Hi all,

I've been recording live music for some years now, getting to a level
were I want to buy myself some new equipment. The past few years I've
been served well using the Sony MZ-909 minidisc recorder, but changing
discs during recording and having no digital output is proving to be a
bit a constraint.

I've been looking and looking, and all other people I meet seem to
swear by the Creative Jukebox 3 (JB3), but isn't there something more
compact and advanced around nowadays? I've been browsing forums, window
shopping etc. but I just can't seem to find what I'm looking for. I
haven't found any relevant topics in this group too, for the last month
or two.

As a desperate measure I bought myself a Packard Bell Vibe 300, but
that hasn't got a manual level control or external battery. Both were
very nice on the Sony MZ-909, especially when recording direct from a
soundboard. As I can still get a full refund on the Vibe 300 if I
return it within one week, I'd like to know if there's anything better
out there.

Can someone offer me advice? Basic properties:

Must have:
- Line-in (rec-in as extra?)
- USB or any form of digital-out
- Capacity to record a minimum of four hours in one go, preferebly up
to ten hours
- Posibillity to change battery, or apply aditional external one
- Manual recording levels (automatic as extra?)
- Good S/N ratio and 20-20k Hz range

Preferred:
- Uncompressed data storage (e.g. WAV, no MP3 or ATRAC)
- Small size, minidisc size is OK.

The Creative (Nomad) JB3 is end of sale, or else I would have just
bought that one... is there a real alternative?

--
Cheers Vis