simon.giesen

yes, me! But after I was blamed by Sony. LOOK: I ripped my favourite CDs by using AAL, then I converted them to 352K BUT I didn't figured out that Sony was using the pre-compressed 256K file for that task. NOW I am more intelligent: Do ripp your favourite CDs to WAV and THEN convert them!!! BTW: Sound quality on my HD5 is AMAZING!

Hi jadeclaw, please allow me to comment on your statements: 1) well, look at Sony's Network Walkmans. The NW-HD5 was rated as the best sounding mobile player by cnet recently. 2) 20 GB and more should be enough. I had a Vaio Pocket 40GB but I sold it and bought the HD5 - even it has less storage capacity it's ok, because I love not all my CDs same. 3) it has to be proved, I don't know. 4) The HD5 has the same running time. 5) As well, I paid 260 Euros for 30 GB, try to beat this by buying MDs 6) Most recording enthusiasts are using computers nowadays. So no problem to transfer the stuff to a HDD-based player afterwards!

Yes, I agree. Sony should do more and better advertising! Here in Germany everybody 's looking at the iPod family but only very few people do know something about Sony's products. I love Mini Discs and I had one - because I think solid state players and hard disk players will win the run to future. I got the Sony Network Walkman HD5 - a true iPod killer - awesome performance, handy and the battery life is just incredible AND it is using the Mini Disc ATRAC Technology. It bears 30GB of space, imagine how many Hi-MDs I would have needed to match this and imagine the price of the Hi-MD Recorders. Well, Hi-MD is a serious option for recording enthusiasts but I have to say again I have to agree with Sony that in a time where most recording enthusiasts own computers with fat sound chips and systems hard disk recording become more and more common. Afterwards one can transfer the results to the Sony HD5, connect it via Line Out to an amplifier or mixing console and voila...