MD is 16/44.1, but the previous post was saying you'd have to set your recording software in your PC to record it as such, so that you could then put it to CDR.
I've been using a Pioneer MJD707 > optical > Philips CDR870, then just EAC'ing the discs to get them into my PC. Works well for MD conversions. There's another program that can supposedly automate the recording process from your NetMD deck through the analog connections of your MD deck and soundcard. The Program is called Win nMD, something like that. You can check it out
here.
A popular option has been to get a home deck with optical outputs and connect that to a digital soundcard, that way your recordings are preserved as good as you're going to get them. (ATRAC is already a lossy format, no need to throw a generation of loss in there.)
Lastly, there is a way to do a digital dump of the ATRAC data on your audio MD into your PC without any soundcard issues, much like using a DDS drive with DAT audio tapes. You can find a Sony
MDH-10 on eBay and use the
EDL MiniDisc Transfer Editor to rip the audio from your MD to your PC at 5x. NOTE: I do NOT reccomend this option, the cost far outweighs the benefit of recording to MDs in the first place. I just thought I'd pass along this information for those that thought that better-than-realtime transfer from MDs were not possible - they are, they're just not very feasible for the common MD'er.