minidisc vs mp3 vs good ol cds

[noriko]

So. I need to buy a new portable audio device. I know CDs have the best quality, with minidiscs a close 2nd, and mp3s far behind. But how would you rate each of these formats/devices in other ways? Ease of use? Practicality? Durability?

(and if it matters, I will be moving to Japan this summer, so it will be easy to get albums in minidisc format).

also, does anyone know anything about how easy it is to get things from cd or mp3 onto minidisc using a mac?

sorry so many questions...i'm done now:)

[thaite]

Good question. I've been using all three.

Okay, using CD as the frame of reference.

MiniDisc, I believe records at 278 kbs, although the most recent portables can do variable rate recording. Decent sound, but lacking on the bass end. In portable format using headphones or in a car it's not noticeable, but in a home stereo with some decent speakers the difference between MiniDisc and CD is noticeable to me, even when using the optical connection. The discs are cheap and reusable many times over.

Using with a Mac pretty much means pushing play on the CD player and record on the MiniDisc. Later MiniDisck portable are able to use a USB connector, but I haven't done that so I don't know how well it works.

I have a Sony MiniDisc deck (not portable) for my home stereo that I'm thinking about selling - for lack of use. Lemme know if you're interested.

Mp3 is very versatile. You can encode in many different rates, however, the big beef I have is that most downloads and trades that you get have been encoded at 128 kbs, which is very noticeable compared to CD and MiniDisc. I've used my iPod with my home stereo before and I won't be doing that again, terrible sound, but okay for car and portable use. Apple iTunes make mp3 integration with the iPod very easy. And you don't have to carry a bunch of discs around with you.

[wylin]

i have a pioneer premier DEH-740P Mp3 CD playing head unit it has changed my life i no longer worry bout changing CD's and have my whole fav song collection on 1 or 2 disk and just listen to 150 songs then pull over swap disc and go again. mini disc and common audio CD seems so limited to me....

[angel nympho]

MP3's are cool 'cuz you can have millions of them downloaded to your computer. And they're cool 'cuz you can just burn them onto a CD. I usually just listen to CD's though. 'Cuz I'm not always in the same room as my computer, and my car don't play MP3s......

[applehead]

i'm just too lazy to search for mp3's, download them.. and then copy them onto cd's or transfer them to an mp3 player..
i used to listen to songs on my sony clie but .. it was too much work.

i love regular ole cds.

[ren28]

For the computer, I play mostly mp3 (above 128kbps) or mp3pro. For the car, I buy CDs of the good stuff that I have downloaded. If I can't get those, I am stuck with 128kbps mp3s. Mp3pro is not supported by everyone yet so that is a problem. I don't use minidisc because I'm too lazy to burn all the time.

I'm a supporter the artists that I would be buying anyway. Mp3s are one of the few ways I find the artists names.

[angel nympho]

I usually only buy CD's of artists that I know NEED my support (i.e. smaller bands that havn't yet gotten huge on MTV or whatnot). Everybody else, I just download and burn. They probably won't notice. :)

[deez nuts]

Just bought this cuz I wanted something portable and small to use at the gym. Alot of my friends recommended it.


http://www.jetaudio.com/images/products/ia_photo_18.jpg

http://www.jetaudio.com/images/products/ia_photo_06.jpg


http://www.jetaudio.com/products/iaudio/cw...w200/photo.html (http://www.jetaudio.com/products/iaudio/cw200/photo.html)

Don't know jack about gadgets, but it came highly recommended from friends that have it.

[applehead]

Originally posted by Chasiubao_Boy@Nov 28 2002, 03:58 PM
Just bought this cuz I wanted something portable and small to use at the gym. Alot of my friends recommended it.


http://www.jetaudio.com/images/products/ia_photo_18.jpg

http://www.jetaudio.com/images/products/ia_photo_06.jpg


http://www.jetaudio.com/products/iaudio/cw...w200/photo.html (http://www.jetaudio.com/products/iaudio/cw200/photo.html)

Don't know jack about gadgets, but it came highly recommended from friends that have it.
oh man. that would be PERFECT for the gym.

[angel nympho]

MP3 players are a pain. I have one that my uncle bought for me in Korea. I havn't even tried using it yet. Too much trouble.

It's cool though. It's pretty... and about the size of, like, I denno, a credit card? Maybe a little smaller.

[deez nuts]

Originally posted by angel nympho@Nov 29 2002, 12:01 AM
MP3 players are a pain.  I have one that my uncle bought for me in Korea.  I havn't even tried using it yet.  Too much trouble.

It's cool though.  It's pretty... and about the size of, like, I denno, a credit card?  Maybe a little smaller.
yeah I hear its a pain. Cuz you gotta rip the CD's into yada yada format in order to download it onto your MP3 player.

But I want to test it out and get with modern technology.

It was between the one above and this one:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00006HYWR.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

It's supposed to be easier to use and better for the gym. But I either heard really good things about it or really bad things about it.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...ronics&n=300329 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00006JHWQ/qid=1038574426/br=1-1/ref=br_lf_etk_ce_av__1//103-3657066-1255060?v=glance&s=electronics&n=300329)

I like the look better of the first one.

[Azn Retribution]

Minidiscs are more or less for audiophiles.

Mp3 is a file format and it depends on the files encoding quality what kind of sound quality you get and it widely varies. the typical is 96k or 128k.
Think higher = better. but higher = bigger and longer to download.
You get the gist

CD's are old and suck but are cheap. =)

Different kind of mp3 players..
Flash Memory Card/Stick/etc
Harddrive
CD/mini-cd based

I think if your gonna drop the coin on a mp3 player
be it a harddrive player like the iPOD or the Archos.
why? they are very small(especially the iPOD) work
with both windows/mac and they can hold a hell
of a lot more music(5 - 20 gigabytes) then a flash memory
card stick or cd. and there's the hassle of filling up the said
cd's and flash memory sticks and making sure you did it right. etc.

If your a DJ or something a minidisc would be the ideal usage for you
I would get this second to a mp3 player as you can easily transfer mp3 songs quickly through an optical connector to a minidisc.
Minidiscs are also cheaper then flash memory. and durable
and you can also do quality optical recordings from one(the main draw for an aspiring musician or DJ, Good for Demo's)

[loserbutt]

go for a cd based mp3 player. I got an iriver chromex mp150 for a hundred bucks. very good player, I encoded all of my cds to mp3s using eac and lame 3.92 vbr (btw that is the best mp3 encoder) and so I can stick about 7-8 albums on a cd. on and mp3 with a good encoder can come very close to cd, I can still tell a difference between cd and mp3 but it isn't obvious. also, ogg just released a binary decoder which means that portable support for ogg should be here soon

[blue__blood]

If you just want to listen to music on the go, go for a mp3 player. Otherwise I would say MD.

mp3 players are small and easy to use (espcially the iPOD) and there's no moving parts so skipping isn't an issue. Down side is that there's battery issues, media isn't cheap, and you can't really swap with friends unless they have the same player, and the player itself isn't cheap.

MDs are also small, but not as easy to use at first. With an optical cable, you can get perfect tranfers from your computer or cd player so no worries about static in your recordings. Uhm, the downside is that there's only max 320min (on lowest recording quality) per disc, titling songs is quite a hassle, and recording discs is no where as easy as just transfering mp3s via usb/firewire on mp3 players.

[himura-dono]

Originally posted by blue__blood@Dec 4 2002, 01:57 AM
mp3 players are small and easy to use (espcially the iPOD) and there's no moving parts so skipping isn't an issue.


just to get anal....the ipod IS a hdd, and i don't know if you know this, but hdd's have moving parts...^_^""" if you don't believe me, open ur computer take out ur hdd, and throw it off ur balcony/drill out the screws, and you'll see the parts that once moved. there IS an rpm rating on hdd's for a reason.

[loserbutt]

and um, ipods are 300-400 bucks. on the other hand my chromex was 100 bucks (provided you have a computer with a cdburner)

[blue__blood]

Originally posted by himura-dono@Dec 5 2002, 05:20 PM
just to get anal....the ipod IS a hdd, and i don't know if you know this, but hdd's have moving parts...^_^""" if you don't believe me, open ur computer take out ur hdd, and throw it off ur balcony/drill out the screws, and you'll see the parts that once moved. there IS an rpm rating on hdd's for a reason.
uhh.. of course, I knew that. I didn't think Flash cards came in 20gig sizes.. of course not...

[ellsworth81]

Originally posted by himura-dono@Dec 5 2002, 02:20 PM
Originally posted by blue__blood@Dec 4 2002, 01:57 AM
mp3 players are small and easy to use (espcially the iPOD) and there's no moving parts so skipping isn't an issue.  


just to get anal....the ipod IS a hdd, and i don't know if you know this, but hdd's have moving parts...^_^""" if you don't believe me, open ur computer take out ur hdd, and throw it off ur balcony/drill out the screws, and you'll see the parts that once moved. there IS an rpm rating on hdd's for a reason.
nod to the moving parts

but memory stick driven players don't have moving parts, but the song capacity is crap <_<

Store-bought CDs are probably the best in terms of audio quality, unless you have access to the studio recordings and can create better-than-cd-quality mp3s (which I *think* is possible).

But if you can't tell the differences in low freqs, highs, mids, and whatever, then get a mp3 player. it's semi-easy to dnload and transfer music, and the players are pretty small these days. and you can store lotsa songs.

I'd say no to an MD player because it doesn't really have any benefits to make it standout. They're not cheap as CDs, nor are they as convenient and as large (song capacity) as mp3. Someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

[Hanuman]

Originally posted by Chasiubao_Boy@Nov 28 2002, 06:58 PM
Just bought this cuz I wanted something portable and small to use at the gym. Alot of my friends recommended it.


http://www.jetaudio.com/images/products/ia_photo_18.jpg

http://www.jetaudio.com/images/products/ia_photo_06.jpg


http://www.jetaudio.com/products/iaudio/cw...w200/photo.html (http://www.jetaudio.com/products/iaudio/cw200/photo.html)

Don't know jack about gadgets, but it came highly recommended from friends that have it.
I have the Rio 800 mp3 player and I use it at the gym. It's not bad, but the only gripe I have is the Nickel Metal hydride battery it uses. It's not like Lithium Ion where you can just charge it when you want, you have to let it completely drain out before you can use it. I'd actually prefer if it used regular alkalines.

As for minidiscs vs CDs, I was interested in the minidisc too, then I decided to stick with the CD format, you can always find a CD player, not so true with a minidisc....