Portable MP3 player or Minidisc?

[richdvd]

Well, I will be travelling next week and looking at getting an MP3 player or a Minidisc player. Just wanted some people's thoughts/opinions on which they think is better and why. As or right now, I don't know which would be better to go for.

Right now, I have a Creative Nomad Jukebox (6GB).
It is one of those older ones with the big hard drive inside.
I have to get a new unit because the battery like (with new batteries) is a little over an hour.

Thanks

[makntraks]

Would do the MP3 player, one with FM integrated.....

Santa is bringing a Sandisk model for one of my kids..
256/MP3/WMA/DRM compatible w/ FM tuner, ~$66 shipped

makntraks

[richdvd]

Makntraks...I saw those Sandisk ones.
They are fairly cheap. Are they memory upgradable?

[yoda313]

Hello,

A cheaper alternative is what I have - an MP3 CD PLAYER

It also has an fm tuner in it.

Kevin

[richdvd]

Hello,

A cheaper alternative is what I have - an MP3 CD PLAYER

It also has an fm tuner in it.

Kevin

Ya, I guess that would be another good option.

[yoda313]

Hello,

A cheaper alternative is what I have - an MP3 CD PLAYER

It also has an fm tuner in it.

Kevin

Ya, I guess that would be another good option.

Hello,

CHEAPER too Mine was only $50 last year

Also has the benefit of playing normal audio cds. Plus you can still fit ten hours on a 700mb disc

Kevin

[richdvd]

Plus they have good battery life, don't they?

[yoda313]

Plus they have good battery like, don't they?

Hello,

Don't know I just leave mine plugged in at work

Though it should be the same as a standard cd player.

Kevin

[richdvd]

I thought I read that those MP3/CD Players have better battery life when playing MP3 discs over regular CDs. Not sure exactly why that would be.

[yoda313]

I thought I read that those MP3/CD Players have better battery life when playing MP3 discs over regular CDs. Not sure exactly why that would be.

Hello,

It could be that they spin less. I think it only spins to read the file then stops....

Kevin

[makntraks]

Makntraks...I saw those Sandisk ones.
They are fairly cheap. Are they memory upgradable?

No mem slot but 256meg should be plenty using 128kbps MP3's... and although your CD/MP3 player is probably nice, the size advantage and the fact is is pretty much kid proof makes it my choice...

YMMV,
makntraks

[richdvd]

I thought I read that those MP3/CD Players have better battery life when playing MP3 discs over regular CDs. Not sure exactly why that would be.

Hello,

It could be that they spin less. I think it only spins to read the file then stops....

Kevin

That would explain it.
MP3 CDs get something like 25% better battery life than normal CDs do.

[vitualis]

HDD MP3 player is definitely more handy as you'll be able to have the vast majority (if not all) of the songs you are likely to want to listen to with you.

What a MD player will be able to do better include:

• better battery life (my old MD player used to play around 8 hours on a single AA battery -- newer ones can play anywhere up to over 20 hours on a single charge.
• often BETTER audio quality (not due to the medium itself, but MD players often have superior audio circuitry)
• MD players are usually SMALLER than HD MP3 players (except possible the Microdrive based ones)
• MD players are usually quite tough -- I would be much more comfortable dropping my MD player than my HDD based player.
• There is something cool about popping in an MD into an MD player...

Regards.

[shelbyGT]

definitely not what you should get your little kids, but my 40GB iPod is something I can't do without. I take it from the car to the office back to home and listen to it everywhere. And I still have about 8 gigs left. Every time I get a new cd, it gets put on there and I put the cd back in the case only to bring it out again if I have to.

hoot @ ipods. I'd get something else if they only played AAC files.

[richdvd]

It doesn't seem that Minidiscs ever really picked up in North America. Not sure why.

[pyrate83]

It doesn't seem that Minidiscs ever really picked up in North America. Not sure why.

People just want the cooler things here. :P

[hech54]

I personally love(d) Minidisc when it first came out. I only own a home unit Sony MD deck. It sat on top of my Pioneer CD Recorder and the MD unit got used more often when converting LP's to CD....meaning that I would record to the MD first....doing all of the editing and song breaks....THEN I would record digitally to the Pioneer CD Recorder.
But I would tend to agree that in this day and age....an MP3 Storage Unit or a CD/MP3 player would be a better choice for on the go listening.
MP3 unit for compact-ness....a CD/MP3 player for versatility.

[mats.hogberg]

It doesn't seem that Minidiscs ever really picked up in North America. Not sure why.

Did it pick up anywhere? To me, it's the Betamax of audio. Dead as can be. The big q is if to buy a mp3 player or a mp3 capable cell phone with plenty of mem...

/Mats

[Cobra]

Although Vitualis has outlined some of the excellent points about MD players, you should know that they seem to be fragile and prone to just giving up at the slightest thing. I have been through several.

I will be swapping to a Vorbis player soon (if I can get a reasonably priced one). I haven't used MP3 for a long, long time.

[Nilfennasion]

MiniDisc is far from dead, but it has become very much a niche product. Journalists who like to record interviews, for example, use it because it delivers a recording quality that microcassette or other analogue audio formats can only dream of. ATRAC3 is not lossless, but near enough as makes no odds. Anyone who has listened to Opera IX's Sacro Culto album in MP3 and ATRAC3 formats will agree that ATRAC3 is by far the better format.

I have had one incident with screws coming out of my MiniDisc player, but that was quickly resolved. It is a propietary format, of course, but it is a very good propietary format.

[vitualis]

MD took off in a huge way in Asia. It basically replaced analogue tape... to such an extent, you simply can't buy something with a tape player any more. It's all MD.

And MD is not as fragile as you make out Cobra. I don't know what models you owned, but I had a very good Sharp unit. It had an aluminium shell and I have dropped it on several occasions with no issues at all. MD players are intrinsically lighter as well so there is less "damage" even if dropped.

I would argue that ATRAC used in MD (which is ATRAC1 v3/4/+ unless you are talking about LP modes) is NOT superior to MP3. However, many people don't encode their MP3s properly so in a manner of speaking it is somewhat true. MP3 can be transparent though if encoded properly.

As for Ogg Vorbis... it has yet to see its time and I doubt that it will. I personally see no real benefit in using it over MP3.

Regards.

[Hardcoreruss]

I had a minidisc player since day one, loved it.

Had an ipod now for about 18 months and it is without a doubt the best gadget I have EVER bought.

You can effectively double the size of it by encoding as AAC

[flaninacupboard]

Have a creative jukebox 20GB, cost me £150 about two years ago. had to go away for repair once, but the audio quality is great and the capacity is just right.

Have a Sharp MD walkman, used to use it alot before i had a cd burner. very handy for recording sound effects and interviews and gigs. loved the editing facilites too. the new HD-MDs can pack a lot onto them in LP4 mode, and the discs are -much- cheaper than smart cards or microdrives. MD is a pretty robust format, i remember reading a guys story - had a MD deck in his car and wrote it off in a high speed crash. the MD didn't skip during the crash

[Cobra]

vitualis,

I had several Sony units which have failed - all three were different types. I now have a Sony MZ-N1 which has problems (sometimes doesn't play/can't seek or read any disc, sometimes does not connect to the PC) but it has lasted two years now.

Vorbis is most certainly better than MP3, especially at low bitrates. Stereo Vorbis at 45kbps is light years ahead of MP3. Even at 128kbps there is a noticable difference, but at 160kbps and above there isn't a gap (to my ears).

[Capmaster]

I'm getting my first MP3 player for Christmas:

http://product.samsung.com/cgi-bin/nabc/product/b2c_product_detail.jsp?eUser=&prod_id=YPT5V%2fXAA

[richdvd]

Hmmmm......maybe I'll get an iPod.
If only, they were a LITTLE cheaper.

[shelbyGT]

Hmmmm......maybe I'll get an iPod.
If only, they were a LITTLE cheaper.

what, you haven't got your email for a free one yet?

[richdvd]

Hmmmm......maybe I'll get an iPod.
If only, they were a LITTLE cheaper.

what, you haven't got your email for a free one yet?

No....but I'm sure if I did a search here I could find some offers

[vitualis]

Vorbis is most certainly better than MP3, especially at low bitrates. Stereo Vorbis at 45kbps is light years ahead of MP3. Even at 128kbps there is a noticable difference, but at 160kbps and above there isn't a gap (to my ears).

I agree. However, I'm not particularly strapped for HDD space any more... on my PC OR portable player.

Regards.

[Hardcoreruss]

Everything on my pod is 64aac and I cannot tell the difference.