Mini Disc VS MP3 players

Callan

Sorry if this is the wrong forum, but I believe I will get more informed answers here.

I've had mini disc players for the past five years, my current player is starting to act the bollix, so I am thinking of buying a new player.

Which is the better option:
(i) net MD with 1GB discs
(ii) mp3 player

Also which model of either is good? Where in Dublin is a good place to buy these, I don't have a credit card, so buying online isn't an option.

Thanks in advance

TimTim

I had a Minidisc player and I'm fed up with it. The hassle of recording each song on to this discs over that crappy soundcard they provide is plain annoying.

I just "borrowed" my brothers old mp3 player and its brilliant to work with, just drop the songs on to the player and away you go.

IMO mp3 will last you longer then a minidisc player

dalk

Ditch the minidisc... To much hassle. The net MD idea is a con as well... You still have to 'record' onto the minidisc. It converts the music, be it mp3 or cd to the Atrac format for the minidisc. The higher speed of putting it on the minidisc is achieved by using the 'long play' (whatever they call them now) formats (ie worse quality)... They market it sneekily if you ask me.

As for which is the best mp3 player that is another thread altogether and is based mostly on your budget.:rolleyes:

Callan

My Budget would be betwwen €200 - €300.

Lambsbread

I've used a minidisc player for a long time and am sick of it. Mp3 players have less moving parts and the newer ones are smaller than minidisc players. Was thinking of getting the new sony 20 gig mp3 player, but haven't really shopped around yet. I think they're about €300. No doubt there will be strong recommendations against sony though.

Shrimp

I've got a sony-mz-n10, it was brilliant when it came out, it was top of the range(€400+) Now, two years on, it's quite dated, in comparison to modern mp3 players(iRiver, iPod, etc..) It's not very user friendly. You cant just plug and play. I would much prefere an MP3 player. I have only burnt about 4-5 Minidiscs in the two years i've had it. And I have definatly not gotten 400 euros worth out of it. Simply because it's not very appealing to use. Becuase of all the enocding envolved in ripping a cd it is laborious etc..

Get an MP3, minidiscs are going to fade out unless some new sort of one comes out, at the mo, they dont have a mark on MP3 players.

jor el

Something like a Creative Zen then should do the trick for €300. A friend of mine has one of these and it's a sweet piece of kit. I myself have an El-cheapo 1Gig player that I got on ebay. It's still fine and holds plenty of music, and for about €80 you can't really go wrong.

Eddie Brennan

MP3 wins that abttle hands down. I have an Iriiver H340 (€400 on Komplett.ie but a fair bit more in the shops although i think its discontinued now). Whatever you do, do not getv an ipod. They have really bad build quality. The mount on ipods my friends have witrh cracked screens etc is shocking! I pod seem to focus all their money on advertsising whereas the Zen and Irivers etc put their money into developing a superior player. Oh yeah and i can watch movies/videos on my iriver Thats my opinion anyway

LegacyUser

OP, it depends on what you're looking for.

I'm a minidisc man, but that's because I record a lot of live audio. IMO the MP3 players dont hold a candle to MD when it comes to this.

However if it's just for playing tunes and you want ease of use and value for money, then a Zen would probably be the best bet.

Slutmonkey57b

There should be plenty of sub-300 players from iRiver, Archos, creative, iAudio that will fit in with what you want. I have an Archos gmini400 which plays video too which is under 300, a great buy. You'd be suprised how quickly you'll fill 20 gigs though. I'd go for a 40gig iRiver or iAudio for about the same money if you're not pushed about video playback. the iPod is good, but the cons are you have to use iTunes and the scroll wheel is imo a piece of shee-it. Ask for a demo in a shop somewhere then buy one off komplett.

I had a couple of MD players before this and while they were good, MP3 is just so much better.

art

I would get a comb with a piece of paper to blow through, rather than buy a mini-disc player. Sony has an amazing ability to create great products and total **** products side by side - the mini-disc players were always a bit rubbish, under-specced, low functional range, poor sound quality. With the range of good mp3 players now, there's no excuse to stick with them. Get an mp3 player - all the stuff coming from Apple is probably the best quality (you'll get a nano within your budget, the iPod Video though, at 320euros, offers a lot more) but the Creative players are fairly okay too.

JPA

jor el wrote:

Something like a Creative Zen then should do the trick for €300. A friend of mine has one of these and it's a sweet piece of kit. I myself have an El-cheapo 1Gig player that I got on ebay. It's still fine and holds plenty of music, and for about €80 you can't really go wrong.

That's a good player but definitely don't buy it from that site.
Check out Komplett: http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=302205&cks=KRF

€100 cheaper

Callan

Strongly considering this http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=311538&cks=PLS

What do yous think?

Armen Tanzarian

Whats a mini disc??:D

jor el

Callan wrote:

Strongly considering this http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=311538&cks=PLS

What do yous think?

It'll be a damn good mp3 player, so if you have the cash then go for it. Either that or the one in JPA's link for a little cheaper.

SparrowHawk

Hi,

I have a Creative Xen Xtra (too much for your budget) but, they do have smaller models - I'd never go back to minidiscs!

Pa ElGrande

The iRiver H320 & H340 models are no longer available.
If you have the budget the Cowon iAudio X5L (there are 20 & 30 GB models available) is worth serious consideration. :cool:

https://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=314004&cks=SER

You might score a better deal for the model on Ebay.

el Bastardo

I bought an aiwa MD player (one of ye olde ones with no compression at all). MP3 players were too small at the time and exchangeable memory cards were outrageous money. It had good sound quality but I hardly used it because it was such a pain. I've since got a 128mb stick MP3 player and a Creative Zen micro. Don't bother with MDs, MP3 is the biz for sheer convenience.

Sparky

i only use MD for recording live things also, as opposed to the old micro tapes.

Mp3 players are the way for music as it has no moving parts and the batteries last longer.
I have a creative zen touch and its brilliant.

hairball

for 200 - 300 you'll get a great mp3 player...check out the new lil' sonys or i pod nanos as well

Wertz

My trusty MZ-S1 served me well for almost 3 years...to those slating Sony MD players for sound quality, hget your ears syringed...mp3 compressed into low bit atrac was bad I grant you, but CDs ripped to LP2 werer as good as 192kbps mp3 is now.

Okay that aside, encoding via that POS s/w that sony provided was a chore to sya the least, so I eventually gave in and went for a vaio pocket 40gb. Apart from the hdd player being less robust than my MD player, the pros outweigh the cons...having your whole music collection in your pocket is a great boon...no more f*cking about changing discs or having to carry them about.
The only thing that lets down any mp3 player is battery life; my MD player used to run for upwards of 60 hours on ONE AA battery...

Callan

Thanks for the help

I ordered this today http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=311538&cks=PLS

Mutant_Fruit

Tis a good choice. I bought an original Zen when they first came out (so did my bro). I eventually broke the HD in mine after about 2.5 years and countless drops, and my brother broke the sceen on his and made it impossible to use. So i took the HD out of his one, and put it in my broken one and made a 100% working Creative Zen.

I then sold it to Achilles (iirc) so long ago that i can't find the thread on boards. The thing was still working last time i talked to him, about 2-3 weeks ago. In fact, he was taking the harddrive out to put in his laptop!

Creatives are built like rocks i tell you. My friends have em aswell, and they're still going strong well more than 2 years after purchase.