netmduser Posted October 21, 2011 Report Share Posted October 21, 2011 Works with any track mode (SP, LP2 Hi-Md, etc.) 1. Listen to your favorite mp3 player (iPOD, Sony, etc.) with headphones. 2. Using the same headphones listen to your minidisc player. 3. Enjoy and appreciate the minidisc sound quality. Which one did you find better? I always find minidisc better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sescoscuba Posted October 21, 2011 Report Share Posted October 21, 2011 Works with any track mode (SP, LP2 Hi-Md, etc.) 1. Listen to your favorite mp3 player (iPOD, Sony, etc.) with headphones. 2. Using the same headphones listen to your minidisc player. 3. Enjoy and appreciate the minidisc sound quality. Which one did you find better? I always find minidisc better. is true Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darrencouch Posted October 22, 2011 Report Share Posted October 22, 2011 I do as well. Right now, my favorite little unit is my R90. It's not type r, or MDLP, but it sounds awesome. The only thing it loses out on vs my iPhone is that its noisy when switching tracks . Funny enough, I really can't hear that noise when I'm using my good earbuds, only when I'm using the junky ones that came with my phone. Best sounding earbuds for 30 bucks I've found at the local "everything" store? Sony. Why, sony? You still support CDs, and they're dead for the same reasons minidiscs are... Sigh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esphynol Jmd Posted October 30, 2011 Report Share Posted October 30, 2011 Its very true. Even converted mp3 320kbps to SP gives much better quality compare to mp3 format itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azureal Posted October 30, 2011 Report Share Posted October 30, 2011 Its very true. Even converted mp3 320kbps to SP gives much better quality compare to mp3 format itself. I transcode mp3 content all of the time and to me it always sounds better, this is using SonicStage however. I bet recording 320Kbps mp3 realtime via optical or analog to SP would sound fantastic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THIS SUCKS Posted November 1, 2011 Report Share Posted November 1, 2011 320mp3 does not sound better converted to sp. its the unit you play back the sp on that sounds better. sp does sound better straight from cd... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitfire71 Posted November 1, 2011 Report Share Posted November 1, 2011 Had an ipod touch for a couple of years now, always been pleased with how it sounds, UNTIL I tried the same songs played back on my Sony MZ-RH1 minidisc player. What a difference. There's more body, depth, warmth to the music and it sounds a lot more engaging. The ipod touch rarely gets used now for bedtime listening. Both these players I use with a pair of Beyerdynamic DT231 headphones which are perfect. Anyway, I find that it's a pain to keep syncing with itunes everytime I want to change music. Much easier to just grab some favourite minidiscs. I enjoy making minidisc compilations too - it may take longer to do but it's more fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azureal Posted November 2, 2011 Report Share Posted November 2, 2011 320mp3 does not sound better converted to sp. its the unit you play back the sp on that sounds better. sp does sound better straight from cd... Well, that's pretty subjective I guess, to my ears it sounds better. I mainly transcode because not all of my players can handle mp3, I think it sounds great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
febed01 Posted November 9, 2011 Report Share Posted November 9, 2011 Works with any track mode (SP, LP2 Hi-Md, etc.) 1. Listen to your favorite mp3 player (iPOD, Sony, etc.) with headphones. 2. Using the same headphones listen to your minidisc player. 3. Enjoy and appreciate the minidisc sound quality. Which one did you find better? I always find minidisc better. I actually did it last week-end in a shop that lets you try headphones. With a 3rd 4th gen iPod Nano playing a 320Kbps mp3 I could hardly tell the difference between 50€ headphones to over 200€ ones... The day after, I came back with my old trusty Sharp MD-702 playing SP... Well... Headphones sounded really different than the day before, different one than another. The (too pricey for me) Sony MDR-Z1000 sounded like heaven with my Sharp... And sounded crappy with the iPod (yes ! an iPod Nano 3G 4G can make 500€ headphones sound like sh.....t !) This said, my test was involving a 3g 4g Nano, which is my latest Apple audio gear. I don't know how good/bad they sound today. The bad sound may be due to poor circuits quality (codec aside) ? Anyway it's funny to make these kinds of tests because first you rediscover the quality of a sound you didn't remember it was so good, and then you're amaze to wonder how could you be so satisfied with poor sound for several years, finding it okay... In the end, my iPod now... just plays podcasts... And for mobility mp3 I've got my RH-1 where they sound better anyway. Now I need to do sound tests to choose which ATRAC version (Sharp vs Sony) I will use to encode the rest but this is another topic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stargazer_tom1 Posted December 13, 2011 Report Share Posted December 13, 2011 Its funny how i always go back to md. I have tried to give it up several times but have always come back. There is nothing like a realtime recorded cd via optical. It just sounds better on my rh1 compared to the same file ripped at higher birrates on my pc to mp3 or even nero aac played on my galaxy note or gakaxy s2. I record to hi-sp. I wish it didnt sound better that way i could sell my rh1 and carry all my music on my phone. Grrr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dedale Posted December 13, 2011 Report Share Posted December 13, 2011 Ok ok... I've created an account on this board only to confirm what you guys are saying. So you people who are still wondering about the MD technology can have some real feedback. A bit of background here first. I myself had a clix2 and some ipod (2nd gen and 5.5). I bought some Audio Technica ath-anc3 because I spend quite some time in the public transportation and had to turn the volume to max to hear something otherwise. I was really happy with them. Some time passed and it caused me some pain as it's in-ear and long listening is not the best with those, so I wanted something better. I spent lots of time on boards and trying products. I bought B&W P5 headphones and yes they are expensive but I almost sleep with them, they are great and I even listen music on my computer with them when alone. I looked for some device which can gives me a better sound quality because my headphones are fantastic but an ipod is not. And finally I came around the minidisc. I always wanted a minidisc player but couldn't afford it when it was so cool to have one. I bought a MZ-RH1 (120$) from a guy and man... I rediscover my music one more time! It really changes everything. It has a depth and clarity... I couldn't be more happy. By the way, I just listen mp3 on hi-md so I suppose I can even have something better and yes, the OP is right, the gap between the MD and ipod is so huge, it's unbelievable. It's really sad Sony dropped this technology. No, you can't put 60GB of music on it and yes you need Sonic Stage (with a xp VM on my side) but it's really worth the investment. Later on, I will try to record vinyls directly to check the difference. In a word : MD is dead, long live the MD. Just my 2 cents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sescoscuba Posted December 13, 2011 Report Share Posted December 13, 2011 Hi all, I ve do stpf a comparison test with some mds. Comparison of MDLP (LP2) playback on 9 different units You can find under " Audio " section of the forum. I like music, i m enjoy to listen all my mds ( near 100 diffrent model ). If anyone is interest, i can test more mds. Have a nice day Sergio Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hudson Posted January 3, 2012 Report Share Posted January 3, 2012 Well i found this out a few months back when i put my £180 headphones from my ipod to my minidisc player (909), i even had both with the same Kate Bush album (The Kick Inside) on them, it was startling, ok the ipod just had the usual MP3 download bit rate, ie not the 320k. But my MD was put on in SP using an optical lead direct from my DVD player and from the CD.... it just sounded wonderful, more rich, better bass..... just so nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stargazer_tom1 Posted January 5, 2012 Report Share Posted January 5, 2012 Why is this? Minidisc wont be around forever and we will need a viable flash player to move on to. I have tried giving up on minidisc several times and always end up coming back because even the Sony flash mp3/m4a players never sound as good as hi-md. Maybe its because md was designed solely around "sound" whereas all the new mp3 players have colour screens, wifi, video playback etc. I would prefer to pay $500 on audio only as my phone does everything else I need. I have tried several of the A series walkmans, several phones (galaxy s2, galaxy note) and even the ICD-SX813 but nothing is as good as a real-time recording on my rh1 via optical. I would save sooo much time and effort if i could get the same quality of an optical hi-sp recording with a flash based player using my PC to covert to m4a/mp3. Frustrating! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trott3r Posted January 8, 2012 Report Share Posted January 8, 2012 Why is this? Minidisc wont be around forever and we will need a viable flash player to move on to. I have tried giving up on minidisc several times and always end up coming back because even the Sony flash mp3/m4a players never sound as good as hi-md. Maybe its because md was designed solely around "sound" whereas all the new mp3 players have colour screens, wifi, video playback etc. I expect you are correct with the more features means money not being spent on improving sound quality. There is also the possibility that having wifi bluetooth is putting interference into the analogue part of the playback system. "The march of progress is not always forward" - I think that sadly sums things up in portable audio. Plenty of people buying second hand walkmans as well like the sony DC2. Martin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melmel Posted July 17, 2012 Report Share Posted July 17, 2012 I strongly agree with the discussion here!! Again, I guess the ATRAC format was designed for sound and music. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arr-Nine-Hundred Posted July 18, 2012 Report Share Posted July 18, 2012 Anyway, I find that it's a pain to keep syncing with itunes everytime I want to change music. Much easier to just grab some favourite minidiscs. I enjoy making minidisc compilations too - it may take longer to do but it's more fun. This. Thanks for bumping this topic melmel - some interesting stuff within (). (oh, and I got excited at a flurry of activity in this forum... then noticed the date against the posts). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
md user Posted July 18, 2012 Report Share Posted July 18, 2012 Yep, love old posts ... :-) Anyway, I agree, that ATRAC SP (especially) has the edge over (to my ears) any <= 320kbps encoder. Yep, I know that aac at 256kbps has better accuracy. I still wonder whether the approach of Sony and its then-director was music-based for minidisc; now it's computer based. Then, Sony was trying to get serious in the audio market and so probably was optimising with the ear; now we optimise by statistics. Put it this way: I am still more 'blown-away' with ANY transcode (>256) onto ATRAC SP using a bespoke external-amp-headphone kit than any dap at native WAV (without external amp). Obvious? Then why did I buy a load of dap's, headphones, different encoders, different md units (with excellent statistics) ... and in total costing more than THE MUSICAL ASPECTS of amp-headphone match and less-feedback? :-D Oh well, it all amused me ... mdmad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melmel Posted July 20, 2012 Report Share Posted July 20, 2012 I still wonder whether the approach of Sony and its then-director was music-based for minidisc; now it's computer based. Then, Sony was trying to get serious in the audio market and so probably was optimising with the ear; now we optimise by statistics. I strongly believe in this. Moreover, maybe nowadays the engineers and directors are tone-deaf (hyperbole) or just not musical... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melmel Posted July 20, 2012 Report Share Posted July 20, 2012 This. Thanks for bumping this topic melmel - some interesting stuff within (). (oh, and I got excited at a flurry of activity in this forum... then noticed the date against the posts). Thanks for the link. It was a good read. I have my personal preferences on MD gear too. But I can safely say that minidisc sounds better than mp3. Both MD hardware and ATRAC help. BTW, I mostly use SP mode. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joanne_Chan Posted July 21, 2012 Report Share Posted July 21, 2012 A few thoughts on getting quality program on to your MD discs. Try to keep with the original SP/mono formats becuse the codec performs really well like that although Hi-SP ain't bad for long stereo programs and PCM is awesome (provided you have the 1GB HiMD discs). The very best quality can be usually achieved transferring from CD matching the levels up if it's a compilation you're making assuming the cd was well mastered. You can have the convienence of download stores with MD by downloading high bit rate files (a certain store in the UK that's not Amazon does Mp3s at 320 and or very high bit rate AAC) and burning them onto to re-writable cds and copying that via your cd player. They often sound better than played native in a personal player. It's ironic my laptop sounds much better over HD565 headphones than any personal player using Winamp! Finally buy or borrow the best headphones you can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fade2black101 Posted October 13, 2012 Report Share Posted October 13, 2012 I'd urge some of you to try a Cowon MP3 player such as the Cowon j3. Coupled with a 320kbps AAC or a FLAC, I think that's the best sound you're gunna get. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilippeC Posted October 14, 2012 Report Share Posted October 14, 2012 No way. I will not divorce with the MD format. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sescoscuba Posted October 14, 2012 Report Share Posted October 14, 2012 No way. I will not divorce with the MD format. Me too..... news from France, Philippe? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilippeC Posted October 14, 2012 Report Share Posted October 14, 2012 No hurry, the parcel is there. I will check... maybe next summer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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