My new toy!

[Gitaroo Man]

Ugh, ok but I'm talking about some thing different from a disc and able to hold more like.....the Ipod....20 gig harddrive...know what i'm talking bout now? lol

[TigerMan]

Originally posted by Gitaroo Man
I didn't like my MD player much, why did you get one over a MP3 player?

To answer your question, this was the better deal IMO. Like others have said, many MP3 players use flash memory cards. This is what the ones in my price range had. They don't hold very much, and the flash cards are really expensive. I didn't have money, nor do I really want to spend over $300 on a higher MP3 player, so I got the MiniDisc player. I like it a lot so far, and one MD holds a ton (depending on what compression you use). And the good thing is that each individual MD costs only about $2.

[irbodden]

Originally posted by Gitaroo Man
Ugh, ok but I'm talking about some thing different from a disc and able to hold more like.....the Ipod....20 gig harddrive...know what i'm talking bout now? lol

Yes, iPods, Zens, etc.

They were all out of his price range, so he was limited to the Mp3 players that use Flash memory.

[TigerMan]

Originally posted by joeyjoe367
I belive this MD player *IS* an MP3 player also

Hmm... what's the construction of the player like? I used to own an MD-R50. It was made of aluminum and plastic. What was really lame was that after a few years of use, it broke on me. Yeah, I did drop it once or twice, but for $200, you'd have expected something pretty heavy-duty.

Also, what kind of batteries does it use? the gum-stick kind? what kind of playback times do you get on it?

Lastly, does it come in any other colors?

I'm considering getting one of these things since my CD player was stolen out of my car. I love CD's, but having $150 worth of CD's stolen out of my car has gotten me to re-consider a bit.

The construction seems pretty fine, it's basicly just plastic. It uses one AA battery. The higher end models come with a rechargable battery and charger. On the playback, depending on your compression you can get anywhere from 80-500 minutes.

They do come in other colors too, depending on the models. My model has silver too, other models have blue, silver, black, and the sport type too. If you don't like carrying a lot of CD's I definately go for one. Can't beat the price. If your looking for one with a car kit, rechargeable battery, and mic plug and remote (505 comes with neither remote or mic plug), then you may want to look at the 707 Sony model. It costs about $200. I found out a lot about them at Best Buy and Circuit City's web sites.

[rhetor22]

i just ordered the same model in silver.

I've been wanting to get it for a while... well i finally cracked down and ordered it!

won't be here for a week or so though

I was just looking at the remotes for these... they're almost $50!! what a rip!!!!!!!!

[TigerMan]

The wait will tear you apart, heh. Some advice for when you get it, read the papers and software guides first before installing the software and such. I say this because if you do certain things before your supposed to, it can mess up everything and possibly not let you install the stuff. Just as long as you follow the guide, it's a piece of cake.

[einhander619]

Just thought I'd clear som stuff up, here.

I have owned a minidisc player for about 6 years now, and I think that for the tech-savvy person it is hands down the best way to listen to music.

All newer minidisc players have MDLP capability, that is, the ability to compress music. The highest compression level will put 320 minutes of music on a disc, not 500. 320 minutes is still over 5 hours of music, though.

In addition to MDLP, many newer models also have NetMD capability, which allows the user to transfer ANY type of audio file off their computer and onto the MD unit.

Since the MD is a disc, it is subject to the possibility of skipping. However, I have never had a MD player skip on me, and I use it while hitting handrails and 40 foot tabletops on my snowboard, so it is safe to assume that it will never skip on you.

As for durability, that is up to the model and manufacturer. I currently have the Sony MZ-S1, which is a sports model with a beefed up chassis and waterproofing. It's bombproof!

Here is a good MD site, they have good prices and great customer service.

http://www.minidisco.com

also, here is a link to a minidisc community, they can answer any question you might have.

http://www.minidisc.org

enjoy your new MDs, guys!

[joeyjoe367]

HMm... I was under the impression that the MD player read mp3's the same way that the new CD/Mp3 players read mp3's off of a CD-R... am I mistaken?

when you *DO* use the highest compression, is there a noticable decrease in sound quality? on my old MD-R50 you could do something simmilar, you could record in mono instead of stereo and get 2x the play time, but of course the sound sucked.

[rhetor22]

no, its not the same. The difference here is the type of the compression they use, so it is similiar to how you can compress a .wav file to an .mp3

when going from stereo to mono i believe you truly do get HALF the quality, therefore double the play time.

The quality on the md compression is probably similiar to 128k mp3 files, but i'm not positive as i don't have one... yet

My sharp could also record in mono for recording speaches and such... sounded like crap.

[TigerMan]

Right now I have mine on the compression to get the most music on there, and I'm very satisfied with the sound. It's not bad at all, and I'm fine with, it sounds just the same as my MP3 CD Player to be honest (this is my opinion). I'm not sure what, the other sounds like with the lower compression, but personally I'm just trying to get as much music as possible.