mp3 vs. MiniDisc player

The wife said she wanted an mp3 player for Christmas so I decided to do some research and also look at some alternatives. I googled on "mp3 vs. MiniDisc" and what I'm finding out is that in head to head comparisons, the newer MiniDisc players seems to be the better option by almost everyone. The problem they say, is that MiniDisc (which I guess is synonymous with Sony) never hyped up this format like their mp3 counterparts did.

Anyone care to share an opinion? Pros and cons of each?

As much as I love the Minidisc technology, I'd have to say that unless your wife wants to make high-quality voice recordings, an MP3 player would probably be your best bet. The cost/capacity ratio for MP3 players is now on par with that of MD players, and the convenience and ease of use of MP3 players is tremendously appealing (the fact that you can use many as simple flash drives also is an added bonus). Sony's annoying and downright infuriating decisions (preventing simple transfer back and forth between MD and computer, the recent rootkit issue, and the like) have really turned me off to them as a company, even though I love their designs.

That being said, I have found no MP3 player that can produce high quality voice recordings like a MD recorder (most MP3 players don't even have a mic-in port), which is the only reason I still use my MD units.

John

Get a MP3 player. MD is dying. After the last wave of MD, Sony hasn't shown much love for the Format, MD players are getting super cheap (IE: Closeout) I think the format is on it's way out.

mp3 players will never suffer from gyroscopic errors while jogging. 'Nuff said?

I recently came upon a Sony MiniDisc recorder/player and it seems really ancient. Its smaller than a CD player but WAY larger than my current Creative Micro N200 MP3 flash based player.

I will try to play around with the MD player tomorrow night or the next night but the disc's are its weak point, have to record them, where as on my MP3 player I just drop files into it. I will do some more playing around, but as Saaby said ~ "MD is dying." The new trend I see is lots of iPod's of all shapes and sizes (full size, mini, and nano.) The person I found the MD player off of has a iPod mini. The Sony MD thing was sitting in her draw, time for me to use it. I will most likely not carry it due to size and weight.

Size matters for me. I sometimes carry my Sennheiser PXC250 headphones in its pouch and have the MP3 player in its front pocket. The headphone noise cancellation device takes 2X AAA's and is maybe 2 1/2X longer and 1.5X thicker (but thinner) than the MP3 player itself. I only deal with the headphone size due to being able to listen to the MP3's at a reasonable volume (25 out of 40) on the train or ferry and those in NYC know how loud those can get. Better than listening to it at full blast like some other people who are going deaf due to constant noise in their ear int heir open air type headphones. I am slowly losing my hearing too but at a much reduced level than the people playing their music even audible to me when I have my headphones off.

Here is a picture of my headphones, MP3 player, and case compared to an Ultra-G.



I think the same thing happened to Sony's ATRAC3 which was to my knowledge designed to compete with MP3 format, as is WMA. I may be assuming things but ATRAC3 is dead, and VERY soon MD?

Jason

Also as PhotonWrangler said - no skipping on my MP3 player. I have the work-out headphones with armband attachment in the trunk of my car and take it on the treadmill. No skipping after 4-5 miles on the treadmill at ~28-40 minutes depending on my mood, also none while lifting weights. I will test the MD player for this by taping the big box to my arms and doing some calisthenics and run around the block once or twice. My expected resultds will be skipping, lots and lots of skipping for the MD.

Also price, you can find a great MP3 player that holds 1 gig of music for ~$130 shipped from Newegg.com (Creative muvo Micro N200 series) in different colors (black, red, pink, etc. etc.) I think its more competitive since a lot or manufacturer's are making these MP3 players (Creative, Sandisk, Samsung, Apple, etc.etc.) Sony has a monopoly and can charge more (Memory Stick still cost above other souces of storage media) for certain items where alternatives are usually cheaper and more varied. Just my opinions, take it with a grain of salt.

Plus on my Creative Micro N200, I have line in MP3 conversion, microphone recording, and FM radio capabilities. I only use the MP3 stored music and sometimes listen to the radio on the ferry.

I'd say mp3 player.

mp3 player pros
-high capacity for a large collection of songs
-direct transfers of files from computer to mp3 player

mp3 player cons
-generally no recording feature

MD pro
-high quality voice recording

MD con
-must utilize real-time to transfer songs from computer to MD player
-cannot "copy" from MD to computer
-must have lots of discs to have a large collection of songs

I have a Rio Carbon 1.5G mini-HD based player. I like it ok but it does not crank at all and I don't need ear shattering sound. Are the 1G flash based drives louder? The memory size is big enough for me.

and worst of all at the moment they are proprietary sony, and sony is persona non-gratta in the music world after their last DRM fiasco.

Think of the MD as a tape deck that takes disks instead. You have to play your songs into it! The quality is better than mp3 at 128k setting, but not as good as AAC at 128 or mp3 at 160k or higher. Plus, it doesn't really matter if it sounds better than mp3, cause you'll almost certainly be playing your mp3 files from the computer into the thing, so they can't get better than the source material. If you only ever played CD's into it then it might give better quality on those things, but nothing else.

Many mp3 players record high quality now, my new ipod records 44.1khz sampled stereo audio now and many others do to.

I would say that an MD player works better without a computer. You just play your albums onto the mini disks. But if you have a computer and plan on purchasing or using any mp3 or other formatted files to store and organize your music, you'd be better off with anything else.

my hi md player takes mp3s and conferts em to mp3 it does it very quilcly pretty much on the fly but my pc is fast the new gen2 himd play mp3.no need to convert at least thats what ive heard i love my himd player but my next player will be a mp3 player im waiting for a long time when they have 10 gig flash players and it must use batteruysi can buy at store

Thanks for the replies.

You guys are probably right. Now that I look back through the reviews comparing these two formats, it's hard to find a recent one. Both formats seem to have made some recent improvements but the new mp3 players seem to have some definite advantages now. The thing I like most about the MD is that you can record from any source, not just a computer. That means it's less likely to become unusable in the future.

Well I dont know that I prefer one or the other. But the mp3 eliminates carrying around cd's but is limited to how much it can store on its memory.
with the minidisk player you dont have a music limit but you have to carry around cd's. Well thats all I have to say.

Some MP3 players have a Mic built in and/or line in and can record just like a MD player. Some don't have it built in, but it can be added with accessories (iPod).

The thing I like most about the MD is that you can record from any source, not just a computer.

Click to expand...

I'm trying to think of what other sources you would need to record from that you could not record on your computer via the line in jack on your sound card.

I just bought my wife a Samsung YP-U1 1G flash based mp3 player. It is nice and small, the usb plug folds back into the back of the player and hides behind a little door. It is configured a mass storage device by the computer, so you don't need any proprietary software to get music on to the device. That means you don't have to deal with the digital rights management scheme that other softwares use. Being a mass storage device you can also use it like a jump drive to store other files ( I put the .pdf file with the operating instructions for the unit on it.)

I was surprised by the sound quality. I had been researching these for a while and almost universally the earphones that come with the units are reviewed as being sub-par (except the I-pod). I found the sound to be excellent with the supplied ear buds, in fact there was plenty of base and volume over 15% was hurting my ears in a quiet room.