MD vs. tape

Thanks for the info, Ramstl. My hesitation with CDR at this point -- and I may be completely wrong about how it works -- is that you can only record the disks once. So you forget to add a song or bump the turntable when it's recording or decide you want to reorder the tracks and you're stuck. But maybe I don't understand how it works. Is there some kind of finalizing process you go through? Also, I'm not crazy about the harshness of CDs on ordinary equipment, and have found that tapes can lessen that problem. I don't know how MD affects that. Also don't know how vinyl sounds recorded onto a CDR. Any comments?

Thanks for the reply, Taraszki. The limitation with DAT is that I can't play it in the car or through a Walkman, right? I'm not looking for ultimate fidelity here, but rather overall flexibility balanced with halfway decent sound. Maybe this is too much of a mid-fi or a low-fi question for this board, but I would imagine others have thought about how to hear music somewhere other than in their living rooms. Unfortunately for me, I have very little time to sit and listen to my main stereo, so I've got to grab it on the run -- driving to work, washing the dishes, working out. So everybody, what's YOUR solution to that problem?

Thanks everybody for your helpful replies. I have decided for now to go with -- tape. My reason is idiosyncratic and may annoy some of you. Sorry. Here's what I was thinking: I really love great audio, but find myself in a lifestyle that doesn't allow for a lot of quiet, reflectic, analytical listening in a subdued, dedicated listening room. It's more like Can I hear something new as I'm driving the kids to daycare? Can I pick up a bit of sonic joy as I'm cleaning up the living room and washing the dishes? Can I get in a funk groove while grabbing a precious few minutes to exercise? Whatever I would get would be used in the car and on an exercise bike as much as in the living room. I would buy a recorder in anticipation of buying a new system for my car as well. (The existing CD player is on its last legs.) So here's the cincher for me: I went to my downtown library branch yesterday and saw they have literally hundreds of tapes available to borrow. Everything you can imagine. Music, of course, but also great fiction and nonfiction books. I just finished Doris Kearnes Goodwin's book on FDR and Eleanor during WW2. So sitting right there on the shelf is a tape that has FDR's Fireside Chat speeches during that time. I open up the box and see it, along with every other tape I inspect, is in great shape. It hasn't been abused by your typical library patron. Do I see any CDs around that I can borrow? A few. Any MDs? No, not a one. I realized that at this point in my life, I'd rather hear something completely new -- like FDR's speeches -- that makes me think and feel differently than something that is pleasant but expected. Yes, CD and MD would sound better, but what am I going to do -- check out the FDR tape to record it onto an MD or CD so I can play it in my car? In sum, I've decided this is a quantity of info vs. a quality of info decision, and I'm opting for quantity.