Which Md Should I Choose ?

[theBrave]

Hello,

I'm a French student and I wanted a way to travel with music. First I thought about an MP3 USB key. But I wanted to spend less than 80 €. With this amount I could only buy 256 (maybe 512) megabytes of storage.

Then I thought about MD. I used to own a recorder (this was before the Net MD era) which was very expensive. So I was very surprised to find on eBay some simple units (N420D) for less than 50$.

If I remind well, using LP4 compression I can hold more music than a 256 MB keys and cost less than 3$.

I was then once more surprised when I discovered that I could buy an HiMD recorder, the NH600D for 30$ more. But:

- The 420D “psyc” version is much prettier

- Battery life is far lower

Which one should I choose?

And ...

I have some more question about both units:

- are they powered by the USB port when downloading music to the device?

And specifically about the HiMD one:

- do I need drivers to use them as storage devices?

- could I use standard (74 or 80 Min) discs and put files on them, or this functionality is limited to HiMD discs ?

- how much music could be put on 1GB disc when I want LP2 quality ?

[atrain]

And specifically about the HiMD one:

- do I need drivers to use them as storage devices?

- could I use standard (74 or 80 Min) discs and put files on them, or this functionality is limited to HiMD discs ?

- how much music could be put on 1GB disc when I want LP2 quality ?

1/ nope, not on systems that use UMS so windows98se up, macs & most linux

2/ yes you can use 'old' discs, as standard disc or reformat them to himd & the capacity is doubled

3/um, heaps. there are some faqs on the front page.

make sure it's nh600 not nh600D & you'll be able to record from radio, cd & other inputs aswell.

[A440]

Definitely get the Hi-MD. With Hi-LP you can pack a dozen albums onto an 80-minute disc and have it sound perfectly fine for mobile use. And with a Hi-MD blank you can carry 30 albums on a disc.