Sony seems to have taken the phrase "good things come in small packages" to heart with the TCD-D7 DAT Walkman, a feature-packed, portable Digital Audio Tape recorder that fits in the palm of your hand. With CD-quality recording, audio position markers, and a recording time of more than two hours (four hours in LP mode), the DAT Walkman is an impressive piece of machinery. I originally bought it just to tape interviews, but I've used it for everything from mastering music to playing back sound cues in theatrical productions.
A handy feature is the limiting mode built into the TCD-D7 for music and speech, so that music levels don't distort and speech is more distinct. While you can't control the amount of limiting, the two settings are useful in most applications.
Before you run out and buy one for your very own, there are two pitfalls - courtesy of Sony - that you should be aware of. The first problem is accessories, which are almost impossible to find. Sony customer service told me that I'd have to wait from six to eight weeks for an AC adapter. Considering that the unit doesn't work with rechargeable NiCad batteries and the four AA batteries only last about two hours, this is no small inconvenience. (After a bit of searching, I found a store that sells the adapters for US$35 - The DAT Store, in Santa Monica, California: +1 (310) 828 6487.) The second problem is that the TCD-D7 uses SCMS (Serial Copy Management System), an irritating scheme preventing digital-to-digital recording.
The US$700 TCD-D7 is a handy little unit. While it won't replace professional DAT decks for mastering, it is far superior to both Philips's DCC (Digital Compact Cassette) and Sony's MiniDisc technology, both of which use lousy compression and therefore degrade the audio they record.
TCD-D7 DAT Walkman: US$700. Sony: +1 (201) 930 7669, fax +1 (201) 573 8608.
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