Is It Worth It?

[GradeTailFox]

Hey all kinda new to the whole minidisc format looking for space and recordablity and lots of music but not to much I hate Ipods and yes I know sonicstage I use it with my atrac3+ cd player which is now falling apart and have thought that cds are to big so I was wondering is hi-md really woth it I want to get mz-nh700 but is it really woth it ?

[applicationform]

First of all take a deep breath, period

I got my MZ-NH900 for the following reasons.

(1) I can play my old mindisc recordings on it.

(2) I can make PCM quality recordings that can be converted to WAV.

What is it exactly that you dont like about ipods? I ask because if I didn't need the 2 reasons above then I probably would have bought some kind of mp3 HD player.

Andrew

[Black_Shoulder]

Exactly what features are you looking for? MD players are pretty versatile in doing some different tasks, but in general are more complicated to use. I think if you give us more details, more would be able to help you.

[GradeTailFox]

Well I am still kinda new to the over all music generation but well I heard ipods break easy and are well I just like it because everyone else has one.I am looking for something that is sleek,stylish,small,appeals to me,can hold alot of music,and is affordable,and has good sound quality and neat fetures. But I do have an atrac3plus cd-player and it still holds I have alos been thinking and probably getting a psp but I just dont know.

[Valder]

The Sony PSP will supposedly play MP3s straight. But 1GB MS PRo Duos are a bit more pricey than 1GB HiMDs at around $200 for 1GB. So if you want to carry around more music than that then HiMD might be the way to go for you.

Valder

[GradeTailFox]

Should I get a creative zen micro or a hi-md player?

[Valder]

Should I get a creative zen micro or a hi-md player?

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The Zen Micro only has voice recording via the built in mic and FM recording. If you want to record anything other than that forget it. It does look like a cool little player though.

Valder

[1kyle]

The Zen Micro only has voice recording via the built in mic and FM recording. If you want to record anything other than that forget it. It does look like a cool little player though.

Valder

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The problem with things like Ipods and HD recorders are

1) If it gets broken --all your recordings are lost --zonk, kadoom, etc etc.

2) If it gets stolen / you get mugged or whatever --same probs as 1) above.

3) Hard disks DO fail as I'm sure all of you with computers know only too well. So as 1) above.

4) The sheer volume of data on these large players make organising, playing and storing music an incredible hassle.

5) A typical 1GB minidisc recorded in HI-SP mode will hold an average of 7 - 9 CD's depending on content. This is a nice easy convenient amount of music to organise (around 71/2 hrs playing time)

6) Much more flexible than Ipods -- if you want new recordings --just slip in another disk and away you go.

7) It's easy to backup your music collection without having to use a computer -- just have a second copy of your disc.

8) incredibly easy to do LIVE high quality DIGITAL recordings - great at gigs etc.

9) In general higher quality recordings are possible with a minidisc than typical MP3's on an Ipod --might not matter for a lot of Rock music but MP3's are virtually NO GOOD whatsoever for Opera, classical stuff --probably not important to a lot of members of these forums but still worthy of consideration.

10) Battery life can be tremendous with these -- no problem playing the whole time on a flight from LONDON to SYDNEY !!!!.

Also the new one's (particularly the NH1) really have the "KEWL" factor --great looking. Ipods are Yesterdays fashion --"Dinosaur Technology"

Cheers

-K

Edited January 22, 2005 by 1kyle

[Michael1980]

IMO the Minidisc players have the following pluses over the rest:

-The best recording option

-The sexiest units

[bug80]

9) In general higher quality recordings are possible with a minidisc than typical MP3's on an Ipod --might not matter for a lot of Rock music but MP3's are virtually NO GOOD whatsoever for Opera, classical stuff --probably not important to a lot of members of these forums but still worthy of consideration.

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I agree with all of your points but 9. I consider it a myth, actually. In fact, today's pop- and rockmusic has a much broader spectrum than classical music. On the other hand, classical music generally has more dynamics than popmusic.

I think this story comes from the fact, that classical music lovers are on average more critical listeners than their popmusic counterparts. I'm a critical pop- and rockmusic lover, and I can't listen to 128 kbs mp3's either.

The final quality of a mp3 file has much to do with the "shape" of the signals in an audio file. The more steep they are, the harder it is for mp3 to reconstruct it completely. Popmusic contains a lot of "steep" signals, because it is mostly percussive (think drums, acoustic guitar). That's why the typical artifacts of mp3 are heard best when listening to acoustic music, with lots of gaps and acoustic (percussive) instruments.

Edited January 22, 2005 by bug80

[ROMBUSTERS]

true but on average Atrac and especially Atrac3+, although not so much Atrac3, (which was designed to follow that wave form's peaks and valleys more closely then MP3 for a lower bitrate). Atrac basically was the first music compression system available to consumers and was the only one designed from the ground up for music playback, not general audio.