Recording quality of minidisc is effected by the atrac version. Older
minidisc recorders do not sound very good. The newer ones however are
superb. Modern atrac compression is not mp3 and sounds alot better than
mp3.
an excellent source for info on the minidsic standard can be found at:
http://www.hip.atr.co.jp/~eaw/minidisc.html
explains it all...
-daniel