Which Cd/md Combo?

[amrush]

Hi, all.

I gave up on MD technology when it became obvious the U.S. wasn't going to support the format. But now I'm looking to get back in. I've been weighing whether to go with a solid-state portable music player or get a new home MD unit so I can create MDs for my portable MD player. (My home unit died on me some time back.) I'm picky about the quality of my music, and every MP3 I have ever heard sounds like crap. I've fiddled around with WMA files, but I still don't think they sound as good as the music I used to put on my blank MDs. So I'm opting for the MD route. I'd rather carry around a fistful of MDs than use a player that can let me cram 10,000 songs onto a drive, if the sound quality of the 10,000 songs is going to be severely compromised.

Anyway, I'd like to find a new home unit and am looking for recommendations. I've been poking around online today and noticed that there are some models that include both a CD and MD and allow 4x speed dubbing. That would be ideal for me -- I'd prefer to copy my CD tracks to my PC's hard drive, burn a CD's worth of WAVs, and then copy the WAVs to MD.

Is 4x the fastest currently available? How hard are they to locate in the U.S., and what's the price range?

Thanks VERY MUCH in advance for your suggestions!

--adrian

[Mystyler]

As far as I'm aware, the last CD/MD combo deck made by Sony was 2003, named the MXD-D400. It is a single CD/MD combo, and 4x dubbing is the fastest it supports. I'm not sure about US availability, nor price. I would say that ringing up/browsing through some electronics stores would be your best bet. Either that or Ebay - I'm sure there would be some popping up from time to time there. You might even get lucky and find an MXD-D5C 5 CD changer MD combo!

[Bananatree]

Crutchfield used to carry a wide selection of MD stuff, but looks like no more. You may have to froogle MD stores, or just dig deep. I doubt you will be able to go to Best Buy and get something, but getting a Deck from an American MD e-tailer won't be too hard.

From what I gather from the internet, 4x MD-dubs won't sound as nice as real-time. This is caused by the decks ability to only do 4x dubbing in Atrac 4.5 (IIRC), dubbing realtime will yield Atrac Type-R. Both will be SP, but theorectically Type-R will sound better.

Personally, for the best results I'd invest in a good CD deck or DVD player with a solid digital out, a MD deck, and a Monster cable (or similar quality) TosLink or coaxial cable.

[atrain]

audiocubes.com or

minidisco.com would be the obvious importers if there are no north american options for you. amazon.com holds a decent range too

my advice would be a mid to high range himd portable & player [say an rh910 & eh1], giving you a dedicated recorder with both realtime & net/himd computer access. given the cost of decks these days i'd think you break even on this combo. also the player would need to be imported but the player is again a domestic model.

if you are happy with legacy mdlp [i am atm] then a cmt-333nt

http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_CMT-M333NT+M373NT.html

might fit the bill. it should be in domestic stores although they are still fairly expensive given the level of technology they employ. there a few users on here who have them.