Mini-discs vs MP3

[fobotcso]

I've just been given by Mrs fob a Mini-disc recorder/player and I am so impressed by the quality of the sound. I have no experience of MP3 to compare, however.

In a straight one-to-one recording of a full size CD it is absolutely brilliant. At a compression of x4, that is 5 hours on one Mini-disc, it is far better than tape cassette and perfecty acceptable for evryday use.

However, my local Virgin Mega-Store has abandoned min-discs and has sent back all their commercial pre-recorded discs to Head Office in Milton Keynes.

So what do we think? Is there a plot to kill off the mini-disc techonology and if so why? I can't see that 5 hours on a mini-disc costing about 80 pence can be bad. It is a small fraction of the cost of MP3 with solid state memory.

[EGLD]

having owned a Creative MP3 player for a few days, and returning it shortly after due to the poor sound quality, I have recently purchased a Sony NET MD minidisc player, and theres no comparison on sound quality, even at 4x compression

took my whole CD collection on holidy in a little pile of 15 MD's

awesome little units, and can take it on my jogs as it doesnt jump

edit

i should add that being a digital copy, the 1 to 1 copy of a cd is as good as the original, as far as i can make out, but you can fit a couple of spares in your pockets no problem !

[Julian]

I bught a MD player a couple of years ago,w as so impressed not only did I buy a personal MD but also ripped the multi-CD player out of the car and installed on there as well.

Did you know that MD convininently fit in the ashtray, much less fiddly thans CD :D

[Hersham Boy]

Interesting debate - I'm a really big MD fan (I luv my Sony MZ-R55 even though it's an old model now) - but use MP3 extensively at work (have about 1000 that make up my playlist on my PC).

I'm not sure of the exact data size details but don't forget to bear in mind that MP3 can be encoded at different bitrates - 128k ios standard adn I think acceptable (but nowhere near a digital CD to MD copy quality)... but you can go as far as 320k where the quality is superb and file sizes are HUGE!

Also, Sony are making MD models now that can, via a USB connection, rip MP3 onto a MD which is nice and versatile! Not sure whether you can mix MP3 and audio MD on one disc though...?

I've never tried using a portable MP3 player - mainly because (exclusing the Sony 'Network' models) they are all so ugly :D

Hersh

[rob_frost]

With Net MD, if you do the USB to MD, you are limited to 128k, and you have to convert your tracks to ATRAC 3 format. And at stand quality, (SP), the recording rate is not much faster than realtime. At LP, it goes faster obviously.

[redsnail]

I have been using a MD for years. So much easier than MP3.
I had a MZR-55 but a dodgy car charger blew it up so I shouted myself a MZR 900. Nice blue one. Great for the car (got a MD player installed with CD stacker). About the only time it skips if I jump or land fairly solidly while jogging.
I have a MP3 player but it can only really hold about 30 min of music at a 128Kbs. Much more fiddly to record.

For some reason MD is supposed to be on the way out. Probably not fashionable any more. Recorded media isn't very popular as most just record what they want from a CD. Blanks are cheap and easy to get though.

[fobotcso]

She got me the sony NET MD Walkman MZ-N707 and it is so smart (in the software sense) it's baffling. I recorded at LP4 (that's ¼ normal speed) and told it to playback at normal speed. It wouldn't and played back at the speed at which it was recorded.

Yes, I detect a plot. Is the technology only Sony's? Is this another manifestation of the Beta-max vs VHS saga?

Anyway, as long as I can get the blank mini-disks it'll be OK. But I hope to get an MD player for the car next time around. It's no good having a CD player which has the caddy in the boot and you have to load the 6 CDs before you load up the luggage.

[PAXboy]

I don't think this is a Beta/VHS issue. That was about licensing and Sony wanting to keep hold off all the technology - as Apple has done.

M-D was accepted and generally thought that it would become the new cassette. Then came MP3.

Whilst I agree with the sound observations :D of other PPRuNers (I am a M-D fan myself) I think that MP3 will win.

It will do so because it is seen as 'new' and easier to sell. It is seen as flexible because the memory can be reused. I think that one of the fundamental differences is that those of us here probably represent the 'older generation'. [Ducks to avoid incoming] We tend to collect music.

The kiddies of today tend to move through music, copying, listening and discarding. For this, once you have pursuaded Dad to buy a PC with a CD burner on it (and they are VERY cheap now), then you can download and burn CDs in MP3.

A portable CD player is waaaaaay cheaper than a portable Mini-Disk.

So, age and money!

[Squawk7777]

I laugh about my brothers using MD and ripping MP3s onto it. MP3 is great because it is free. That's it!

I have done semi-professional music recording in the past, and I think I can call myself a High Fidelity fan. For me the only other high-quality medium than CD is DAT:

Digital Audio Tape

Now some of you may never have heard about it, because DAT players and recorders are very expensive. Sony developed them in '88 and wanted to use DAT as a replacement for our obsolete but still widespreadly used compact cassette.

What destroyed DAT (or made it financially unaffordable for the avarage music listener) was the record industry's effort to eliminate pirated copies. Why? Because DAT is a system that does NOT use any data compression. It records in three (except for one Pioneer recorder:4) sampling frequencies: 32Hz, 44.1 (which CDs use) and 48Hz. You were able to make copies of over 100 generations and have NO loss of quality.

So the record industry introduced SCMS - the serial copy management system. It only allows you to make one digital (and no-quality loss) copy. This copy cannot be copied digitally again, and you can only make analogue copies, therefore losing quality. This copy can be copied digitally again ... etc.

Professional decks and recorders (like Sony or Tascam) have a switchable SCMS button/switch. Very pricy and only affordable for recording studios. So DAT was only used by pros and freaks like me.

Now, that CD recordables have hit the market, I'll laugh about all this. Politics of the audio and record industry have destroyed a good system, which cannot be replaced with crappy MP3 players.

DAT tapes are also more difficult to find, but one advantage is that computer dats can be used for audio use. As I tell my younger brothers (and I love telling them) that with DAT I can record up to six hours in the long-play mode at 32Hz.

What's next? Can't wait to see when DVD recorders and potential pirated copies are going to hit the market! :D

[777AV8R]

There are 2 Sony Net MDs and a Sharp in our family. We still have MP3s..but there are no comparisson. The MD wins! The Sharp has a great battery system and I am able to listen uninterrupted for about 70 hrs on a rechargeable Lithium and single AA backpack.

The Sony software does have it's drawbacks in that any MP3 tracks that are converted to ATRAC for use, cannot be shared with any other MD players. There also is a limit to the number of times that the tracks that are stored on your HD can be converted, to and from ATRAC via the Sony software system. The only way around it is to keep downloading fresh MP3 files. Still cheaper than buying!

[SpinSpinSugar]

I really don't see it as Mp3 vs MD.

They compliment each other. Mp3 for the home and MD for portable/car, at least in my experience.

I have a dedicated Mp3 server (stripped down, networked, PC box in a black aluminium chassis) as part of my living room stereo, wired through the amplifier and TV for playlist selection, etc. This currently has several thousand tracks on it, more by the day, and is a wonderful bit of technology. It's also extremely cheap, compared to it's equivalent, which would be something akin to a 500 CD jukebox. This isn't just an outlet for audio gained from the internet, I've also converted pretty much all my CD collection onto it because of the sheer convenience of the thing, especially with very long playlists.

I wouldn't ever buy an Mp3 player (current technology, at least) for portable use because those I know who have purchased HDD based products have found them unreliable, and even the most generous of solid state memory based products offer WAY too little space to store a decent number of tracks at 192kbps or above.

Sony MD (I have an MZN707) via USB2, however, offers extremely quick Mp3 -> ATRAC transfer, easy track management, generous storage of circa three hours with LP2 (I do notice a quality drop with LP4, although this is not prohibitive), and astounding battery longevity - I used my player for a month recently on holiday and it still came back with a near full charge on a single duracell. Sound quality is excellent throughout - the quality of converted Mp3 is not that different from writing out CD audio to the MD via the supplied optical cable.

With the added bonus of Mp3 conversion MD has gone from being a desirable gizmo to the most astoundingly useful gadget I think I've ever bought.

[777AV8R]

Sony vs The Others....

I used my daughter's Sony software to produce a nice 5 hrs of my favourite jazz for those times in the crew bunk....Well....I just figured out why it doesn't work on my Sharp....The Sony software just altered and copyprotected the disc to make it unreadable on my MD!

It changed the format so much, that the disk cannot be formatted on my machine and is now totally unusable....I guess she got 5 hrs. of jazz!