were Jonesing for an MZ-R55, stop and think. Apart from being a bit smaller, what has the R55 ever done for you? Dedicated line out? Okay, but apart from that, what has it done for you? Phenomenal remote? Right, but apart from that and dedicated line out, what has the R55 done for you? Honestly we could go on and on and on; and sadly, the F80/75 get sort of lost in the mix.

Disclaimer: I bought this sucker from Yahoo! Auctions a couple of years ago. It is a pretty player/recorder whose straightforward physical UI is both to die for and to die from. You can find out all about it at Minidisc.org’s dedicated Aiwa AM-F70 page. 

My first MD recorder, a Sharp MD-MT15, broke forty eight hours after I purchased it from Vetlanda’s ON/OFF. (If you like Sharp, get used to it.) Promptly I replaced it with a Sony MZ-R37, which at the time I despised for not being a different, more expensive recorder.