Joe

MD is also a very rugged medium, compared to fragile hard drive based players. I recommend them as portable listening devices because of that fact (and also because a $500 HD based Mp3 player went bust on me, losing all my music in the process).

Yeah, I am still going to treat my MD player with respect... I guess I mean at least I wont lose 40GB of music from a hard drive dying, and MD is more suited for transportable, portable music because it is small and rugged. MD discs dont corrupt and break like hard drives do. Also when I started to use the H340 I found it took a good week or more for my ears to adapt to the "harsher" mp3 sound.. it was a little bright or something. It's amazing how different codecs bring different things to the music. ATRAC has its own audio personality, thats for sure!

I have had over 6 years reliable, hassle free listening from MD. Recently I bought an IRIVER H340, my bag fell and the player stopped working, after about 3 months of use. It's a great device with great sound - but who wants that? A player that breaks so easily, and then have the Australian company wash their hands when it comes to support? I sent it back to Japan, where I bought it, and it was repaired for free. I learnt that one thing that makes MD so great is their rugged design. They come back for more abuse and still work! I also missed the tinyness of an MD player, and the AA battery replacement option, so great when on the road. So I bought a HIMD player - the MZ-NH700, on special here in Australia. Welcome back MD! I gotta dig through some of my older net-md and standard discs, some good music on there....

It's quite simple... MP3/WMA data CD's jump too easily. I have a MP3/WMA CD player in my car and I never use MP3/WMA discs for this reason.

He he! Done.

Thanks heaps Atrain! Like I say, I am still using my MD player so I still consider myself part of the club! Actually, now I have been using a HD player, I realise that it is a completely different experience compared to MD - especially the sound. I feel that MD has a more, how do I say it, analogue or human sound compared to a hard drive mp3 player. Maybe after over 5 years of MD use my ears are used to the MD response! It is really interesting - I didnt think that I would feel this way about the sound of a HD player, even in mp3, VBR mp3, ogg, or higher bitrates... still I wouldnt't say it's better or worse, just different. The size of the Iriver is kind of bulky compared to my MD player but considering it has got so much music on it, it's a good trade off. Actually it is probably no more bulky than my first MD player with the 2xAA pack attached. The main thing I miss when I use the HD player is the wonderful, refined ergonomics of the MD playing experience. With MD, they have thought it out and had many years to develop the remote controls, the units, button placement, navagation etc. They are just so easy to use... whereas with the Iriver it has a boot up time, then you got to find your music, then you got to load it, etc. and the remote is not as well thought out. Still I think that its all a more or less situation. For me there are pluses and minuses of both ways of doing buisness. I still think if people are going for a player with less than 5 gig storage a MD player would be better for heaps of reasons. I don't like flash players and tire of loading tracks into a small flash chip. Anyway, today I have pulled out the MD and hit the road... it still rocks as a format! I think next month I will pick up a MZ-RH10 and give it a whirl.

Hi Guys, Thanks all for your input on this subject... I want to say that I decided to get an IRiver H340 for the moment to see how I go with an mp3 format HD player... it was a difficult decision but has been an interesting experience so far - I thought I would give it a try, see if I like it, and still use my MD player too. There were a few reasons for this. I enjoy being able to copy music to a portable device without Sonicstage, I see that most people have posted to say that they have had no trouble with it - I find it a tad restrictive, slow and generally dislike the DRM check in/out stuff. Also since I upgraded to 3.1 it has just refused to work. I think I may re-install it and try again. This is probably my main gripe with using MD at the moment. I am pretty sure I will eventually get a Sony MZ-RH10 as well as I can see both of them fitting in with my music life. I was thinking I could use MD as my chosen portable format for recording my CDs and my own music and the H340 as my "mp3 repository", freeing up my computer from the bulk of mp3's it already has... I like the idea of being able to hit the road with a large collection too. I could of posted some BS about me getting a MZ-RH10 instead of a HD mp3 player but I thought honesty is the best policy... I thought I may get flamed for my choice but hey, I still really love MD and still use my NetMD player, but I was curious about how a HD based mp3 player would fit in with my life.... and the IRiver just seemed to give me more bang for my buck. (by the way Ipod was never a consideration.)

Very good points - thanks for telling me about the Viao I will check that out! What you say is true.... it's not like I can only have one or the other - I can have my cake and eat it too!

No, not really, but then again all I have been using is MD so I have nothing to compare it to. Before I just had a listen to some mp3 music on my friend's new ipod mini and it sounded pretty average to my ears. I listened with the mac-supplied white ear buds but it was suprisingly not good quality. I expected the ipod to sound really good, but even mp3s encoded via Sonic Stage in LP4 sound better to my ears!

Thanks for the reply! Yes I have access to a computer and it is a PC! Actually, I realise that there is a newer version of Sonic Stage available.... I am still using the old 2.x release. I will get 3.1 as soon as I can, but my net access is really limited at the moment. Am I right in assuming that the new 3.1 Sonic Stage is superior to the one I am currently using? Only the other day my Sonic Stage would not allow me to transfer files because of some sort of copyright issue with the files, funny thing really seeing as these ones were ripped off my own CDs!

Hi there! I have never been a member of the Minidisc community before and this is my first post! Hooraa! (I have lurked here over the years though). This place has been a fantastic help to me in many ways, and it is also cool to see so many other people using MD too! Thanks! I have been a committed MD user since my first blue MZ-R55 that I bought in 1999, it was great and performed well, even after dropping it several times. I then stepped up to a Net-MD Sony MZ-N707 which I got in 2002. I loved the extended use I got from my MDs, and the ability to copy mp3s and CDs from my computer, but of course hated the Sonic Stage software and Sony's stupid paranoia. Anyway, I am now living in Tokyo, want to get a new personal audio device and so I am seriously eyeing off a Sony MZ-RH10 HI-MD model, but I am also checking out other options such as the 40 gig I-River player, ipod, etc... (insert other HD mp3 player name here) . I want to make a decision on what to buy, but I feel like a guy who is about to break up with a girlfriend or something! Arrg! I love MD and I have stacks of MD discs, but I really dislike Sonys Sonic Stage client software (I am sure this is a major theme in posts of this nature....). I have heaps of mp3s on my computer, and have found the slow speed Sonic Stage takes to convert them, and the fact it converts mp3 (a lossy format) to ATRAC (another lossy format) a bit disconcerting. I know that the MZ-RH10 does mp3, but it still has to go through Sonic Stage doesn't it? Is there any problems with this? Is it ok? Still, I am not entirely convinced that HD Mp3 players are the solution for me either. MD has been around a long time, is reliable and also the players are well designed, portable and small. HD Mp3 players have just not had the same amount of time to develop like MD players have, some of them look too under-developed, with poor quality remotes, un-ergonomic controls or menu systems etc. I fear that if I got something like an iriver, I would really miss the ease of use my MD player gave me. I like the tactile nature of MD, putting a disc in, taking it out... the sticky labels that have my bad handwriting all over them! With a large HD storage player I can see that having one device which stores all the music being a bit of a drag. You have to wade through menus to find your tracks... and if it gets stolen - bye bye entire collection. Also, ipods and irivers are larger and heavier than MD players, and I have heard the battery life sucks. So anyway... I am not really asking anyone to make my mind up for me here - I am just a bit frustrated and needed to rant on a bit. I will probably make my mind up in the next few days... probably... If you can be bothered, I would love to hear your thoughts! Also, if there have been any meaty threads on this topic somewhere on the board, could you link them for me?? I have done a bit of browsing but would like to read what other people think and feel... I may of missed some good discussions! Thanks for reading my first post!