Just purchased

[gabgar]

Well, Finally got around to buying a new Sony MZ-M200.

[bobt]

Well, Finally got around to buying a new Sony MZ-M200.

Welcome to the club, isn't it a thing of beauty

Bob

[proudofmylife]

It's the only portable md recorder I have, sold the rest because this just owns them all.

[gabgar]

Thanks guys, its very beautiful and will post some pics later of it here. Do you guys feel that this will be the last of the great gadgets....the last minidisc (portable) produced?

I'm pretty sure that this subject has been touched before.

Co-workers, just kept telling me that I was crazy for buying a Minidisc. That I should get with program and just get an MP3 player.

As much as I tried telling them , its not about me having a fancy mp3 player that could show album art (which I am not saying its not nice) but its for to me about sound quality. (seems like some the generation Y (most) can't comprehend)

[AVITWeb]

Thanks guys, its very beautiful and will post some pics later of it here. Do you guys feel that this will be the last of the great gadgets....the last minidisc (portable) produced?

I'm pretty sure that this subject has been touched before.

Co-workers, just kept telling me that I was crazy for buying a Minidisc. That I should get with program and just get an MP3 player.

As much as I tried telling them , its not about me having a fancy mp3 player that could show album art (which I am not saying its not nice) but its for to me about sound quality. (seems like some the generation Y (most) can't comprehend)

I agree completely! If only I had the cash!

The sound quality far and away exceeds anthing out there! And the fact that I do not have to sync constantly or build playlists is also a plus. (Just grab a disc and go!)

I still to this day do not understand why people settle for the lackluster performance of Mp3 players. Nothing bothers me more than listening to something at 128Mbps!

[gabgar]

I agree completely! If only I had the cash!

The sound quality far and away exceeds anthing out there! And the fact that I do not have to sync constantly or build playlists is also a plus. (Just grab a disc and go!)

I still to this day do not understand why people settle for the lackluster performance of Mp3 players. Nothing bothers me more than listening to something at 128Mbps!

You got me there. I just don't understand. Instead of progressing now they are regressing.

You get to see what Bill Crutchfield said at crutchfield.com ?

Here is a quote:

"Digital audio can sound amazingly good. Unfortunately, some of today's most popular digital sources – MP3 players, satellite radio, and Internet radio – often do not. These technologies are wonderful in many ways. But their operation typically depends on lower-resolution signals than you get with CD. Therefore, millions of young people may never have experienced true high-fidelity sound reproduction."

[jpteasy]

I like what you said about the playlists. For us we make a minidisc. If we don't like it we can change it up to a million times. With HiMD or MDLP you can have a few or alot on one minidisc.

You make a CD and its either thrown away if you get bored of one song, or its gets scratched and can't be rerecorded over.

You make a playlist on an mp3/aac player and you have to sync or drag the songs over and over unless you have large capacity players.

Recently I have been making minidiscs of just 80 minutes length, writing the track listing and then making the playlist on my iPod Touch. What I have found though is that if I make a HiMD with a few playlists on I can shuffle those playlists to make one long playlist - you can't with your iPod. You can only shuffle one at a time. To achieve the same result you'd have to make an enlarged playlist on your PC first.

Another benefit of MD

[mmp64]

I agree completely! If only I had the cash!

The sound quality far and away exceeds anthing out there! And the fact that I do not have to sync constantly or build playlists is also a plus. (Just grab a disc and go!)

I still to this day do not understand why people settle for the lackluster performance of Mp3 players. Nothing bothers me more than listening to something at 128Mbps!

Sony's new MP3 players sound very, very good - very close if not equal to MD. A well-encoded MP3 (LAME, VBR - maybe preset 2 or 3, which ends up being about 175-190k) sounds quite good on the right equipment. What I do still like about MD is the physical media aspect, as you and others have mentioned, the ability to record, and frankly the whole battery issue. This is not necessarily relevant to your unit, but I like the fact that I can use AA batteries on some of my older MD units. No worries about running out of juice, as you can always get AA batteries almost anywhere. And with rechargeable AAs you get the best of both worlds.

[AVITWeb]

Sony's new MP3 players sound very, very good - very close if not equal to MD. A well-encoded MP3 (LAME, VBR - maybe preset 2 or 3, which ends up being about 175-190k) sounds quite good on the right equipment. What I do still like about MD is the physical media aspect, as you and others have mentioned, the ability to record, and frankly the whole battery issue. This is not necessarily relevant to your unit, but I like the fact that I can use AA batteries on some of my older MD units. No worries about running out of juice, as you can always get AA batteries almost anywhere. And with rechargeable AAs you get the best of both worlds.

Well i can tell you this much. My 900 has the juice to drive my Sony monitor headphones EXTREMELY well. I will more than bet that an MP3 would just not have the ability to do it properly.

[RobA]

Congrats on your purchase! Good to see people still clinging to the format.

[gabgar]

Thanks RobA. Still, there are people out there that look at one like we are "not right in the head" and that we should stick with Ipods.

I tend to just ignore and reason with myself saying "They just don't get it"

[KHA]

Congrats for your purshase, i plan to get as well a Sony MZ-M200 as the one i have for 3 years is about to die...

Maybee i should buy 2 of them in case in one year the player is no salled anymore...

It makes me crasy to imagine the end coming... i would like to live with this audio system all my life! I am really gonna cry in few years when i won't find any device to play my 400 mds... i mean, i will cry, literraly.

[AVITWeb]

Thanks RobA. Still, there are people out there that look at one like we are "not right in the head" and that we should stick with Ipods.

I tend to just ignore and reason with myself saying "They just don't get it"

It doesn't have a cool flashy touchscreen, silly!

Besides...what really marks the end (which I hope never comes) is the fact that these people listen to their music sounding like crap (They don't know what its SUPPOSED to sound like) and they blow their ears out! As they get older, they hear less and listen to even worse crap...so you see it is a never ending cycle...

Long Live MD!!!

[gabgar]

From Japanese reviews, Sony's new NW-X1060 touchscreen Walkman has very good SQ. Different sound signature than MD units, which have a little warm colouring, but nonetheless outstanding.

Comparison with the RH1, and NW-A916, and with the MDR-EX90SL, MDR-EX500SL, MDR-EX700SL earphones and MDR-CD900 headphones as reference.

For those not fluent in Japanese, use Google or Yahoo's automatic translators (that's what I did).

Looks very nice, however, I just don't know or feel confident on the sound .... if however, I do get a chance to test one out , once it comes out here in the US, I will like to see and consider buying one...yeah right, My wife will probably kill me.

Edited April 29, 2009 by gabgar

[1kyle]

Looks very nice, however, I just don't know or feel confident on the sound .... if however, I do get a chance to test one out , once it comes out here in the US, I will like to see and consider buying one...yeah right, My wife will probably kill me.

Hi guy -- congrats

One thing which seems to be RARELY mentioned is the RECORDING ability of the MD. Most (if not all IPODS) don't do this -- out in the field journalists like to have the ability to RECORD stuff to say nothing of musicians sending out Demo's etc etc.

Those people advocating the Solid state recorders miss also two points.

1) If you are in a place with no Internet etc etc you can always "Post" your MD to wherever it needs to go. The disk can also be archived separately from Hard disks -- anybody doing ANYTHING with computers realizes that you need to backup / archive data (includes multimedia) and have at least 2 copies on SEPARATE media.

2) Those newer devices that have those small XD or other solid state cards -- have you ever been out in the field say in a War Zone or on a Windy beach and tried to change one of these tiny cards -- it'll fly out of your hands before you can blink an eye. It's always easy to change an MD.

Whilst for "Consumers" MD might be harder to find and is out of the mainstream -- it's still very much a RUNNER in professional scenarios. Some older TASCAM MD PRO recorders are still going strong -- pity they never made Hi-MD versions however.

BTW the next time you see someone listening to an IPOD just watch them -- you'll find they are probably spending most of the time fiddling with it or just scrolling the dial all the time. With the larger capacity and hideously compressed music there's just TOO MUCH stuff to handle sensibly.

With an MD just pop a 74 / 80 Min disc in Hi-MD mode and enjoy around 2 CD's worth of music at very high quality or a Hi-MD which gives around 7-8 CD's worth at the same high quality. More than enough for a typical day.

Also if you break an IPOD there's the whole hassle of tranferring music to a new device - especially with all the DRM crud etc etc.

With a MD device just pop the ND into another one -- no computer needed etc.

There's still plenty of life in MD yet -- RH1 etc are STILL selling excellently.

Cheers

-K

Edited May 8, 2009 by 1kyle

[stormtrooper]

Im still in love with Minidisc. Its true that the sound quality of an MP3 does not match to an MD. Ive tried, but still the ears just keep on rejecting it. Im contemplating to get the Hi-MD format, but found the US$380++ plus shipping is a bit steep. But definitely I will get them soon.

[gabgar]

BTW the next time you see someone listening to an IPOD just watch them -- you'll find they are probably spending most of the time fiddling with it or just scrolling the dial all the time. With the larger capacity and hideously compressed music there's just TOO MUCH stuff to handle sensibly.

With an MD just pop a 74 / 80 Min disc in Hi-MD mode and enjoy around 2 CD's worth of music at very high quality or a Hi-MD which gives around 7-8 CD's worth at the same high quality. More than enough for a typical day.

Thanks 1Kyle, and this is so true. Personal experience here. I did have at one time a an Ipod Itouch and yes, I did sell it and then later I was given as a gift an Iphone which It would be rude to not accept a gift . When working with the Ipod, sure it was an impressive piece of technology and fell in love with it, however, found out that most of time even when listening to music I was pretty much just messing around with other things etc. Never really completely listening to a full track or a full album. There was no real focus to music do that whole experience was not satisfactory to me and its still not. I now have gone back to minidisc and focus on the music as it should be. Like one video out there on you tube says about minidisc, its not about song capacity but more that of sound quality.

[KHA]

Thanks 1Kyle, and this is so true. Personal experience here. I did have at one time a an Ipod Itouch and yes, I did sell it and then later I was given as a gift an Iphone which It would be rude to not accept a gift . When working with the Ipod, sure it was an impressive piece of technology and fell in love with it, however, found out that most of time even when listening to music I was pretty much just messing around with other things etc. Never really completely listening to a full track or a full album. There was no real focus to music do that whole experience was not satisfactory to me and its still not. I now have gone back to minidisc and focus on the music as it should be. Like one video out there on you tube says about minidisc, its not about song capacity but more that of sound quality.

Exactly, MD is about sound quality sure, but it is also about music experience! MP3 players with more and more capacity are just offering a Zapping experience, which sadly is enough for most of people out there.

I really don't see how a new MD like concept could work, as the culture of music has dramaticaly changed last years, we will remain old freaks using a device from old times...

What is also amazing with MD: I just bought new expensive Headphones to replace the previous ones... At first, i hated them because the basses were too strong... Then i remembered you can set up the sound you like with the MD equalizer... I am so happy now, i have found exactly the sound my ears are expecting!

Thank you MD!

[1kyle]

It doesn't have a cool flashy touchscreen, silly!

..............

Long Live MD!!!

I HATE touch screens whether on a phone / computer etc etc.

Worst of all they are hideously un-hygenic and the best way on this planet of transmitting germs -- on the public touch screens such as ticket machines at Railway stations etc -- you can't gurantee that the person in front of you whose used the machine hasn't come out of a public Restroom / WC and not washed their hands.

That aside the MD still IMO has the best sound quality of any practicable portable listening device these days - and you don't even need a computer to get / create good recordings -- I'm still using a CD / MD combo with 4X transfer to rip CD ==> MD a lot of times.

(OK I edit the tracks later using SS but only for EDITING and titling tracks but even then I can manage without).

If you DO use a computer you can rip a CD to say FLAC, create your own compilation, then create a Virtual CD with something like Ultra ISO or NERO and then use Simple Burner in an XP virtual machine to burn to MD (including HI-MD).

Cheers

-K

[gabgar]

I HATE touch screens whether on a phone / computer etc etc.

Worst of all they are hideously un-hygenic and the best way on this planet of transmitting germs -- on the public touch screens such as ticket machines at Railway stations etc -- you can't gurantee that the person in front of you whose used the machine hasn't come out of a public Restroom / WC and not washed their hands.

That aside the MD still IMO has the best sound quality of any practicable portable listening device these days - and you don't even need a computer to get / create good recordings -- I'm still using a CD / MD combo with 4X transfer to rip CD ==> MD a lot of times.

(OK I edit the tracks later using SS but only for EDITING and titling tracks but even then I can manage without).

If you DO use a computer you can rip a CD to say FLAC, create your own compilation, then create a Virtual CD with something like Ultra ISO or NERO and then use Simple Burner in an XP virtual machine to burn to MD (including HI-MD).

Cheers

-K

And the screen gets greasy after a while it gets tiring to be cleaning... even though you may have a screen protector.

[remy117]

One thing which seems to be RARELY mentioned is the RECORDING ability of the MD. Most (if not all IPODS) don't do this -- out in the field journalists like to have the ability to RECORD stuff to say nothing of musicians sending out Demo's etc etc.

First off, I love my rh1... along with the md collection that I have.

But after trying out the ipod classic 120gb that I use daily now (i bought a unibody mbp), I have to say, the RECORDING ability of it is pretty damn sharp. Coupled with the apple in-ear phones + mic, I can record lectures and events with decent quality. Though this no where beats my RH1 + stereo mic, its still a fairly acceptable replacement. But with the simplicity and all-in-one nature of the ipod + itunes setup, I'm sad to say that I've almost deserted my minidiscs.

I try to listen whenever I can, but taking the time to transfer all those songs and hand label each title on the sleeves is really starting to be a pain-in-the-a** (I used to take pride in making perfect sleeves)

Perhaps this is why I haven't been on these boards as often as I'd liked.

Oh and if I may add, ALL ipods from 5.5+ generation CAN record.

[gabgar]

So many out there swear about their Ipods. So many love them and then there are just those that use it because of the "hip" trend. Every time I drive down there is always someone either jogging with them or at a bus stop. I guess the the white ear buds give it away.

I have an Iphone, and I have listened to lossless sounds files on it and then compare that same track with a digitally recorded track on my Minidisc and I just always feel proud of the little minidisc. Now , on the other hand , listening to the same lossless from my Mac to my headphones sounds great...

Of course most of the newer generation wont care...

[bridb]

I've never owned an ipod and don't care to, I like using SonicStage to rip my CD's to Atrac and the minidisc outdoes any other player for quality IMO.

I love the fact you have more choice in players with minidisc, be it Hi-Md or Netmd, be it one with a AA battery case or the L-ion Batteries, all swappable and no worry of it dying.

The quality, creativity, and endless storage all appeal to me more than having all your music on one device.

And the discs are just darn cool too!

It's so annoying travelling on the train and seeing the person opposite with those crappy white headphones on, I feel like telling them "what are you doing?" and having a music-off - Minidisc with decent headphones vs iPod with their crappy white things.

[gujarati]

I feel like telling them "what are you doing?" and having a music-off - Minidisc with decent headphones vs iPod with their crappy white things.

And they may be dying to tell you, dude get rid of the dinosaur and get cool ipod. And why so serious about your music.

BTW: I am like you and not them.

[choudy]

hi all. i bought a mz rh1 2 weeks ago. i was really unsure about before i bought it. but i have to say that im really pleased with it. the sound quality is excellent - but what i like most about it is just being able to record things off the internet easily via simple line in - for example i like real time with maher - so i just record it while i watch and then listen to it later - something that i would never do with an ipod.